"You actually live with your idols?" Haley asks, her eyes widening a little and her jaw nearly dropping. I smirk and nod, then I pull out my new iPhone.

"And they bought me this," I brag. I should be feeling terrible for rubbing all this great news in her face, but she doesn't seem to mind it.

"Oh, my god!" She gasps. "Can I...?" She holds her hand out and I nod, setting the phone in her hand. "So beautiful," she murmurs, stroking the back of the phone with her hand. I laugh.

"Okay, okay," I say, taking the phone away from her. "It's still just a phone." She raises her eyebrows. "Really. There are more important things in life."

"Yeah, like what?" She questions. I shrug.

"Off the top of my head? Oxygen." She rolls her eyes. Suddenly, she snaps her head up and stands up, looking past me.

"Hey, bro," she says, smiling. "Charlie, this is my brother, Jason." I stand up and turn around, only to come face to face with the attractive boy I was checking out earlier. My heart immediately speeds up.

"Hi," I manage to get out. The corner of his mouth turns up, causing me to smile, too.

"Hey, Charlie," he says, causing me to raise my eyebrows.

He's fucking British, too?

Haley must see a tiny little spark between us, because she clears her throat and says, "I'm gonna go find a bathroom." Then she walks away, not giving us time to argue with her. I look at Jason again, but am too overwhelmed by his perfection, so I look at the ground.

"You hungry?" He asks. Considering the thoughts that I'm currently thinking, I obviously take this question the wrong way.

"Excuse me?" I ask, confused for a moment. Suddenly realizing what I was thinking, I feel my face heat up intensely. "Uh, I just ate an hour ago, actually." Great, I just fucking ruined my chance to hang out with him.

"You wanna hit the arcade then?" He asks. I shrug.

"Sure." I smile and follow him through the mall and towards the arcade. On our way there, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I take it out and see that Jared texted me.

Moose: where are you

"Everything alright, darling?" Jason asks, noticing me looking at my phone. I blush and try to pretend he didn't just call me that sweet little nickname.

Me: in the arcade, why?

Surprisingly, he texts back about 0.02 seconds later.

Moose: just wondering. we're going to leave in an hour. stay safe.

"Stay safe? It's a mall, what could go wrong?" Jason questions, glancing over at my phone. I quickly text Jared back and shove my phone back in my pocket.

"Considering that I'm with you, probably lots of things," I mumble, not really meaning for him to hear me. But he did anyways, so now he is giving me an amused look. I didn't really mean what I said, I honestly don't think he would hurt a fly.

"You think I'm a trouble maker or something?" He asks, a small smile on his face. "A bad boy? Me?" He laughs a little, and that's when I notice he is still holding Allegiant in his hands. "I assure you, I am nothing of the sort." This time, I laugh, at his strange choice of words. Although, it does sort of suit his British accent.

"I like the way you talk," I say. For some reason, when I'm around him, I feel like I can tell him exactly what I'm feeling and he won't judge me two seconds later.

Jason furrows his eyebrows. "My accent or my choice of words?" I smile at him, and it's probably the first time in a long time I smiled for real, and not just to mask my pain.

"Both." For about five or eight seconds, we just stare into each other's eyes, and I swear to god, that's the most intimate moment I've ever shared with anyone. Then, I think he becomes too nervous, so he looks away, scratching the back of his head.

"What grade are you in?" I ask, again feeling nervous for prodding into other people's business.

"Oh, I just finished high school," he starts. "Still haven't heard back from any of the colleges I applied to, though." He takes a quick glance at me. "What about you?"

"I still got twelfth grade," I say. "And I'm not really—" I stop talking when Haley comes back and squeezes herself between us.

"I see you two are really hitting it off," she remarks. Jason and I don't say anything, just look at the ground and blush a little. Haley laughs a little. "Aww, you two are perfect for each other." I'm not sure if she's being serious or not, but I don't say anything. "Hey, Charlie, can I put my texting number into your phone?" She asks. I don't say anything, just take my phone out of my pocket and type in the password, open up the contacts app and hand it to her.

"Put mine in there, too," I hear Jason say to Haley quietly, making me blush a little. He actually wants me to text him? No guy has ever gave me his number. Actually, I've never even been kissed. Every time I get in a relationship, I just get dumped two or three weeks later. Honestly, it's so annoying. I don't even know why I bother.

"Well, we have to go now," Haley says, looking at her brother. Jason lowers his eyebrows. "Remember? We have that thing?" She's being really quiet about it, so it's probably family stuff. Jason gets a look of realization.

"Damn, I totally forgot." He looks away from his sister, turning his attention towards me. "I'm sorry, Charlie. Text me later, okay?" He says. I nod.

"Me too," Haley says, and they walk away from me. One part of me is really happy and overjoyed that I just made two amazing friends, one of them very attractive and male. However, another part of me feels like they just made that 'family thing' up because they thought I was annoying or something and wanted to get the hell away from me.

_____________

"I saw you walking with a boy earlier," Gen asks as I help her clear the table that night after dinner. "In the mall. He was kinda cute." I know she is just trying to be mom-like, which I appreciate a lot. I smile a little in embarrassment as I put the dishes in the sink.

"His name is Jason," I say quietly, as I help Gen by drying the dishes after she washes them. I notice her smiling a little. "What?" I ask, curious as to why she is being like this.

"No it's okay," she says. "You're at that age where you're starting to like boys. It's normal." I shrug.

"It doesn't feel normal," I mumble. "It feels kind of weird." She lowers her eyebrows, but doesn't look up from what she's doing.

"Why does it feel weird?" She questions. Normally, I would just shrug and brush it off, not answering her question because it involves my feelings, and I've always thought my feelings were irrelevant to everyone else.

"I guess I'm just not used to opening up to people," I say, surprising myself when I actually tell her how I feel. "It's kinda hard for me to."

"You know, I think opening up to others is really good for you," Gen says, and I give her a weird look. "Yeah, I think it's great to have someone else understand how you feel. It's like a huge weight is being lifted off your shoulders." I furrow my eyebrows and don't say anything else. I keep on drying the dishes as I think about the things she said.

"Hey," I glance over at the door as Jared walks in. "Did you have fun today at the mall, Charlie?"

"Yeah," I reply. "I think I made two friends."

"That's great!" He says as he comes over and hugs Gen from the side. It's great because I actually think that he cares a little bit. "What are their names?"

"Jason and Haley," I reply as I continue to dry the dishes. "They're brother and sister." They don't say anything else after that, so I ask Jared something. "Hey, why didn't Jensen and Misha go with us today?" He shrugs.

"I think they had stuff to do," he says. "Hey, Gen, did you see what happened to Jensen's face?" I freeze and my heart starts racing.

"No, what happened?" Gen asks, quite shocked and looking worried. She shuts the water off as she finishes up the dishes.

"He has a bruise on his face the size of a quarter," he replies, and I stay over by the dishes awkwardly, listening to what they are saying. "He said he was moving a picture on the wall and it fell a little and hit him in the face. I thought the bruise would've been bigger if a picture frame fell on his face." I put the last dish away.

"Good night, guys," I say quietly, leaving the kitchen, almost in a hurry. I go upstairs to my room and shut the door, pulling my phone out of my pocket.

I sprawl across my bed in a weird way and text Jason and Haley for about an hour.

The whole entire time Haley was talking about all her favorite bands and youtubers, and Jason kept talking about himself and asking questions about me. I answered a few of them, but some of them I didn't.

At ten o'clock, I finally shut my light off and try to get some sleep. A few minutes later, my door opens slowly and I see, standing in the doorway, none other than Thomas. I lower my eyebrows and squint through the dark at him.

"Thomas, why aren't you in bed?" I ask groggily.

"I can't sleep," he mumbles, rubbing his eyes. "Can I sleep in here?"

"Yeah, sure," I say, without hesitating. He shuts the door and I hear him walk across the room and lay next to me. I wrap my arm around him and pull him against my chest, so we are pretty much spooning.

Much to my surprise, I find myself falling asleep much quicker when I'm cuddling with someone else.