Home (Finding My Home Book 1)

by Nikita Parmenter

  The drive to school is uneventful and we make it there just as the bell rings. I say a quick goodbye to the guys before rushing to my class, taking my seat next to Rylie just as the second warning bell rings, the teacher still gives me stink eye though.

  Ass.

  Rylie raises her eyebrow at me and I just smirk, shrugging before turning back to the teacher and attempting to concentrate.

  The lesson drones on and on and I find myself drifting off with thoughts of the guys more than once. It's getting a bit ridiculous now. Halfway through the lesson, (is it seriously only halfway through!?), I literally can't stand it anymore and I raise my hand and ask for a bathroom pass so I can get out of here for a few minutes. The teacher reluctantly gives me one and I make my way out of the room quickly before he can change his mind. As soon as I'm out in the hallway though, I slow down a bit taking my time. I usually love English, but that teacher was sucking all the joy out of today.

  I peek through the doors to the classrooms making sure to stay out of view of the teachers but subconsciously searching for the guys, I'm bored. Admittedly it's not that much of a subconscious desire to find the guys. This has always been a problem for me, I get bored super easily so if a lesson isn't interesting or is something I've done before I just switch off. A bored Ever is a dangerous one. It's the third door along where I finally find three of my guys, I stand at the door admiring Jensen, Luc and Trick, hoping that one of them will glance my way.

  The guy sitting next to Jensen glances up and spots me, so I point to Jensen. The guy thankfully understands what I'm trying to say and nudges him, before subtly pointing towards the door. Jensen looks confused for a second before he spots me, and a beautiful grin lights up his face. I smile in return and wave.

  Feeling bored, and therefore playful, I hold up my finger and push an imaginary button, pretending I'm going down in a lift. I hear a cough that sounds suspiciously like a laugh, not good enough. I pop back up grinning as Luc and Trick notice that I'm there, feeling cheeky I blow them both a kiss. Their eyebrows hit their hairlines at my show of easy affection but I'm in too good a mood to take it back. I want to see them properly laughing. I start running through different scenarios in my head, before deciding which one would make them laugh the most.

  I start pretending I'm in a fight with my other hand out of the frame of the window. I make it utterly ridiculous and it's not long before all three of them burst out laughing, along with several of their class mates, the teacher spins round and I take that as my que to leave. I wink at my guys blowing them a kiss and noticing Selena glaring at me from the midst of almost identically dressed girls. I spin on my heel quickly before the teacher catches me and jog down the hallway and into the closest bathroom.

  I actually need to use it now I'm here. I'm just finishing up and washing my hands when the door bangs open loudly behind me, I glance over my shoulder and sigh heavily before I dry my hands and turn back around to face an apparently livid Queen Bitch.

  "Can I help you?" I ask calmly, leaning back against the basin behind me and crossing my arms over my chest.

  Before I can even attempt to defend myself, the crazy bitch rushes straight for me, screaming like a fucking banshee. She grabs a handful of my hair and smacks my head against the bathroom countertop, twice. Thank god the school keeps these bathrooms cleaner than my last one, weird thought to have right now I admit. My head bursts with pain as I feel a sticky substance start to drip down my face.

  The bitch fucking made me bleed.

  Black spots dance in front of my eyes, and although I'd normally be able to get myself out of this situation, she fucking got me good and I'm too fucking dizzy. She still has a strong hold on my hair, holding my head to the counter with force. The position causes the cut from the first hit to drip blood right across my forehead.

  She leans forward, gripping my hair tighter and making sure I can see the deranged light in her eyes.

  Well fuck, she is actually a psycho.

  "Stay the fuck away from Trick" she pauses, "actually stay the fuck away from all of them, they're too good for you, you're worthless. You're only going to bring them down" she sneers at me, "the only thing you're good for is spreading your legs."

  She releases the grip on my hair roughly, causing my head to bounce on the counter and I groan in pain, black spots still swimming in front of my eyes.

  The psycho, then turns to the mirror fixes her outfit and hair then strolls out like nothing happened.

  I slowly slide to the floor, begging the world to stop fucking spinning, blood is now dripping down my face and over one of my closed eyelids.

  Huh, when did I close my eyes?

  I know I should get up and assess the damage, I need to know if I need stitches but I'm so fucking dizzy still and the room will not stop fucking spinning. I gently tilt my head back, leaning it against the wall behind me, blood no longer drips in my eyes, but my arms feel like dead weights at my sides too heavy to lift. After a minute or so my head clears enough to realise that I really do need help. I reach trembling fingers into my pocket and pull out my phone. I go on to my contacts and click the first contact I come to, stupidly grateful that the guys all gave me their numbers after my whole nightmare freak out. I'm just about to press call, when I remember that the guys can't answer their phones in class, my fingers are clumsy as I type out a short message:

  Me: Bathroom, help.

  At least that's what I try to write but one of my eyes is glued shut from the blood and my head is pounding so hard that I'm barely squinting through the other one to make out the words, so fuck knows if it makes sense. I click send and pray that Cash checks his phone soon. I vaguely remember something about not falling asleep when you bang your head but, man I'm so freaking sleepy. The loud bang of the door crashing against the wall jolts me from my almost slumber and causes me to groan in pain as the sound reverberates around my poor battered head. When I finally pry my unstuck eye open, to see what new hell awaits, I'm pleased to see that my vision has cleared.

  "Fuck, fuck, shit!" Cash curses his deep voice panicked, "Everleigh, fucking hell, sweetheart what the fuck happened?" Cash kneels down beside me, his face taught with worry and his eyes still wide with panic as they run over me looking for damage.

  I must look pretty damn macabre with blood gluing my eye closed and smeared across my forehead.

  Just having Cash near me helps to clear some more of the fog from my brain.

  "Fucking, Queen Bitch" I growl softly.

  "Fuck, hang on Ever, there’s a lot of blood where are you hurt?"

  "Just my head, could you get me something to wash the blood from my eye please?"

  He nods before getting up, grabbing a paper towel and going to the sink to wet it, he pulls out his phone as he does it and sends a text before moving back next to me and gently wiping my face, apologising when I wince. It's less than five minutes later when a thundering of heavy footsteps can be heard coming down the hall and the sound of cursing fills the bathroom. I lift my hands up to my head, clutching it gently as the combined sound of their loud cursing instantly sends a stab of pain through my head. The guys immediately quieten down, but my eyes stay closed. I feel a soft touch on my cheek and open my eyes to the stormy grey eyes of Trick.

  "Hey there Ever, no falling asleep ok?" He asks softly, "keep those beautiful eyes open for us, Dragonfly."

  "Ok" I take a deep breath, "my head doesn't feel as foggy anymore but man it fucking hurts, what's the verdict Cash?" I ask, glancing up at the other guys who are all crouched around me. A quick glance at the door shows that they've locked it to stop anyone coming in, which makes me feel better. I’m vulnerable right now and I don’t want anyone but the guys near me.

  "Here you go Ever" Luc interrupts before Cash can answer and places two painkillers in my hand as Rafe hands me a bottle of water from his bag.

  "Thanks, guys" I smile softly, before taking the painkiller, man I seriously hope they start working quickly.

 
; "Well you don't need stitches; the cut is about a centimetre long and there’s a bump underneath, so it's going to bruise." Cash tells me softly, when we were kids Cash always was the one that bandaged us up when we got hurt, I'm glad that hasn't changed. "The bleeding has slowed right down; it's practically stopped but I don't want you falling asleep for at least an hour and we need to keep an eye on you for the next forty-eight hours just in case. Which won't be a problem since we're all staying with you" Cash shrugs and grins although it doesn't quite manage to mask the worry in his eyes. He's obviously had some sort of training since we were kids.

  "Alright, Sunshine," I raise my eyebrow, on the good side, at Riot’s new nickname for me and he just grins in response, "do you think you can stand?" He asks, crouching down in front of me and holding his hands out.

  "Yeah, I'm not dizzy at all and the painkillers have kicked in so the pain in my head is manageable now." I grab hold of his hands, letting him pull me up slowly.

  "Whoa, head rush" I say as my vision darkens towards the edges. I close my eyes and rest my head against Riot’s chest, waiting for the world to stop spinning. His arms wrap around me and I feel two different hands touch my back, supporting me just in case.

  "Aw shit, sorry Riot I got blood on your shirt" I grumble frowning at the small line of blood on his grey shirt.

  "Don't worry about it Ever, it's just a shirt" he chuckles.

  "The bells going to ring soon, think you can do the rest of the day at school?" Trick asks.

  "Fuck yes, that bitch doesn't get to win" I grin.

  "What happened Ever?" Cash asks, his gravelly voice concerned.

  I spend the next few minutes explaining to them what the crazy bitch did. Leaving out that she told me the only thing I'm good for is spreading my legs, that one dug a bit too deep and feels a bit raw. My dickhead father used to say something similar to me, towards the end.

  "Shit, this is my fault. I swear I only slept with her once and that was it. She just clung to me after that. It was like as soon as I slept with her a switch was flipped and she went from normal to obsessive, possessive and jealous. I never thought she'd take it this far." He runs his hand through his hair messing up the blond strands as he paces the bathroom. I viciously try to force down the stab of jealousy that goes through me.

  "Dude I fucking told you she had the crazy eyes" Jensen comments from next me, making me smirk.

  Trick shoots a glare towards him but sighs, "I know dude" he walks towards me as Riot moves out of the way and gently cups my face in his big hands. "I'll fix it, Ever" he vows.

  Whilst I appreciate the sentiment behind it, I can't let him do that. I bring my hand up to hold his against my cheek.

  "Thank you, but I am perfectly capable of taking care of this myself" he opens his mouth, no doubt about to protest but I need him to understand where I'm coming from, "I'm telling you I can handle this, I promise that if I didn't think I could or if there is ever a situation where I don't think I can handle it myself or want help, that I will ask you guys, I'm not stupid" I say with a small grin looking around at the others and making sure they understand too. "But this is one bitchy as fuck girl. If she comes at me again I can absolutely handle it and if you were to go behind my back and do something, not only would you be damaging my trust in you but you'd be telling me loud and clear that you don't respect me or my decisions." I explain as best as I can.

  "I never thought about it like that" Trick says quietly, studying my features.

  "Me neither" Luc agrees rubbing the back of his neck and frowning at the floor. The other guys all make various grunts of agreement and my grin widens.

  "Ok Ever, I get it but promise me that if there ever is a situation that you want us to handle or you want our help with, that you will ask" the intensity in his eyes warns me that this is a serious thing for him and it's one I can easily agree to.

  "I promise" I say firmly, he smiles at me softly the intensity bleeding out of his eyes and turning into something warmer as he steps back so I can see all of the guys again.

  "I know that you aren't used to people being there for you Ever, but I promise you that we are going to be there for you from now on and I want you to promise, that even if you have an issue that you can handle yourself that you still tell us about it. We will always respect your decisions and your choices but no secrets" Luc asks.

  "Ok that sounds fair, but I want the same promise from you guys, no secrets."

  They all agree, and Jensen initiates a weird group hug. The guys then make me promise to never tell anyone that they willingly participated in it, which has me giggling my ass off. I was in the middle of the group hug and although I won't admit it out loud, I adored being surrounded by them. My chuckles are interrupted as someone bangs on the door.

  Whoops.

  "Well fuck, we can't all just walk out together" Jensen says frowning as he glances my way, "there are already rumours going around about Ever's relationship with us."

  "That's true, we don't want to add more fuel to the fire and make it harder for her" Rafe signs.

  "Well how the fuck do we do it then?" Riot growls.

  "No matter how we work this, loads of people saw us leave class together and we've been gone for like forty minutes" Luc states grimly.

  "The rumour mill is going to be going crazy as it is, if we all walk out of the girl’s bathroom with her, there'll be rumours of us all fucking in here. I don't give a shit what anyone thinks of us but like fuck do I want what they think to hurt Everleigh" Cash adds.

  The guys all ignore the sound of the bell ringing for our next class. I'm not going to lie, what he said has my imagination going crazy with ideas and positions that we'd be able to try, but before my mind wanders too far down that path and I'm embarrassingly caught fantasizing about us all having sex, I force myself to tune back into their conversation and listen as the guys start to argue about how to get us all out of the bathroom.

  It becomes increasingly clear to me that they really are trying to protect my reputation, the thought causes me to chuckle quietly to myself as they debate. It is genuinely laughable that they think I'd give a shit about what these people think about me, but my heart melts at their thoughtfulness.

  I listen for a minute longer, just to make sure none of them are worried about what people are going to think of them and then stride towards the door thankful that despite the slight pain in my head; the painkillers are doing their job, and I feel back to normal. As my hand turns the lock, the guys all turn to look at me.

  "I've got absolutely nothing to be ashamed of and actually, even if what they think was true and I was fucking all of you in here, I wouldn't be ashamed of anything apart from the fact that we were doing it in a bathroom at school because that's just nasty" I shrug and grin as the guys eyes widen in shock. In all honesty, I have no idea why I admitted that out loud. Probably because they're all being so fucking awesome and feelings are a bitch, they make me admit shit I normally wouldn't.

  I quickly turn back around, and yank open the door before the guys can say anything. I'm sort of hoping that maybe they take it at face value and don’t realise that I like them so much more than friends.

  Every single one of them.

  Fuck, I'm going to have to say it ... Just fucking friends Ever.

  Of course, there are still quite a few students in the halls rushing towards their next classes. I run my eyes over the girl at the front of the group of girls waiting to get in the bathroom. I vaguely recognize her as one of the Queen Bitches, I mean Selena's, followers. A quick glance behind her shows that a couple of the girls have cell phones out and most of them were in my class, they've obviously come to video my humiliation at the hands of their queen and don't realise that the guys came for me.

  I see the follower bitch falter when she sees I'm not bawling my eyes out like she obviously expected. She shakes off her hesitation and plasters on a sneer, instantly turning her pretty features ugly, several of the girl’s snicker waiting for the s
how, which is fucking pathetic actually. I will never understand why people do that. Follower bitch opens her mouth no doubt to spew something hateful, when she glances over my shoulder and her eyes widen as her jaw drops, as in literally drops, it's actually ridiculously comical. I can't help but chuckle as the strong muscular arm of Trick, wraps around my shoulder and Jensen grabs my hand on the opposite side, we move forward slightly as the rest of the guys come out of the bathroom.

  Luc stands next to Trick as Cash and Rafe stand next Jensen. Riot comes up behind me and rests his chin on top of my head, wrapping his arms around my waist, before he drops a kiss on to the top of my head just for good measure.

  My stupid heart clenches.

  "Sorry" Trick says shrugging and without giving an excuse, because actually we don't owe these people fuck all.

  I'm glad he took over though because I can barely form coherent thoughts right now, I'm enjoying being surrounded by the guys too much.

  "What the fuck!" A screech sounds from the back of the group and Selena forces her way through the crowd, knocking several of the girls over in the process.

  "Get the fuck off of him now, he's mine" she's red faced and breathing heavily, several of the girls take that as a que to disappear, whilst the others take a giant step back and out of the danger zone.

  Trick glances down at me. This isn't me defending myself this is different; Trick needs to tell her in no uncertain terms how he feels about her. I nod, in agreement to his silent question. Enjoying the screech from Selena as she gets even more pissed because he ignored her in favour of me.

  "We aren't together Selena and I sure as fuck don't want to be. I've tried to be polite and say it nicely but you're not fucking listening, so I'll say it so everyone can hear. We are not together, we haven't ever been together. I slept with you once when I was fucking drunk, nothing will ever happen between us." Trick states firmly. He doesn't yell, he doesn't call her names he just states simple facts.