J O N A H

"He's still fuming, I don't know man," Daniel spoke as him, Corbyn, Zach and I sat in the music room waiting for Jack to get here for practice.

"We need to do something though," Corbyn spoke. "Jonah, talk to him."

"Why do I have to? I mean I planned on it when I got the chance, but why me?" I asked, looking at him.

"You're the toughest out of all of us," Corbyn said.

"How?" I asked.

"No, Corbyn's got a point," Daniel pointed, looking at me. "Think about it, Jonah. He's not close with Corbyn at all."

"He's not close with me either," I said.

"Okay, true. But you know who is?" He asked. "Mitchie. You're always with her, all the time. Zach can't talk to him because he would have no idea what to say, as he's tried not to be involved in this because he hates being involved. I can't control my anger around him because he just makes me super mad sometimes, and it just ends up in us not talking for like a week."

"And that leaves us two," Corbyn started.

"Exactly. And between you and Corbyn, you're obviously the right pick. Considering it'd be easier to have you talk to him, because you're always sticking up for Mitchie. More than the rest of us, and you're passionate about her." Daniel explained.

"Passionate?" I asked, my nose scrunching up.

"To be real here, I thought you were dating the entire time," Zach spoke up, tossing a ball in the air before catching it, repeating the same thing over again.

Daniel rolled his eyes playfully, turning his attention back to me. "Honestly, Jonah. I know you like her."

"I don't-"

"Shh, I'm not done." Daniel cut me off, "It's obvious. I see the way you look at her, the way you act, you're head over heels for the girl. Anyone can look at you two together and can see the look you give her. The way you're quick to defend or comfort her. It's obvious."

"And let's not forget when we both first met her, you wouldn't stop staring," Corbyn added.

"Okay, and you stared at her too for weeks until you met Christina." I pointed out.

"Yeah, but I never denied I liked her." He stated, causing me to just look down.

"Okay, so what if I do?" I asked, looking back up. "So what if I like her? What's going to happen? We're going to leave the camp and never see each other ever again most likely."

"If that's the truth, why are you getting attached? And why are you so adamant on pushing her and Jack to make up?" Daniel asked, a tiny smile on his face.

"Because, okay? I see the way she looks at him. I see the way he talks to her, how he looks at her. She's the one person that can get past his shell." I spoke, shrugging.

"She did the same with you," Corbyn said. "You hated the idea of being around Ethan and me. You didn't want to focus on girls, but the moment you saw her you got attracted, and now you're always with her. Why did that change?"

"I'm going through too many things right now to focus on a love life, alright? Besides, I'm seventeen. She's fifteen. Those types of relationships never end well." I shook my head. "And just because I have a small crush on Mitchie doesn't mean we're meant to be. I think her and Jack are, if anything."

"Why are we talking about Jonah's feelings if this is about Jack and Mitchie?" Zach then asked, holding the ball in his hand as he looked between us.

"Exactly, let's focus on the task at hand please." I rolled my eyes.

"Fine. So you're going to talk to him, while us three leave the room. You'll help get him to realize he's blinded by Heather." Daniel then shrugged, and as if on cue, the curly-headed boy walked into the cabin.

"Sorry I'm late," He mumbled.

"Don't worry about it. Corbyn, Zach and I actually have to go grab some stuff real quick," Daniel spoke the three getting up to head to the door.

"Can I come with?" Jack asked.

"No, just us three. Stay with Jonah," Daniel ordered, and instead of saying a snarky comment like usual, or arguing with the boy Jack just nodded, silently walking over and sitting down in the chair next to me, putting his guitar on the ground next to him and beginning to read over the music in his notebook.

Daniel motioned me to get going before the door slammed shut behind him, and I sighed as I turned to see Jack staring at the words the worn-out notebook in his lap.

"So," I began, causing the boy to look at me. "We need to talk."

"About?"

"Mitchie."

"I don't want to talk about her," He simply replied, looking back down.

Shutting my eyes for a moment, I took in a deep breath before opening my eyes again, snatching the notebook out of his hand. He immediately tried to grab for it, but I held it out of his reach as I shook my head. "Talk to me and you'll get this back."

"What's there to talk about? Mitchie lied, and I got hurt. That's it." Jack sighed, and the comment immediately angered me.

"Okay, we're going to put this as simple as possible." I started, standing up so he couldn't snatch the book from my hands. "Mitchie didn't fucking lie to you. She was part of it, yes, but I knew from the beginning. It was fucking Aubrey, that prissy girl who thinks she's better than everyone else. She did this because she was trying to change Mitchie. Everything the girl said to you, was true. Everything she felt with you, was true. I have strong feelings for Mitchie, that's true, but she likes you so much you don't realize what you're doing to her."

"You're not making any sense." Jack shook his head. "She pretended just like most people do. I made the mistake of letting her in, and that's that."

"Don't you think, that maybe she wasn't pretending around you?" I asked.

"You don't know how she acted around me," Jack said quietly.

"You're right, I don't. But everyone I know that knows her, knows that she wouldn't lie. She never once told you the things Aubrey or I said about her family. She never said anything that was a lie to you. She just avoided the topic because Aubrey had a leash on her. That's not Mitchie's fault and you and everyone else that's blaming her needs to stop because it's bullshit and she doesn't deserve it." I spoke, more and more anger coursing through me as I thought about how heartbroken Mitchie's been.

"If Mitchie wasn't lying, and cares so much about me why didn't she tell me about the issue? I'd have understood." Jack crossed his arms.

"Would you really? Jack, this is ridiculous. She had to deal with Christina nagging at her to tell her what was wrong, Phoebe and Griffin ignoring her because of the things Aubrey was doing, and on top of that the pressure of Heather and the other girls wanting to know about her 'rich' mom." I rolled my eyes. "The things that Aubrey was saying about her was horrible, insulting her looks, her body, all of that."

"She was doing those things?" Jack asked.

"Yes! And Mitchie was upset, she was sad and the only person she told outside of the group was me. Christina found out when she ended up having to work with Mitchie, and she was angry too. But you guys don't understand how much stress and pressure this is on Mitchie! She came here with the intent of being herself and learning more about music, but Aubrey forced her to change her looks and such to be popular. None of it was Mitch, and when she and I tried to stop her she just brought up that the only reason Mitchie got in was because of Aubrey's dad." I continued to rant, "Why wouldn't you listen to Mitchie? Do you know how shitty it is that you got all mad that Mitchie 'didn't really care' or whatever the hell you've been saying, yet you're the one hurting her?"

"I didn't look at it that way," Jack mumbled. "But Daniel did say something when we got here about a girl talking about how she helped her friend get here, maybe Aubrey was the girl talking about Mitchie." He seemed to connect some dots in her mind. "I'm so stupid."

"You're the one that said it," Daniel said as him and the other two walked in.

"Don't rub it in my face," Jack sighed as I set his notebook down in front of him. "I can't believe I wouldn't actually listen to her."

"Christina didn't either at first, don't worry." Corbyn tried to assure the boy, but it didn't work.

"Told you you'd be the one to get through to him," Daniel smiled at me.

"Okay, so now that we're done with that, can we practice?"

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i'm going to bed now bye.