Authors Note: Thankyou to arubagirl0926 and haleydavisbaker for your reviews. A lot less than usual, hopefully it wasn't because the chapter was bad! I found this chapter hard to write but I hope yous all like it. WARNING: Some scenes may be distressing. Disclaimer: I do not own OTH!

Avery awoke from another tiresome night. These days, she just couldn't sleep, she ached all over and as she sat up in bed, the room spun. Her head was pounding and she could hardly see straight. In some ways, she liked the feeling because each day she was getting more and more used to it, just like the burning sensation that she got when she forced herself to be sick.

Just like every other morning, she showered her bony body, washed her thinning hair and changed into the most comfortable clothes she owned that didn't make her mom suspicious, before applying lots of make up to cover her many spots. Looking in the mirror to inspect herself, she smiled at how she looked; in her eyes she looked great.

Outside her door she could hear her family talking. Her dad had dropped by again, probably to take her to school. She left her room and joined them all in their small kitchen.

"Morning princess," Chase said as Avery sat at the table.

"Do you want any breakfast pumpkin? I've got your favorite," Alex pointed at the bran flakes on the table.

"Thanks Mom."

Avery helped herself to a small bowl of cereal and listened to what was going on around her. She couldn't help but notice how happy her parents were.

"So I told Kevin, that the Brain Blaster was made with tequila and vodka, not tequila and sambuca," Chase explained with a grin on his face. Alex joined in with laughter.

Avery didn't quite catch the joke, but whatever it was, it made her mom laugh. I had always been one of Avery's favorite sights, her mom flicking her head back, closing her eyes as she laughed hard. She smiled at the sight.

She must have spaced out because next minute, both of her parents were staring at her.

"Sorry, what?"

"We were just wondering if you're going out with Quinley this week?"

She shrugged, "Probably not."

Avery had chose to not tell her parents about her and Q's fallout, knowing that they'd only worry about her. It had been weeks since she had spoken to him. Ella's birthday party had been awkward for both of them. She noticed how Q chose to sit in a different room to her, to make things easier. But things weren't easier; she missed him.

"But i thought you two were friends?"

"He has a girlfriend. She comes first."

"Julian has Brooke but we still make time for each other. It's what best friends do, maybe you should talk to him," Alex suggested, knowing just how it felt to like a guy who already liked somebody else.

"It doesn't matter. I have Annie. She's my best friend. Look I'm gonna get my bag and then you can take me to school dad."

The nauseous feeling that she got every time she ate something, overpowered her as she squeezed past the chair that Chase was sat on and into the bathroom. Usually the want to be sick came when she was in school and able to hide it but today it came earlier. Maybe it was talking about Quinley, she wasn't sure but she threw up into the toilet all the same, making sure to be as quiet as possible.

Once she had brushed her teeth and grabbed her bag, she walked back towards the kitchen but stopped at the sound of her parents hushed voices.

"How about tonight?" she heard her dad whisper.

"I don't know Chase."

"Just for a movie Lexi, like old times. Avery can babysit and we'll just have fun. You said yourself that things have been going great lately."

"They have so maybe we shouldn't ruin them?"

"We've got to at least give us a try?"

"Okay, a movie and we'll see what happens," Alex agreed.

Avery chose that moment to make her presence known.

"I'm ready dad," she declared walking back into the room, pretending to not have heard.

Sawyer stood outside the door of the set built motel and waited for Julian to shout action. She was grateful that her dad wasn't there because she was sure that she wouldn't be able to do the scene. She was doubting herself even now. Looking over her shoulder, her green eyes met Jonny's dark ones and he smiled, almost reassuringly which surprised her.

"And action!" Julian called out.

That was Sawyer's cue. She opened the door of the motel room and entered at a fast pace, heading straight for the bed. Jonny followed suit and watched as Sawyer clambered onto the bed and clumsily felt around.

"It has to be in here," Sawyer broke the silence as she rummaged further under the pillows to find the bracelet. As she pushed the blanket away from the bed, there lay the silver bracelet. She picked it up in her hands and slowly stood off the bed, tears lingering in her eyes.

"Got it?" Jonny asked as Sawyer walked closer to him nodding her head. She met his eyes and laughed at how emotional she had got over the bracelet, just like her mom had told her. Jonny smiled back with a Lucas-esque squint in his eyes. "It's okay," he reassured her.

Sawyer ran her fingers through her hair as she let the tears grow stronger. So many thoughts were rushing through her head: was she in the right position? Were her tears believable? Was she ready to actually kiss Jonny in a steamy make out session?

"It's okay now, okay?" Jonny asked again. She nodded and fell into his arms as he pulled her in a tight embrace. She was surprised to feel how well they fit together. He kissed her temple as she tightened her eyes shut; not because she was scripted to but because it was a natural reaction.

Jonny gently pulled her away, brushing a few curls behind her ears as he did so, looking deeply into her emerald eyes as they darted from his eyes to his mouth. He knew she was scared, she didnt like being the dominant one but this time she had to be. He couldnt just kiss her because it wasnt part of the script, she had to kiss him first and he hoped to God that she got it right.

After a few more seconds, she finally moved her hand to the side of his face and brought it down to meet hers in a tender kiss. He deserved an Oscar for his next move; playing Lucas he had to act shocked and not jump straight into the kiss despite every fibre of his body telling him to.

He counted the three seconds that he was told to by Julian earlier on, and then placed his hands on her face, devouring her lips with his own. He was shocked at how content Sawyer seemed. Their lips fitted together perfectly and he couldnt help but moan slightly as her tongue delved into his mouth.

Carefully, he pushed her jacket from her shoulders as she watched his every move waiting for him to kiss her again. He didn't leave her waiting long as he captured her lips with his own again. Her hands roamed to the back of his neck and pulled him further into her. He'd given up on counting the seconds, to hell with the script, he thought as he walked her backwards towards the bed and carefully pushed her so that she was lay on her back.

He desperately wanted to laugh at how confused and taken aback she looked but he didnt and instead climbed above her, using his arms to hold himself up so as not to crush her. His lips met hers once again as his hands went to the bottom of her t-shirt, peeling it off her body so she was only in her simple, yet sexy black bra. His lips leant down to her flat stomach and kissed it softly, just above where her jeans started. He felt her shiver beneath him.

Sitting up slightly, he pulled his t-shirt over his head and watched as Sawyer stared at his toned body. But she couldnt stare long because soon enough, Jonny was back to kissing her lips. Accidently, she bit on his bottom lip causing them both to smile within the kiss.

His lips moved away from her mouth and onto her neck where his necklace soon enough got attatched to Sawyer's hair.

"Ow!" she gasped as his necklace tugged on her curls. "There," she smiled as she untangled it.

"Brooke," he muttered.

"What?"

"Brooke gave me that necklace. You know, we should probably get going?"

Sawyer nodded before Jonny stood away from her, leaving her lay on the bed.

"And cut!" Julian shouted.

She sat up on the bed and looked around for her shirt to find that Jonny was already holding it with a smirk upon his face.

"Give it back!" she demanded, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"No need to cover up for me princess. I've already seen it all."

"Can you not just be a normal person for one minute?" she grabbed her shirt form his hands and placed it over her head.

By the time she was done, Julian was on the stage with them.

"I'm impressed. I was a little worried about this scene but you both did awesome and all in one take too."

"So we don't have to film it again?"

"Don't sound so disappointed princess," Jonny snarked.

Sawyer met him with a deadly glare.

"My first AD is just watching the scene back as we speak but I don't think you'll have to do it again. Now go get some food and don't be late for your tutor session this afternoon."

Julian left the stage and Sawyer headed to her dressing room to get changed. Unfortunately for her, Jonny's dressing room was right next door so he walked next to her.

"You know all you gotta do is ask."

"Excuse me?"

"To sleep with me," he said nonchalantly.

"That's the last thing I want."

"You can't lie to me princess."

"Stop calling me that!" She almost screamed.

"You're sexy when you're angry," he smirked as he opened the door to his dressing room. Sawyer continued walking to hers so he shouted to her, "Remember, I'm only a door away if you need me."

Walking through the hallways, Avery was glad that she no longer had to wear her cheerleading uniform and was able to hide herself away in the baby pink Clothes Over Bros hoody that she seemed to wear everyday these days.

Most of the time, Avery had Annie by her side but today Annie had decided to go to the bathroom before class, leaving Avery alone at the lockers. Putting away her math book and closing her locker, she turned to make her way to home economic and bumped straight into the person that she had been avoiding.

"Avie!"

His signature white smile beamed back at her and she was surprised that he looked happy to see her. She replied with a half hearted smile and then tried to get out of his way.

"Wait, can we not talk?"

"About what Quinley? About how much you dislike your girlfriend yet stay with her? Or maybe how you're such a great friend and actually pay attention to my problems for a change?"

"I said I was sorry Ave, I've left you alone for weeks, now I just want my friend back."

"Well maybe we were never really friends. Look I won't talk to you and you don't talk to me. It will be like how it used to be."

With one final glare, she stormed off down the hallway.

Their clothes were splattered with green and blue paint as they painted a wall of Freddie's room. Julian was on a ladder painting the higher part, Brooke painting the middle section and Freddie painting the lower part of the wall.

"Uh oh," Freddie gasped as his paintbrush fell to the floor. He looked up at Brooke and Julian's faces. "I sorry."

"It's okay buddy. It was an accident," Brooke comforted him as she knelt down to his level and picked up his brush off the floor. "That's why we put paper on the floor."

"Paint clean?"

"Of course. It just washes straight off. We can put it on your clothes or face and it's fine."

He still didn't quite get it so Brooke wiped some paint on her cheek.

"See? It doesn't hurt." She wiped some paint on his nose and he giggled in delight.

"Painting's fun Freds," Julian called down.

The three of them went back to painting the room. The decorators were currently in the other rooms of the house and Brooke hoped that by next week they could officially move in and then sell their old house. Brooke's mobile rang in her Jean pockets so she handed her paintbrush to Freddie and stepped aside to answer the call.

"Hello?"

"Hey !" Haley's always friendly voice called out.

"Tutor wife! What can I do for you? I only saw you a few days ago."

"I know but I never really got the time to talk to you at Ella's party and I've got a bit of free time now so I thought I'd see if you were free."

"Sure, shoot."

"Well I'm going to book an appointment to see the doctor because we've had no pregnancy symptoms. But before I go, I just wanted to know if you wanted me to try again. I always said I'd try twice for you guys and if you still want that, then I'm okay with it. I just wasn't sure what the situation with Freddie was."

"Everything is great with Freddie. We're actually just painting his room now. But we have the money to try again and we're fortunate enough to be able to handle two children if we were successful this time. But only if you're okay with it Hales because I know how big of a thing it is."

"You'd do the same for me right?"

"In a heartbeat."

"Then I'm gonna talk to the doctor about setting up another treatment of IVF as soon as possible."

"Thankyou Haley. Just keep me informed okay? I want to be there with you again."

"I will do. So Jamie is coming this weekend, he said he will probably spend a day with you guys," Haley explained her son's visit. She was truly excited, not just to see her son but also to see his girlfriend that he was clearly serious about. From what Jamie had shared with Haley, Megan was quite a girl and Haley couldn't wait to show her off to her family and friends.

Three hours in school and Avery was already exhausted. She was used to not having as much energy as before but had been drinking coffee to keep her going. She had forgot her coffee this morning though and she could definitely feel the effects. Most of the day, she had walked around in a daze. Her head was spinning but she tried to brush it off. After taking a quick break after lunch to throw up her sandwich, she made her way to her next class to find the room empty. Her drama class would often move around school depending on what the teacher had prepared for that day, the only thing was, if you werent there on time then you never knew where the class had moved to.

Walking the empty corridors, she popped her head up to the glass window on the front of every door to see if her class were inside but what she saw in room 201 definitely surprised her.

Sat on top of a desk with her legs wrapped tightly around, not only the most popular guy in school, Declan Donovan, was Tasha Jacobs. Avery stood as close to the window as possible, mouth hung open in shock as she witnessed Tasha making out with Declan the senior. The girls had only just turned fifteen, yet here she was with an almost eighteen year old.

Avery honestly didn't know what to do. All she could think of was Quinley and knew that she would have to tell him what she had seen.

"Here's a few more algebra problems. They're a bit harder than the ones we've been working on," Haley explained as she pushed a question sheet to Sawyer. They had been studying for over half an hour, which was a long time when Sawyer hated Math. "Just give them a shot and we'll see how you do."

Sawyer bent her head down towards the desk and focused intently on her Math problems. She hadn't even finished problem one when Jonny entered the Green Room where the tutor session was being held.

"Sorry I'm late Mrs Scott," he apologised as he placed his notepad on the table.

"It's okay Jonny. Just sit down and I'll give you the work that you've missed."

He tried to pull out the chair next to Sawyer but found that it had her bag on it.

"Can you move your bag?"

"No." She said without even looking up.

"Fine," he sighed and moved to pull up another chair and sat away from Sawyer. Their interaction didn't go unnoticed by Haley.

For the next half an hour, Jonny managed to behave himself and catch up to Sawyer; Haley was happy that they were both as intelligent as each other. As soon as she told them that their session was finished, Sawyer grabbed her things, said a quick goodbye to Haley and then hurried out of the room. Haley watched as Jonny stared after her.

"So why we're you late?" she asked trying to break his attention from the door from which Sawyer left.

"Oh, my dad is back. He's been finishing up some stuff in our old town and then he visited my sister. She lives just outside of Savannah. He wanted to see me and I lost track of time. I won't let it happen again."

"No it's fine Jonny. As long as you do the work, I'm happy. You don't sound too happy about your dad being home. Is everything okay between the two of you?"

Haley wasn't being nosey, she just had a this need to help people.

"We're just not that similar. He's more like Lanny. I guess I'm not quite the son he expected to get," he shrugged and Haley began to realize just why Jonny was the way he was.

"I'm sure he doesn't think that."

He shrugged again before adding a 'whatever' and picking up his notepad, standing from the chair.

"I'll see you next session Mrs Scott."

"See you next session and about Sawyer," she decided to get involved. "She's a complicated girl, she doesn't trust easy. You have to earn that with her. Give her some time and she'll come around. Just a little advice," she smirked and he smiled back. It was his way of saying thankyou and Haley knew it. Maybe he wasn't as bad as everyone thought he was.

In between classes, Avery had been looking for Quinley all day. She only had one more class left and figured that she would catch him after school, even if she had to go to his house. She had told Annie what she had saw and Annie wasn't surprised. She often called Tasha a 'slut' or some other insult.

As, Avery walked down the crowded corridor to her last class, she managed to spot Quinley's raven coloured hair amongst the many people. Finding whatever energy she had left, she ran towards him, bumping into a few people along the way but she didn't care, it was an emergency afterall.

"Quinley!" she shouted just a few steps away from him and she was thankful that he stopped and turned to face her with that Scott smile on his face.

"Ave, you're talking to me."

"Yeah, look there's something I've got to tell you," she started.

"As much as I love that you're talking to me again, I have to go meet Tasha at her locker and then I have to get to class," he turned to walk away but her hand reached out and stopped him.

"No, wait! It's about Tasha."

Quinley sighed and his smile went away as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"What this time Avery?"

"She's cheating on you with Declan Donovan," she said softly.

He laughed. "That's the worst lie you could ever think up. Declan is a senior Avery."

"I know he is but I saw them together earlier today making out in an empty classroom."

"I can't believe you're actually doing this. Do you really hate her that much? Are you that jealous?"

"What?"

"We both know that you've never liked her. Even she knows it. She told me that she thinks you have a crush on me, whatever. But the point is Avery, whatever you feel for me, that doesn't matter because I have a girlfriend."

"I wouldn't lie to you about something like this Q. I'm telling you so that she doesnt hurt you. Do you genuinely believe I would do something like that?"

"I don't know anymore Ave. You've changed, I mean look at you," he said in disgust. "Is this all some attention seeking plan Avery?"

"I...I don't kn..now what you're talking about," she lied and wrapped her arms around herself.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Your parents might be acting like everything's okay but we both know that you're starving yourself. I mean, your clothes barely fit, your hair is thin and greasy and your face...You look almost dead Avery. I don't know why you're doing this, I don't care anymore. Go ahead, keep starving yourself because you're not getting anyone's attention. I'm done with you!" He spat out at her, his venom infected words stung her and the tears that filled her eyes proved it.

She couldn't take it anymore so she ran into the nearest toilets which were thankfully empty. Standing in front of the mirrors, she looked at the face before her. Was she really as ugly as Quinley was making out? She knew that she had lost weight but she had gained confidence so surely the weight loss didn't matter? His words ran through her head and she suddenly became dizzy and nauseous. The room around her began to blur. Her body became heavy and she just wanted to sleep. Her arms reached out for the sink as she felt herself fall but it was no use. She succumbed to sleep and let her body fall as her world suddenly went black.

Authors Note: Hopefully y'all liked it and review, they really help. If there's something that you don't like or want more of just let me know.

Next chapter: The aftermath of Avery's collapse, introduction of Jonny & Lanny's parents and more!