The shock was still laying by her when Avery woke the next morning, her eyes opening slowly, adjusting to the horrors of last night. The way Brittany had smirked when she said Aden was hers, the undeniable jealousy when she had heard it, then the widened eyes and painful red hole that appeared in the centre of her chest. Avery would never forget the way Brittany's body had slumped to the ground, her eyes staring straight up in shock.

Avery knew she never liked the girl, but it was upsetting just the same because no one should have to die like that.

Frowning, she tried to think back to what happened afterwards, but last night was a blue when she had arrived home. Aden had been there, so had Fiona, and Scott may have hung around as well, she couldn't be sure. The only thing that had been running through her head was someone had been murdered.

A tentative knock sounded on her door and she said a quiet come in, expecting Fiona, but getting quite the opposite.

“Fiona had to go down to the crime scene early this morning so she sent me to see if you were okay.” Aden said quietly, his voice sounding like angels to her ears. She sat up slowly, searching for her alarm clock. It was 10:13am.

“We're going to be late!” Avery cried, throwing off her covers and jumping out of bed. She watched as his face went from confusion to amusement to what looked a little bit like want. Then she looked down. Saw she was wearing her panties and a white singlet, no bra. Gasped.

“Ohmygod!” She cried, throwing herself back into her bed and yanking her covers up to her chin. Aden laughed, running a hand through his hair, as if he were reining back something.

“It's okay, Avery, you're not the first girl I've seen semi naked.”

A tense silence.

“Fiona said you were not allowed to go to school, so I'm actually here to make sure you don't try anything.” Aden sighed, leaning against her closed door, looked incredibly sexy in his white V neck and low jeans. She stared at his sculpted muscles for a few moments, before blushing slowly and snapping her eyes to his.

“I like school, but not that much.” Avery finally muttered, then remembered he wasn't there either.

“Why aren't you there though? You'll get in trouble.” She frowned, and Aden shook his head.

“Like my father would care if I went to school. He just wants me out of the house.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“No, it's...complicated.”

Avery let out a short burst of laughter. “Tell me about it.”

Aden stared long and hard at her, and Avery blushed more, looking away from his gaze. The temperature in the room kept rising, and she could feel the electricity through her sheets. Hell, she was part way through a fantasy of him locking the door and coming closer when he sighed, and opened it instead.

“I'll go make breakfast. You go change.” He stopped and looked over his shoulder, “Or you could just stay in those clothes, I wouldn't mind either way.”

She glared and threw a pillow at him before jumping up again, making sure her door was closed, and got into the shower, turning the water to scalding. She still felt dirty, like the blood and dirt from the floor had seeped into her pores and wouldn't come out. Just thinking about it made her dizzy again.

Shutting off the shower and wrapping a fluffy white towel around her body, Avery picked out her sweatpants and a black singlet, knowing full well Aden wasn't going to care what she wore. Blow drying her hair and pulling it up into a high ponytail, Avery pulled on a pair of socks and jogged down the stairs, smelling the sweet scent of bananas.

Turning into the kitchen, Avery almost didn't believe what she saw. There was two plates, stacked with perfectly round, perfectly brown pancakes, caro-mellowed bananas sitting on top and maple syrup sitting between the two plates.

“You can cook?” She wondered aloud, and Aden turned, a slight grin on his face. He looked her up and down and it grew wider as his eyes returned to her face.

“Surprised?”

“Yeah, Gordon Ramsey. Even I can't cook that well!” Aden laughed, flipping the frying pan in one hand while turning off the gas.

“Not everyone can be talented like me, Avery.”

“In what areas?”

“You know, the important ones.” Avery smiled, grabbing a knife and fork and went to dig in when Aden raised an eyebrow. “What? I'm hungry.”

“Nothing. I was actually expecting you to come down in jeans and stuff.” He replied, sitting opposite her.

“Are my sweatpants not up to your dress standard?” Avery shot back, and Aden stuck almost a whole pancake in his mouth.

“Sweatpants just took on a whole new sexy, if you ask me.” Aden said in a low, husky voice. Avery paused, feeling the spot between her legs heat up. It was going to be a long day.

Aden had bought around movies galore, and he had purposely picked the scariest one he could find. Bastard. Avery screamed into his chest, not quite remembering how she had gotten from one side of the couch to pretty much lying on him, but it didn't matter when the movie was half-way through.

“Aden! I can't believe you picked this movie!” She hissed, and she felt him chuckle beneath her hands. He was so warm, she thought, so hard and solid. Another scary face appeared, causing Avery to jump.

Aden hissed.

“Careful, you don't want to ruin my family jewels, do you?” Avery looked down, and saw she had accidentally elbowed him in the groin.

“Yeah, because the world needs more little Aden's running about.” Avery muttered, reaching over him to grab the bowls of chips. She stopped short when she saw the hunger in his eyes. Her face was inches from his, his lips a mere centimetre away, his eyes locked onto hers like bolts of blue lightening. She opened her mouth to say something, when his came down hard on hers.

Not wasting any time, Aden stroked his tongue over her bottom lip, tugging on it gently as she moaned and granted him access. Sweeping his tongue into her mouth with grace, Aden latched onto her hips, and Avery swung her legs across his thighs, straddling him, his back against the couch. Avery dug her fingers into his back as he moved down to her neck, his tongue sweeping across her sweet spot as she moaned again. She felt him grow hard underneath her, and rocked her hips slightly, causing him to bite onto her neck gently, groaning. And suddenly, she was under him, pelvis to pelvis, his mouth attacking hers again. Knotting a hand in his silky hair, she felt his hand grasp her breast, and she arched up, emitting another pleasurable moan as his mouth travelled downwards onto her neck. She was panting, growing hotter by the second, her clothes to restricted. As his hand swept beneath her thighs and she threw her head back, and gunshot went off on the flatscreen. And flashbacks appeared.

Aden knew the minute she froze and rolled off her instantly. He kicked himself silently, knowing she was still in shock from the night before and he knew he shouldn't have kissed her like that, touched her like that. But she was too damn irresistible, and he knew he felt for her more then he realised. Forcing his raging hormones to clam down, he took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes, waited until she was looking back before talking.

“You're okay, baby. You're okay.”

“It's just, the shot on screen. God, the way Brittany fell to the ground, all the blood...it was horrible.” She whispered, and he felt her shaking slightly. Gathering her up into his arms, he felt her head flop against his shoulder and rubbed her back soothingly.

“I can't imagine what it was like, Av. But you're okay, truly. Brittany's death was horrible, but what's done is done.” She hadn't been his favourite person, but he still felt sadness at her death.

Aden might not have felt what she had, but he had experienced worse. Much worse. Things he hadn't told her when he'd confessed about his dad in his car that afternoon, he could barely think about himself. But there was a lot more than he had let on, and he wasn't willing to tell Avery just yet. He wanted to wait until she had gotten over the death of Brittany, and when he could speak about it himself. So instead, he continued rubbing her back slowly, letting Avery calm in his arms. Right where he wanted her to be. To always be.

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I hope you guys like it! I hope you keep reading and commenting and voting! It means so much to me, and it inspires me to keep writing this!

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