OMJ! My roommate like the Jonas Brothers! I liked her a lot to begin with but… omg… we were talking about music… and I was like, I'm weird… I go from -insert various rock bands- to the Jonas brothers and she goes 'oh my god, no way! I love them, too. My friends make fun of me so bad. I was like, mine, too! So, yes, she's awesome. I love her. My dorm room is so me yet not I love it.
Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. Not edited cause I really didn't have time and still be able to get you a chapter. This is how its going to work from now on. I will leave you a spoiler at the end, just to make up for the potential time between updates. Like a TV show's previews. Enjoy.
Chapter 34:
"Stas! Stas!" Reporters shouted her name, trying to get our attention. "Is it true you've been cheating on Jason? Are you on another break? What about the pending engagement?" The questions flew at her.
You may have guessed, Bray has no heart. At all. And sadly, the report was released before Jason got home. But, I had the insight to given Jason a small heads up, though I told Shane the truth just in case.
"Jase, hey. Stas is going to tell you something when you get home. I'm just forewarning you that you might be informed by someone else before she gets to. It's the type of thing you don't want to share across an ocean while your boyfriend is on tour. Just, know she loves you. And don't worry about it, okay?" I explained.
"Mitchie, can you just tell me?" He asked in confusion.
"No." I replied. "It's not my place, Jase. Sorry. And don't ask Stas about it. Don't mention I said anything. I advised her not to tell you until you got home. I didn't tell her I was giving you a heads up just in case."
"Mitchie…" He sighed pleadingly.
"I'm sorry, Jason." I hung up, unable to not tell him much longer.
Anastasia faced the hounding paparazzi with as much calmness as she could muster. She told them the same thing everyday for a week. "Bray is a selfish, jealous bastard who took advantage of a situation and is upset I rejected him to get back together with Jason in the first place."
In the end, it was lucky I did tell both Jason and Shane. Well, almost. He understood why Anastasia hadn't told him. He was still beyond pissed though. He called her, yelling. Not something that was known for Jason.
"How could you let this happen?" He screamed through the phone.
An already upset Anastasia tried to reply. "Jay-"
"No, don't Jay me. Damn it, Stas. This is exactly why I didn't want you to hang out with him." He continued angrily.
"Can we please discuss this when we're on the same continent, please?" She begged. "This is not an argument to be had over the phone."
"Fine. I'll talk to you next week." He replied.
"Jas-" Click. "-on." She sighed. "He hung up on me. Damn it." She began crying. Caitlyn and I did our best to calm her down. Well, more like Caitlyn did. I was still pretty unstable in Caitlyn's mind, so she pretty much took charge of the Anastasia-Jason-Bray drama.
That was a painful week. The press were everywhere because of the boys' homecoming. Anastasia was at her breaking point. Actually, she passed her breaking point the day before they boys came home. She'd been strong, aside from crying after the argument with Jason. She was resolved not to be weak. That proved not to help her when Jason's return was mentioned.
"W-what am I supposed to say?" She asked helplessly, though not brokenly yet.
"The truth? I'm sorry, Jason, I thought he would respect my relationship?" I offered.
Caitlyn sighed. "I'm sorry, Stas, but I can be nice anymore. Time to be blunt. You're fucked. You have to just lay it all out for him and pray Jason will understand. There's no way of sugarcoating this." She spoke apologetically.
"Nice, Cait." I commented sarcastically.
"No, she's right." Anastasia sniffled. "He's going to hate me even more, though." She whispered.
"He loves you. He wants to marry you. This little bump isn't going to ruin everything." I assured her. "Come on, we all fight. It's natural."
"Is that something you've learned from your most recent pointless worriedness?" Caitlyn asked, making up words as always.
I glared slightly. "Yes."
"You've never cheated on Shane…" Anastasia argued. "He's never cheated on you."
"You didn't cheat. And he thought I did." I reminded her.
"Same difference." She waved her hand dismissively. "And… he did?"
"When everything with Jason happened, he was afraid that something did happen. Not that it did, and he trusted me when I said I didn't, but I could still see that fear in his eyes. Every time I hang out with Jason alone, Shane gets this weird look in his eyes for a split second and then it's gone. He trusts me, but that shred of doubt is still there." I sighed. "But my point is, you'll get over it eventually."
"I don't want eventually!" She cried out. "I want immediately." She whimpered. "I can't lose him again." She started crying. "I started thinking about our wedding… and what it'd be like… and if we'd be like you and Shane post-wedding. If we'd be that happy married. I mean, I won't say happily married, because you guess aren't happily married. You're tormented-ly married. But you're so happy being married. I can't lose him…" She started crying silently.
"Oh, Stas." Caitlyn said, wrapping our friend in a hug. I got lost in my own world, thinking again. Caitlyn was still comforting Anastasia when Shane called me.
"Hey." His overly excited voice answered.
"Hey." I answered.
"We're boarding in a little while. We're flying into Newark, and then we'll be flying into Boston." He explained.
"Ah, that's why you're so excited." I laughed.
"Well, I'd be happier if we were flying into Boston, but Rich thought it'd be better since the press would expect us to fly into Boston to see you sooner." He said.
I laughed. "How very perceptive of them." I answered.
"Okay, well, I have to go get on the plane. Love you." He sighed.
"Love you, too." I replied. When I hung up the phone I let out a small squeal of excitement.
I don't think we slept that night. We were all on edge, waiting for the boys to land. We had our classes covered, and worked turned in a head of time. At 1 o'clock exactly, we were sitting in the airport waiting anxiously.
"I'm scared." Anastasia whispered.
"I'm excited." I replied.
"I'm worried." Nicky admitted.
"I'm apprehensive." Caitlyn answered.
"Wow. Am I the only one happy they're coming home?" I asked, looking at them all.
"No, I'm happy." Caitlyn answered. "I'm just apprehensive of all the drama that is undoubtedly going to occur." She explained.
"Yeah. I'm just worried because Riley's been acting weird lately." Nicky agreed.
"You know why I'm scared." Anastasia glared at me. I smiled.
"You're excused." I replied, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"Flight 814 now landing. All persons waiting for pick-ups please wait until security allows you into the area. Thank you." The announcer said. We stood up and headed over to the gate. We were allowed in. The gate was being closed because of Connect 3's arrival. When they were off the plane, they would allow the other passenger's into the terminal.
We were bouncing on our feet, biting our nails, tapping our toes, and sighing every 3 seconds. Respectively, that is. I was bouncing with anticipation. Anastasia was biting her nails in nervousness. Nicky was tapping her toes while Caitlyn was sighing impatiently.
Finally, we saw the boys' bodyguard emerge, and then Rich. Our smiles grew widely. Rich said something to the person behind him, who ran back up the tunnel. A moment later, Shane, Nate, Jason and Riley emerged from the tunnel.
I took off and ran to Shane. He caught me and spun me around as I jump at him. I was giggling happily as I buried my face into his neck. He placed me on the ground and kissed me senseless. He pulled back to catch his breath, resting his chin on the top of my head as I placed my head back into the crook of his neck.
"I missed you." He mumbled into my hair.
"I missed you, too." I mumbled into his neck.
"You have no idea how happy I am to be home." He kissed my head.
"I think about as happy as I am to have you home." I replied, lifting my face to his. "I love you."
"I love you, too, Mrs. Grey." I shivered as the words left his lips. I bit my lip try to stop the enormous grin spreading across my face. "What?" He questioned.
"I like hearing you call me that." I admitted.
"Good." He smiled and kissed me again.
By the time Shane and I had finished our reunion, the others had all caught up with one another as well.
Nicky skipped over to Riley excitedly. "Hey." She smiled up at him. He smiled at her as he reached down to hug her.
Caitlyn smiled while making her way to Nate. When she hugged him, he lifted her off of the ground, not willing to let her go.
"I missed you so much." Nate admitted.
"I missed you more." Caitlyn said teasingly.
"Nuh uh." Nate replied childishly.
"Yeah… I did…" She argued back playfully.
"Prove it." He challenged. She grabbed his face, kissing him with everything she had. "Okay, we're tied." He decided when she pulled away. Caitlyn smiled at him.
Anastasia slowly made her way to Jason. He smiled tightly at her. The smile didn't reach his eyes. He pulled her into a hug as soon as she was close enough. "I may be mad, but that doesn't mean I haven't missed you." He told her softly. "We'll talk when we get to the house." She nodded wordlessly.
Shane and I, as well as Nate and Caitlyn, were permanently attached as we left the airport a little while later. Nicky and Riley were holding hands. Jason had his hand on Anastasia's back, and her arms were folded across her chest.
The ride home was… slightly awkward. Once we were in the limo, Jason was on the opposite end of Anastasia. You could see how hurt she was by his actions, but had you looked close enough, so was he. You could see his eyes glistening when he moved.
The moment we were in the house, Jason dragged Anastasia into the fateful kitchen of the Grey House. The one where their feelings were screamed at each other all over again.
"Start explaining so I know the facts from you." He said much calmer than expected. We were all listening, and didn't bother to hide it either. We all knew that everyone's relationships were open game to the rest of us.
Anastasia sighed, sitting at the island in the middle of the kitchen. "You know Bray and I… dated… when we were broken up. After I found out about all of your girlfriends." Shane and Nate snorted at the word girlfriends. "I was determined to get over you. So, to appease Elisha, I went out with him. We'd hung out a few times already and he seemed like a nice guy. E said he really liked me. So, we went out a on date. One thing led to another and we ended up at his dorm. We didn't have sex or anything, I promise. I wasn't lying when I said nothing happened between he and I. We made out, for like five minutes before I realized he wasn't going to be able to get the image of you out of my head. I pulled away and apologized, saying I wasn't over you. That I couldn't be doing that with him when I was picturing it to be you."
Caitlyn and I awed a bit. We never knew this because we weren't there for her at that time.
"Okay. What does that have to do with you kissing him now?" Jason asked.
"We stayed friends. He said he understood. E recently, as in post-Bray-being-a-jealous-selfish-egotistical-heartless-ass-bag-" We all tried to keep back our laughter, and even Jason cracked a smile. Anastasia was too caught up in insult Bray to appreciate it. "-type of recently, told me that he'd been hoping that I'd get over you and then actually date him. I didn't know this. I thought he could handle just being friends with me since… we only went on one date…"
"And he just randomly grabbed you and kissed you while someone took a picture because you didn't?" Jason asked sarcastically. "Or was he hoping to woo you while I was away?"
"Did Jason just say woo?" Nate asked Shane, who nodded back bemused.
"No. he thought we'd break up again. But, when he heard me on the phone with Mitchie, telling her how much I missed you, he questioned it. I told him the truth, that we were still very much together and in love. And that he and I were just friends. Then he made the comment about 'we'll see' but I didn't think in to it too much. I was too busy crying and feeling guilty after he went back inside."
"He warned you? He basically handed you a warning say 'I'll get you eventually' and you ignored it?" Jason raised his voice.
Anastasia raised her in response. "No! I mean, yes, but that was because I'd finally admitted how much I'd been fucking missing you and it took it's toll!" She yelled back. "I wasn't ignoring what he said."
"Are you oblivious? He was probably jealous throughout most of that conversation!"
"What the hell is your problem? You can understand when ever anyone else screws up, but you can't understand now when it's your girlfriend? What would you like me to say to you to get you to understand? I love you. It was a mistake. What else can I tell you? He wanted to talk, we did. He kissed me long enough to get a picture out of, I pulled back smacked him, yelled at him, and then he threatened to blackmail me. I wasn't going to go out like that. I wasn't going to break up with you. And if you break up with me over this, he still wins. But, I tried calling his bluff, and then he showed me the picture when one of his cousins handed him a camera. What was I supposed to do?" I yelled at him.
"You shouldn't have even been friend's with him! You should have known I didn't want you to be, but I wasn't about to tell you couldn't. You should have understood why. You got yourself in this mess, don't blame me if I leave you in." He yelled back. He sighed, trying to calm down. "I do understand it, but I can understand what I'm feeling. And what I'm feeling hurts. A lot."
"Jason, you think I'm not hurting? I love you and I feel like you hate me…" Anastasia said softly.
"I don't hate you. I don't know what I feel toward you, but I don't hate you. I loved you. I wanted to marry you. But you betrayed me. Whether intentional or not. And that hurts." He explained.
"Loved? Wanted? As in past tense?" She asked in a small voice.
"I don't know anymore, Stas." He admitted.
She thought for a moment. "Marry me." Collective jaws hit the floor. "Right now. It's the only way I can prove to you that I love you and it was a mistake, and I know I screwed up. But Jason, please. I just want to be with you. The only thing that I am absolutely sure about in this world is that I want to be with you for a very, very, long time." She was pleading with him.
We all exchanged glances as we waited for Jason's response. We were all shocked and on edge. He surprised us greatly.
He shook his head slowly. "Not like this."
So, did we like Jason in this? I know a lot of it was underplayed for the others, but… and how many of you expected STAS to be the one to propose?? That was the plan from day one. Well, not day one… but yeah. I wanted Jason to be his understanding self, but it's still an argument.
Okay, so spoilers:
"No one told you, you had to be strong."
"I want to be."
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"As a friend, I can't let you do that."
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"Well, Mrs. Grey. There are two different things wrong with you."
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"I have to let you go. I can't be the reason your life is so tormented."