Haley blinked a few times, but Caroline was still looking at her with pleading, glassy eyes. Haley's head was spinning, suddenly she felt like she was being drunk, she swallowed. It felt like hours to her, standing there with a drunk pleading Caroline, the answer was so simple, yet Haley couldn't find the strength to actually speak aloud. Yes!

She took in a deep breath and held it in for a second, Caroline was just looking at her. Stay with me? Stay with me? Stay with me?

"I I can't..." Haley breathed.

Caroline looked at her feet and didn't look up at Haley again; she turned around and stumbled into her apartment. Haley stood in her spot, frozen, she felt her heart race in her chest, she could hear it beating and she was afraid it could jump out of her body and leave her behind.

She was staring at Caroline's apartment door that just fell close in front of Haley. She blinked again and shook her head. As she stood there, alone on the sidewalk in the middle of the night, her body began to react to the cold. She shivered and started to shake. She realized that she left her jacket back in the bar. The bar! Haley had completely forgotten about the bar and her friends.

With one last glance at Caroline's door she made her way up to her own apartment. While she was walking through the cold, now morning air she pushed all the what if's to the very back of her mind. What if she had decided to stay with Caroline? She shook her head and pulled out her phone; two missed calls from Luke, one missed call from Layla and about 10 text messages. With a sigh she pushed her phone back into her little shoulder bag and wrapped her arms around herself.

The sidewalks were empty and dark, only the few street lights guided her way. New York during this time of day, more like time of night was pretty scary and if Haley wasn't busy wondering about Caroline she was sure she would be jumping at any noise she heard.

What was it about that girl? Haley couldn't figure it out. The only thing she knew was her name and her address, but that was more of a coincidence, wasn't it? There was something about her eyes that Haley couldn't quite make out, they looked empty and sad, they didn't have that mysterious, fierce sparkle in them like they had when Haley saw Caroline for the very first time back in the Starbucks café. They were still the deepest chocolate brown Haley had ever seen, but there was something else, too. Haley decided it was just Caroline being drunk, because you can read that in someones eyes right?

It was almost 4 in the morning when Haley finally reached her doorstep; she didn't even recognize how long this whole Caroline scene took and that she was walking home on the empty sidewalks in the middle of the night in just her party dress, her lips already blue from the cold.

She stepped inside as quietly as possible, breathing in the familiar warmth of her home. She kicked her heels off and tip toed to her guest room. The door wasn't completely closed so Haley could peek through the little gap and find Layla laying in bed already. She must have used the spare key under the mat and she didn't look that drunk, since she was able to change into pj's. Haley smiled but felt bad a little bit for not calling her friends earlier, she was sure they worried about her when they didn't find her home.

A few minutes later she was laying in her own bed, she decided she could as well shower in the morning, because she didn't wanna wake Layla and she was too exhausted. Her mind was still spinning and she allowed all the thoughts to come in full vision. They almost overwhelmed her and she started to feel bad a little for leaving Caroline like this, drunk and alone. She didn't even know anything about her, though and bringing her home was the right thing to do; it was enough and she couldn't just stay with her, even though she wanted to, but they were still strangers to one another. Yet Caroline seemed to remember her, which made Haley's heart flutter.

Haley weighed up the pros and cons in her mind whether she wanted to tell Layla everything that had just happened or not, but she came to the conclusion that every single detail would be squeezed out of her anyway till she runs out of words. Especially she owed her friends an explanation why she wasn't exactly home, even thought she ought to be and she decided it wouldn't be helpful at all to just lie into their faces. She fell asleep mid thought in the early morning hours when sleep couldn't be held back anymore.

* * * * *

On Saturday morning Haley awoke to the soft chords of music and the glowing sun rays streaming into her room. She yawned and turned to her side to glance at the clock on her nightstand, it was around 12pm. Sleepily she rubbed her eyes and got up and open the curtains to let the sun in. Slowly the events from last night came back to her mind and she didn't know if she should smile or feel bad. She decided for both and made her way into the kitchen.

Layla was standing in front of the coffee machine, her back facing Haley. She had turned on the radio, just softly though to not wake Haley, and moved slightly along to the music. Haley noticed that her friend didn't seem to be hungover which was very rare for her. She walked into the kitchen and sat down on a chair.

"Good morning" she said softly and looked at Layla.

"Morning, Miss." Layla turned around and looked at her sheepishly, her fingers drumming against the red coffee mug in her hands.

Haley smiled and didn't know what to say so she just kept smiling and waited for Layla to talk.

"So,.. when we got home last night there was no sight of you, where have you been? I was worrying about you." She narrowed her eyes and looked at Haley sternly.

"Uhm, I'm sorry, you know.." she swallowed "what about Luke, I have to tell him that I'm home, he called me a few times."

"Don't worry, I called him this morning, I checked your room right when I got up, but don't change the topic you bitch."

Haley shifted in her chair and looked at the coffee mug in Layla's hands, she could very much use a coffee right about now.

"Okay Layla, you know I went outside and I found Caroline, she was drunk and I took her home, because she couldn't even walk on her own, but that's all, nothing happened, I walked home afterwards, I didn't wanna call you or Luke, it was late, I'm sorry." She started to fidget with her hands.

Layla eyed her for a second and took a sip from her coffee.

"You were with Caroline? The one girl from work?" Haley raised one eyebrow.

"Yes, we spotted her in the bar, remember and I walked outside for some air and found her trying to get a cab." Layla grinned at Haley, then took another sip.

"I remember.." she bit her lip.

"Layla nothing happened, I took her to her door and went home then, too." Haley got up to make herself a coffee. She pushed Layla aside, who was still slightly grinning.

"Stop with this smirking Lay, rather tell me when you got home."

"Honestly I can't remember, Luke told me you texted him that you left and shortly after we went home, too and then when we couldn't find you, we called you and waited, I don't know 30 minutes, but you wouldn't pick up the phone, so we had no choice but to go to bed."

Haley bowed her head and looked at her feet, she felt a little bad for not calling Layla or Luke to tell them where she was, but she could only focus on Caroline last night. She wondered how she was feeling this morning and she suddenly felt the urge to go and check on her. She shook her head.

"I'm really sorry, next time I'll tell you, I promise." She moved her arms around Layla and hugged her from the side, Layla just nodded and smiled.

The two girls decided to go out for breakfast, well lunch, since they were both too lazy to make something on their own. They decided to head to "the Grey Dog" to grab some bagels and hot chocolate. As they walked along the sidewalks they talked about random stuff and laughed and giggled, but Haley's mind always wandered off to the events of last night and what would have happened if she was staying with Caroline. Would something have happened, like a hook up? Would they go for breakfast the next morning? Would they be awkward? All these questions drove Haley insane, but she tried to shake it off as good as she could.

Haley just finished her bagel, when she couldn't handle it anymore, she had to go and check on Caroline. She didn't know what it was about her that made her feel like she had to protect her, but she saw it in her eyes. She saw something that stung to her heart and she just wanted to wrap Caroline up and shield her from all the bad in this world. Even though she couldn't bring herself to stay with her last night, because it would have been wrong and weird, right?

She told Layla that she'd be back in a few minutes and walked out of the café before Layla could say anything in return. Haley wasn't sure if she remembered Caroline's address, but while she walked down the sidewalks she knew which way it was. After a few minutes walking and wondering if she was doing the right thing, she reached the beige apartment door which fell close in front of her just a few hours ago. She remembered the little dark door nob and she knew exactly how the key looked like, which would open the door gracefully.

Oh gosh, what are you doing? she thought and took in a deep breath just to release it again.

Hesitantly Haley took a step forward and knocked on the door. She waited and felt her palms getting sweaty. She clutched them to her legs and tried to get rid of the sweat. Minutes went by and she just stood there waiting, nothing happened. Haley shifted from one foot to the other, her heart was beating out of control. She knocked again, but Caroline didn't open.