"Hey, you might want to hide that," I said, poking the very noticeable mark on Kaz's neck.

He rubbed his neck. "I told you to calm down."

I scoffed at him. "You were not telling me to calm down when your dick was high-fiving the back of my throat."

I yanked my sheets off my bed and tossed them into my hamper. Kaz gathered my blankets and tossed them in their as well as I grabbed clean sheets and draped them over my mattress.

Kaz and I hadn't gone all the way last night, just a little mouth and hand action. I had never actually gone all the way before, though I'd been too shy to ask Kaz if he had.

Oh, who am I kidding? My big mouth wasn't shy. I was just afraid I'd be jealous if he had gone all the way with Aaron.

"I'm going to go shower," Kaz said, looking down at himself to make sure there was no sign of what we'd done last night.

I went over to him and held his face between my hands, kissing him. He put his arms around my waist as he kissed back.

Losing my family might not be so bad if I got to stay here with Kaz and the others. But Constance was right; we'd all have to go home eventually. Kaz couldn't be with me forever.

"Malley, just remember something," Kaz mumbled against my lips, tightening his hold on me a little. "You couldn't break their hearts if they didn't love you."

He pulled away from me and left the room to shower. I leaned against my bed, realizing that Kaz was right but feeling my stomach sink anyways, because I didn't know if it mattered anymore.

I finished cleaning up the room before grabbing a towel and my things and heading into the bathroom. One of the three showers was running, meaning Kaz was already in there. I got in the other shower and started up the water once my clothes were off.

I let the water wash over my body, looking down at myself. I was tired thanks to spending most of the night with my tongue in Kaz's mouth, but it was worth it. Kaz got a lot more sweet and sentimental when we were alone, the fucking dork.

The feel of Kaz's hands working on my body teased at my brain. He had the hands of a thief; fast and light. But oh man, could that boy let you feel his hands when he wanted you to.

I cleaned my hair and body before turning the water off. I wrapped a towel around my waist and stepped out, brushing my teeth and heading back to the room.

When I stepped in, Leo was back. He noticed me and gave me a knowing grin.

"Nice new sheets, Killian," he said.

"Oh, shut up Leo," I said, looking through my closet for clean clothes.

The two of us got dressed and met up with the others in the hallway. Kaz had flipped the collar of his shirt up to hide the mark on his neck.

We started walking across the campus and I watched as Kaz struggled with the top of one of Pete's pill bottles. He let out a sigh and tossed his phone at me.

"Go text Lily and tell her I was busy last night," he said, trying to twist the cap of the pills off.

"Who is Lily and do I have to fight her," I said.

He rolled his eyes. "She's a friend of mine from back home. Just do it, Malley. You're the reason I was busy last night."

"Fair enough." I brought up his messages, too lazy to go through his contacts. I scrolled through his messages looking for the contact. Kaz's inbox was pretty boring, which surprised me for some reason. There was a text from his mom telling him to have a good day and one from his stepdad asking him if he was running low on money. Mikayla had texted him telling him something about needing help with homework. I kept scrolling but suddenly stopped as a name caught my eye.

I peeked at Kaz, saw he was busy trying not to get mauled to death by Pete, and tapped on the message like the snoopy little bitch I was.

It brought up a conversation which announced the name Aaron at the top. The conversation was entirely gray, all the messages coming from Aaron, meaning this was no doubt the guy who had screwed over Kaz.

I slowly scrolled through the messages, realizing that a lot of them were various pictures of butterflies. Looking closer though, I realized that half of those were pictures of butterflies with one wing torn off and tossed down next to the creature. Wow Kaz, you sure know how to pick a boyfriend.

I couldn't help it as I read the messages. The most recent one was from just a few days ago. Why was Aaron still texting Kaz? And the messages didn't make much sense to me.

Pool hopping again.

Movie.

Three.

The windows are fogged.

Screaming.

Two.

You never hit one before, Warrick. Don't start.

The strange messages went on and on, but there wasn't a single reply from Kaz. Why hadn't Kaz deleted any of them though?

I felt the phone being plucked from my hands and my face heated up as I looked at Kaz. Oh shit. Caught.

"I'll just assume you're dyslexic, not nosey," Kaz said. "This isn't Lily."

"Listen here, I can explain, okay. My finger slipped. A lot," I said.

Kaz put the phone back in my hands and shrugged. "You can read any messages you want on my phone. I don't care."

"Wait, what?" I stared at him in confusion.

"I've got nothing to hide," he said. "If you want to read my messages, go crazy."

"I don't get these messages," I said, gesturing to them.

"They're things meant to get a reaction from me. He wants a reply," Kaz said. "They're...inside moments. And a countdown. He used to give me a three-two-one countdown whenever I wouldn't reply to him fast enough. I don't know what happens when it hits one, but I guess I'll find out soon enough."

"And the butterflies?" I said. "They're kind of creepy."

"That's the point. He used to do that- tear the wing off a butterfly. He did it to test me. To see if I was afraid of him," Kaz said.

"Wow, now I can totally see how you didn't realize you were in a toxic relationship."

Kaz shrugged again. He took the phone from me and scrolled up for a little before handing it back to me. "There, the last time I texted him back. That was before I got arrested and sent here."

I looked at the conversation, checking the date. Kaz was being honest.

From: Aaron

Two.

To: Aaron

I'll be there in 10 minutes.

"Wow, that wasn't even dramatic or anything," I said, scrolling down. The rest of the messages were all gray. "What the hell, I feel cheated."

"That was the night we broke up. He was giving me another countdown," Kaz said, backing out of those messages, texting his friend, and putting his phone away as we reached the academic building.

"Why do you keep those messages?" I asked.

"Maybe I'm just sentimental," he said.

We entered Mr. Sternberg's class and Kaz took his seat. I sat on his desk, my thoughts going crazy. Why the hell would Kaz keep those messages if he wasn't even going to reply to them?

But then I looked at Kaz and realization slowly dawned on me. "You're going to reply to him someday."

"Someday," Kaz agreed, nodding.

"When you've moved past all he did to you," I said.

He looked up at me and smiled a little. "Moved past it? That's a bit ambitious, Malley. More like when I come to terms with everything he did to me. When I accept it. Then I'll text him back."

"What did he do to you?" My voice was quiet. I was almost afraid of his answer.

Kaz looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to us. "He did a lot to me, Malley."

I reached out and lightly ran my fingers over his collarbone, looking into his eyes. Kaz nodded, and I felt awful all of a sudden. I'd been kissing at his collarbone to tease him, but Aaron was the reason that was a sensitive spot for him.

All those months of messages from Aaron and he'd been saving them for the moment he could finally cope with what he'd been through. Kaz played it off like it wasn't a big deal, but this just proved how deeply he'd been hurt by Aaron. And Aaron, with charming habit of mutilating butterflies, seemed like such a great person to have harassing you for months. No wonder Kaz couldn't get over Aaron. Aaron wouldn't let him escape.

"Kaz, you don't even have my number, you dumbass. Give me your phone," I said, holding my hand out.

"I..." He stopped and thought for a minute. "Huh, I guess I don't. Here."

He put his phone in my hand and I typed my number in. I checked Aaron's contact again, memorized the number, and handed Kaz his phone back.

I jumped off his desk and went back to my own, sitting down. I put Aaron's number in my phone as Mr. Sternberg came into the room to start class.

I am an idiot and this is a bad idea. I am an idiot and this is a bad idea. I am an idiot and this is a bad idea.

I kept repeating that over and over in my head as I peeked to make sure Mr. Sternberg wasn't paying attention before bringing up Aaron's contact. I started typing out a message and hit send before I could chew my own hands off.

To: Aaron

He moved on. He's still standing strong.

Good job Killian, great idea, piss off your boyfriend's psycho ex. Really, have I ever had a better idea than this one? I impress myself sometimes. Truly amazing.

I put my phone on do not disturb and tossed it in my bag, too afraid to deal with Aaron if he decided to reply. Why was I such an idiot?

Class passed as it usually did- With Kaz getting hit by both Mr. Sternberg and Mr. Miller for sassing for them. I was too caught up in my own light fog of fear over what I'd done. Was I going to make things worse for Kaz? Was I going to die at the hands of a really hot psycho? Was that really the worse way to go?

Not to mentioned, I started thinking about my parents as we crept towards our final classes of the day. They hadn't tried to get ahold of me yet. What if they never tried?

By the end of the day, I was trying to hide how much of complete mess I was as we made our way back towards the dorm building. The only thing that snapped me out of my distracted state was Leo knocking my shoulder with his.

"You've been quiet all day," he said. "You okay?"

"Hypothetically speaking, if I were to be murdered any time soon, would you be willing to make a speech about what an outstanding person I was?" I said.

"He'd be lying," Mikayla said. "You're not really an outstanding person. You're just an idiot who doesn't know how to shut up."

"Would you also be willing to hire security guards to keep Mikayla out of my funeral?" I said. "But like really super muscular security guards. That girl will tear through ordinary ones with her big ass muscles."

Mikayla flexed those big ass muscles at me. "It's called a gym and sports. Try them sometime."

"Not if it means I have to face you," I said in horror.

"I used to swim with boys and girls from high school teams," she said, flexing her muscles again. Damn, if I was her, I'd never stop flexing those things. "I worked out a lot with them. I could take you in a fight easily."

"Please don't ever fight me. I'm small and fragile and gay," I said.

"So? I know small people who can fight like you wouldn't believe. Look at Leo," she said, and he pouted as she gestured to his petite form. "And I was friends with a gay swimmer who would fight anyone if they pissed him off. Wrecked his shoulder, though."

"Please wreck yours," I said. "I am too young to die at your very muscular hands."

"You're pathetic," Beckett said. "I could take you. Any of us could. Even Pete on his drugs."

"Listen here kid, I could punt you over a fence," I said, and cowered behind Kaz as Beckett took a menacing step towards me. "Kaz, go punt him over a fence."

"I'll let you fight your own battles," Kaz said, stepping away from me. "It will be good for you, O'Malley."

"Beckett!"

We stopped walking as Mr. Townsend came storming over, eyes locked on Beckett. He reached us and grabbed Beckett's arm.

"Come on. We're going home. I told you that you're not allowed to hang out with this group anymore!" he said sternly.

Beckett yanked his hand out of his father's grip and stepped back, glaring. "No. I'm staying with them."

"Beckett," his father growled. "You're coming home. You're going to do your homework. You're going to stay away from these delinquents. I'm doing this for your own good."

"My own good?" Oh shit, Beckett looked pissed. "My own good, dad? You made me hate everything I used to love. I hate pianos and school and you." Beckett ignored his dad's flinch. "I'm happy here. I'm not your prodigy. I'm your son. If you're more worried about me being successful than happy, then get out of my damn sight. I like my friends. I like Kaz."

Beckett stepped closer to Kaz and Kaz moved forward to meet him side-by-side. Kaz smiled at Townsend easily, but there was a warning there. A warning that if this was what Beckett wanted, Kaz would help him fight for it. I could tell by the way he stood a little too close to Beckett how far Kaz would go to protect the younger boy. I'd never had any siblings, but I'd seen my friend protect her brother from a bully once and she'd stood the exact same way Kaz was standing now.

"You're not doing the right thing, Townsend. You're taking your miserable son away from his friends and placing him with an older brother that loves to throw punches. You can spend your whole life being disappointed that your kid was sick of being your bragging rights, or you can grow the hell up and actually do what makes him happy," Kaz said, leaning his arm on Beckett. "My parents didn't like who I hung out with, but they allowed it. I may be wearing a Maroon vest, but I'm a happy guy."

"Take me away from them and I'll never forgive you," Beckett warned his father.

Mr. Townsend seemed at a loss, torn between molding his son into the perfect statue or letting his son create his own self. He glared at Kaz but backed down.

"Beckett, call me when you need a ride home. We're going to talk tonight," he said.

He turned and stormed away. Beckett, for the first time since I'd met him, smiled a little.

He forced the smile off his face and glared at me. "Who knew your big mouth would be useful someday."

"He's saying thanks for inspiration," Leo said, laughing a little.

"You really need to learn to just say thank you," I said, shaking my head a little. Had I really inspired Beckett to stand up to his family? Jeez and I thought the kid hated me.

We continued on down to the dorm building and into Kaz's and Pete's room. Everyone took their usual seats and I started towards Kaz's bed, but Kaz caught my arm. He nodded at me to follow him and we left his room, heading into mine and Leo's room.

Kaz shut the door and leaned against it. "You've grown quite the spine, O'Malley."

"I didn't mean to inspire Beckett to piss off his family," I said. "I just...had to tell off my own mom, and he happened to see me do it."

"Not just that. Although I'm glad you did inspire him, because smashing a piano with a baseball bat didn't get the message through to his parents," Kaz said. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tossed it to me.

I looked down at it and my face paled. Oh, shit.

From: Aaron

Killian O'Malley.

From: Aaron

You're getting dangerously close to one, Kaz.

Kaz took the phone back from me. "What did you do, O'Malley?"

"I, uh, may or may not have texted Aaron on my phone. I don't know how he knew who I was," I mumbled.

"You idiot," Kaz said with a sigh. "He probably just looked up your number. What did you say to him?"

I took out my phone and realized I had a new message from Aaron. I had never taken my phone off do not disturb, so I hadn't even realized it had been sitting there for about two hours. I opened it and felt anger pour through me.

From: Aaron

He shouldn't be standing. He's better when he's broken.

I clenched my phone too tightly in my hand. Kaz reached out and gently pried it from my hand, reading the messages. I barely even noticed the slight drop of his expression.

"That's Aaron for you," he said, starting to put my phone in his pocket. He stopped himself with noticeable effort and forced himself to hand it back to me.

"I hate him." My voice was angrier than I could remember ever hearing it. "I hate what he did to you. I hate how he talks about. I've never even met him and I hate him."

Kaz, to my surprise, laughed. "Jump in line. A lot of people hate him."

"He broke you!" I grabbed Kaz's arm far too tightly, but he didn't complain. "Do you even realize how badly he broke you, Kaz?"

"I don't hate him," Kaz said. "I really don't. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have ended up here. This place...I know it sounds insane, but I like it here. I feel like this is where I belong. It's an endless war here and it makes me feel alive. But Aaron...he taught me how to be alive. He did some really bad things to me but he did some really good things, too." Kaz smiled at me, just a little. "Malley, I don't want you to hate him. I learned from him, good things and bad things. I told you that you have to learn to come to terms with things. I don't have to forgive him. But I don't have to hate him, either."

"I hate how nice you are," I said and hugged him tightly.

"Oh, no I'm an asshole," he said, but hugged me back.

He released me and took out his phone. I watched as he unlocked it and hesitated over the messages Aaron had sent him.

"I'm sorry, Kaz. I shouldn't have gotten involved," I said.

"No, I'm glad you did. I told myself that I wouldn't talk to Aaron again until I was mentally and emotionally strong enough to face him again. And I am. I really am. With you and the others, I've become a person that doesn't have to be afraid of letting myself fall back under Aaron's trap," he said. He typed on his phone and hit send. I peeked over at the screen.

To: Aaron

You shouldn't tear the wings off of butterflies just because you're jealous you can't fly.

I put my arms around Kaz because I could read the serious double meaning in that message. We watched the phone together for the reply, which came surprisingly fast, as if Aaron had been waiting all these months to finally hear back from Kaz.

From: Aaron

And so we go back to three. He'll never be me.

"Oh dear god. Is he going to fight me?" I asked. "Should I hire Mikayla?"

"Aaron wouldn't bother wasting his energy like that. Now, if you were right in front of him, you would probably want to be a little worried. But he's not the type to come after you," Kaz said. He typed out another message and I peeked again.

To: Aaron

I wouldn't want him if he was you.

Kaz put his phone on do not disturb and tucked in away in his pocket. He pulled me close and kissed me.

"I'm glad you came here, Malley. I'm sorry about what it cost you, though," he said.

"I'm glad too. I never thought I'd be glad to end up in an abusive school because of homophobia, but, hey, I also never thought I'd date a guy with an undercut," I said.

"It also cost you your wallet." I narrowed my eyes at him and slapped my pockets.

"Casimir Warrick, did you steal my wallet?"

"Well, it wasn't the wind."

"Give it back to me."

"I'm going to give it to Mikayla and have you fight her for it."

"She can have it. Maybe she can buy herself some damn chill."

Kaz pulled my wallet out of his pocket and tossed it back to me. I caught it and glared at him as I put it back in my pocket.

Okay, so, downside of dating a thief was that HE WAS ALWAYS STEALING YOUR DAMN STUFF. But, hey, he gave great hand jobs.

We went back to Kaz's room and sat up on his bed together. The others were talking movies, but they quieted down and turned to Kaz.

"Siggy came in here," Mikayla said. "He was looking for you. He said Constance is pissed about what Killian did. He said the teachers are going to crack down hard on us tomorrow, especially now that Beckett told his dad off."

"He also said his parents are planning to pull him from the Academy in two weeks to keep him away from Rogan," Leo said in disgust.

"We think Constance figured out that we've been using Siggy to pull off our stunts," Beckett said. "That's why he's punishing Rogan and Siggy so hard this time. Constance is really trying to shut you down, Kaz."

"Let him try. Everyone just be on the lookout tomorrow, and braces yourselves. If we can get through classes, we can figure out what his final move against us is and make our own," Kaz said, voice determined. "We're not going to let this damn Academy bring us down. I don't kneel to them, and neither do any of you."

"If they hit me hard enough a bitch might just take a knee," I said.

"Don't be the weak link in the chain," Beckett said in annoyance.

"I'm totally the weak link in the chain," I said, but I trusted Kaz to keep me steady regardless of what Constance tried tomorrow. Still, it made me nervous.

"It'll be his last big move against us. He already tried everything else he usually uses to break us. If we can shoulder this, we win," Kaz said, and I watched as the others got the same determined look in their eyes that he had. Kaz was right; he belonged here. He thrived in this kind of environment. He was born to be a leader. He'd just needed to find the right crowd to lead.

Still, I was nervous. Constance didn't mess around. Which meant whatever he had planned for tomorrow was going to be rough. I mentally sighed. I wasn't kidding when I said that if they hit me hard enough, a bitch might just take a damn knee, especially since I knew Constance would be directly targeting our group. Man, couldn't I just catch a break without this school trying to ruin everything?

Well, hell, maybe if we made it through whatever tomorrow brought, we might just get that break. Either way, I reached out and held Kaz's hand under the blanket, deciding to just enjoy this before things got even more complicated.

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A.N.- To everyone who complained last chapter about the lack of "smut", please consider these: 1) I'm not comfortable writing it 2) I didn't want to write it 3) I write to tell the stories in my head, not satisfy the fantasies in yours

Seriously, it's disrespectful to blow off an entire chapter/story just because it didn't have sex in it. It takes me a long time to write these stories, and if you want to read sex scenes so badly, go write them yourselves. People complain when I don't write them and people complain when I do write them. So I write whatever feels natural, and if that's a thinly veiled gesture to a sex scene, so be it. You want something better? Open up a word document and get started.

On a happier note, the support for this story is incredible. I get so excited to read all the comments and they encourage me to keep posting quick updates. So thank you to those of you who read this story for the plot and characters, who vote and comment as they read through, and who support it no matter what the chapters contain. You guys are the best.