Changes

4

"Jake, wake up," Someone says, shaking my shoulder gently.

I mumble something, rolling over.

"Jake," They say again. Wait, that's Finn. Why is he waking me up?

I open my eyes. I'm not in my bedroom.

I sit up, and find Finn sitting criss-crossed on the bed beside me.

"Why am I in here?" I ask.

He shrugs. "You were here when we woke up."

"Oh....I must've gone into the wrong room..."

"It's okay." He says, smiling. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah...sorry about freaking out."

"It's okay. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Maybe later." I say.

The door to the bathroom opens, and Ryder walks out. Shirtless.

My face heats up, and I look away. Finn snickers at me, then hops up to go over to kiss Ryder, then go out the door.

"Jake," Ryder says, sitting by me. I can't look up at him, because he's shirtless, and I don't need to see his abs right now. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I mumble. "Can you get a shirt on?"

He laughs, and gets up to go to a closet. When he comes back, he has a loose red t-shirt on. "Let's go downstairs."

I nod, and follow him out the door.

Lio is downstairs with DJ and Finn, but when he sees me, he comes over.

"Are you okay?" He asks. "What happened?"

"I'm fine. I think I had a panic attack. I saw Aaron at the park."

"Aaron...the one that cheated on you three years ago?"

"Yeah."

"Did he talk to you?"

"He just asked if I remembered him."

"That's it?"

I nod. "He touched my shoulder, but Micah pulled me away."

"And you're okay?"

"I'm okay."

"Good." He smiles. "Ari said to call them later."

"I will."

"Will someone go wake Micah?" Ryder asks, pulling something out of the oven. "He's still in the sunroom."

"I'll go." I say.

Micah is fast asleep on the couch, arm over his eyes. I shake his shoulder, but he pulls away, burying his face in the couch cushion. I try again.

"What? I'm trying to sleep."

"Ryder said to get up." I tell him.

"Ryder can stick his face in the oven." He mutters, rolling over, and eyeing me. "What time is it?"

"I don't know. I think breakfast is ready."

"Okay." He says. "I'm just gonna sleep for a little longer. Like, two more hours. Wake me later, okay?"

"Micah." I say.

"You sound like Finn." He grumbles. But he gets up, stretching and yawning. "Breakfast is ready?"

"I think so."

He nods, and reaches over to ruffle my hair. "Thanks, sweets."

He gets up to go to the kitchen. I get up, too, but notice something under the couch. I crouch down, and pull out a small notebook with a brown cover. I'm about to open it, but Lio calls, "Jake!"

I bring the notebook with me into the kitchen. "Yeah?"

"Can you help me with something?" He asks.

I nod, and follow him upstairs to our room. "What's wrong?"

"Okay, so." He swallows. "I think I might be, possibly, maybe, kind of sort of maybe...falling in love with DJ?"

My eyes widen. "Seriously? What about Ace?"

"Ace is...it's complicated."

"Did something happen?" I ask worriedly.

"No, not exactly." He says. "C'mon, let's go eat breakfast."

He leaves before I get a chance to ask about what happened. This is why I felt like he's keeping something from me. I know if he is, he's waiting for the right time to tell me.

I leave the notebook on the dresser, then go downstairs to eat.

After breakfast, Lio goes out for an interview, and DJ goes with him. Zac, Ryder and Micah go to work, so I stay at the house with Finn. Aiden and Dominic are here, but are upstairs.

"Did you eat the brownies, or Micah? Cause if it was Micah, I'm going to murder him."

I laugh. "It was me. I woke up late, and I was hungry. They were awesome, by the way."

"I know." He smiles. "Oh, Zac forgot his lunch here, so I'm going to go drop it off later, do you want to come?"

"Sure." I say. "I should probably go shower, though, since I didn't last night."

He nods, and I go upstairs. Before I can go into the bathroom, I see the notebook on the dresser. I pick it up and open it.

The first page is empty, but is wrinkled a bit, and I notice the book looks kind of old.

The next page has four words on it that make me gasp.

Property of Carlos Rodriguez.