Arson Bros//Setting Fires In My Heart

Chapter 3

Rich's POV
I woke up the next day pretty tired. Me and Jake stayed up talking until a nurse came and kicked him out. I pull out my phone and check the time. 11 o'clock. Jake, Michael and Jeremy should be here soon. Jake would drive himself but...his legs got worse after the squipcident at the play. I feel bad because it was my fault. He says it wasn't but.. it was. I turn my head to the door when I hear a knock. I see Jake in his wheelchair, Michael pushing him and Jeremy standing next to them. "Jake!" I say excitedly.

"What are we? Non-existent when Jake is here?" Michael said smirking at me and I blush.

"Ohh heyyy Michael and Jeremy" I say awkwardly, sitting up.

Jake ignores us and rolls up to me "You ready to go?"

"Yep! I juth have to check out at the front dethk." I said smiling.

"Great let's go!" I get out of the bed, slide on my Nikes and walk up to Jake's wheelchair. I push him up to the front so I could sign out.

"Me and Michael are going to bring the car around." Jeremy said then pulled Michael out the door.

I sign out on the paper, the nurse says bye and we start walking out. "W-when are you going to get out of the chair?" I ask Jake.

"I can kinda walk now with my crutches but not for long because it can get worse but I will get out of them soon! Do you wanna go get slushies from 7/11 before we head to Chloe's?"

"Good and yeth ! I haven't had one in forever!" I say smiling.

—Time skip to driving the party (after getting slushies) brought to you by The Insanely Cool Jared Kleinman—

We pull up to Chloe's house. I don't think I'm ready to see everybody. I can tell Jake is looking at me but I avoid his eye contact. I hear Jake tell Michael and Jeremy something but it's muffled, mostly because there is a ringing in my ears. Michael and Jeremy get out the car. I feel Jake's hand on top of mine. "You ok?" He asks me wiping a tear from my cheek that I didn't even know fell.

"Y-Yeah it'th juth a lot. What'th gonna happen when I go back to thcool?"

"It'll be fine I promise! And if anyone gives you shit I got you back. We are never not going to be a team." Jake says giving me a side hug and runs a had through my hair. I love it when he does that. "Ready to go in?"

"Thure ok." I say. I help Jake out of the car. I hand him his crutches which he brought so he can move around Chloe's house easier. We walk up to the door and before we even knock a bald girl, that I surprisingly missed, opens the door and pulls us in.

"Rich!!!!" Brooke yells and pulls me into a hug. Then Christine and Jenna join. Michael and Jeremy are snickering, Jake is looking at us with a smile, and for Chloe's house there is a surprisingly a lack of Chloe. The girls finally pulled away. "How's it going Rich?" Jenna asks.

"I'th fine I guess" I reply. Then I hear laughing. I look up to see Chloe.

"What's with the lisp Rich?" Chloe asks.

"Chloe!!" Jake yells at her.

"It'th fine Jake. And it'th nith to thee you too Chloe." I respond trying not to sound hurt.

Chloe rolls her eyes, "Chill Jake I'm just playing around." She pats my back. "It's good to see you Rich...now I made popcorn so someone pop in the movie."

"Alright! I got it!" Christine said running over to the TV.

"Are we seriously watching The Princess Bride?" Questioned Jeremy. All the girls respond with yes and he flops onto the couch next to Michael. After Christine put the movie in she sat next to Jeremy and he put his arm around her. Michael frowned and scooted away a bit. After everyone got situated with popcorn they turned on the movie and off the lights. Brooke and Chloe are on a recliner. Jeremy and Christine are on a part of the couch across from me and Jake. And Michael and Jenna are laying on the floor. After a couple minutes everything goes black. I guess I fell asleep.

Jake's POV
A couple minutes into the movie I feel something on my shoulder. I look over and see Rich's head on my shoulder. I smile at him and run my fingers through his hair. He smiles in his sleep and snuggles deeper into my side. I hear a click noise and look over to Jenna who took a picture of us. "Delete that!" I whisper yell so I don't wake Rich.

"Why? You don't want people seeing you and your new boyfriend?" She says smirking. By now the movie is paused and everyone is looking at us except Michael who already is asleep on the floor.

"He's not my boyfriend!" I say a little loud and Rich stirs a bit.

"You're gonna wake up your boyfriend." Chloe taunts.

"Just go back to the movie how about that?!"

"Yeesh! Touchy subject much!" Chloe says then unpauses the movie. I roll my eyes. Jeremy winks at me then goes back to the movie. After the movie and a couple episodes of Family Guy everyone agrees they were tired. The girls went up to Chloe's room. Jeremy and Michael went up to a tiny spare bedroom the house has. I decided to stay on the couch with Rich. I didn't want to wake Rich so I just let him sleep on my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around him and fell asleep.