Better Things

Chapter 15

A/N: Sorry for the delay folks, but thank you for your patience. I want to thank you all for your reviews last chapter. I appreciate them and love getting that email alert letting me know someone reviewed. The mature version of this chapter is on FF.  I ask that you be 18 to read it.

Huge thanks to my beta, Heather, for being so awesome!

It had been a few weeks since I'd received the note that had scared the hell out of me, and I didn't know anything more. Detective Masen had called me a few days after I'd met with him to let me know that he'd gone to visit Mr. and Mrs. Newton and questioned them about Mike's whereabouts. His parents had claimed he was still in California and that Mike had nothing to do with that "nasty girl that had ruined their son's life." I wasn't sure I believed them, and neither did Detective Masen. He told me he was going to go down to California and have a little chat with Mike and his parole officer in the upcoming week. I was definitely interested in hearing how that went.

In the meantime, school life had returned to normal. Sort of. One, two, or all three of the boys walked me everywhere, and if for some reason none of them were available, Jake or Sam would walk me. They'd seen Edward and me leaving the campus security office and had asked if everything was okay. I'd told them about everything that was going on, and they both promised to do what they could to help out. I was extremely grateful to have such awesome friends who cared and who were looking out for me. At the same time though, I was terrified something would happen to one of them, especially Edward. If anything were to happen to him, I would be devastated. He meant the world to me, and I was starting to admit to myself that I was in love with him.

We were currently walking back from my night class in a slightly hurried pace because being out at night after everything that had happened had me extremely paranoid. I swore every shadow or every noise was Mike lurking nearby.

"Do you want to get away this weekend?" Edward asked me, pulling me out of my thoughts as we made our way up to my room.

"This weekend?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's Valentine's, and I thought we could use a few days away from this place."

I'd totally forgotten Valentine's Day was coming up. I'd never had reason to remember it before, and now, I felt slightly bad that I'd not even realized it was so close.

"That would be great, but where would we go?" I asked him.

His cheeks turned a slight shade of pink, and he rubbed his hand against the back of his neck before answering.

"Well … uh, my folks are out of town for the week, and I thought, perhaps, we could just hang out at my house. It wouldn't be much of a getaway, but it wouldn't be here either."

"I'd like that," I told him, leaning up on tiptoe to place a kiss against his lips. I had to admit, the idea of getting away from campus for a while was a wonderful one although the idea of being alone with Edward at his house made me slightly nervous, but not in a bad way.

"Excellent," he murmured against my lips, pulling me closer and deepening our kiss. We stayed like that for quite some time, sharing heated kisses in the hallway until we both needed to breathe.

"I suppose I should let you get to bed," he said quietly, his fingers running through my hair.

I shrugged in response, not quite ready to let him go. Unlocking my door, I tugged him in once I noticed Alice wasn't there. Grinning, I left a note for Alice on the dry erase board next to the door before closing it, and then, I made my way back to Edward. He was standing next to my bed, a slight smirk on his face, and I let out a sigh at how gorgeous he was. Gently, I pushed him until he fell back on my bed, and he tossed me another smirk when my eyes were drawn to the shirt that had ridden up, exposing his abs.