The sun seeps through my window and casts long, yellow rays onto the carpet beside my bed.
I turn my head to see Caleb lying beside me, his eyes still closed while he breathes in soft, even breaths...
Wait.
Caleb Myers is in my bed.
Memories of last night come flooding back, and I remember seeing the scars on his back, and him waking up screaming from a night terror.
And how he had said that he'd dreamt of his dad. But his real dad, not Michael.
What happened with his real dad, and why is he having sleep terrors about him?
Eventually, his eyes flutter open. "Lena?"
I smile, not inching my gaze from his.
"Morning," he whispers, still groggy from sleep but smiling all the same. "What time is it?" he asks, looking around him for a clock.
I lean over to my bedside table and check the time on my phone. 10:42.
"Nearly a quarter to eleven."
"Oh, shit, Michael will be wondering where I am," he frets, beginning to stand out of bed.
But he sighs, too exhausted to make it to the chair where he left his shirt, and falls back onto the bed again beside me.
"Last night..." I murmur. "You had a night terror, and when you woke up, you told me it was about your dad. Your real dad."
He doesn't speak for a second, just lies so that he's nearly pressed up against me. He gently places a stray strand of my black hair behind my ear, sending a tingling feeling across my face.
"I promise I'll tell you, Lena, but now..."
I shake my head. "No, you don't need to tell me right now. Tell me when you're ready, okay?"
He smiles and gently bobs his head. "Thanks for last night, when you...you know," he fumbles awkwardly for the words.
"I know."
His hand slowly runs down my face, sliding down my neck and to my shoulder. He squeezes it with thanks.
"I really should be going."
When we are both dressed properly and fully awake, he shadows me down the stairs.
As he turns for the door, I hear a car pull up outside.
"Crap, Jace is here, he can't see you," I frantically scramble to put the right words together, but all that comes out is a rushed slur.
"He'll see me if I go outside," he reminds.
After deliberating it for a second, I say, "Go into the kitchen, through the door and go around the back."
"What about my car? He'd have noticed it by now." Jace's footsteps draw closer.
"Oh yeah. Go to the front door, knock on once Jace is inside and come up with a reasonable explanation for why your car is in my drive."
"What?"
"Just go!" I nudge him into the kitchen where he rushes to the glass doors and slips into the chilly morning air, around the side of the house and out of sight.
At that second, Jace comes through the door calling my name.
"Yeah, I'm here," I reply, jogging lightly into the hall to greet him.
"Whose car is that in the drive?"
Suddenly, there's a knock at the door, and I jump to go and get it.
Caleb stands there in all of his perfection. "Hi, Lena, thanks for letting me leave my car at your place after we worked on our science project yesterday. I was too tired to drive back so it was a good idea my dad came to pick me up, and drop me off today to come get it."
He sounds like he's reading badly off a screen behind me.
He sends me a knowing look, while Jace stares him down suspiciously.
"No problem," I reply like I'm reading off a screen behind him.
He sends me a wink that Jace couldn't possibly have caught, and then lightly jogs away, getting in his car and driving home.
I shut the door behind me, as Jace stares at me through confused eyes.
"You want breakfast?" I ask, making my way into the kitchen with a small smile on my face.
---
The next day, I get to school in time to see Caleb making his way inside the building. Without thinking twice about it, I jog after him.
He smiles down at me, eyes brighter than I have ever seen them. "Hey, Lena with the pretty name. Or would you prefer Lena the Lone Wolf?"
"Just Lena," I answer as we make our way to his locker.
Once he collects his books and we advance to my own locker, he says, "Okay, Just Lena, so we have a biology test coming up, are you free to tutor me tonight?"
I nod. "Sure."
"Great, I've got some stuff to do after school, so would you mind coming over at about five?" he asks as we head to class.
"No problem." He grins to himself and it sends a fluttery feeling up my spine.
As we stroll into biology with a number of stares following us, I sit beside him and notice just how happy he is today.
"Why so happy?" I ask, putting my book in front of me and dumping my bag onto the floor.
His eyes brighten. "Michael left today for a work trip. He's not getting back for at least a week."
I'm overjoyed to here that Michael wouldn't be around for a few days, but there's also a part of me that feels bad for him. He shouldn't be happy that his dad isn't going to be at home. He should miss his dad, but Michael hasn't given Caleb any reasons to miss him.
"That's great," I reply, as Mr Belk walks in and the school day begins.
I spend next period- calculus- tapping my pen against the table and staring at the clock. As the final few seconds pass, and the bell sounds for lunch hour, I jump out of my seat and rush out the door.
I have never been so overjoyed to get to lunch hour. It means I can see Caleb, and that's a good enough reason for my initial opinion on the cafeteria to have changed.
But when I make it into the cafeteria, and Caleb meets me at my side, we're greeted by a particularly unpleasant face.
Phoebe is staring straight at us. But she isn't glaring.
She's smiling.
Well, on her face, it's more like a twisted smirk, but at least she isn't snarling at us today.
"Caleb, Lena, it's great to see you both," she says, and the string of words makes me retake.
Neither of us say anything, too dumbfounded to speak.
"How about you both sit with us today?" she suggests, already leading us to her table without waiting for us to answer.
Caleb says to her back as we walk, "You don't need to do that."
"I insist," she replies as we stand in front of her table.
At the table is Phoebe, three of her friends that I don't know the names of, Liam, and a few of his fellow team members.
Caleb stands closer to me, as we stare at Phoebe with baffled looks on our faces.
"Sit," she commands, motioning to the two empty seats at the table.
Slowly, we sit.
Caleb is on my right, Phoebe is opposite me, and Liam is on my left.
"Why are we sitting at your table, Phoebe?" Caleb asks, cautiously.
"I wanna make amends with you two. After what happened at lunch, I think we're equal."
"Equal? You've spent the last two years calling Lena names, tripping her up in the halls and spreading rumours about her. How does me throwing cheese fries down you make it equal?"
She smirks. "Just shut up and accept my apology."
Caleb looks at me, silently asking me what we should do.
What is going on?