Ada's night was plagued with dreams, causing a restless sleep.

She'd dreamed of her meeting with the principal, saying just about every wrong thing she could say and Tom getting fired because of it.

Ada also dreamed of kissing Tom at night after the coffee shop closed. She couldn't remember the words spoken between them, but the kiss was incredible; the perfect combination of tender and needy. She awoke just as he lifted her onto the counter.

There were so many others, most of which left her feeling either guilty or confused or both.

By a little after five in the morning, coated in perspiration and shame after a long night of erotic dreams about someone who had no place in her fantasies, Ada gave up on sleep. As she slipped on her white fluffy robe, she debated between a cold shower or a hot cup of coffee. It didn't take much for coffee to win, and Ada made her way up to the steps to the kitchen.

It took all of Ada's self discipline to limit the volume of the yelp which emerged from her when she spotted Tom already awake and standing in the kitchen; coffee in one hand and a pen in the other.

Ada had gone to sleep while they were still outside from the bonfire and didn't remember if she knew he was crashing at their place or not. Either way, it took a moment for the shock to dissolve and for her breathing to return to a reasonable pace.

"Doesn't take much to scare you, does it?" he questioned as he set his pen down on a piece of paper he'd been writing on.

Ada had no trouble admitting she scared easily. She was a pansy and had come to terms with that fact a long time ago. But having someone in your kitchen at five in the morning seemed like an understandable shock to her. If she hadn't been so damn tired, she might have detected the aroma of coffee or noticed the light was on. But she wasn't observant this early in the morning or with this little sleep.

"What are hell are you doing up this early?" she asked rather than answer his question.

Tom shrugged. "I was just about to take off."

Ada walked toward him to look at the note he was writing. "Headed home. Furniture is coming today. Stop by after school and we'll cuddle the night away," Ada was too fatigued to be mortified. "I am so sorry about my mom. She's a little eccentric and super inappropriate."

"She's fucking certifiable," Tom corrected with a grin, "but in a good way."

Ada moved to get a cup of coffee, but Tom motioned her to sit down and got it for her, seeming to know where everything in the kitchen was already. "Your family's incredible."

She watched as he poured her French vanilla creamer in the mug before filling it with coffee and bringing it to her. Tom knew how she took her coffee, which baffled her, but Ada was too sleepy to care to ask. "I like them." Ada took a moment to take her first sip of coffee, letting the steam warm her face as she savored the taste. She gave the mug a satisfied smile. "And they seem to like you too."

Tom gave a sideways nod. "Yeah, it was a hit or miss there for a while, especially when I was hitting the pottery and missing. Woke up with a bruise the size of a baseball on my shoulder this morning. And I remember screaming 'fuck' at the top of my lungs by the river."

Ada winced at the thought, having forgotten about pottery baseball. "Well, I don't think you scared them away."

A grim look took over Tom's face. "Did I scare you?"

Ada shook her head. She worried for him and about him, but not scared. Remembering the line he spoke to her father at the coffee, Ada smiled as she spoke them back to Tom. "Not enough to end my friendship with you."

"Cute," he said in a chuckle.

They watched TV for half an hour, remaining quiet. She sensed his sorrow through his silence. He wouldn't be going to work today and anywhere he went, he would receive looks and notice whispers from perfect strangers. Ada didn't have it much better, but there was nothing she'd lose besides patience and sanity and perhaps a few friendships she could do without.

"I'm scared," Ada admitted through gritted teeth. She hated being scared. And not the scared she was in the kitchen, but the scared where you felt all your power get stripped away. It was happening too much in her life these days. This scared had no quick bounce back and left her feeling vulnerable.

Ada ran her fingers through her tangled blonde hair and turned to meet Tom's gaze, who was looking back at her with sad, understanding eyes. "I hate this whole crazy mess," she continued. "I hate that this is happening to you. I hate knowing that I used to love school and now it's just an infestation of stupid and cruel."

"It was that way before," Tom interjected. "You were just popular and people don't screw with the top of the pyramid."

Though she was only popular by association, Ada supposed that was enough to make her off limits to a certain extent. She was teased plenty during her Freshman year, but it was a subtle teasing. She remembered how back then she wished they'd just come out and say it. Now that they were coming out and saying it, she was missing the subtlety.

The tap of her fingernail against her near empty coffee mug annoyed even her, yet Ada couldn't seem to stop. She pinched her lips together and clenched her jaw, if only to stop herself from screaming.

It was Tom's arm going around her that brought Ada back. She shook her head and let out a heavy sigh. "I don't want to go," she admitted the obvious. "I don't want to be around these people and I don't want to go to class and have you not be there. I don't want to get interrogated by a group of strangers and have to defend my relationship with you."

Ada's head pounded at the dread she was feeling over a day that had just begun.

"One more month," Tom reminded her as his hand gave her shoulder a light squeeze. "If everything goes well, I'll be back by the end of the week and in one month you graduate and they won't have a say in our friendship anymore."

"If everything goes well," Ada repeated. "What if it doesn't? What if I mess up and say the wrong thing, or what if whoever else they interview makes it all sound less innocent than it was?"

Tom pulled her against him, and she heard his heavy, shaky breaths above her head. He was just as scared as she was. He could deny it or sugarcoat it, but fear was in him. "It's all going to work itself out. Worse case scenario is I bring back the beard and become a hipster poet who lives in your attic to avoid society and you have to support me financially until the day a sour odor lingers through the house and you follow it upstairs to my decomposing body and you realize that you forgot to feed me."

Ada gave his stomach a light punch and his body jerked forward.

After a few moments of laughter, Tom looked over at her. "I should take off before everyone wakes up and I end up spending another full day of drinking here," he half joked. "Go to school, stay as long as you can stand it, then come over to my place if you feel up to it. You working tonight?"

Ada nodded. "I have to. I've missed enough work already this last week." She felt her temples pulsating as her headache grew worse. Hangover combined with dread was an unpleasant pairing. Her fingers trembled against her mug and she had to set it down on the table in front of them before she dropped it. "That coffee shop is one of my favorite places in the world and I know this thing will taint the shit out of that. Everyone in town knows about this crap by now and they're going to show up just to see if they can get the new town whore all riled up."

Tom's gaze was a sympathetic one as he tucked her hair behind her ear. "I wish this wasn't happening to you, Ada. I am so sorry about this."

Until she wiped at her nose, Ada hadn't known she was crying. She'd tried so hard to be strong that her mind didn't have the heart to tell her she had wavered. Ada bent forward and rested her head in her hands, trying to steady her breaths and gain back the poise she'd lost. After a minute, she had enough command over her emotions to look over at him. Her slack expression matched her forced, lazy smile. "We'll get through this." Ada tried to sound hopeful, but her voice came out flat. "We will. I mean, if I can't get through something like this, how the hell am I supposed to get through what's coming?"

His tone was much more hopeful than hers; soothing and gentle. "I'll be there."

Tom gave her a long look before he squeezed her hand.

"You go. I'll be fine."

Tom smiled at her. "I know you will be." He stood from the couch. "I'll see you later?"

Ada nodded before he gave her one last glance before leaving the house.