"Get up!" The sound of Jessica's voice wakes me from my slumber. I groan and close my eyes hoping she'll get the hint that I don't feel like being bothered.

But of course that isn't the case.

The pillow my head is resting on is pulled from my grasp and a few moments later I feel it hit the back of my head. I sigh, and snuggle deeper into my blankets.

I can only imagine the fury whirring in her at this very moment, and the thought of it brings a small smile to my face.

I hear her sigh behind me, "Now because I knew you would make this difficult, you leave me with no other choice."

My eyes snap open from her words, and I immediately sit up in my bed and turn my head over to see her holding a stock pot filled with water.

"What the hell Jess." I say just as I break out into a yawn. "What were you planning on doing with that?"
"I was going to pour it on your ass, duh."

"You're crazy."

"Oh, we're way past that." She places the pot on my desk and walks over to me, "If I had known that right after you left you'd go all awol on me, I never would have let you leave. Haven't you gotten my messages?"

I look over at the alarm on my nightstand, "Jess, it's 9:00 am, I was asleep." I wipe the exhaustion out of my eyes and am nearly blinded when she rips open the curtains in my room.

"Well, you're up now." She says and I shoot her a glaring look. "Come on, Elle, you promised me you'd help me pass out the invitations to my party." She whines.

"Your birthday is weeks from now."

"Which is exactly why we need to get the word out now."

I see her face light up at the mention of it, and I lean back against my headboard as she sits beside me and digs into her purse.

"Why can't you just text people the details like every other normal teenager?" I ask.

"Because texts can get lost and be forgotten. If we pass out the invitations and hang them up around town everyone will know about it."

She removes her hand from her bag, pulling out a stack of flyers with the details for her birthday party on it. My mouth gapes open in shock from the large amount of papers in front of me. I reach over and take them from her hands, my eyes going over the light pink colored sheets.

"Holy shit Jess, how many did you print?"

"Only three hundred." She shrugs and my eyes snap back to hers.

"Only three hundred?"

"I might make more after today, but we'll see."

I know I shouldn't be surprised by her words since Jessica's parties have always been legendary. But, with everything that has been going on my mind completely forgot about the fact that her birthday is coming up. The thought of going to a party with hundreds of people makes me feel a bit uneasy, but at least I have a few weeks to mentally prepare myself.

I'm sure it'll be a good distraction.

"How did you make all these?"

"Natalie helped me." She answers, and my stomach flips at the mention of her name.

I still haven't spoken to her since she left. It feels like it was so long ago, so much has happened since I've last seen her. There's been moments where I've wanted to call her, or even send a small text to ask if she's okay. But in the back of my mind I know that if she wanted to speak to me, she would.

I have to respect her wishes and give her the time she needs. But I can't help but wonder if we'll ever go back to the way we were.

"How is she?" I ask Jessica, and shift my body in bed.

"Better." She gives me a short reply and I nod my head, not wanting to pry.

I can feel Jessica's eyes on my face and just as I'm about to speak she beats me to it.

"I think going back to her moms was good for her. She needed to get away from all this, you know?

Her words make me understand completely. I too have been in situations where I just wanted to escape, because each time I knew that it was exactly what I needed.

"Yeah, I know." I agree, and after a few moments Jessica stands up, breaking the awkward tension between us.

"Now, get up. I have to pick up some more things at the house and then we can go to Webster to pass them out."

"We're going to your place?" I ask, and can already feel my stomach sinking lower and lower.

"Yeah, it'll be quick."

I know I can't ignore Jessica's house forever. Especially since the only other option is to hang out at mine, which of course is never happening considering who's now living here. But, I don't see a problem with ignoring it for the time being.

"Actually I'll just meet you there. I have to shower and change first."

She looks at me for a moment as if she's contemplating whether to wait or not, and I mentally pray that she doesn't. I let out a sigh of relief once she agrees and slings her purse over her shoulders.

"Now hurry, these invitations aren't going to pass themselves out."

"I still can't believe you printed out three hundred." I say, getting out of bed, "the party is going to be huge."

She looks at me, her lips curving upwards into a smile, "Elle, I'll be turning eighteen. It'll be the biggest fucking rager you've ever seen."

❀

I'm almost positive that the shower I took before getting ready was the fastest I've ever taken in my life. Everything I do now reminds me of him. I can't even shower in peace without thinking about how he used to insist on washing every little bit of my body before taking me against the shower wall.

I find myself forcing him out of my mind too often, but I can't help it.

Over the weeks I spent at Jessica's house, I created a new routine for myself. A new routine that involved Mason.

Ever since moving back home I've had to adjust to the new changes, and it's been too difficult to process.

The nights are the worst.

It takes me hours to fall asleep without his arms around me and I've had to stop myself from crawling into Amy's bed more times than I'd like to admit.

But one thing that I've learned that helps is keeping myself busy.

So after my shower I quickly brush my hair and change into clean clothes before I close my bedroom door and begin walking downstairs. As my foot hits the third step I hear voices yelling at each other from the kitchen, and my body freezes once I realize who it is.

"How could you ask me something like that? I did it for you!" I lean my head in and focus on the voices.

"But I never asked you to do that Amelia and you know it!"

Ask her to do what?

"You've only made things worse." Nora finishes, and I slowly take another step down the stairs.

"Worse? How could things be worse then-" The step from the stairs creaks and I immediately take my foot off of it and sigh knowing that they both heard me.

The voices fall silent and I reluctantly make my way down the rest of the stairs. As my feet go down the last step I turn towards the kitchen to find Amy and Nora's eyes already on me.

"Isabelle." Nora greets as her eyes snap back to Amy.

"I-I'm sorry, Elle. I thought I heard you leave earlier."

I'll never get over the fact that since I've been home everyone has been constantly tip-toeing around me. It makes me feel as though every little thing I do around the house is made out into a bigger deal than it should be.

Me walking in on two sisters arguing shouldn't be a big deal, but I get the feeling that I just heard something I wasn't supposed to.

"That was Jessica."

A few seconds pass, neither of them saying a word until Nora clears her throat.

"Well, I better get in the shower, I'll give you two a moment."

"Nora..." Amy says after her, but Nora quickly turns on her heels to leave.

After she walks out of the kitchen I turn my body to Amy who still hasn't attempted to make eye contact with me since I've been here.

I recognize the look on her face instantly; the look that signifies that she doesn't want to talk about what just happened. But after she's been by my side these past couple of days while I've been crying at cheesy romantic movies, burying myself in Ben and Jerry's, I should at least make sure that's the case.

"What was that about?"

"Oh, nothing." she shrugs nonchalantly, "You know, just sisterly love."

I can see the way she's deflecting the question from me and give her a short laugh.

"That didn't sound like love." I joke, and she shoots me a small no teeth smile.

"I better go check on her." She says to me, and before I get the opportunity to say anything she's already gone.

I know that I have two choices: I could do some investigating and try to figure out what the hell just happened, or I could walk out the front door and leave the chance of me somehow getting myself into another problem behind.

So without turning back, I walk out the front door and make my way over to Webster street.

❀

I chew on my lip as I walk over to Jessica who's standing next to Corey and Alec, passing out flyers to the nearest pedestrians. I can't shake this apprehensive feeling I have in my gut while my brain is preoccupied with a bit of uncertainty over this whole thing.

Maybe it's because I know that there's the slightest chance that Mason is here too.

During the next five minutes I listen to Jessica give me specific instructions on where I should stand to pass out the papers. I pretend to listen and later joke around with her on why she acts like it's the most difficult thing in the world to do until she hands me my own stack of papers and sends me away.

I stand on the corner of the street, handing out the invitations to people for a couple minutes until I already find myself growing bored. The breeze picks up and I wrap my arms around my body, trying to warm myself up.

I look around the street and see it growing emptier. Although, there is one spot across from me filled with people- well actually filled with women. I narrow my eyes at them and wonder what all the fuss is about. Just as I'm about to give up, I see the person I've been trying for the past five days to suppress from my mind.

Him.

He's casually leaning against his black camaro, and I study the smirk on his face with suspicion. I feel a small frown pull at my lips as I realize that he is the reason why all the women are huddled together.

I know I should avert my gaze before he notices me looking over at him, but for some reason my eyes can't look away from the man who's recently been clouding every single one of my thoughts.

The man is like a drug to me, and I am sure as hell going through withdrawals.

Everything about him draws me to him. I know I'm angry, but I can't help the way my heart melts ever so slightly at him standing in front of me.

"Why do I get the feeling you've been ignoring me?" A voice snaps me out of my daze and I turn my focus towards it to see Aiden standing right in front of me.

"What?" I ask him, finally coming to my senses. "Oh, I uh- I'm sorry." I put my hands over my face for a moment while I shake my head before letting them fall.

"I uh- I recently moved back home." I tell him, even though I know that's not the answer he's looking for.

His brows raise a bit as he studies me, "Oh. I'm sorry to hear about that."

I see a flash of emotion in his face, and get the feeling that he isn't sorry about it at all. I'm sure he's relieved that I'm no longer living under the same roof as Mason is.

Just as my thoughts think his name, my eyes dart back over to him across the street. It's only for a moment, but long enough for his green eyes to meet mine. I hold my breath when our eyes meet and wait for him to look away, but he doesn't, he only narrows his eyes at what's in front of him.

I don't think I'll ever get used to the feeling I get when he looks at me- like everything around us instantly vanishes and we're the only two people here.

"You know you can talk to me about anything right? Anything at all."

Aiden's voice brings me back to reality. Fuck I've done it again.

I run my hands through my hair trying to rid the awkwardness I feel from just being caught staring at Mason. The look in Aiden's eyes show me that there's a deeper meaning behind his words, but I stop myself from trying to figure out what it is.

"I know, Aiden. Thank you." He rolls his lips into his mouth and I go on to change the subject, "So how'd you get stuck on invitation duty? Jessica force you?"

"No, actually I asked to come. I figured you would be here and I wanted to see you."

His response only adds to the guilt I feel whenever I'm around him, and instead of saying anything back I give him a short smile. I hate how distant I feel around him now. Whatever happened between Mason and I have come between me and Aiden's relationship, and that's the last thing I want.

I don't want Mason to ruin even more things in my life. Come to think of it, ever since he's returned all I've done is damage my relationships with the people around me.

Who knew how badly he could ruin me.

"Are you doing anything tonight?" I reconnect my eyes with Aiden's before he goes on, "You look like you could use a break from your house. Why don't we do something?"

The smile on my face widens, "Yeah, I'd love that."

"Great, why don't we-"

"Aiden!" Jessica's voice interrupts him and we both turn around to find her across the street with a megaphone in hand. I can't help the laugh that escapes my lips at the sight of it, where did she get that?

"Get back in your zone!" She calls out to him and I cover my mouth with my hand to try and refrain from laughing even harder.

Oh, Jess.

She always gets so weird when it comes to her birthday.

"I think you better listen." I say to Aiden jokingly as I playfully bump shoulders with him.

"Yeah, I'd hate to see where she puts that megaphone next if I don't." The laughs continue to pout out of me as he looks down at me and smiles.

I missed this. Us.

"I'll see you after?" He asks me and I nod before his tall frame retreats from me, heading back over to his assigned zone.

For the next couple minutes I continue to pass out the flyers until I have no more left. I look over to where Jessica was standing only a few minutes ago to find her in the same spot talking to Corey and Alec.

I let out a heavy sigh, it's starting to get cold and I can hear my stomach rumbling from the lack of food I've eaten today. I should probably go find Aiden so we can get out of here, but before I do I can't help but look towards the spot Mason was in.

I can't help myself when it comes to him. Just one more look and I'll be on my way.

I ready myself for the sight of Mason surrounded by a group of women, but when my eyes dart over to the other side of the street I find it empty.

The disappointment I feel weighs heavy on my chest and I clench my jaw together. He probably went home with one of them, I can already imagine all the things he could be doing at this very moment.

And suddenly I'm no longer hungry.

"Looking for me?" My stomach twists from the deep husky voice behind me. 

I spin around, almost choking as my breath gets caught in my throat from the piercing green eyes staring back at me.

A.N.

Hello readers! I've been getting many comments saying you guys would like to see Masons POV, and I promise I'll give it to you in time! So much needs to happen before you guys see his side of the story. I'm thinking of putting one or two towards the end, but we'll see.

Thank you to everyone reading my story. It means so much to me that people like it! I'm almost at 60k reads! You guys are amazing.

Don't forget to vote & comment!

    -yourunknownteen