Ace's POV

I wake up the next morning and see that I am clutching a pillow like my life depends on it. I let go of it and sit up. 

Why was I holding my pillow like my life depended on it? Wait. Sophie came in the middle of the night. I had a girl in the same bed with me and the next morning I end up with a pillow?

Getting out of the bed, I head downstairs for breakfast. While eating cereal, the guys burst into my house. 

"Hey, Ace." Hunter greets and looks over me. "You should put some clothes on unless you want Sophie to see you in your boxers."

I glance down and my eyes widen. "I didn't do anything I swear!"

"What happened?" Jaxon asks.

"Uh. Um. Nothing." I mutter and put my cereal in the sink. Then run upstairs while the guys run after me asking questions the whole way. After getting ready for the day, I head downstairs. The guys are already waiting in the car since I'm driving them to school.

"So, are you going to tell us what happened last night?" Jaxon asks as I start driving to school.

I sigh. "You aren't going to let this go, are you?"

"No." All of them say in unison.

"Sophie, may or may not have came into my room in the middle of the night and I may or may not have thought she was Max." I admit to them.

"Are you serious?" Michael asks and I nod my head. "You are an idiot! How did you think Sophie, a hot teenage girl, was Max, a German Shepherd?"

"Okay. First of all, back off. I like Sophie and once I get the courage, I will ask her out. Second, it was probably around 3 o'clock in the morning." I reply.

"You can have her, I'm just saying she's hot. We all probably do. I get that it was late at night, but still. Anyway what else happened?" Michael says.

"Nothing. I woke up and she was gone. I was clutching a pillow like my life depended on it though."

"You probably thought it was Sophie."

"I don't know."

》THE BAD BOY'S BAND《

Sophie wasn't at school all day. I'm starting to get worried. She doesn't seem like the type of girl to miss school.

Driving around town for no reason imparticular, I see a girl that I think I Sophie walking down the street. I roll my window down and slow down once I'm beside her.

"Sophie?"

The girl glances to the side and takes her hood off. It is Sophie. Her eyes are red rimmed and puffy. Her face is flushed too.

"Come on, I'll take you home."

"No! I'm not going home! At least not yet." She says and starts to panic.

"Okay. Okay. Calm down. I'll take you to my house."

She shakes her head. "That's where they expect me to be. I can't go there either."

"Umm, okay. I'll drive you around then. Not a destination in mind, just drive around. It'll give you time to think."

"Okay," she says and nods. She opens the door and gets in the car. After she buckles, I start driving.

"I missed you at school today." I state and she stays silent. "Hunter tripped going into school this morning and pretended to slide imto someone's DMs."

"Did he really?" She asks and I glance at her. She's looking at me and has a small smile on her lips.

"Yes, really did." I grin and she laughs. Full out laughs and laughs and laughs. It is music to my ears and she even snorts. I start laughing too and soon we both have tears rolling down our cheeks. We finally wipe our tears away and stop laughing.

"So, what else did I miss?"

"Well, me obviously." I say and flip my nonexistent long hair.

She laughs again. "Yeah. Okay. I do admit that I did miss you today. Did you miss me?"

"Of course I did."

About five minutes is left in silence.

"Do you want to know why I wasn't at school today?" She asks quietly.

"Honestly, yes I do, but if you don't want to talk about then you don't have to." I answer.

"I want to tell you, but I can't."

"Are you in trouble or something?"

"In a way yes, but it's complicated."

"Are you in danger?"

"I'm not going to die."

"But you could get hurt?"

"I always get hurt," she whispers.

My heart breaks a little as she says this. "I want to keep you safe, Sophie."

"And I want to keep you safe! That's why I wouldn't let you take me to your house!"

I glance at her, not caring that I was driving. "Sophie, you aren't supposed to save me. I'm supposed to be your Prince Charming."

"Yeah. Well, not everyone's life is a fairy tale." She finally looks at me and searches my face. "I wish life could be a fairy tale and not just fairy tale but one with a happy ending." She looks away. "I need you to do something for me, Ace."

"Anything."

"Don't come looking for me if I go missing. I couldn't bare to see you get hurt."

"Why would you go missing?"

She opens the door and rushes out of the car and I go after her. I hadn't realized I had stopped in the middle of the road, but I don't care right now. I grab her hand and pull her close to me.

"Tell me what's going on Soph."

"He hurts me. He is obsessed with me, Ace. He gets jealous of you, because I am always with you and I would pick you over him everyday for a million years and even after that. I can't defend myself when it's just me and him. I get so scared, Ace."

My heart breaks again, this time almost completely. Then I'm angry at whoever this guy is. "We can leave. You don't have to stay here. I'll go with you. We can even go as far as getting new identities and everything."

She shakes her head. "I can't run from my problems. I have to face them sooner or later. Knowing him, he would find me."

I hug her tightly. "Please, I can't let you get hurt and do nothing about it."

"Then pretend I'm okay and we got our happily ever after."

"I already do that, Soph. I need the real thing."

"And I wish I could give it to you, but I won't if it means you will get hurt in the process."

"Please, Sophie."

She leans away from me, only a few inches but to me it's like miles away. "Did you read my note that I wrote you?"

"What note?"

"It's in your notebook on your nightstand." She kisses me on the cheek. "Read the note," she whispers and then she is gone. I'm too stunned to do anything. When i snap out of it, I realize I am on the street we live on. I jump in my car and race to my house to read the note.