Luke/Lucas' POV

Why the hell is Hayden coming out of her room without a shirt? I was about to demand some answers, but I saw that Nick was also in her room. With a shirt on, thankfully. I guess along as Nick was also in the room with Hayden and Isla, they couldn't have been doing anything inappropriate, right?

I've noticed lately that Hayden and Isla have been getting a lot closer. A little too close if you ask me. He may be one of my best friends, but he just can't waltz in and take my girl. Isla is my girl. She always has been and always will be. I know we all agree to let her choose who she wants to be with, and we'll all be happy for her, but what I really meant is that she needs to choose me, and then everyone else can be happy for us. Okay, I know I sound a little crazy, but she's been the girl of my dreams for as long as I can remember. I know I can make her the happiest out of all of us.

I pretend to be exploring the house upstairs while she and Nick talk. I try to listen in, but I can't hear a damn thing. Nick is the only guy in this house I don't have to worry about because he is dating Sofia. Plus, he sees Isla as his sister, and she sees him as her brother. Nick and Sofia are a cute couple but are nowhere as cute as Isla and I will be. Nick finally walks out of Isla's room and I knock on her door. "Come in," her sweet voice rings out.

"Hey." I smile at her. "Are you finished unpacking?"

"Yep. How about you?" she questions.

"Yeah, I'm finished. I came to ask you if you need any help, but yeah, I guess not." I look around her room and the first thing I notice is all the pictures she has of us, but of course, my favorite ones are the one of just me and her when we were younger.

"Do you like the house?" she timidly asks. "I've been able to ask a few of the others but you and I haven't really had a chance to talk since we've been home."

I chuckle. She's always wanting to make sure everyone is happy. "Sunshine, we could be living in a cardboard box under a bridge and as long as you were by my side, I would be happy." She turns a dark shade of red. "So, I was thinking since there are no groceries, maybe you and I can go shopping while everyone is still unpacking. Do you want to go with me?"

"Sure. Let's ask the others if there is anything they need."

"Okay. I'll ask everyone and you can meet me downstairs." I don't want her to ask the others what they want and have them invite themselves to tag along with us. I want to be able to spend time with her alone, even if it means at the grocery store.

I start with the people who are on the third floor first since I'm already on the third floor, and it would be stupid for me to go downstairs and then come back up. I ask Tyler first and he just wants some junk food. It's the same for Sofia. Well, those two were easy enough.

Next is Hayden. I knock on his door. "Hey, Luke. What's up?"

Well, well, well, look who found his shirt. I bet he went into her room without a shirt on purpose.

"Hey, I'm going to the store to get some groceries. Is there anything that you need?" I ask.

He walks over to his desk and grabs a sheet of paper that has a list of things on it. "Yeah, I was going to later on to get stuff for dinners, but if you want to pick it up for me that would be great." He hands me over the list, and I look over it. Hell, it's so long that we may be at the store for days trying to find everything. I'm about to walk out of the room, but he stops me. "Who's going with you?"

Well, crap. I didn't want to tell him that it was just me and Isla going. "Umm, Isla and I are going."

He glares at me for a split second before jumping up and grabbing his shoes. "I can go with y'all. It's a really big list."

Nope, not letting that happen, buddy. "It's fine really. I think Isabelle and Emma need some help unpacking though. You could do that," I say, with a sly smirk on his face.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch as he balls his hand into a fist, before releasing it and giving me a fake smile. "I would love to help them. Tell Isla if she needs me, she has my number."

"She won't need you when she has me," I say through gritted teeth. I then exit his room stomping down the stairs to ask the next set of people what they want from the store. After asking everyone what they wanted, I ran downstairs to Isla who was waiting patiently for me.

"Ready?" she chirps. I nod and she throws me the keys. "You can drive. I'm tired of driving,"

We hop into her car and I pull out of the driveway. She plugs in her phone and starts playing 'Come and Fly Away' by TheFatRat. As she starts singing along with the song, I can't help the smile that comes to my face. (Song Above)

Don't you be afraid

Everything will change

You and I

Jumping off the edge

They say dreamers never die

So, come and fly

Come and fly

Come and fly away with me

We are at a stoplight when she catches me staring at her while she sings. She blushes a crimson shade of red.

"You're cute when you blush, Sunshine," I say, causing her blush to spread down her neck and to the tips of her ears.

She smacks me lightly on the arm. "Pay attention to the road, not me."

"But it's so hard when I'm so distracted by your beauty." I pout. She doesn't say anything back as she stares out the window with a smile on her face.

I pull into a parking space once we arrive at the grocery store and shut the car off. "Can we talk before we head in?" I ask her nervously.

She bites on her lip. "Sure."

"Is there even a chance of us ending up together?" I ask her quietly. I'm sweating bullets. I'm so scared, but if she doesn't feel anything for me at all then I'm just wasting my time.

"Luke," she sighs. "You were the one person that I thought would be there for me no matter what, and then you completely turned against me. You called me names that you know aren't true, and you really hurt me, but no matter how hard I've tried to get over you, I just can't fully. There is always this little voice in my head saying that we are meant to be, but I'm scared. I'm afraid you're going to hurt me or turn on me again."

I gently grab her hand and rub circles on it. "Sunshine, I will never hurt you again. You have to believe me. I love you."

"I know you do and a part of me loves you too, but I can't lie to you and say that I don't have feelings for someone else too. Once upon a time, you had my whole heart, but now part of it has been stolen, and I don't know what to do. I don't know who to pick." She wipes her eyes as tears calmly run down her face. "I still don't know who to choose. Plus, I don't want to hurt anyone."

I don't know how to feel. Part of me is glad that I still have a chance, but a part of my heart breaks also knowing that she does have feelings for one of the other guys. "I'll wait for you to choose then. I'm holding on to the thought that you will choose me, but I do have one more question. Is it just one other guy that you have feelings for or multiple?

She laughs nervously, "I don't totally know."

I laugh at her silliness. She really is too sweet and innocent for her own good. "As long as I'm still in the running, that's all that matters. I'm going to prove to you, Sunshine, that I can be everything you wanted and more."

I was going to continue our conversation but a loud crack of thunder startled both of us. We hastily get out of the car and I grab her hand dragging her with me into the store to get out of the rain.

Shopping didn't go as expected.

When we returned home, we hadn't even been gone for an hour. Tyler, Nick, and Hayden all ran outside when we pulled up into the driveway. "Y'all were even gone that-" Tyler was cut off by a fuming Isla slamming the car door and stomping inside.

Hayden looks concerned. "What's wrong, Love?" I hate it when he calls her that in front of me.

Isla glares at me. "Why don't you ask that idiot over there?" she hisses, as she points to me.

Nick grabs her arms, "Isla, wait what happened?"

"I have been embarrassed enough for one day. I swear Nick if you don't let go of my arm, I will slap you again." Nick lets her go, and she stomps inside slamming the front door.

"Damn, she's pissed off. What did you do to her?" Tyler asks. "She's a feisty little thing when she's mad, isn't she? It's kind of hot."

Nick smacks him hard on the back of the head. "Don't talk about my baby sister like that," he growls.

"Ouch," Tyler complains, as he rubs the back of his head. "Nick, I think you're losing your damn mind. You do realize she isn't really your sister, right?"

"I said that she is and that makes it true," he proudly tells us. He points at me. "What the hell did you do? Do I need to smack you too? I've never seen her angry like that?"

But before I can answer, a furious Sofia followed by Killian came storming out of the house. "Boy, you better damn well tell me what you did to my girl before I kick your ass," she hisses. Have I ever said how absolutely terrifying Sofia is? Because she is. Killian is literally holding her back from attacking me. She is going to kick my ass and by the look on her face, I don't think I stand a chance.

"You better hurry up and explain yourself. I don't know how much longer I can hold my sis off." Killian chuckles.

I rub my neck nervously. "Umm. I may or may not have gotten us kicked out of the grocery store," I hesitantly say to all of my friends.

They are all gaping at me until Nick bursts out in laughter. "How the hell did you do that?" He laughs.

Everyone else is still staring at me with their mouths hanging open. "I had picked Isla up and put her in a grocery cart. I started running while pushing her in the cart and I kind of let go and herandthebasketwentflyingintoadisplayknockingeverythingover," I whisper, the words slurring together as I speed up.

Killian puts his hand to his ear, "I don't think we heard you correctly. Can you repeat that? Slowly."

I scoff. "I said... her and the basket went flying into a display knocking everything over." I say clearly.

"That's what I thought." Killian snickers. Tyler and Nick are both rolling on the ground laughing. While Sofia and Hayden are glaring at me. If looks could kill, the two of them would have killed me, revived me, and killed me again.

"Seriously, Luke?" Hayden scolded me. "How can you be so immature?"

Nick stops laughing. "Hayden, are you really asking him that question? It's Luke you're talking about. Of course, he's that immature." Hayden glares at us before he runs inside to check on Isla. Of course, he is running to check on Isla. He's trying to win her heart.

Sofia is livid at the moment. "Nicholas Matthew Thompson! How dare you laugh at Isla? Get your ass in the house right now before I kick it."

"Yes, Sweetheart." Nick whimpers before running after Sofia like a dog with its tail between his legs.

"Oh man, he is whipped." Tyler chuckles.

I walk over to Killian. "I thought your sister wasn't violent."

"Who said that? You should all know that the crazy ones can become violent at the drop of a pin. But Sofe only acts that way when it comes to someone she really cares about."

"Well, I guess that made it all worth it then," I say.

"What did?" Tyler asks

"To find out how much Sofia cares for Isla," I confess. "Isla hasn't had the best luck with friends that are girls. I mean both Chelsea and Kaira were supposed to be her best friend and look how that turned out."

Killian smiles. "Sofia hasn't always had the best luck with being accepted by people. Especially other girls. Most people can't stand to be in the same room with her for more than a few minutes and girls get jealous of her looks. She's my sister, I see how guys look at her like she's a piece of meat," Killian admits. "That's why when I found out she and Nick were a couple, I wasn't upset. He doesn't look at her like other guys do. When he looks at her you can just see how much he cares for her. Plus, he can handle all of her crazy antics. And if he does hurt her, I know where he sleeps."

"Nick is a good guy. Probably one of the best I know, but don't ever get on his bad side."

"Why?" Tyler questions, staring between me in Killian.

"He has a rough past and if you hurt someone, he loves he can become violent. Scary violent. You should have seen what he did to me when I snuck into the hospital to visit Isla after they caught me making out Chelsea."

"I still can't believe you would even go near that thing much less make out with it," Tyler says, with a look of disgust. "The only thing she is good at is getting people to turn against Isla. Me being one of those people, and I guess you too."

Killian shakes his head at us. "I'm so glad that I didn't have to deal with her like all of y'all did. But how did she get the two of you to do the things to Isla that y'all did?"

Tyler looks down at his feet in shame and embarrassment. "I've had a crush on Isla for a while. Chelsea knew that and when high school started, she started spreading all of the rumors about Isla sleeping around with everyone on the football team after Luke rejected her because he wanted to date Isla. Chelsea had already manipulated all the guys on the football team to lie to me. All the guys on the football team said that everything Chelsea was saying about Isla was true. It sucks because some of them knew I like Isla and they were supposedly my friends. They said that they had all slept with Isla. When I had tried to ask Isla out, she immediately rejected me before I could even ask her. I was pissed that she would sleep with everyone else and not even spare me a glance. What I didn't realize at the time was it was all a lie. Guys kept coming up to Isla asking her to meet them in the janitor's closet or to go with them to their cars. She shot me down thinking I was going to ask her the same thing and I can't blame her. All of my friends had been messing with her so why should she have thought any different about me. I should have known better. Isla isn't that type of person, and I truly regret everything I did to her. I can't believe she forgave me. She is a better person than I am, and sadly I still have a crush on her, but I know it will never amount to anything after I pulled that stunt of trying to force myself on her that one day." I suck a breath in. I feel bad that he was tricked too, but I don't want to have to compete with him, too, for Isla's heart.

They both turn to me. "No one knew that Hayden, Nick, and I were in foster care. We had been keeping it a secret. Our foster mom had said that someone our age wanted to meet with us to ask us some questions for their paper that they were writing for their college application. Well, it turned out to be Isla and I just don't know." Tears start to stream down my face. "I got angry and scared. I was afraid she was going to tell everyone at school about us. I was scared that it was going to run my 'bad boy' reputation. I got angry and yelled at her. I said things I shouldn't have, and to make matters worse her parents had just passed away a few days prior, but I was too caught up in my damn self that I didn't see how I was hurting her. When I had tried to apologize to her, she wasn't answering my calls or text and she hadn't shown up at school for over a week since her parents had passed away, and that just made me madder."

I swallow the lump in my throat. "She had dropped her phone the night she found out about us being in foster care and due to her parents' funeral and everything else going on, the last thing on her mind was getting a new phone. My stupid self-missed being there for her in her greatest time of need. I missed her parents' funeral. I was so self-absorbed in myself that I wanted to hurt her the way I was hurting. I thought she was trying to hurt me on purpose. I figured the best way to make her feel the way I was feeling was to make out with Chelsea and call her a slut."

I drop to my knees on the concrete. "I fucked up." I cried. "I wanted her to hurt, but she was already hurting. She had just lost her parents, she had taken on the responsibility of having to raise her siblings, then she lost all her friends, and I know for a fact that even while she was gone, Chelsea and her minions were sending nasty messages to Isla's social media accounts. The only person she had on her side was Hayden and they barely knew each other. He wanted to give her space if she needed it, but he never once turned against her."

Killian gives me a perplexed look. "Wait, what about Nick?"

"Nick was on my side until Hayden talked some sense into him." Tyler is now crying with me. Killian is upset but he does a better job at holding in his emotions.

"Wow. Now I feel worse," Tyler cries. "I was one of Chelsea's minions sending Isla nasty messages. I had no clue she had just lost her parents. Chelsea had said that her parents died, but I thought it was just another rumor she was spreading. Half the shit that comes out of her mouth is fake."

"Both of you stop. Now!" Killian demands. "Isla has forgiven both of you and there is no reason to dwell in the past. We all do things that we are ashamed of, but it's how we move on and learn from our mistakes that count. Isla is happy. Well, not right now. She is royally pissed, but she doesn't hate y'all. I guarantee both of y'all mean a lot to that girl. She's forgiven y'all. Now it's time to forgive yourselves."

I wipe my face and pat Killian on the back. "Thanks, man. I didn't like you at first. I felt like you were a threat. That you would steal her away from us... me."

"Oh, you should just be happy I didn't know about all of that shit before or I would have killed you," Killian says with all seriousness.

Tyler chuckles. "You're not kidding. You broke my damn nose."

Killian laughs. "And you damn well deserved it if not more."

"I'm not arguing against that. I did deserve it. I'm just glad we are all friends now. The only shitty part now is that we all have feelings for Isla except for Nick," Tyler says.

"Oh shit," Killian exclaims. Tyler and I give him a baffled look. "We are out here while Hayden is consoling her."

Fuck. I swear if she chooses anyone over me it's going to be Hayden. Hayden is a good guy, but she's mine. He's known that I've been in love with her since day one, but I keep fucking up. I'm basically just handing her off to him. I'll figure out some way to win her heart. There is nothing I want more in this world than Isla.