Six hours after Emily had left, I was still wide awake and laying in bed. It was 2 am by now, and I honestly didn't know what to do with myself.

Thoughts and too much adrenaline were keeping me awake. I replayed the day's events over and over in my head, without being able to make any sense of them.

What I needed the most right now, was someone to talk. My parents would've probably fainted if I would have told them about it, so that was not an option. Emily would only be hurt if I told her about my feelings on that matter. So Nate was pretty much the only one who I could tell about everything.

The bed creaked softly as I rolled onto my stomach and grabbed my phone from the nightstand. For a second I had to blink into the bright light of my display, but after I dimmed the brightness, I could search my contact list for Nate.

I quickly typed a text, asking him if he could call me in case he was still up.

Just about a minute later he replied: R u alright? You can come over if you want.

I wasn't surprised that he was still awake, seeing as he rarely went to bed before 2 am. His offer to come over to his house wasn't unexpected either. I had done that a couple times already; it was easy to leave through my window, and my parents never noticed that I wasn't at home in the morning because they usually left before I got up anyways.

After agreeing to come over as quickly as possible, I grabbed my school bag and the sports bag I'd need for school tomorrow. Then I put on a jacket over my hoodie, and decided my sweat pants would be fine.

When I had everything packed, I turned off the lights, walked up to the window and opened it. Like Hunter had done it the other day, I swung my legs out and slid towards the very edge. First I threw my bags out of the window, then, as soon as I heard them hitting the ground, I jumped.

I landed softly in the grass, feeling just a tiny bit like a ninja, and glanced over at my dark window. It was still half open, since I hadn't been able to close it, but that should be fine until tomorrow. It had never been a problem before.

The rest was pretty easy: I just had to cross the garden, leave the property and get to my car that was parked on the street.

When I was sat inside Froggy, I started the engine and left the house behind as quickly as possible, hoping the sound of the starting car hadn't been enough to wake my parents up. On the other hand, it was too late for them to do anything about it anyway; I was already passing by Hunter's house.

I instinctively looked over at it. In one of the windows facing the street I could see soft light through closed curtains. I briefly wondered if that was Hunter's room and what he was doing right now.

A glance at the white sports car parked in the driveway answered my question. Just a few days ago I had seen Victoria getting out of it on the school parking lot. Grimacing slightly, I looked back at the road ahead of me, pushing away any thoughts of Victoria and Hunter and the things they were undoubtedly up to right now.

Luckily, I arrived at Nate's house just then and couldn't think about it any longer. I pulled up to the curb and got out, taking my bag with me.

Nate lived in a nice, small house in a nice, tree-lined road with nice, friendly neighbours who were too polite to complain about the loud heavy metal music that was constantly blasting out of his window.

Before I could even lift my hand to knock at the door, Nate was already opening it and pulling me inside. While he was locking the door behind us, I kicked my shoes off my feet and took off my coat.

Nate waited silently until I was done before we climbed the stairs up to the floor where his parent's room and the bathroom was. There was a large guest room too; it had belonged to Nate's older sister, Rebecca, before she had moved out, so now she was living there whenever she came home to visit her family.

Nate's room was located on the next floor. Technically, it was a large attic, but it was nicely done up: under the high roof pitches was a queen size bed, a wardrobe, a desk that was buried under magazines and papers, two beanbag chairs and a record player. Yep, one of these old things that played vinyls. Next to it was an entire shelf just dedicated to rock records. Nate loved that retro stuff; he even owned a typewriter, just for the aesthetic. Pretentious idiot.

But his pride and joy was his electric guitar, that was currently laying on his bed. I carefully placed it down on the floor so I could sit on the mattress.

Nate slumped into one of his bean bag chairs and sent me a curious glance. "So, what's this all about?" When I didn't answer for a minute, he asked: "Did something happen this afternoon?"

I let myself fall onto my back with an exhausted sigh and draped one arm across my eyes to block the dim light coming from the lamp on his bedside table. "No. Yeah. I don't know." I sighed again. "It was just not how I thought it'd be."

"What do you mean? Was it not good?"

I thought about that for a moment. "Uhm... not really, no. I mean, it wasn't horrible either. But it was uncomfortable and weird."

"I heard that it's like that for most people when they have their first time, though," Nate pointed out. "Or maybe you weren't doing it right? Maybe, like, ask someone who has experience with it how to-

"Hey, this is serious okay?" I interrupted him. "I'm trying to figure...something out."

"And that is?"

"I...I'm not sure" I swerved.

"Jules, I think I know what you're thinking about," he said, sounding serious all of a sudden.

I rolled onto my stomach to look at him. "What?" I laughed, trying not to sound nervous.

He couldn't know, not if I had only just started questioning it. It couldn't be this obvious, could it? A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of it.

"Hey, it's okay if you don't wanna talk about it," Nate said as he saw the look on my face. "But I'm here in case you do."

I shook my head. "It's not like that. It's not like I know anything. It's just a thought I had."

"Yeah, but it's obviously one that bothers you." He waited for a response but as he didn't get one he added: "Maybe you should talk to Hunter about it?"

My heart skipped a beat. "Why?"

Nate shrugged. "Well, he's the one with experience. Plus, you can't deny this is because of him. He got you thinking."

"Yeah, thinking about how satisfying it'd be to slap him sometimes."

Nate cocked an eyebrow at me. "You sure that's all?"

No. "Yes."

He studied my face for a few more seconds before shrugging again and getting to his feet. "Alright. Anyway, I think we should go to sleep. School starts in..." He glanced at his watch. "Five hours."

We groaned in unison and I got off his bed. There were a spare mattress and a blanket stored beneath his bed, that I was always sleeping on when I was over. I quickly pulled them out and set everything up, while Nate went to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

I was asleep before he came back.

+++

"Jules, I swear to God, if you pull up at Starbucks I'm going to- Oh, really now? You're just gonna-"

The rest of Nate's protest got cut off by the sound of the door falling shut as I got out of the car and headed for the coffee shop. It was only a small detour, so I didn't know why Nate was in such a fuss.

I immediately felt more awake as I entered and the smell of caffeine hit me.

A girl with red hair and a sleeve tattoo grinned at me as I approached the counter. She was always working shifts at this time, so she was usually the one making my coffee before school.

Let's just say, I adored her, not least because she always added exactly the right amount of caramel syrup to make a damn good Caramel Macchiato.

"Hey Red!" I said and flashed her a smile.

"The usual?" she asked instead of a greeting, while adjusting her ponytail.

"Yep."

She nodded, immediately getting to work and preparing it. While she was picking out the change, I looked at the name she had written on the cup.

It was kind of a running gag between the two of us that she always wrote nicknames on it. From insults to misspellings of my name and quite nice things, she had called me a bunch of things already.

Today she had written Edward Cullen on it.

I looked over at her and rolled my eyes.

"Oh, very creative, Red. Just because I look like a fricking vampire today?" I gestured towards my face and at the dark circles underneath my eyes. "At least I'm not dead inside. Your soul is blacker than your coffee."

Jade pressed a carefully manicured hand against her chest and said, grinning: "Ouch, I'm hurt. Now get the hell out of here. You're going to be late for school."

I took a sip from my coffee and saluted her with two fingers, before turning around.

Jade, or Red as I sometimes called her because of her hair, was like an older sister to me. I had known her for two years now, since she had been a student at our high school, too. At first I had been a bit intimidated by her, but she actually was a sweetheart. Not that I would've ever told her that to her face. She would have probably broken my hand for that.

When I arrived at the car, I found a grumpy looking Nate sitting in the passenger seat, nodding his head to the deafeningly loud music blasting out of the speaker. I got in and turned it down.

"I can't believe it! You're risking coming late to school just to get coffee and chat with Jade?" Nate asked resentfully and glared at me.

I shrugged, handing him my coffee to hold for me while I was backing out of the parking space.

"Yes. So okay, maybe we'll be late to sports class. But that's okay because nobody needs sports class. But you know what one needs? Caffeine. There, drink a sip if it makes you feel better."

For a moment Nate looked like he wanted to throw the cup out of the window and himself after it, but then he angrily lifted it to his lips and slurped it noisily.

"Better?"

"Screw you," he said, but it was half-hearted.

By the time the coffee was emptied and we arrived at school, we both were somewhat more awake, but my good mood faded as soon as I entered the sports hall and headed towards the locker room. Sport was just not for me, especially not that early.

A few half-naked guys turned their heads when I entered the locker room. I looked around for a place to change and found that the only free spot was next to a nearly fully dressed Hunter.

He smirked at me and beckoned me over.

I sighed quietly and walked over to him. When I had to take off my shirt, I hesitated. I could feel his gaze on me and tensed at the thought of him watching me changing. Swallowing my discomfort down, I met his eyes and pulled the shirt over my head, until I was left in just my jeans.

Something that seemed like approval flickered in Hunter's eyes for a second. Then, without saying anything, he turned around and left.

I could breathe normally again as soon as the door fell shut behind him, and quickly changed into the football gear the coach had given us.

It was too big to properly fit my slender frame, but it'd do. Its smell was horrible though and when I pulled it over my head, I actually had to hold my breath to fight down my gag reflex.

Minutes later, I was outside on the playing field. I was on the Offense team, Hunter was on the Defense team.

It all went quite well for a while; I tried not to get trampled down by anyone and mainly just jogged around on the court.

That was until I got the ball. It felt like a ticking time-bomb in my hands, all I wanted was to get rid of it.

I tried to push through into the other half of the field, but every time I got pushed back by someone, until I eventually reached my own end zone.

Before I could even really react, a body slammed into mine and I got tackled to the ground.

Around me, I heard the other team laughing and cheering, but it all got drowned out by the sound of my pounding heart as I looked up.

Looming over me was, of course, Hunter, smirking down at me through his helmet.

"Sorry, sugarpie," he said, "Maybe next time."

I glowered at him until he got up.

He offered me a hand, but I slapped it aside and got up on my own.

"Sometimes I nearly forget why I don't like you, but you never fail to remind me."

Hunter laughed, undisturbed, and patted my helmet as he passed.

When the two periods were over and we changed into our normal clothes in the locker room, I was convinced I would have bruises all over my body by tomorrow.

"Hey Jules?" Hunter asked next to me.

I was just putting my shirt back on, but stopped for a moment to look at him. "Yeah?"

"I wanted to ask you if you're gonna come to the lake this afternoon?"

I looked at him with a quizzical look.

"Alex thought it'd be fun to go there," Hunter explained. "You, me, Alex, Liam, Adam...I think Nate actually already said he'd come when Alex asked him."

"Isn't it still too cold to go swimming?" I asked.

"Oh, come on. It's spring. It'll be fine." He thought about it for a moment. "On the other hand, you seem to have the immune system of a gummy bear, so maybe you shouldn't-"

"I'll be there," I said, before he could finish.

"Awesome," Hunter said and flashed me a smile. "We're meeting there after school. Just come as soon as you can manage."

With that he slammed his locker door shut and left, not turning around as I looked after him.