I don't have any clothes on when I wake up the next morning, and I can hear Javier snoring in my ear.

I lost my virginity last night.

Slowly, I sit up and start putting my clothes back on. I have to search through the blankets for my underwear but I eventually find everything and get dressed. I had my one day to break myself off from reality, but I now need to deal with everything that's happened. The first thing on my list is to make things right with Amber, and I know exactly how I'm going to start. It's going to be tough, but I think that it's possible.

I brush my teeth and try to wash my face as much as possible in the bathroom across the hall from Javier's room, not really sure what to do now. I have to get home to start putting my plan in place for Operation: Amber, but I don't want to leave without saying goodbye to Javier. As I'm putting my shoes on, he starts to stir in the bed on his own, which is a relief because I didn't want to have to wake him up.

Watching from the edge of the bed, I see his eyes flutter open. He offers me a tired smile and then when he notices that I'm dressed, he asks, "Are you leaving?"

"Yeah, I have to get back home. I've got a plan to make things up to Amber," I explain to him. "And it's big, so I have to get started as soon as possible."

"Do you want any help?" He yawns and then sits up in the bed. He's not wearing a shirt and even though he's under the blankets, I can imagine that he's not wearing anything at all.

"You really want to help? It'll probably take me all night," I warn him slowly.

"I really want to help," Javier confirms with a nod.

"Okay. Pick me up in an hour then? I still have to go back to my house, shower, and grab some stuff," I suggest. I have to call Sage to tell her about last night, too, and I have to take Zero out for a walk while I'm home.

"I can do that. See you soon," He says as I'm grabbing my purse. I lean over the bed and quickly kiss his cheek before I head for the door. Luckily, his mother is back at work now because I think that run-in would be really awkward. She was really nice last night when we had dinner, and she seemed excited that I was there if anything. Maybe she'd rethink that if she knew that I spent the night. She went to bed right after dinner, so she didn't know that I never went home.

"See you soon," I say right before I leave the bedroom and then the house. The walk back to my own house is longer than it felt like before, probably because I'm so tired. I have a lot of work to do today though, so I can't rest. I get back to my own house to shower and get ready for the long day ahead of me, but I'm shocked and irritated that see Dex's car in my driveway when I arrive.

I don't see him anywhere around the house, so I guess that he's inside. That, or he's screwing Gabby in the orchard again. I would hope that he learned his lesson after the first time though.

Once I'm inside, I can hear Zero barking down the hallway. Curious and still very irritated, I walk down the hallway of the house to find Dex in my bedroom, looking at my wall of drawings.

"How'd you get in here?" I ask him, crossing my arms over my chest.

He jumps a little bit when he hears my voice and turns to look at me, his dazzling blue eyes darting right into my soul. "Your dad let me in before he went to work."

"Calm, Zee," I pat my dog a few times on his head to get him to stop barking. He whines about it but eventually leaves the room to go lay in the living room. I turn my attention back to Dex and say, "Okay, well what to do you want? I'm really busy."

"Well, I came to ask you what the hell is going on with you," He informs me slowly and then he motions over to the wall, in the corner near my desk. The sketches of him are still taped to the wall there. "But I think that I've got my answer."

"My sketches answered your questions?" I wonder slowly, stepping farther into the room. I'm very sweaty from the walk home but I'm not too concerned with my appearance right now. I do feel gross and smelly and would really appreciate a shower right now though.

"Why you were so upset about seeing me with Gabby, and why you've always asked so many questions about how I feel about Amber," He elaborates. "You're in love with me, aren't you?"

"No," I answer him quickly and honestly. "I'm not."

"Then why do you have all of this?" He looks back at the sketches of his face on my wall. If he had seen these just two days ago, I would have been absolutely mortified. I would have skipped town and I probably would never look back. Now that my opinion of him has been destroyed though, I don't really care.

"I just said that I'm busy, I don't have time for this," I tell him slowly. I really don't want to get into why I wanted to draw him so many times right now. It was clearly bad judgment on my part to think that he was worthy of so much of my time anyway.

"Is this your walk of shame?" Dex asks me, as if he's just now realizing that I didn't sleep here last night and that I'm kind of a mess right now because I just threw my clothes on and left. "Didn't take you too long to get over me."

"The drawings aren't that big of a deal," I insist, pointing to the rest of the wall, where I have a ton of other drawings of other people. "I draw everybody. Please calmly remove yourself from your high horse, it's getting old."

"You have a lot of me though," He points out. "Who's the lucky rebound?"

"Rebound?"

"That's what it's called when you stop having feelings for somebody and then use somebody else to get your mind off of it," He explains to me slowly.

"Yeah, I know what a rebound is. I didn't need a rebound, are you being serious? I never actually had feelings for you, Ollie. I thought that you were interesting. A mystery. Don't worry though, I won't be drawing you anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because I've realized that the mystery is that there isn't anything behind the mystery. The idea of you is a lot more sad and pathetic than I had originally expected," I explain to him.

"What were you expecting?" He leans against the edge of my desk and looks over at me for an answer.

"I'm not sure. Maybe a really great guy who did all of these terrible things for a good reason. I always thought that maybe you were so disgusting, cheating on Amber and all of that, because there was some grand reason behind it. Like Amber was secretly an awful person or something. I don't know. But the only reason that you did terrible, selfish things is because you are a terrible, selfish person."

"You really think that I'm that bad?" Dex cocks his head to the side. "Just because of one mistake? I wasn't thinking about Gabby being related to your brother's case when I brought her here, and I'm sorry. But you're being a bit dramatic."

"You really think that's the only bad thing that you've done?" I raise my eyebrows at him. "Do you even realize how badly you hurt Amber? Do you even care? You're so selfish that you can't even see the pain that you've caused her. You only care about what is best for you, and that's it. I didn't really wake up and realize that until I saw Gabby in my yard, but I was gullible."

"I care about Amber," He insists. "And I never wanted to hurt her."

"So, to not hurt her, you just decided to cheat on her for months and never tell her that you fell in love with somebody else? That's how you don't hurt her."

"She was fine until you opened your mouth," Dex snaps at me.

"You're right. It's my fault," I respond sarcastically. "What was I thinking? How could I be so heartless?"

"I liked you better when you were quiet, and didn't always speak your mind," He admits to me, looking frustrated now.

"I liked you better when I was blind to who you really are," I fire back at him. "But now, I think that the only reason that you act so mysterious is because you want people to like you. Because you know that if they ever found out the kind of person that you really are, you would have nobody."

"Oh, right. Like you have all of the love and affection in the world?" His pretty eyes start to narrow at me. "Who do you have, Yasmin? An alcoholic father, a dead mother, a brother in prison, a best friend who will easily abandon you for the nearest dick, and that's it. That's all that you have, so who the fuck are you to judge me?"

"My family loves me. They have their flaws, but they still love me for who I am. And as for Sage, she's actually a really great person who would take a bullet for me or any of her friends. And if you try to slut shame her again, I will punch you," I defend my family and Sage. "I don't have a lot of people, sure, but the people that I do have, they love me and care about me for who I am. Not who I want them to think that I am. Because unlike you, I actually care about other people."

"You really think that I don't care about other people?" He looks shocked and offended. "I care. Of course I care. I care about Amber and I absolutely fucking hate that I hurt her, and I care about you too. I'm sorry if I disappointed you, or made you think that I was somebody else."

I open my mouth to argue with him again when I realize that it's not his fault, really. I mean, hurting Amber was all on him, but my perception of him wasn't his fault. The fact that I thought that he was somebody he's not, that was my fault. I watched him cheat on Amber countless times, I saw him do these crappy things, and I still thought that he was basically an untouchable god that I should draw in all of my sketches. He never really lied to me, or purposefully made me believe that he wasn't this con artist.

"It's my fault," I verbally realize. "That I expected you to be different. I just built you up in my mind, that part actually isn't your fault. Almost everything else is though. You need to leave, I have plans soon."

"You have plans? With who?" He raises his eyebrows at me. "Sage is holed up with Amber... Oh, is it your rebound guy?"

"Not a rebound," I mumble. "And also not your business."

"Remember when I told you that you know more about me than anybody else?" Dex asks me curiously.

"That doesn't mean that you have to know everything that's going on with me. We aren't friends, Dex."

He blinks at me a few times, seemingly shocked at what I just said. "That's the first time that you haven't called me Oliver in a long time," He notices.

"I have to shower."

"It's Javi, isn't it?" Dex asks me as I turn to just go into the bathroom whether he is here or not because I really need to hurry in the shower if I want to be ready on time. "You spent the night with Javier."

"I did?" I wonder sarcastically.

"What did you do all night?" He asks me with a short laugh. "Play video games and talk about Game of Thrones?"

"I don't like Game of Thrones, so no, we didn't," I mumble, now looking down at my feet as my face turns a bit red. I continue across the hall and into the bathroom where I shut the door to prepare for my shower.

"Way to go, Javi," Dex says with a short laugh. "So, what? Are you two together now? You ruin my relationship just in time to find one of your own?"

"I didn't ruin your relationship, you did that by habitually cheating on her," I remind him as I'm getting undressed in the bathroom. I'm convinced that he'll have to leave eventually. Especially when I get the water going, and we won't be able to hear each other talking. "God, do you ever take responsibility for what you've done? You can't legitimately put all of the blame on me for your relationship ending."

"Things were good," He tells me. "Before you ruined them. Amber was happy, I was happy, Gabby was indifferent like always."

"Amber wasn't happy, she was living a lie," I correct him. "And not everybody is like you. Most people want to fall in love with people who actually care about them, and don't just feel indifferent. Amber deserves somebody who actually loves her, and doesn't just pretend to. Doesn't it feel shitty? To be dragged around by Gabby? She's using you, you know. Because she knows that you love her, but she just wants to sleep with you. Doesn't that make you feel so pathetic? If it doesn't, it should. And that's exactly what you've been doing to Amber. Using her."

He's quiet for a really long time. So quiet that I think that maybe he's left, which I find a relief. Just as I'm about to turn the water on in the shower though, he starts talking again.

"It does feel shitty," He admits in a quieter voice. "I just keep telling myself that she'll come around."

"She won't."

"She might."

"Sure, okay. She might. But Dex, come on. Even somebody as shitty as you deserves to be with somebody that actually wants to be with you back. And Gabby just doesn't. She doesn't care about you."

"But she cares about having sex with me, which is pretty flattering," He admits.

"Alright, well if you're comfortable just being Gabby's whore, then fine. Just do what makes you happy but maybe consider other people's feelings too because not everybody is as okay with getting dragged around as you are," I suggest.

"Now look who's slut shaming," He calls me out but he sounds like he's teasing me.

"Get out of my house, Dex," I say and then I turn on my shower, effectively putting an end to our conversation.