Tasha's POV

"Did you pay the bills this month, sweetie?" My mom asks me over the phone as I'm walking down the sidewalk toward Luna's apartment after school.

"Yeah, I got them," I assure her.

"Alright, good. Thanks so much, Tasha, you're really helping us out," She tells me. "And you're picking Cayman up tonight, right? He had basketball practice tonight."

"Pick him up on what? I don't have a car," I remind her in confusion.

"Oh, I know, I just don't want him walking alone after it gets dark," She insists with a worried wave in her voice. "He's only twelve and that's the prime age for kids getting involved in drugs and everything. I want him to stay clean and safe. Please pick him up?"

"I can't tonight. I have to drop something off at Luna's and then I've got to get to work," I tell her apologetically.

"It's okay, dear, we'll figure something out. I'll see if I can leave a little early today and I should make it there in time. What are you doing at Luna's?"

"I just told you, I have to drop something off," I explain to her as I'm arriving at Luna's apartment building. "She wasn't at school today and we have a big test on Friday in math so I brought the study guide."

That's not a lie, I did bring Luna the study guide for our test on Monday but I also want to talk to her about college. My mom doesn't think that it's a good idea, she thinks that it'll be too hard to pay for college and pay the bills but I have some money saved up so I think that I can afford it.

"You know, maybe you shouldn't go see Luna right now," She suggests lightly.

"I'm already there, Mom," I inform her with a small sigh as I try to decide how to get out of this conversation. My mom doesn't really like my friends, mainly Faith and Luna because she thinks that they're a terrible influence on me. I don't know how to argue against that because it's true. "I'm sorry that I can't help out with Cayman tonight. I've got to go though, I'll talk to you tonight."

"Alright," She sighs. "I love you, Tasha."

"I love you too, Mom."

I'm hanging up my cell phone just as I'm knocking on Luna's apartment door. I have to wait a few long minutes before the door opens and Nathan is standing on the other side with a smoking cigarette wedged between his pale lips. I wince in disgust, both at the smoking and the guy standing in front of me, and then I clear my throat. "Is Luna home?"

"Nope," He states, stepping away from the door. He doesn't shut it though, so I take that as an invitation to come inside.

"Do you know when she'll be back?" I ask as politely as I can but considering how much I hate Nathan, I'm sure that I still sound irritated. Oh well. I look down at my phone as I walk into the apartment and shut the door behind me. I have to be at work in an hour.

"Nope," Nathan sighs, plopping down on the couch beside his friend, Frosty, who I try to avoid at all costs. I hate him too.

"Awesome," I mumble sarcastically. "Well, I'm going to wait upstairs."

"She locks her door," He states with a side smile widening on his face. "You might as well just stay down here, sweetheart."

"I'll just sit in the hallway upstairs," I state quickly. "And don't call me sweetheart."

"What? You don't like us?" Nathan cocks his head to the side and I wince in disgust again. I'm rarely ever around Nathan without Luna but I've noticed over the years that whenever she isn't around, he seems a lot more outspoken than when Luna's around. I don't understand it but I do wish that Luna was just here instead of making me have to wait for her.

"You repulse me, actually," I state with a sarcastic smile as I remember just a little while ago when he hit Luna. I didn't like him before that but after that happened, I decided that he's even scummier than I had already thought.

As I'm going toward the stairs, the phone starts to ring but since this obviously isn't my house, I don't go to answer it. However, I've only taken two steps up the stairs when Nathan calls to me.

"Hey, do you mind getting that? Since you're already up and everything," He explains, motioning toward the cordless home phone on the kitchen counter, all the way across the living room from the couch where he's sitting with his cigarette and his shitty friend as they watch TV.

I just roll my eyes at him and step back down, doing as he asks and answering the phone only because I don't feel like talking to him anymore, even if that means I have to answer somebody else's home phone.

"Hello?" I answer the phone.

"Hello, ma'am, my name is Theresa and I'm with the Wood County Hospital. May I speak to Mary Wesley?" The lady on the other end responds to me.

"Um, this is she," I lie just so that I can take care of whatever this is, or so that I can tell Luna what this is about so that she can take care of it. Lord knows that if they actually got a hold of Luna's mom, Mary, the hospital's information would go in one ear and out the other.

"Okay, I'm very sorry to be telling you this but we have your daughter here," She starts to tell me and in that moment, I feel my chest begin to go numb as I start to cave in.

"Luna?" I croak out.

"Yes, ma'am. She's been in a terrible car accident. She's going into surgery now but we'd like you to get down here as soon as possible," She continues to explain. I can't breathe.

"Oh my god," I gasp, my hand going to my chest to check to see if I still have a pulse. Luna is one of my best friends, she's like a sister to me, I've never been so afraid and I have no idea what to do right now. "Oh my god. Okay. Okay, I'm coming."

She feeds me some information about where to find Luna in the huge hospital and I use a pen that's been resting on the counter to write the information down on the back of my trembling hand before I hang up and I start heading for the front door. Nathan and Frosty are still watching TV so apparently, they haven't noticed how panicked that phone call got me.

"I don't know if you care or not, but Luna's in the hospital," I say on my way out the door as I try not to vomit through my words.

"What?" Nathan is suddenly on his feet, frowning at me.

"She was in a car accident," I add, taken by surprise at how shocked he is about the news. He doesn't seem like he really cares about Luna at all to be honest.

"Okay, come on, I'll drive you," He says, grabbing his coat and pushing me out the door with him, totally disregarding Frosty, who is still sitting on the couch. I don't question Nathan too much because I'm still feeling pretty numb about what I just found out, I just follow him to his car and pull my phone out so that I can call the rest of our friends. They have to know too. I swallow a lump in my throat and rub my eyes to avoid tears.

Once in the piece of junk car, Nathan is racing us toward the hospital as I'm dialing Faith's number.

--

Faith's POV

"Faith," Robby is telling me as we're walking around the mall on the other side of the city. We left school an hour early today because my last period fucking blows and I need some new socks. Robby and Theo came with me just for the thrill of it and they know that it's so much easier to get away with things when I'm with them. "We have to go soon."

"Why?" I frown at him as I'm grabbing a black blouse that I see hanging on the rack. It's my size so I quickly drop it into my purse so that I can wear it when it gets warm out this summer.

"The security guard has circled at least three times now. I think he's suspicious," He warns me, signaling to Theo who is in the jewelry section looking for a new watch, maybe some cheap earrings for his girlfriend.

"Don't be such a bitch, Robby," I groan at him, tossing him a thong as we're passing the underwear section of the department store that we've been walking through for the past half an hour. My purse is pretty much stuffed with merchandise that I don't plan on paying for. "I'll handle it if the time comes."

"You plan on wearing this for me later, right?" He wonders with a grin, stuffing the thong into his pocket for some reason. He's just wasting pocket space with that if you ask me because he has no use for women's panties but I think that if the guard really does call us out and he finds a thong in Robby's jean pocket, that'd be really funny.

"Only in your dreams, Rob," I sigh. We're in the accessories now, surrounded by purses and fashion scarves, sunglasses and wallets. Nothing that I need right now.

"Every single night, Faith," He admits shamelessly and, coming up from behind me, he pulls his hand back and then slaps it against my jean clad ass. I turn to give him a mischievous grin.

"You like it rough, Robby?" I ask him with raised eyebrows.

He just shrugs and then, with his hand on my ass again now gripping where he just hit me, he presses me into the shelf of wallets behind me. He's a good two inches taller than me with wide shoulders and cologne-soaked skin as he presses himself into me. "Oh, I'd take it any sort of way with you, baby."

"Wow," I breathe with a smirk. "You're actually kind of turning me on right now."

He grins at me and as Theo approaches, he pulls away. "I know."

"What's going on?" Theo asks us suspiciously.

"Nothing, just Robby trying to dream big. Let's get going though, I've got what I need," I say, going through my purse to make sure that everything I have is price tag and security tag free so that the alarm doesn't go off when we leave the store. However, just as we're about to get to the front, that damn security guard steps in front of us.

"Excuse me," He states. "Do you plan on paying for that stuff?"

The first thing that I do is appraise his appearance. In his thirties, tall, balding, muscly, pretty for a mall cop. I've done worse. These mall cops are very easy to persuade but most of them are round, bald, and sweaty but they're horny and desperate enough to let us off with a warning if I wiggle my ass at them enough.

"I'm sorry?" I blink at him, playing dumb just to see if that works. It usually doesn't but it's worth a shot. Robby and Theo just stay behind me and stay silent, it's their one job if we get caught, which doesn't happen often but it happens sometimes and when it does, we need a system. This is it.

"It might've been my mistake," The guard decides. "Do you mind if I check your bag just to make sure?"

"Actually, I do," I pout at him. "But I'm sure that we can work something out without causing a scene, am I right?"

"Alright, we're going to have to take all three of you downstairs," He seems stubborn but I see him glancing down at my chest. I've got him, I just have to work a little harder.

"Wait, I didn't do anything wrong," I go for my second approach. "I never do anything wrong. I'm a good girl. In fact, why don't we go somewhere a little more private and I'll show you just how good I can be?"

That does it. He's looking at my chest as he looks to be contemplating my proposition but I know that he's not actually thinking, we both know that I've got him. Works like a charm.

I leave Theo and Robby with my purse as I go with the security guard to do what needs to be done and in this case, what needs to be done is a two minute blow job in the back of a maintenance closet.

When I return to the guys at the front of the store, I grab my purse from Robby as he grins at me and pats me on the back. "This is why we're friends, Faith."

"Oh yeah. I'm just waiting for the day that we get caught by a gay security guard and you're the one with a dick down your throat," I argue as we're hurrying out of the mall before the security guard can change his mind and starts chasing after us.

"We'd all just end up in jail," Theo starts to say and he's going to continue but my phone starts ringing in my bag so I pull my phone out and follow the guys out to Theo's car so that we can leave.

"Hello?" I answer.

"Faith," Tasha is on the other end and it sounds like she's hyperventilating. "Something's happened to Luna."

--

Cece's POV

"This looks nice," I decide as I'm walking into Jules' apartment and I see boxes of my stuff sitting around the room. When Jules told his roommate that he had two weeks to move out, he was out in a few days, going back to live with his parents. That means that I was quickly moving my stuff into Jules' apartment, into my own bedroom. He had suggested that we share a bedroom but I declined that offer because we're moving in as friends. We are "dating" now but we're not moving in together as a couple, especially considering that we've only been together for a few weeks.

"It's just a bunch of boxes right now," Jules states with a small laugh. "You know that you actually have to unpack them, right?"

"Yeah, I know that," I confirm with a nod. There weren't many boxes, just three and a few blankets that I stole from my house. In and out as quickly as possible without being noticed by anybody. "But it won't really matter, it's not like we're going to be staying here long anyway."

"You can't live out of boxes for months, Ce," He shakes his head at me as he rests his hand on my hip and then sits down on the creaking couch, bringing me down with him which causes me to topple over onto his lap, leaving a stream of laughter behind me.

"I could if I wanted to," I objected with a troublesome glint in my eyes. "But anyway, what do you think that the guys thought about this?"

"About what?" He wonders curiously.

Still sitting on his lap, I rest my head on his shoulder and it feels so right, so comforting, that I wonder how on earth it took us so long to make this happen. I should have been sitting on his lap, kissing his neck, for years now. We've missed so much time, we have to make it up. "About us. I don't think that they like it."

"I don't care," He shakes his head at me. "They don't have to like it."

"They think that it's weird. Especially Faith, I could tell that she didn't like the idea at all," I protest, feeling a bit guilty about this. We've been a group of six people, just trying to get through this world together and here I go, messing it all up by kissing another sixth of this team. I've ruined our dynamic and I can tell that when we told everybody at school today, Faith felt our dynamic crumbling.

"They got over it when Luna and Grey got together, they'll get over it this time too," He assures me, one of his strong arms wrapping around my waist and the other one resting on my jean-clad thigh.

"That was different," I speak up quietly in a squeaking voice.

"Stop worrying about this, Ce," Jules protests, squeezing my thigh firmly in his hand. "If us being together makes us happy, they'll understand and then they'll get over it."

"Does it?" I ask him, lifting my head off of his shoulder and I look into his dark eyes, trying to shield myself away from him by hiding my eyes behind my bangs. The eyes are the window into the soul, right? I don't want my soul on display like I feel that it is right now.

"Does what?"

"Does it make you happy?" I ask him in one breath, afraid of what the answer will be. I don't want to sound so clingy by asking him that stupid question- not caring is one of my things but with Jules... god dammit, I care about him- about what he thinks of me- more than anything. I always have.

"If it didn't make me happy, I wouldn't have kissed you in the first place," He tells me with a charming little smile and then he's taking away my curtains, wiping my bangs away from my eyes to look right into who I am. "I promise that this is really happening, and I really want it to be happening. Not just to fuck you or to fill my empty apartment room. I want this, Ce."

"You've never really been a one-girl type of guy," I remind him, hating how I sound right now. I shouldn't care about this, about what he thinks of me, but I adore him and I can't deny that.

"That's because you never told me how desperately, madly in love you are with me," He tells me with a teasing smirk sparkling on his face.

I scoff, inching my face closer to his as my lips start to burn for his. "Mild infatuation at best," I mumble as a smile starts twitching on the corners of my thin lips. He grins in return just before our lips press against each other and we start making out.

Half an hour later, Jules' shirt is gone, his hand is up my shirt and mine is down his pants. With a fresh hickey on my neck, I start biting down on his rough neck, hearing him elicit a restrained groan just as my phone starts to scream at me from my school bag that I'd dropped on the coffee table when we came into the apartment.

Fully okay with letting it go to voicemail, I continue sucking on Jules' neck and eventually, it stops ringing but then Jules' phone starts singing on the couch beside us and I pull away.

"It's no big deal," Jules says quickly, holding my wrist so that I don't pull all the way away from him. "Just ignore it."

"Somebody's looking for us," I protest, getting off of Jules so that he can answer his phone.

Looking very displeased, he reaches over and grabs his phone before flipping it open and answering. "Hello?"

I watch as he listens to what's being said on the other end of the line and his facial expression changes into a panicked frown and in return, I frown at him and mouth 'who is it?'.

"Where?" He asks into the phone, ignoring my question. "Alright. Are they okay?"

Starting to feel panicked myself, I hand Jules his shirt from the ground because I sense that we're about to leave. Slipping my shoes on, I listen to the rest of the conversation.

"Sure. I'll handle that. Yeah. Where?"... "Okay." And then without even a goodbye, he's hanging up the phone and throwing his shirt over his head.

"What was that about?" I ask in a weak voice.

"It was Tasha," He starts to explain as he's getting his shoes on, preparing to leave, so I follow suit by putting my jacket back on. "Luna was in a car accident a little bit ago and she's in the hospital."

"Oh my god," I gasp in horror, feeling my bones go cold. "Is she okay?"

He shrugs and we're suddenly running out the door to get to the truck. "She's in surgery but not dead."

"Holy shit."

"We have to find Grey before we go though, she said that he isn't answering his phone," Jules tells me as we're getting into the truck to race down to the hospital.

I blink a few times to try and think before I lean back in the seat and breathe before responding. "I know where he'll be."

--

Grey's POV

The Ronlux looks so much emptier without everybody else here. It looks darker too, which doesn't really make any sense but really just everything seems more like a void. Maybe that's just because I'm high right now though.

With my head leaning against the cinder block wall, I close my eyes and listen to the feet pounding upstairs and then they're pounding down the stairs into the basement. I was hoping that it wasn't anybody upstairs that I knew, that they were just the hobos upstairs.

"Grey," Cece's panting out my name, sounding very out of breath. "We have to go, what are you doing?"

"I'm baked, Ce," I say slowly, rolling my head to the side to look at her and I see that Jules is there too. The happy couple. "What's up?"

"Luna was in a car accident," She tells me, speed-walking toward me and then she bends down toward me, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward her so that I had to stand up.

"Where is she?" I ask her as I'm stumbling to my feet with her help. She takes the rest of my joint from my shaking hand and tosses it to the ground before stepping on it to put out the embers.

"She's in the hospital, we're going to her now, come on," Cece tells me, holding onto my shoulder as we walk toward the stairs. "Jules, you gotta help. He's really out of it."

"I'm fine, Cece, just take me to Luna. What's happening?" I demand, trying to remember what she just said. Something about Luna being in trouble. I think. But Luna can't be in trouble, she's ridiculously strong. Indestructible. I've seen her take on gang members and drug dealers so I'm sure whatever is going on, she'll be fine.

"Grey, get it together, man," Jules grumbles as we're going up the stairs. "We have to go faster."

"You guys, she's fine," I mumble to them but as they start practically pushing me out of the building, I'm starting to question how true that really is. "She's Luna, she's always fine."

"She's never fine, Grey, you're such an oblivious asshole," Cece grunts at me as we're getting into the truck. "She's always falling apart and you... god, just shut up, alright? Shut up."

"She's fine, you shut up," I ignore her with a loud exhale. "She's always fine."