As usual I stumble into the kitchen in nothing more than my pajamas, which is usually just some shorts or underwear and a large t-shirt but today it's my panties and Ares's large sweatshirt, last night I was way too comfortable and tired to do anything but wear it.

Before I went to bed Ares helped me, and since he saw how stupidly large his sweatshirt scrunched it up and tied it together.

So my ass and legs are on full display, which isn't an issue.

Ares is respectful, so even if he did want to check me out he wouldn't.

This being said it completely reasonable for me to come out half naked, looking like a troll and not expect anything to happen.

I sigh, leaning into the counter as I wait for my precious coffee to be finished.

"Stop fucking staring at her ass." Ares deep, angry voice cuts through the air followed by a warning growl.

My heart soars in slight panic, whipping around only to see the Reed twins seated on the couch, eyes focused on my body with their heads tilted. Conner looks away first, ashamed, but Logan keeps staring.

I pale slightly, being completely uncomfortable with the male gaze.

The giant stands, blocking me from sight. "Go wait outside, for a fucking minute." He snaps, they begin to protest but he effectively stops that by crossing his arms.

Dominance and confidence radiate off Ares, even two v. one they know there's no way they'd be able to take him so they scramble out of our living room and into the hall.

"Thanks." I mutter, appreciating how his eyes never drop from my own -even when I look away I know he's still watching me in hope of actually making eye contact.

I suck at eye contact.

"Come here." He sighs, motioning for me to step closer to him but once it's obvious that's not happening he's the one that walks up to me. "The guys are forcing me to go to some shitty fair, so I'm making you come. We're sharing this pain and don't even try to get out of it. I'm not going through the Reeds excited drunk asses twice in the span of 48 hours without mental compensation."

As he speaks Ares pulls the hair tie off of his sweat shirt, pulling the scrunched area apart again so the material drops down to it's natural length.

Where he laughs, I huff as we see it goes down to my knees.

"Stupid giant." I scowl, picking up my coffee.

He, at least, has the decency to look moderately offended. "I am not a giant, you're a midget."

I gasp, smacking his arm with a dignified scoff. "I am not a midget! I'm just shorter than average, that doesn't change the fact that you're massive."

"That's what she said." He snickers, making me roll my eyes.

"What are you, thirteen?"

"Nah, fourteen."

Leaving it at that, besides the small snort of disbelief, I lean against the counter again to finish my coffee while Ares invites the two idiots back into the apartment.

I know I'm not his, but Ares is my best friend.

Well, my only friend really.

But he has Logan and Conner, and that's alright with him.

They may seem like complete ditzes and irresponsible but they're really chill and good friends if they need to be.

"So, Peyton..." Conner trails off, perking right up when I raise a eyebrow at him. "Are you single."

"Yes." Ares growls, glaring at me as if he's mad at me for it. "And it's going to stay that way around you two idiots."

"You're single. Available." Logan concludes. "How the -Why are you still single."

I roll my eyes, putting my cup in the sink. "First of all, Ares you need to calm down. I wouldn't date either of your friends no matter what they did. Second of all, I have a disease called unattractive and lastly it's because I... don't like anyone."

This last part is hesitant, and extremely so, but the only person who seemed to pick up on that very obvious uncertainty was Ares.

Thankfully he doesn't say anything.

"Unattractive?" Logan sputters, I frown at his wide eyes.

"Leave it alone Logan." Ares commands, the Reeds fall silent. "Go get dressed Ev, lets get this over with."

"Already? What time is it?"

"Around twelve, you were exhausted so I let you sleep in."

An few hours later and we've already been at the fair for around two hours playing games, walking around and going on rides that everyone can handle, and I'm irked once again to find that Ares didn't bring a water bottle or buy a drink like the rest of us.

"Don't you ever get water hungry?" Conner voices my thoughts but in such a way that makes us all pause and stare at him.

"What?" Ares asks, his face that normal, cold, indifferent mask he usually has.

"You know," Conner throws his hands up. "Water hungry."

"Wait...thirsty?" I supply, squeaking in surprise as I'm pulled into the brunette's chest.

He cheers me on for being smart, but suffocates me.

"Stop fucking touching her." A growl comes from Ares as I'm yanked to his side instead, at a breathable distance.

What is with these guys and man handling me?

"Thanks." I mumble, looking around.

"What do you want to ride?" Logan asks me.

Smirking, Conner answers instead, eyes flicking between both me and Ares. "I have a clue."

Blushing, I throw my hands in the air and stomp over to the Firedragon's line. They all follow after me, Ares directly behind me while the twins bicker behind him.

Since we're against the wall that separates the wild ride from the line I can notice the man in front of me backing me into the wall the second time he does it.

I keep trying to inch away from him, but my front is directly pressed into his side and since he's a large man my attempts to push him away don't work.

This all happened within the span of two minutes.

A large arm shoots between us, making me gasp as I'm roughly separated from the man's side.

Following it to Ares's angry face I gulp, watching as the also angry man turns to face him. If I thought the man was large then I've got another thing coming, seeing as Ares is six and a half feet away and pretty massive when it comes to the muscle I don't think even the Rock would win a hand to hand.

It would probably go on for hours before they call a truce.

Then Ares the Asshole would knock Dwayne on ass just because he could.

"She's mine." Ares growls, obviously scaring the man while snapping me from my thoughts. "I suggest you leave before you see what happens if you stay where you can so much as look at what's mine."

He doesn't need to say anything else, or even add details to his threat because the man runs away looking like he's about to piss himself.

"Thanks." I say, voice smaller than I wanted it to be. "I owe you one."

"No you don't, shut up." Ares snaps, making me seal my mouth shut and look away from him. Even as we step up to board the ride his arm is wrapped around my waist, in a obvious protective gesture.

But he lets go so I can sit in the ride's uncomfortable hard plastic bench only for him to sit next to me. Conner literally throws himself to the chair on my right and the other Reed sit on his other side, clearly not happy about not being able to sit beside me.

I frown and shuffle on the seat as the instructor tells us to hang on, we aren't given any seat belt or bar.

Stupid spinning rides rarely have them, and I know I'll be thrown around.

As soon as the ride starts I'm jerked forward a release a small scream, only to be stopped by Ares slamming my body back in my seat and grabbing the bar that lays between me and Conner. He effective becomes like a seat belt and as the ride only gets worse I find myself clutching onto him, practically cowering into Ares's side.

I'm pretty sure Conner is the first one off the ride and puking somewhere while he brother follows him.

My breath comes in short gasps, my head spinning as my body tries to overcome the fear of being on that ride.

I hate and love roller coasters, it's a complicated relationship.

My stupid roommate isn't even breaking a sweat from keeping both mine and his body stuck to the seats, but I'm trembling.

"Ev, are you okay?" I nod at his question, but I'm pretty sure even the old blind lady that lives in the apartment next to us would be able to tell I'm not. "What do you need?"

A big hug and for someone to slap me the next time I choose a ride.

"I, I want to get off." I manage to say with minimal stammering.

Ares gently leads me off the ride, placing me between the two now completely okay Reeds before saying he'll be right back.

An half hour later and he's still not back, but that could be because Conner lost in the crowd. We found Conner with cotton candy and a suspicious looking glass bottle of coke, then all hyped up on sugar (he had at least three full bags of candy) Logan dragged us to the interactive haunted house.

Now we're waiting for Ares as if he actually knows where we'll be.

My hands are shaking, but that's only because here Ares was my safe spot and I know the Reeds are good people but they aren't exactly trust worthy, but hiding it from the twins were easy.

I want to leave.

"So...I don't think he knows where we are." Logan says, pouting.

They both notice my scowl but decide to make it seem like they don't realize I'm upset at all, or notice me in general.

"I can find him." Conner says confidently.

"Bet?"

"Bet."

They each pull out a twenty and place it under Conner's water bottle shaped like a stripper. Men.

Suddenly the most stupid, and ironically not blond like his twin, Reed takes me by the hips and makes me stumble in front of them. "Scream." He commands.

"I'm not screaming Conner," I mumble. "Let go of me."

"OH NO, EVERLY IS BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF." Conner yells, making me flinch back. "I THINK SHE WANTS A KISS. Logan, the spider."

Despite what I said I do scream when the biggest wolf spider I have ever seen is placed in front of my eyes, jumping onto Conner's face in fright from the piercing noise that came from me.

Serves him right, that loser.

I'm shoved back into Logan's arm while Conner flails his arms and runs in circles, and can still see the black dot clinging to his face.

However Logan is still clutching onto me painfully, me in front of him as a active human shield despite being a foot shorter than him, so tears a building up in my eyes and soon spill down my cheeks as I struggle against him.

When I'm scared my mouth clamps shut after I scream, if I scream at all, and I hate it because then I can't yell for help or say things like No. I have to force myself, focus on the motion of opening my mouth and actually speaking but if I do that my body shuts down with panic.

I'd rather fight than scream.

His hands are gone from me in a second and I'm spun to find Logan with a black eye and bloody nose laying on the ground, conscious but dazed. I hear skin on skin then another one for a body dropping and turn to find Conner in the same position as his brother but the spider gone and Ares charging towards me.

I shrink back as he grabs my waist, but unlike the Reeds his hold is gentle as he holds me at a distance. It's then I see the two soft pretzels and a large blueberry Slurpee, and realize he did all that with one hand.

My fear dissipates and is replaced with worry as I see his busted knuckles, but he looks like he could care less. "Your hand-"

"Shh," With anyone else I would have flinched when their hand met the skin of my cheek, but with Ares I just watch him as he wipes my fallen tears. "Are you hurt?"

"Not really, can we leave." I sniff slightly, keeping my head down so he won't see how I can't stop crying. I hate being held down against my will, especially by a man. Those are some bad memories I don't need brought up. "Please? I want to go h-home."

"Course. I'm going to make sure I didn't give those fucking idiots brain damage, then we can leave." Ares says, making sure I'm not swaying before making both his best friends scramble to their feet. "She deserves a damn apology."

Both the Reeds mutter one, obviously guilty but my hands are still shaking and they couldn't have known.

I'm about to apologizing for how I reacted, or at least tell them it's okay and not to feel guilty but Ares's sharp look in my direction in enough for me to stay quiet and let him lead me back to his car.

Ares hand skips across my back pockets, I jump slightly but don't say anything as I realize he was just checking if I still had my phone and wallet -which I do.

Unlike most girls I find purses unnecessary and even annoying. Who needs that much stuff for a quick run to the store?

"Here," Ares hands me a pretzel container, the other on his lap as the Slurpee is placed between us. "Eat up."

"Thanks." I nod at him, dunking it in the chocolate Ares hates -he has mustard and cheese.

He hates chocolate, and will do anything to avoid eating it.

So, he's literally insane.

We eat without talking, just the soft sound of his RnB Radio playing or one of us taking a sip.

Living together for four years takes away the fear of sharing drinks or accidentally switching spoons. We're college students after all, so half our meals are just ramen with something extra thrown in the bowl.

We eat in front of the couch, and often switch our bowls or forks because we set it down so much. We learned not to care the hard way, seeing as we'd be studying or doing work while eating.

Somehow Ares managed to convince his boss to let me work for him, so now we both work in a relatively good bar in a much safer neighborhood than the last bar I worked at. It's good pay and we have the same shifts so getting there on time is easy as walking out the door.

Me and him made the decision to sell my old truck and his second motorcycle for Ares's car, and we only say it's his car because I make him drive.

He has no clue I'm probably the safest driver he could ever be with but I don't drive for a reason.

Ares still owns his other motorcycle and it's a huge beautiful beast yet it's super fun to be on, but that may be due to the fact that I got to be with Ares for what would have other wise been a boring experience.

He thought I'd be scared of the speed.

I almost laughed.

"So," His deep voice breaks me from my thoughts, making me turn to look up at him. "Want to talk about it."

I'm surprised I didn't swoon as I watched his jaw while he took a bite of his pretzel, but he doesn't think anything of me staring at a different part of him.

He knows I hate eye contact, so as long as I'm staring at a part of him- -respectfully- -he knows I'm listening.

"About what?"

"About why you freaked out."

"Oh." I say, wincing slightly. "Um..."

"You don't have to." Ares assures me. "But there's a reason you freaked out like that, that wasn't a normal reaction and not just because of some stupid spider. Some shit happened today, and I want to know what the hell made you cry."

I gulp, glancing at the golden hazel long enough to see his eyes are now almost black. Anger radiates off of him but I know I'm safe, it's not directed at me, even if it's about me.

"You're right." I nod. "People, men, they can't restrain me like that. It brings up, um, I remember things. Bad t-things."

Ares hums in reply, taking a final bite before he starts to drive, accepting my answer as the end of the conversation.

Sometimes I'm thankfully we don't talk a lot, but other times I can't help but to hate it.

I'm not sure which of these I feel right now, maybe both, but I do know I feel like something needs to change.

Maybe we should know more about each other, we have lived together for half a decade and we don't know about each other's pasts at all, even if I do know more than I'd like to.

I can't recall how many times Ares has kicked me out of the shower by slipping in it naked himself, but never in a suggestive way just a we're-about-to-be-so-late-for-work kind of way.

He couldn't see me like than, like anything other than a roommate.

And that sucks, but I got over my stupid crush long ago.

Our friendship was more important to me than the possibility of a relationship, so I forced myself to stop feeling that way about him.

Sometimes it's hard and I feel like I might be liking him again, then I just force those feelings back down again.

A tiring process.

But totally worth it, I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have Ares's support all these years.

Probably wanting to stab myself in the eye with something long and sharp if I was stuck with my own roommate, we're completely compatible to live together. That's how we got such a good apartment, this is the kind of place small families are raised and young married people escape to.

I'm proud of me for making it on my own and having moved in with Ares, best decision I've ever made -I've met Ares's mom, the only parent he has and his older sister.

It's not long before we call it a night and retire to our rooms to sleep, but it seems like days before I even get a little sleep but that's instantly snapped out of me as thunder rolls through the sky.

I hear Blink yelp from the other room before Ares soothes him and quickly sit up on the edge of my bed, heart pounding.

Another reason I love this city, it rarely storms here despite the constant fall-like weather, they scare me.

More bad memories.

My feet carry me to Ares's room before I know what I'm doing, I'm pretty sure the thunder cut off my knock but his small "Come in." let me know that he somehow heard me.

"I'm s-sorry." I stutter, clutching my shaking hands to my chest. "It's the storm, can I please sleep in here tonight. I know it's not ideal b-but I hate them. Please."

Ares smiles lightly at me and pats the empty spot on his bed, the usual smirk or cold look he has long from gone.

He usually only looks calm, blank or smiling like this when he thinks nobody is watching him or it's just me and him watching something funny or listen to music alone in the apartment.

Instantly I'm climbing in the bed, under the covers without hesitation.

When I jump Ares wraps a arm around me and pulls me into his chest, my head under his chin. I know Blink is on his other side, a arm wrapped around the blondie to give the same calming effect.

Slowly relax I'm able to ignore the storm by focusing on Ares's raging heartbeat, being much faster than normal I have no clue why but I choose not to question it and disturb the random comfort Ares decided to give me, instead I give him a answer to the question I know he wants to ask.

"Hey Mars, you know how I'm adopted?" I ask, voice muffled by my cheek against his bare skin.

Crap, he's not wearing a shirt.

"Yeah."

"Before, when I was in foster homes the adults were only in it for money. Normally they didn't even like kids, the ones who got good people were lucky."

"Were you lucky?" Ares asks, voice deeper than normal.

"No." I whisper. He tenses slightly before forcing himself to relax, knowing being tensed or allowing himself to get upset right now would set off Blink. "The foster fathers weren't always nice with the girls, and I was in the system until I was sixteen so I would take the heat off the younger ones."

"Why you freaked out today." He says, easily connecting the dots.

"They didn't like it when I fought back, so they'd punish me by locking me in the basement and their pounding feet on the steps remind me of thunder. One of them would make me stay on the porch during storms, just so I'd learn my lesson." I explain. "I really hate storms."

Ares clears his throat, stopping himself from asking things I won't answer. "Well," He finally says. "You can always come in here when it storms and coward in my arms like the dog."

"I knew you'd like Blink." I say, grinning as I remember him telling me he doesn't want Blink on any of the furniture, only to let him sleep in bed with him every night. "Even if he is a dumb blond."

"Hear that buddy?" I feel the motion of Ares ruffling the husky's fur. "You're a dummy."

I laugh and dig deeper into Ares, knowing that right now even the lightning can't touch me.