Even though I had gone to bed around half past three the night before, I woke up even earlier than on usual school days. Not voluntary, of course, but because Maya bounced into my room and tugged at my covers until I reluctantly opened my eyes.

"What is it?" I groaned into my pillow.

Maya answered, with a cheerfulness that should be impossible this early: "Mommy is making pancakes for breakfast!"

"Awesome," I muttered and already felt myself drifting off again, barely able to keep my eyes open to blink up at her.

Maya nodded in barely contained excitement. "Are you having breakfast with us?"

I was about to say no in order to go back to sleep, but when I looked at Maya's hopeful expression, I nodded with a sigh.

She laughed happily and tugged at my hand. "Come to the kitchen, we can help mommy! Maybe she lets me crack the egg. I cracked an egg when I was baking cookies with Ben and his mommy last week! She said I'm a great baker!"

"Give me five minutes," I groaned.

She was silent for a while, then she said, sounding genuinely worried: "But you'll fall asleep again!"

"You can stay here and make sure I don't," I mumbled, laughing tiredly.

Maya thought about it, then she nodded and climbed onto the bed. I lifted her up and over me and she snuggled up under the covers next to me immediately, like a cat. With only about two hours of sleep in my system, it was pretty hard to keep myself from dozing off again. Maya was laying next to me, watching me closely, and every time my eyes fell shut, she poked me so I would open them again.

A few minutes later, mom's voice wafted into the room, along with the delicious smell of fresh pancakes. "Kids! Breakfast's ready."

Maya was up and out of the bed within seconds. I followed her with a little less enthusiasm and a muffled yawn.

When I shuffled into the kitchen, dad was already seated at the head of the table, reading the newspaper with a cup of tea in his hand. Meanwhile, mom was baking the last pancake on the stove. She looked up as we came in and offered us a bright smile.

I sunk into a chair and poured some orange juice for Maya and me. When mom put the plate of pancakes onto the table, Maya immediately loaded three of them onto her place.

"Honey, you won't eat that much!" mom said, still smiling.

Maya just shrugged, seemingly unconcerned, and topped them off with a concerning amount of maple syrup.

When everyone was finally sitting and quietly eating their pancakes in the typical early morning haze, I became aware of my mother's eyes studying me closely. Finally she said: "Jules, when have you been to bed yesterday? You look tired."

I sure as hell felt tired as well. Last night I hadn't paid attention to my exhaustion, the adrenaline after the kiss had wiped any thought of sleep away. Now, however, I felt like a zombie, and probably looked like one, too.

"It got a little late," I said vaguely. If they had known what I had been up to, that I had even left the house, they would have raised hell against me.

"What have you been doing?" dad asked with a frown.

Before I could answer, Maya suddenly chimed in. In her squeaky voice she declared: "Jules was here with someone he really, really likes!"

My eyes widened and I nearly dropped my knife onto the plate. Both of my parents looked between us with equally wary expressions.

"Sweety, what are you talking about?" mom asked.

"Jules... kissed someone in the corridor," Maya whispered and giggled at the word kissed. "You said people do that when they like each other very much."

"That was Emily," I quickly said. They still didn't know that we had broken up, neither did they know anything about Hunter.

"But it was a boy!" Maya insisted.

I was starting to get irritated. "She wore a ponytail and her hood over it. You probably didn't see her long hair. It was dark."

"Julian, what are you talking about?" dad asked. "Was someone here last night?"

I nodded slowly. "Yeah... Emily came over. She... had a question about the, uh, school project in Spanish."

"But it was a boy!" Maya said again.

I lightly kicked her chair under the table and glared at her. "No, it wasn't. Why would I kiss a boy, that'd be... so strange."

My father nodded and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. "Indeed. Please don't invite Emily over that late again."

"You can invite her over at any other time, though," my mother was quick to say. "I haven't seen her in a while. She's always welcome here."

I nodded and swallowed against the lump in my throat. "I'll tell her that." Then I abruptly got up. "Alright, I have to go... see you later."

"Have a good day, Jules!" mom called after me.

Too eager to get out of there before they got any more suspicious, I rushed out of the door without answering.

+++

When I arrived at school, I immediately looked out for the black Audi, but it was nowhere to be seen. I shook my head at myself as I realized how disappointed I was. When had seeing Hunter become my priority?

On the way to school I had had time to really think about last night and the kiss for the first time. Now I was even more confused; had it had any significance? To Hunter a kiss was nothing unusual, he had probably kissed more people than the number of students at this school. Maybe he had only kissed me because the moment was convenient. He had been drunk on victory after the car race, maybe that had led him to do it. Hunter took nothing ever seriously; why would he think much of this? That was, what the doubting, self-conscious little voice inside my brain was telling me.

Meanwhile, the rest of my brain tried to reason that I should just stay calm, wait and see, not be too fast with my assumptions. Maybe it was not like I thought. Maybe this was as important to Hunter as it was to me.

Trying my best to cling to that thought, I opened my locker and took the books I needed out. I jumped as someone suddenly tapped my shoulder and accidentally dropped my things, a book and a notepad. When I turned around, I saw Hunter standing right before me.

"God, you scared me," I laughed and crouched down to pick everything up.

Hunter quickly set the two Starbucks cups in his hands on the ground and helped me gathering all the notes and papers that were scattered around us. "Sorry, didn't mean to," he said and lightly brushed my hand with his. It could've been accidental, but knowing Hunter, it probably wasn't.

Once I had everything back in my hands, I really looked at Hunter for the first time. He looked at least as tired as I felt, dark circles standing out on his pale skin, as did his slowly fading black eye. He wore a hoodie under his leather jacket, a bit of his tousled hair peeking out from underneath the hood.

"Have you even slept at all tonight?" I asked worriedly. It couldn't be healthy for him to stay up so late for days in a row.

Hunter shook his head. "No." Instead of offering an explanation , he held up one of the coffee cups and handed it to me. "Which is why I got us these."

A smile spread across my face. "You actually bought one?"

He shrugged and drank a sip. "You asked me to last night, why wouldn't I?"

I smiled gratefully at him and lifted the cup to my lips, balancing my books in my other arm. My eyes widened as I tasted the coffee. "Is this a Caramel Macchiato?" I vaguely remembered telling him that it was one of my favourite drinks, but I hadn't thought he had even listened, much less remembered.

Hunter nodded, a hint of satisfaction in his voice as he said: "Yeah. Oh, by the way, you still don't have a new job since you quit at that bar, right?"

"Ugh, don't remind me. I still have to find a new one," I groaned, grimacing.

"They're looking for people at Starbucks," Hunter said. "You should apply."

"Do you think?" I asked. I wasn't very good at the whole... human interaction- thing.

But Hunter nodded encouragingly. "Yes! You already know the entire menu, you know people who work there, you're always friendly and polite... plus, you're cute. Who wouldn't tip you?"

I rolled my eyes at him, but couldn't quite restrain a smile. "Fine. Maybe I'll go there tomorrow after school."

"Maybe?"

"Okay, I'll go there. Definitely," I laughed.

Hunter smiled, but the content expression faded as he glanced behind me. When I turned around to see what he was looking at, I saw Victoria heading straight for us.

Against my hopes, she didn't walk past us, but stopped right next to Hunter, offering him a seductive smile and purring: "Hey, babe."

Victoria had been smart and positioned herself right in between Hunter and I, effectively excluding me from the conversation. I crossed my arms and sent Hunter a pointed look over her head.

"What do you want?" warily he asked.

"Oh, you know..." she said suggestively while trailing a hand up his arm, "The usual. There are a couple empty classrooms around..."

"Awesome," Hunter said, catching her wrist as she put it on his shoulder. His grip was tight enough to make her gasp quietly. "Go ahead, enjoy yourself."

She laughed, baffled. "What do you mean? Aren't you coming, too?"

Hunter shook his head and said, in a voice like he was lecturing a toddler: "No, Victoria. Didn't I tell you I'm not interested in you?"

"It's because of him, isn't it?" she asked in disgust, twisting her wrist out of his grip. Then she half-turned around to shoot me a dirty look. "It's because of your new toy boy. What does he have that I don't?"

"A sense of humor? More than three brain cells? The ability to have a normal conversation? A pretty-"

I bit my lip, suppressing a grin.

Victoria interrupted him before he could say any more. "Since when do such things even matter to you?"

"Victoria, do me a favour and stop thinking you know me," Hunter said. "Because you don't. Not even a little bit."

She snorted angrily. "In a few days, he'll bore you to death. You wanna know why? Because he's not more than a stupid little boy with a pretty face who has no idea how to handle you. He is nothing like you." She paused for a moment, then she said: "And when you realize that, you'll crawl back to me. And maybe I will take you back."

"Dream on, Vicky," Hunter laughed.

Victoria shot him another cool glance, then she turned around to me, jabbing a finger at my chest. "If I was you, I'd be very careful, Jules Hatcher. Getting outed in front of the entire school apparently still wasn't enough to teach you a lesson. But don't worry, I'll come up with something."

I glared down at her, forcefully stopping my hands from clenching into fists at my sides. "Is that supposed to be a threat?"

"I don't know, is it? Aren't you oh so clever?"

"Get out of here, Victoria," I calmly said and slapped her hand away. "Before you embarrass yourself even more."

Victoria opened her mouth and looked like she wanted to say something, but then nothing came out expect for an exasperated growl. Purposely jostling me, she finally left.

I looked after her, shaking my head in disbelief. Who did she think she was?

"Sorry about that," Hunter muttered, suddenly right next to me and rested his hand on my back for a split second.

With a sigh, I turned around to him. "Didn't you say you broke up with her?"

Hunter shrugged, emptying his coffee. "I did, but she seems a little slow on the uptake. Hopefully this was clear enough for her now."

I frowned. "What exactly was going on between you two?"

"Nothing serious," he said briefly.

"Huh. That's weird," I said. "I can't imagine why she's so eager to get you back then. What's so desirable about a solely sexual relationship with absolutely no perspective? Plus, if you treated her like Sean, I can't imagine why-"

"Jules, I don't treat everyone that way." His voice was oddly serious for once.

I couldn't help but quietly ask the obvious question. "Would, uhm..." I cleared my throat, suddenly shy to meet his eye. "Would you treat me like that?"

I nearly flinched when I suddenly felt Hunter's cold touch against my skin, two fingers under my chin, tilting it upwards so I looked him in the eye. He was standing closer than seconds before. For a heartbeat, I didn't even care if anyone was around to see us.

Hunter's voice was almost gentle when he said: "Don't ask stupid questions."

The smile that involuntarily spread across my face was enough to wreck Hunter's self-control.

After he quickly looked around if anyone was near, he leaned in to kiss me. The kiss was short and sweet, but it was enough to make my legs go weak and I was glad I was leaning against the locker for at least a little support.

I could feel Hunter grinning against my lips and pulled back a little just to mumble: "Stop being so smug, it's not like you accomplished anything amazing."

Hunter was still smiling, bracing his hands against the locker on both sides of me. "What, getting you to kiss me isn't an accomplishment?"

"Don't flatter yourself," I chuckled.

Hunter only buried a hand in my hair, pulling me closer once again.

But before his lips could even meet mine, a familiar voice resounded, making both of us jump. "I can't believe it! Okay, when did this happen?"

I peeked around Hunter just to see Nate standing in the corridor with the biggest grin on his face.

"Hi, Nate," I said, an embarrassed blush tinting my cheeks. "What's up...?"

Nate burst out laughing. "Aw, look at you guys."

Hunter laughed quietly and finally released me. "Hi, Nate."

"Is now the time when I tell you not to break his heart?" Nate asked and cleared his throat. "Okay, Adams, listen up. If you hurt my brother, you're gonna regret it, for I will hunt you down and shred you to a million pieces."

Hunter looked at him, trying hard to be serious. "I promise I won't."

Nate nodded, apparently satisfied. "Alright. Jules, how did I do?"

I only gave him a sarcastic thumbs up, still trying to calm my racing heart.

"He's still a little dazed, you see," Hunter mocked, reaching for my hand. "Give him a second."

"Shut up," I said, narrowing my eyes at him, even though my heartbeat had sped up again as soon as I felt his hand in mine. "You're awful."

Hunter laughed. "You're cute."

Nate made a gagging noise. "You're both disgusting. Since when are you two acting like silly lovebirds?" When neither of us answered, he eyed us suspiciously. "What happened last night? Why do both of you look like you didn't sleep for even a minute?"

I rolled my eyes. "Because we didn't. Since we started doing stuff at night, I basically don't sleep at all." When both of them looked at each other, trying not to burst out laughing, I groaned: "That came out wrong."

Nate grimaced. "Never mind. I don't even wanna know."

Hunter chuckled lightly, then he suddenly waved at someone coming around the corner. I immediately pulled my hand out of his grasp, but I needn't have to worry; it was just Alexis coming towards us with Liam and Adam in tow.

She smiled broadly at us and came to a halt next to Nate, who immediately stood a little straighter. "Hey, guys!"

"What's up?" Liam asked, looking from Hunter to me and back to Hunter.

Adam didn't even bother greeting us, he just cocked a brow and stayed behind Liam, as he usually did.

After Hunter and Liam performed some kind of complicated middle school handshake, Alexis said: "Hunter, are you free tonight? We were thinking about going to the cinema. There's this new horror movie that Adam wants to see..."

Adam suddenly perked up at that. "Not any horror movie, Alex. Zombie Slaughter 6: Brains for Breakfast."

"That sounds Oscar-worthy," Hunter snorted.

"Shhh, Hunter," Liam said. "The last time Adam was this happy was when The Witch is a Bitch premiered two years ago. Let him have this."

"So, are you coming?" Adam asked, sounding almost giddy. Nate and I exchanged a surprised glance; Adam was usually not one to show any kind of emotion, much less actual enthusiasm.

Hunter nodded. "Sure. But I can't guarantee I'll stay awake for the entire movie."

Adam waved his argument away with a dismissive hand movement. "Doesn't matter. You're more pleasant to be around when you're asleep anyway."

A scowl formed on Hunter's face as he leaned against the locker.

"Jules, Nate, you should come too!" Alexis said, nudging Nate with her elbow.

He immediately nodded. I was a little more reluctant, but eventually agreed as Hunter looked at me with a hopeful look in his eyes.

Just as things were settled, the school bell rang, drawing a collective sigh from all of us.

"What classes do you have now?" Hunter asked me.

"English," I said.

Hunter nodded. "Okay. See you at lunch?"

I nodded, happy to have something to look forward to on this otherwise boring school day.

After a short goodbye, I hurried to my English class and skidded inside right before the teacher closed the door. I looked around only to see that the only free seat was next to Emily.

I took a deep breath and hurried across the room to sit next to her.

Emily smiled timidly at me before she turned her head to watch our teacher filling the blackboard with illegible scribbling, her dark hair a curtain that hid her face.

The rest of the period passed in a boring series of listening to the teacher and the contributions of other students, taking notes and trying to keep my eyes open.

Apparently, I hadn't been all that successful with the latter. Ten minutes before the end of the period, I got jolted awake by Emily. I startled and looked around, still drowsy.

Emily still had a hand on my shoulder from when she had lightly shook me to wake me up and quickly pulled her hand back. "You fell asleep..."

I groaned and rubbed my eyes. "Yeah... Thanks for waking me up."

Emily giggled quietly. Then she asked: "Hey, remember how we wanted to hang out again? Are you free tonight?"

I was about to say yes, when I remembered the evening at the cinema we had planned. "I'm going to the movies with Hunter and his friends tonight... Hey, why don't you join us? Nate will be there too."

She seemed unsure, chewing on one of her pencils, a habit of hers that she'd had since elementary school. "Do you think that's okay... for the others, I mean?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked with a frown.

"I mean: Is it okay for Hunter if I'm there?"

"Oh," I said. "Yeah, sure. It's not like you think, Em. Hunter actually really likes you."

"He does?" she asked, eyes wide in disbelief.

"Yes. We'd all be happy to have you there with us."

She hesitated for a moment, then she nodded. "Okay."

The bell rung and she got up from her chair, but before she left, she turned around to me once more. "Hey, Jules? Thank you."

She was gone before I could do more than smile at her.

+++

The sun had just started to set, shedding the last bit of golden light over the neighbourhood, when Hunter's car stopped in front of my house. Emily, Nate and I were sitting on the front steps of the porch, waiting for him to pick us up. There was a weird atmosphere around us. It felt somewhat nostalgic, like it had used to back then, when Emily had been my best friend as much as Nate had been. I could almost taste her mom's homemade lemonade and smell the scent of gasoline and car paint in the garage of Nate's dad.

I got up from the stairs, Nate and Emily trailing behind me, chattering quietly about something.

Hunter had the window rolled all the way down and smirked at me when I walked up to the car. "Hey, gorgeous," he drawled, winking at me with an arm draped over the steering wheel.

"No need to flirt with me anymore, sweetheart," I said in the same sarcastic voice.

Hunter laughed at that, turning his head so all I could see was the hint of a smile and a dimply cheek. "Maybe I want to. It's fun to see you blush."

"I'm not blushing!" I said, one hand flying up to my cheek. Sure enough, my face was hot as soon as Hunter grinned at me.

"Get in the car, idiot."

I rounded the car, not without rolling my eyes at him through the windscreen. When I was opening the door, I noticed that Emily was still standing in the exact same spot, looking nervous. I shut the door again and walked over to her, lightly touching her arm. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, not at all convincingly. "Yeah, it's just... I don't know, I'm not sure if I should be here. Hunter and his friends probably don't think very highly of me and I-"

"Shh," I said, holding a finger to her lips, even though I would've really rather hugged her. "Stop worrying. They were all happy when I told them you'd come. And so am I. Emily, you're the most amazing girl I know. They'll love you."

A surprised smile took over her face, then she quietly said: "Thank you, Jules."

"You don't have to thank me," I replied. "Remember that one time in seventh grade when I couldn't give a presentation because I was so anxious? You came to the front with me and sat next to me while I talked. Mrs. Gordon told you to go back to your seat and you told her-"

"I'd shout the house down until the principal comes if she doesn't let me be there," she laughed. "I remember. Mrs. Gordon still hates me. And it's not something I'm proud of."

"Well, you should be. If it wasn't for you, I could've never given that presentation. Or enter my portrait for the arts award last year. Or have my first job interview. Hell, you even went with me to order my coffee when it was so bad that I couldn't talk to a barista." I paused for a moment. "My point is, you always helped me when I was anxious or panicked for no reason. Let me do the same for you."

For a second Emily looked like she was about to cry, then she suddenly wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug.

Taken by surprise, I did the same, resting my chin on top of her head. A few seconds later, she broke away, smiled at me once more and got in the car.

I had to suppress a wide grin and quickly got into the passenger seat. Hunter smiled at me in a way that suggested that he had watched at least part of our conversation and started the engine.

"Hey, Emily," he said, sounding remarkably friendly. "How are you?"

In the rear view mirror, I could see Emily looking up with a startled look on her face, surprised that Hunter had talked to her. She hastily said: "I'm fine, thank you... What about you?"

Hunter chuckled quietly as he turned the corner. "I'm good, thanks. Do you know which movie we'll see?"

"I heard it's something about zombies?"

Hunter nodded, looking not at all excited. "Yeah. It looks horrible, but that's the kind of stuff that makes Adam –you know him, right?- somewhat happy and tolerable, so..."

Nate looked up from his phone for the first time since we had started driving. "What's up with Adam, anyway? Why is he always so miserable?"

"He's not actually that grumpy, he just seems like it. He's just more of a calm guy. But you should see him after a couple of shots... You won't even recognize him," Hunter laughed. "Or when he's with his girlfriend."

"He has a girlfriend?" I asked, surprised. I hadn't really spent much thought to that matter, but I somehow had expected Adam to be as much of a player as Hunter.

"Yes. Her name's Amber and they've been together forever," Hunter said, rolling his eyes a bit at that. "For three years, I believe? Amber is nice though. A little uptight and always worried about Adam, but sweet. She has her first year at college this year, and Adam will try and apply to the same college and move in together with her after graduation."

"What about Liam?" Emily asked. "Does he have a girlfriend?"

A little smile played around Hunter's lips as he glanced at her through the mirror. "Nope. He's single."

The car ride continued with animated conversation, though I mainly just listened to them talking and didn't really partake. It was weird, sitting in Hunter's car with someone else in the backseat. I was so used to nightly road trips with him, that it seemed odd to have company.

On the other hand, it was nice to have them all here together, getting along well.

The drive was a short one. Only fifteen minutes later, we rolled up in front of the cinema. Anastasia's Film Lounge was a pretentious name for the run-down, small building with the flaking paint. Inside, there were only four small halls, and from experience I knew that they were never fully occupied.

Still, I liked Anastasia's: entering it always felt like taking a trip into another decade, with the dusty red curtains and matching red seats, the old-fashioned popcorn machine and the scent of caramel, dust and the perfume of the old lady giving out the tickets hanging in the air.

Adam, Alex and Liam were already waiting in the lobby, holding our tickets. Adam was wearing a t-shirt that was apparently fan merchandise from a horror movie and, shockingly, smiled broadly.

"Do you see what I see?" Nate whispered into my ear and pointed at Adam.

I laughed and turned to Hunter. "Are you sure that Adam doesn't have a twin?"

"I won't rule that theory out until I see his mom's ultrasound pictures," Hunter muttered, jokingly narrowing his eyes at Adam.

As soon as Adam caught us staring at him, his expression turned annoyed again and he flipped Hunter off.

"Never mind," Hunter said. "It's him, I'm sure."

I snickered and turned around to Emily to involve her in the conversation and make sure she was alright, but when I saw her, she was already talking to Liam, laughing at something he had said.

I turned away, satisfied, and asked the others if we should go into the hall where the movie would be playing in a few minutes already. They agreed, and I soon found myself sitting between Hunter and Emily in the half-light of the cinema.

Liam and Emily were currently discussing what would be the cleverest way to leave the country in case of a zombie invasion while Adam made snarky comments from time to time.

Nate and Alex were on their third shared bucket of popcorn, already complaining about tummy ache, but not stopping to eat.

We were the only ones in here, which probably said a lot about the quality of the movie.

As soon as the lights went out and the movie began, Hunter reached for my hand and inched a little closer, his thigh pressing up against mine.

"What, already scared?" I teased in a hushed voice as the first zombies tumbled across the screen.

Hunter didn't bother to reply, instead he leaned over and punched Adam's shoulder. "Look, Adam, it's you. Only about three words in your vocabulary and a face that looks like someone attacked it with a cheese grater."

Adam promptly answered with a light punch in return, but in the dark he hadn't been able to see who he struck and hit me instead.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed and rubbed my sore shoulder.

Hunter immediately flicked some popcorn at Adam. "I swear, Adam, if that left a bruise on Jules-"

"What, do you prefer hickeys only on him?" Adam snorted.

"I pre-"

"Guys, I'm sitting right here," I exclaimed.

I heard Emily and Nate chuckling next to me while Liam made a gagging sound.

Fortunately, everyone quieted down after that, except for occasional screeches when there were jump scares. After the hero had roamed around the mansion for at least twenty minutes without anything scarier than creaking floorboards and a few bats showing up on the screen, my eyelids started to get heavy.

At some point I must've dozed off, but soon got woken up by Hunter as he suddenly tapped my nose repeatedly.

"What?" I asked sleepily.

"Wanna get out of here?" he asked. I could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

"Come again?" I yawned.

Hunter laughed. "Just come with me, okay?"

"Oh dear, better hope the walls here are soundproof," Liam whispered, still loud enough for us to hear.

I made sure to accidentally stomp on his foot as Hunter dragged me out, holding onto my hand.

Once we left the hall, Hunter walked towards the restrooms. I frowned. "Hunter, if you think I'm doing anything... dirty in a public restroom with you, you thought wrong."

He huffed quietly, but didn't stop. I could feel the eyes of the old lady in the foyer on me as we crossed the foyer. Just when she looked away, Hunter suddenly jogged towards another hall, pulling me with him. When we were inside, he carefully shut the door behind us and turned around to me with a triumphant smile.

"What are we doing here?" I asked suspiciously and looked around.

This hall was almost identical to the one next door, but in here the lights were still on, though they were dim. And the seats in the back were all loveseats; two seats joined together but without an armrest in between, so basically like small couches.

Hunter, as always, didn't answer and led me towards one of them. Once there, he pushed me onto it. I was sitting there, watching him sceptically, not really knowing what to expect.

Definitely not that he'd just sit down next to me, snuggling into the seat. When I just looked at him with a confused expression he lazily said: "Go ahead, get comfy. This is definitely a better place to sleep than over in the other hall."

Finally understanding, I slumped into the opposite corner of the seat, careful to give him enough space to stretch out.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Hunter asked impatiently.

When I didn't answer he sighed and reached over. I didn't resist when he pulled me closer to himself, until I was basically sitting sideways in his lap, legs dangling over the edge of the seat. Once I rested my head against is shoulder, he wrapped an arm around me so he could still hold my hand. His other hand fell into my hair, lightly running through my curls.

Hunter sighed contently and relaxed underneath me. I could feel his steady heartbeat and the rising and falling of his chest. When I inhaled deeply, the scent of him was almost overwhelming, aftershave and washing powder and Hunter.

"This okay?" Hunter murmured softly. He sounded just as tired as I was and when I peeked up through my lashes, I saw that his eyes were already closed.

"Mhm," I said, too lazy to even form any words and tipped my chin up just a bit to press a tender kiss to his lips.

His heart immediately started to beat faster beneath me and he opened his eyes to half-heartedly glare down at me. "I'm trying to sleep. If you don't stop annoying me, I'll push you out of my lap."

"So this annoys you?" I asked lowly and reached out to turn his face toward me. Then I kissed him once more, savouring the taste of popcorn in his mouth.

Hunter laughed tiredly, his whole body vibrating underneath me, then he tightly clasped both of my hands and put them in my lap. "You're such a tease."

I closed my eyes again, still smiling, and rested my head in the crook of his neck.

Sitting there like this, wrapped up in his arms and the warmth of him, felt unfamiliar, but I decided that I liked it.

After a few minutes, Hunter's breathing became calmer. We were both absolutely sleep-deprived, especially after last night, so it didn't take long for us to fall asleep.

+++

Hadn't my mind been so hazy and hadn't it felt so cozy, I probably would've worried more about staying unnoticed in here, snuggled up with Hunter in a public place a ton of people could access.

But since I felt absolutely secure and warm and just very, very tired, I only startled up when the strangers were already about to enter through the door.

As soon as the light from the foyer started to seep inside, my eyes snapped open, heart suddenly racing. Hunter was still sleeping peacefully. In fact, one might've thought he was unconscious; that boy really suffered from sleep deprivation.

His arms were still holding me and his head rested against mine. Under different circumstances I probably would've let him sleep like that for hours, even if it was just to watch him be so at ease.

But there were people about to come in, and I couldn't risk to be seen by anyone like this. So I leaned away from Hunter, freeing my hands, and carefully got up.

As soon as my weight eased off him, he began to stir and blinked up at me.

His voice wasn't more than a husky murmur when he whined: "What are you doing?"

"Get up," I whispered. "There are people coming in."

Hunter looked over at the door that was slowly being pushed open and got up surprisingly fast for someone who had been so utterly out of it only a moment earlier. We both ducked behind our seat and held our breath as the people came in.

I froze as I recognized a familiar voice within the chatter, heart skipping a beat. Hunter heard my quiet gasp and sent me a puzzled look.

"I think it's my dad," I whispered, not daring to look over the seat to see if my suspicion was true.

Hunter's eyes widened and he immediately ducked deeper in our hiding spot

As far as I knew, dad had never been to this cinema before, so I hadn't even thought about the possibility of him being here.

"What about Linda?" a woman asked just then.

"She's at home looking after my daughter," the man, dad, said.

I slapped a hand over my mouth, trying not to make a sound. If my dad caught me hiding here, alone in an otherwise deserted cinema hall with Hunter, especially after Maya had talked about me kissing a guy, he definitely would be able to put two and two together.

Hunter was as tense as I was when the group walked past us. All I could see were their shoes; I counted six persons, two of them women in high heels.

I gulped as the last man of the group suddenly came to a stop right next to the row where we were hiding and bent down to lace the shoe after the laces had become undone. To my horror, it was my dad, still wearing his suit and tie. For the entire thirty seconds it took him, I didn't dare to breathe. If he turned his face only a tiny bit to the right, he would have had an unobstructed view on Hunter and I cowering between the seats.

I almost couldn't believe that once he was done, he straightened again and walked down the aisle without glancing into our direction once.

Hunter and I both let out a quiet sigh of relief, even though it wasn't over yet. For at least five minutes that felt like hours, we were kneeling on the floor, until I couldn't sit in that position anymore. My dad and his friends were still talking, the movie hadn't even started yet.

I tugged at Hunter's hand and pointed at the exit. He nodded and pulled his hood over his head. I did the same, even though I knew that it probably wasn't enough to disguise me from my father's eyes.

After only a moment of hesitation, we shot out of our hiding place, the thick carpet muffling the thrumming of our steps at least a little. Hunter pulled the door open, blinking into the bright light in the foyer. I heard everyone falling silent behind us all of a sudden, but I didn't turn around or stop, not even when the door was already shut behind us.

We were running through the foyer, not paying attention to the old lady yelling at us to slow down, and out of the building. Only when we were a few houses down the road, I dared to stop and leaned against a wall, breathing heavily.

Hunter didn't look the slightest bit out of breath, but he was watching me with a worried expression. "Your parents don't know, do they?"

I shook my head. "No. They- they can't, at least not yet."

Hunter nodded, even though he looked upset. "Do you think their reaction would be bad?"

"Bad? Horrible," I snorted. "I know how they think about homosexuals and all that. Mom would be heartbroken. And my dad..." I paused, looking away. "I don't know what he would do."

"You don't have to tell them if you don't want to," Hunter said. "We can keep this a secret."

"Yeah, but for how long?" I asked, running a trembling hand through my hair. "My dad nearly caught us just now. Can you imagine what would've happened if I hadn't woken up in time? He would've seen us together-"

"Don't think about it," he interrupted me. "He didn't, that's all that matters. You don't regret that we did it, do you?" He looked uncertain, anxiously waiting for my reply.

I immediately felt bad for burdening him with my stupid family drama and making him feel guilty. "Don't ask stupid questions," I said, echoing his words from this morning and stepped forward, pushing his hood back so I could run a hand through his hair when I kissed him.

Hunter's lips curved into a surprised smile, then he finally wrapped his arms around me and deepened the kiss.

The alley was dark and lonely, but I was still worried someone might see us, so I broke away after only a few seconds, despite the aching need to have him this close.

We separated just as our friends suddenly came down the alley. Nate was the first one to catch up with us, a wide smile on his face when he saw me quickly letting go of Hunter. "Well? Had fun?" he asked with a suggestive wink.

"You still seem a little out of breath," Liam added with the same stupid grin on his face. "We didn't even hear you."

"Thank God," Alexis muttered. "What have you guys been up to? Besides the obvious, I mean?"

"We didn't even do anything," Hunter laughed.

"We slept," I added.

"You...slept?" Liam sounded as incredulous as someone possibly could. "As in napping?"

Hunter nodded. "Yes, dumbass. What did you think?"

"Oh, you know exactly what we all thought," Adam snorted.

"Jules, what did you do to Hunter?" Liam asked, clearly amused. "Why is he being all soft and cute?"

"He's always been cute." The words were out before I could spend a second thought on them.

Hunter rolled his eyes, but I was sure that everyone could see the grin he was trying to hide.

"Alright, let's go home before this can get even cheesier," Nate muttered. "Jesus, it's scary how different you guys are when you're together."