Fallen Love

Chapter 4

Mason

When she finally came out of the room I was happy to see her in one of my shirts. She looked so small in it. While we were looking for something to watch my phone was vibrating non stop. I looked at the screen and saw it was the guys texting in our group chat. I thought about turning it off but I know they would just show up at my house if I didn’t respond. I excused myself and went to my office. I decided it would be faster to call.

“What’s up?” Josh answered.

“You tell me. You guys keep blowing up my phone”

“Are we interrupting something?”

“No. I was in a meeting with my dad”

“We were going to go to get a bite at the diner before we go to the party at Gemma’s”

“Isn’t the party tomorrow?”

“Ya but it’s the pre-party and Gemma has a surprise for you”

I could hear the rest of our group fighting for the phone. Everyone was trying to talk into it at the same time.

“Give me my phone! We’re heading to your place then-“

“No!”

I answered a little to fast

“I can’t go out tonight I have a lot of paperwork for the hospital that needs to be done”

“You can’t bail. Can’t you do it tomorrow?”

“Then I would have to miss the actual party”

“Great! Now I’m stuck babysitting these brats”

Josh said irritated.

“Hey! Eithan and Sam resent that!”

I heard the twins laughing.

“Good luck” I laughed at Josh.

“You mother fu-“

I hung up, leaning back in my chair and thought about how I was going to get out of the party tomorrow. I definitely wasn’t going while Crystal was staying with me. I looked at the framed photo on my desk. It was one of the last photos we took together.

We were playing her princess game when I fell and scraped my elbow. She kissed my cheek to make it feel better which made me smile. Her grandma snapped a picture of that

It is one of my favorite pictures. I set the frame down and head back to the living room.

“Perfect! The food is here. Thank you Benjamin” I patted him on the back and sat down getting the food out of the bags.

“Benny”

She whispered, I was shocked. She remembered him.

“I use called you Uncle Benny when I was younger”

She handed something back to him. He smiled and pulled her into a hug. She pulled away from Benjamin and looked at me.

“It was your parents in the photo”

“What photo?”

Benjamin handed me some pictures.

I saw Crystal in the photo, but she was pregnant. Then it hit me. It was her mother.

“You look just like your mom”

She looked just as beautiful as her mother. Crystal was blushing as we looked at her. Her stomach let out a loud rumble.

Benjamin grabbed her hand and helped her sit back down. I went to grab more water bottles. Benjamin was gone when I got back.

We ate our meal in silence. I cleaned up when we were finished, sitting back down next to her, placing my arm behind her again.

“Anything you want to watch?”

“Do you still like scary movies?”

“Yeah. You loved watching them but you always hid behind me”

I smiled when I noticed her cheeks turning red.

“I can put one on if you’d like”

She nodded and pulled her feet up to her chest. I pulled a blanket around us and played Insidious.

***

By the end of the movie she had her whole head under the blanket and was hiding her face in my chest.

“It wasn’t that bad was it?”

“That wasn't scary. That was downright terrifying!”

I laughed, earning a slap on the chest from her.

“Are you in pain? I had the maids pick up some medicine from the pharmacy”

“A little. Will it make me fall asleep?”

She moved away from my chest, leaving a cold spot where she was. I sat up and turned towards her.

“It’ll make you drowsy, but it’ll help with the pain”

“I don’t want it” she pulled the blanket around her tightly.

This was raising alarms in my head. She didn’t have to answer but I needed to ask.

“Crystal”

I grabbed her hand, trying to calm myself down before I scared her again.

“You don’t need to tell me, but I have to ask. Were you given something that you didn’t want to take?”

Her knuckles began to turn white from how tight she was gripping the blanket.

I sighed. Trying not to get angry.

“Let me make some calls”

I got my phone out and called our family doctor. I put it on speaker so she could hear.

“Mr. Ashton”

“Dr. Pierce, I know you're a busy man so I’ll cut to the chase. Is there a different pain med I could take that won’t make me drowsy?”

“You could take ibuprofen, but I recommend taking what was prescribed. In order for you to heal your body needs to rest and the best time for your body to heal is when you are asleep.

“Thank you Dr.”

“Not a problem. Have a good night”

I hung up the phone and got up.

“Where are you going?” She grabbed my sleeve.

“I’m gonna get the ibuprofen”

She held onto my sleeve and looked down.

“I’ll take the other medicine”

“Are you sure? No one is forcing you to take anything you don’t want to”

“The doctor recommends it. I'll take it, but could I ask you for a favor?”

“Anything”

She was silent as I sat back down on the couch.

“Could you stay with me tonight?”

It felt like there were a thousand butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

“Of course. Do you want to sleep in your room or mine?”

“Mine if that’s okay.”

“Yeah.”

I handed her a bottle of water and her medicine. She looked at it for a while before taking it.

“Do you want to watch a funny movie to forget about that terrifying one?”

“Yes”

She leaned into me, pulling the blanket over us. After watching some random Disney movie she began to fall asleep. I tried to get her to go to her room, but she was determined to finish the movie. I finally had enough of watching her struggle to keep her head up. I laid down and pulled her between my legs. Placing her head on my chest. She stiffened, but relaxed after she saw I wasn’t going to do anything else. I ran my fingers through her hair.

“I’m sorry for today” she yawned.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“There were probably parties you wanted to go to. Instead you got stuck taking care of me”

“No party could ever compare to this night”

She giggled

“You wouldn’t want to be at Gemma’s party?”

“How did you know about the party? And how do you know who Gemma is?”

“I heard it around school today. That, and she invited Lucas”

For a moment I thought she had heard my conversation with the guys.

“She has party’s just about every other weekend so it’s nothing special”

“You should still be there instead of here, babysitting me”

“Hey”

I put my hand under her chin and turned her head towards me. Looking into those beautiful eyes of hers, “There is nowhere else I’d rather be than right here with you in my arms”

She smiled up at me and closed her eyes. I placed my hand on her cheek.

“Okay”

She nuzzled into my hand and then placed her head back on my chest. After a few minutes I felt her breathing become steady. I thought about taking her to her room, but I didn’t want to risk her telling me she didn’t need me to sleep with her. In the end I just laid there with her on top.

I could feel my phone vibrating. I picked it up quickly so it wouldn’t wake her. When I looked at the screen I had loads of texts from the guys and 10 missed calls from Gemma. Just as I was about to text the guys, telling them I was shutting my phone off, Gemma Called and I accidentally answered it.

“Hello?”

“Baby!!”

Gemma’s whiny voice coming through the phone, irritating me instantly. I kept her around because she was easy. Looking down at Crystal, I was regretting my poor decisions.

“What?!”

“Why didn’t you come to my party? I’ve been waiting for you this whole time.”

“I’m busy. Don’t call me. Actually, just delete mynumber from your phone”

I hung up, sending the guys a quick text and turning off my phone.

I felt Crystal start to move around a bit and was nervous Gemma had woken her up. She was just scooting her bottom up. With the way she was grinding on me in her sleep I knew this was going to be a long night for me.

“Goodnight princess”

I kissed the top of her head and tried to get some sleep as well.

***

“Who are you!?”

I heard Crystal yelling at someone. I opened my eyes to her pushing off my chest. I sat up quickly, confused, realizing she wasn’t talking to me, but someone else. When I looked around I saw the guys all staring at us. I looked at her and knew they weren’t staring at us, but at her. She wasn’t wearing a bra. We could see her firm breast and hardened n*****s through my shirt she was wearing. I quickly pulled her to my chest and glared at all the guys while wrapping her in the blanket we used last night.

“What are you guys doing here this early?” I snapped at them.

“So this is why you went all M.I.A on us yesterday” Aiden said as he hopped on the couch next to Crystal.

She pulled my shirt tighter and I rubbed her back trying to calm her.

“I won’t bite. Unless you want me to” he winked “I’m Aiden, the guy behind me is my sister Andrew”

“Hey!”

Andrew smacked him on the back of the head.

“She’s not a morning person”

Aiden whispered to Crystal, making sure everyone could hear him though. I felt relieved when I heard her giggle at this. Her grip started loosening up, but she still held onto me.

“I’m Josh, this is Eithan and Sam”

She stood up with the blanket still over her shoulders and stuck her hand out to Josh.

“I’m Crystal”

They all looked surprised at her as they each shook her hand. Except for Aiden. He kissed her hand and got smacked in the back of the head by me and Andrew.

“You never answered my question”

I said, standing up and wrapping my arm around her waist.

“We needed to talk to you about last night” Josh answered.

“Why?”

I noticed he looked at Crystal, making me feel uneasy.

“I’m gonna go shower. It was nice to meet you guys” she said looking at them.

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to”

“It’s ok. I like to shower in the morning”

I nodded.

“Call me if you need help”

Aiden got up.

“We won’t need you. Come on babe”

He grabbed her hand and tried to walk away with her, but was stopped when Josh smacked him in the back of the head this time.

“On second thought” he sat down “I think I’m gonna sit this one out and nurse this headache I got going on” he began rubbing his head.

She laughed, showing everyone that perfect smile of hers. She walked to her room.

“Don’t do too much without me!” Aiden yelled to her.

He got smacked by all of us.

“Will you stop that!” He yelled at us.

We know she heard it because she began laughing and popped her head around the corner. What she said shocked me.

“I’ll try keep my hands to myself” she winked at him and walked back to her room.

What happened to my sweet innocent princess? She was around these animals for 5 minutes and she was more comfortable with them then she was with me. And tried to run to her.

“Let me go! Can’t you see she needs me!” Aiden shouted as we all jumped on him.

We could hear her laughing until she closed her door. We all got off of Aiden. He was sulking at this point.

“So what happened last night?”

I sat back on the couch, everyone else finding a seat as well.

“Someone…” Eithan said eyeing Aiden “told Gemma that you were on locked down now”

We all turned towards Aiden

“What? You try going shot for shot with this behemoth over her and tell me you’re going to remember how you even got there in the first place” he slapped Sam on the shoulder.

“So what’s wrong with that? It’s not the first time she’s heard a rumor like that”

I crossed my arms.

“Well someone said they saw you running after a girl in the parking lot on Friday after school” Josh said looking towards the hall Crystal went down. “This got back to Gemma. She tried to call you non stop but you kept ignoring her”

“And?”

“Do you know a guy named Lucas?” Josh asked.

“Yes” I stiffened up.

“Someone said they saw both of you leaving school with the girl,” he said, straightening up. “Gemma found out who he was and started questioning him”

I nodded for him to continue.

“They ended up in a bedroom, but after the came out she started going off about some girl named Crystal and how she was just another toy for you to keep on the side, trying to shut down all rumors of you finding someone”

“How much does she know about her?”

I asked trying not to lose my s**t.

“As far as we can tell she doesn’t know anything besides her name”

“That’s good”

I still have time to try and get Gemma to back off.

“Who is she?” Sam asked.

“Ya. I didn’t peg you for the cuddling type” Aiden said as he hit my arm.

“We’ve been friends since we were born” I couldn’t help the smile on my face “You remember the guy Chase pushed yesterday?”

They all nodded.

“That was Crystal. Apparently they gave her the wrong uniform. She didn’t want to miss the first week so she wore that one”

“Woah. I had no idea all that was beneath that uniform” Aiden ducked right before my hand made contact with his head.

“She goes to Lutz” Josh said more to himself then anyone “How are you going to handle Gemma?”

I was silent. I just got her back. I couldn’t go to school and pretend like I didn't know her. I also don’t want her getting hurt. Gemma wasn’t the top student at Lutz, but she also wasn’t dumb. She knew how to destroy someone without getting her hands dirty.

“I’m not going to do anything right now. We were never a thing, so I owe her nothing, but we’re just going to have to keep a close eye on her activities”

“Okay” he sat back in the chair.

I looked at all of the guys and they nodded at me. We were all in agreement. Crystal was here to stay.

“Well I better go check and make sure she knows we’re here to support her,” Aiden began walking to the door.

Everyone threw whatever was next to them in his direction. He just never seems to learn.