In an instant, I am out of bed and pressed up against the door, my knife held out in front of me defensively.

"What are you doing here?" I ask breathlessly.

"Isn't it clear?" He stands up. "Helping start a rebellion."

"That's not what I meant. I meant what are you doing in my room?"

"I figured I'd come pay you a visit, and hopefully, get you to hear me out." He bears that cocky grin that I used to love. "And Gabe told me to wake you up."

I lower my knife. "It was a year ago, Caden, let it go."

"I think I should be telling you that, shouldn't I?" He crosses his arms. "You never forgave me, never even accepted an apology."

"You broke my heart, Caden," I raise the knife again. "And you told my extremely strict father that I had been sneaking out of the house, which resulted in me taking several beatings from him."

"One of which I took in your place, let's not forget," His grin fades.

"True," It's my turn to cross my arms. "But what exactly do you think he did to me after we were inside, hm?"

"Oh God," Caden looks horrified. "Did he hurt you? After you stood up to him like that?"

Why is he concerned? It happened a year ago, and he shouldn't care about that. He didn't care about me. He sold us out! To my incredibly abusive father!

"Did he hurt you, Dolly?" Caden repeats.

"Stop calling me that," I mutter.

"What?"

"I SAID STOP CALLING ME THAT!" I stomp over to him, knife in hand.

I don't hurt him. I don't even threaten to hurt him. I let my heart take over, and as soon as I reach him, I press my lips to his. The kiss is hungry, angry. I hate him. I. Hate. Him. No. I want to hate him. But I can't. Because deep down, he will always be my Caden. And I will always be his Dolly. Then, I remember Dakota. I break off the kiss, both of us breathing hard. Oh no. I start to pace the room, back and forth, back and forth.

"I shouldn't have done that," I pant. "I should not have done that."

"Why not?" Caden is breathing hard, too.

I stop pacing and look at him as if he had just asked me if he could use nuclear missiles to bake cookies.

"Well first of all," I continue my pacing. "I'm supposed to hate you for what you did. And second, because of Dakota!"

"Wait, you're with Dakota? Seriously?"

"Yes - well, we kissed."

Sadness flashes across his eyes. Good. He deserves to be hurt after what he did.

"Have you made it official?" He asks.

"What?" I'm very confused. He should be getting angry. Oh, why can't I just hate him?

"Have you made it official? Have you both decided that you're exclusively each other's?"

"Well - uh," I stammer. "No, not technically."

"Then you did nothing wrong."

Oh, thank God.

"Oh. Thank you, Caden."

He nods and gets up, leaving my room. I sit on my bed, letting myself wallow in relationship troubles. What if I still have feelings for Caden? Well, of course I do, I just kissed him. I sigh.

Then, my door buzzes, clunks, and Gabe walks in.

"Rise and shine! Time for training, mother - oh, you're already up."

"Don't say "rise and shine" to me anymore. And why is everyone able to hijack my iris sensor?"

"All-access pass for being your training instructor. Apollo told me you sleep in."

"Yeah, but that was a year ago," I frown. "Since then I've slept with one eye open."

I groan and stand up, making my way over to the dresser. I stand beside it, arms crossed, looking Gabe expectantly.

"Well?" I cock an eyebrow. "You gonna let me change?"

"Right, sorry," He walks toward the door, then turns around, a fake boot camp officer look on his face. "You have five minutes. Don't waste 'em."

I roll my eyes as he leaves. I throw on a dark gray tank top, camo pants, and my combat boots, pulling my hair into a painfully tight ponytail.

Then, I exit my room to find an empty hallway. Gabe must already be in the training room.

I make my way down to the training room, my footsteps echoing in the barren hallways. Either everyone is asleep, or everyone is up and Gabe was nice and let me sleep in.

Gabe? Nice? Yeah, everyone's still asleep.

The training room is empty, with the exception of Gabe, who is sitting down on a sparring mat.

"That was longer than five minutes," He says as he sees me walk over.

"Bite me," I reply. "What are we doing today?"

"We're going to spar."

"Okaaayyy," I nod slowly. "Why aren't you getting up?"

"Because I'm freaking exhausted. I have to get up at ten to five to wake you up so you can be ready to start training at five," He does get up, but not before falling once.

"Okay, so are we gonna do hand-to-hand?" I ask when he is finally standing up safely.

"Yeah," He takes a deep breath and lets it out. "I'll try not to beat you too hard."

I laugh. "You know, the last two times you've tried to come at me, I beat you."

"Go to hell,"

"Already there,"

He smiles what he thinks is the joke I just made, and we spar for the next hour.

After breakfast, I go back to my room and sleep, this time with both eyes closed. Because for the first time in a very, very long time, I feel safe. Completely, utterly, totally,

Safe.