Chapter 16

The first thing I woke up to the next morning was my call phone going off. Without opening my eyes I blindly  reached for it on my night stand, only squinting when it was right in front of me. It was Cal, which wasn't that out of character for him. Often I got pictures from him about something that really wasn't that funny. We had the same sense of humor, I think that's why we got on so well.

"Hey, what's up?" I said groggily into the reciever.

"Sorry, did I wake you? Callum and I wanted to make a video today, thought it'd be fun if you were in it. Would you want to come by at noon to record something with us?"

I glanced at the clock on my phone, it was 10 as of right now, probably the earliest I've been up in weeks. Granted I didn't go to bed until about 4 in the morning. "Yeah, sounds good to me, see you in a bit." We got off the phone after that and I gave myself a moment to lay under my duvet and reminence on last night. Simon made me feel good in all aspects of my life. Just thinking about him and about us gave me a tingle throughout my body.

With not that much time to get ready I jumped out of bed to go into the shower. It was always something new with these boys, the only thing I wished is that they would tell me what the video was going to be about so I had time to prepare. It had been raining pretty hard since last night, not that it meant anything to the boys, I just hoped we weren't doing anything too extreme. My hair still smelled of chocolate from last night.

Today all I could be bothered wearing was a navy blue jumper and a pair of leggings. I did, however, take the time to do my makeup and hair since I would be in front of the camera. Once I looked presentable I left my room. It seemed more so out of impulse than a conscience thought but I found myself walking into Simon's room to tell him where I was going. He was alseep, as usual, probably not planning on getting up until well after noon. Still, he'd be worried if he woke up and I wasn't home. I snuck over to the side of his bed and ran my fingers over his bear chest.

"Hm?" The lanky boy groaned and peaked one of his eyes open at me. A ghost of a smile presented itself on his heavenly face.

"Cal asked me to come over for a video today."

His eyebrows furrowed, "how are you getting there?"

"My shitbox, obviously."

"Take mine, better in the rain."

A strange feeling settled in my stomach when he said that. Like taking his car was some kind of big breakthrough. Aaron never let me set foot near the driver's seat, and his car was almost as bad as mine. Simon didn't even give it a second thought, the only thing that came to his mind was my safety. "Are you sure?" I still asked.

His head nodded once, "keys are on my desk."

"Okay baby, see you later," my lips planted on his quickly before standing up from my crouched position.

"Be safe, princess." At first Simon only used that nickname to make fun of Casper saying it to me. It quickly stuck when he noticed the deep blush that would appear on my face whenever it would leave his lips. I rather liked it. Calling him babe and baby is new for me as well, Aaron never liked it when him anything other than his name but I can tell Simon does. This is what a healthy, somewhat normal relationship was like.

As I was leaving I thought about telling JJ too, but I didn't feel it was necessary to wake up the entire house because I was going to hangout with someone. If he asked, Simon would tell him, hopefully making up an excuse as to why I told him and not JJ.

The weather was literal shit. It was too good be be true the past two months of near perfect, blue skies. This was what real London was like, and although I loved a good rainy day whilst watching movies, walking around in it was terrible. On the bright side, I didn't have to take my car, which didn't have the best breaks to begin. I've thought many times about getting a new one, never had the knowledge on vehicles.

Simon's seat was so far back my feet were about a foot away from the gas and break pedals. It took sometime to get situated and readjust everything in his Range Rover to match my height. He was going to regret letting me drive this thing when he couldn't sit down or see out of any of his mirrors. That's what he gets for dating a girl who was over a foot shorter than him.

I went along with the boys to Cal's house enough times to know how to get there without using the GPS. Which was a good thing because the only thing more dangerous than driving around London in the pouring rain was having to stare down at my phone for directions while doing so. It was a pretty simple route and not the far away so I was able to get there safe and sound. Unfortunately I had to walk through the rain to get to their buliding, being proper soaked by the time I walked into the elevator. So much for doing my hair.

It was Harry who answered the door. Even though it hadn't been that long so I had seen him last, I quickly noticed the scruff he had growing on his chin.

"Aw trying to cover up that baby face, aren't you?" I cooed and pinched his cheeks, to which he playfully slapped your hand away.

"Yeah, yeah, you know we can't all look and naturally stunning as you," he shot back. Even though Harry and I have finally made it clear that we're better at friends, we still had a sweet, close relationship. I did try to avoid it most of the time, knowing that if Simon was around he would be less than pleased.

But Harry said it himself that there weren't any feelings there and Simon knew where my heart was so I tried not to think about it too much. "Oi, this isn't natural."

"You act like I wasn't there to see you after you got a good right hook to your eye," he laughed while I nudged him. I was glad we could make light of the a night that was quite possibly one of the worst nights since I've been living in the "sidemen" house.

Cal came running down the hallway, interrupting out conversation by yelling, "is she here yet? We need to record- oh hi." He stopped once I came into his view and his goofy grin spread across his face. "There you are, come on we're in the kitchen."

Oh no, the kitchen, that was always a bad sign. Usually having something to do with food or even worse, a punishment of some sort. I really shoud have asked what he was planning. Instead of laying in bed cuddled up with my blanket I was going to torment myself for yet another video. Callum was already sitting in a chair between two more, I was guessing where me and Cal were going to sit.

"What are were doing today?" I wearily asked.

"Nothing special, we're playing something called the one second song challenge, it's exactly ohow it sounds. Cal is going to play us a second of a handful of songs and the first person to guess it gets the point. The one with the most points at the end, wins."

My head nods up and down slowly, that doesn't sound too bad."

"And the loser has to eat a ghost pepper!" Cal shouted excitedly from the back. There was always a catch.

"You've got to be bloody kidding me."

Like most things, the boys were able to convince on doing it, "for the banter," as Harry said. Apparently the ghost pepper wasn't as bad as it looked and most people just overreacted for the comedy factor. Its not like I believed any of the shit that left their mouths, I was just really flattered that they even thought about me in the first place and didn't want to let them down.

We all got in position, Harry was sitting just outside the shot, even though he wasn't participating, he wanted to watch the struggle. Callum gave us both a suspicious lock, "I'm going to have to ask you both to hand in your cell phones. Cheating of all kinds are not allowed."

With a shrug of my shoulders I went in my back pocket to hand it over only to figure out that it wasn't there. Come to think of it, I don't remember having it in the car either. Shit, I must have left it in the bathroom from when I got in the shower.

"Harry, text JJ and tell him that I left my phone in the bathroom. If he needs me to just text you, yeah?" He nodded his head in reply and took out his phone. Cal started the video, introduced me and the game was on. It was proven to be harder than I have ever thought it would be. A second just wasn't long enough. The first few songs I wasn't at all keeping up with Cal who just seemed to know all of them. I would have thought he was cheating, but he isn't that good of an actor.

Once I got the hang of it I was able to catch up, Callum was playing some pretty old songs and even if Cal knew it, he didn't know the name of it. That's how I got most of my points. Harry was having the time of his life watching the two of us scream over each other, neither one of us having to eat the ghost pepper, because I was sure, as bad as it looked.

"Alright, one final song, this is worth two points so Kelsey, if you get this you win, are you ready?" Callum pressed play and one single beat came out before it was paused.

Instantly Cal began throwing a fit, "how the fuck are we supposed to know that? This is mad, there is no way we're going to get that it can literally be any song. Yo, you're shit at picking these songs, mate. At least give us another second!"

"It's Kilimanjaro by KSI," I sighed and rolled my eyes. Already knowing the shit I was going to get for knowing that.

"And we have a winner," Callum laughed hysterically. I could literally see the pure rage in Cal's eyes.

"How could you have possibly known that."

"You act like I don't live with the guy who is literally in love with himself." The two of us argued back and forth about how I was given the answer and there was no way I could have ever gotten that. He just didn't want to admit that he didn't listen to JJ's songs as much as I did.

In the end it was still Cal who had to take the punishment. He made sure to complain about it all the way up until he was chewing onto the pepper, still talking about how it wasn't that bad. Then his face turned an actual shade of red. Screaming was followed after that, solidifying that I was so happy I won the game. Thank god for JJ never letting forget he had an EP out. And to be fair, Simon was his biggest fan. It was rather cute.

As for the giant unfortunately, he was now chugging the gallon of milk he specifically bought for this. I read somewhere that milk didn't actually help unless it was for something very mild. He could find that out for himself though, that's what he gets for lying to me. His cries of despair went on for longer than the challenge did, I almost felt bad. Almost. My laughter was too busy hurting my stomach to think about much more.

We hung out for a little while longer, once Cal calmed down and his mouth was numb. It was nice to see they wanted to just be with me outside of the cameras and videos. I couldn't help but take a lot of pictures with all of them, wanting to document every single second of my happiness. The majority of out conversation revolved around apparently a trip they were all planning in December, to go to Los Angelos. No one from my house told me anything about it. I knew it was in like 5 months but I figured if these three were excited about it, why wouldn't they be?

Not wanting to drive in the dark and in the rain I reluctantly left. I was having so much fun with them, it was nice to get away from seeing the same people every single day, even if I did miss them a bit. That was the best part though, I was always able to come back to them. They were almost always in there room but I still liked to be there in their presence, even if I had to be perfectly quiet. Especially Vik who was recording constantly but I loved being around him dearly. Watching him play for hours was good enough for me.

JJ's voice was the first thing I heard when I walked through the door. That wasn't surprising, he was loud and aggressive playing game like mini golf, that's who he was. I walked up the stairs to his bedroom. The door was open the tiniest bit and not wanting to interrupt him I peaked through to see what he was so into.

Instead of sitting down, his feet were walking quickly back and forth his floor. I looked further to the right and saw Simon leaning against a wall and looking at him with a stone cold expression.

"Listen mate, what I'm saying is if you don't leave Kelsey alone, I'm going to find you and beat you senseless." Who the fuck was he talking to?" My eyes flickered up to his hand, it was my phone he was holding onto.

Oh no.

The moment my mind was able to register what was happening I pushed the door open so hard it slammed agaisnt the wall with an echo. "JJ, puth the phone down right now," I said through clenched teeth.

He made direct eye contact with me but continues talking. "If you think I won't kick you ass, you're dead wrong. Give me a time and place and I'll should you why harrassing her was a big mistake." There was a pause while Aaron was saying something back into the receiver. All the while I couldn't stop staring between JJ and Simon, who wouldn't take his eyes off of me. I wasn't sure if I was angry or scared, my bet was on a mixture of the two.

"iight, I'll see you there." The call was ended and only then did he talk to me. "How long have you been keeping this from me?" The way he voice was shaking I could tell he was trying to keep his temper down.

"It has nothing to do w-"

"HOW LONG?" He voice boomed. My feet quickly stumbled away from my best friend. It wasn't necessarily because of him, I've been on the other end of a guy's punch. I wasn't like anything I felt before. Since than I've gotten jumpy around the anger that males can excerpt. Not that I ever thought for a second that JJ would hit me.

Simon quickly came to my side, attemptying to comfort me by putting his hand on my arm. Out of habit I shook it off of my. There was a flash of hurt in his eyes but he didn't say anything.

I took a deep breath to collect myself. This was getting out of hand. "It never stopped JJ, since the day he set his eyes on me over a year ago he never left me alone. With call and texts from different numbers each time I blocked him. I was hoping one day he'd give up, if he thought I wasn't bothered by him. Tonight you encouraged him to keep going. Do you really think if you go there tonight, that he'll fuck off? You can beat him until he's barely breathing and he'd still laugh in your face because he's actually insane. I didn't tell you because I'm tired of being the problematic girl that you always need to rescue. It's who I used to be, not anymore. Please don't go to him. That's what he wants, stay here." My bottom lip quivered by the end of my plea.

"Stop doing that Kels, the more you think you're growing up, the more you're shutting me and everyone else out. We all have fucking problems, you're not the only one. It's okay to not be okay and ask for help. When you have a psychopath threathening you every single day, it's time to ask for help. Tonight I'm not going there for you. I'm going there for me. It's time to get back at him for the times I couldn't there when he backstabbed you. And when he-he." JJ couldn't finish his sentence.

"I'm going with you," Simon finally spoke up. HIs fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles looked see through. I couldn't help but blame this on myself. All I had to tell JJ what was going on with Aaron and all of this could have been avoided. He was right, the more I think I'm getting better, the more I'm keeping from him. Like Simon. And now Simon is the only one who has to listen to all of my problems, he was just as mad about this as JJ was. At this point there was nothing I could do to talk them out of it because I didn't go about anything correctly. Everything was so fucked.

In the midst of a temper tantrum I dropped down to the ground and hid my head in my knees. "Fine!" I screamed. "You two do whatever you want but I'm not going with you and I just want both of you to stay with me."

A body dropped down next to mine, I didn't have to lift my head to know that it was my best friend. In the end, he would always be there to comfort me before Simon. "Kells, everything will be fine, you did everything you could to handle it on your own. Now I'm going to try. I love you, yeah?" Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

"I love you too JJ, please don't get hurt. He might bring friends." I pulled him in for the tightest hug I could find in myself.

"That reminds me, I have to make some calls." He got up from the floor and brought me along with him before exiting the room in a haste. Leaving me and Simon to stand there completely alone.

Closing the distance between us I looked up at him with my glassy, green eyes, wishing they could change his mind. "If anything happens to you tonight, I will never forgive myself."

Two strong arms wrapped around my body, Simon pulled me in for a deep, long kiss. It was so intense that my head nearly started spinning. If he left, who was going to be the strong one? Holding me while I cried, silently begging for Jide's safety. Being strong all the time wasn't possible for me. I was vulnerable, I was scared, and I did need help. For so long I thought that was a bad thing, but now I'm beginning to think that it's what people do. Keeping everything bottled up isn't normal.

"I'm coming back to you. I've been doing in since the day I met you, haven't you?" A small smile crept onto his face. Even now he was trying to make me feel better. Simon was about to go out there with the possibility of getting of his ass kicked and he was worried about me.

"You better." I kissed him one last time before he went out to go find JJ. The only thing I could manage to do was crawl onto his bed and under the covers. Wrapping my arms around myself because there was no one to wrap theirs around me. And I wept, long and hard about how everyone I cared about was getting sucked into my shitty past. They didn't have any second thoughts. Who knows where they were going, what they were getting themselves into. Or when they'd be back.

All there was left to do was wait.