That night I couldn't sleep.

All I did was toss and turn in my bed, dwelling and pondering and not being able to shut the thoughts out. For one minute I was freezing and pulled the covers all the way up to my chin, then it was too hot and I yanked them off me. A few minutes ago, I had also taken off my shirt, feeling like I was burning up. It was a vicious cycle that I couldn't get out of.

I was tired, but at the same time wide awake because of all these thoughts buzzing in my head like an angry swarm of wasps.

I thought about Emily and how I was going to apologise. And then I thought about Hunter and how weird everything was when he was around. I hated thinking about him, because in the end I was just even more confused and frustrated than before.

With an annoyed groan, I turned onto my back and stared at the dark ceiling. The digits on my mobile said it was three in the morning by now. I would be so damn tired at school tomorrow.

After five more minutes I finally got up; I had to move, I'd go crazy if I continued just laying there in the dark for hours. So I walked over to my window and opened it. The cold night air made me shiver as I looked out onto the deserted road.

Outside, it was dark and quiet, no light in the windows of the neighbours, no sound except the wind whispering in the trees. The only source of light were the moon pouring a milky glow onto the rooftops and the street lights shedding their artificial brightness.

I took a deep breath, trying to clear my thoughts. Just then, the lights of a car illuminated the road and a black Audi drove by.

For a second I wondered, if that had been Hunter, but that was absurd. Why would he be driving around at this time? He didn't even live here, did he? It was then that I realized that I had no idea where exactly he was from. How could I? A few days ago, I hadn't even been aware of his existence.

Sighing quietly, I shut the window and leaned my forehead against the cold glass for a moment. The sound of my phone vibrating made me whirl around.

Curious to know who else might still be up and messaging people around this time, I padded over to where my phone was laying on the bedside table and picked it up. One message from an unknown number. After a moment's hesitation, I opened it and read:

Why are you up so late at night, sugarpie?

My eyes widened as I stared down at my phone. Then I typed: Where'd you get my number from, Hunter?

I have my sources ;)

I snorted quietly and replied with: Got nothing better to do than driving around at night? Sleeping around, getting drunk, picking a fight with someone in a dark alley? Sounds like something you'd be into.

It didn't even take a minute for him to reply. Been there, done that. Why aren't you sleeping yet? Thinking too much of me? ;)

I was taken aback by how accurate that assumption was, but then I just typed: You wish.

Again, he immediately responded. Don't lie, Hatcher... you should really sleep now. Good night x

A little smile tucked at my lips as I read the x. How very bad boy-ish.

Good night, Hunter.

After sending that last message, I put the phone away, slipped back under the covers and closed my eyes.

Somehow I felt calmer now, more at ease, and soon I finally drifted into a dreamless sleep.

+++

"Jules, wait!"

I stopped in my tracks and turned around, waiting for Nate to catch up. We were running late for school (again). I had only just pulled up on the parking lot and headed straight for the school building, hoping not to bump into Emily.

"Hey!" Nate said breathlessly and punched my shoulder as a greeting. "Where's Em?"

"How would I know?" I asked and pushed through the doors with Nate. The question came out sounding harsher than I had intended, prompting Nate to shoot me a surprised look.

"Well, you're her boyfriend so I kind of figured you'd know."

"We haven't talked since yesterday. I don't think she wants to have anything to do with me right now, anyways," I sighed.

The smile on Nate's face slowly transformed into a frown as he asked: "Jules, what did you do?" He sounded like a disappointed mother that had caught her children fighting.

"None of your business."

"Oh, come on," Nate said, rolling his eyes at my behavior. "You're being weird."

By now we had reached my locker and I fumbled with the lock. "Fine," I said as I pulled out some books I would need today, "We argued yesterday. More precisely: I didn't want to have sex with her and she cried and probably hates me now."

"But why?" Nate asked incredulously.

"I don't know! I don't really get why it's such a big deal to her."

Nate just shook his head. "No, that's not what I mean. Why would you not have sex with her?" he exclaimed loudly and I quickly shushed him as two girls shot us strange glances. A bit more quietly, Nate continued: "Dammit, Jules, you've known her basically all your life! You've been dating her for...how long has it been? A year? If not her, then who else?"

I just glared at him and slammed the door of my locker shut. "I don't know, Nate, okay? It just didn't seem right in that moment."

"But...you love her, right?"

"Yeah," I said quietly.

"Huh," Nate murmured. "Well, I'm sure you two are gonna figure it out sooner or later. I mean, you never fight."

I nodded, even though I was pretty sure it wouldn't be that simple. Emily had been really hurt yesterday and that I had just stormed out on her surely hadn't helped either.

Looking back at the events of yesterday, I felt horrible. She didn't deserve that kind of treatment, not after everything she had helped me through.

With that guilty feeling still present in my stomach, I walked into my next class.

"No. No, no, no, this can't be true," I whined as soon as I stepped through the door and glanced around the class room.

"What? Hunter?" Nate asked from behind me and craned his neck to see what I was looking at.

How he had been able to guess that so accurately just from my reaction I didn't know, but he was right. In the middle of the room was Hunter, leaning casually against a table while he was talking to Alexis, Adam and Liam.

Emily was sitting only a few desks behind him, but she didn't look at me when I tried to catch her eyes.

"What's the deal with you and Hunter anyway?" Nate asked and sent me a curious look while walking towards a table in the back of the room.

I followed him, keeping my head down to avoid being spotted by Hunter, but of course he saw me. I immediately looked away as he winked at me.

"No deal, none whatsoever. What do you mean?"

Nate just raised an eyebrow. "Well, there's obviously something going on between the two of you. Why are you so eager to avoid him?"

"Because he's a jerk, that's all. I'm just annoyed by him and his...his smirks and his pick up lines and that smug look..."

"Pick up lines?" Nate choked out before I could finish the sentence. His eyes were as big as saucers as he looked at me. "He used pick up lines on you?"

Trying to seem unbothered despite feeling a little uneasy, I said: "Yeah, so? Doesn't he flirt with everyone like that?"

Nate was now frowning. "But you're straight. You have a girlfriend! Why would he flirt with you?"

"How would I know? I barely even know him," I snapped.

Raising his hands in defeat, Nate said: "All I'm saying is, it's weird that he tries that on someone he clearly can't get."

Before he had said it, I had never actually thought about it like that. To me it always seemed like Hunter was the unattainable one, the one with the expensive car and the looks, not to mention the dozens of girls and boys who would probably sell their soul to the devil for just one night with him.

"I doubt he even wants me, though," I eventually said. "He just likes to be a pain in the ass and knows that it annoys me."

Nate didn't seem convinced, but before he could open his mouth to reply, our Biology teacher cleared his throat.

Mr. Smith was a tall, tanned guy with a full beard, who looked like he was better fit to be a captain on a ship than a teacher. As he began to speak, his deep voice echoed loudly through the room. "Good morning, students. My name is Mr. Smith, for those of you who don't know me yet. I'll be teaching Biology this year. The topics for this year can be read on these information sheets that you can pick up at the end of this class...," he said and pointed at some papers on his desk. "So, first things first, I divided you into pairs of two. You'll be working together for the rest of this year. And no: you can't change partners."

I could've sworn there was a little sadistic smile as he listened to the annoyed groaning of the students, but there was a lot of facial hair that made it difficult to see his features, so I couldn't be sure.

"The pairs will be: Nora Carter and Lucy Brown...Alexis Sanders and Caitlyn Miller... Liam Wilson and Adam Caldwell... Victoria Steward and Alice Kingsley... Hunter Adams and Jules Hatcher..."

I immediately sat bolt upright as I heard my name called along with Hunter's. A glance at him told me that he didn't mind us being paired at all, on the contrary; he was leaning back in his chair with a wide grin tugging at his lips.

Before I could overthink whether or not this was a good idea, my hand shot up.

"Yes?" Mr. Smith asked, looking at me.

"Sir, could I please change partners?"

A furrow appeared between his brows. "As I just said, that's not an option. I'm sure you and Hunter will get along just fine."

"It's not that, it's just that-"

"We actually get along too well," Hunter said loudly. "He gets quite distracted by me."

Laughter echoed through the class room. I could immediately feel my cheeks heating up and turned around to glare at Hunter. He just smiled smugly at me.

"I'm sure that Jules can get himself under control," Mr. Smith said, looking somewhat amused. "You'll be sharing tent with your team partner on the field trip. You may all sit next to your assigned partner now."

I sighed resignedly as Nate got up and walked off, not without patting my back comfortingly. With my eyes fixed on the front of the class room, I waited for Hunter to slump into the seat next to me.

The next thing I felt was Hunter's breath tickling my skin as he whispered: "Hey there, team partner."

I settled for ignoring him.

"Come on, at least look at me."

As I didn't react I suddenly felt his hand on my knee. My entire body stiffened under his touch and my breath hitched for just a second, but I still refused to spare him even the tiniest glance.

"Stop being so stubborn, idiot, just look at me," he muttered.

"Why?"

He remained silent for a moment before he said: "I think your eyes are kinda beautiful."

My head snapped up and I stared at him in surprise, immediately cursing myself for falling for a cheap trick like that.

Our faces were only inches apart and I could see every little detail in his eyes. I hadn't noticed before, but they weren't only one color: they were green and brown and the color of a lake when it rained.

"Yours too," I said, without even thinking about the words that left my mouth.

Hunter's face lit up and for a second, his dimples showed.

"I mean, they're green. I like green. Green is a nice color...my car is green," I babbled.

Hunter chuckled quietly. "Right."

Before I could blurt out any more nonsense, Mr. Smith began talking again.

Hunter pulled his hand back and I could finally breathe normally again.

Now that I was really looking at him, I could see the dark circles under his eyes. He looked just as tired as I felt, if not more.

"So, what have you been doing last night?" I asked curiously.

Hunter seemed to hold back a smile as he replied: "Nothing special. What about you? Three o' clock seems like it's a little past your bedtime."

"I couldn't sleep, that's all."

"For any specific reason?"

"No," I lied, but of course my defensive tone of voice didn't go unnoticed.

"Jules, you suck at lying. Just spill," Hunter pressed, his eyes never leaving my face.

"As if you care."

The smug expression on Hunter's face dropped. The rest of the period passed in awkward silence and I was almost relieved when the bell finally rang.

Hunter left without another word, and I quickly caught up with Nate.

"Did you see where Emily went?" I inquired.

She had been in our Biology class, but now I couldn't see her anywhere. I still needed to talk to her about what had happened.

"Yeah. I think she headed towards the cafeteria as well."

Nodding, I walked out into the corridor, making my way to the cafeteria. It didn't take long at all to spot her there; she was sitting with her friends at the table they usually occupied.

"Good luck, man," Nate muttered before he headed towards the snack bar.

I reluctantly made my way to Emily's table and sat down on the only free seat, which was, who would've guessed, next to her.

She didn't look up as I sat down, but I could see her body stiffening. Only when I lightly brushed my hand against hers, her eyes finally found mine. For the first time, I couldn't read the look in them.

"Em, I'm-," I began, but immediately got cut off by her.

"Don't. Please don't break up with me in the middle of the cafeteria," she said quietly, her hands fiddling with the lid of her water bottle.

"What?" I asked. "No, that's not- That's not why I'm here. I... I wanted to say sorry. For how I acted yesterday."

A little bit of tension seemed to leave her body. "No, I'm sorry," she said in a serious tone. "I went too far yesterday. I shouldn't have been that pushy. You're not ready and I understand that. We can take our time."

A relieved sigh escaped my lips. "Thank you," I whispered and leaned in to kiss her cheek. "I think we both messed up yesterday, but I understand now. I didn't realize you wanted to go that step. If you really want to... we can."

She looked up at me with wide eyes. "Really?"

I nodded, fighting the urge to gulp nervously.

"Okay," she smiled and kissed me gingerly.

And that was the end of that, at least for now.