I woke up in the morning feeling like shit. I had woken twice during the night, once to go check the office again, and of course, Matias was still in there.

The other time I was woken by Erin calling me, which was a surprise, cause I had changed my number since the last time he called, only because Charlie forced a new phone on me, I wasn't avoiding Erin THAT much.

He also didn't seem to realise that America has different time zones.

I didn't pick up his call, be he texted afterwards and I replied to that. Kind of didn't have the balls to talk to him through anything other than text right now. He said he was doing fine, was just worried about me, which made me feel worse.

I told him I was nearly done, but had run into some trouble with the family which was making things more complicated.

I sighed in complaint multiple times as I got ready before sneaking downstairs and sitting in an empty living room quietly to avoid any loud noises.

Ughh, I have to go find Charlie.

"Coffee?" A voice nearly made me jump, and I looked up to see Aaron smiling at me.

"Uh I can't drink- wait..." I started automatically saying but paused. "What's in that?" I asked as I looked at his coffee mug, filled with really pale coffee.

"Oat milk." He explained and I tilted my head.

"Oh, well, you have your coffee seriously weak, can't handle the flavour?" I teased and he shrugged at me.

"I also have like 4 sugar cubes, problem?" He retorted as he sat next to me and I chuckled.

"That's...impressive."

"Keeps me sweet and sappy." He joked and I just quirked my brow.

"I like your hair." I commented which made him immediately blush. He still had his hair tied up like I had suggested, cute.

I smiled at him as he awkwardly found the doorway interesting to stare at, before noticing Charlie storm past it.

Damn, he's going out already?

I watched out of the window to see him rushing to a car in an expensive looking suit, talking on a phone while holding a bunch of files in the other hand.

"Do you get along with your father?" Aaron asked as he noticed me watching him, and I smirked.

"Nope."

"You wouldn't be very happy if you had to stay here then?"

"I wouldn't, I'd move out, I don't know if I'd enjoy having to live in England for a while though."

"You'd lose all of your inheritance because you dislike your father? I mean, the house is big enough for you to avoid him."

"...They're dangerous." I said quietly and he frowned.

"'They're?' Oh, you don't like Matias as well?"

"No, not really."

"I don't know him, so I can't say anything. But I'll keep that in mind." He smiled warmly and I smiled in response.

It was then quiet for a little bit while he drank his coffee, which was fine with me, I love the quiet.

"YO!" Alex stormed in making me chuckle at the irony as Aaron gave him a look.

"You coming into town with us?" He asked while squishing my neck in a hug from behind the sofa.

"What?"

"We're going to the courtroom early, Alex wants to come cause he's bored I guess." Aaron explained and I made a face.

"Yeah, I wanna go into town...I mean city...er whatever, you gotta come with!" He begged and I sighed.

"Okay, I guess." I eventually gave in and Alex beamed at me happily.

"GREAT, LES'GOOOO!" He zoomed out of the living room and I blinked after him.

"Right now?" I asked Aaron and he chuckled.

"It's 9 in the morning."

"Uh, so?"

"Come on, get your ass moving sunshine!" He encouraged which just made me make a highly displeased face.

"Can I say I've changed my mind?"

Maybe Matias will leave soon too, and I'll have a chance to get into the office.  With a house full of people? Bad idea...damnit.

"Sure, but you've got to tell Alex."

"Ugh, you're cruel. Fine."

"Need a hand?" He asked as he offered a hand in my direction while I slowly sat upright.

"I need a bucket of water to splash over my face." I commented as I lazily took his hand, only for my eyes to widen in surprise a second later when I was sent shooting up towards him.

"Fuckk, dude, calm the farmboy arms please." I breathed heavily and he smiled at me in amusement before reluctantly letting my hand go.

Yeah, reluctantly, I saw that. He's obvious as shit.

I'm fucking queen oblivious, yet I noticed that? This guy really has never had a crush before.

My fatigued mind doesn't give a single shit, it's cute, so whatever.

"Riley come onn!!" Alex returned before grabbing my wrist and dragging me out of the house.

Ughhhhh the outside world.

I looked at the few people around to see it was just the group that went along to the lawyer firm yesterday, plus Alex.

Luckily, that meant they had to use two cars this time.

We were going to split up three with three, with Luca, Aaron and I going in one car, and Chester, Chance and Alex going in the other, but Alex refused to let that be the case, hiding next to me in the car and even dragging me out by the leg with him when Aaron tried to evict him by force.

Eventually, as always, everyone got tired of his bullshit, and just let him come with us. So Chance and Chester could argue all they like in their own car.

With no one to stop them...

Oh god.

Alex wouldn't stop asking questions about legal stuff and more..unusual things, so Luca and Aaron were stuck looking like they wanted to tranquilize him nearly the whole way there.

I just rested my head against my arm on the side of the window, staring out at the other cars, almost falling asleep.

That was until my phone started ringing, scaring the shit out of me.

I made a noise of complaint before checking the screen, which was new and uncracked, still getting used to that; I had that broken phone for so long.

It was Erin again, he's persistent, isn't it like super late in the night for him??

He must want to talk voice to voice...but I can't make myself do that.

I rejected the call and put it back in my pocket.

"You should probably talk to him." Alex said quietly, but seeing as he was originally the only source of noise in the car, everyone had gone silent and were listening anyway.

"Really? How did you even know it was him?" I questioned and he wore a deer in headlights expression.

"Uh....lucky guess?"

"You gave him my new number didn't you?"

"Uh, maybe."

I glared at him and he gave me a sheepish smile.

"Have you fallen out with Erin?" Luca asked, and I guess that would be a natural assumption to make.

"No, I, um, it's complicated." I said, which made both Aaron and Luca frown in discomfort.

Luca opened his mouth to say something, but Aaron gave him a stern, silencing look, which he glared at him for a second for, before backing down.

I smirked to myself in amusement as the car settled into silence, which was quickly broken by Alex asking even more random questions.

I stayed quiet and just stared out of the window, but I kept on noticing all three of them glancing at me every now and again.

I sighed, am I seriously that obvious? Or do they do this even if I'm acting normal, I can't even remember.

Once we arrived, it took Alex a few seconds of looking up at the building before he got bored and started trying to drag me away someplace else.

I made a lazy face at him and complained.

"Come on seriously it's boring here." Alex encouraged and Chester gave him a look, to which he responded by pulling his tongue out as he tried to drag me along.

"I'm really not in the mood for walking right now though..." I excused and he pouted at me.

"Why are you so tired? What were you doing last night?" Luca suddenly asked and I blinked.

"Why were you up so late?" Aaron added on and I smiled sheepishly.

"Er..."

Chester just smirked to himself as I thought up an excuse making me give him a look. Don't smirk, it's not your fault I'm tired, I can handle a lot more than that.

"I just, couldn't sleep." I explained and Luca gave me a sceptical look.

"Ok then. Anything wrong?" Aaron asked, accepting my story and I smiled at him.

"Nope."

"Ok that's great lesss goooo!!" Alex persisted and I finally gave in, looking back only once to see the others walking into the building before following him down the busy street.

He sighed once we turned the corner, before turning to me with a wide eyed expression.

"How did this happen!?" He exclaimed and I blinked at him.

"What?"

"Them, being here, my god, I was not expecting it."

"You weren't?"

"No way! Not all of them at least, they haven't given me a break since they got here! Always glaring at me, making passive aggressive comments, questioning me! Ugh they're relentless."

"They are?"

"Stop asking me questions mergghhhack!!!"

"....Are you okay?"

"STOP!"

"Um..."

"FINE, everything is awesome! Let's go get lots of sweets, and coffee, and chocolate, and.....vegetables."

"Uh, vegetables?"

"Yeah, for your vegan ass."

"Um, no thanks, you aren't forcing me to eat no veggies.."

"WHAT. What do you even eat?! Wait. Never mind, I don't want to know!"

I started chuckling at him as he pranced away in front of me towards the city centre.

I followed him silently, watching as his eyes darted around, surveying everything in curiosity.

"What time do we have to be back there?" I asked him and he paused.

"Uh, when's the hearing or whatever?"

"One."

"Well, then I guess. Well, they'll call me if they need me."

"Yeah, they may need a person to drive people insane, could be useful."

"Oi. I take pride in my ability to drive people up the wall, it's an art."

"Well, you're a pro."

"Really? Do I get on your nerves?"

"Hmm, no."

He stopped skipping around and blinked at me.

"I don't?"

"No, not really, you're easy to block out anyway."

"Hey."

I laughed at his reaction and he rolled his eyes at me.

"Okay, for that I get to choose where we go."

"You were doing that anyway."

"Good point."

-

I had almost mastered the art of sleeping with my eyes open by the time Alex calmed down enough to stand still.

He hadn't even finished the stuff he'd bought in town last time, but still had tons of bags filled with childish sweets next to his feet.

He was leaning against a railing in the centre of the large street. It was very busy, and loud, making me slightly anxious.

"Should we be getting back now? I know it's a little early, but all this noise is wearing me out."

"What? Are you a tortoise that needs to hibernate or something? Come on!!"

"A what?.....Ok." I decide to ignore that strange comment, but soon found myself frowning again as I stood next to him.

"Can we move somewhere else though? These children that are crying are stressing me out."

"Child."

"What?"

"It's a single child, don't over exaggerate!"

"Dude. It's still loud."

"I guess, why is it crying anyway?" He narrowed his eyes in it's direction and I took a step away from it.

"I don't know, why is that important?"

"Well it's on its own, I think it's lost!"

"Wait, stop! Don't approach it! You'll get arrested for being a pedo or something!" I warned him while he approached the young girl as it wailed and sat in the middle of the street.

"Come on, we can't just ignore a child in distress, talk to it or something, ask it what's going on."

"Do I LOOK like I speak child?!"

"Calm yourself Riley, it's just a young human, not a baby snake."

"I don't child, okay."

"Dude."

We both just stood there in front of it as it cried, standing awkwardly with neither making a move to get closer to it.

"We have to do something now, it looks like we're the reason it's crying or something." I warned and he awkwardly shuffled closer to it.

"Hey, child thing, you alright?" He asked and I scoffed before laughing. He looked back at me with an unimpressed expression as the child continued to cry.

He made a face and shrugged at me as he stepped away, making me sigh and step forward.

I kneeled down at it's level and smiled at it.

"You okay princess?" I asked in a calm voice and it stared at me.

Does it not speak English or something?

"Where are mummy and daddy?" I tried again and she scrunched up her face.

"I don' knowww! Mummy!" She started to cry again and I let out a stressed breath.

Children stress me out, okay.

I looked at Alex for help but he just took a step back. Great.

"Where did you last see her?" I asked and it stopped wailing, sniffling and looking like it was thinking. I think.

"Do you know where? Point to the last place you saw her." I persisted and it eventually pointed in the direction of a large BOOTS pharmacy.

"Okay, how about we go on an adventure to find Mummy?" I smiled warmly at her and she nodded, sniffling.

I tensed up when she grabbed my hand, then forced myself to relax as I stood up, awkwardly leaning slightly to the side because she was too short.

I shot Alex a glare as I walked past him and he just gave me a sheepish grin, walking a little bit behind like he thought it was going to blow any second or something.

Of course once we reached the front of the store, there were no stressed mothers to be found.

"Alex, go into the store and ask if anyone has reported any lost children around." I ordered and he happily ran off away from the terrifying small creature I was stuck with.

"Do you see Mummy anywhere?" I crouched down and asked the girl, she just pouted and scrunched up her face ready to cry.

"Well, maybe you need to be higher up to see her." I suggested, thinking about helping her up onto a bench or something. She took it the wrong way however and clung to my neck.

I resisted the urge to shy away from the child as I stood up, holding her in my arms as she surveyed the crowd.

She seemed to relax, and was happily sucking on her thumb as she looked around.

Wow time is going by really slowly...

My arms are starting to ache.

Help.

A flash of a camera made me jump, and I looked to see Alex typing on his phone with a grin.

"Alex." I warned and he looked up at me.

"What? Oh apparently there was a lady looking for her child, she left her number, they're calling her now." He explained and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"That's great, but what did you just take a picture of?"

"Oh, you. I posted it on twitter."

"What?! Dude you can't post pics of random children online!"

"I know that! She was facing away, duh."

"I did not consent to this picture either."

"Oh calm down, it's just my personal twitter."

"Personal? That's even worse! We're going to get in so much trouble. What did you put??"

"'Riley kidnapped a child.'  And a small 'jk.' at the end."

"ALEX."

"MUMMY!!" The child suddenly wailed making me jump.

I turned round to see a red faced lady storming towards us.

Oh god, am I going to suffer the wrath of a stressed parent??

"Isabelle! My baby!" She called and stretched her arms out, I just leaned my head back and stiffened as she took the girl from me.

She hugged her close and I just smiled awkwardly when she opened her eyes again.

"Thank you, boys. That was very kind of you." She said after taking a relieved breath, and I relaxed.

"No problem! We just had to help a poor damsel in distress!" Alex exclaimed and smiled at her.

Bitch??

"Aw, well is there any way we can return the favour?"

"No that's alright, we weren't doing anything apart from standing around anyway, so it was a valued experience." I said before Alex could make some kind of strange request, and she nodded and smiled at me.

"Such kind youths. Thank you so much, I must leave now, got two other small ones waiting in the car. So hard to keep track of at this age." She excused as she began stepping away.

"Bye!"

I turned around and gave Alex a look once she had left, making him just smile at me cheekily.

"Oh yes,  you really helped a lot didn't you." I said sarcastically and he shrugged.

"Well you wouldn't have approached in the first place if it wasn't for me." He commented as he turned around, and I took that as my chance to snatch his phone.

"Hey!" He complained as I looked down at his screen.

Nate and Aaron had already commented on the twitter post. Nate just posted a question mark face where as Aaron said 'WHAT?! WHERE ARE YOU TWO!?' with no Emojis present.

I'm guessing the reason Luca hadn't posted a stressed comment was due to the fact he didn't have an account or something, which was lucky. Although Aaron might have told him, ugh.

I glared at Alex as I let him take his phone back, and he just shrugged at me, chuckling when he read the comments himself.

"Delete that, now."

"Why didn't you just 'delete' it yourself?"

"I don't have twitter,  I don't know how it works."

"Wow."

"Okay whatever, I'm never going out with you again if you continue to get me into trouble like this."

"What! The times you got into trouble were totally your fault!"

"I deny that fact."

"You're in denial you mean!"

"Well, that's kind of what I said."

Alex just closed his mouth and looked confused.

"Anyway, we've got to get back now, before we give Aaron and the other's an aneurism or something."

"Oki."

-

Aaron and Chester were outside of the building when we arrived, and looked relieved to see us.

"Guys, we thought you were arrested for kidnapping children or something!" Aaron complained as he walked towards us, and I rolled my eyes.

"We just helped a kid find their mom again is all." Alex reassured and they both didn't say anything.

Chester gave Aaron a glance before staring at me.

"Children, huh?" He asked and I blinked at him.

"What?"

"A teenager your age to be okay with children, is kinda odd." He added and I gave him a look.

"Hey, that child was forced upon me!"

"So, you want children already?"

"WHAT."

"You didn't seem that interested when I was talking to you about it." Aaron commented and I gave them both an incredulous look.

"Just because I didn't leave a child all on its own doesn't mean I want one! Jeez."

EW. Children!

"Wait, you talked about children with Riley? Slow down a bit will you." Chester exclaimed and Aaron glared at him with red cheeks.

"Not like that, it just came up."

"Uh huh sure." Alex joined in and I sighed.

"Guys. Stop." I insisted and Chester raised a brow, his demeanour slowly turning unamused.

"Okay whatever, let's just go inside, we have things to do." He said as he turned around, and I bit my lip as Alex and Aaron gave each other a kind of hostile look.

Ugh.