Austin woke up at the break of dawn feeling like he hadn't had a wink of sleep. Dark rings formed around his eyes showing just how tired he still was. He'd been tossing and turning all night long with thoughts of what had transpired the previous night running through his head on replay.

He got up anyway and slipped into the shower, letting the cold water help wake him up before he turned on the hot water. He didn't take too long in there because he was still kind of tired.

Drying himself off, he slipped on his favorite black briefs -he was a briefs guy-and along with them, dark faded jeans. He chose a loose blue tshirt and completed his outfit with a black zip up hoodie.

After making sure everything was in place in his room, he threw his backpack over one shoulder and exited his bedroom, heading downstairs to the kitchen. He found his mother standing by the stove making bacon.

His sister was seated at the kitchen island, awaiting breakfast.

He walked over to his mom and gave her a kiss on the cheek , "Morning mom!"

"Morning baby," she let go of the pan and turned to face him. She studied his face, more specifically the spot where he had received a blow. His cheek was still a little darker than the other but the handprint was mostly gone. "Oh sweety, does it still hurt ?" She asked him.

"I'm fine mom." But the look on his mother's face said she didn't believe him. So he added, "I'm serious. Don't worry."

She cradled his face in her hands and kissed the bruised cheek gently before letting him go sit down beside his sister.

"I swear that man is gonna drive me crazy one day."

"You mean he hasn't already?" Nicky joked from where she was seated.

Austin let out a chuckle and her mom didn't say anything back. Either she hadn't heard , or she was just letting it go.

A few minutes later, Austin and Nicky were eating their breakfast while their mother excused herself to go do other stuff. They were lucky their father had already left for work because Austin had no idea how this morning would have played out if his father was home when he came down for breakfast.

Nicky took shotgun as Austin drove towards Sam's house. They did that every morning because Sam's dad had refused to buy him a car and sometimes he left too early that he couldn't give Sam a ride to school. It happened so often that he mostly rode with the siblings to school or only with Austin on the days Nicky rode with Michael.

They found Sam sitting on the porch steps and as soon as he saw Austin's car, he picked up his backpack and headed towards them. He opened the back door and slid in before shutting it again.

"Hey McNamaras!" he greeted with a cheeky grin

"We have names, you know," Nicky stated without turning to look at him.

"I thought McNamara is a name." He replied.

"Idiot." Nicky said under her breath but Austin heard her and chuckled.

"You can say that again," he said in response and Sam heard this time.

"What did she say?" He leaned closer to Austin as he asked.

"Nothing." Nicky replied hastily. "We should start going now or we're gonna be late."

"Oh yea, I heard your boyfriend is coming back today." Sam commented. "Are you trying to catch him before he disappears again?"

"Shut up asshole." She said defensively, "And Michael is not gonna be in school today. He's nursing jet lag."

"I wish my parents could allow me to skive every now and then." Sam said as Austin pulled off the curb.

"Except Michael is actually smart enough that missing school a few days won't affect his grades," Nicky explained condescendingly, "But you...well...you're you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam asked

"If I have to spell that out for you, haven't I already made my point then?" Nicky went on.

"Whatever," he dismissed, "Austin man, that must have been some serious business last night. I saw the video. Nice quality work, bitch!" he said the last part to Nicky.

"Thanks, dick!"

"Although she didn't record the part where your dad went ballistic. Can't believe I missed it."

"You think at that time anyone was thinking of their phones?!" Austin questioned. "I was practically pissing my pants just sitting there."

"Then you should have taken a video of that." Sam stated blankly.

"You may have just gotten me into some real deep shit with my dad ."

"Don't sweat it buddy," Sam said dismissively as he leaned back on the seat, "This too shall pass."

Austin just looked at him through the rear view mirror and gave him a death glare. Sam clearly didn't understand the intensity of the situation.

He felt a hand tap his shoulder and he turned slightly to find Sam's hand on his shoulder, clutching a neatly folded hundred dollar bill between his forefinger and middle finger .

The left corner of Austin's lips rose in a side smile as he grabbed the money from Sam's fingers. Sam leaned back on his chair and sighed, "Damn, making bets is expensive."

"Making bets and losing them is what's expensive." Austin corrected.

"Don't I get something for making such a good documentation of the event?" Nicky asked from beside Austin.

"Dream on," Sam said with a slight cocky smirk.

They finally pulled up at the school parking lot where a lot of the students were busy chatting casually, while others made their way into the building.

Austin parked the car near the farthest end to the right. Nicky was first to get out, followed by Sam. Austin switched off the car and pulled out the key. He was too preoccupied with getting out that he swung the door a little too aggressively and it made contact with something hard.

He panicked and tried to look at what he had hit only to find it wasn't a what, so much as it was a who.

He had hit a boy who had just gotten out of the next car, carrying a couple books in his hands. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" He apologized in a hurry as he knelt to help the guy pick up his stuff.

"Hey. Austin, meet me by the lockers," Sam called as he saw Austin was a bit occupied. Nicky had already disappeared.

"A bit too cliché, huh, don't you think?" The boy said out of nowhere, a little humor in his tone of voice.

"Huh?" Austin asked, not looking up as he handed the property back to its owner. He was not paying much attention to the immediate situation. He was trying to hurry up and meet up with Sam.

"You know ...two beautiful people bumping into each other then stop to stare into each other's eyes, then it's love at first sight."

That picked Austin's curiosity. Was this guy off his meds ? He wondered. After he had finished picking what was left on the ground he stood up, ready to hand them over and be on his merry way when he casually looked up and came face to face with what he hadn't expected.

This was not a sight he had ever expected to ever see at this school. It was a new face looking directly at Austin's face. Far be it for Austin to drool but, damn it, this guy was beautiful!

He had dark green eyes that were hooded with the thickest, longest lashes Austin had ever seen on a dude. His defined cheekbones and chiseled face adorned those eyes perfectly. His smile alone had Austin staring at his pearly white teeth and shallow dimples. Why was he staring! He couldn't stop staring no matter how hard he tried.

"Austin, is it?"

"What?" Austin asked, finally waking up from his reverie.

"I heard that guy earlier call you Austin," the guy replied.

"Ummmnn...yea, Austin's my name!" he confirmed, a tad too enthusiastic because he was so nervous he didn't know how to control his tone of voice.

"Nice, it suits you. Cute name for a cute face and sexy everything else." the guy flirted shamelessly.

Austin was at a loss for words. His facial expression was a mixture of confusion, enchantment and obliviousness.

It didn't look like Austin was gonna talk any time soon so the guy continued, "Hi," he said, stretching out his hand to initiate a handshake, "I am - "

"Thanks, I gotta go," Austin said hastily, like he hadn't heard what the guy said, "Tight schedule before classes start . Bye!"

With that, he bolted out of there, leaving the guy utterly confused.

Austin had lied. His schedule wasn't tight. But his pants suddenly were. He bolted to the nearest bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror for about five minutes.

His face was hot, prompting a need to splash some cold water on it to cool it down a bit.

"What is wrong with you?" He cursed at his own reflection.