*I realise I have made a mistake, and I just found it: Originally, Will was actually five. My bad. He is definitely five. I will make the corrections when I finish the book, through editing. He is five years old. 

**Wrote this after a seven hour shift, so yeah. Ignore my pathetic grammar.

***BTW: HOLY BALLS over 150 000 reads. What the hell. I have two friends. Only one of those friends read half of this. What just happened.

****I find it hilarious that people are asking if I'm a dude cause of my username. I am 99% sure I am a girl. 

*****Also if you are in that one percent of boys reading this, comment below cause I wanna know. (Obviously only if you want to) (I just figured out how to look at the statistics. Comment your countries too?)

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Quentin scares me.

Even as a little kid, he would scare me. He's different to my father. He never yelled, or got really angry. He would punish me quietly, seriously, but so much more harshly. For some reason, it was so much more horrifying than my Dad, just yelling and punching me in the face. At least my Dad was predictable. I knew what would piss him off, what he would do, what I could do to hopefully get out of it. With Quentin, it's a guessing game. You never know what he's thinking. What new punishment he's thought up. And what sets him off. And that is terrifying.

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"Why are you studying for a test you just took?" Hayden asks curiously, looking over my shoulder at my math textbook.

"I know I didn't do well, so I'm going over the content to make sure I know it." I say. I'm lying. I know exactly why I didn't do well. I'm really just trying to distract myself from overthinking. 

"Why didn't you do well?" Seth asks, joining us at the table. "Aren't you a genius or something?" My breath halters, and I try to cover up my blush.

"Didn't feel well." I mumble. 

"Dinner's ready." Cole says, carrying in a bag of Chinese food. "Ordered it myself." 

"Cole, let me cook again sometime." I say, happy to have changed the subject. "It's the least I can do."

"Sure." He shrugs. "I would cook myself, but..."

"We all want to live." Elliot suggests, grabbing a pair of chopsticks. Everybody trickles in, and starts eating.

"If you're not feeling well can I have your Chinese food?" Hayden asks me.

"You're not feeling well?" Alex says next to me, confused.

"Yeah." Seth butts in. "That's why she didn't do well in the test today." 

"What?" Alex says. "You were fine after." I know that I'm blushing. I'm not a good liar.

"I"m fine now." I stutter. "I was just a bit distracted." He seems to drop it, and for that I'm glad.

We all continue to eat, the only sound Hayden's phone notifications and his constant texting. 

"Hayden, no phones at the table." Cole says, taking it off him. "Who's Jessica?" He asks, looking at the screen.

"His girlfriend." Vincent snickers. Hayden punches him, before protesting.

"She's just a friend." He says.

"Do we need to have a talk?" Cole asks, still looking at the phone.

"NO!" Hayden shouts.

"I think he already knows about the birds and the bees." Seth snorts.

"Yeah." Elliot adds, shuddering. "You've given all of us that talk. In explicit detail." 

"What's the bird's and the bee's?" Will asks curiously.

"Nothing." We all chorus.

I help Zane and Cole clean up, as everybody else has homework. 

"Alex told us what happened at the store." Cole says. "Just us two, I hope you don't mind." 

"It's fine." I sigh. "It's not like it's a big secret."

"Are you ok?" Zane asks. "Yeah." I lie. "I just feel bad. I can't stay here forever."

"You will stay for as long as you need to." Cole tells me.

"I want to move home for my Mom." I press. "I'm used to it, I grew up with all the drama. If they don't leave soon, I'm sorry, but I don't care. I will move back."

"That's admirable." Cole says. "Just don't rush into it. We'll see." 

"Go to bed Harp." Zane says. "I can finish this." 

"Thanks." I smile, drying my hands. "I'll see you guys tomorrow." 

I head up the stairs, yawning. I need a shower, and sleep.

"Hey Jake." I smile, passing him in the hallway.

"Hey Harp." He stops, and turns back to look at me. "Um... Can I ask a question?"

"Sure." I smile wearily, leaning against the wall. "What's up?"

"Is your friend Bianca single?" He asks. "I'm just asking for... a friend." I hold back a smile, trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, she's single." I answer him. "But if your friend wants to ask her out, he needs to do it carefully and respectfully. Her Dad's pretty strict."

"Right." He says excited. "I'll do that- I mean, I'll tell him."

"Night." I smile, and close my door. I gather up my things, and I take a long, relaxing, shower. What am I doing. This is just so crazy. I get dressed in tights and a baggy t-shirt. I never understood why girls dress up for bed. It's not like you're trying to impress impress anyone.

I open the door, and jump, as I see Alex sitting on my bed.

"Hey Harper." He smiles.

"Hey." I say, putting my things away. "What are you doing in here?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were ok." He says. "It was a weird day." 

"Well." I say slowly, sitting down next to him. "I'm fine."

"No you're not." He says simply. 

"Ok." I agree. "No I'm not. But it's no big deal."

"Yes it is." He says simply. I sigh, and fall back on my bed, exhausted. He leans back to, and looks at me. 

"How did it start?" He asks.

"What?" I say, confused.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." He says. "I was just curious. How did this all start?" 

"I can't really remember an exact time." I shrug. "I guess it was always there. It never really started."

"How did people not know?" 

"It's not that people didn't know." I explain. "It's more like they just didn't really care."

"That sucks." He says. 

"Yeah." I agree. "But I'm used to it. It's not like it all suddenly happened."

"You shouldn't have to be." He tells me, looking at me. 

"I guess I should go to bed." I say.

"Yeah." He says. "Me to." Nobody moves.

"I guess I should go." He says.

"Yeah." I agree. 

Nobody moves.