A Call To Arms (A Crown The Empire Fanfiction)

Mixed Emotions

Jewel's POV

I cuddle up in Brent's arms, but I'm a bit distracted as I look between Bri and Hayden. Bri seems really shaken up, her hair is all tangled as though she has been messing with it a lot and her face is a dark shade of red. She looks frustrated and exhausted from all the crap happening all at once. I escape from Brent's grip, and walk over to her. She leaned her back against the wall and fell to the floor slowly once she saw me. I put on a sympathetic smile as I take a seat right next to her. Brent followed and sits next to me, but keeps his space at the same time because he knows I needed some time with her.

"How are y-"

"I'm a nervous freaking wreck," she replies quickly, inhaling a deep breath of air.

From the corner of my eye, I see Hayden glance over to take a look at her. I directly look at him, our eyes meet for a split second and then he looks away. I turn around to see Bri watching me.

"Is he most of the problem?" I whisper to her. She looks at me with assuring eyes and a sad half smile.

I clutch my fist. "What did he do to you?!"

Bri anxiously looks down. "Shhh. We don't want him to hear you."

I look behind me. Too late, he's already looking and waiting for us to continue our conversation. Might as well have some fun with this. It doesn't matter if he listens or not. If he did something bad to her, I want him to hear his faults again and again so he can feel bad. I won't let anyone mess with her, even if he is my favorite bassist.

"He just keeps playing around with me. Messing up my feelings, like they aren't already messed the hell up because of this situation. He's hurting me emotionally and he isn't helping me through this... and I don't need that right now. Can ge not understand that I have feelings too?! How much of a hot mess I am right now?!" Her whisper turned into a yell of aggression the more into the explanation she got.

I didn't bother to remind her to be quiet, because I was wondering if my little plan was working. I put a hand on her shoulder as she stared blankly at the floor. I turn around to see the expression set on Hayden's face.

Haha. Freaking priceless.

He gave me a death glare, while I'm here trying to hold in my giggles. Bri didn't seem to notice while she was scrambled in her thoughts. He adjusted his leather jacket by the collar, and turned away. I rolled my eyes, and then I'm interrupted by a tap on the shoulder. I meet Brent's eyes and he shuffled closer to me to speak.

"We seriously need to go. Like - now. I don't know what the hell Hayden is doing but we need to find your friends," he tells me, holding my shoulder. I tried to avoid that action so I wouldn't blush enough for it to be noticeable. Oh, but with a smile like that on his face - he noticed.

He starts to stand up, but pauses at knee level and glances at Bri. "What's wrong with your little friend?"

"Hayden's been messing around with her," I grumble lowly.

Brent winks. "Ahhh. The heartbreaker. I could see him messing around with her. Doesn't mean he has a right to. But I suggest we save all this for later - stuff like this could make everything worse. And things don't need to get worse for her and all of us in general."

I just nod to him, and soon after that he stood up and began to walk over to Hayden. I have already assumed that he was going to 'lightly' confront him. And that's exactly what he is doing.

He walks up to Hayden; muscles all firm and all that jazz and friendly smacks his shoulder. Hayden turns around and grits his teeth in reply.

"If you're gonna talk to me about her," he points to Bri,"I swear to god!-"

I glance at Bri. Her eyes were dead locked in the conversation as she wraps her arms around her knees.

Brent cuts off his ranting. "No-no-no. I'm saying, what the hell are you doing?! There are people -INCLUDING Brandon, Andy, and God knows where Bennett is, captured and probably being freaking tortured! You cant just freaking stand here and do nothing about it!" Brent growls. And yet again, it's freaking attractive.

Hayden clutches his fist at sides.

"You think I'M gonna risk all MY recruits getting hurt?! This isn't rocket science, Brent!" Hayden grumbles back, eyes strolling over to Bri when he grumbled 'hurt'.

Brent follows his eyes, leading to Bri. "You're being freaking stubborn about EVERYTHING. ESPECIALLY-"

Brent managed to cut himself off in time. He looked away from Bri, acting as if it wasn't about her. But it was. I think he felt guilty for pulling me away from her earlier, and now he has her back. Even though he told me to 'save all this drama for later.' But at least he caught himself.

"Yea. I know," Hayden murmurs lightly.

"Okay, here's the plan. We'll leave the tower, each of us taking one recruit with us. I'll take Jewel, Dave can take Taylor, and you can go ahead and be with Bri," Brent explains.

"Why the hell me?!" Bri whines aggressively.

Brent looks over to Bri with a 'im-trying-to-help-you-expression' on his cute little face and Hayden just peeks over to her a bit and sighs deeply. "Then?"

"Then, we sneak into the headquarters and split up. Me and Jewel will find Soleil and Taylor and Dave will look for Bennett and Andy, and you WITH Bri will go and search for Ryesha and Brandon." Brent finishes, adding needed emphasis on 'with'.

"Okay! Shit, I get what you mean," Hayden's growls back. "I'll go WITH Bri." emphasizing the 'with' in the same way as Brent, as if mocking him. 

Bri just stares at Hayden, not really sure what to think about this. But I sure as hell have a bad feeling.

"Alright! Dave, Taylor, we're getting the hell out of here to go find the others," Hayden yells over, clasping his hands together as a sign that he's ready.

Me and Bri stand up in unison, both trailing awkwardly over to Hayden, Brent, Dave and his wife. Bri glances up at Hayden with these half-death glare-half-glossy-eyes. She was emotionally unstable.

Hayden tries to ignore her. "Wait-how the hell are we supposed to just walk in there?!"

Brent dramatically rolls his eyes. "Do what you're trained to freaking do! You're the leader to the U.M.P Hayden!"

"Yea. And why me with him, Brent?!" Brianna nags lightly under her breath. All eyes turn to her.

"Because you and Hayden had some individual training with each other," Brent replies at a loud tone. A half smirk was placed firmly on his face as he tries to hold in his giggles.

Bri keeps her eye glued to Brent, her eyes tormented and her face a shade of crimson. I look over to Hayden as he clears his throat and turns away.

What. 

The. 

Hell.