When Alex asked me to go grab food for everyone, I thought nothing of it. I needed some more time to think anyway. I was totally avoiding Jack today, I know I was, and I needed to quit. So when Alex asked me an awkward question, I knew I wasn't doing a very good job of hiding how I was feeling. Like usual. I hate being an open book.

“Is everything okay with you and Jack?” He had asked.
“Yeah, why?” I answered defensively.
“Come on, I know you better than that.” He said, getting out of the car as we walked to the Chinese place we were getting food from. “You have been awkward and avoidant with him.”
“Advoidant is not a word.” I mumbled.
“Come on, talk to me. I'm your best friend.” Alex whined, making people in line look at us.
“Ugh, fine.” I sighed. “I just... started having these weird flashbacks yesterday while Jack and I were....doing stuff.” I blushed. “And it reminded me of something that happened when Jack was off his meds and I tried to just forget about it all. Which worked until I fell asleep. I had nightmares about..”
“Jack.”
“It wasn't Jack.” I insisted. “It speaks like it's a whole different person in my dreams.”
“What does it say?”
“That it will come back one day.” I mumbled.
“You know that's not going to happen right?”
“Yeah,” I rubbed my arm as we came up to the order register. “It's just...there's a lot of things you guys don't know about that time.”

Alex gave me a weird look, and ordered all our food. I stayed quiet when he tried getting me to elaborate, not wanting it to just get worse. He insisted that talking about it might help instead of do bad, but I still refused. Doing something similar to what had happened caused a negative reaction. I don't want to purposely bring up bad memories and have it get worse.

“Maybe you should talk to Jack.” Alex said out of the blue on our way back.
“He's noticed something, hasn't he?” I countered, and Alex bit his lip.
“Well...uh, yeah. He did.”
“What?”
“Apparently you talk in your sleep.”
“Fuck.” I groaned. “He probably knows he's kind of the star of my nightmares.”
“It's really weird that you think of this nightmare as a whole different person.”
“Because it is.” I insisted. “The person in my dreams is not that Jack I care about.”
“You're confusing me.”
“It's hard to explain.” I sighed.

We pulled up the apartment building and I grabbed half the bags we had.

“If it gets any worse I'll talk to him, okay?” I promised and Alex nodded.
“You better.” He said. “And I'm always around to listen too.”
“I know.”
“And quit avoiding him, you know it hurts his feelings.” Alex scolded.

We both brought in the food, and since the table wasn't set up yet, we all decided to eat on the floor in a circle. I put Bailey in the bedroom so she didn't try to beg and snatch food from anyone. As I walked down, I noticed my containers in front of space between Jack and Alex. I, however, had a better idea.

“Is this seat taken?” I teased, pointing at Jack's lap.
“Nope, reserved for you and you alone.” He chuckled, pulling me down into.
“Hey, I wanted to sit there!” Alex complained, so Jack threw some food at him.
“Shut up, loser.”
“Don't ruin my floor!” I scolded when Alex threw food back.
“And it begins, have fun with the married life, Jack.” Zack teased.
“You say that like it's a bad thing.” I half-glared at him.
“He's jealous. Calm down.” Jack chuckled laying his head on my shouler.
“So, when's the wedding anyway?” Rian asked, mouth full of rice.
“Umm, we don't know yet.” I said, looking at Jack.
“How creepy would it be if you got hitched on the same day as your parents? Since it was the day you two met.” Alex said.
“I swear, you're the only one who brings up that we're technically step-siblings all the damn time.” I said with an eye roll.
“Someone needs to make fun of you for it.”
“Can we ban him from our place?” Jack asked, making Alex scoff.
“How dare you!”

The rest of lunch went on like that, barreling through different subjects with a joke here and there. Once we got everything cleaned up, I dragged Jack to our room to ask him if it looked okay and let Bailey out. We had a lot of furniture to put together and it took the rest of the day to do so. As the guys figured that out, I unpacked small appliances, more kitchenware, and decorative items. The guys made of game of guessing who picked out what between me and Jack. The knew the t.v. was his idea, the living-room furniture was mine. Good thing Jack and I like the same colors, so there wasn't much of a fight about anything.

Once everything was done, it was about nine at night and the guys left about twenty minutes ago. Jack and I were laying on the couch, stomach to stomach watching something on our spiffy television. Bailey was laying on the floor in front of us, unable to hop on the couch quite yet.

“Today was eventful.” I murmured as the show went to commercial.
“It was.” Jack agreed, leaning up to give me a kiss, which I gladly returned. “Rian's right you know, we should figure out a date.”
“We're going to need a lot of time to do everything. And we should tell Joyce.”
“You mean our parents.” Jack corrected.
“I am not inviting my dad.” I frowned.
“Come on, you're not going to let my mom go dateless, are you?”
“If I tell him, he's going to want to be in it.” I pointed out. Jack sighed.
“I know, but you can say no ya'know.”
“I guess.”
“Come on, my mom will be ecstatic at least. And she always cries at weddings.”
“How dare you like your mom's tears!” I laughed, playfully hitting him.

Jack growled and pushed us forward, probably just trying to switch the position we were in but I fell off the couch, hitting my head. Jack jumped up looking down at me concerned, but for a second, there was a different face in my mind. The one with the low voice full of hatred and dark eyes. I flinched back from Jack, scooting backwards with a yelp.

“Ember?” He questioned, and I realized what I just did. Laughing weakly, I rubbed my head.
“Oops?” I said. “Sorry, I was just...shocked from the fall.”
“Oh..” He said, looking like he didn't believe me.
“Yeah, help me up? I think it's time for bed.”
“Okay.”

Jack lifted me off the ground and we went up to the room together. I prayed to some deity that I wouldn't have any nightmares tonight as I got changed. I helped Bailey into the bed, despite Jack saying she had her own. I stuck my tongue out at him and got under the covers cuddling into his arms.

Notes

Ember, you need to speak up gurl.