Yes, I know that I'm late. Very, very, very, very late but school has me swamped. So, to compensate, I have posted a looooong chapter. Okay, maybe not that long. Ignore a couple of o's in the middle. Hope you enjoy it! :D

"Wakeupwakeupwak-"

"Shut up," I grumble and weakly throw a pillow at Creed's face.

"Wow! I'm only five feet away from you and you still missed. Pitiful." Creed says and I can feel the bed lighten as Creed gets up and pulls open the curtains. Sunlight fills my room and I groan in response.

"LET ME SLEEP!" I rasp, burying my head under my blanket but Creed pulls the blanket away from me. Finally realizing that Creed won't rest until I wake up, I sit up on the bed and look around, disoriented. I see Creed smirking at me from the foot of my bed.

"Yikes. How do you manage to look like a normal human person throughout the day if you look like this in the mornings?" Creed asks, shaking his head at me.

"Why do you hate me?" I croak, my voice not, completely, awake yet.

"I don't hate you. It's eleven in the morning and everyone's been up for hours and you were missing out on all the fun. So, I thought to myself, 'Creed, you're an amazing friend. Go wake the idiot up and then we can all have fun together.' Trust me, you should be thanking me."

I look at Creed with murder in my eyes. At that moment, Jason walks in.

"Hey! You're finally awake." He says. Then he looks at me and his eyebrows shoot upwards. "Wow, talk about bedhead."

I start throwing whatever I can find at the guys and they leave the room, laughing their asses off. Ugh, I need new friends. Maybe I can post an ad on Craigslist.

I bury my head in my hands, not ready to face the day. I knew it was going to be hell. Cayden made that abundantly clear last night. That's why I retired to bed early, at around 11, because I just felt so uncomfortable around Cayden. I have no clue how to act around him. Should I be sweet to him because I maybe, kind of like him or should I be rude because he was an asshole when we first met?

I was hoping I could regroup my feelings over these 2 weeks but that clearly wasn't going to happen and Cayden definitely doesn't make it any easier for me. One minute he's extremely sweet and the next minute, he acts like an idiot.

I get up and walk towards the bathroom that's attached to my room. Luckily, the guest room where I'm staying has its own bathroom. Can't say the same for the guys, though. I look at my reflection in the mirror above the sink. No wonder the guys made fun of me, I think to myself, I look terrible. My eyes are swollen and red, my hair is in shambles and I can see dried drool on my cheek.

I strip and get into the shower. I, honestly, don't feel awake unless I take a shower. I get out of the shower and tie a towel around me. I walk into the guest room and sigh. Don't get me wrong, I love my bedroom but this room is so elegant.

The room has beige wallpaper with some flowery design on it. The room is small and even though there are two single beds in the room, it's still so spacious. Sleeping in this room makes me feel like a princess.

I'm not at all surprised to see that Belle's bed is untouched. Belle isn't the type of girl to make her bed after sleeping, so it's safe to say that she was with Jason. I really don't understand why those guys are so paranoid about these things.

I open the dresser where I've kept my clothes and see that Belle has already taken over half of my side along with her own. That girl has come prepared for the apocalypse. I sigh and rummage through the drawer for something to wear. I finally decide on denim shorts and a casual tee.

After dressing up, I apply some lip gloss on my lips but leave my brown hair free because it's still wet. As I climb down the stairs, I can hear a faint conversation. I follow the voice and it leads me to the kitchen.

"- And she has the worst case of bed hair, I swear." Creed says, sticking his hair out in different directions and pulling a funny face. Everyone laughs at this. Including Cayden. I clear my throat loudly and everyone turns to look at me.

I walk into the kitchen and grab a bowl and a spoon from the cabinets.

"Congrats! You look like an actual human being now." Creed says, offering me the cereal box. I fake a hysterical laugh and then with a straight face, snatch the box from him.

"For someone who apparently looks terrible waking up, you sure clean up good." Filip says, leaning on the kitchen counter. Of course, because I am me and Filip is extremely good looking, I blush. I mutter thanks and immediately stuff my face full of cereal.

"Since when do you eat cereal without milk?" Belle asks me, giving me a weird look.

"Since today." I say, with my mouth full. In my haste, I totally forgot about the milk and it tastes terrible but I have already made the commitment. So I, begrudgingly, take another spoonful of dry cereal.

"Okaaaaaaay..." Belle turns away from me and towards the guys, "What plans do we have today?"

"What do you want to do?" Jason asks her.

"I don't know. I was hoping you guys would think of something." Belle says and I can see that everyone in the room has a blank look on their face.

"So we're going to be doing nothing?" Cayden asks, looking extremely confused and to be honest, extremely adorable.

Man, are my feelings messed up or what?

"We could just hang out here today. I mean, Jason has an amazing pool and a mini-arcade in his basement. We don't really need to go anywhere else." I say and everyone gets this really thoughtful look on their face.

Creed is the first one to break the silence. "That's actually not a bad idea. It could be like an inning."

"Inning?" Filip asks with an amused expression.

"Yeah, it's like an outing but inside." Creed says, giving all of us a proud look.

"Creed, we talked about this. You cannot create your own words." Belle says, shaking her head but I honestly love the weird words that Creed comes up with. So, I jump to defend him.

"I'm pretty sure someone said that to Shakespeare once and now, he's a literary genius."

The guys laugh and I can't help but feel this warm sensation spread in my chest. I made Cayden laugh. Thankfully, this time, he was laughing with me instead of at me. Belle looks like she really wants to laugh but doesn't want to give us the satisfaction.

"Dibs on the pinball machine." She says instead, her eyes gleaming with mischief. Creed and I immediately stop laughing. We love the pinball machine and once Belle gets her grubby paws on it, she doesn't let go.

                                                ----------------------------------------

It's been three hours since we entered the mini-arcade. Belle and Creed are engaged in some weird pinball competition with really complicated rules. Trust those guys to turn a simple game into a complex competition. Jason and Filip are playing some video game while Cayden acts like a cheerleader and I'm slumped on the bean bag, bored out of my mind.

Jason has a pretty sweet mini-arcade. All of the arcade machines are aligned in a neat row against the farthest wall. The basement is also pretty huge and a couch is kept facing a huge plasma screen at the centre of the room. There's also a seating area where there are a couple of funky chairs and a bean bag, which is currently occupied by me. The wooden floor is complemented by a maroon color wallpaper.

I scan the arcade games in search of something, anything that would relieve me of my boredom. I could play Pac-man but that game brings out the dark side inside of me. There's also a dance arcade machine and a couple of racing games but I really wasn't in the mood to play them.

"Guys," I say but my voice is drowned by the loud music and all the noise. Jason, Cayden and Filip are shouting and swearing whereas Belle and Creed are arguing about some foul. How can they have fouls in pinball?

"Guys," I repeat a little louder but give up when I realize that there's no interrupting these guys. I close my eyes and let the unknown music wash over me. I need to remember to keep my stupid ideas to myself the next time.

Let's spend a day at the house, it'll be super fun. What an idiot.

All of a sudden, I feel the bean bag droop against a weight. I open my eyes to see Cayden sitting on the same bean bag as me, our faces incredibly close. His hands grip my bare legs and I shiver at his touch. He lifts my legs and gets himself into a more comfortable position, our legs completely entwined now.

"You know there are other seats." I say, pointing at the chairs.

"But there's only one bean bag." He shrugs. I know that if I want, I can just get up and sit on the chairs instead. They're perfectly comfortable and I especially love the hand shaped chair but I don't move. I stay right where I am, incredibly close to the guy I never thought I'll talk to.

"So, you look like you're about to die from boredom." Cayden says, stretching his arms.

"Uh, yeah." I say, completely flustered. If I just relaxed, I could be leaning on his bicep but I'm completely stiff and aware of every movement of my body. I don't know why Cayden has this effect on me.

"I am really bored." I say, trying to cover up my nervousness.

"Then, let's do something."

"Do what?"

"We can do anything you want." He says, looking at me suggestively.

"How about we play a game?" I say, equally suggestively and running a finger down his torso. Cayden looks shocked for a split second before his face breaks into a huge grin and he nods in response.

"There's this amazing game called let's try not to be an asshole. I've got to warn you, though. I don't think you'll be able to do it." I say, poking him hard and giving him a sly smile.

He catches hold of my hand with the straying finger and stares at me intently.

"I'm ready to play it if you are." He says, offering me his hand to shake on the deal. I grab his hand with mine and shake it vigorously.

"Are you sure you can do it?" I ask him, still shaking his hand.

"I'm positive." He says and detaches his hand from me.

"Do you want to get out of here?" He asks me and my heart immediately goes into overdrive.

"Yes." I say, breathily and mentally smack myself for sounding so desperate. Cayden starts to get up but I hold him back.

"What about these guys?" I ask him. He just rolls his eyes at me.

"Trust me; they don't care about anything right now except for their games."

I look at my friends and realize that it's true. These guys are so engrossed in their games, they wouldn't realize it if aliens zapped this house into outer space.

"Okay," I nod, "Let's go."

                                               -----------------------------------------------------

After a lot of pondering about where to go, we decide to head to the park.

"It's a beautiful day outside and the park isn't that far. Let's just walk." I stop Cayden from grabbing his car keys.

"Okay. Whatever you say." Cayden shoots me a sweet smile and I blush a little because I'm not used to hot guys smiling at me. Cayden must be taking the game a lot more seriously than I thought.

We leave the house and start walking towards the park. We don't speak at all as we pass the beautiful, regal houses. Saying that things are awkward would be an understatement.

"So, these houses sure are pretty." I say, desperate to talk about anything.

"Yeah, they are. It's a very nice neighbourhood." He says.

"Where do you live?" I ask him when I realize that I have no idea where he lives.

"I live on Reynold Street. You?"

"Wow, I live quite close to you, actually, on Baker's Street. It'll take about five minutes from your house to mine, I guess." I say, thinking about the endless possibilities.

"Oh, that's cool." He says and the awkwardness envelopes us like a blanket. The park is fifteen minutes away. I can't just walk till there in complete silence.

"How about this weather, huh?" I ask cheerily.

"You do know that it's okay to not talk all the time, right?" Cayden asks, an amused expression on his face.

"Yes, of course. That's actually my motto."

"Really? Your motto is that it's okay to not talk all the time?"

I mentally kick myself when I realize that it sounds like a pretty stupid motto.

"Yep," I say, popping the p, "Maybe you should try it." I say and playfully shove him.

The tiny Shae inside my head is doing a victory dance. That was so flirty and casual. I'm proud of me.

Cayden just chuckles in response and we walk in silence again but this time, it's not that awkward.

P.S: The picture above is of James.