11 Release, Rest, Regrets

MARK

"It's a Thursday. What do you mean she's not working?" I frowned.

"The manager was working the coffee machine today, apparently she called in sick this morning," Whitney shrugged.

"That's just great,"

"It shouldn't be that different, I do know the specifications that she puts into making coffee that the other barista doesn't, and the manager seemed to follow them," she frowned handing me the coffee.

"I don't really have a choice, the meeting starts in ten minutes," I sighed.

It wasn't that the other barista made bad coffee, it just wasn't my type of coffee, it was too strong and a little bitter, I have to add at least three packets of sugar to it for it to be drinkable. But her coffee was sweet and reminded me of Christmas which is odd, but I have never had a coffee quite like it before.

THEA

I pulled into the police station, Charlie was still half asleep in the passenger seat. I'd gone in to tell her what the boys had done and that I was going to get them, I wasn't expecting her to get up but she had.

She was definitely more tired than I was, but she hadn't taken short power naps throughout the movie marathon like I had, so it was understandable. The boys were sitting in the waiting area when we got there. Neither Sam or BM looked like they had slept, but Jae looked completely rested, maybe a little hungover.

"I thought you needed us to come get you?" I raised and eyebrow.

"Yeah my car is back at the club, we had no way home," BM nodded.

"I thought you meant bail you out, not pick you up," I frowned. I was irritated and I knew it was from lack of sleep I was getting towards it being almost 24 hours. That didn't make me any less annoyed

"Does it matter? You would have come either way,"

"No actually, if I had of known you didn't need bailing out I would have continued to sleep and you three could have caught a cab,"

"You guys look tired," Sam stated looking at Charlie who looked like she could fall asleep on her feet.

"We stayed up watching lord of the rings all night, we'd only slept an hour before you called," I growled.

"Don't get mad at us, we didn't know that," Jae stated.

"Well, we weren't expecting a phone call saying our three idiot friends got arrested. Now can you get in the car so I can go sleep?" I snapped

"Dude, do you have to be so loud? I have a headache. Also, we're not friends," Jae frowned.

"No, I don't care about your hangover, get in the car," I spoke louder.

"Thea, seriously," BM sighed.

"What? It's not my fault you are hungover, that's on you,"

BM

Thea was growing more agitated. It usually happened when she hadn't slept but had napped. She was overtired and if she didn't sleep soon she was likely to either fight someone or cry, there was also the possibility of her doing both simultaneously. The fact that her mouth was probably still hurting wasn't helping with her mood in any way.

"Why don't we just go back to your house and we can all get some sleep?" I suggested.

"Sleep? What a wonderful idea," she bit sarcastically, clenching her teeth. She did that when she wanted her mouth to stop throbbing, but I wasn't sure if it was that or because she was just really angry.

"Do you want me to drive?" I offered.

"No I do not want you to drive," she snapped as she tried, and failed, to hold back a huge yawn.

"I didn't drink enough to get too drunk and I've sobered up sitting in there for a few hours. I'm fine to drive, you don't seem to be in the same state," I pointed out.

"I'm perfectly fine," she snapped.

"Yo can we go?" Jae sighed.

"Does it really matter who drives?" Sam added.

"Just give him the keys so we can go home. You're overtired and in pain. I don't want to die today," Charlie spoke. Thea still clenching her jaw handed me the keys and got into the passenger seat without another word.

"Let's go guys," I sighed.

We drove quietly for a few minutes before Jae decided to break the silence.

"Can we go through a McDonald's? I really want a bacon and egg McMuffin, and maybe a hash brown,"

"Food actually sounds really good right now," Sam nodded.

"What do you say? Are you going to kill us if we stop for food?" I turned to Thea who was already asleep, I looked in the mirror, Charlie had also fallen asleep on Sam's shoulder.

"As long as no one wakes her we should be fine," I nodded.

"They haven't slept all night, not even I'm dumb enough to wake them," Jae stated.

"Okay quick breakfast run," I agreed.

SAM

We pulled into the driveway, Charlie and Thea were out cold, BM picked Thea up, Jae got out of the car and stared at Charlie for a moment, he looked like he was going to try and pick her up.

"I've got this, you can grab her, she's too heavy," Jae shook his head picking up the paper McDonald's bag.

"This is heavy enough, BM hurry up, before I drop everything," Jae threw over his shoulder as he walked towards the front door.

"You got her?" BM asked as he followed behind Jae.

"Of course,"

She was lighter than I thought she would be and that was already fairly light. She barely stirred when I lifted her from the car, she did stir slightly when I pulled her into the cold morning air. But she didn't wake up, not even when I climbed the stairs and was almost knocked over by and excited Volk.

Jae was already sitting at the kitchen table eating his breakfast, BM was coming out of Thea's room probably to take his shoes off before climbing into bed next to her. Not that I blame him neither he or I had slept at all last night. Jae, however, had slept pretty much throughout the whole thing which was conveniently all his fault, to begin with.

Okay, to be fair BM was slightly to blame seeing as he was the reason Jae was drinking. Jae was so irritated about being paid in drinks that he became slightly spiteful and decided to get to drink his full payment value. Drunk Jae ends about as well as drunk Thea.

BM

Sam placed Charlie in her bed and kicked off his shoes.

"Dude not a good idea," I stated quietly.

"Why?"

"Because she is bound to be mad at us when she wakes up, and I guarantee when Jae decides he wants to go back to sleep he will just wiggle his way in between you and fidget until you get out of the bed which will wake her up and irritate her more,"

Honestly, even though it was something Jae would do, I knew this because he had done it before, I highly doubted that he was in any mindset to do that today. He would probably just crawl into the spare bed if Charlie's was full. He knows better than to interrupt her sleeping.

But I had to say something to stop Sam getting in her bed. I wasn't against the two dating or anything but him getting into her bed right now when she has no idea how he feels and him pretending it's nothing more than friends would only end up hurting him. He was definitely heading for a relapse on the 'I'm not in love with Charlie' roller coaster and if that's the case then he needs to be convinced to put it all on the table and be honest with her about his feelings instead of being strung along like a marionette with a clueless puppeteer.

Charlie doesn't know she's doing it because she thinks they're friends but whether Sam will admit it or not she was more than that to him and some of the things Charlie did with him gave him the assumption that she probably felt the same and there was no need to actually voice it right now. Which let him hide his feelings until she found a new guy and he got hurt and found a distraction until he thought he had a chance again. It was a vicious Charlie Cycle she didn't know she'd had him riding for years.

"You're probably right," he nodded picking his shoes up and exiting the room pulling the door behind him.

I frowned watching him walk into the spare room. Sam was very good at self-sabotage, especially when it came to Charlie.

I got into bed with Thea who stirred at the disturbance and rolled closer to me cuddling into my side.

"If you snore I'll stab you," she mumbled.

JACKSON

"So what are your plans for the weekend?" Jessi asked as we made our way down to a lunch bar.

"It's only Thursday?"

"I don't work tomorrow," she shrugged.

"I'm hoping to go to lunch with someone," I nodded.

"The same someone that you're be been texting nonstop for the past few weeks?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe," I shrugged.

"Wait, hoping? Like it hasn't been confirmed?"

"She doesn't want to come alone, she's trying to convince her housemate to come too,"

"Why can't she come alone?"

"In case I'm a crazy psycho?"

"Why would she think you're a crazy psycho?"

"Did you hear how we met? The girl ran into me spilling soup all over me and then I asked for her number, not really the act of a sane person,"

"And this is why I shouldn't have days off, then you're left unsupervised," she shook her head at me. Jessi was probably one of the people I was closest with at work. People seemed to think we would date, personally, I don't think I was her type, I'm pretty sure she wasn't into men at all. But she was a good work friend, we didn't really hang out outside of work which was probably a good thing, I didn't need her knowing that I had more influence here than just a simple employee.

CHARLIE

"She lives," Jae stated when I emerged from my bedroom. I wasn't really sure what the time was but it didn't really matter seeing as I had nowhere to be anyway.

"So is someone going to tell me why we had to come and pick you up from the police station this morning?" Thea raised an eyebrow lifting the kettle in my direction, asking me if I wanted water put in the kettle for a coffee without actually speaking.

"I'm good," I waved her off.

"I have no idea," Jae shrugged stuffing a bowl of cereal in his mouth.

"Seriously?" Sam frowned at him, he just shrugged like he was clueless.

"Long story short, Jae got drunk and then got mouthy, we got arrested and he slept through the rest," BM stated.

"And short story long?" Thea asked placing a cup down in front of BM and Sam.

"It's really BM's fault," Jae shrugged.

"How is it my fault?" BM frowned.

"You're the one who got Drew to pay me in alcohol,"

"No one said you needed to drink that much,"

"If I was being paid in drinks I was going to drink my share,"

"That doesn't tell us what happened," Thea stated sitting down with her own cup.

"Well like I said, Jae got drunk and mouthy. Started announcing his love to the entire club until Drew asked us to remove him before he caused drama. So we left the club and ended up at a bar, I'm not really sure how that happened because we were trying to bring him home,"

"He's smarter than you," I shrugged.

"Anyway," BM frowned at me.

"We were at this bar for maybe an hour, Jae got all loud valley girl, as he does, and there was a misunderstanding between us and this other group of guys who thought Jae was trying to confess his love to this guys girlfriend, things only got worse when Sam and I tried to fix things. So things were said people were hit and police were called. No one pressed any charges but we had to stay in the cell until he had sobered up," BM nodded towards Jae who was still eating cereal.

"I remember none of that," he shook his head.

"That's probably because the minute Sam and I intervened, you lounged back in the chair and fell asleep," BM stated.

"And stayed asleep until about ten minutes before you guys came to get us," Sam added.

"Why did you need us to come and get you?" Thea frowned, she was probably still annoyed that they're called and woken her up.

"Because I had to leave my car at Drew's club last night, he has my keys because we had all had too many drinks to drive," BM stated.

"I should have made you walk home," Thea pulled a face.

"You wouldn't do that," BM mimicked her face.

"Sure I would,"

"Maybe to Jae but not to me," BM ruffled her hair.

"Considering you three are here already," she glared at BM.

"Not it," Jae shook his head.

"I picked you up, fed you, and got rid of your headache," Thea stated.

"Do you guys have to argue," I yawned.

They ignored the fact that I had spoken. That wasn't entirely unusual, especially when they were arguing with each other.

"What do you need help with?" BM sighed.

"The only place in the house that I haven't cleaned out is the shed," she stated.

"You haven't cleaned Charlies room," Jae stated, I frowned at him.

"Well she hasn't," he shrugged.

"What reason would I have to clean out Charlie's room?" Thea raised an eyebrow.

"She doesn't even go in Charlie's room," Sam added.

"Because it's weird," Thea nodded.

"I didn't say you had to go in there I was just pointing out that the shed wasn't the only room you hadn't cleaned out, and technically it's not even in the house," Jae stated.

"You're not going to be any help anyway, you can barely lift your own bowl, so just stop talking," Thea waved him off.

"You're right," Jae nodded.

"So you want help clearing out the shed?" BM raised an eyebrow.

"Considering your conversion from office to the apartment is done, and over half of the boxes in our shed are full of stuff that belongs to you three, I think it's time you guys took them and went through them,"

"You're the one who said we could keep them here as long as we needed," Jae shrugged.

"I'm pretty sure I told you to stop talking," she frowned at him.

"He's not wrong though," BM stated.

"I'm not saying they can't stay in the shed, but I think you guys should go through the stuff and see what you want to keep if you want to take any of it back to your apartment, and what you want to get rid of,"

"Why? it seems a little pointless to unpack boxes just to repack them again," Sam frowned, he was a little grumpy today which was strange for him.

Sam was normally quiet and pretty happy, but he seemed to been extra quiet today and not at all happy. Maybe he was just hungover or tired but it seemed like more than that, he was also avoiding looking at me or at least it seemed that way. Maybe I was still a little tired.

THEA

"It's pointless to have boxes of stuff sitting around with stuff you don't want or need anymore," I tried to make my point.

Honestly, I just figured that if they went through the boxes in the shed then they would be too busy to get in any sort of trouble for a few hours.

"Are you punishing us for waking you up from your beauty sleep?" Jae questioned.

"No,"

"Good because it doesn't matter how much sleep you get, all the sleep in the world isn't going to fix that," he waved at my face screwing up his own.

"Your face does look kind of swollen," BM frowned.

"It does that after I see the orthodontist," I sighed rolling my eyes.

"I'm surprised at how much you're talking considering the amount of pain you were in last night," BM muttered.

"The wonders of modern day medicine,"

"Are you still in pain?" Sam asked.

"No, my mouth only hurts when I try and eat solid food,"

"So you're on a baby food diet?" Jae smirked.

"I know what you three are doing, but you still have to go through your stuff,"

"Today?" BM sighed.

"No, tomorrow,"

"Why tomorrow?"

"Because Charlie has is busy all day and I have a shoot to do, so you three need something to keep you busy and out of trouble,"

"We got arrested one time," BM frowned at me.

"We don't get in trouble anywhere near as frequently as you do," Sam stated.

"I've never been arrested," I shrugged.

"Because we're always looking after you," BM stated.

"This is me looking after you, either go through the boxes tomorrow or I'm donating them," I shrugged getting up from the table.

SAM

"Seriously?" Jae frowned.

"You set off her mother complex, what do you expect?" Charlie stated.

She looked over at me and I quickly looked away. I couldn't help but feel like BM had meant something different earlier when he said it would be a bad idea to sleep in the bed with Charlie. I knew my feelings for her were coming back, and I wasn't sure how she felt about me but I was betting it wasn't more than a friend.

We have slept together recently, does that mean anything? I've told her my feelings before, several times, but she's never taken me seriously. She just brushes it off or someone interrupts us and she gets distracted. There are also the numerous times that I've chickened out and haven't gone through with it.

When it comes to Charlie, things are complicated, she makes every atom in my body buzz and freezes at the same time. I'm not sure she will ever take my confessions seriously, but at the same time I'm not sure I want her too, she's not someone I can imagine life without and I don't know if I'm willing to risk losing her.

"Where are you going?" BM's voice snapped me back into reality.

"I have a meeting," Thea shrugged.

"It's almost 4 in the afternoon,"

"What's your point?" she raised an eyebrow.

"A meeting with who?"

"Are you boys staying here for dinner?" she changed the subject.

"It is Thursday," Jae pointed out.

"Okay, I'll get something on my way home," she nodded picking up her bag and keys heading out the door.

"Anyone know where she's going?" BM frowned.

"She's your friend," Jae shrugged.

"No idea," Charlie stated getting up from the table.

"Where are you going?" Jae asked.

"To pee, what to come?" she frowned at him.

"I was just asking," he pulled a face at her.

"Oh, do you want me to drop you off at Drew's club to get your car?" Thea came back into the room.

"Yeah sure, let me get changed," BM nodded.

THEA

"So who do you have a meeting with?" BM asked getting into the passenger's seat.

"The guy I'm doing the photo shoot for tomorrow,"

"You liar," he frowned at me.

"I'm not lying,"

"You are, you're wearing interview clothes," he pointed out.

"I'm wearing a skirt and a nice shirt," I rolled my eyes.

"With stockings and a blazer,"

"What's your point?"

"My point is you're going to a job interview,"

"I need a job," I shrugged giving up.

"You have a job,"

"Not that I don't appreciate you giving me a job, but I need more hours than a few times a week, you only use me when you've rostered everyone else and you need a spot filled,"

"You could have just asked for more hours," he sighed.

"I still have nothing to do during the day,"

"So you plan to work that job then come work for me?"

"This interview is for a job that's only four hours a day, from 8 until 12, which gives me an hour between leaving there and starting at the bar,"

"And how far away is it?"

"I could walk, I don't get your resistance with this, I figured you'd be happy I wasn't going to be sitting at home re-cleaning things,"

"I'm glad you won't be bored but I think you're trying to do too much and you're going to overwork yourself,"

"I'm fine,"

"Don't say I didn't warn you," he stated as I pulled up to the club.

"Get out of my car, and make sure you get those boxes out of the shed," I sighed.

"You're serious about the boxes?"

"Yeah, so sort through them tomorrow before you have to open the bar, speaking of which who opened tonight?"

"Coco, I'll head over there after I get my car," he shrugged getting out of the car.

"Do you want to come and say hi to Drew?"

"Why would I want to do that?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Because he got Jae out of your hair last night?"

"And look how well that turned out," I stated. He just nodded with a small laugh closing the door.

BM

"Hey man, your keys are in the till," Drew called from behind the bar where he was restocking shelves.

"Thanks,"

"I thought you would have been here earlier,"

"Yeah, I had to wait for Thea to drop me off,"

"She couldn't have brought you by earlier?"

"Probably, but I think she was making me wait on purpose,"

"Why?"

"Because I'm in trouble because of you,"

"Why because of me?"

"After you kicked us out last night we ran into some trouble and got arrested, I had to get Thea to come and get us this morning, just so happens that she chose last night to pull and all nighter watching movies,"

"You got arrested?"

"Yeah, Jae got mouthy,"

"Well that's your fault, you're the one who told me to pay him in drinks,"

"You could have given him a cutoff point,"

"It all worked out fine, no one was hurt, right?"

"I now have to pull all of the boxes out of the girls shed and go through it just to put it back,"

"Thea went mother mode," Drew laughed.

"It's not funny bro,"

"It's a little funny," he shrugged.

"The next time we come drinking here I'm going to make sure she throws up on your dance floor,"

"She wouldn't do that to me,"

"She would,"