Brynn was still facing the toilet door she had just closed, her hand quivering over the handle. Maybe if she just keeps staring at the door, he'll think she's someone else.

"Brynn, I know what my own sister looks like."

You can't say she didn't try. Inwardly sighing and unscrunching her eyes, she slowly retracted her hand. Turning around, she faced her older brother who had his hands behind his back and his face neutral. "Hey Zaiden."

"Why are you not in class?" he dismissed the greeting, causing Brynn to feel a hurt twinge in the pit of her stomach. Instead of reacting like she was hurt, she brought her hands behind her back and played with her fingers, much like her brother was.

"I needed the toilet," she answered because obviously that's why she was in there.

They looked at each other for a little longer, before Zaiden spoke, "well go on then." He signalled his head towards where he knew most of her classes were, which were, thankfully, all the opposite way of where he knew a battered and bloody Sid was.

"Right," Brynn agreed still not looking away. After a few seconds, Zaiden cleared his throat and rose his eyebrows which snapped her back to where she was.

She hurried to where he had signalled. Just as she got to a corner, she turned to look at him again, only to look away flushed and embarrassed when she saw he was already looking at her with an undetected look on his features.

Once she was entirely out of sight, Zaiden unpuffed his chest out and brought his hands in front of him. Now the blood had smeared over the entirety of his hand from rubbing them together too much.

Sighing, he opened the door to the men's restroom and checked that he was alone. Once he deduced that he was in fact alone he began washing his bloody hands in the sink, turning the clear water pink.

He dried his hands with the paper towels provided then made his way out. However, just two steps out of the restroom, he was pushed back into it again by two large hands on his shoulders.

Zaiden was about to punch back, until the closing door he just got pushed through was kicked open and a new figure entered. Silas.

"Why in fucks name is Sid half dead in the hallway?" he seethed at his brother.

"I can explain that," Zaiden tried to reason. Silas crossed his arms over his chest and scoffed.

"Explain then."

Zaiden paused for a few seconds whilst Silas waited for his oh-so excellent excuse. Zaiden took a deep breath in and looked like he was trying to think about it. The excuse that the boy managed to muster up was-

"It was well deserved."

Silas thinned his lips out and dead-panned his face into an unimpressed look, before pushing Zaiden back a few steps by his shoulders once again. "Fucking idiot."

"He deserved-"

"I'm not saying he didn't, Zai!" Silas retaliated, whisper-yelling. "But that doesn't mean you can just nearly end his life in the middle of the school hallway!"

"I don't know it seemed like a pretty good reason-"

"Think before you do things, Zaiden!" Silas got louder, using his right finger to point at his head to get his point across.

"E se ti dicessi che stava infastidendo Brynn?" Zaiden hissed back, getting in Silas face which had now dropped. Zaiden stepped forward to get even closer, spitting out his words, "nostra sorella?"

Silas didn't care about his brother getting all up in his face, he had something more sinister on his mind.

His dead eyes that were connected to his straight face made contact with his younger brother's own raging ones.

"Oh."

Zaiden huffed.

"Yeah. Oh."

---

"Brynn, how in gods name do you walk so fast?" Aubrey panted, trailing after her friend. She held the back of Brynn's backpack just to stay with her as the latter made her way through the crowd and to the front entrance doors.

When the two made it outside Brynn finally turned around, causing Aubrey to stumble forward a bit still holding onto her bag. "Sorry, didn't want to keep Brayden waiting."

"It's fine," Aubrey tried to shape herself up before remembering one of the main reasons she had latched herself onto Brynn. "Oh and the sleepover is this weekend by the way. If you can't make it that's fine, we can have another one.

Brynn thought about it. Maybe she could actually muster up the courage to ask this time.

She began nodding trying to convince herself, "yeah I'll ask my brothers tonight." Now she had just added pressure on herself to do it. She set a deadline which meant that if she didn't do as said, then she was a terrible friend. That's how logic works, right?

"Great," Aubrey grinned, something behind Brynn catching her eye. Brynn furrowed her eyebrows and looked back to see Brayden's parked grey mercedes. Brayden, himself, was leaning coolly against the vehicle with his arms crossed and shaded sunglasses on, face neutral.

Aubrey gulped, "I'll text you later, Brynn okay?" Already half-way down the steps, she gave Brynn a wave and nervously jogged to catch the school bus with the other students.

Brynn, herself, was thinking about how she could approach her older brother. Pretend that she never even called? Pretend that this was just regular? Apologise for interrupting his day where he was probably very busy with work?

She started walking down the concrete steps at the same time Brayden pushed himself off the car.

A huge amount of relief flooded through her when Brayden's frowning lips upturned, showing his pearly whites. His arms opened as they got closer to each other until eventually his left one closed around the smaller's shoulders, leading her to the passenger's side of the car.

She went to open the door, stopping when Brayden's hand caught ahold of the handle before her. He opened it without a word, allowing her to get in and shutting the door behind her. Brynn was starting to get nervous since he hadn't said anything; unsure whether or not he was only grinning outside because people were watching. In fact, they still were watching even as they sat in the car.

Brayden opened the door to his side, and got in, taking his shades off and slipping them into his side pocket. He turned to face Brynn and grinned wider, "so. Seaset Cafe?"

Brynn didn't know what to say, she didn't even know where or what that was. She hasn't properly lived here.

Brayden looked at her conflicted expression before his grin faltered and his face looked a little pained. He looked ahead in front of the car then dropped his head down and mumbled, "right."

He looked back up, trying to make his face less downtrodden. "It's your favourite, I promise," he insisted, "greatest ice-cream England has to offer."

Brynn nodded and tried her best to look excited because clearly this place meant a lot to Brayden and clearly she must've been taken there by him at some point in her not-conscious life.

Brayden caught on to her try-hard excitement and softened to himself, lifting a hand to rest on the side of her face in a playful manner. He stroked his thumb over the hair that rested on the side of her face, frizzing it up and getting it in the way of her eyes.

The man chuckled when she frowned and leaned forward, as much as the seat belt would allow her, to get away from his large hand.

He took away his hand and placed it on the steering wheel, "let's go then."

Once Brynn concluded that Brayden's hand was now at a fair distance away, she sat back into the leather seat. Meanwhile, Brayden reversed out and began his drive to the seaside, to the cafe that they would take Brynn to an endless amount of times.

As known, Brynn did not cope well in silence. Brynn was awkward in silence. Whether it was uncomfortable or not.

"How was your day?" Despite the default question most people ask when in unbearable silence, Brynn actually wanted to know. Like she usually did when she asked one of her brothers this. If there was one thing she could listen to forever, it would be one of her brothers' rambling. It was a complete change to how other people saw them.

Brayden, however, was waiting for this question. He smiled, "it was good. Work was boring, so thank you very much for getting me out of it." He subtly looked to his side to see her reaction. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was mad at herself for calling him when he was working. But the thing was, Brayden did not care.

But he knew Brynn would. So when asked why he was picking her up, his only suitable response was: "Silas is too busy to drive them all after school."

Brynn still wasn't convinced. She looked down at her fingers on her lap, twiddling them nervously. "You didn't," she paused moving her eyes to look up, not her head, "tell anyone. Did you?"

Brayden felt his chest hurt, "no, I didn't. I promise you, Brynn."

He didn't. But he had no doubt that Zayne found out anyway.

He looked at her and then back to the road, and then back to her again. A frustrated frown etched itself onto his face at his sisters doubting.

Bringing two fingers to her chin, he brought her face up to look at him properly, whilst simultaneously keeping an eye on the road.

"Brynn, you calling me was the best thing you could have done, okay? I'm so proud of you for doing it," he emphasised his words, by shaking his fingers a little.

Brynn stared at him expressionlessly, before nodding a bit dejectedly, rules regardless.

Inwardly sighing and deflating, Brayden sat back into his seat sadly and focused on the road, but he'd be damned if he was going to let his sister feel anything less than god.

He pulled up outside Seaset Cafe. Not waiting for him to speak, Brynn let herself out and took a look at where they were. The car was parked in a high up parking lot that had a stunning view of the sea and a beach.

You could practically taste the cool air as the sun formed into a beautiful, tangy orange colour, setting just half way on the sealine.

Brayden leaned against the driver door and watched his sister at the hood of the car. With her left hand on the hood of the car, she looked quite content just staring at the beaming sunset. He felt awful having to ruin the moment. "Brynn?"

She turned, understanding, and got a good look at the cafe to the right of them. It had a beautiful 70s design to it and right smack in the centre on top of the glass entrance doors read, "Seaset Cafe". There were little heart seats laid out in front of the building with matching tables and above them were pink and white striped hooded banners. On the left side of the banners read, "The Greatest Ice-Cream England Has To Offer" and on the right side read, "Since 1973".

Upon entering, the inside was much like the outside; pink, seventies design and looked much like a diner. It was rather empty too, apart from a couple feeding each other ice cream and someone in one of the booths reading a paper. Except instead of a regular service counter, there was a long row of ice-cream selections.

The two walked up to it and Brayden looked down at her, "flavour, sorellina?"

Brynn pretended to think about it knowing that she would choose her favourite anyway. She opened her mouth but Brayden answered for her, in turn answering his own question.

"Vanilla."

Brynn closed her mouth, not sure if she liked how well he knew her.

Instead she smiled guiltily and Brayden kept his eyes on the ice creams, "yep still the same as always." He smiled down at his sister, "go choose a seat for us please, hun? I'll bring them over."

Brynn did as told, going over to the pink booths and shuffling into one side to get closer to the wide windows. The sunset still looked at marvellous as it did outside.

Not even a minute later, Brayden came with two ice-cream pots- one madagascan vanilla and the other mint chocolate chip. He placed Brynn's vanilla in front of her and placed the mint choc chip on the other side and sat opposite her.

Once he'd settled into his seat, he took two plastic spoons- one green and one purple- and placed the purple one in his own then took the green one and plonked it right into Brynn's ice-cream, making it stand right up.

His hopeless attempt at making Brynn laugh succeeded as he smiled when his sister chuffed a laugh.

Brynn took a look at Brayden's choice of ice-cream and tried to refrain a smile to herself. Brayden noticed. He looked down at his ice-cream and looked back up at Brynn, "what? Something amusing, sorellina?"

Brynn had to refrain the smile more and took the green spoon, scooping some ice-cream on it half-heartedly. "Nothing," she let herself smile, "you just seem like the type to like mint chocolate chip ice-cream."

Brayden mocked a look of offended, "and what type of a person would that be?"

"A smart doctor person," she responded, not filtering her words before they came out.

Brayden let out a bellied laugh and scooped some ice-cream on his spoon, "fair enough."

The two ate in relative silence, Brynn not minding it this time because she was preoccupied with her ice-cream.

Brayden swallowed down his mouthful and started the conversation Brynn dreaded they'd have. "Do you want to talk about what happened?"

No, Brynn wanted to answer. Please just throw me off this cliff side and leave it at that.

Brynn shrugged, shoving some ice-cream into her mouth. "That's not an answer, sweetheart."

She looked up, flushing. Then she gulped down the cool dessert. "I didn't mean for it to happen," she answered as if that was all the explanation Brayden needed.

Brayden nodded. "No one means for a panic attack to happen, my lovely," he stated sympathetically. Brynn blushed and looked back down at her ice-cream.

"I don't know," she sighed lightly, "I just thought I could control it this time."

"This time?"

Shit.

"It only happened once before, it was at lunch time. I've spoken to Derek about it," she added the last part on to help any questions that she could see were swirling around inside Brayden's head.

"And he told you to call me or him if it happened again?"

"Yeah," it only came out as a whisper as she took another spoonful. Brayden nodded and tried to process this.

"Can I ask what triggered it?" he asked carefully. Brynn took a shaky breath and decided that it was okay. It was Brayden, after all.

"I didn't," she stopped, "uhm," she really couldn't get it out with her eyes welling up in salty tears, "I didn't do so well in my maths booklet."

Brayden's softened, "were you disappointed in yourself?" She nodded. "Were you afraid that we would be disappointed?" She nodded again, faster this time.

Brayden softened harder, "Brynn, I can't believe I have to tell you this, but nothing you could do would ever make us disappointed in you."

"I got twenty one out of eighty, Brayden."

"I don't care, Brynn. Because I know that you tried. And I am proud of you for trying."

"Zayne wouldn't be."

Brayden was taken back, his eyebrows raised, his mouth slightly agape and his eyes wide. Leaning back in his seat, he lifted his ice-cream tub up and moved the remaining ice-cream around with a spoon.

"You know," he started scooping some up and pointed it at Brynn, "for someone so intelligent, you really don't know much do you?" He ate the ice-cream from the spoon.

Brynn was confused, "what do you mean?"

The man shook his head and still stayed focused on his ice-cream. "You could have gotten zero out of eighty on that test and we would not love you any less or be any less proud of you."

The youngest Verlice listened intently and felt her heart stutter. "A grade will never define you, my love. Nevermind a maths one," he spit out maths in an over-exaggerated manner, making the girl snort. "And it sounds to me like Ms. Gren is still a petty bitch." Brynn's eyes widened as Brayden held a finger to his lips.

Brynn chose this moment to state, "Silas helped me with some of it. I got full marks on that part." Brayden looked slightly shocked, "Silas?" Brynn nodded; he smirked into his ice-cream humming comprehending this information.

He placed his finished ice-cream tub on the table. "So forget about maths, okay?" he continued with the subject. "And if you ever need any help, you know exactly where to find all of us." Brynn pretended to listen to the last part, no way would she ever call one of them to come help her with something as mediocre as her maths homework.

"And besides," Brayden interrupted her fake listening skills, "we have a right English scholar on our hands, don't we?" he smirked towards her causing Brynn to turn red; she did like English.

After a few more seconds and another mouthful for Brynn, Brayden turned serious, "that was the only thing bothering you? Right?"

Brynn's froze and her eyes focused on the table in front of her as her memories briefly flashed back to Malcolm and his bragging and his constant taunting words.

Eventually she shook her head, shovelling more ice-cream into her mouth to stop her from blurting out anything stupid.

Brayden narrowed his eyes as his face dropped, his aura no longer friendly and approachable. "Are you sure, sorellina?"

Said sister made eye contact with him, well she called it eye contact. A normal person would call it "focusing on the person a few booths overs' newspaper".

Brayden's figure blurred entirely as she focused on the large black and white printed newspaper. The person holding it was completely covered by it, but the hands holding either side of the paper were covered in dark black leather gloves.

Suddenly, the person lowered the paper, it now revealing their face from the nose up. The man behind had buzzed hair and auburn eyes which wouldn't leave her own. Wasn't this the man who called her name when she was with Mika-

Brayden furrowed his face at his sister's odd look. Whipping around to see what was so interesting, he felt his entire face pale.

Said man caught Brayden's seething eyes and paled himself, bringing the newspaper back up over his face and tightening his grip.

Brayden's hand flashed to his jeans pocket and he brought out his wallet. He brought out a fifty pound note for a tip and slammed it on the table; he shot up, shoving the wallet into his back pocket.

"We're leaving," he muttered to a stunned Brynn. He reached over to grab Brynn's upper arm as softly as he could and lifted her out of her seat, dragging her to the door. He made sure to keep her in front of him the whole time, like a shield or barrier- whatever you wanted to call it. It was the most protective stance he could muster right now.

Brynn was confused the entire time. From when Brayden shot up, to when he hushed her into the car and slammed the car door after her.

Brayden leaned against the door he'd just slammed and shut his eyes in frustration. Fishing into his pocket he called Zayne.

"Brayden, what's-"

"Sort it. Zayne."

---

Ezra Verlice sat in his office at the studio, mindlessly scrolling through his emails and marking them as all as read.

A knock on his door brought him out of his bored state. He rubbed his eyes with his hand, trying to seem more awake, "come in."

A trainer that works there, Manuel, entered, swinging a towel over his bare shoulder and only in his training shorts. Ezra closed his laptop, "hey Man, what's up?"

"Hey, bro just wanted to tell you that that clown came back."

Ezra furrowed his eyebrows and frowned, "what? Didn't we get a restraining order against that nutter?"

The clown, who was known as Ryland Samueles, was a frequent pest for Ezra in the past. He was a seventeen year old kid who did crack and wore a clown costume to scare people, getting some odd kick out of it. Ezra was sure the clown went home and masturbated to peoples screams every day.

"Yeah, but a few nights ago he popped a customers tyre's and he," Manuel gulped. Ezra raised a brow, "go on."

"Maybe you should come and see."

Ezra sighed and got up, allowing the man to lead him to the back to the security room.

A bunch of large screens were set up on a large desk in the centre of the room and each of them showed a different rooms, or different angles of the same room.

Manuel walked up to the left side of the computer wall, moving the mouse around to unpause it. Ezra followed him and stood watching the tape, arms crossed and face analysing.

The tape showed the car park at night and a car pulling up. Ezra's car. Ezra tensed his fists, this was the night he'd brought Brynn with him.

Ezra got out of the car and jogged up to the entrance leading to his gym. Manuel sighed and skipped the tape a few second. "There," he pointed to the deranged clown behind the lamp post.

Ezra's eyes darkened. He leaned eagerly over the desk, fully focused on the screen. Manuel shifted the camera focus to get a better angle to look at the clown.

The pissed off Verlice brother let his two fists rest on the hard desk and gritted his teeth, almost like he was daring the clown to do something. The clown did.

He watched as the clown kept knocking on peoples cars, then blinked when the clown popped one. He watched as the clown made it to his car. He clenched his fists and jaw harder. He watched as it saw his sister. He watched as it taunted her. He watched as it ran away when a small light came from the car. He watched as he, himself, jogged back out of the gym. And most importantly, he watched as his little sister lied to him.

"Lock up for me," he growled to Manuel, pushing himself of the desk and to the door.

---

Currently, Brynn was sat in her room. She'd just come upstairs after eating dinner with Brayden, Zach, Zaiden and Silas and was finishing up her English work catch up. She finished, closing her book and turning around in her seat, wondering what to do now.

She knew where everybody was. Zayne and Callan were in Zayne's office, Brayden was at the dining room table doing some paperwork, Zaiden was in his room as was Silas, Zach was in the games room playing on the Wii- which by the way he had invited Brynn to play the second she got home- and Ezra was at work.

Debating her options, she concluded that she wanted to play with Zach on the Wii. Before she did do so though, she decided to change into her black pyjama pants and a large white t-shirt, leaving her school uniform on the desk chair.

When she stepped out she had a thought. What if she asked Zayne about the sleepover now> Get it out the way with?

Any anxiety she had towards the act seemed to diminish into thin air, as her feet walked her to his office. She stood out there for thirty seconds, her right hand shaking a little by her side.

All she was doing was asking. And the worst he could do was say no. And Callan was in there. Callan might give the answer instead.

With that positive thought, she brought her right hand up and hovered it over the hard wood. She did the knocking motion back but didn't bring it forward, taking a few inhales and exhales. She could feel her heart pounding against her rib cage.

Like a force moved her arm closer, her knuckles were half a centimetre away from making the satisfying knocking sound. There were other plans in store for her though.

Abruptly, the front door slammed shut with enough force, the entire mansion shook.

"BRYNN MARIE VERLICE!"

Brynn flinched at Ezra's booming voice. Oh shit.

She heard threatening footsteps make their way towards the staircase and she had no other choice but to go the other way.

She stumbled back and tried to get down the hallway as fast as she could. There was no way she could face Ezra right now.

Fate, on the other hand, decided that actually yes, she could face Ezra right now.

Zach stepped out the game room, right in front of Brynn. She smacked right into his bare chest, "oof."

Zach caught her by her arms. He had a concerned look on his face and looked just as scared as she did. He hissed quietly, "what did you do?"

"I don't know," Brynn whispered back, because truly she didn't know.

Footsteps got closer and Brynn tried her best to squirm out of Zach's grip who wouldn't let up.

Then Ezra came around the corner, still in his gym wear and with the most enraged look Brynn had seen in some time. His eyes landed on his two younger siblings and his jaw tensed.

Walking up to them, he grabbed Brynn by her side and flung her up. "Ezra!" Zach just watched, utterly shocked at his brothers reaction.

Ezra stormed all the way downstairs, passing Zayne and Callan who were running out of his office and passing Silas and Zaiden legging it out of their rooms.

Brynn was gripping the back of Ezra's gym shirt frantically as he held her firmly around the waist. Now she was petrified.

"Ezra, what are you doing?!" Callan exclaimed, trying his best to trail after Ezra's speed with the rest of his brothers.

Ezra said nothing, making way to the living room. Once he'd entered, Brynn tried her best to look at her surroundings. The television was now connected to a laptop underneath it and on the screen looked like security camera footage.

Ezra placed his anxious sister on the couch and strutted to the front of the room, looking towards where all his brothers were now filtering into the room. Zayne came in first, analysing the whole situation, his gaze drifting from his nervous sister to his brother stood at the front looking pissed.

"You guys remember Ryland Samueles, right?" Ezra asked all his brothers, satisfied with the six nods he received. "Good. Now let's just watch this clip of his little interaction with Brynn a few nights ago."

The Verlice brothers tensed at his final sentence. His fucking what with their little sister?

Callan got closer to the couch and from behind, he gently placed a hand on his sister's shoulder trying to calm her. "Play it then," he gestured towards the large television and Ezra did as told.

The Verlice brothers all watched the screen, seeing exactly what Ezra saw only ten minutes before. All had their own reactions.

Zayne, the suited man, had his arms crossed and eyes focused intently on the screen thinking of a way to warn this Ryland Samueles again. A much more permanent warning.

Callan's hand gripped Brynn's shoulder tighter as she bit her bottom lip guiltily. Brayden, Silas, Zaiden and Zach did not have a problem showing their rage in their body language either.

When the video clip ended, all eyes were on Brynn and she knew it. The youngest opened her mouth but closed it when she had found nothing to say. Nothing to justify this in the slightest.

She leaned forward a little, pretending to take a good look at the screen and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Who is that?"

Ezra looked at her unbelievably, choking on a humourless laugh then looked up at his brothers whom looked at him shocked as well. He let out another choked humourless laugh when he made eye contact with Zayne.

He looked back down at his sister and hissed, "why did you lie to me?"

Brynn took a shaky breath and came up with the most pathetic excuse she could, "I mean technically you didn't ask if a clown had approached me." She could just slap her own face right now.

Ezra took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to refrain himself from going to Ryland's address right now.

Zayne stepped in, walking around the couch. He crouched slightly to be level with Brynn's face and brought her face up with his finger, "don't be smart right now, sorellina. You know what he meant."

Brynn didn't know what to say. "I- I- just-" she thought about her next words, "I didn't think it was a big deal-"

Silas then came around the other end of the couch and crouched next to Zayne, shifting Brynn's attention to him by taking ahold of her chin. "A killer, psycho clown," his eyes darken, "threatens you and you didn't think to tell any one of us? Hm?"

Well, when he put it that way, Brynn felt daft. She blushed at her outright foolishness.

"I'm sorry-"

"He could have hurt you, Brynn!" Ezra interjected. He got closer and leaned over Zayne and Silas, "do you understand that? He could've harmed you," he said the words like the thought was unfathomable.

If the Verlice brothers weren't already raging at that fact that swirled in their minds, actually hearing it come from Ezra's mouth really pushed them into reality. Their sister could've been hurt and they couldn't have done anything. It could've happened again.

Brynn didn't think apologising again would do any good, despite how much she meant it. She just stared at the three brothers in front of her, at their pissed/concerned?/enraged/worried? looks.

She clearly wasn't going to say more, which lead to Callan piping in. "Do you understand, Brynn?" he asked, voice stern. Brynn looked down at her lap.

"Brynn," Zach included himself, just as stern as Callan was. Brynn didn't like it.

"Yes," she muttered as a response.

"Yes to what, sorellina?" Zaiden inquired.

"Yes I understand what could have happened," her voice got a bit shaky. Zayne moved his fingers to her chin again, moving her face to look at him and only him.

"And if you ever," Zayne stressed the ever, "find yourself in such a situation again, the first thing you do is call one of us, do you understand that Brynn?"

"I will, I promise," she told him sincerely. She meant it. Clearly they would find out regardless anyway.

"Good girl," Zayne responded.

He stood back up to his towering height and looked down at her. "I want your phone on my desk for tonight and for the rest of the week after school, it will be brought to you in the morning and I want lights off now," he ordered.

Brynn nodded numbly, mumbling a soft, "okay."

The brothers allowed their sister to get up and leave the room silently and not taking their eyes off her. She left them to figure out what to do with this Ryland Samueles although the majority knew what they were doing anyway. Slit the son of a bitch's neck for even thinking of doing such a thing to the youngest of them.

Brynn, herself, was trodding her way up the stairs, tears stinging her eyes. She had disappointed them.

Her lips did that weird thing that they do when she's about to let out a sob but she refrained from doing so. Not while she could be heard.

When she entered her pitch black room, she switched the light on, illuminating the space. She swiped her phone from the side of her desk, powering it off just in case Aubrey or Penny decided to send something that was weird. She wouldn't be able to explain that to Zayne.

Walking to Zayne's office, she placed the phone on the front of the desk and walked away. Then walked back to straighten the phone out to match everything else that was perfectly in line on his desk.

Once she'd straightened it out as much as she could, she exited and re-entered her room. Zayne wanted lights off now and she still had to brush her teeth so she did so as fast as she could, quickly switching all lights off apart from the fairy lights.

Now in bed, she settled and now she was settled, she could feel just how fast her heart was beating.

Deep breaths, she told herself as she tried to fall asleep, which proved difficult with a racing heart. Deep breaths.

---

s of yous need to be CHAINED omfg.

<3