I wake up suddenly, my heart beating fast as I sit up in bed. Maddie is beside me sleeping soundly, but when I look at the alarm clock it says it's five in the morning.

Oh fuck.

Did she tell Maya to cover for her?

I throw the comforter off of me and try to look around to find my pants. I trip over her heels in the process, cursing as I finally find my belt and yank them up from the floor.

Fishing my phone out of my pocket, I realize it's dead.

Fuck.

Maddie's clutch is downstairs, so I quietly sneak out, careful not to wake her, and find it thrown next to the staircase.

I thought by some miracle we'd get lucky, but she's got three missed calls from Ethan, four from Maya, and ten from her father.

Oh shit.

My heart is racing as I try to figure out what to do. It won't be a coincidence that she and I haven't answered our phones. What the fuck do I tell them? What excuse am I going to come up with this time?

How could we have been so careless? I just got so wrapped up in her. After three rounds I don't even remember how we fell asleep. It just happened, and now we have to pay the price.

I hold onto her phone and head back up into my room. Maddie is curled up in my covers, and I find myself getting angry that I even have to wake her up to begin with. I want to just crawl back into bed and fall asleep with her.

"Mads." I whisper and shake her shoulder, attempting to wake her up. All she does is groan and turn to the other side. "Hey." I repeat, and finally she sighs, slowly blinking her eyes open.

"We fell asleep." I tell her, and it doesn't register with her at first, but suddenly her eyes grow wide and she immediately sits up in bed.

I hand her the phone as she scrolls through the countless phone calls while I put my phone on the charger. I'm sure mine is the same.

"I don't know what I'm going to tell them." She blurts out. "Oh god, I'm so dead."

She gets to her feet and bites on her lip, pausing for a second as her face scrunches up in pain again. She's definitely sore after three rounds, and I don't know how the hell she's going to hide that from her parents. Especially from her brother. He's not stupid.

"Um..." she's thinking as my phone screen finally lights up. I hold my breath when it turns on, and after about a minute or so I notice there's only one missed call from Ethan.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this.

"Well that's good." She breathes out in relief. "He must not suspect anything."

I can't help but feel disappointed. Nobody cares about where I'm at. They don't care if I haven't picked up. I don't have parents that care anymore.

"Just call Ethan and be honest." I shrug. "Well, not all the way honest, but just tell him shit went down with Mark and we took an Uber to my house."

She immediately shakes her head.

"Why wouldn't we have taken an Uber to my house?" She asks. "We always stay there. That's the first thing he'll ask. He can't know that I was with you."

She has a point, and I watch her dial up Maya's number. There's no answer though since it's five in the morning, and Maddie lets out a frustrated sigh.

"I don't know if she covered for me." She whines. "If I get caught in a lie then this will be over between us. Especially if they find out I stayed the night with you."

"Just hold on." I reassure. "I've got this."

"What are you doing?" Her eyes grow wide when I hit Ethan's contact on my phone, and she quickly tries to reach for it.

"I've got this." I tell her again, and I'm not surprised when Ethan immediately answers. Her entire family probably hasn't gone to sleep since she's been missing.

"Ethan, hey." I let out a breath and pray to god this lie works. "I'm with Maddie. She's okay."

"Why the fuck is she with you, Cameron? Why hasn't she called? My parents were about to call the police for crying out loud!"

The spew of questions come out of his mouth, and Maddie looks like she's about to pass out. She can hear him yelling since she's sitting right next to me, but I squeeze onto her hand to calm her down.

"Mark did some messed up shit to her tonight." I admit. "I realized she wasn't in the gym, so I went to go find her. It took me all night to even figure out where she was at. She wasn't answering my calls either. I knew you were having fun with Jennifer, so I didn't want to worry you. I found her at like one in the morning by the park at my house. Remember? The one we all used to go?"

He's breathing heavily on the other end of the phone, but he doesn't say anything.

"We didn't drive to the dance, so I didn't have a car to bring her home. I was tired as shit, and she was a wreck, so I told her she could just sleep here. She's in the guest room. I thought she had let you guys know where she was at, so I had put her phone on silent so that she could get some sleep before you guys tried to reach her. I would have answered if I heard you all calling."

Again, there's nothing coming from Ethan, and I start to think he's not believing me until finally, by the grace of god, he lets out another frustrated sigh.

"What did he do to her?" He hisses. "Did he tell you? If they had sex I swear to god bro I'll kill him."

I gulp.

Loudly.

"She didn't really go into detail. You know we aren't close like that anymore. She was just crying and said he tried to make a move on her that she didn't want. That's all I know."

"Wait until practice Monday." He chuckles, and the tone of his voice is terrifying. "He's not going to be able to walk once I'm done with him."

Maddie bites down on her lip, but I can tell she's relieved at least that he wasn't upset with her. He trusts me more than anyone, and I can't help but feel guilty that I'm betraying him right now.

"Just don't get yourself expelled before we get to states." I remind him. "We only have one more game to win, and then we're in there, bro. I know he's a prick, but don't fuck up this opportunity for the rest of us. After states, feel free. But before then just wait it out."

"Whatever." He grumbles, but I know he's agreeing with me. "Just bring her home whenever she wakes up, alright? I'll go and let my parents know what happened."

I tell him I will, and when I hang up the phone we both let out a sigh of relief. I can't believe that worked, and I can't believe I was able to come up with that lie so easily.

"Thank God." She yawns and collapses back down onto my bed, completely naked still. I tilt my head to the side and appreciate how perfectly toned her stomach is as she stretches her body out, raising her arms above her head.

I hate the fact that I'm lying to my best friend. I hate the fact that I'm lying to my second family, but as I watch her curl herself up in my sheets, that curly hair all over my pillow, the regret instantly fades away.

I want her.

I love her.

And I'll take whatever consequences come with that.

Crawling back in beside her, I pull her warm, naked body against my own and kiss her shoulder.

"Sweet dreams." I mutter against her skin, and I bring one hand up to hold onto her breast, the other one loosely around her waist.

She backs up more against me so that my arms go tighter around her, and in seconds the both of us doze off once more.