"Don't you guys have school?" I ask the two boys that are currently just lounging on my couch.

"We do," Smirks shrugs, "but I think it's closed or something,"

I sigh, "You think?" walking around, I pick up the flyers from the table and roll them, smacking him across the head, "you think!"

He gaps and scratches his head, "ow! Since when did you become my mother," since I found out his younger than me.

Nice smiles and shakes his head, "schools closed for a few days, something happened,"

"Did you guys at least bring groceries?" I stare at E, raising a brow in question, ignoring Caydens amused stare.

Smirks points at the table, "we got pizza,"

I smack him with the flyers again, "that's not groceries!" Groaning I take a seat between Cayden and Smirks, "how have you guys survived this long?"

Nice shrugs, "we cook,"

I cringe, "Is it edible?"

Nice points to Cayden, "yeah, he usually cooks,"

I gasp turning to Cayden, "you never cook," I smack him with flyers, Cayden smiles, not bothering to dodge my hits,

"Okay let's take your choice of weapon away," He grabs my wrist, taking the roll of flyers of me.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I turn back around, "I'm surrounded by a gang, I'd like to defend myself,"

"Great choice of weapon," Smirks laughs, changing the channel, I narrow my eyes at him and lean back.

"Any news?" I hear Cayden ask E, my eyes stayed on the tv screen while still listening to what he had to say.

E nods, "We managed to get a few footages of him leaving the prison area but there are so many possibilities, we can't really go through all the cameras town,"

I turn to them, "did you check that corner shop, end of the road from the prison. It's really random and the guys a little weird but maybe he knows something,"

E furrows his brows at me, "what corner shop? There aren't any shops near the prison, the next shop is like 20 minutes drive,"

Huh?

I shake my head, "I'm sure there was a shop literally 5 minutes down the road, I brought a snack from there once,"

Nice stares at me in confusion and shakes his head, "the only thing 5 minutes from there is a rundown garage or something, the shutters are always down and it looks like no ones used that in years,"

I shrug, "Hey I'm not crazy okay. Maybe that has something to do with this guy, what if he purposely put that up and has been hiding in plain sight all this time,"

E nods and takes his phone out, "I guess we'll take a closer look tomorrow,"

That's really weird, how does a whole shop just disappear? I clearly remember visiting once.

I turn towards Cayden, "Also, did you figure out what he meant by the whole 'you were always going to be here' and who lied?"

Cayden sighs, I look around the room to find all the guys staring at us in confusion, oops...

I quickly stand up, "Who wants cookies?!" I don't bother waiting for a response, as I turn around to leave the room.

I decide to pick out the cookies that were leftover from today out of the bag and onto a plate, making sure to take my sweet time.

Let's go back to the dragon's den.

"Cookiessss..." I drag out, realising just how tense the room felt, the guys were all looking away from each other with clenched jaws, oh no...

Clearing my throat, I walk back to the couch, taking my seat and setting the plate down, I'll just sit in the awkward silence with them.

Leaning back, I observe the guys, they looked angry and sad? But for some reason I notice that E looked the most affected, he looked more shut off than usual, his jaw clenched and eyes dark.

Sighing, I give up, "can you guys please be grown men and talk about your feelings,"

They don't bother looking up, just staring angrily at the ground. Groaning in annoyance, I stand up, "stop glaring at my poor carpet, it never did anything to you,"

I walk towards E, tapping his head, "up," he looks up at me, confused and shakes his head, "what?"

"Melody?" I hear Cayden call out, but I choose to ignore him, staring at E until he sighs and stands up.

He raises a brow at me, "now what?" Now I steal your seat.

Nah I'm kidding.

"Follow me," I instruct, walking back to the kitchen, checking behind me to make sure he was still there and luckily he was, "take a seat," I point towards the stools near the counter.

Narrowing his eyes at me, he takes a seat, now that the height difference is settled, we can talk.

I start, "Listen, I know I haven't exactly given you a reason to trust me but neither have I given you a reason to not,"

His gaze hardens as he stares at me, a calculating look in his eyes, "where is this going?" I don't know...

Sighing I ask, "are you okay?" Since I've met the guy, he hardly shows any emotions, it's quite concerning.

I notice his gaze soften a little, but still calculating me, trying to figure out what I was doing. I don't know either buddy.

"I'm fine," he dryly says. I raise a brow at me, you aren't fooling anyone.

He sighs, "fine, what do you want me to say? That I'm angry, annoyed and...Hurt," yeah

I nod, "you know you're allowed to feel things right, you can be angry, annoyed and especially hurt-"

He cuts me off, huffing, "no, in our line of work, we can't actually do that,"

Scrunching my brows, I stare at him, "you're not at work E, you're with your friends or family. So you can be hurt and angry that Cayden's hiding stuff, because his family to you," clearly Cayden needs lessons on communication.

E sighs again, "secrecy is the reason we're in this mess. I don't understand, no offence but he told you, but couldn't tell any of us, makes me think he doesn't trust us or even think we're-"

I shake my head at him, "I don't think that's the reason, sometimes it's easier to tell a stranger because you don't care if they judge you. You know whenever he mentions you guys, he always says family, maybe he was just trying protecting you guys,"

Cayden has always referred to the guys as his family, honestly, it does make me a little jealous sometimes because he's managed to gather all these people and make them his own and then there's me, forever alone.

E shakes his head, "you're not a stranger, he wouldn't have told you if you were, he trusts you." Oh no

Clearing my throat, I look around the kitchen, avoiding eye contact, "Yeah-yeah erm, that's right, I'm glad he at least considers us friends,"

And that's how history was made; for the first time I heard E laugh and smile, it was only small but, it was something,

I gape at him, "did-did you just laugh..."

He straightens up, his face back to neutral and stands up, leaving the kitchen, "no,"

I follow behind him, "no, I'm sure you did!"

She's bonding🥺

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