He shuffles in his sleep, moving around to the point where the blanket reveals a bit more of his torso.

With moments like these in mind, I always make my room warmer when he comes over.

I walk out of the room, shutting the door as quietly as possible.

"Good morning, Heather," my mother greets me after I reach the bottom of the stairs.

"Good morning," I continue past her and into the kitchen.

She follows, "are you hungry?"

"Not really, no," I grab two glasses out of the cabinet. "I'll eat something before I leave." She watches me take the pitcher of orange juice out of the refrigerator and start to pour. I can sense that she wants to question it, and she's straining herself trying to resist. "Did you need something?"

"I couldn't help but notice you're using two glasses."

"Mhm."

"Extra thirsty?"

"Extra person," I reply.

"Why am I not surprised?"

My father enters the kitchen with a sigh, "will Leonardo be coming down to say 'hello?'"

"Not if I can help it," I say with a fake smile. "Have a lovely day at work, you two. We should do this again sometime."

They keep their stale faces on but allow me to walk out with the glasses and no more interrogation.

When I get back to my room, I find Leo stepping out of the bathroom, morning tiredness washed from his face but not out of his demeanor.

"Hey," I say in surprise, "I didn't expect you to be awake just yet."

"I rolled over and you weren't in bed."

"I went to get you juice, so you wouldn't be too grumpy about waking up."

"Well, I just brushed my teeth," he takes the cups from me and puts them on my dresser, "but, thank you."

Leo grabs my hands and pulls me back with him onto the bed.

His arms wrap around to hold me hostage while he lays under me. "I'm assuming this means you have no intention of getting dressed."

A small smile appears on his face, and he stares up at me for a second, his hand hooking around my face before he licks his lips and kisses me. It's sweet that I can feel your heart beating faster now...

He tastes like mint, and I deepen the kiss to get more of it, the cool sensation mixing with the warmth of his mouth.

It's hard to believe that yesterday was so bad.

He pulls away slowly, "I don't want to go to school."

"That's an idea."

"Yeah?" He says in surprise and lets me go enough to sit up on his lap.

I grab my phone, put it to my ear, and playfully speak into it, "Hello, this is Isabel Rylin calling. Unfortunately, Leo has fallen sick and won't be at school today."

"Will that actually work?"

"If you remember your lines, it will." I put the phone back. "You'll tell the dean that 'Heather has an incapacitating migraine.'"

Leo chuckles and shakes his head, "I've just been ruining your attendance since we started going together."

"My attendance wasn't perfect before."

"So, we stay home and do what?"

"Lay in bed a while longer, go out for breakfast, take a walk through the park, come back here and..."

He smiles, "I like that."

"But first-" I grab the phone again, "call Isabel, tell her you left early to meet with me."

"No," he groans, "I don't want to."

"You have to," I say adamantly.

"She's going to want to talk to you."

"I know."

He grudgingly punches in the number to his house and puts it on speaker as it rings.

"She's going to flip out," Leo says right before she picks up.

"Hello?" Isabel says in the nice tone she uses with me.

"Hey, mom-"

"Leo! I can't believe you would-"

"I'm at Heather's house, mom," he sighs, "I left early to meet with her, it was important."

"What?"

"Do you want me to do well in school or not? You should be happy."

Isabel scoffs, "do well in school? You expect me to believe you're not home right now because you want to do well in school?"

Leo rolls his eyes before gesturing for me to talk now.

"Good morning, Isabel..."

"...Heather?"

"Yes, I'm sorry, I meant to leave you my number in case this ever happened. I should've thought to ask you if it was okay for Leo-"

"Nothing is your fault, sweetie. It is okay, I just figured there wasn't anything more impossible than my son getting up early to study."

I laugh, she's probably right. He complained that 11 in the morning was early...8 seems out of the question.

"I told him it was mandatory. The exam is tomorrow."

"See, mom, " Leo adds, "So what are you yelling at me for?"

"I'm sorry, jellybean."

"You don't trust me," he argues.

"You have to admit this didn't seem likely."

"Why not when the only exception to my grounding is Heather?"

The irony of that...

"I have to get to work. You had me worried sick," she says.

"You were more pissed off than worried, but alright."

"Leonardo," the annoyance is clear.

"See you later, mom."

"Love you."

"Love you too," he says back.

In a parallel universe, he would say it back.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Leo gives me a look of disbelief. "Convincing the dean that I'm a 40-year-old millionaire will be easier."

"I feel bad about lying to her."

"Don't, I want to be able to see my girlfriend whenever she wants me around without a prison warden checking my cell every hour."

"Then don't get grounded," I tease.

Leo scoffs, "Me?" I nod and keep myself from laughing at his reaction. He turns us so that I'm under him and he's staring down at me, "don't convince me to stay over so you can seduce your way into my pants, and I won't get grounded anymore.

I smirk, "didn't take much seduction if I recall."

Leo laughs in the way that shows how nice his smile is. I smile at the contagiousness of it and run my fingers through his hair.

"Keep doing that," he says softly, moving down to lay his head on my stomach.

I play in his hair some more and feel him nestle against me like he can fall asleep easily this way...like he's comfortable...like being here with me is a calm he won't get anywhere else.

It's not fair that you can be like this

And ask me not to love you.

What if he would've preferred chocolate?

I look into my bag at the brown, stuffed teddy bear with a heart in its paws.

The idea of a man like him, tall and masculine, holding a teddy bear makes my heart flutter.

I bought a card, but it's blank inside, and I can't find the words to respond to the note he left me.

What would Heather say?

Something about cold weather and seashores, I'm sure.

I lean my back against his classroom door. It's empty but unlocked. I have around 5 minutes to write something nice and leave it for him to find without everyone knowing.

I hold the pencil to the paper and write his name in cursive letters.

...Maybe I'll mention the way his arms look when he has his sleeves pulled back or...how he smiles when he looks up from his desk and we see each other.

"Someone forgot to do their homework," Trinity Chao looks down on me as she walks by with Trevor. That was the real reason for saying something, she thought I'd care who was walking her to class.

Freshman year, she left out of the restroom with her skirt caught in her underwear. Audrey pointed it out in front of everyone, and she's hated me, her, and Heather since. I laughed, yes, but it wasn't me who announced it and— she could've worn cuter underwear.

"Trevor," I call out before he's too far. He stops but doesn't say a word. "I have something for you." His eyes shift to the teddy bear peeking out from my bag, and I almost laugh in his face. Now, why would that be for you? I take out the tickets for the ballet and raise my eyebrows. "These are yours. You bought them."

"For you."

"For us, and I don't want them anymore," I hold them out for him to grab. "Take her...or someone. Whoever you like most these days." He stares at the tickets like they're something he doesn't understand. "Really, have them," I continue to urge his hand.

He shakes his head and backs away from me, "they're for you."

The warning bell rings, and I sigh.

"Okay, whatever." He runs off with Trinity, and I shove the tickets back into the bag.

No time to think of something cute and enticing now. I put the card against the surface of the door and quickly write:

'Dear Alex, I fall asleep thinking about you. I'll be your secret if you'll be mine.

Love, your one and only valentine.'

No one notices when I rush into the dark classroom. My hands tremble, but I manage to put the bear on his desk next to his textbooks, and I stand the card up right in front of it. After a peek into the hallway, I leave out just as quickly and walk down the hall to remain unsuspecting.

The last bell rings, and I take a few deep breaths to steady my breathing. I don't want to hurry toward him, but I want to be there when he sees what I've given him.

I trail in a little later than all the other students, I think I'm second to last.

They'll never catch onto us.

"Good afternoon, everyone. I hope your days are going well," Alex smiles.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Faust," the class responds.

"If you did the reading, this lesson is going to be quite easy-" He gets distracted when he finally realizes there's something on his desk. All the nerves in my body start buzzing when he starts to read the card. His eyes dart across the words before he tries to refocus on the class, this time with shyness brushed across his face. "Um, I assigned uh-- chapters." Aw, I stole your train of thought. You're so cute like that. I raise my hand and our eyes meet. "Yes, Alison?"

"We read chapters 19 through 34."

"Thank you," he says in relief.

I smirk, "anything for you, Mr. Faust."

"Hey," Amanda leans against the doorframe. "What happened to your eye?"

Stupid fucking black eye.

I shake off her question. "Is Kat here?"

"No, she left."

"Do you know when she'll be back?"

"I'm not her keeper, Danny," she rolls her eyes. "Besides, aren't you avoiding her for the rest of your life?"

"No, I've got something to say to her," I walk into the apartment with my adrenaline pumping, "something everybody thinks but doesn't tell her."

"You want to run it by me first?"

"You're not her keeper, remember?" I scoff, "you know, I should've listened to Penny when I had the chance."

"Oh, yeah? What's her take on things?"

"Kat's a ho who only likes dudes in relationships."

Amanda snickers, "you guys didn't even do anything. She told me you were a lost cause."

"She says shit like that about me, and I get punished?" My jaw clenched in anger.

"So what are you going to say to her, huh?"

"What's it to you?"

"I just think you should say it out loud first. Hear how it sounds before you go in front of the jury."

"Well, I'm going to tell her that all of her fucking flirting is what made Val leave. Flirting isn't nothing, and she flirts with everybody because she wants fucking attention. It's ridiculous." Mandy tilts her head at me. "And I want her to leave my friends alone too. She can't just fuck up my life and get onto the next. I'm left out into the cold because of her and she's just prancing around trying to screw over Matt and any guy in a 10-foot radius, fucking bitch."

"See, I don't think that'll work."

I eye her in annoyance. "What?"

"She'll laugh at you," Mandy cautions.

"Fuck her. She won't laugh."

"You planned to have an emotional outburst in front of her? You're asking for it."

I throw my hands up in surrender. Nothing left to lose but my dignity, I might as well hand it to her.

I make my way over to sit on the sofa, placing my head in my hands.

Amanda lets some time go by before sitting next to me, maybe she didn't want to risk being on the receiving end of my 'emotional outburst.'

"Are you going to tell me what happened to your eye?"

"My dad," I say without lifting my head.

"I hope you gave him one to match."

"Close enough," I sigh. "Been sleeping there too much. We've been fighting over dishes and shit."

"You're mad at Kat for uprooting you, then. No home away from home."

"I've got places to stay."

"But no one to rub your back and tell you everything's okay," she pouts jokingly.

"Nothing I haven't lost ten times over by now."

"C'mon," she gives me a friendly punch on the arm, "perk up, pal."

I look at her with an unamused expression, "I'm perked."

Mandy grabs my face and tilts it to get a better look at my eye. "I can cover that easily."

"Why bother? I'll have another by next week."

"You have places to stay," she said sympathetically, though it sounded somber to me, so the quiet between us became sad...but we shared it, and I mistook that for comfort...

And moved forward until I was kissing her.

She went stiff in shock but her lips worked with mine eventually, colliding and interlocking together before I slipped her some tongue. Whatever I'm looking for...this isn't it.

I pull away in disgust, spitting and wiping my mouth. "Ew, God, bleh. Leo mouth, fucking shit!"

She scrunches her face, "Leo is not the last guy my mouth was on."

"No," I say defeated, "because that would be me."

I've overstayed my welcome by so much...

We sit in awkward silence, but I can feel her eyes burning into me.

"You should probably talk to someone."

I shrug, "she won't answer my calls."

"Thanks for the shoes. I can't believe I forgot my credit cards."

"Don't mention it. You would've done the same for me," Natalia replies.

"I'll pay you back, okay?"

"Sure," she shrugs, "whenever."

"Do you want to go back to my house?"

Wolf-whistling responds instead of her, and I groan at the cat-calling little boys.

"...do you know them?" Natalia whispers.

"Unfortunately." I've come to truly despise the lacrosse team and they've become street litter waiting for the spring game season. There's always a few of them scattered everywhere like they have no place in this world outside of the field.

"Nice of you to walk by, Audrey," James Novak smirks pervertedly.

"Nice for who, exactly?" I scowl.

Jace steps out in front of all of them. "Who's your friend?"

I step in front of her like a shield from his alcohol breath. "Her name is not interested."

He slides past me and smiles at her. "I'm Jace."

"Kendal," she looks to me for confirmation, "right?"

"So, you've been talking about me?" He says as if it's a good thing.

"More like hearing about you."

"Can I hear about you?"

"My name is Natalia."

"Pretty, like you."

"Thank you," she says politely.

"Where do you go to school, Natalia?"

"Sarafine."

"All girls school...and catholic," Jace sucks air between his teeth. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I've never been one for Protestant religions."

My arms cross in impatience. "Can we go now-"

"Funny girl, " he chuckled. "There's a connection here. I can feel it."

Natalia laughs to herself, "Can you?"

"I can," he nods and then looks to his friends, "what about you guys? There's a spark, right?"

They chirp like a flock of encouraging birds, cawing out "oh, yeah, definitely" and "for sure," when they're not talking over each other too much to discern individual praises.

I scoff, "you're not falling for this, are you?"

"Audrey, please," he puts his hand out to stop me from speaking. "The adults are talking."

Natalia glances nervously at me, the way children glance at the nurse who's holding the needle.

"We should get dinner sometime," Jace suggests to her.

"I'm flattered, but no, thank you."

"No, thank you?" He smiles, "it wouldn't be anything serious, just a casual coming together of sorts."

The boys snicker and turn toward each other to hide their ridiculously uncalled for grins.

"Subtlety, Kendal. Try it out sometime," James gives him a thumbs-up.

"Don't listen to them," Jace waves off the comments and reactions, "they're not in this. We could even do coffee instead if you want to start with something lighter."

"Really, that's nice, but still no."

"Oh, you're one of those girls," Jace raises his eyebrows and smiles cunningly.

"Yes, a lesbian."

He stops smiling.