"Come on Holly, we have to leave soon."

I crossed my arms stubbornly, glaring at the floor. "No."

"It's not your fault you fell asleep."

"You're right. It's yours. I'm angry at you."

Chris rolled his eyes, dropping my overnight bag onto the wooden floor with a soft thud. "I don't understand why you're so angry."

Puffing out my cheeks, I switched my gaze to him, doing my best to keep my angry stare up as my eyes landed on his innocent gaze. "Because you let me fall asleep!"

"You were tired. It's not like I was going to shout to wake you up, Holly."

"I wasn't tired!" I protested. "You just caught me at a bad moment! I would've woken up if you'd put something more interesting on!"

He waved me off. "Why does it matter if you fell asleep or not?"

"Because!"

"Because why?"

"Because... because..."

A handsome smirk spread across his face. Cocking an eyebrow, he shuffled over to me, and squatted down so he was at my sitting height. "Ah, don't tell me. You were planning to try and seduce me, weren't you?"

"No!" I denied too quickly, my cheeks flushing pink.

"It wouldn't have worked," he informed me nonchalantly, returning to his full height. "You were already half-naked, so there goes half of the fun. Besides..." He paused, his eyes scanning over my body. "Well, never mind."

My mouth dropped. "What? No, you can't just never mind that! What were you about to say? You were going to insult me weren't you?"

Instead of replying, he turned his back on me, shoving his hand into his jeans' pockets. "We really have to go now."

"Chris!"

"If you keep bothering me about this sex thing Holly, I'll never even touch you again. You'll be a virgin forever."

"Unless I break up with you," I muttered under my breath.

He suddenly turned, a cocky expression on his face. "But you won't."

I frowned. "How do you know?"

"Have you seen me?"

Rolling my eyes, I finally pushed myself off the bed, doing my best to ignore Chris's cheeky grin. One of these days his arrogance was going to bite him in the butt, and when that day came, I was going to laugh in his face. However, I highly doubted that day would ever come. His egotistical attitude came with reason... even if he did over use it. Sighing, I headed for my overnight bag. At least I was the one who got to drive Andy's convertible back home.

For some reason Chris seemed overly amused as I dug through my bag, searching for my wallet that held my license. When I couldn't find it, I frowned, digging through my personal assets again, trying my best to locate it. After a third search, I was scowling again. "Where's my wallet?" I cried, slamming the bag back to the ground.

"On your kitchen counter," Chris remarked teasingly.

I stared at him. "You're joking..."

"Nope," he responded a grin.

"I can't believe you! That's why you told me I couldn't drive home! Because you knew I didn't have my wallet!"

He half-shrugged. "Maaaybe."

I reached for his leg, yanking it as hard as I could. "You're really a jerk! I can't believe you!"

"Hey," he protested, easily liberating his shin from my grasp. "It's not like I made you forget your wallet."

Turning a blind eye to him, I pushed myself up to my knees and then feet, heading for the door. He called after me, but I pretended not to hear, escaping into the hall. If he wanted to be annoying, I didn't have to deal with it. I wasn't really mad at him, but it was fun pretending to be.

As soon as I shut the door to our hotel room, I broke into a sprint down the hallway so I could get a head start before he came after me. Predictably, he burst through the door about ten seconds later, but by then I was already rounding the corner. Laughter threatened to spill out my lips, but I managed to hold it back, knowing that letting it go would only slow me down.

"Holly!" I heard Chris shout. "Get back here!"

I stumbled past the laundry room, where a hotel worker was just coming out of the doorway, pushing a trolley. Unable to stop myself, I smacked right into him, nearly knocking us both over. For once, I was the one who steadied the other.

"Sorry!" I apologized quickly.

"No running in the halls," he reprimanded, brushing off his shirt. He straightened out his nametag, which read Wren. "It's against hotel regula-"

"Holly!"

Glancing back, I noticed my crash had given Chris the chance to catch up with me. "Gotta go, Wren," I muttered before pushing away from him and scurrying down the hall again.

"I said no running!"

"Watch out!" Chris warned.

There was a crash behind me and an angry yell from Wren, but I couldn't stop to take a look. By the sound of his pounding feet, Chris was about ten feet behind me. A little bit panicked, I rounded another corner and looked around me for a way to escape. My eyes located the ice room, only a few feet away. Taking a sharp right, I entered the room, moving to the side to hide behind the wall immediately. I didn't have any time to catch my breath before I heard my name being called.

"Holly?"

I froze. That definitely wasn't Chris's voice. Turning my head, I came face-to-face with James. Unable to believe he was really there, I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes. It was still James. I almost shook my head in disbelief. Out of all the places in the world he could've been at this moment...

"What are you doing here?" we both asked at the same time.

Chris chose that moment to burst through the door, a frustrated expression on his face. "Hol-" He cut himself off, his eyes becoming wide and startled at the sight of James. "H-hello," he corrected himself, gazing at me. "Holly, James..."

"Mr. Heywood?" James said, sounding even more surprised than he did when saying my name. "What are you doing here?"

"Teacher's... conference?" he responded hesitantly. His gaze locked on mine for a moment before he snapped them away. "What about you two? Did you come here together?"

James let out a nervous chuckle. "W-what? No way! It's just a coincidence! We're not dating!"

Chris smirked, a knowing glint coming to his eye. I tried to give him a warning look, but he ignored me. "I never said I thought you were dating."

"Oh... Well..."

"But I always thought you two were dating. You seemed closer than most friends," he continued thoughtfully.

James blushed. And by blush, I mean how I blushed. "No! We're just friends, Mr. Heywood!"

He grinned evilly. "By your reactions I think-"

"Do you need ice, Mr. Heywood?" I interjected politely, pointing to the ice machine. "It's all yours. I think James is done, right James?"

Sending me a thankful look, he nodded. "Yeah, I'm done. I've gotta get back to my room... See you two in school tomorrow!"

After watching him hightail it out of the room, Chris started laughing while I frowned disapprovingly at him. "It's not okay to make fun of people, Chris."

"I can't help it," he told me, shaking his head. "It's like... I'm addicted or something. You can't just say it's not okay to smoke and expect a smoker to stop, can you?"

Shaking my head, I sighed. "Whatever."

"Although, seeing James startled me. We're in New Jersey for crying out loud. What are the odds that'd he'd be here in this very same hotel?"

"Who knows," I responded, slowly creeping around in to the door, ready to take off again.

Somehow knowing my motives, he reached out and grabbed my forearm, halting me. "I don't think so, Holly. No more cat-and-mouse. You need to get your stuff, brush your hair, and we need to leave. We were supposed to be out of our room five minutes ago."

Grumbling under my breath, I nodded, allowing him to lead me back to our room. "Why do we have to go back so early, anyway?"

"Hotel rules. And besides, if we don't go back, no one will be around to watch Aaron."

I stared at him, a little bit taken aback. "So you do care about him!"

He returned my stare with a flat one. "No, I care about you, so I'll do what I can to keep you happy."

"Same thing," I responded happily, moving onto my tiptoes to give him a brisk kiss.

His hands went to my cheeks to hold my head in place before I could pull away, prolonging the contact. "Okay, we really need to leave," he stated reluctantly. "Don't bother brushing your hair. It'll just get messed up again in the car."

"I'll brush it at the hospital," I told him, picking up my overnight bag from off the ground and throwing it over my shoulder.

"You don't want to go home first?"

I shook my head. "We go by the hospital on the way home, so it's quicker if we just go straight there instead of stopping back at my house and then going back... That's okay, right?"

"Sure," he replied, grabbing his own bag and the keys off the key holder. "Let's go then."

The ride back to Massachusetts seemed a lot shorter than the ride up. It was drizzling out, so we kept the convertible's top on, which lessened the fun in riding in the car. After arguing over the radio for a few minutes, Chris had decided to just shut it off, leaving us in silence. My hand was over his on the stick shift, holding on tightly. A yawn left my lips and I shifted into a more comfortable position, resting my head against the window.

"Hey Chris?"

"Hmm?"

"Remember how I told you I sent out those applications to those colleges?"

"Yup."

"The acceptance letters should be coming soon."

He glanced over at me, grinning. "You sound pretty confident."

"I have the best teacher," I told him.

Chuckling, he nodded. "I agree. Accept for the fact that the class you do worst in is the class he teaches."

"Who are you talking about? I was talking about Mrs. Cyr-"

He snorted. "Yeah, okay."

"Seriously though," I continued, dropping my smile. "Can't you just quit teaching high school and teach college?"

"I could," he responded, "but there's no guarantee of which college I'll get a job at. Besides, I told you, don't factor me into your college choice."

"I'm not factoring only you in. I'm factoring my mom, Casey, Lance, Milkshake... There's no way I can leave that kitten alone for four years with only you, Chris."

He nodded solemnly. "I might accidentally kill it."

"Chris!"

"Kidding," he laughed. "Let's not talk about this right now-"

"Why?" I pressed. "Why do you keep avoiding it? Why can't we discuss it? Do you plan to ditch me as soon as I graduate or something?"

He glanced at me, narrowing his eyes. "You know I'm not thinking that, Holly."

"Then why won't you discuss this with me?" I demanded.

"Because, I'll just selfishly tell you to go to the closest community college- which would be HCC- and that's not a school fitting for you," he snapped back.

I blinked at him. "So you don't want me to go far away?"

"I love you. Of course not. But I do want you to get into a good school."

"WNEU is good! It's a four-year, not a community. It's only in Springfield too! Plus, since we live so close, I don't have to dorm!"

"Springfield is a half an hour away. Are you really going to drive that every day?"

I shrugged. "I won't have classes every day, so yeah."

Sighing, he shook his head. "Just make sure you choose wisely. You make it sound like you want me to convince you to stay close."

"No, I just wanted to hear you say you don't want me to leave."

He abruptly turned his face toward the window, cutting his emotion from my view. I smirked, knowing what I said had embarrassed him.

"You can put on the radio," he muttered after a moment.

Smiling, I leaned forward and put it onto my station. Sometimes it was nice to have the upper advantage.

The rain was falling steadily when we finally arrived in front of the hospital. Just as we pulled in, Chris's phone rang. He fumbled with it for a minute before putting it to his ear, squinting to see through the pouring precipitation. "Hello?"

I waited, hearing an incoherent buzz coming from the other side of his phone.

"No," he said flatly. "No. No... Fine. Yeah, let me just drop Holly off at the hospital and I'll be there- no, moron, she's not hurt. She's seeing Aaron, remember? Yeah. Okay. Bye."

"Jeremy?" I guessed as he snapped the phone shut.

He shot me a dirty look. "How'd you guess?"

I laughed, signaling for him to pull over to the drop-off lane. "Where are you going? Are you going to be back?"

"Yeah, I need to pick up Jenna and Jane from their grandmother's since I guess Jeremy's car died or something. I'll see you in a bit," he informed me, leaning forward to kiss me.

"Okay, I'll be here," I told him, lifting my hand to cup his face for a second. "I love you."

"Love you too," he said, pulling away. "Be careful."

I rolled my eyes. "Aaron wouldn't hurt me anymore."

Chris gave me an apprehensive look, but didn't say anything. I climbed out of the car, hurrying to the hospital entrance to get out of the rain. Even with my haste, I still ended up half-drenched. The rain was coming down hard.

Entering the hospital, I didn't bother going to the clerk since I already knew what room Aaron was in. A familiar song was playing in the speakers overhead so I hummed along as I walked through the mostly empty halls to his room. It seemed no one liked to visit people when it rained.

I didn't bother knocking before walking into his room, squeezing my eyes shut in case he was indecent. "Aaron, guess who? I hope you're decent!"

Two responses came back at me. One was a muffled yell of, "help!" while the other was a more quiet, demanding, "get her!"

My eyes flew open as a pair of strong hands grabbed my arms, dragging me inside the room. The door slammed shut behind me, sending my heart into my throat. Scanning the room, I noticed there were three other people besides Aaron in the room. Two of them I didn't recognize, including the one holding onto me, but one of them I did. Mikey. And when I realized what he was doing, I gasped. He was trying to suffocate Aaron! There was a pillow to Aaron's face, held in place by Mikey. Aaron was struggling to push him off, but to no avail.

"Cover her mouth before she screams," Mikey said to the one holding me.

I drew in my breath, ready to shout for help, but the man holding to me slapped his hand to my mouth before I had the chance too. Immediately I began to struggle to free myself from the man's arms. Surprisingly, he didn't have too strong of a grasp. Managing to get one of my arms free, I sent an elbow into his chin. He let go of me instantly and I twisted on my heel, facing him. Letting instinct take over, I slammed my fist into his jaw. He staggered backwards, shouting out in pain.

For a second I was mesmerized, staring at my fist. It'd been quite awhile since I'd last punched someone using my full force.

Not wasting any time, I dove for the nurse's button, trying to press it to gain help. Mikey noticed what my aim was and moved away from Aaron, who shoved the pillow off him and started coughing. Just because I could touch the button, Mikey grabbed me, shoving me out of the way. I hit one of the medical stands, the metal edge stabbing painfully into my side. A small groan of pain escaped my lips. That was most definitely going to leave an ugly bruise.

"Holly!" Aaron shouted, sitting up in his bed. Pain passed across his face, but he managed to get his legs off of it.

"Nice to see you," Mikey said, towering over me menacingly. "Figures you would come in on this."

I glared at him. "Trying to murder someone in a public place like a hospital? You thought no one would interrupt you?"

He narrowed his eyes. "I didn't think Aaron had friends."

"You don't think much, do you?" I challenged, ignoring the hammering of my heart. My words were pretty sturdy, surprising me. Usually when I was scared I'd stutter and my voice would shake. Needless to say, I was impressed with myself.

But now the questions popped up in my mind. What was Mikey doing in Aaron's room? Why was he trying to kill Aaron? How could he try such a thing in a hospital? It was like the bad guys were getting dumber and dumber by day! Not to mention the fact anyone could walk in at any second like I did!

"Don't touch that," Mikey suddenly snapped, sending his arm backwards, his elbow going straight into Aaron's ribs.

I winced, knowing that was a sore spot. Aaron groaned, sinking down to his knees. Mikey still had the nurse button in his hand. My mind raced, thinking of a way to get out of this situation. Of course this would happen the one time Chris didn't come with me! My first instinct was to scream, but I didn't want to get involved in anything I didn't have to- including playing witness to an attempt at murder. What would my mom say if I got caught with people attempting murder again?

"Holly!" Aaron squawked, his eyes widening.

I ducked. Lucky thing I did too, because the guy I'd punched earlier had swung out at me. Before I had the chance to recover from that attack, the other nameless guy lunged at me, his right arm going around my waist while his left hand captured my wrist. He roughly pulled me backward, holding me tightly to his chest. Annoyed, I stomped on his foot. This guy, unlike the other, seemed a little stronger though, and ignored it.

"Let her go!" Aaron demanded, attempting to push himself back to his feet.

Mikey easily kept him down with his foot. "Shut up, kid."

"If you guys don't leave, I'll scream."

"If you scream, Johnny here will snap your neck. I think you know me well enough to know I'm not lying."

I narrowed my eyes. "Yeah, that's right. I know what kind of scum you are. The kind of scum that would send his own brother to jail in his place."

He laughed. "You're brighter than I pinned you as. Shawn will be glad to hear that."

"Why are you trying to kill Aaron, Mikey?" I demanded.

"Shawn's orders."

Aaron scowled up at him. "Didn't he give you a reason?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I didn't ask."

"Bastard," Aaron muttered.

"You're not going to murder Aaron, Shawn," I told him defiantly. "If you don't leave the room right now, I'll scream."

He didn't seem fazed. "Didn't I tell you your neck would be snapped?"

"I'd still have enough time to get someone to notice my scream."

"Do you want to try it?"

Swallowing nervously, I nodded my head. "Yeah, I'll just catch you off guard. Scream when you're not- AH!"

I knew I would have a three second break from the time Johnny let go of my arm and waist to the time he'd grab my neck. Using it to my advantage, I burst forward, knocking right into Mikey, never letting my voice die down. Mikey shoved me aside and I lost my balance and fell. My hand shot out to grab something to steady me, catching on the wire attached to the nurse button. Without hesitation, I slammed my palm down onto the button.

"Shit!" Mikey swore, staring at the button in my hand. "Get out! Leave! Move!" he ordered, shoving Jonny aside in his haste to exit the room.

It was kind of funny seeing how panicked the men looked as they rushed out of the room. Breathing out a heavy sigh in relief, I pushed myself into a sitting position. Aaron was still kneeling on the ground, a dumbstruck expression on his face. His gaze met mine and he gesticulated wildly, his mouth opening and closing without making a