A/N: 5 months...whoops. Enjoy!

*5 years ago*

Jay's POV

"So what exactly am I supposed to be doing?" my cousin asks, matching my stride as we walk towards the set.

"You, my dear Seliel, are going to do one of your little vlogs on the set of my new show. Not only are you going to get paid handsomely, but your channel is going to blow up once the show is going to be a smash hit," I rest my arm on her shoulder, the blue gi I'm wearing loose on my skin. "Trust me, you'll be thanking me for getting you this gig."

"Hey, my channel is good already. 75,000 subscribers isn't bad," she defends her channel. Her arms are crossed.

Related to me on my mom's side, Seliel has always wanted to be famous. Both of my parents always admired Seliel's drive to make it big in this business, the contrast of me. While she was out making videos to try to grow her following, I was in my room studying engineering and physics. However, being an inventor isn't an acceptable profession to my parents, so they pushed me into acting just like my dad.

"Which is why I suggested you. I have one request though: don't flirt with my castmates in front of me. I'd prefer if my breakfast stays down today, thank you very much," I tell her. She rolls her eyes in response.

"Yes, because I'm a major flirt. Not only that, but I'm also insanely attracted to guys in pajamas," she responds sarcastically. "Now, what about that girl you've been hanging out with and think is cute. Nya, isn't it?"

Her words cause my eyes to widen sharply. "Keep your voice down."

"So I got it right?"

"She's my friend, my best friend actually, but nothing more. Besides, she's dating Gabriel Chambers."
"Who?"

"He's the star on some Disney Channel show right now that Nya had a small role in. My point is that she's taken, and I'm not a relationship wrecker."

"And you don't like her," Seliel adds, an all knowing smirk on her face. I let out a groan.

"Yes, and that. Now, come on. You need to meet the guys," I grab her wrist, pulling her forward. The faster we get to the guys, the quicker her teasing will be over.

Both of us are only children and our only cousins. We're the only family near our age that we have. She's like an older sister to me, so while I love her, her teasing can get old very quickly.

When we reach the set, we're met with the interior of a fire temple, the location of one of the golden weapons. It's very dramatic. There are some chains that hang down from the ceiling over some fake lava. The lighting is dim, most of it emitting from beneath the fake lava.

"I'll introduce you to the guys before you take a look around. Kai can probably show you some of the cool aspects of the set since he's going to be filming the most here. The rest of the guys and I are going to have to film some stuff in the forest, and that's nowhere near as exciting," I suggest, guiding my cousin into two of my new friends. "Seliel, this is Zane Larsson, and this is Kai Heath. Guys, this is my cousin, Seliel."

"Is it hot in here, or is it just you?" Kai winks at her. Before I can say anything, Seliel laughs.

"Cute, but you're a bit young for me. Aren't you like 14?" she instantly shuts him down, looking unimpressed but humored.

"I'm 15 for your knowledge. I'm not the runt like Jay."

"Hey!"

"Jay is not only the youngest, but he is also the smallest out of all of us," Zane adds, making my eyes narrow.

"Not helping Zane. Besides, Nya's 13, so she's the youngest," I cross my arms in protest.

"Yeah, but she could beat you in a fight any day. Plus, you're the same height as her," Kai makes an argument that I can't counter.

"Just wait until I hit my growth spurt. Then, I won't be the smallest," I cross my arms.

Throughout our shooting, the guys have spared no time making jokes that I'm the runt of the litter. All of the guys are older than me, especially Cole and Zane who are both 16. Both Nya and I are 5'5". Kai is currently 5'8" while Cole is 5'11" and Zane is already 6'0". Plus, they're all still growing.

"Dang it, did I miss teasing Jay?" Cole's already deep voice asks from behind me. He walks past me and stands next to Kai and Zane. First, he looks at me before his eyes set on my cousin. He suddenly gets a bit flustered, making me raise an eyebrow. "Who is this?"

"I'm Seliel. I'm filming a promotional vlog for the show," she sticks her hand out to shake Cole's hand, a gesture none of the other boys got. Cole takes her hand and shakes it.

"I'm Cole. It's nice to meet you, Seliel."

I quickly notice Seliel's slightly dazed state and the look at her eyes. I lightly gag in my mouth. Kai stands with his arms crossed, and Zane looks unphased.

"Seliel is also my cousin," I add.

"Oh yeah, I remember that you made a comment about you getting your cousin the job," Cole recalls. "You two don't look similar."

"I get most of my traits from my dad's side. Plus, when my hair isn't dyed, we have the same hair color," Seliel explains. I take a glance at her pink hair with the streak of teal in it. Apparently, one of her friends dared her to do it for a video, and she ended up liking it.

The two of them fall into a conversation, and Kai, Zane, and I start talking amongst ourselves. The entire time, I'm aware of the heart eyes Seliel gives Cole and the faint blush he has dusted on his cheeks. It's funny to see both of them off of their games, but also mildly revolting.

"Oh shoot, I forgot my camera in the car. Jay, can you come with me to get the keys from Walter? He doesn't like me,'" she realizes as she digs through her bag.

"He's incapable of positive emotions. He's Walter, but sure," I agree to go with her. Once we're far enough away from the guys, a small smirk comes across my face.

"What's that look for?"

"Looks like you are insanely attracted to guys in pajamas after all."

---

*present day*

"One of the funniest Kai moments looking back on it is when he flirted with Seliel. She turned him down so quickly; it was so funny," I laugh as I lie on my couch. All of the guys are over to spend the night.

It's felt like so long since all of us have hung out together. After Prime Empire finished shooting, Kai left with Skylor to do a modeling campaign overseas. Cole went back home to visit his dad and mom, both being Vegas performers. Lloyd flew several hours away to film some high school movie. Zane and Pix took their own private retreat off at their vacation home away from the public.

Only Nya and I stayed here. Staying in my home, I focused on getting further on my degree. I spent constant days stuck in front of my computer studying to get my bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Having my own little workshop attached to my room makes it all so much more fun. It gives me the pleasure of being able to use the skills I'm learning in field experience.

The whole time, Nya was either ghosting me or giving me dry responses, especially after Gabe interrupted our almost sushi night. It's no shock. It's like this, and it'll always be like this. She ignores me until it's time to shoot and then she'll act like nothing ever happened.

Even when we came back for promo, our schedules didn't match up. Tonight is the first night in months that we've all been here and available, so we're making the best of it.

"I try to pretend like that never happened. Besides, I was 15. I was not on my game by any means," Kai defends himself while engrossed in a tight match in Super Smash Bros against Cole. Cole is demolishing him, to no one's surprise, but Kai still tries.

"Thank you for failing, Kai," Cole says as he beats Kai. I can't tell if he's referring to the game or the conversation.

"I quit. This game is rigged!" Kai rage quits as usual.

"Jay's beaten me before," Cole disproves his point.

"Well, it's rigged now! I'm going to go get some water. This is an outrage," he stands up, partially stomping and partially sulking out of the room.

"So Jay, did Nya ever say if she was going to show up or not?" Lloyd asks me softly, sitting down onto the couch next to me.

None of us would ever leave Nya out of anything. She's one of us. She gets invited to everything, or at least she used to before we discovered that it's no use. This time, however, we decided to try to invite her again. It probably didn't help that it was my house and my invitation, though.

"No. She's all distant again, especially ever since I made that comment about not wanting to be with you in front of Gabe. It's so tiring," I explain, slumping a bit into the couch before taking a sip of the chocolate milk in my glass.

"The most probable explanation for her shunning is to not aggravate Gabe. It's not you," Zane explains, now taking the spot next to Cole. He picks up the controller to start challenging Cole.

"Gabe deserves to be aggravated. He's a pervy dick," Kai walks back into the room. He takes the spot next to me on the blue couch. "Every time I see him I want to punch the life out of him. I don't know why Nya is still with him, or how for that matter."

"What type of 16 year old dates a 13 year old? I was 16 at the time they got together, and Nya was a child compared to me. It's just wrong on so many levels," Cole shivers as he lands a punch on Zane's character. Just hearing about Gabe makes me nauseous, but that doubles the power of it.

"Skylor is seriously worried for her. She knows that Nya isn't telling her everything about the situation, and considering the stuff that Nya has told her is fairly bad..." Kai drifts off, making me even more sick to my stomach.

"Can we stop talking about this? My chocolate milk is about to be chocolate foam all over the couch," I suggest, wanting to get as far away from the topic as possible. "I'll try to get information from her the next time I'm alone with her, but she most likely won't say anything to me."

"You probably won't be getting alone with her anytime soon," Lloyd tells me, making me raise an eyebrow.

"Gabe can't micromanage her on set."

"Yeah, but haven't you noticed that she tries her best to not be alone with you? She'll talk to just you, but someone else is always around," Lloyd explains. A small frown finds its way onto my face.

"She does?"

"If I were you, I'd take it as a compliment. She can't trust herself when she's alone with you. Remember the last time you two were..." Kai starts talking.

"Yes, yes I do. Still, that was two and half years ago!" I take a grumpy sip from my chocolate milk. "I can't believe you all found out."

"You confided in Cole, and statistically, he is the second most likely of us to accidentally reveal a secret. The only one of us ranked above him is you," Zane tells me.

"Point taken."

"I have a great idea," Kai stands up in excitement.

"Oh boy, we're doomed."

"Relax. I was just thinking that we should go live on one of our accounts. The fans would love seeing us together," he suggests an actually good idea.

"I'm down."

"Ditto."

"I see no problem with that."

"Wonderful idea."

"Because I was the one to come up with the brilliant idea, I think we should do it on my account," Kai suggests. When no one protests, he pulls out his phone, goes onto Instagram, and starts live streaming. People immediately swarn the stream. "Hi everyone. I know I streamed yesterday, but I'm here with some people I'm pretty sure you all want to see," he tilts his phone in the direction of Lloyd and I. The two of us wave before he shows Cole and Zane immersed in their game. "We're together for the first time in months. Hmm, I wonder why we'd all have to be in the same city."

"You should show Cole and Zane's game. They've been battling for a while," I suggest. Kai turns the camera in their direction. The two stay focused on the game, their concentration never wavering.

While half a million people watch two 21 year old guys play a video game, I read the rapid stream of comments flooding through. There is a wide range of questions being asked, but I notice a decent amount asking where Nya is.

"Ooo, people are wondering what we're going to wear for the Prime Empire premier," Kai picks up on those comments. He turns the phone back in our direction. "All I'm going to say is that Skylor and I are going to look on fleek."

"Of course you two are going to be dressed well. You both double as models," I comment.

"I'm telling you, you all should let Skylor and I pick out your outfits. We'd be the most stylish cast out there," Kai suggests.

"See I would, but I value the circulation in my legs," I take a jab at the tight pants that Kai always wears. Lloyd laughs lightly to himself.

"They're only tight if you're used to wearing sweatpants or other loose pants. Besides, I still wear dress pants to fancy places," he defends himself.

"Jay's been busy actually doing school, unlike the rest of us. I doubt that online school warrants wearing tight pants," Lloyd says.

"I don't know why you're doing it. I have my high school diploma, and that's all I'll ever do," Kai takes a sip of his drink.

"I've always wanted to be an inventor, so I'm studying for it. It's my aspiration," I shrug. "Besides, I don't want to do any other projects right now anyways. It gives me something to do."

"I think it's cool that he's doing it," Cole chimes in from his game, smashing a combo of buttons.

"Back to fashion, I definitely think Sky and I should style you all. We're obviously the most fashion forward...."

"I'm just gonna wear what I wore last time."

"Oh come on, Jay. You're the only single one out of all of us, the Ninjago bachelor. You can't be recycling outfits for events like this," Kai tells me, and I just shrug. A girl shouldn't care if I wear the same outfit twice.

"Ooo Jay, you should be the next bachelor on the Bachelor. That'd be hilarious," Lloyd laughs.

"While the offer is tempting, I need to be 21 for that. I'm only 19," I respond.

"Darn."

I watch the comments flood through. While I can barely read them due to their speed, a little notification that pops up catches me off guard.

Nya_Tay wants to go live with you

It seems Kai notices at the same time as me. He immediately clicks on the request and accepts it. After it buffers briefly, Nya's face pops up on the screen. Her raven hair is thrown back into a ponytail, and she has on a pair of glasses that amplify her eyes that are the same light blue as the tank top she's wearing. She has a cute little smile on her face. Airpods rest in her ears.

I want to be mad at her. She's in the middle of ignoring me again, a constant cycle of leaving me on read. She used to be my best friend, and now we rarely talk, but seeing her makes it hard to be that mad. I'm just relieved to see her face.

"Hi guys, I'm so sorry I couldn't come tonight. I have a shoot early tomorrow morning, and I couldn't miss it. I'm going through my lines right now, actually," she lifts up the front cover of her script. "I saw that my show bro was live, and I stopped what I was doing to watch. It looks like you all are having a good time. I'm glad."

"We miss you so much, Nya," Lloyd tells her, putting a smile on her face.

"I miss you guys, too. I'll see you all soon."

"I need you to be the voice of reason here, Nya. Tell Jay that he can't reuse the same suit again for the premiere. It's his season, afterall," Kai requests, folding his hands together to beg. He already set his phone down, so it was resting.

"I don't see a problem with him wearing it again. I think it looks good on him," she says. Her approval makes my heart start to race a bit faster.

"Thank you! How have you been, Nya? You still owe Lloyd and I a sushi dinner, by the way," I tag on at the end. She's been ignoring me, and although it hurts, I know that she can't ignore me on a livestream with half a million people.

"I've been busy, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Maybe the three of us can go get it one night for dinner after we wrap up with shooting. I made sure that I have very little projects while we're filming, so I can immerse myself in the experience," she explains. I can see the exhaustion and the fatigue in her. While her smile seems genuine, it seems tired, just like her eyes. She's on edge. I can tell that look from miles away.

"How many projects are you working on right now?" I ask her, genuinely curious.

"Two, but all of their production extends into our shooting, so they're both trying to get as much of my scenes in as possible while also being efficient with the sets," she tells me.

"That sounds tough. I'm sorry," I pause to take a sip of my chocolate milk. "I..."

"You're a child," she slightly laughs. "I can't take you seriously when you're sipping chocolate milk with a twisty straw."

"It makes me feel young," I shrug, taking another sip. "Plus, it's so much more fun this way. Remember that time we saw who could build the longest straw out of smaller straws? The winner got that straw crown we made," I recall one of our hang outs back when we were filming the first season.

Nya lets out her infectious laugh. "I still haven't regained my dignity. Is it still in your trophy case?"

"Front and center. It's a sacred treasure. It better be in it still. You have the rock, paper, scissors trophy though. I'm still upset about that one," I cross my arms.

"It's still at my mom's house. She has it on display," she smiles at me, a full, radiant smile.

I go to ask why it isn't at her place, but I immediately know the answer. Seeing the smile on her face and seeing as our conversation is on display to hundreds of thousands of people, I decide that I'm not going to bring it up.

"I want a rematch." I tell her. She raises an eyebrow at me.

"You sure about that? It was kind of embarrassing how bad you lost last time," she teases me.

"Haha, I don't know how you could always te..."

"Nya?" the sound of his voice, the only voice that makes me want to go off on someone at the sheer sound of it, can be heard in the background of her audio.

Her expression instantly falls, turning to one of pure terror before quickly recovering. If I didn't know her, I wouldn't have been able to catch that momentary slip up. Nya is one of the strongest and most determined girls I met, and yet this boy has worked his way into her mind so that he makes her feel small and that she needs to obey him. He makes her worry and stress and lose touch with some of her friendships. He's manipulative and a horrible person.

She won't drop him. She won't pull the plug and break up with him, and it's so sad to see. He knows Nya is out of his league, so he keeps him close to her and mentally abuses her to the point where she feels like she's the one in the wrong and should be the one comforting him. He pulled apart our friendship to the point where Nya can't even look at me sometimes without him scoling her, and yet he still has her. He treats her horribly, and he still has her. It's terrible to watch.

"I'm just wrapping up a livestream that I was doing with Kai to promote the new season," she answers his call with composure. Taking this as my cue to get out of frame, I stand up to get more chocolate milk. Kai centers himself on the screen.

"I need to talk to you in our room," he tells her, his tone even now that he knows other people can hear him.

She gives him a small smile. "Of course. Just let me wrap it up here," she reaches out and gently touches his arm. The gesture makes me walk out of the room even faster.

"I'll be waiting."

I enter the next room and sigh. Grabbing the fridge handle, I open it up to reveal a nice gallon of chocolate milk. I pour my cup to the brim before sucking the straw, sending the liquid on a ride through a series of loop dee loops into my mouth. Hearing her voice in the other room makes me sigh.

For years, I've had to watch her slowly become more unhappy and not know what to do. We've tried to get her out of her situation, but she insists that it's all fine and that she loves him. "It's just a rough patch. I'll be fine."

It's been about four years since I realized I had feelings for her. With each passing day, I had to watch him pull her away from me slightly more until now she can't even text me without getting in trouble with him. He exhausts her, pulls her away from her friends, and then uses her. He violates her in every sense. She deserves so much more than that, so much better than that.

Some people say that the worst thing is watching the girl you like be with someone else. That's not true. The worst thing is seeing the girl you like being mentally beaten down and used by her partner and not being able to do anything about it. 

A/N: I'm so sorry for the wait everyone! I straight up just didn't have the motivation to write it, and then I looked back at all of the drama in my plans and got excited again.

For those of you who don't know, I also started another story! It's called Escapade! Updates are every Friday (ik so out of character for me to do a schedule), but I needed at least some type of structure to keep me going. Check it out if you want!

Thoughts on the chapter? It's a longer one. Things are going to start picking up soon.

I had this ready for y'all like 2 hours ago but wattpad was down. It was veeery unlucky

Thank you to everyone who stuck out the wait. You're all the best!