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"Jake!" I whisper-shout at him as he bumps into something in the dark. "You're gonna wake my dad up!"

"Sorry," he quietly laughs, following me out of my room and towards the stairs. "Why don't you tell him?"

"Because I like you and if my dad finds out about this, you're going to die, because he's going to kill you."

"So dramatic," Jake chuckles as we make our way down the stairs to the living room and towards the door.

Jake and I have been...seeing each other for about a month now. I would say we've been dating, but I don't really think you could even call it that. I like him and I think he likes me, but he told me before that he's not big on relationships and I don't have time to get my heart broken again. My last boyfriend did a bang up job of that. So we have a thing, me and Jake. A friends-with-benefits sort of thing, I guess you'd call it.

"Not dramatic," I argue, opening the door and walking out in front of him, gesturing for him to follow me.

He gives me a weird look then, but I guess it's understandable. After all, it's 3:00 in the morning and I'm standing here in my robe on the front porch, pretty much kicking him out of my house. Like I said though, we're not a couple or anything remotely close, so he should see where I'm coming from. Whenever we hook up though, we go to his dorm, not my house, so now he sees what it's like to be on the receiving end.

"He doesn't like you, you know," I remind Jake, closing the door shut as quietly as I can after he walks out.

"What do you mean, he doesn't like me?" Jake wonders, raising his eyebrows in confusion. "What'd I do?"

"You guys lost to Florida last week," I state, like he doesn't know. "He's really into the SEC thing," I add.

"Yeah, but that wasn't my fault," he defends with a shrug. "I did my job, our defense is just trash," he says.

"I don't know what that means, but okay," I laugh. "So when am I gonna see you next?" I ask, even though I know I need to hurry up and get back inside the house before a neighbor sees me or even worse, my dad wakes up and finds me out here, barely dressed with a boy he's never seen, outside of on the football field.

"You can see me again tonight if you come to Phi Psi like I've been asking you to."

Phi Kappa Psi is the fraternity Jake is a member of and it was at one of their (Phi Psi's) house parties a couple of months ago that we first met. After that first time I went to Phi Psi's house, I never went back. I mean, yeah, it was nice getting to meet Jake, but that was the only nice thing about it. There were about a million and one people cramped in the house and they don't have air conditioning (too expensive, according to Jake), so it was pretty bad. Despite that though, Jake always tries to get me to come to their house parties.

"But I don't like Phi Psi," I groan. "Can't we just go somewhere else?" I plead.

"Well yeah, we can, but we can't not tonight," he says. "I'll be there all night."

"I fail to see what about the whole Greek Life thing appeals so strongly to you," I tell him matter-of-factly.

"The free booze, mostly," he grins and I roll my eyes at that. "Savannah, come on, it'll be fun," he promises.

"Okay, okay, okay," I agree. "But if some drunk person throws up on my shoes again, I'm not going back."

"Probably a good idea," Jake grins and then leans in to kiss me. "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah," I nod and suddenly, I see the light in the living room flicker on. "Run, run, run!"

And I guess he notices it too then, because his eyes get big and he turns around and takes off running across the lawn towards his car. He parked it in our neighbors' driveway, which we both know wasn't an okay thing to do, but the neighbors are out of town and we couldn't risk my dad seeing his car outside our house.

After Jake is safely out of my line of vision, I turn around and nearly have a heart attack as I go to open the door and it opens before I touch the doorknob. And standing there behind it with a confused look is my dad.

"Savannah?" My dad says, looking down then at me with a scolding look on his face.

"Dad, hi!" I exclaim, suddenly wishing I'd put pants on under this robe. "What's up?"

"What's up?" He echoes with a sigh and I can tell he's annoyed. "I don't know, please, tell me what's up."

"Oh, well, you know, nothing much," I shrug, hearing Jake's car next door roar to life. "Just hanging out."

"Outside at 3 in the morning with your robe on?" My dad asks, crossing his arms across his chest. "Really?"

"Yep, really," I confirm, hoping he's buying my blatant lie. "It was just a little...uhh...stuffy in my room."

"So why didn't you just open the window?" He asks then.

"God, dad, you're so smart," I say. "I didn't think of that."

"Uh huh," he nods. "So you weren't just out here talking to someone?"

"Me?" I echo, playing dumb. "Dad, it's 3 a.m., who'd I be talking to?"

"I don't know," he shrugs. "But I could have sworn that I heard you talking to someone just a second ago."

"Oh, you know what, I actually was talking, but just to myself," I tell him. "I have my American History midterm in the morning so I was just going over some stuff out loud to remember for the test," I explain.

"Oh yeah?" He asks and I know now that he doesn't believe me, but I'm no quitter. "Some stuff like what?"

"Just...history stuff," I reply. "Like...the French and Indian War. Did you know that wasn't, like, the French and the Indians fighting each other? It was actually the French and the Indians aligning and fighting the British. Crazy, right?"

"Yeah, it's so crazy."

"Well, that's history for you, just...full of crazy things," I say. "Anyway, I think I've got just about everything I need to know for the test down, so I'm just gonna go back to my room and get some shut eye."

"Good idea," he nods, stepping aside and letting me in the house.

"Yeah," I mumble, walking in and closing the door. "So...night!"

And then I take off in a full blown jog up the stairs and back to my room, thanking my lucky stars for the fact that my dad didn't see Jake. I mean, I'm sure he didn't buy my history spiel, but I don't think that he knows I was out there with a guy. If he did, I'm sure there'd have been a lot less chill and a lot more yelling.

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Name 3 acts of legislation passed during the LBJ Administration and explain their significance.

Of course, another question I have no idea what the answer to is. I'm currently taking my American History midterm and I'm pretty sure I'm not doing so hot. Apparently when my professor said that the test would include more than just what we learned at the beginning of the semester (aka the only time I regularly showed up to this class), he wasn't lying.

And because I don't even have a guess as to what the answer could be, I just write down three random laws and bills that I know for sure were passed somewhere around the time LBJ was in office. Then I gather my materials and go down to the front of the room, handing my professor the exam booklet and then making my way out of the room as quick as I can.

"So, how did it go?" My friend, Eva, asks, standing up from the random chair that always sits in the hallway.

"Well, considering I need a 160% to keep a "B" for the break, I would say it went pretty horrible," I mutter.

Eva and I have American History together, that's how we became friends, but she's one of those super smart people with that Cam Jansen type memory, so she finished the exam in less than thirty minutes or so.

We were actually supposed to be roommates this first semester, but then at the last minute, my parents decided to have me live at home the first year. We live about a half-hour away from Tuscaloosa and off-campus living is apparently way cheaper than living in a dorm and getting a meal plan and all of that. So I stayed home, but Eva and I ended up still becoming really good friends anyway, so it's not really that bad.

"Well, you know what they say, Cs get degrees," Eva reminds me and I chuckle.

"Yeah, okay, I'll tell that to my parents and hopefully they feel the same," I say.

And as if on cue, my phone starts vibrating in my pocket. And I know it's my mom because I set her one of those personalized vibrations. That way, I would never miss her calls, since she tends to freak out if I do. So I say goodbye to Eva and answer my phone, heading out of Radisson Hall and towards the parking lot.

'Hi honey, is this a bad time?" My mom asks.

"No, this is a fine time," I reply. "What's up?"

"Well, I just spoke to Stephanie," she tells me.

Stephanie Matthews, that is. Best friend to my mother since their schoolgirl days, ex-second mother figure to me, and current mother to my ex-boyfriend, Carter Matthews. She's a lovely lady and prior to my break up with Carter, I really did think of her like a mom. When Carter dumped me, though, that came to an end.

"Oh," I awkwardly mutter. "Well, how come?"

"She wants to do Thanksgiving together this year," my mom explains. "You, me, your father, Richard, her, and Carter, all of us at our house this year and then next year all of us over at their house," she informs me.

"Please tell me you said no," I beg, stopping dead in my tracks.

"Of course I didn't say no," she denies. "Why would I say no?"

"Because Carter and I broke up two months ago?" I remind her, because clearly she's forgotten about that.

"I know, but I thought you said that you guys were still friends?" She asks.

"Well, yeah, we said we'd still be friends, but you know no one ever actually stays friends when it's over."

"That's not true, all of my divorced friends are still friends with their exes."

"Well, that's nice, but Carter and I aren't friends and I really don't wanna have to see him on Thanksgiving."

"Savannah," she sighs. "I already agreed; I can't go back and say no now."

"I don't see why not," I murmur. "Mrs. Matthews is a reasonable lady; I know that she would understand."

"She won't have to, because I am not un-inviting them over for Thanksgiving dinner."

"Mom!" I exclaim, resisting the urge to throw a temper tantrum in the parking lot. "Why do you hate me?"

"I don't hate you, Savannah," she assures me. "It's going to be a good time, you'll see."

"Yes, because spending Thanksgiving with my ex-boyfriend and his family sounds like it will be a blast."

"Well, why don't you bring that boy with you?" She wonders and I stop in the middle of starting my car.

"What boy?" I ask, getting all paranoid. Maybe my dad did see Jake and told my mom about him. Great.

"The one you had up in your room last night."

I feel my face flush red and I don't know what to say in response, so I don't say anything. I don't know how she knows that Jake was in my room last night — I thought that we were being fairly quiet. And even if we weren't, my parents' bedroom is downstairs and on the opposite side of the house that my room is on.

"How did you know about that?" I wonder.

"The surveillance cameras," she chirps, as if one having surveillance cameras in their house is just normal. "Remember a few months ago your father and I were talking about having a couple installed, just in case anything ever happened, that way we'd know? Well, we got them installed a couple of weeks ago, so now there's one on the porch, one by the stairs, and one out on the back porch. I watch them over every morning, just to see what happened the night before and this morning I saw you leaving your room with some boy."

"No, mom," I deadpan. "I don't remember that conversation taking place at all," I truthfully tell her. Had I had any knowledge of the fact that my house is the Alabama equivalent of Ft. Knox, I would have never brought Jake over to the house. Now that I think about it, though, I did sense something weird in the house.

I'm just glad it's her that checks these so-called cameras and not my dad. If I were having this conversation with my dad right now, I would be crying and freaking out and just all out panicking. Unlike my dad, though, who still treats me like a nine-year-old, my mom actually treats me my actual age, so she's pretty chill about the guy thing. I didn't expect she'd be okay with me bringing one home, but I guess I was wrong.

"Oh, well, maybe it wasn't you I told," she says. "Anyway, you're more than welcome to bring him over."

"Yeah, I don't think that's such a great idea," I deny, squirming in my seat. "I'm sure he has plans," I add.

I don't want to tell my mom that I don't want to bring Jake over because we're really just hooking up because that's just a little bit TMI, I think. I don't want to be forced to only have Carter to talk to, though. After our weird break up back in September, I think it'd be weird to sit together and pretend it didn't happen.

So weird, in fact, that I decide right then that I would much rather deal with dad shooting death stares at Jake all night and interrogating him about the team's gameplay and his intentions with me and other weird stuff than have to talk to Carter, who, for whatever reason, thought that it'd be okay to reply to my "I love you" at the end of one of our late night Skype calls a few months back with "I think we should break up."