A/N- Since I received pretty positive feedback for the 'Mackenzie's character in her movies' thing, I've decided that's how I will start all my chapters from now on. It's pretty fun, deciding what scene to do and smushing the character in. Big ol' thanks to DemmarisAoka and Morgan for reviewing!

Chapter Four- The Cameras Are Gone

"Pete, you need to wait for Marnie!" Debbie shouted at her husband, before yelling up the stairs, "Marnie! For God's sake, you're gonna be so late!"

"Get off my dick for once, Debbie!" Marnie stormed down the stairs, scowling at her older sister. "Jesus Christ, what is being late gonna do, exactly?"

"Marnie, you're already failing Math," Debbie pointed out as the two of them walked through to the kitchen. "Being late makes you look worse."

"Thanks for that, Deb," Marnie said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "What else do you wanna remind me of on this lovely sunny Thursday morning? That my Drama teacher says I need acting lessons, despite being a fucking Drama teacher? That I started speaking French in my Spanish test last week?"

"Drop the attitude, Marnie," Debbie said bluntly. "You know, you're seventeen, not twelve."

"Really? OMG," she gasped, placing a hand on her heart. "I thought I was still in middle school. Reality check, much?"

"God, Marnie, you're a pain in my ass!" Debbie suddenly exclaimed. "No wonder Mom sent you to live here!"

"Fuck you, Debbie." Marnie scowled heavily, grabbing her red satchel from one of the island stools. "I'm going to school, happy now? 'Sup, Pete?" she added to her brother-in-law, sashaying past him and Charlotte, one of her little nieces, and heading out the door.

"Maybe try actually wearing a skirt tomorrow!" Debbie yelled after her, but Marnie just threw up her hand and flipped her sister off, then made sure to make her skirt even shorter.

"Always nice to see you two getting along," Pete commented, ushering his daughter outside after her aunt and shutting the door.

"She needs to realise she isn't my mom," Marnie muttered sulkily. "She can't tell me what to do."

"She might be annoying sometimes," he said reasonably, fumbling for his car keys whilst he supported Charlotte against his hip. "But she wants what's best for you. You know that, Marns."

"Yeah, well…" Marnie became distracted by the sounds of two sets of footsteps walking behind her. She turned and saw her other older sister Alison walking towards them, accompanied by some random curly-haired dude. "Hey Ali!"

"Morning," Alison said sheepishly as she approached.

"Good morning, Alison," Pete replied. Marnie just slyly smiled at them. God, these guys could not have been more obvious if they'd both been wearing neon signs that read ONE NIGHT STAND.

"I'm Ben," the curly-haired guy introduced himself. "What's happening, man?" He shook hands with Pete, who smiled and simply said, "Ben."

"How's it going?" Ben asked.

"Ah, to be young," Pete sighed reminiscently.

"Stop it!" Alison requested calmly, awkwardly looking away.

"Hey, Marnie," Pete sniggered. "This is just like that time you tried to sneak Joel Frasier out of your bedroom window last month!"

"Oh my fucking God, Pete!" she protested, kicking him in the shin. "Why would you even bring that up?!"

"Okay, see you later," Alison said abruptly, pulling her sunglasses down over her eyes and beginning to walk away.

"All righty," Ben said, holding his arms out in some kind of goodbye gesture and followed Alison.

"See you later," Pete called sardonically after them. "Enjoy the day!" As soon as they were out of earshot, he turned to Charlotte and said, "Never do what they did."

"I'm gonna do it!" Charlotte promised with a giggle.

"You are?" Pete laughed. "Uh oh! Someone's getting home-schooled!"

"Hey, if we're going for home-schooling around here then sign me up!" said Marnie. "Save me from that shit-tip high school, per-lease!"

"Language!" Pete warned mockingly, clipping Charlotte into her car seat. "There are children present!"

"I was raised by your wife," she pointed out, climbing into the passenger seat. "Fucking blame her for my shitty attitude to life."

-Knocked Up, 2007

Very few people can say that they've projectile-vomited on James Franco's front door. I am the girl that can hand-on-heart say that she has. As Jay and I unsteadily made our way up the path that led to James' house, our faces ghostly pale with fear, both of us covered in blood and dirt, I felt that familiar churning feeling in the pit of my stomach. By the time we'd reached the door, I couldn't keep it down anymore.

As Jay reached to push the door open, I spewed out an almighty fountain of puke, which splattered all over the door and doorstep, narrowly avoiding Jay's outstretched arm.

"Jesus fuck, Mack!" Jay groaned, but he wrapped an arm around my waist to support me, and we staggered into the house.

"Holy shit!" was the first thing we heard; James was freaking out big time.

"Jay! Mack!" Seth gasped in relief, pulling us both into three-person hug. "You're alive! Oh, thank God!"

"We're okay!" I snivelled into his shoulder, beginning to cry.

"We're not dead yet," Jay assured him, way less emotionally than me.

Meanwhile, James was in the middle of the biggest bitch-fit I'd ever seen him throw. Ever. "I told you guys not to go outside! What just happened?!" He stormed over to me and grabbed hold of my head, making me look at him. "Jesus Christ, Kenzie! What the fuck was that?! You could have fucking died! Why didn't you fucking listen to me!?"

"I'm so sorry!" I sobbed, putting my arms tight around his neck. "I was scared! I couldn't leave Jay, I wasn't thinking straight!"

James let go of my head and hugged me back closely, leaning his cheek on the top of my head. "What the fuck would I have told Dave if you'd died?!"

"Oh my God!" I whimpered, pulling back from him in shock. "Dave! I need to call him I need to see if he's alright! Oh my fuck, what did we just see?!" I pulled my phone out of my pocket (how had it not been smashed?) and started dialling my boyfriend's number.

"Jesus Christ, they are all fucking dead!" Craig cried.

"I told you guys not to run outside!" James yelled.

"I tried to save Aziz!" Craig was sobbing, clutching at Seth. "I tried!"

"You did your best, man!" wept Seth, hugging him. "I love you!"

"Why the fuck did you guys run out there?!" shrieked James, pacing around the room.

"You know what, James, can you lower your voice?!" Jonah shouted from the sofas. "You're freaking out Jay!"

"Maybe I'm a little freaked out too!" James shouted back.

"We're all fucking freaked out!" I wailed, dialling Dave's number for the fourth time; it was just totally refusing to connect.

"He's not as strong as you!" Jonah responded.

"Look at my house!" James bawled.

"The house is not the main fucking priority here, Franco!" I screeched. "My phone won't connect to a network, I can't call anyone!" It was bedlam; James was having a fit about his house, I was screaming at my phone for not working, Seth and Craig were still crying and Jay was getting irritated because Jonah kept touching him.

"Can we get Jay some water please?!" Jonah demanded. "Can we get him some hydration?! He needs to be hydrated!"

"The water's not working!" Seth shouted, frantically twisting the faucet.

"Everyone just runs out the door!" whined James.

"Franco!" I snapped, looking away from my phone and scowling at him.

"My phone's dead too!" stated Craig, panicked.

"Guys, the fucking internet's not working!" howled Seth, repeatedly clicking at a laptop.

"Let's watch the TV!" James suggested hurriedly, grabbing the remote. "Let's check the news!"

"Where is the TV?" asked Jay, frowning. We all looked around. He was right; there was no TV to be seen.

"It's in the floor," James explained as a whirring noise began to emanate from a spot in the middle of the sofas, and sure enough, the TV began to rise up out of the hardwood flooring.

"That's dope," Craig said appreciatively.

"Yeah, cool, huh?" said James.

"Damn, I knew I should have taken you up on your offer to design our house," I muttered thoughtfully.

"That's really neat," added Seth.

"That is impressive, James," concluded Jonah as the TV finished its grand arrival.

"…the biggest earthquake to ever hit Los Angeles-" the male news reporter was saying before James flicked the channel over.

"-officers urging people to stay in their homes right now," the new female reporter was saying, as the banner at the bottom of the screen read SEEK SHELTER NOW in red lettering. "And also reports of looting and rioting are spreading across the city."

"Riots?" James repeated in a whisper as we all stared in alarm at the television. Jonah had his hand covering his mouth, Seth was drinking whiskey clean out the bottle, and I was chewing nervously at the skin around my thumb, ruining my French manicure.

"Police are pretty much outnumbered as people are turning to one another," the TV woman was saying. "Martial law has now been declared-"

James changed the channel for a second time. "Air Force One has gone down-" was all we heard before the screen flickered and broke up, before turning to the static blue NO SIGNAL screen.

"Shit!" hissed James, clicking the remote at the TV to no avail. "It's gone guys."

"The whole world's gone fucking mental!" I whispered, twirling a strand of my hair around my finger fearfully.

Jay suddenly turned to Seth and me. "So, I think we should…we should probably go back to your place, huh?"

"What are you talking about, man?!" demanded Seth. "No, no way! I'm not leaving here!"

"You're bat-shit crazy if you think you're getting me to go back outside that door, Baruchel," I snapped, folding my arms.

"I don't…wanna die at James Franco's house," Jay said uneasily, and I didn't miss the offended 'what's he talking about' raised-arm gesture James made either.

"You heard the TV!" exclaimed Seth, gesturing at the blank screen. "The TV said stay here! It said stay in your homes! We need to stay here until they start rescuing people, okay?!"

"A huge earthquake happens, who do they rescue first?" Jonah asked in what I assumed he imagined was an intelligent tone. "Actors!"

"Famous people!" agreed Seth.

"They'll get Clooney, Sandra Bullock, me!" Jonah paused for a millisecond. "If there's room, you guys'll come! The point is that we're all gonna get out of this first!" A huge explosion outside suddenly rocked the entire house, making the walls and ground shake and causing us all to start.

"What the fuck was that?!" I yelled, jumping backwards and almost crushing Jay in the process.

"It's already going crazy out there, guys!" Seth yelped. "We can't leave! I'm not leaving, okay?! I'm a victim! I've had a victim's mentality my whole life! People can smell it on me! When I was a kid, I had man-titties! The bullies held me down, they titty-fucked me!"

"Woah, Seth!" I grimaced, putting a hand on his chest to shut him up. "Little too much information there, bro!"

"That's what's happening out there right now!" James shouted fearfully.

"James!" I shouted back. "You are not helping!"

"That's right, we are all soft!" Now Craig was freaking out even more too. "We are all soft! We are actors! We pretend to be hard, man!"

"Yeah!" James agreed.

"We soft as baby shit!" shouted Craig, moving towards the wall.

"As baby shit!" James shrieked. "Soft as…wait, Craig, what are you doing, man?!" Craig had grabbed hold of one of James' stupid paintings and was attempting to tear it down from the wall. "Hey, hey, what are you doing?! What are you doing to the painting, man?!"

"We gotta board this shit up, man!" Craig instructed, a pretty clever idea really.

Just not according to James. "Board it up?!"

"We gotta protect ourselves!" Craig told him. "We don't know we gonna be in here!"

"Guys, come on, let's sit down and talk about what we need to do!" I suggested. "Let's do that, that is a good idea!"

They both ignored me. "There's raccoons and bandits and shit out there!" Craig exclaimed, clearly terrified out of his wits.

"This is Obey, man!" James cried like we knew what he meant, stepping protectively in front of the painting. "This is my favourite fucking painting!" Craig ignored him, reaching up and trying to pull the stupid picture down. "What are you doing, Craig!? Guys, help!" he pleaded, turning to us. "Help! Help! Get off!"

"BOYS! QUIT IT!" I screamed, snapping suddenly, when we all heard the sound of a helicopter approaching outside.

James and Craig stopped wrestling with each other, and James pointed to the window where the helicopter lights were shining through. "Look! Helicopter! Helicopter!" He took a few steps closer to the window, still gesturing at the light. "The good guys are here! We're fine! It's gonna be fine!"

The whirring of the helicopter was growing steadily closer, and that was when we realised that it wasn't landing; it was crashing. This was confirmed when we saw a chopper spinning rapidly out of control speeding towards the window. It collided with the ground with an explosion just outside the window, and the tail of the chopper came flying through the glass, imbedding itself in the painting James had so desperately been protecting just seconds earlier.

Craig started screaming in pain, clutching at his hand, and for a second I thought for sure that the piece of helicopter had chopped one of his fingers off. "God damn! God damn! Shit!"

"You okay?!" James asked, taking a few hesitant steps towards him.

"No, I'm not okay!" Craig spat. "Fuck your house, Franco!" He held up his finger, revealing the drop of blood oozing out of a paper cut-sized slice. Are you actually fucking kidding me right now.

"My house didn't do that!" James protested angrily, and he reached out to touch the piece of chopper. The second his skin came into contact with the metal, there was a sizzle of burning flesh, and James withdrew his hand with a pained hiss.

"On what planet did you deem that a good idea?" I asked him sarcastically, raising an eyebrow, and he just flipped me off. "Well that was rude. Okay. We all just need to calm the fuck down, okay? Let's just do some of this logical thinking people are so fond of. Craig's right; we gotta board this place up and stop people getting in and fucking slitting our throats in our sleep. Yes, Franco," I snapped, seeing the objection on James' face. "That does mean tearing down your precious art. Deal with it. Come on!" I clapped my hands impatiently at them. "Let's rock and roll, you bunch of bitches!"

And rock and roll we did. The boys got set to tearing down all of James' pictures, portraits, canvasses and whatever else they could find and nailed them over all the exterior windows and doors. Seth attempted to duct tape the cracks in the walls together. Craig built himself a little one-man tent out of a chair, a couple of blanket and the dick statue. I gathered together every last bit of drink, food, drugs and other miscellaneous items I could find and set them down on the kitchen island for Seth to catalogue.

"Okay, we got twelve bottles of water, fifty-six beers, two vodkas, four whiskeys, six bottles of wine, the three cans of Arizona ice tea that Mack stole from the convenience store, tequila, Nutella, cheese, pizza, eggs, bananas, apples, bacon, steaks, pancake mix, CT Crunch, milk, ketchup, a Milky way, half ounce Sour Diesel, three and a half grams Grand Master Kush, one ounce of shrooms, fifteen pills of ecstasy, a porno mag, a baseball bat and the video camera from the movie 27 Hours," he listed, checking them off on his checklist.

"127 Hours," James corrected him, and Seth quickly wrote that extra hundred hours down, because it was just sooo important at this stage of our lives.

"And a functioning revolver from the movie Flyboys," Seth finished off.

"Old Faithful," James said fondly, picking the gun up.

"Jesus!" Jay exclaimed, dropping to the floor.

"This thing's real," James explained, displaying it to us all. "I kept it from the movie. This is an actual revolver."

"We can see that," I said uneasily, as Jay slowly stood back up next to me. God, I now wished I'd put him between me and James.

"Franco, that's very uncomfortable!" Craig said nervously, holding up his hands. "Could you put that down please?"

"Loaded!" James decided to show us all that there actually were bullets in the chambers. Fan-fucking-tastic. I gave it five minutes before he accidentally shot one of us. All of us were protesting about him holding it, but him being James Franco, he totally ignored us.

"I always keep my props!" he enlightened us. "Always keep my props." He twirled the gun round in Jay's and my direction, and Jay ducked down again, out of range, whilst I took a step back into the worktop.

"I know how to handle it!" James insisted.

"He knows what he's doing," Jonah said with a laugh. "I like this bit, I like it. I get it. Let me see!"

"It's real, it's heavy," James warned him.

"Let me see it like that," Jonah maintained, so James through the revolver to him, causing the rest of us to shout out in irritation and objection.

"Come on, guys!" protested Seth. "You could kill-" but he was cut off by Jonah pointing the gun at us each in turn and pretending to shoot it.

"Bang, bang!" he said in the campest tone I'd ever heard come out of a man's mouth.

"Please put it down!" begged Seth, whilst this time I followed Jay's suit and ducked behind the island.

"Bang, bang, bang! You're dead!" Jonah continued, and now the other guys were beginning to duck down too. "Pow, pow, pow!"

"I hope you're fucking happy," Jay snapped at James, who raised his arms in a 'whatever' gesture.

"Stop! Guys!" shouted Seth. "Stop fucking with the gun!"

"Pow, pow!" Jonah carried on his little game.

"It's so funny," Craig said derisively, his hands clasped together, praying-style. "It's so funny."

"Jonah!" I hissed. "Put the gun the fuck down!"

"We're getting sidetracked!" Jay exclaimed in an attempt to bring us back to the problem at hand.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Jonah said sorrowfully, and he placed the gun next to his temple. "I'll just kill myself." At this, we all yelled out a chorus of, "NO!"

"Jonah, what the fuck are you doing?!" I shrieked. "Put it down! Put it down now!"

"Jonah, give it back!" James ordered, holding out his hand for it. Meanwhile, Jonah was acting out an OTT mental breakdown that consisted of wailing and flailing around, ending with him actually placing the gun in his mouth to yet more yells of 'no.'

"Come on, no, no!" commanded Jay. "Don't! Jesus!"

"Would you put the thing down?!" Seth said exasperatedly. This was just getting boring now.

Jonah stopped his wailing abruptly. "I'm trying to have some fun, man." He handed the revolver back to James without a fight.

"Fun?!" I exploded. "There is nothing 'fun' about this situation, Jonah! People are dead! Jay and I nearly died! Hello?!"

"Look, just because a bunch of people fell into a hole outside doesn't mean we can't have some fun!" he said in an attempt at comforting me. It failed, FYI. "We're a bunch of best friend's hanging out. It's like a sleepover!"

"A sleepover surrounded by fire, death and destruction," I muttered, folding my arms.

"Okay, food," Seth said loudly, trying to regain control. "How are we gonna deal with this?"

"Um, can I have that Milky Way?" asked Jonah, pointing at the chocolate bar.

"No, you can't have the Milky Way!" retorted James. "That's my Milky Way!"

"What?!" Jay exclaimed disbelievingly, having been cut off from saying how there were a lot of us that probably wanted the Milky Way.

"I went out this morning, specifically bought this Milky Way to eat after my party," James insisted.

"That's weird," said Jay, his eyebrows knitted together.

"It is a little weird," I agreed.

"It's not weird, it's my special food!" James argued.

"Who the fuck has special food at the age of thirty-five!?" I exclaimed. "Jesus, man."

"I like it. Back me up on that, Seth!" James looked at Seth for support.

Seth totally shot him down. "I don't think you should get the whole Milky Way. I want some of the Milky Way!"

"I'd be pretty bummed if I don't at least get a bite of the Milky Way," Craig chipped in.

"Oh, now Craig wants the Milky Way!" said James.

"Yeah, I want a bite of the Milky Way!" Craig retorted. "It's a fucking Milky Way!"

"I'm the female here," I reminded everyone. "It's ladies first. I want the Milky Way, I get the Milky Way."

"A fifth of everything is what's fair and reasonable," Jay suggested.

"Everyone gets a fifth of everything," Seth asserted.

"I want one-fifth of your t-shirt!" James announced aggressively, pointing at Craig's TAKE YO' PANTIES OFF shirt. "I want the bottom part! The belly!"

"I'm not sporting a crop top in your house!" Craig objected.

"I'll cut that shit off and make a headband!" James said.

"You couldn't handle my midriff," Craig replied rationally.

"Guys, the only issue is," Jonah interjected. "I kind of need the Milky Way."

"Oh, for fuck sake," sighed Jay, putting his head in his hand.

"No, for real, I have low blood sugar and if my endorphins drop too low I'm gonna be a nightmare to be around."

"If your LBS acts up, you can have a finger scoop of Nutella," said James, opening the jar and holding it out to him. Urgh. Fucking Nutella. I would never eat that shit again for the rest of my life, that was for sure.

"Fair," Jonah said with a raise of his hand. Then I saw a wicked gleam in his eye. "But, can I eat it off Mackenzie? I hear she is pretty good for that kinda thing." A mocking smirk spread across his lips.

"That is so not funny, asswipe," I returned with a scowl.

"Oh really? Because I think it's hilarious." James grinned maliciously. He scooped out a small dollop of Nutella and massaged it into the back of his hand. "Oh hey Jonah, how about a snack? I know you get awful hungry," he jibed in what was quite possibly the worst imitation of my voice known to this planet.

Jonah was quick to join in with James' mocking. "Oh, Kenzie, I sure would!"

The pair continued their, unfortunately, rather accurate imitation of what happened that night for what felt like a lifetime, adding various sound effects and actions which I was sure (or more, hoped) did not actually occur on the evening. "Oh Jonah, your tongue is so big and wet! I can't believe I picked Dave when I could have had you, you hunky boy!" James twittered, his pitch an octave too high.

By this point, I'd heard more than enough. I picked up the bacon and launched it at James' head. However, I missed spectacularly as it glided past him and fell to the floor with a dull thwuck.

"Fuck you, Franco," I snapped. "You're just jealous your baby brother gets more sex than you do." The other guys all started laughing. "Anyway, that was one time, and if I recall correctly, I was drunk out of my face and totally high! I cannot be held responsible for that! And stop wasting the fucking food, jackass!"

"Ooooh, damn!" drew out Craig, and I shot him the finger.

"Shut up, Craig!"

"I'm going to bed," James proclaimed, grabbing the revolver. "Don't touch that Milky Way, Jonah!" he warned as he walked away.

"Hey yo, Franco!" I shouted, running after him in my stupid high heels. "Wait up!"

"What's up, sis?" he said when I reached him.

"You got a blanket or anything I can borrow?" I asked as we made our way up the stairs. "Jay and me are sleeping on the sofa and he's got like a rug and shit. I'll freeze!"

"I've got some spare blankets in my bedroom," he said. "Come on, I'll get you one."

"Thanks, dickbrain," I said with a laugh, and he grinned at me. Just like the rest of the house, James' bedroom was typically artsy, with more canvasses on the wall and all exposed wood-and-stone walls with a big-ass double bed in the middle of the room.

"Here," he said, opening his closet and grabbing a plain duvet from the top shelf, throwing it to me.

"Awesome, at least now the end of the world won't kill me by me freezing to death," I joked.

"Do you want to borrow a t-shirt or something to sleep in?" he asked, and I nodded, so he also handed me just a basic black t-shirt.

"Do you think the rest of the world is just like this?" I asked quietly, sitting down at the end of his bed.

"God, I don't know, Kenz," he sighed, sitting down next to me.

"I am so scared," I whispered. "There's no phone service, no internet! What about Dave!? He's my boyfriend, your brother…he could be dead for all we know! I have no way of contacting him, of phoning my dad back home…it's all just totally gone to shit and I don't know what to do!" My face crumpled and I began to cry, not attractively either. I was exhausted and terrified and distressed and angry…I was a mess.

"Hey, hey, hey," James soothed, putting his arm around me. "I'm sure there's a simple explanation for all this. It was just an earthquake! We'll all get out of this alive, I promise!"

"But what about the blue lights?! Jay said-"

"Fuck what Jay said," he said dismissively, rolling his eyes. "That's bullshit. Earthquakes happen all the time, and people live. So chill out, get some sleep and we'll work out what to do tomorrow. Okay? It's fine."

I nodded slowly. "Okay." I reached over and gave him a hug before retreating into the bathroom across the hall to change. I gratefully kicked my heels off my sore feet and stripped out of my leather jacket, shorts, pantyhose and cami, leaving me in my Victoria's Secret turquoise bra and pink spotty girl boxers. Thank God I hadn't worn a thong.

Though I loved the guys and was so close to them all, there was no way I wanted them to see me totally in my underwear. I pulled James' t-shirt down over my head, and was thankful to see that it reached mid-thigh.

Just an earthquake, James had said. We'd be fine. We'd get out of this alive, he'd said. But as I made my way back downstairs and saw the fire flickering away outside through the gaps in the boarded-up windows, I began to wonder if this was something a whole lot more devastating than just an earthquake…

A/N- Shit's getting real. I'll clarify now, this is not a romance fic, so James and Mack will not be getting together. I want them to have a sibling-esque relationship, because Mack always lacked that big brother figure in her life until she met James. So lemme know how you're likin' everything, updates will come quicker if I start getting more reviews and follows! Kisses to you all! Xx Gee xX

PS- Polyvore. You know what to do.