The Beginning to an end

Chapter Eighteen:

Phoebe POV

As I stared at my best friend with her smiling nervously back at me, all I could think about is how sad I was. We always talked about the two of us getting an apartment together. But then I think about what she’s been through all her life, what she’s been through today and what the guys and I heard back at the house; after I do I’m not as sad. I would rather have her far away from those assholes Ruby and Sebastian then her be staying in the house and then go missing one day; I’d much rather have her safe and sound.

“Are you mad, Fee? I know we promised to get an apartment together but after today, I couldn’t stay in that house.” I wanted to be mad at her but she’s giving me puppy dog eyes and she knows I can’t say no to her when she looks at me like that.

“No I’m not mad at you. I’m just glad you’re safe and sound after the disappearing act you pulled today at the hospital. How did you leave anyway?” she shrugged her shoulders

“Uber. He picked me up and took me to the house. He was really sweet and I wanted to give him a tip but since I forgot my wallet, I asked if he wanted to wait inside or out while I get the tip. He came inside and waited while I got it, gave it to him, he left and started packing my bags. I’m going back to the house tomorrow to put all my furniture in storage and take anything that I want in the apartment.” wait.. What?

“You’re going back there!? Tomorrow!?” 

“Yes. But just to pack up my room and put everything in storage. Danny and Andrew are going to help me tomorrow. I’m going to talk to them about going in the morning so it won’t cut into my work.” who’s Danny and Andrew?

“Who is this Danny and Andrew?” calm me crazy but I think Drake just growled as he pulled Rose closer to him. 

“Calm down Drake. Danny is one of the owners of the apartment complex that I moved into. He and his WIFE Emily both run it and Andrew is their son. He’s our age so you don’t have to be so protective and territorial over him.” hmm… 

“Is he good looking? How tall is he? Is he buff?” 

“Haha I don’t know, I haven’t seen or met him yet so I can’t say. But you will love Danny and Emily, they are super sweet and some of the nicest people I have ever met; aside from you and your family Fee.”

“Hey!”

“You too guys.” I laughed as all the guys nodded their heads before I remembered something.

“Wait Rose. Where are you going to store everything and won’t you need it for the apartment?” she shook her head and leaned forward, Drake supporting her as she did.

“Actually they have a bunch of storage units and they are letting me use how ever many I need as they put it but I told them I would only need one of them with my organization skills. They said that I shouldn’t waste my money on renting a storage unit and to just use theirs so I asked if they had a truck that I could use to transport everything, Emily said yes and that she will get her husband and son to help me with the moving. But since there are two of them, they most likely won’t let me do anything beside point what I want moved out. I would rather them not come at all so if Ruby and Sebastian are there, they won’t cause Danny and Andrew trouble or anything.” just the mention of Rose being alone with Ruby and Sebastian after what happened earlier ran a chill down my spine.

“I’ll go with you. To help and everything.” all the guys started to agree with me but Rose shook her head before detangling herself from Drake’s lap and standing up.

“No you won’t. You and the guys have school tomorrow and I have a feeling that when you all find out where the apartment is, you will be coming over nonstop, especially Remus and Nico and then I won’t get a chance to unpack or anything. While the apartment is spacious and everything, having all of us plus Danny, Emily and Andrew will make it a little cramped. I’ll be fine you guys so stop worrying.” but what if they are there at the house and try to do something?

“But… I would still feel safe if at least some of the guys went with you, Rose.” 

“Remus and I will go with you guys. We’ll bring our truck too so we can do everything in one trip. It makes it easier too since we don’t have school, thank god.” she didn’t answer at first, looking like she was thinking it over before she answered.

“Fine, it doesn’t matter what I say because you guys would show up anyway.”

“Yep”

“Of course” she laughed and rolled her eyes before she walked away to take care of the rest of her tables. In the next hour, she got done with three tables and they filled up again. We watched her take orders, make all kinds of drinks, bring food out before doing it again for other tables. She really is amazing…

“You all do realize that we’re gonna have to tell Rose what Ruby and Sebastian we’re talking about right? We can’t keep her in the dark about it. If she finds out that we kept something having to do with her, she won’t be happy at all.”

“We know Phoeb’s. The problems not about going to tell her, it’s about how we’re going to tell her. It’s not like we can just walk up to her and say ‘by the way Rose, we found out that your fake parents kidnapped you because they got paid to and were planning on giving you the murdering psychopath who hired them for the job.’” ok that’s fair..

“Well we obviously won’t say it like that but we need to find a way to tell her and show her the video. She doesn’t like people hiding things from her.”

“Yeah we figured that out from today.” ha if they only knew.

“What you saw today was only a little piece of what she does. If you haven’t figured it out yet, she isn’t your typical normal girl. She bottles up her emotions because she thinks that feeling them makes her weak. She distances herself from everyone and everything to suffer in silence. She can be smiling on the outside but crying on the inside. But those things get magnified times 10 when someone hides something from her or when someone she’s known for a while ends up hurting her. Her way of thinking is entirely different from ours and everyone else's. When someone she’s cared about ends up hurting her, she starts thinking that she isn’t good enough to have friends, family and thinks that they would be better off without her. Like with her moving out of the house today; she says that can’t stay in that house anymore because of how they lied to her right?” they all nodded their heads and were leaning forward, saying that they were listening very closely. 

“Well, my guess is that there is another reason behind it. Her finding out what they did was a major part of it, yes, but she still would of told us her plan and where she was thinking afterwards but she didn’t. Instead, she chose to hide it from us because she doesn’t want us to have to deal with it and she’s thinking about just shutting herself off and to suffer alone. She’s used to doing everything on her own and when someone is like that, it’s hard to get them open up about anything. Trust me, I’ve known her for almost all of our lives and I’m still trying to get her to open up about some stuff. We need to tell her and soon because if we keep it a secret from her, she won’t trust us again.”

“Ok, we’ll tell her, not now but sometime soon. Maybe in the next few days but not now, she’s been through so much already.” who knew that the bad boy of Angel Crest had a heart under all that ‘don’t f**k with me’ vibe? Rose really is an amazing person.

As we all sat at the table, we all talked about random stuff, making sure to mess with Rose but in a loving way whenever she came over to ask if we wanted anything. I’ve learned that Alex is a glutton when it comes to food and is always hungry. His excuse is that he burns a lot of calories when training so he constantly needs to eat; I pointed out that I was in constantly in training when I was a gymnast but never ate half as much as he does so I just called him a glutton which got a laugh out of the whole group and a sad puppy dog look from Alex. Rose would be getting off in about a half an hour and we finally realized that mostly all of the restaurant was empty except us and the staff. I looked around for Rose but instead saw Stephanie walking over, swaying her hips in a way that I’m guessing is trying to look seductive but it looks like she’s drunk and trying to walk a straight line, it’s hilarious. As she made her way to the table she stopped at Drake’s chair before leaning down to give all the guys a view of her non-existent cleavage. 

“Hi gentlemen. You’ve been here for a while, is there anything I can get for you and I mean anything, you just let me know. I’ll be happy to help you.” when she finished talking, she put her hand on Drake’s shoulder, trying to drape herself over him; it’s making me both uncomfortable and pissed off. 

I couldn’t help it, I tried to but I just couldn’t. Looking at Stephanie, I leaned my head on my hands before putting a blank expression on my face.

“We’re ok, Stephanie. We don’t need anything and if we did, we would ask Rose since she is helping us not you. So you can leave, I’m sure you know where the door is? You know? The one you’re always going out of instead of doing your job?” from the look she was giving me, you would think she was having a seizure with how much her body was shaking instead of her being pissed at me.

“Last time I checked, no one asked for your opinion Phoebe~” oh this b***h… “so why don’t you mind your own business or else…”

“Or else what Stephanie?” Stephanie spun around so fast that she almost fell but she caught herself on the table; what a shame…

“Nothing Rose. We were all just talking and I was getting to know the guys here. That’s all.”

“Is that so?” I smiled as Stephanie nodded her head quickly “Then can you tell me why you’re pushing your fake breasts into my friends faces? If that’s how you try to make friends, then it makes sense that you don’t have a lot of them.” ha!

“Well, y-you don’t have a lot friends so what does that say about you!?”

“On the contrary, I have friends. I just said that the people that you are trying to seduce are my friends. And it just so happens that one you just tried to threaten is my best friend. I don’t like it when people try to do things to the people I care most about.” as she was talking, she walked over and grabbed her arm; taking it off of Drake’s shoulder and stood in front of him. I looked over at him and saw that he was… happy? What is he happy about? He leaned his head on his hand and was watching Rose as she talked with Stephanie. Oh.. I get it now; he’s happy that Rose is jealous enough to actually step in and get rid of her.

“Your friend started it first so why are you yelling at me!?” say what now? I couldn’t have heard that right.

“Since when am I yelling at you? You’re the one who is yelling and causing a scene when there isn’t a need for one in the first place. I’m just telling you that if you leave my friends alone, we won’t have any problems. Do you understand?” she nodded before leaving. Rose sighed and stepped away from Drake, he didn’t look to happy but who cares. “God, I swear that girl comes up with new ways to push my buttons. It’s like her hobby or something. Anyway, I came over to let you guys know that I’m done with everything and I’m ready to leave, so you guys don’t freak out and start wondering where I am.” 

“Very funny Rose”

“I think I am, thanks” I shook my head as we all got up to leave

“Oh wait I have to clock out and grab my stuff. I’ll meet you at the door.” she walked off and we all started walking before Drake stopped and said he would be right back and walked off as we made our way down the stairs and to the door where we stood around. About five minutes later we heard a commotion, people screaming and as we looked up, we saw Rose walking down the stairs with Stephanie following her. Behind her, Drake was walking towards the stairs with Michael following close behind. 

Drake caught up to Rose and stood by her as she made her way down, making sure that she didn’t fall or get dizzy. Once they were at the bottom of the stairs, Stephanie and Michael came a few seconds after them and went straight to Rose, getting in her face. I wonder what Rose did to piss her off or is it the other way around? Rose stepped away while her and Stephanie got into an argument; well Stephanie is yelling while Rose looks she wants to be anywhere but here which I’m sure is true. I looked from them to Drake and Michael and I’m guessing Drake talked to him on how he talked Rose earlier because now it looks like he’s begging for his life, muttering about things as Drake looked at Rose while half listening before sighing.

“Look Michael, I don’t care about anything related to your family, friends, whatever. What I and my family care about is that the people we hire to work here do their jobs like they’re supposed to. And when you, being the manager and the one who looks after them, isn’t putting them in their places and letting them not do their jobs, well that alone is enough for myself or my family to fire you and everyone else not doing their job. But since that would leave little to no people to work the shifts which would then cause us to close until we hire new people and appoint a new manager thus making the customers very unhappy, that’s one strike against you but I’m not going to fire you.” we watched as Michael sighed in relief “yet.” his head whipped up and looked really scared as Drake continued. “Now, if you get your job under control and actually make sure everyone is doing their job accordingly and not slacking off, then I won’t fire you but you will be on thin ice. And on the matter on how you treat some staff, I’ve noticed how you talk and act with the staff and I have to say, I’m not happy in the least. That’s a second strike against you and I suggest you fix that, immediately. The people that work here don’t come here to be bullied by you or anyone else. Just because you’re in the manager position doesn’t mean you get to use that power against them and make them think they are slaves. If I hear anything about you or the other employees slacking off and you not doing anything about it or changing how you talk to everybody, you’ll be fired. Understood? Good”

He turned around and started walking towards us, fist bumping with the twins before he walked over to Rose and Stephanie. As he got close, Stephanie looked over at him before walking over to him with a smile which he ignored as he walked past her to Rose; the look on her face was priceless. Drake leaned down and whispered something in her ear and she nodded her head before walking to the door with all of us following. 

“We aren’t done, Rose!” this girl is really starting to piss me off. Rose sighed and turned around and crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Stephanie.

“Yes we are, Stephanie. I don’t have anything else to say to you. I’ve said what needed to be said and if you can’t handle it, then learn to. We are all entitled to our own opinions and I spoke mine. Now, I’m tired and because you and other employees were off doing other things and not taking care of your customers, I didn’t get to take said break because I had to cover your tables so I’m hungry also. And you complaining is starting to annoying me; tired, hungry and annoyed are not the best things to be feeling all at once. So we are done and I’m going home. Good night.” she turned back around and walked out the door without staying to hear what she was going to say. Before the door shut completely, we heard her make a sound that sound like a growl and a groan mixed together with the sound of her food stomping the floor; yeah I know, what a drama queen.

As we got outside, we all went to our cars and pulled up near Rose. She turned around as we rolled our windows down,

“Since you guys wanted to see it so much, I’ll lead you to the apartment.” after that, she got into her car and we followed her. I’m surprised that she found an apartment so close to both school and her jobs but that’s better then it being halfway across town and her having to rush to and from. Rose pulled into a spot and parked while we all pulled in next to her and got out. I looked back at the apartment and saw a couple walking over to us. Who are they?

“Rose? Who are they?” she turned around and saw them before smiling as they got closer.

“I told you that you guys didn’t have to wait up for me. You guys should be in bed by now. Guys, this is Emily and Danny. Emily and Danny, these are my friends; Phoebe, Drake, Alex and Justin. And these are my older brothers, Remus and Nico.” they smiled at each of us as Rose introduced us before looking between Remus, Nico and Rose, shocked.