without you // jack duff

chapter 15 ~ magic powers

cassie's pov

we arrived arrived back at brooks and all the other boys were there, all piling up on each other - nothing unusual. rye, who was on the bottom, quickly pulled himself out of the pile and fell onto the floor, causing all the others to fall. they all screamed and andy, on the top of little the pile, over dramatically fell off and landed on rye. he was facing down, holding himself up above him and staring right at him

"i ship randy!" i yelled, and they all turned to look at me since they didn't realise i was here

"oh look brook kidnapped her again" mikey joked and we laughed

"it's nice to see you too" i laughed and sat down on the sofa.

"aren't the other girls here?" andy asked as he got up, obviously wanting to see becca

"no beccas not here" i laughed and he blushed

they all got up, sitting on the beds in the room; rye and andy on andy's bed, jack and mikey on mikey's bed and brook beside me on the sofa.

as mikey was about to put a movie on, someone walked in from one of the other rooms. he was tall with dirty blonde hair quiffed up. he had bright ice blue eyes and eyebrows better than my future

"oh you two haven't met, have you? cassie this is harvey" brook said, answering my question before i could even ask. harvey smiled at me and i kindly smiled back

"cassie as in the cassie you like?" harvey asked brook. he must not have told them that we've agreed to stay friends

"yea he's in looove with her" rye replied before any of us could speak. harvey laughed and sat between rye and andy. i noticed that jack awkwardly shuffled slightly

"i was gonna tell them tonight" brook whispered to me and i nodded. i understood as they'd be quite confused that we'd went out today

mikey chose a movie and we all watched it. i laid across the sofa, resting my head on brooks lap and he laced his hand in my hair, gently playing with it. i smiled and closed my eyes

i stayed how i was for a little while, not really listening to what the boys were saying. i was just off in my own world. well, that was until they started shouting. i opened my eyes to see jack on his feet and i furrowed my eyebrows

"just fuck off okay?! just fucking leave me alone" he huffed, storming out and slamming the door. the others sighed as if this wasn't the first time it had happened lately

"i'll go sort him out" i said, quickly standing up and heading towards the door

"no don't, when he's angry he-" andy started but i cut him off

"i was his best friend for 10 years i know what he's like" i mumbled before leaving and closing the door behind me.

i quickly walked down the little hallway and turned to go down the stairs, seeing jack about to storm out the building. i got to the bottom of the stairs and headed towards him

"jack!" i called. he ignored me and carried on walking so i reached out for his arm and spun him around

"go away!" he snapped and turned away from me again. as he was about to walk out i stood in front of him.

"jack calm down" i said, not letting him get past me. he tried to push me out the way but i grabbed his arms before he could

"jack, close your eyes. count to ten" i told him, remembering times in the past where i've had to do this exact same thing. he looked into my eyes before sighing and closing them, his lips moving slightly as he counted to ten in his head. i glanced up to his hair which was messily brushed back into a quiff, and looked back down to his closed eyes, seeing him scrunch them slightly and letting out a sigh

i hesitated before pulling him into a hug. i felt him relax after a moment and he wrapped his arms tightly around me. my shoulders released a tension i didn't realise i was holding, and i rested my head on his chest, holding him tighter

3 years. 3 whole years since we'd seen each other. since we'd spoke. since we'd looked at each other. since we'd touched. after all this time, after everything i went through, this is our first time we've actually made any contact. and i'd never thought we'd be hugging each other again, this soon.

i pulled away slightly, keeping my arms loosely wrapped around him and i looked up at him, seeing him look back down at me. he's always been taller than me, but the only small changes there's been since i saw him was that he was somehow slightly taller, and his eyes were brighter

i pulled away fully from the hug and sat on the stairs, leaving a space beside me for him to sit down. he came over and sat beside me, leaving a small gap between us and looking down at his feet.

"what happened?" i asked, looking away from him. he quietly sighed again

"i don't know. i'm just not in the best mood lately". i nodded and bit my lip, trying to ignore the awkward tension between us. it's hard speaking to him when i'm still trying to adjust to the fact he's here. i saw him shuffle around slightly

"so uh how is everything?" he asked, probably trying to escape the awkward tension as much as i am

"good. good" i replied

"so uh. . . you and brook?" he questioned and i saw him bite his lip

"we're good. we've agreed to stay friends" i admitted, knowing that he wanted to know

"why?" he asked almost immediately

"well we uh. . . we kissed but but we didn't feel anyhting" i said, awkwardly twisting my hair with my fingers and looking at the ground

"oh. ok" he replied. after a few moments in silence we agreed to go back to the apartment and we climbed the stairs in silence until we were there. we walked in and jack looked around the room at everyone before going to his room.

"do you have some sort of magic powers?" rye asked and i laughed

"sorry?"

"you literally brought him back within five minutes" mikey said, which i'm guessing is what rye meant by 'magic powers'. they must not know how to calm him down

"i don't know. i guess he's just still the same" i said

he's still the same. is that a good thing or a bad thing? the same kind and caring person who i once loved or the same person who destroyed me and left me emotionally scarred?

a/n
i'm watching the lego movie rn

please remember to vote! ♡