Someone to them---Crew boys x Oc

pancakes <3

     We ended up at a small locally owned breakfast cafe. I had never heard of it but Clay had apparently had it before and he said it was amazing.

    As we walked in the strong scent of freshly ground coffee beans filled my nose. I was never the biggest fan of coffee, preferring tea over it any day but the smell was amazing. Nothing like the stale coffee smell from the machine back at Clays house.

    They all drank coffee to make up for their shitty sleeping patterns, not that I could talk much shit about them considering I caught myself falling asleep at 5 in the morning and waking up at 6 at night. They all drank it a bit differently. George preferred sugar to creamer and cubes instead of the normal grains. Alex liked his to be iced with an absurd amount of Carmel drizzle and vanilla syrup, claiming that if it was hot it would just put him back to sleep. Nick liked his dark, only a tiny bit of creamer and his cup a mason jar lined with syrup so he could see it. Karl liked his sweet and iced much like Alex's but not sweet enough to the point it didn't taste like coffee at all, if anything he preferred an energy drink instead so Clay bought him some red bull and monster if he wasn't feeling coffee. And finally Clay refused to even have creamer near his coffee, like shots of espresso or dark, plain pure roasted coffee.

     Thinking about them gave only brought me another wave of sadness.

    "Princess what would you like?" Clay turned to me, his eyebrows raised and a half smirk plastered across his face.

    "Like three pancakes and maybe a side of hash browns?" I half questioned, not entirely sure what they had, even if the menu was right infront of my face.

     "Course, anything to drink?" The waiter asked politely after quickly jotting down my order.

    "Some apple juice please." I responded smiling at the girl. She looked to be 16 or 17, she had bright brown eyes and dirty blonde hair with much darker roots.

    "I'll have that right out to ya'." She smiled and turned around shuffling herself around to 2 other tables before going to out the order in.

    "Will," Clay asked waving a hand infront of my face. I held back my flinch, to say the least I was embarrased,  I had told no one. Just the cops so that I could get a restraining order. Not even my mom, I had told her that he had been manipulative but never anything further than that. I'm sure she would understand if I did tell her, but she might resent me for not confinding in her sooner. So it was kept to myself.

    "Huh, sorry Clay just a little spaced out." I replied scratching the back of my neck while ironically finding a very interesting piece of floor tile to examine.

    "You don't have to tell me what's wrong, or who that guy was but I'm here, so are all our boyfriends too. Your safe with us." He assured me. It would be easier to tell him now so that way when I ran through it a second time with all the other I would be prepared. Here goes nothing.

    "It was C-connor, that guy who sat us down. He is my ex. I had a restraining order against him, but a few days before George came to visit it expired." I huffed trying to say it as fast as I could so I could simply stop thinking about it and enjoy my breakfast- dinner date with Clay. He nodded letting me know it was okay to slow down but to continue. "We dated in highschool, and like a year after. He got violent and didn't let me see my mom very often or hang out with friends. He made me make my mom believe that I didn't love her or that she was a bad mom so she would stay away. So she didn't see the bruises he left or the patches of swollen or red skin. So she didn't see my puffy eyes from crying all night. I never told her about it. Just that he was a manipulative prick and we left it at that. I finally told the police and decided not to press charges and just to get the restraining order. Its just hard to see him you know?" I finally explained, bouncing my leg the entire time and holding onto my own hands to stop the trembles.

    "Oh princess I'm so sorry," he cooed grabbing my hands. He held onto them tight as he started talking again, "I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me that, thank you. If you ever need to talk you've got five of us that are ready anytime got it?" He asked and I nodded pulling a hand away from him to wipe the uncontrollable stray tears off my face.

    "Thank you, you don't understand how much those words mean to me." Just then the waiter came back with our plates of food and gently set them down infront of us making sure to remind us to be careful cause they were hot.

    We thanked her and dug into our food, us both starving from such an eventful outing.

    We talked and laughed and clay even told me some fun y stories about some dumb things they had said or done off stream, that made it blatantly obvious that they had more than friendship feelings for each other. I would have called them oblivious idiots but I had just barley picked up on the signs George was throwing my way so I clearly had no room to talk.

    After the waiter came back and grabbed out dishes and handed us our check I payed for the meal but Clay left a rather generous tip.

    I just giggled and shook my head after he added another 0 to his previous 10 dollar tip. "What? She got brought us the best pancakes imaginable, she deserves it." I nodded my head in agreement, he was ridiculously kind. All of them were, maybe not so kind to each other with words sometimes but it as just how they let you know they enjoyed your company. I guess thats why I was so drawn to them, it was their kindness, their laughs, the way they cheered each other up.

Word count:1084

A/n
Just a cute little pancakes date! A little bit of a fluffier filler chapter because I have something not do fluffy planned next chapter and wanted to make up for it. Me actually having a chapter planned surprising. Thanks for reading anf make sure to drink some water and have a good day/night ! You are ALL loved and appreciated. <3