Monsters Among Men || 5sos

. 12 .

Jersey groans in pain and irritation as she looks in the bathroom mirror, wondering how she's gonna ask or explain to the boys.

She'd woken up and quite soon noticed the blood in her shorts and sheets. She's been here for months without having one because when she lived with her mom she was on a birth control that suppressed her periods that she was prescribed for her bad cramps, and it apparently took a while for the suppressing affect to wear off while she wasn't taking them. She hasn't really thought about why she's not had one because she rarely lets herself get them.

Jersey sulks our of the bathroom and into the living room where she sees two boys and two wolves.

Calum and Michael in their wolf forms are wrestling about aimlessly and Ashton is scolding them to go outside, but all activity pauses when jersey's solemn person comes and and plops itself on Ashton's lap.

"What's wrong, sweet pea?" Jersey smiles at the pet name.

"I need something from the store." She mumbles. "Do you have Ibuprofen or something?"

"Are you okay? We just went to the store yesterday, did you forget something?"

"Um, yeah."

"Is it important?"

"Really important." Jersey frowns and hides her blushing face further in Ashton's neck.

"What is it?"

She shakes her head no.

"Please?" She whimpers.

She hasn't noticed Luke leaving but now he's back, and he hands Jersey a couple pills and water.

"What hurts, love?" He asks.

"Shhhh." Jersey says before she swallows the pain medicine. "Store?"

"Baby-"

"Please!" She wails with attitude.

"Jersey, dont talk to us like that." Ashton sighs.

"You're not listening!" A growl sounds from the floor, but jersey ignores it. "I need to go to the store!"

A second growl sounds, slightly lower pitched and more drawn out, and Luke pinches jersey's arm at the same time as Ashton smacks her thigh.

Jersey whines sharply as tears well and fall down her cheeks along with little cries as she slumps against Ashton's chest.

Another growl sounds closer but this time it's not directed at the girl but at the boys who made her cry, and the gray wolf nuzzles and licks her, the black wolf soon joining.

Jersey lets herself be tugged off Ashton's lap as he grumbles but allows it, and onto the ground where Michael and Calum in their wolf forms comfort her.

"Need to go to the store." She whimpers again, and the blonde boy sighs.

"You need to?"

"I need to!" She whines. The four boys all bristle at her attitude.

"Okay, baby, I'll take you. But can you tell us what you need?" Luke questions carefully.

"No." This provokes another growl as Luke picks up the small girl off the ground and carries her to the car before any further argument can happen.

The car ride is quiet due to jerseys still grumpy attitude, and when they pull in, jersey stops Luke before he can get out.

"Can I go alone?" She asks gently.

Luke frowns, the idea sparking over protectiveness in him. "Absolutely not."

Jersey whines. "Why?"

"Jersey." He sighs.

"But-"

"Quit. What are you doing that's so secret, hm?" Luke accuses underhandedly.

Jersey whines at the question, getting out of the car and angrily marching inside with Luke hot on her tail, and he grabs her wrist, then intertwines their fingers, but it's not sweetly, it's a warning, and it's to keep her close, protected.

Jersey glances about nervously, her mother in the back of her mind, but more fore frontly she's concerned about finding what she needs, hopefully without Luke seeing.

"Can you please wait here while I go get it?" She pleads.

"No. If you need it you can go get it, with me." Luke says in a final tone. Jersey huffs and marches off again, blushingly going to the feminine products and grabbing a package of daytime pads and a package of overnights and glaring fiercely at Luke as she yanks her hand away so she can carry them to the self checkouts.

Luke barely contains his laughs and leans over the girls shoulder to kiss her cheek as she scans the items and wait for Luke to swipe his card.

Jersey clenches her jaw and whines quietly at Luke for laughing as he pays and they go back to the car.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. You're just so silly. You could've just told us and avoided all the hassle, yknow?"

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

Luke sighs and chuckles, starting the drive home.

"You guys should teach me to drive." Jersey changes the subject to fill up the silence after a few minutes.

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't know how. Mom couldn't teach me and I couldn't afford drivers ed."

"But why would you need to learn how to drive, baby? We can take you wherever you need to go."

"But what If I need to go somewhere alone?"

Luke chuckles at that. "I don't know if you've noticed but we're kind of protective, and don't particularly like you doing much of anything by yourself, babygirl." The blonde replies.

For some reason, this is heavily upsetting to Jersey. "You don't trust me?" Her broken voice catches lukes attention and he turns her eyes to look at her distraught face.

"No, little love, it's not you we don't trust, it's everyone else." Luke says softly, putting his hand on jerseys thigh. She pushes it away.

"So I'm just never gonna be allowed to do anything by myself ever again?!"

Luke sighs, has clenching at the disrespect she's showing him out of instinct. He has to remind himself it's mostly hormones. "Jersey, pumpkin, it's not like that. We're just protecting you, okay? We care about you a lot, can't let anything bad happen to our sweet girl."

Jersey rolls her eyes and scoffs, and this time luke can't help himself from reaching over and lightly smacking her thigh.

The girls silent for a second before she sniffles and Luke glances over to see tears streaming down her face. "Babydoll..." He sighs, putting his hand on her leg, but she whines and pushes it away, turning her body (as much as she can when restricted by her seatbelt) towards the window, away from Luke and continuing to and continuing to snuggle and cry.

Not long after they pull into the garage as jersey quickly grabs her bag and runs inside, to the bathroom without speaking to anyone.

Luke explains to the other boys why jersey is moody and what happened in the car, and when she comes out she sits down next to calums black wolf form and snuggles into him, and he happily curls around her, licking her cheek. Michael joins too, curling around her other side, and the other two boys can barely see her between the two massive fur balls.