You're the One I Want {EDITING}

Four

July, 2014

As the months went by I slowly fell into the routine of living with people who cared about me again—namely Alli and my sister, that is. Jamie left to go back to college a week after I came home, and Zayn and Niall had gone back on tour just before. I sleep in Jamie's room now, which is on the second floor next to Alli's, though I spend a lot of my time out on the upstairs balcony. The weather is usually nice enough for me to sit out there and I have a perfect view overlooking the ocean, allowing me to just sit back and think.

By now I've also met Liam and Louis, who have stopped by on occasion either with Zayn and Niall or on their own. Never Harry, though, but whenever I ask about him the others just shrug and say that he had some excuse of being too busy to come. I just brush it off, knowing I'll meet Harry when I do and that there's no sense in worrying over it.

Liam and I get along surprisingly well, although the others constantly accuse me of corrupting him, teaching him to be more sarcastic and even giving him—and I quote—"Actually good and snarky comebacks." But, they should've known better than to expose Liam to me, seeing as I'm a bad influence on everyone around me anyway.

Louis, on the other hand, is a completely different matter. The moment we met something clicked, and now we're practically inseparable. Sometimes he acts like my older brother, defending my 'wholesomeness' from the rest of the world—whatever the hell that means—and other times he's making fun of me and pulling pranks on me. Not to say that I don't do it right back, of course. The others are always rolling their eyes at us, because from the moment we greet each other to the moment we say goodbye, something sarcastic is said and there's always a lot of yelling going on. I can see why Pan calls him our triplet; all of our personalities are incredibly similar.

Unfortunately, however, the boys can never stay long or all be here at the same time. Zayn and Niall are the ones who visit us the most, obviously because they want to see their girlfriends, so whenever Liam or Louis come over it's always a reason to celebrate. Louis and I like to pine over each other, pretending we're lovers who haven't seen each other in years and continuously profess our love for one another. It's nothing serious, just a fun way to keep things interesting.

Besides the occasional visit from the boys, I also got a job as a nurse's assistant at the local hospital. Seeing as it was early summer and I didn't have school until fall I needed some sort of income. Not to mention, I had so much spare time that I was starting to go crazy from sitting around the house all day. So far my job is assisting the nurses, but once I start school I can go from a practical nurse to a registered nurse and, eventually, become a doctor. I enjoy working in the ER among the bustle of activity, observing and learning and helping. It's not as intense or gory as it was in the army, but at least it makes me feel useful.

It's kind of weird, waking up on my own each morning without an alarm going off and being able to sleep in whenever I want. I kind of hate not having a set routine to go by, and having to fend for myself when it comes to eating, but being back home makes it all worth it. Besides, I've set up my own personal routine; get up, eat a quick breakfast, collar Bodey and go for a jog, come back and shower, and then spend the rest of my day as needed. It's simple and easy, and I enjoy it well enough.

Today was no exception to this. It was July, so I had to get up a little earlier than normal so I could get a run in before the fog burned off and it got too hot. Getting up I changed into a sports bra, tank top and running shorts. I grabbed a few bobby pins and pinned back my hair, because it was getting longer and was starting to hang down in my eyes.

Quietly I made my way to Alli's room, knowing how annoyed she gets when she's woken up too early. To my surprise, I heard her voice coming from the other side of the door and realized that she was already awake. I don't normally like to invade on someone's privacy, but I was curious as to who she was talking to so early in the morning so I decided to listen in.