Stevie wasn't uncomfortable when she woke up, she just wasn't comfortable. Ben had his arms wrapped around her, and her legs were draped over Finn.

She had no recollection of going to sleep, only of crying- although it was never clear to her how long she had actually cried for. But it was always clear to the four boys- who had all woken up at various times to check on her during the night, that she had cried for almost two hours before finally drifting off to sleep.

She sat up slowly, stretching as she surveyed the scene in front of her, Leif and James were both fast asleep on the two arm chairs, while James and Ben had fallen asleep with her on the couch.

Ben was already awake when Stevie tried to move is arms off her, so he let go of her gently, sensing how awkward she felt.

"Sorry." She bit her lip, when she realized he was awake. "I didn't mean to wake you."

He smiled and shook his head. "I was already awake."

She nodded, trying to look anywhere but at him. Finally she looked down at what she was wearing, she grimaced, her work uniform was still splatted with the smoothie that one of the other workers had dropped yesterday, and her hair was still in its messy bun. She pulled the hair tie our, shaking her hair so it fell in its natural curls around her face.

"Oh god." She muttered, "I've got to have a shower."

She gave Ben an awkward smile before hurrying off. Ben watched her go, wondering if she would actually come back.

She couldn't stay in her room forever, right? Even really skinny seventeen year old girls needed to eat, and he was fairly certain that she didn't have any food in her room.

He was right. She did re-appear, about half an hour later, neatly clothed with wet hair and a lot of eyeliner on.

She gave him a smile, before busying herself with the toaster.

"How did you sleep?" he asked, breaking the awkward silence from his perch on one of the bar stools at the kitchen island.

"Pretty good" she nodded, "coffee?" she asked, holding the coffee pot out to him.

She drinks coffee? He thought in amazement.

Ben nodded, and accepted the cup she gave him. Her nails were painted, he noticed. And they were long. Sure, they were black, but still, she had hated nail polish. He could clearly remember the birthday someone had given her a whole box of the stuff, she had politely thanked them at the time, but after, while he helped her carry all the presents up to her room she had launched into a long explanation as to why nail polish was stupid, and pushed the box as far under her bed as possible.

"Do you have anything to do today?" he asked, adding milk to his coffee, and noticing that she didn't.

She shook her head, "usually we'd have band practice, but today…" she trailed off, staring in to her coffee.

"No homework?" he asked tentatively.

She shook her head, "I did it all on Friday." The afternoon that she'd usually spend at band practice and then with Zander.

He grabbed her hand and gently squeezed it. She smiled at him, the first genuine smile she'd given him in the past two days.

"Are you going to be ok?" he questioned.

For a moment she didn't answer, and he was worried he'd upset her.

But she took a sip of her coffee, and looked at him, "You know, I think I will. Things won't ever be the same again, but I'll be ok."

"But things are meant to change."

She nodded, "that doesn't mean I want them to though."

"Of course not." He said quietly.

"I just…" she trailed off.

"What?" he asked gently.

"I don't know if I'm ready to lose my best friend."

He was worried she might cry again.

She didn't. She just looked around for a moment, then said, "Kasey was right when she said band mates shouldn't date. Now, I've not just lost by boyfriend and my best friend, but my band too." Her voice was slightly shaky.

"You don't know that" he said

"Maybe, we could just go back to being best friends." She muses, almost to herself. But Stevie knows that this isn't possible. They've gone too far, to ever go back there. "Oh, who am I kidding? We'll probably never talk again. He'll never forget what I said"

Ben isn't sure if she knows she's been talking out loud, but he responds anyway. "Would you forgive him?"

She looks up at him, confused. "What?"

"If he asked you to forgive him, for what he said, would you?"

She takes a deep slow breath, taking it all in to consideration. "How could I not?" she murmurs.

"So he'll probably forgive you to." Ben concludes.

"I don't think it's that simple." Stevie gives a warn smile.

"Make it that simple."

She doesn't seem to hear that comment. "You know, when he asked me out, he told me that, we were practically already a couple so it wasn't like much would change." Stevie picks up her coffee cup and without taking a sip, puts it down again. "We had never fought before that. I didn't think it was possible to fight with him."

She rests her head in her hands. "And now look at what we've done. We've hurt so many people."

"If you had the chance to go back and just be best friends, would you?"

She shakes her head, "I wouldn't trade this for anything. None of it, it's all too special."

And then a smile appears on her face, it's like nothing Ben's ever seen. "I couldn't ever not fall in love with him."

"How did you know?"

"How did I know what?" she queried.

"That you loved him."

"OH." she says. She's still smiling. "Kasey told me."

Ben's not quite sure how that works.

"I mean, I'd had the thought, that it was possible. But I thought it was too early, we'd only been dating for a little over a month- and no one else knew. So when she said that she thought I liked Zander, after she caught me staring to him, I wasn't surprised. And then she said, 'no, you don't just like him, do you Stevie? You're in love with him.' And I told her that was absolutely ridiculous and walked off. But then it clicked." She giggled. "Have you ever been in love Ben?"

Ben shook his head "one day, I'm just waiting for the right girl."

"It's like free falling, but you feel safe." Stevie propped her chin on her hands with a dreamy expression.

Ben had to smile, she looked happier than he had seen her in years.

Leif, who had woken up somewhere part way through the conversation, started to get up. Stevie's eyes focused again, self-consciously she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Morning." He said

Stevie sipped her coffee.

"Watcha drinking?" Leif asked, making a forlorn effort to be cool.

Stevie raised an eyebrow at him, "Coffee."

Black coffee? Leif thought, when will it end?

Leif was so tempted to ask Stevie what other ridiculously grown up things she had started doing, that he bit his tongue. He just couldn't see her as a seventeen year old, to him, she was still ten. Innocent, with absolutely no eyeliner.

"So, I was thinking," Ben started, "We could have a games day. Board games, ya' know? Like we used to."

Leif nodded, "good idea. Steves? Are you up for that?"

She nodded, attempting to make the last few sips of coffee last as long as possible so she didn't have to talk.

"But those idiots are still asleep." Ben flung his hand in the direction of the sleeping of James and Finn, who were both snoring.

"It's not like that's a problem." Stevie swallowed the last of her coffee and made her way over to James. She tucked her hair behind her ear and lend close to her snoring brother. "I think," she said, an evil smile playing on her lips, "that I have the perfect prank to wake James up."

She jumped back just in time to watch James shoot up, "No Stevie!" he shrieked, "don't do it!"

Stevie crossed her arms and smirked, she turned to Ben and Leif, giving them a thumbs up before walking over to Finn.

She knelt down beside him and gently tapped him on the shoulder, "Hey, Finny, come play with me? Please?" she said in a childish voice.

"Ohhh Stevie, five more minutes, I swear, I'll play with you in five more minutes."

She giggled, "Please Finny, Pretty please?"

Finn opened his eyes, adjusting to the girl in front of him, he blinked, this Stevie wasn't seven, she was much older.

"But seriously Finn," the girl got up, "we're all playing board games, come."

Leif couldn't believe it. In a matter of moments she had both of them up, he knew it would have taken him at least half an hour.

"I'm going to get my phone" she disappeared down the hall, leaving the four boys to mull over how much control she had over them.

"I don't believe it." Ben shook his head. "She is too smart for her own good."

They all nodded dumbly in agreement.

"At least she seems ok this morning." Finn pointed out.

Ben nodded, "more like her usual self." But really, none of them had any idea what Stevie's usual self was.

Stevie re appeared moments later, a purple iPhone in her hand. She didn't acknowledge them, instead giving a short laugh to whatever was on the screen. Without looking up from her phone, she found her cup and poured some more coffee.

Placing the cup down on the bench she started to type, her fingers moving faster than her four brothers felt was humanly possible.

Her phone dinged almost as soon as she'd stopped texting, she rolled her eyes.

"Silly Kasey" she muttered, typing something in response before looking up at her brothers. "Well?" she said, irritation obvious. "Are we going to play games or not?"

"Oh right." They all scrambled up, rushing to find the games.

In total, Stevie won 5 out of the 7 games they played that day. Every time she won they would pick a new game in hopes of beating her. But it seemed Stevie was just too good.

Leif had been in constant communication with Kasey all day, giving her regular updates on how things were going. If Stevie had bothered to look at the phone even once when it vibrated and lit up, she would have seen:

Kasey Simon (Stevie's Friend)

Written across the screen. But she never did.

After Stevie had won The Game of Life (again), Leif finally decided that it was time to bring up the night before, it was unavoidable at this point, as Kasey had sent Zander to their house.

"Stevie, we need to talk about last night." Leif said, after packing up the last of the cards.

Stevie looked at him, clearly trying not to show any emotion. "No, we don't."

"We do." Leif persisted.

"No, Leif. We don't." she said through gritted teeth.

"She's right Leif." James said, hoping this could earn him some sort points with Stevie. "We found out what's wrong, that's all Mom asked us to do."

Stevie's voice was low as she spoke: "Mom sent you?" she took a breath, letting it out in the angriest way she could think of. "I don't believe it. I actually thought you came here because you cared."

She stood up, Ben was glaring at James.

"So, after all this time, you only came back because mom told you to?"

"Stevie," Ben tried to grab her hand, but she yanked it away. "We do care, that's why we came."

"No." Stevie said. "You don't. If you cared you would have answered my emails, or talked to me, or come back for my birthday. But you didn't."

None of them could meet her eyes.

"I can't believe I actually thought you cared." Her voice was choked.

There was a knock at the door.

Stevie looked towards it, and then back to her brothers, "Who is that?" she hissed.

They all looked at each other, unsure of how to respond.

Stevie turned to Ben, she shook her head. "What happened to the conversation we had this morning? I told you I would be fine."

Ben opened his mouth, Stevie cut him off. "Don't even. I should have expected this."

She kicked the chair back and stormed away. "Stay out of my life."

"Stevie come back!" Leif called. Stevie kept walking. "STEPHANIE RAINA BASKARA! COME BACK HERE AND SIT DOWN!" Leif bellowed

Ben slapped his forehead with his palm, knowing how angry this would make her.

Stevie turned. But instead of the fit of rage Ben had expected, she looked like she would cry at any moment.

Ben bolted over to her, gently steering her back to her chair. She didn't resist.

Finn had run to the door, opening it, he addressed the person on the other side quietly, "She's not in a good mood, but you can still try if you want to."

Stevie had her hands clasped over her mouth facing away. She knew it was Zander, she could hear the way he stepped tentatively in to the room.

"Stevie…" He was off to a bad start, Zander knew. "I know, you don't want to talk to me, I know you're mad, But I just want to say sorry for what I said…" he trailed off.

Zander had expected Stevie to pin him to the ground and yell at him, or hit him. Anything would be better than the silence he was currently getting.

He took a tentative step forward "I never meant what I said about-"

"I know." She whispered, her voice barely audible.

"It's what I like about you, you know. It makes you special, you're not like the others."

She nodded. And for a moment, all five boys in the room thought she wouldn't respond.

But, slowly, she wiped her eyes and breathed out. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have said what I did." She inspected the black lines her smudged eyeliner had left on her fingertips. "Those girls- they're not your fault. I know I shouldn't care about them, but sometimes-" She stopped. "I'm so, so, sorry Zander."

Zander took a step towards her.

"Don't." she said.

"What?" Zander was confused.

"We can't go on like this Zander! Every fight gets worse. Every time it happens we hurt everyone we care about. I can't keep doing this."

"But we can't just stop now!" Zander exclaimed, horrified.

"But we can't keep going." Stevie shook her head. She took a shaky breath. "Maybe we were never meant to be."

"Yes we were! Stevie, please, look at me!" he begged.

"We both know what will happen if I do that." She said, her voice hard.

"I'd rather that than this." He exclaimed.

Stevie gave a chocked laugh. "If course you would."

"Please Stevie," he whispered, "couldn't we try and talk this out?"

She shook her head, "what do you want me to say Zander? That I love you? That I can't live without you? That we'll keep trying till the day we die?"

"Yes." He replied. "Because we both know that that's all true."

She laughed, "You're so cocky!" on instinct she turned to him, their eyes met, realizing her mistake she tried to look away.

Zander bounded forward closing the meter gap between them, and grabbed her cheeks with both hands forcing her to look at him. "Do you really want us to be over?"

"It was a lot easier to say yes when I wasn't looking at you."

"Tell me the truth Stevie. Do you really want to give up everything we have?"

"No." she whispered, the tears starting to well up in her eyes.

"Me neither." Zander pushed forward, pulling her into a kiss.

For a moment, some part of Stevie's brain tried to resist, but that was quickly silenced by her heart. She put a hand round his neck, letting the haze of butterflies and love take over.

When he pulled away, she was left, out of breath, and totally ready to do whatever he told her.

"Come with me?" he asked, "let's talk properly."

Stevie nodded, still feeling out of breath. He took her hand, pulling her towards the door.

All hopes Leif had that maybe she had forgotten, were gone when she turned around. "This doesn't fix anything." She said coldly. "Don't think I'll forget."

Hey Guys :)

I hope you liked chapter 3! Even though Stevie and Zander are talking again doesn't mean this stories over. They still have a lot of issues to sort out.

Thank you to my wonderful reviewers:

ZevieFTW, Zevielover17, HTRobsessed

I love hearing from you guys! I'd love to hear from anyone else, even if you just tell me if you liked or hated it :)

Until next time!

Encantria 3