After I had a shower and put on some different clothes, I went to wake Alice up, but noticed that Joseph's door at the end of the corridor was slightly open. Hoping he was in there, I tiptoed down to it and knocked.

"Yeah," came his voice from inside, so I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Joseph probably wasn't expecting it to be me, but he didn't show it as he glanced up at me. He was lying face up on his bed, on his phone, but when I entered the room, he put his phone down. "Hungover?"

I shrugged. I was feeling ever so slightly nauseous and I did have a bit of a headache, but I'd had a lot worse. "Not too bad."

"And Alice?" There was a small smirk on his face as he sat up.

"Not sure, I haven't seen her this morning, and I'm not sure I want to," I said, wincing. "Uh, I just wanted to say thanks for coming to get us last night, I don't think I said that yesterday."

Joseph looked at me for a moment before just nodding.

I pressed my lips together, mumbling a quiet, "Okay, then." I was about to leave when I suddenly had a thought. "Do your parents know about Alice?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Let's keep it that way, yeah?" I suggested, and was about to leave again when I stopped and turned around once more.

"What is it, Liliana?" Joseph said in exasperation.

"When did I fall asleep last night?" I said, shuffling my feet.

"I don't know, like twenty minutes in, maybe. And did you know that you talk in your sleep?" Joseph's expression was sly.

I scowled. "And what did I have to say?"

"Oh, you know, just going on about how great of a person I was and how I was your hero."

"Funny," I said sarcastically, but I felt my mouth twitch slightly.

"I've got to say, though, you're a hell of a lot less talkative this morning than you were last night," he remarked.

"So, I wasn't completely sober. And this morning I'm tired." I yawned. "Cut me some slack. Anyway. I'm gonna go and see Alice. Thanks again." Joseph nodded and lay back down as I left, making my way to Alice's room.

I saw in relief that Alice's light was on inside her bedroom. At least she was up. I tentatively knocked on the door, and all that responded was a groan. I chuckled as I went inside, glad to see that she hadn't been sick again or anything. Instead, she was just lying with her face in her pillow.

I sat on the end of her bed and tapped her shoulder. "How you feeling?"

"Bloody fantastic, thanks," came her muffled reply. She turned her head so she was facing me. "How do you think I'm feeling?"

"You want some water? And painkillers?" I offered, giving her arm a light rub.

"That'd be nice," she muttered, burying her face back in the pillow. I shook my head at her and quickly went downstairs.

Catherine and Mark were no longer in the kitchen, so I rifled around some drawers to find painkillers. Grabbing them and a glass of water, I went back upstairs with the supplies and handed everything wordlessly to Alice. She took the painkillers and drank the whole glass of water.

"Feeling up for some breakfast?" I suggested. "We could go out, get some fresh air, and maybe go to 'Melissa's' or something?" 'Melissa's' was this little breakfast café that did the most amazing meals, and I was thinking I could also get a job there.

Alice sighed loudly. "I don't know. I feel sick."

I scooted back a couple of steps. "You going to be sick?"

She shook her head. "Don't think so. You go to Melissa's; I'm not up for it. I need to stay in bed for a good hour or two longer."

I shrugged. "If you're sure. Don't exactly have anyone to go with though. I'll probably just stop there for like five minutes to ask about a job."

"Drag Joseph with you," Alice mumbled. "He needs to get out more."

I wrinkled my nose. I wasn't so sure about that idea. "Eh. Oh, I forgot to say, uh, were you okay with me calling him last night? I wasn't sure what yours and his relationship was like..."

She waved her hand dismissively. "It's fine. Way better than my parents picking us up. Don't worry about it. And seriously, Joseph wanted to go into town today anyway. Just get him to drive you." Alice took a deep breath in before shouting, "Joseph!"

"What?" Joseph called in annoyance.

"Come here!" Alice yelled back. There was the sound of footsteps coming down the corridor, and a lot of grumbling. Joseph appeared in the doorway, a scowl on his face.

"Take Ana to Melissa's," Alice ordered, and I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously, Alice, I can get the bus in."

"You both need to go into town, might as well go together," she said, closing her eyes and looking like she was about to fall back asleep.

Joseph and I looked at each other. Clearly neither of us were that keen on the idea, but eventually Joseph said, "Fine, I'll drive you."

I gave Joseph a look. "Can I please get dressed first without you shouting at me to hurry up?"

"Depends how slow you're going to be."

"Ah, listen to you two, getting on so well," Alice said into the pillow. "How sweet."

I shot a sickly-sweet smile at Joseph. "Isn't it?" I dropped my smile. "Just give me five minutes. Well, maybe ten." I slipped past Joseph and into my room before shutting the door behind me as I thought about what to wear. I just decided on some loose fitting shorts and a camisole top as it was a warm day. I threw on the smallest amount of makeup and tied my hair up into a ponytail.

There was a knock on my door. "It's been five minutes. You ready?"

I opened the door to see Joseph standing there, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "You're so impatient. And I'm ready. Let's go."

In the car journey there, I fiddled around with the radio, much like I'd done the night before. This time, I was sober, but I wasn't any better at figuring it out. I gave up with a sigh of exasperation. "Why is your radio so complicated? Don't you have an aux cord or something?"

"Glove compartment," Joseph said shortly.

"Thanks," I muttered, pulling it out and plugging it into my phone. Smiling slightly to myself, I played a song by 'The Temper Trap'. As I looked over at Joseph, his expression remained blank. I rolled my eyes and faced the front again.

When we arrived at Melissa's, it was surprisingly empty. Then again, most people who came here had been at last night's party - Newacre was not a big town - so probably weren't in the best condition to be eating breakfast out.

"You grab a table, I'm just going to say hi to a friend," Joseph told me before walking off and stopping at the counter as he started talking to a pretty blonde girl. I frowned. He had to go and hit on a girl right now? Although I wasn't sure what I expected - I didn't really know Joseph. I rolled my eyes and took a seat at a table by the window.

Melissa's café was situated in the most beautiful place – right on the quayside. I used to come here all the time with my parents, and we used to watch the boats sail in and out of the harbour. We would watch the tide rise and fall, and we used to come here in the evening and watch the sun sink into the sea. It was always breath-taking.

The peace that had suddenly come over me disappeared as I glanced over at Joseph, who was still talking to the girl. Just then, she laughed loudly and touched Joseph's shoulder, biting her lip. I snorted quietly to myself. She was definitely into him. Looking away from them, I picked up the menu and started looking through the food.

Finally, Joseph came and sat down, a rare smile on his face. The smile faded when he saw the expression on my face. "What?"

I shrugged. "Nothing." I concentrated on the menu again.

After a second I heard a faint snort. "You're weird."

I slapped the menu on the table. "I am not weird. Don't be annoying."

Joseph sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Hungover, then?"

"Nope," I said defiantly.

"So why are you so grumpy?"

"I'm not," I stated firmly. I observed him for a second. "Why did you agree to take me to breakfast? It's not as if we don't both have things we'd rather be doing."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Having breakfast with you scowling at me is my favourite thing in the world," he said sarcastically. This only deepened my scowl. "Look, we both have stuff to do in town, might as well have breakfast together here."

"What, so you can hit on the blonde behind the counter?" I grumbled, but he heard. For a minute he didn't say anything but just watched me curiously. Then a smirk crept across his face, and I realised how what I said must have sounded.

"I just mean," I continued, a blush spreading slowly up my neck, "That it's kind of annoying that you have to flirt with a girl as soon as you get here and..." You're digging yourself a hole, Liliana, put down the shovel. "Never mind."

Joseph just shook his head at me. "What do you want?" I stared. "...To eat?" he prompted.

"Oh," I said, embarrassed. "Um, just a smoothie is good for me."

"Is that it?" he said dubiously.

I gave him a look. "That's it."

Joseph shrugged. "If you say so."

The waitress – the blonde girl – came over and took our orders, but not without winking at Joseph. Dear god.

After she left, I cleared my throat. "What are you doing in town, anyway?"

"Oh, you know," Joseph said vaguely. "This and that."

I raised an eyebrow. "Because that doesn't sound suspicious or anything. What, you doing a drug deal or something?"

"That's exactly what I'm doing," he stated flatly. "You caught me."

I gave him a look. "Ha, ha." When Joseph didn't smile, I said, "Wait, you're not serious, right?"

Joseph gave me a mysterious look. "I could be."

"Hilarious," I said dryly. "Seriously, what are you doing here?"

A look of discomfort came over Joseph's face. "I... don't want to say."

"Wow," I commented. "Joseph is embarrassed. I never thought I would see this day. And now, I really need to know what you do in town. Or at least tell me what you tell Alice you do in town."

Joseph sighed in exasperation. "I tell Alice and my parents that I've got a job as a personal trainer."

I raised my eyebrows. "Okay. Now what do you actually do?"

Joseph began twisting a ring around his finger. "I mean, it is a job..."

I waited, but when he didn't carry on, I said, "Doing what?"

"I'm an art teacher's assistant," he muttered, not meeting my eyes, like he expected me to laugh.

"You're an art teacher's assistant?" I repeated in slight disbelief.

"Yeah, well, I'm going travelling soon, I need money, so I work at a school three times a week," Joseph said in a self-conscious sort of way. "I have savings, but I need more, so I'm doing this."

I didn't say anything, I just looked at him. He finally met my gaze, and both of us were quiet for a moment. Eventually, I commented, "I think that's great."

Joseph just rolled his eyes at me. "Sure."

"Seriously, I'm not being sarcastic right now," I said in annoyance.

Joseph opened his mouth to reply – probably something cynical – when the blonde waitress arrived with my smoothie and his scrambled eggs and bacon.

"You need anything else, Joey?" she said, resting a hand on his shoulder. I barely held in my laughter.

"No, we're good, thanks Millie," Joseph replied, and Millie left.

I couldn't resist it. "So, Joey, what kind of art do you do?"

He glared at me. "I swear to god, Lily, I will kill you here and now."

"Aw, come on, Joey, I'm interested."

"Why do you care so much about my art?" Joseph said sharply.

I flinched. "I'm just curious, you don't need to get all grumpy about it."

"Seriously, this is something personal to me." Joseph's voice was hard. "You wanna make fun of it some more?"

I stared at him, anger building up inside of me. "I wasn't making fun, Joseph, Jesus Christ. Why are you getting so wound up about this?"

The annoyance in Joseph's eyes seemed to die down a bit, but before he could say anything else, I quickly said, "I'm gonna go. Ask about a job or something." I reached into the purse I'd brought and slapped some money on the table to pay for the breakfast. I turned and went up to the counter, smoothing my jumper and plastering a smile on my face. The blonde girl, Millie, barely looked up when I came over.

"Hi, um, I was wondering if you had any job vacancies here?" I asked.

Millie still didn't look at me, just tapped away on the till. "Depends. Are you into Joseph?"

"What?" I said, taken aback. "No, not at all."

Finally, she turned her attention to me. "Then sure we do. Follow me."

I shook my head to myself and followed her behind the counter where I met with the manager and we chatted for a bit. It was a sort of informal interview, and afterwards, the manager – Johnny – smiled at me and told me they would love to have me. We sorted out working times and uniform, and I was told I would start next Monday so that I would have time to train and get the feel for the place before I started actual work.

When I went back out into the main café, my mood considerably better, Joseph was gone. It wasn't a big deal; I would just get the bus back. As I went to leave, I suddenly heard someone call, "Are you Liliana?"

I turned to see a boy who worked here looking at me. "Yeah, that's me."

"Oh, great." He reached into his pocket and pulled out some money. "Joseph just asked me to give this to you. Said the breakfast was on him."

Confused, I took the money and thanked the boy before leaving. On the bus journey back, I thought to myself that Joseph was complicated as hell, and I didn't like it one bit.