I awoke to the sound of muffled laughter and hushed voices. When I blinked into the dim light piercing through the closed curtains, the first thing my eyes found was Hunter. He was still sound asleep, one hand resting under his cheek, the other loosely grasping onto the last bit of blanket I hadn't stolen from him.

I scrambled to my feet and, feeling slightly guilty, pulled the covers up to his chin. He smiled sleepily and nestled deeper into the pillows.

Grinning like an idiot (I tended to do that a lot when Hunter was around), I leaned down and planted a peck on his cheek. He didn't do as much as stir, so I gave up on him and chose to let him sleep instead.

None of the others were in the living room anymore, so I followed the noises into the kitchen.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Liam greeted when I entered the room. He was sitting at the table, sipping on a cup of coffee.

Next to him was Emily, who looked significantly less bright-eyed; her hair was falling into the face but failed to conceal her pale skin and the dark shadows under eyes. "Morning," she muttered. At least I guessed that was what she tried to tell me through her yawn.

Liam chuckled and set his cup of coffee down in front of her. "You should drink some of this. You look awful."

"Shut up," Emily groaned, but gulped down some of it nonetheless. "I'm never drinking alcohol again."

"Pity. You're cute when you're drunk," Liam teased and snatched his mug back.

"I'm always cute."

"True," he grinned and pinched her cheek, only to get his hand slapped away.

I shook my head with an amused smile and went to pour a cup of coffee for myself. While I waited for the coffee machine to spill some of the most magical liquid known to men, the door opened and Alexis strode into the room, followed by a breeze of vanilla-scented perfume.

She looked more awake than should be humanly possible at this time and after having an ungodly amount of drinks. She was already fully dressed in ripped jeans, boots and a flannel. Even her make-up was flawless.

Nate was only a few steps behind her. I sent him a questioning look when I noticed the annoyed scowl on his face. No, annoyed wasn't the word. Frustrated.

He just shook his head at me in reply and went to pour a concerning amount of sugar into his cup at the counter, effectively blocking the way to the cupboard. Instead of asking him to move a little, Alex came up right behind him and stretched to get a mug from the cupboard above her head, pressing up against Nate's back in the process.

Even from where I was standing, I could hear him inhale sharply. The next thing I saw from the corner of my eye, was Nate spinning around and tightly gripping onto Alexis' hips.

"Can you stop teasing already?" he growled.

Alexis smirked up at him and leaned forward to set her cup down on the counter. "Make me."

I immediately turned my head away when Nate caught her lips in a kiss, and went to turn the radio on to drown out the noises.

Luckily, the two got interrupted rather quickly when the door opened and Adam almost ran into them.

"Jesus Christ," he muttered and pushed past them. "Can all of you fucking stop hooking up wherever I go? There are people who don't want to fight down the urge to throw up every two minutes."

"Jealous, Adam?" Alex mocked but took a step back, smoothing her hair down with one hand.

"I have a girlfriend," he pointed out. Then his face suddenly lit up in a very unlike-Adam way. "Oh, did I already tell you guys she's coming over for prom? She'll be staying here for a week."

I shook my head and smiled at him. "That's awesome."

Adam nodded with a content grin and lifted the bag I hadn't realized he'd been holding in his hand. "Anyone hungry? I went to get some breakfast."

"Hell yes," Liam immediately said and beckoned Adam over.

"I'm going to wake up Hunter," I said, but stopped in my tracks when I saw Adam and Alexis exchanging a look that was equal parts amused and pitying. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Alex snorted. "It's just, uh... rather hard to wake Hunter up in the morning. But go ahead, try your luck."

I glanced at both of them, bewildered by that comment, but let it slide and made my way back to the living room.

Hunter was still laying in the exact same position I had left him in, but now he was snoring quietly. I suppressed a chuckle and crouched down next to him.

His hair was soft and tousled when I reached out and gently ran a hand through it. "Hunter," I whispered next to his ear. When I didn't get much of a reaction, I tried again. "Hunter, wake up. It's past noon."

I was already thinking he wouldn't respond, but then he whined in a low voice: "Don't wanna get up."

"Come on, sleepy," I laughed quietly and traced a finger over his closed eyelids until they reluctantly opened and blinked up at me.

"You're lucky that you're cute," Hunter mumbled. "Or I wouldn't tolerate two seconds of this."

"You're lucky you have such a nice boyfriend who wakes you up so you can have breakfast with your friends."

"Fine," he sighed, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

I grinned triumphantly and offered him a hand to help him up. Hunter took it, but instead of letting me pull him to his feet, he suddenly yanked my arm until I lost my footing. With a startled noise, I toppled forward and onto his chest.

His body was vibrating under mine when he laughed and wrapped both his arms and his legs around me and flipped us around.

"Hunt- Oh my god, what are you doing?" I groaned and struggled against his grip in vain.

"I think we should stay in bed for a bit," he said and buried his face in the crook of my neck, not loosening his squeeze the tiniest bit.

When I tried to get out again, he just snickered. I froze when I suddenly felt his lips press a gentle kiss right below my ear.

"That's not fair!" My breath caught in my throat halfway-through the sentence when I felt teeth grazing over the sensitive skin on my neck, making every hair stand on end.

When Hunter didn't reply, I got even more frustrated and tried to push his hands away. Before I could accomplish anything though, he caught my wrists and held them tightly in front of my chest.

I twisted my head around to glare at him, but my expression faltered when he grinned contently at me and kissed my cheek.

"Don't frown, pretty boy. Your smile is way more beautiful," he teased.

"You're so stupid," I said and buried my face against his shoulder to hide my smile.

"Your face is stupid."

"You like my stupid face."

"I do," he laughed and went back to kissing down my neck. After a few seconds he suddenly stopped and asked, "Can we maybe go out tonight? I think we both need to get out of here for a while."

I nodded immediately. "Yeah, I'd like that."

Hunter smiled, but before he could answer, the door swung open.

"Oh, there you are," Liam commented. He didn't seem surprised to see us like this at all. "We were already wondering if you got murdered by Hunter for waking him up."

"Come on, who could hurt a face like this," Hunter laughed.

I fought to look over his shoulder at Liam and Adam and mouthed: "Help."

"You know he won't be any use to you anymore if you squeeze him to death, right, Hunter?" Adam asked, sounding completely unimpressed.

Hunter let go of me with a chuckle, but not without pressing a final kiss to my cheek. I immediately got to my feet and was surprised to see that he followed suit and trailed after me to the kitchen.

+++

This time, I was driving and picking him up. At least that was how we had things planned. Right now my mom seemed to be out for ruining our plans, though.

"Mom, I told you I'm just going to hang out with Emily," I repeated. "You can call her if you don't believe me."

My mother was standing in the corridor with her hands on her hips, blocking my way to the front door. "Why don't you hang out with her here?"

"Because I don't want to have you and dad in my business."

"Your dad won't be home tonight," mom said.

"Where is he?"

"He has a business meeting."

I paused in putting my jacket on and turned around to her with a frown. "On a Saturday night?"

She folded her arms over her chest and nodded. "Yes, Julian, on a Saturday night. He's a busy man. Now stop looking sour, your father's dedication to his work is the reason you can afford this kind of living."

I stared at her, once again taken aback by her blatant rejection, before I nodded slowly. "Fine, I don't care. I'm still going."

"Julian, if I tell you not to, you're not going! You're not eighteen yet!"

"Trust me, I'm aware," I said, looking at her coolly. "I've already started counting the days until I can finally move out of this hellhole."

Mom was so perplexed that she didn't even react when I pushed past her and walked outside.

When I turned around on my way to the car, she was still standing in the doorway, looking after me.

"146," I shouted back as I got into the driver's seat.

146 days. Almost five months.

Hunter was already waiting on the porch when I drove up in front of his house. He was by the car in seconds and slid into the passenger's seat with a wide grin on his face.

"Why are we driving in this car again?" he asked as the engine started with a rattle.

"Because you can't drive races with this one and I'd like to not have a near death-experience for once when we're going out."

"Come on, that was romantic!" he laughed. "Admit it, you loved it. Why else would you have kissed me?"

"You kissed me first," I pointed out to tease him. "I just went along with it."

Hunter only snorted. "You loved it."

I chose not to comment on that and said: "You look better than you did this morning. What did you do?"

"I had a nap. Or three," Hunter snickered. "Don't worry, I'm as fit as a fiddle now."

"Great. Where exactly are we going?" I asked.

Hunter shrugged. "I don't know. How about we just walk around town for a bit and see what we can do?"

I nodded and pulled up in a street near the park. It was a warm spring evening, the sun was just starting to set and there were still birds chirping.

Hunter walked up to me and slipped his hand into mine. When we walked down the street, I was aware that several people were staring at our intertwined fingers. It wasn't like they were stopping in their tracks to gape at us or anything, but I was still keenly aware of the attention.

Hunter noticed how tense I got and held my hand a little tighter. When that didn't help, he tried to distract me. "You know, this is our first actual, official date. Isn't that weird?"

I nodded and looked up at him. "It is. Last time we went out alone, we weren't even together yet. That's so strange to me, because I feel like I've known you forever."

"Yeah, I know. But there just weren't enough opportunities for us to go out, with your parents and Victoria and all that..." he trailed.

"The others have no idea how lucky they are," I said, and couldn't keep myself from sounding bitter. "Liam and Emily could be going out already. Alex and Nate, as well. They can go anywhere without people staring and telling them to stop kissing. They can introduce each other to their parents without any risks. They can go to prom together..."

Hunter looked just as downcast as I felt. "Would you want to change it if you could?"

"My sexuality, you mean?" I asked. When he nodded I considered it for a while. "I don't know. Everything would be easier if I was straight. I would still have my family and no one would look twice at me at school." I looked down at our hands and said: "But I wouldn't have this. I wouldn't be with you. And I wouldn't change anything if it meant losing this."

Hunter's smile was like the sun breaking through a cloudy sky when he suddenly pulled me aside and crashed his lips onto mine.

My surprised gasp was smothered under his mouth as he expertly took me apart.

He only let go of me when I was a panting, flushed mess and had to lean against the brick wall behind me to stop my legs from giving away.

"You can't just do that!" I exclaimed once I trusted myself to speak again and scowled at Hunter.

"Do what?" he asked.

For a second I forgot what I was going to say when I looked at him. His lips were red and slightly swollen, his eyes dark and twinkling, his cheeks slightly stained with a hint of pink. Beautiful beautiful beautiful.

"You can't just kiss me like this out of nowhere," I eventually managed to say.

"Why?"

"I might... I don't know, faint? Have a heart attack?" I pressed a hand to my wildly beating heart. "This can't be healthy."

Hunter looked at me wide-eyed for a few seconds before he let out an unbelieving chuckle. I watched him carefully when he stepped closer and brushed some curls out of my face. "Then stop saying things like that. What am I supposed to do when you make it so damn hard to stay away from you?"

My heart only started beating even faster at that point, like it was trying to pound its way out of my chest. Without thinking, I grabbed his hand and placed it right over it. "See what you're doing? I don't think I can take you anymore when you continue like this."

Hunter's lips curled into a smile that showed that he was clearly satisfied with himself. "That's too bad, because I definitely won't stop."

I rolled my eyes at him and got onto my toes to kiss his smug smirk away.

A few minutes later we decided that, as nice as it was, we couldn't spend the entire evening making out in an alleyway.

When I asked him what he wanted to do, he said: "We should get ice cream."

"Ice cream?" I asked. "It's nine in the evening."

Hunter looked at me for a few seconds as if he was waiting for me to explain myself. "Sorry, where you trying to make a point?"

I laughed and slipped my hand into his as he set off on a search for the next ice cream parlour. By now the streets had emptied noticeably and only few people were still strolling around.

"See that?" Hunter suddenly asked and pointed at the windows of what looked like a really posh restaurant. "I'm gonna take you here for our anniversary."

After looking at him in surprise, I stepped closer to a window and peeked inside. In the soft light of some chandeliers were men in suit and tie along with women in evening gowns dining at tables with white table cloths.

Apparently Hunter wasn't the only one who had the idea of going here on a date; there were couples everywhere, holding hands and laughing over glasses of red wine. Two people close to where we were standing were full-on making out right now.

I frowned when I watched them. Something about the man seemed strangely familiar, something about his posture and his clothes, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

The man leaned back in his seat right then, momentarily stopping his attack on the woman's lips.

My right hand flew up to my mouth to stifle the gasp that had escaped.

"What is it?" Hunter asked and stepped closer.

"It's my dad," I whispered.

Hunter followed my gaze to the pair at their table and grimaced. "That's... not your mother, is it?"

I shook my head silently.

The woman was way younger than my parents, around thirty maybe. She was skinny, platinum blonde and had a face that distinctly reminded me of a horse. Right now she was busy dabbing her smudged lipstick clean with a handkerchief my dad handed her.

Suddenly, all of it made sense. All those business meetings my dad had attended over the past few weeks, the weird silence between my parents, that guilty look on my father's face whenever he came home late. I hadn't cared –hadn't wanted to care- when I heard them arguing downstairs.

Now I was wondering for how long this had been going on and felt sick to my stomach.

"Remember that time when we were at the cinema and he was there, too?" I muttered, slightly dazed and unable to take my eyes off them. "I bet that he was there with her, that woman."

Hunter was silent for a moment, then he suddenly reached into my back pocket and fished my phone out of it.

I sent him a puzzled look when he started to take pictures through the window. "Hunter, what are you doing?"

"Collecting evidence. Maybe this can come in handy... Now you finally have something against your father."

My eyes widened as I let that settle in. "You're right. Oh my god, you're right!" I muttered. "I'm sure he doesn't want mom to know about this... so he needs to listen to me for once."

Hunter nodded and handed me my phone back. Then he looked at me again. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. No. I'm not sure," I murmured and glanced at my father again. "It's not like I put it past him, but I didn't expect him to do it."

"We should head home."

"No! I don't want to ruin our date because of this-"

Hunter rolled his eyes at me, but the look on his face was worried rather than annoyed. "Jules, you're not ruining anything. I just want to make sure you're okay. Besides, now you wouldn't enjoy anything we'd do anyways."

I considered that, searching his face for any signs of disappointment about our night out being cut short. Then I sighed: "Fine. Let's get out of here."

+++

The drive back home was a tense one. Hunter offered to drive, but I declined. I wanted something to focus on that wasn't my parents' dysfunctional relationship.

"Tell me what happened with Victoria last night," I said. "I meant to ask you why you were so down earlier today, but then I forgot."

Hunter's face immediately lost all its color. "Are you sure you want to hear that right now?" he asked carefully. "I mean, after what just happened with your dad and all..."

"It's okay. I want to know."

After a minute, Hunter took a deep breath. "Victoria told me something yesterday. Showed me, rather. It... it was a pregnancy test."

My head whipped around to him. "Hunter, what-"

"I don't know how it happened, I swear," Hunter said quietly. "When I used to sleep with her all those months ago we always used protection, I swear. I would never risk something like that."

All I could do was stare at him in shock. "What are you going to do now?" I asked, because it was the only thing that came to mind as I was still trying to process this information.

"Victoria wants to keep the baby. I asked her if we could give it up for adoption or something, but she refused," he muttered. "I'm so sorry, Jules. Really, I didn't know-" He broke off, not knowing what else to say.

Neither did I, so we just sat there in silence.

The road ahead was dark and mainly deserted, so I didn't bother staying within the speed limit. Soon we were driving just as fast as my thoughts were racing.

Hunter didn't comment, maybe because he was used to speeding himself, maybe because he didn't want to make things worse.

Houses and cars and trees flew by in a blur outside, but I didn't pay any attention to them. All that mattered was the feeling of the steering wheel under my hands and the engine making the car vibrate from the inside out.

The shock of seeing my dad with another woman had subsided by now, overshadowed by what Hunter had told me. Now there was only rage and a feeling of disappointment so overwhelming it made my eyes water.

I blinked the tears away angrily. Still, there seemed to build more and more with every second passing, until the street wasn't more than a blurry mix of shadows and lights.

I didn't see the truck appearing.

My foot found the brake a second too late.

The sound of crushing metal and splintering glass was deafening and nearly drowned out Hunter's shout.

I didn't know why my forehead was on fire all of a sudden. Only when something wet trickled down the side of my face, I realized that I had hit my head on the steering wheel.

Through the fog I knew that Hunter was shouting something, but all I could hear was the numb throbbing in my skull.

My head turned to look at him, to make sure he was fine, but I couldn't see anything.

Only when the dark spots before my eyes finally blocked my sight entirely, I understood what he was calling.

It was my name, over and over again.