I laid in bed, groggy after having napped for too long. I looked over as the door opened and Leo came in.

He noticed me and frowned, kicking the door shut. "Killian, man, you've got to calm down. I get that Kaz's constant theft is irritating, but in case you hadn't noticed, he's a bit of a kleptomaniac. He really can't help it sometimes."

"He doesn't have to steal," I said, sitting up and running a hand through my hair. I checked the time and mentally sighed, hoping I hadn't completely fucked up my sleeping schedule for the rest of my life.

"The whole reason he landed here is because he can't fight the impulse to steal things," Leo said, sitting at his desk with a wince and shuffling through papers in search of something. "He steals from all of us from time to time. He always gives it back when you realize it's missing. He doesn't take things from you to piss you off or because he wants to keep them. He just does it because he gets an urge and he can't help himself. He has a problem."

He sat up with a paper in hand and got to his feet. He still looked like he was in pain from the beating they'd all taken, but the fact that he'd been able to sit down was a good sign.

"I'm going to Mikayla's room. We're all going to the dining hall in an hour or two if you want to come," he offered before leaving the room.

I got out of bed and stretched, wondering what to do for the rest of the day. I could always go for a walk to try and clear my head, but that sounded like a lot of work and I still felt tired.

The door opened again and my mood sank as Kaz leaned in the doorway. He stepped in and shut the door, letting his back rest against it as he watched me.

"Have a good nap, O'Malley?" he asked.

"Get out, Kaz," I said. "I'm not in the mood."

"Allow me to cheer you up." He pulled a small pack of Nerds out of his pocket and tossed them to me, watching as I nearly dropped them like the smooth guy I was.

"It would really cheer me up if you left," I said, setting the candy on my desk.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're really oblivious?" he said.

"I was busy having my own parent issues, I wasn't paying attention to who was digging their hands in my pockets to get my key," I said in annoyance.

Kaz sighed. "There you go, being oblivious again."

I ignored that and pointed at the door. "Get out."

"You're so touchy." He moved over to Leo's desk and lowered himself carefully into the chair, hiding his pain as best he could. Something told me he'd taken the worst beating out of all of them.

"I'm touchy and you have bad hair. Your point?" I said.

He ran a hand through his stupid undercut hair. "You pay a lot of attention to my hair."

"Because it's on your head and it's just...I have to look at it. So much."

"I like my hair."

"No one else does."

"Harsh, O'Malley."

I glared at him. "I hate when you call me O'Malley. My first name is Killian."

"And mine is Kaz but you can feel free to call me Warrick." He leaned back in the chair slowly, trying not to wince.

I frowned. "How bad did they hit you?"

"Not too bad," he said, shrugging.

"Let me see," I said. I thought that over and glared. "Just the injuries on your back. Keep your pants on."

"Your loss." He stood up and carefully tugged off his shirt, turning around so I could see his back.

I grimaced at the three angry red marks screaming across his back. But then I frowned, noticing a lump of scar tissue on his upper back.

"What happened?" I asked. "The scars, I mean."

He turned back around, running his hands over the scar on his back. "Little accident where I fell off a roof." He held up his arm, showing off a similar gathering of scars. "Tried to catch myself with my arm and hit my back, too."

He pulled his shirt back on and got back on the chair. I crossed my arms and looked at anything except for Kaz.

"Look, O'Malley, I get it. It's stressful being here. Your parents ditched you at a place you clearly don't belong. But you're just going to have to deal with us, because we're all you've got," Kaz said, breaking the silence.

"You pretended to be nice to me to rob me," I said. "Sorry if I'm not exactly buddy-buddy with you."

"Nah, I don't go that far. I just saw an opening when you were on the phone and I couldn't help it," he said, his tone easy-going and honest.

"In class, Sternberg said your dad was dead and you said you used to steal from him," I said. "How long have you been stealing?"

Wow, Killian O'Malley AKA Mr. Sensitivity.

"My dad died when I was five," Kaz said, a small grin playing at his face. "I used to take stupid things from him. He chewed gum a lot to help stay away from cigarettes, so I used to steal that. And I had a habit of stealing his shoes. He thought it was cute. When David started hanging around a few years later, I used to steal stupid things from him too. He thought it was like a little game between us. Point is, I've been stealing from people as long as I can remember. Just got better and better as time went on, I guess."

"I'm sorry," I said. "About your dad, I mean."

Kaz shrugged. "Like I said, I was five. He was a heavy smoker most of his life. He quit when my mom got pregnant with me, but that didn't stop the lung cancer from hitting him. Took him down fast." He rolled his eyes. "Everyone always says that's why I'm the way I am. 'Oh that Kaz, he didn't have a father to teach him'. But my mom met David when I was 6, and they were dating by the time I was 9. He loved kids. Took on the role of father pretty quick." He stopped and glanced at me. "Sorry, didn't mean to spill my life story. Just wanted you to know I'm not some fucked up kid because my dad died and I'm acting out over it. Can't say I don't get a little emotional when Forever My Father by Go Radio comes on, but I also can't say his death ruined my whole life."

I looked down at my hands, unable to meet Kaz's eyes. My mind was running crazy with my own thoughts of how his life had gone. A little kid showing signs of kleptomania and parents too busy dealing with cancer to address it. That's probably not how it went at all, but it's all I could think.

"Families are a touchy subject around this place," he said. "But you know what's not a touchy subject? Food. Come to dinner with us in an hour."

He got up and left the room. I grabbed the Nerds off my desk and sat down, opening the box and tipping it into my mouth, crunching on the candies.

I guess Leo was right; Kaz did have a problem. But that's why he was here, right? To fix his theft problem. Kaz was aware of his problem, but he didn't seem very interested in getting any help for it.

Not that it was any of my concern. Kaz's life was his own to fix or ruin.

I picked up a book and settled myself back on my bed, letting myself get lost in the pages of it. I wanted to get out of this nightmare of a world I'd been pushed into and escape into a new one.

After reading for a while, I looked up as the door opened. Leo and Mikayla came in, having one of their playful arguments.

"No, no, and no," Leo was saying. "Batman is an asshole with a weird orphan obsession."

"I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying-" Mikayla cut off as her phone vibrated, and I was almost a little disappointed. What was she saying that countered Leo's very true point of Batman being an asshole with a weird orphan obsession?

She plucked the phone out of her pocket and answered it. "Hi dad. I'm just hanging out with Leo." Her usually hard expression softened a little. "Yea, we're both good. I got the package you sent. I meant to text you. Yes dad, I've been staying out of trouble, I promise." The hard look returned. "Tell Jake he can keep it. I don't want it back."

Leo let out a whistle. "Shit girl, you've got drama to share."

Mikayla glared and kicked him in the shin. "What? No, that was just Leo saying hi. Have you heard anything about Drake?" She listened to her dad and nodded slowly to herself. "Yea, I know, dad, I know. I love you too. I'll talk to you later."

She hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket. Leo pouted at her, rubbing his shin.

"So, what's the drama? I live for this kind of stuff," Leo said.

"You're such a brat sometimes," Mikayla said mildly. "My dad said Jake stopped by. Apparently he was cleaning out his room and he found a jacket I let him borrow back when we were friends."

"Jake is her scumbag friend," Leo said, glancing over at me. "Total ass of a human. Really, his mom should've just swallowed him."

"He made a 15 year old swallow him," Mikayla grumbled, clenching a fist. "Whatever. I can't wait until I see the name Jacob Chambers in the police log someday."

"Any news on Drake?" Leo asked, climbing onto his bed.

Mikayla shook her head. "Nothing. Dad's going to bring me home to visit him in two weeks, he said." She checked the time and shook her head. "I'm going to go get Kaz and Pete. I'm hungry."

She left the room and Leo fell back onto his bed. I set my book down after marking my page.

"Drama?" I said.

"You have no idea," Leo said, shaking his head and sighing. "I'll be hearing her rant about this all week. That Jake guy is an asshole. Shit, I'm using that word a lot today."

"Who's Drake?" my nosey self asked.

"Her brother," Leo said. "Bad topic. Baaaaad topic. Don't bring it up around Mika unless you want to discover just how far up your ass her foot can go. Oh, dammit, there's that word again."

I nodded like I understood even though I didn't. Dammit, I was like Leo. I lived for the drama.

"Oh shit, here comes my turn," Leo said, holding up his phone. "My parents usually call around the time Mika's dad does." He answered his phone. "Hey mom, I'm still not in jail."

An angry voice came from the other end of Leo's phone. He listened patiently, nodding as if his mom could see him.

"Yea, yea, I know, but I think I'm hilarious. We're going to dinner soon, Mikayla is just getting Kaz and Pete. Huh? Oh, yea, I finally got a roommate. His name is Killian. Let me ask." He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at me. "Mom wants to know if you've ever been arrested."

"No," I said. "I'm so boring that I've never even been pulled over before."

"Damn! Mom, this kid never even got himself a speeding ticket. Are you having a heart attack? Yes mother, good people still exist in this world. Okay, I'll keep that in mind and let Killian's heavenly innocence influence my behavior. Hey now, that is a very rude thing to say to your own son. It's not polite to slap people." He snickered. "Yep, tell dad and Andrea they lost that bet of me going to jail by now. Dropping me in Constance Academy really shows that love for me, mom. Bye."

He hung up his phone and tossed it aside. "She sends me to a school that earned itself the nickname Conversion Academy, and then wonders why I never flood her with affection."

The door opened and Kaz came in, followed by Pete and Mikayla. Pete was on the phone, looking distracted the second he came in the room.

"Uh-huh mom, I'm going to go get food now," Pete said, cutting off whoever was talking on the other end and hanging up. "I'm hungry! Let's go!"

"How's the knee" Leo asked, sliding off his bed.

Pete frowned and tested it. "Dunno. Can't feel it."

"All those hydros should've killed you," Kaz said, shaking his head.

"Hey, at least the Saturday parent calls are finally over," Leo said in relief. "And my mom didn't even make me talk to my sister this week. Normally she puts Andrea on the phone and then she just goes on and on about her boyfriend or our dog or some stupid shit I don't care about."

"My mom told me she's not refilling my hydros," Pete said, and laughed good naturedly about the apparently empty threat from his mom.

"His parents own a pharmacy," Leo said to me. "By the way, are you coming to dinner, Killian?"

"Of course O'Malley is coming to dinner," Kaz said, grinning.

"You're lucky my hunger wins out over my judgement," I said, glaring at Kaz.

He grinned wider and turned, leaving the room. The rest of us followed him out of there, Kaz and his crew trying to hide their pain from the beating as they walked.

We made our way across campus to the dining hall, climbing the stairs and swiping our cards. We loaded trays with food and I followed them to their table in the back.

Somehow, I had the bad luck to end up next to Kaz at the table. I eyed him distrustfully, feeling my pocket to make sure everything was still there.

"Hm? Why are you looking at me like that?" Kaz asked, noticing my expression.

"If you take my spoon, I will ruin your parents' marriage, charm your mother into marrying me, and ground you for the rest of your life," I said.

"That was a very specific threat," Leo said.

"Also a very empty one. I don't really think my mom's your type," Kaz said.

"I could be into moms with spoon-stealing sons. You don't know my life," I said.

Well, no, actually. I was into guys with cute faces and nice bodies who really knew how to handle a co-

You know what? You get the point.

"Even if she was your type, my mom would never leave David," Kaz said. "Loyal woman, my mom."

"You are such a mama's boy. Stop talking. It's screwing up the whole badass image you try to have," Mikayla said.

"I can be plenty badass and still love my mom. I don't know why people act like it's so embarrassing for kids to love their parents," Kaz said, shrugging. "I will fully admit that I'm a sucker for my family."

"Hey, someone here has to have a good relationship with their parents," Leo said. "What about you, Killian? Are you like Kaz with his golden family, or are you like the rest of us?"

"My parents are alright," I said, trying hard to keep myself neutral.

My parents? Well, let's see, they basically got rid of me because they found out I got a hard-on for dudes. It wasn't socially acceptable to abandon your teenage son to the streets, so they'd dropped me here instead. Yea, our relationship wasn't doing so well.

"My mom, man, she always asks where a terror like me came from. 'Your sister behaves just fine Leo', well damn, mom, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you shouldn't have had two kids!" Leo said, shaking his head.

Mikayla pat his back. "There, there. I'd act out too if my name was Leopold."

Leo glared and smacked her hand away from him. "Enemies. We are enemies."

I watched them interact and suddenly missed my friends from back home. I had tried hard not to think about them since coming here. I'd told them that I was switching schools, too embarrassed to say the real reason. I'm sure some of them had put it together, though. A few of them had texted me to wish me luck, but I hadn't answered them. I was trying not to torture myself by keeping in touch with them.

And then my thoughts turned to the guy my mom had caught me with. Tanner.

"Don't touch my spoon," I warned Kaz, getting up and leaving the table.

I went downstairs and pushed open the backdoor of the building, going around the corner. I sat on the ground and pulled my phone out, typing in Tanner's contact and hitting it before I could let rational thought stop me.

I held the phone to my ear as it rang, that nightmarish scene roaring through my mind. My mother's horrified gasp, the sinking feeling in my gut, Tanner's hurry to get out of my house now that we'd been caught.

"Hey, it's Tanner, leave a message."

His voice floated into my ears, followed by a beep. "Hey Tanner. It's me. Killian. I guess I didn't need to say that because caller I.D. is a thing. Maybe you deleted my number, though. Well, it's me, the guy whose mom caught you with your tongue down my throat while we groped. Oh, wow, why did I say that? I'm so awkward. I just...I..." My voice was starting to choke up a little. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

I hung up the phone and threw it away from myself. Sorry? What was I sorry for? Tanner wasn't the one getting sent away to an abusive academy to be fixed. Tanner wasn't the one who now had a strained relationship with his parents. So what the hell was I apologizing to him for?

I pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my face against them. Why had I called Tanner? It's not like we had been dating. Friends with benefits, that was it. He didn't owe me anything, not even a conversation.

"O'Malley."

I jerked my head up at the sound of Kaz's voice. He was leaning against the side of the building and I felt panic enter my chest. What if he had heard my embarrassing phone call and had figured out the truth?

But then I calmed down, realizing that Tanner was a unisex name. Besides, there was a chance Kaz hadn't even been out here when I'd left the message.

Kaz held my phone out to me and I took it, putting it in my pocket. He held his hand out and pulled me to my feet.

"My spoon better be there," I said.

He pulled an I.D. out of his pocket, but I didn't recognize the name on it. He flicked it away from us.

"Swiped it from some kid getting dessert," he said. "Let's walk a bit."

"You sure do love your walks," I said.

"I do," he agreed. "Now, let's walk. The others will figure out we're not coming back."

"I never ate," I said.

"Something tells me you're not very hungry," he said, and I hated that he was right.

The two of us walked aimlessly along the sidewalk. Kaz seemed at ease with the silence, which gave me time to replay my horribly awkward message over and over in my head. Cool, shoot me now before Tanner checked it. I was really hoping he'd see my number and just erase the message without listening to it.

"Did you have a lot of friends back home, O'Malley?" Kaz asked, thankfully breaking the silence and the cycle of my thoughts.

I shrugged. "A fair amount, I guess."

"I had a group I ran with for a while. My best friend, she didn't care for them much," he said.

"Were they thieves too? Did you take the spoons and they took the forks and knives?" I said.

He shook his head, grinning a little. "No, no, I did all the stealing. They just helped." His grin dissolved into a thoughtful expression. "Sometimes it's just better to play along to get what you want. And sometimes it's better to just get out while you still have your dignity."

Well there, Kaz old buddy old pal, you had already claimed my dignity. But thanks for the advice.

"My friends and I just watched bad horror movies and ate a lot of cheesecake," I said. "We didn't go robbing bank and shit."

"Never robbed a bank," Kaz said. "Stole from a kid's house, once. Broke in at night with my friends." He smiled as he looked at me. "You're giving me that condescending look. The break-in wasn't my idea. Aaron, he got us up and into that house. I just took what he told me to. Ah, that guy was a real piece of shit."

"My idea of excitement was that moment when Netflix goes from the loading screen to the actual movie," I said. "Not breaking into a house to rob someone."

"I've done bad things with bad people," Kaz said. "But at the end of the day, I went home and sat down for a family dinner and used my manners like a good boy."

I shook my head. "You are not a good boy."

Kaz laughed. "Are you saying I'm a bad boy?"

"This is getting weird. I'm saying you're not opposed to doing all these bad things. And, eventually, doesn't choosing to do bad things make you a bad person?" I said.

Kaz thought it over and nodded. "I guess it does. I guess I used to be a bad person. I knew what I was doing was wrong. Didn't matter to me though. I practically ditched my own best friend for the walking trash cans I called friends. But making the right choice in the end has to redeem something."

"I wouldn't know. I tend to make poor life decisions. Not on purpose, mind you," I said.

"You live a pretty boring life, huh?" he said.

"Wow, how ever did you come to that conclusion?" I said.

Kaz gestured at me to follow him off the sidewalk and I did. We walked down towards the parking lot in front of our dorm building and I looked at Kaz in confusion.

"What are we doing? Do any of you have a car?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "Have a car? Pete doesn't even have a license."

He led me to a dark blue car and I watched as he made his way to the trunk. He began to mess with it, though his body blocked most of what he was doing.

"I was never good at this kind of stuff. Aaron was always the one good at breaking in to things..." He let out a triumphant nose as the trunk popped open. He swiped bag from it and tossed some of the trunk's contents into it. There were grocery bags which he easily picked his way through, grabbing what he wanted.

"Kaz, who does this car belong to?" I asked nervously, looking around. We were out right in broad friggin' daylight!

"Cam's," he said, eyeing the contents of one of the grocery bags. "Spoiled little Blue does his shopping on Saturday's. Usually takes his grocery up in long trips."

"We're breaking into Cam's car," I choked out with a disbelieving laugh. "Of course we are. It's not like we have the ability of rational thought or anything."

Kaz zipped up the bag and slung it over his shoulder, shutting the trunk. He moved to the front of the car. "Sometimes he leaves it unlocked. Maybe we can swipe something else off of him."

He tested the door and my heart gave a lurch as the car alarm blasted. Kaz let out a sigh and stepped away.

"Nope, not unlocked," he said.

He grabbed my arm and yanked me towards the edge of the parking lot at a run. The alarm was blaring behind us, and I forced myself not to turn around.

"What the fuck?!" I heard Cam's angry voice coming from the doorway just as Kaz pulled us under the cover of trees.

We kept running until we were out of breath. I stared at Kaz like he was a damn madman.

"What the hell?" I finally said. "Are you out of your damn mind, Kaz?!"

He grabbed my wrist and flipped it over. He took my other hands and pressed my fingers against my wrist.

"Feel that?" he said.

"That's my heart beating unnaturally fast because we just broke into an abusive kid's car!" I cried.

Kaz grinned. "No, O'Malley, that's your heart beating. That's called being alive. This is what it's like to do something unstable and exciting."

I sat down, my fingers still pressed to my wrist, feeling my rapid pulse. Kaz sat down next to me and unzipped the bag, digging through it until he produced two sodas. He handed one to me and I finally took my fingers away from my wrist to take it.

"You're going to get me beaten and killed," I said, opening it and taking a sip.

"Probably," he agreed. "But I'll teach you how to have fun in the process."

He held up his arm, tugging his sleeve up so I could get a better look at the scars there. His grin was uncontained and as wild as my heartbeat.

"Sometimes you pay a price for a fun life," he said. "But I'd rather be scarred and alive than safe and bored. There's alive, and there's living. What are you doing, O'Malley?"

"I prefer alive," I said. "Safety first, you know."

Still, I couldn't fight my own little smile. He'd managed to get my mind off of Tanner and my parents. Maybe it was because my mind had been blank with terror, but still. It was kind of exciting.

He held his stolen soda out to me. "You don't have to change to fight back here."

I hit my own stolen soda to his. "I'm going to regret leaving my fate in your hands."

"The thing about thieves is that we have careful hands," he said, snatching my soda away from me with such speed and ease that I barely even noticed he was doing it even as I watched him. "I'm the least trustworthy person at this Academy but I am your best shot."

He handed my soda back to me and I cupped it securely in my hands. "Don't fuck me over, Kaz."

He smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it, O'Malley."

I knew I shouldn't. I knew that I really shouldn't, because I'd only be disappointed. But I returned the smile and let a little piece of me trust Kaz to get me through this. All of it.