Jack's POV
After a night of one too many shots I wake up with a brutal hangover, covered in my own drool and hanging off the end of my bed. My routine for curing a hangover was simple: fresh air, coffee and breakfast, and I could achieve all three with a quick walk to Alex's house. I chuckled a little at my thoughts, but the movement disagreed with my ill state and I grabbed my head in pain and groaned. "No evil laughing..." I whisper to myself.

Throwing on last night's shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants, I made my way over to Alex's. Alex would probably be awake by now, watching the news; writing a song; sketching; reading –typical granddad things. In fact, I imagined Alex would be anticipating my arrival, this had slowly became a regular thing for me. I'd show up, he'd make me food like a good wife and I'd introduce him to some actually good television.

When I'd made it to his door and tried the handle, I was a little confused. The place was locked, which either meant he was still asleep or he wasn't expecting me; both of those hurt my feelings. Luckily, I had my own key made a while back 'in case of emergencies', but up to now it had been strictly used for fridge raids and when but bro, all my clothes are dirty doesn't work and I have to take matters into my own hands.

I shut the door behind me, whistling a little tune. It didn't smell like pancakes – my worst nightmare. I walk into the front room and I'm faced with an image of Alex and Olivia sleeping on a couch together; her head and hand on his chest, his arms around her, a blanket pulled up covering the two of them. I had totally forgotten Olivia was staying here, but even if I had remembered, this wasn't what I was expecting to see.

"Alex, what the fuck?" I say loud enough, knowing what a light sleeper he is, and exactly as I suspected his eyes snap open before locking onto me and widening. He quickly slips out from below Olivia, causing her to stir, and gets to his feet.

"What are you doing here?!" he exclaims accusingly. I just look at him knowingly, my eyes whispering 'what are you doing here?'. Olivia begins rubbing her eyes, she grumbles sleepily before opening them. She notices me and grabs the blanket, covering herself, despite the fact she's fully clothed. I narrow my eyes, they're both acting so suspicious, I figure I must have walked in on something not so innocent after-all.

"I'm here for breakfast," I explain like it should be obvious. Alex rubs at his face; stressed and agitated with me – the usual. There's a few beats of silence before I finally turn to Olivia, "hey, by the way," I greet, smiling and she laughs lightly.

"Hey," she responds, amused by the awkward tension now filling the room.

"So..." I drag out the vowel sound before turning to Alex, "about breakfast..."

"Fuck you," Alex mutters under his breath before storming into the kitchen.

I laugh, "thanks babe," I yell after him before making my way over to sit beside Olivia. She's now huddled into a corner of the couch, hugging her legs to her chest with the blanket still draped over her. I pull her into a side hug and ask how she is, reaching for the remote and throwing my legs up onto the coffee table; flipping through channels and making myself at home – again, the usual.

"I'm fine, thanks," she chirps back, rubbing her eyes some more and letting out a small yawn, "how are you?" she speaks, the yawn distorting her voice and making me laugh a little.

I land on an episode of Catfish I've seen a million times and gasp loudly, startling the half asleep woman beside me, "I fucking love this one," I say to myself before turning to her and laughing at her reaction to me, she joins the laughter, "I'm good, thanks," I respond to her question, "So, how was your first night's stay at Hotel Gaskarth?" I ask with a knowing smirk, turning back to the TV.

Olivia reaches over and shoves me weakly in the shoulder, laughing as she catches my teasing tone, "Shut up," she responds like a blushing teenager. I turn to look at her and notice her cheeks actually are a slightly brighter shade of pink, I laugh some more, "Seriously," she continues, "Nothing happened, we just fell asleep," she defends, looking more and more embarrassed by the second.

CEO of Hotel Gaskarth then makes an appearance, carrying two cups of coffee, "Yeah, we just fell asleep," he repeats absent-mindedly as he placed the mugs in front of us on the excellent footrest of a coffee table. He took a quick glance at the TV and rolled his eyes animatedly, "Get this shit off," he grumbled before making his way out of the room.

"You know you love this show!" I yell after him, throwing my head back to face the now empty doorway, "Just accept that you don't only watch the news!" I continued in my mock-rage; Olivia giggling beside me. It was so nostalgic to hear that laugh. She really was like my partner in crime, back in the day. Actually, she was more like my number 1 fan, always laughing no matter how bad my joke was. I knew sometimes it was only to make me feel better and fill the awkward silence, but I appreciated it nevertheless.

"He only watches the news?" she playfully scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yeah," I confirmed, my tone showing how ridiculous I found it, "He's a total granddad, he'll sit there and watch, nodding along and umm and ahh like he has any clue what's going on," I laughed with her.

"What a loser," she says sarcastically. We did a lot of bagging on Alex back in the day, too. It was one of my favourite activities. We'd mock him and call him lame and it always took him like 30 minutes to catch on that we were joking, so he'd just sit and embarrassingly defend himself. Now, of course, I know that the whole time Olivia was being my sidekick, she was also banging our villain, so that kind of sucked all the fun out of those memories, but whatever, she was a good actress, I guess.

"Ha-ha-ha, I'm such a loser, educating myself about the world, so lame," Alex muttered sarcastically, falling for our game 4 years later. Olivia and I burst into laughter as Alex hands us each a plate of pancakes, "What?" he questions, his brow furrowing.

"You're so easy, man," I chuckle, before immediately stuffing my face with pancakes.

"Whatever," Alex mutters, realising his mistake and how dumb he looked, and retreating back to the kitchen to get himself a plate. He takes a seat on the opposite couch when he returned and I chuckle in my head, imagining how mad Alex is that I totally cock-blocked him. "Why are we watching this?" he questions, an exasperated tone, "Seriously, Liv, he puts this shit on every time he comes over," he says, now speaking to Olivia, trying to shame me. He should know by now I have zero shame.

"Dude, this show is great," Olivia speaks up in between bites of pancake, "Maybe you should relax, granddad," she mocks him and I laugh loudly, giving her a sneaky fist-bump.

"This is honestly like being back in 10th grade," Alex grumbles, noticing our sly gesture, "Assholes," he mutters jokingly and we all laugh and continue to enjoy the show; as much as you can with me dropping hints the whole time about how it ends.

Once I'm finished eating and the show's over, I begin flipping through channels again –which Alex hates. I hear him groan as he stands and piles up our dishes to take them through to the kitchen. I take no notice whilst Olivia thanks him.

"Let me do the dishes," she says quickly after, pulling the blanket off of herself and getting to her feet.

"Nah, don't worry about it," Alex assures her and I notice him flash her a cheeky smile; a smile he's I haven't seen in a while, "It would be nice if my other house guest would offer now and again, though," he jokes – or possibly not – referring to me.

Without taking my eyes off of the screen I respond, "Your tone is very pointed right now and honestly, I'm gonna need you to take your negativity elsewhere, thank you," my face and voice completely void of any emotion. Alex just laughs at me and continues on his way to the kitchen, Olivia following him; still protesting that she do the dishes.

Olivia's POV
I follow after Alex in an attempt to persuade him to let me do the dishes; it was, after-all, the least I could do for him after he had let me into his home and cooked for me – us. But also, I kind of wanted to be alone with him, not necessarily to talk about last night, but if it were to come up I wouldn't be mad. I did want to talk about it, mainly thank him for his advice, for his comforting me – I had really needed that.

"Seriously," he chuckles, placing the dishes into the sink and starting up the hot water, he turns to look at me, leaning on the counter, "I don't need any help," he smiles. His smile was exactly as I had remembered, always so genuine and sweet; always meeting his eyes and lighting them up; making his deep, brown eyes seem softer and clearer.

"Just let me do something," I plead, shooting him a look. He had already denied all my constant offerings of money, I at least wanted to help him out around the house to show my thanks.

"Okay," he gave in and I perked up with excitement, happy to help, "You can go steal the remote from Jack," he joked, turning back to the dishes whilst I tsked at his misleading me.

"Let me just do it!" I exclaimed, playfully hip bumping him out of the way to allow myself access to the sink, laughing. He fake gasped at my actions, bending a little to wrap his arms around my waist from behind and lift me up, planting me back down away from the sink before running back to his station. I took a different approach this time, coming at him in a tackle position, banging into his side hard and barely moving him from his place; the whole time we're laughing uncontrollably. I attempt it again, this time with my back to him, trying with all my might to push him to the side, my feet slipping on the wood flooring. His feet are planted pretty firmly and he barely moves an inch, one hand lightly on my hip to ensure I don't topple over in my efforts.

"You've got no chance," he taunts me, chuckling as I make loud, over-exaggerated groaning sounds to showcase my enormous efforts, although it was probably just stroking Alex's ego.

Upon hearing all the commotion, Jack steps into the room slowly, his eyes narrowed; suspicious. "What're you guys doing?" he questions, looking at us like we're crazy.

"He won't let me do the dishes," I explain, a grin on my face, my back still pressed up against Alex's side. Once I actually said the words out loud I realised just how dumb it sounded.

Jack opened his mouth as if to say something, his face contorting to show confusion, but he shook his head and his original thoughts away, "You couples can argue about anything," he mumbled, rolling his eyes and making his way over to rummage through the fridge.

Instantly I remove myself from Alex's side and take a step away, Alex coughs and composes himself, going back to the dishes. Clearly the c word had alarmed both of us. I felt like we were back in high school, hiding our relationship; we'd flinch at any slight implication that we were more than friends, even if it was clearly a joke. "What?" Alex questioned, furrowing his brow as if he had no idea what Jack was talking about, his gaze down at the dishes as he began scrubbing one.

"What?" Jack repeated, seemingly oblivious to what Alex was confused by. He had a big pile of sandwich ingredients cradled in his arms as he made his way to a counter to assemble his snack.

"You said-" Alex began and I gulped – preparing for the awkwardness – but Alex just shook his head and stopped himself, most likely realising that defending our behaviour would make it seem more suspicious, "Stop eating all my food! I just made you breakfast!" Alex yelled, catching a glimpse of Jack's pile before turning back to his job.

During this little dispute I managed to slip out of the room; the dishes no longer important to me. I heard Jack yelling back about how Alex never makes enough pancakes and he's always still hungry, as I made my way upstairs to go get dressed – glad to be avoiding the real domestic. I wasn't planning on going anywhere today so I threw on a cute, baggy shirt, a pair of grey yoga pants and my favourite pink, fluffy slippers; thankful to be out of yesterday's uncomfortable clothes – no idea how I'd fell asleep in jeans, but apparently it was becoming a common occurrence for me.

I took a brief moment to just sit on my bed; just me and my thoughts. I couldn't, or wouldn't, put my finger on exactly why, but I was happy – genuinely happy. I was smiling and I was laughing and I was enjoying myself, despite not actually doing anything. I knew it wouldn't last, I knew I had shit to deal with and things to decide, but I didn't want to think about those right now. I was having a nice time and enjoying the company of old friends.

My train of thought was moving a million miles a second – almost as fast as my heart rate – and all that kept coming to the forefront was Alex. I really did not want to admit Alex was the reason I was so happy, but that was the truth of it. He'd turned this whole trip around for me, and to think I may not have even bumped into him if I hadn't remembered where that old coffee shop was. I felt myself getting a little emotional thinking about it; thinking about all we'd been through together and all that we'd been through not together – it was a little overwhelming.

Our conversation the night before had been helpful, yet had confused me further. I still had absolutely no clue what decision to make; I knew what I wanted to do and I knew what I should do, but sadly those were two separate things. I didn't want to move to New York, at all. However, if I didn't go, that would pretty much seal Derek and I's fate; we'd most likely never have the time to see each other and inevitably break up and things would be messy.

If I did go, I would be unhappy, but it would mean a future for Derek and I – which was both good and bad. Currently, living separately from Derek, was the most stable I could feel, because I know that, if anything were to happen between us, I still have my place; I still have my family; I still have my job. If I were to move to New York with Derek, I was basically marrying him; I was moving in with him; I was doing his laundry, or dealing with his mom coming over to do it everyday; I was cooking his breakfast, lunch and dinner; I was watching all of those political debates with him; I was basically trapping myself into a constant cycle and that would be my life.

Choosing New York was choosing marriage; choosing that life. Sure, choosing engagement is also like choosing marriage, but in my current situation I can leave at any moment and still have my own life. In New York my life would be ours, I wouldn't have my own home to go to, I wouldn't have my family or friends to go see, I wouldn't even have my job to distract myself with. Choosing New York was choosing Derek over everything I love. And I wasn't sure I could do that. I wasn't sure my love for Derek outweighed my love for everything else.

"OW!" I hear Jack yell from the kitchen, followed by a loud thump, the high-pitched shriek rips through my thoughts and pulls me straight back to reality, where two man-children were most likely fighting downstairs over a sandwich. I laugh before making my way down to see what all the noise is about.

Alex's POV
Whilst Olivia's out of the room I take my opportunity to cuss Jack out for his intruding, "Dude, why are you here?" I snarl through my teeth, quietly, in case Olivia can still hear us. I'm actually a little more mad about Jack's arrival than I'd like to admit, although I think he'd gathered that anyway. I don't know why I was so mad, it's not like he was intruding on anything. It really was just nothing and it wouldn't have became anything regardless of whether he was here or not. Although, I did wish he would start paying towards my grocery shopping.

Jack chuckles at my tone, very aware of what he's doing, "Chill out, I forgot she was staying here," he began, "and I also forgot you were fucking," he says sarcastically, whisper-yelling the last part, pulling me a judging look.

"We're not fucking," I spit, my teeth gritted.

"Yeah, not now, but by the looks of things, you're getting there," Jack hissed back, matching my pissed tone. I don't know when Jack became so sensible, but apparently he had chose to start fairly recently – more accurately; today.

"We're not gonna do anything!" I exclaim, my voice still hushed, "We just fell asleep!" I continue to defend myself. Part of me wished it had been more than that, not that I'd admit it, but that was the truth of it; we just fell asleep.

"Yeah? And what about all the playful fighting shit?" Jack accuses and I narrow my eyes at him. Honestly, I didn't know what that was either, but it felt natural; it felt like how we used to be. Granted, we were both teenagers back than, but still, it felt nice.

"Look," I say sternly, grabbing his attention. He turns to face me, his arms folded across his chest expectantly, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Nothing's going to happen, we're friends, that's it," I meet his eyes and notice he still looks doubtful, "Seriously," I say, like I'm begging for him to believe me.

"I don't know, man," Jack shakes his head, turning back to making his sandwich. I notice he has out both mustard and BBQ sauce and inaudibly gag to myself. "It seems to me like you both still have a lot of chemistry, you can't help that," Jack says, more calm now, almost like he wasn't actually angry to begin with. My heart starts pumping faster at his words. All it is is his opinion, it isn't relevant – or even true, and yet I start sweating at the thought that others can tell Olivia and I have a connection. It's pathetic, honestly.

"But, she's engaged bro, I just don't want you to get hurt," he continues and I nod, realising that's why he was mad, he just doesn't want me in a situation which could get messy, "However..." he trails off, his voice suddenly suggestive, "You know ya boy has no feelings, maybe I could take a stab at her," he glances at me and wiggles his eyebrows, smirking, and then throws me a wink, obviously teasing me.

Instinctively I grab the bottle of ketchup he also has in front of him – more ew – and throw it at him. It bounces off his bicep and hits the ground, luckily not spilling anywhere. "OW!" he exclaims and we immediately hear Olivia's footsteps coming down the stairs. I rush and pick the bottle up from the ground and hand it to Jack. "So you do wanna fuck her," Jack whisper-snarls into my ear, referring to my blatant jealousy, just as Olivia pops into the room again, leaving me no time to throw another condiment at my annoyance of a best friend.

"What was that noise?" Olivia chuckles, looking around the room before her eyes land on mine, I smile without thinking; her eyes on mine just provoke that response.

"Uhhh, nothing," Jack mutters, rubbing at his bicep whilst shooting me a glare, "Just a kitchen mishap," he grumbles, rolling his eyes.

Olivia laughs awkwardly, narrowing her eyes, clearly not understanding the situation, "Okay, whatever, ya weirdos," she chirps before spinning on her slippered heel and leaving, her hips swaying – something I'd never noticed until right now. The yoga pants she was wearing hugged her figure perfectly, showing all of her amazing curves. Immediately, I raised my hand to my face, squishing it in frustration at the sight as it leaves my vision.

"How are you possibly going to-" Jack begins, his eyes glued to the same spot mine are, and I know exactly how that question ends; how am I possibly going to make it out of this alive?

"I have no idea," I cut him off, dead-pan, still staring in awe at the spot she was just stood in.

"You're fucked!" Jack exclaimed, laughing loudly as he turned back to his mistake of a sandwich. I shook my head in what was almost disbelief. He was right, I was fucked.

Notes

i made this chapter a little longer, like one of the recent ones, just so the story moves at a more steady pace, so if you don't like them this long, or you want them longer, or whatever, let me know, but i think this is a good length :)

- emily x