I woke up to a soft knock on my bedroom door and rolled over to see that it was already after three in the morning. I squinted through my sleepy eyes to see Macy, Sarah, and Jessica all tiptoe in through my door.

"Hey." Jess tried to whisper but she'd obviously been drinking heavily. "I wanted to-." She paused to hiccup. "We wanted to check on you."

I sat up slowly, reaching over to the bedside lamp and pulled the little chain, illuminating my room. I was already getting a migraine and the light didn't help. Judging from the way my friends guarded their eyes, they must have been feeling the same way.

"I'm fine." I told them, too exhausted to be sure if it was the truth or if I was just putting on a brave face for them.

Sarah leaned against my dresser, her plum dress wrinkled now, but I bet she looked killer when the night started. "I can't believe that jerk showed his face." She shook her head, her strawberry curls swishing around her face.

Just the mention of it made my skin crawl, like I could still feel his hands on me.

My reaction must have been more obvious than I thought because Jessica plopped down beside me, leaning in to hug me while Macy sat at the foot of my bed, giving me a sympathetic smile. "Hunter told me what happened." Jessica said carefully.

"He did?" I asked feeling a little mortified.

She nodded. "I would have never guessed he'd show his face around this town again, but especially that he'd actually try to mess with you. I'm so glad Hunter found you."

"Me too." I admitted. I was a little surprised that when she said Hunter had told her what happened, that she actually meant Hunter told her exactly what happened. I don't know why I'd assumed he'd make up a story. "He showed up just in time."

"I heard." Jess nodded. She was the only one I'd completely opened up to about Seth. Macy and Sarah both know that some shady stuff went on between us and that I was wrecked by him, but only Jessica knows just how much. "Hunter said he was positive that he wouldn't come around trying to bother you again."

I smiled a little despite myself. "Yeah, it looked like he was giving him a pretty good talking to. Seth's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head."

"Too bad they didn't." Sarah shook her head.

"I saw him leaving." Macy told me. "That's when we started freaking out trying to find you because we didn't want you to see him. I'm sorry we weren't around."

My chest felt warm. Even when I feel out of place, they always remind me that I am one of them and we all have each other's backs even when I feel like I'm the only one.

"It isn't yawl's fault." I dismissed their worry, then I turned to Jessica. "Like you already know, Hunter took care of it." And me.

Jessica's smile stretched across her dimpled cheeks. "He is the best." She gushed. "I can't believe I actually found a good standup guy. He looked out for my best friend, he got rid of the a-hole who was bothering you, and he cleaned you up and got you home."

"Well, technically Aaron brought me home." I smiled. "But yeah, he's pretty great, Jess."

She smiled again, then sighed, her head dipping a little and Macy reached out to put her hand on her back.

"What's wrong?" I asked as my heartrate picked up. Was this them giving me a chance to come clean to them about my involvement with Hunter? Did Aaron tell them all everything when he got back to the club and they have all seen what a bad person I am now?

Jessica looked up, a watery look in her eyes and she smiled anyway. "It's just that Hunter told me tonight that he'll be deploying soon."

My heart stopped and I didn't know why.

"What? When?" I asked my voice too high. "Where?"

Jess sighed and twirled her hair around her finger. "Yeah, he said he thought he'd be staying home for a while since he'd injured his knee while he was in Germany, but they did a scan yesterday and cleared him for active duty so he'll be deploying with his unit in one month to Iraq."

"Wow." I muttered, not able to say much else. "I'm sorry."

She forced a smile. "It's fine." She shrugged. "He's kind of excited about going anyway. Wants to be a part of it all, you know?"

"Yeah, I do." I said stoically.

"Anyway," She waved her hand. "I didn't come here to talk about me, I wanted to make sure you were good."

I furrowed my brows as she stood up. "I'm fine, but are you not staying here?" Usually anytime we all go out, or they all go out, we all stay the night here together, that way no one needs to drive.

"Nope." She winked. "I've got other plans" She cooed.

I could tell by the look on her face and the little blush to her cheeks that she was going home with Hunter tonight. I didn't want any weirdness to show so I just grinned at her. "Make good choices." I told her like I always do whenever she is going to be spending alone time with a boy.

"I won't do anything you wouldn't do." She smirked, blowing me a kiss.

"Liar." Sarah coughed under her breath as Jess rushed out. "You want to come watch a wind down movie with us?" Sarah asked, already starting to unzip the back of her dress and digging through my drawer of PJs.

Wind down movies are what we do after a big night out. We cuddle up on the couch with some junk food and water and watch a chic flic to help us come down from the excitement and get ready for bed.

"No, that's ok. I'm already pretty sleepy." I told Macy and Sarah. "I will see y'all in the morning for brunch." Our other after party tradition.

"Ok, night!" Sarah called as she left my room.

Macy started to close the door behind her as I reached for the light. "Oh, hey," She said, sticking her head back in. "Do you work tomorrow?"

I opened my mouth to tell the truth and say no, but I lied instead.

"Yeah, I am."

"Crap, ok." Macy shrugged then left me to sit in the dark alone and thinking about myself, my lies, my friends, and Hunter.

^^^

The next morning I was the first one up.

I walked through the apartment to find Macy in her room with her blackout curtains pulled shut and Sarah in the living room dangerously close from slipping off of the side of the couch with a pillow over her head.

I cleaned up the plates and bowls that they'd left out and brewed a fresh pot of coffee. I took my cup outside to sit on the stairs. The breeze was nice and it felt good to get some fresh air after all of the drama from last night. I pulled the sleeves of my thin robe down to wrap around my hot mug and I sipped on my drink slowly as the birds sang out in the distance.

Like clockwork I heard our door click open and saw Macy stick her head out. "Thanks for the coffee. You're the MVP." She yawned then went back inside. She was a creature of habit. Next she'll take her coffee into the bathroom with her and take a long bubble bath. She's the only person I know who likes baths in the morning. Sarah on the other hand will likely sleep until noon and who knows what kind of mood she'll be in when she does.

I heard the sound of a car pulling into the lot and scooted over to one side of the stairs in case it was someone who needed to get by. It was a calm morning until I looked up and saw that cocky sideways grin staring up at me from the bottom of the stairs.

"What the!" I said too loudly, looking behind me frantically before I hopped up and rushed down the stairs, pushing Hunter over to the side where he wouldn't be seen. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Hunter's grin reached up to his indigo eyes as he laughed. "Do you have amnesia?" He asked shaking his head at my bewildered expression. "You agreed we could hang out today."

"I thought you meant like after lunchtime at the least." I pursed my lips, leaning back to make sure no one was coming down the stairs. "And that doesn't explain why you came here!" I whisper yelled. "My roommate will recognize you."

Hunter stepped back some more, rolling his eyes. "Oh come on, Kit." I narrowed my eyes at his tone. "What is the big deal? Just tell them we're hanging out."

I leaned my head back, covering my face with my hands. "How do you not get that I can't?"

"Why not?" He countered. "We're friends, right?"

I peeked between my fingers. "Yes, but-."

"But nothing." He cut me off. "Friends are allowed to hang out together without it always needing to be a top secret mission. Just tell them, I can tell Jessica if you want." He said reaching for his phone in his pocket.

"NO!" I screeched, yanking his hand back. "We can't do that! This is a bad idea."

Hunter sighed and I let him go. "Kit, if you don't want to hang out with me, then fine." He said. "But don't make it about your friends."

I crossed my arms over my chest defensively. "It isn't that I don't want to."

"So then tell your friends." He said again. "You won't have anything to feel bad about if you weren't sneaking around."

"I can't just tell them I'm going to hang out with you."

"Why not?"

"Because friends don't just go up to other friends and be like, 'hey I know you're sleeping with this guy, but he and I are going to hang, but don't worry we're just friends.' Jessica would never understand that."

"You don't give her enough credit." He shook his head. "I don't think she'd have a problem with it."

I snorted a laugh. "Then the two of you must not do much talking because you don't seem to know her at all."

Hunter turned away from me, running his hands through his hair in annoyance. "Why do you make it so hard to be friends with you?" He snapped, then he turned back to face me. "You know what I did last Tuesday night?" I shook my head. "I went to the movies and bowling with my friend Chloe, who happens to be my best friend, Micha's girlfriend. So yeah, you can be friends with someone even if your best friend is sleeping with them because I'm pretty sure after five years together that Micha and Chloe are boning."

I put my hands on my hips, my robe opening up a little until I snatched it back shut. "Why do you even want to be friends with me so badly?"

He looked off into the distance, shaking his head. "The fact that you even have to ask that means that clearly you're the one who doesn't know yourself very well."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I demanded.

Hunter stepped forward, taking my shoulders in his hands and looking down at me. "I want to be your friend because you're cool, Tayler." The sound of my name on his voice made me pay attention. "You think too much, and clearly you don't have enough fun in your life, but you're cool. I like hanging out with you because you're different, but not in a loner loser way but just like you aren't sure yet who you are, which is great. I think you've got this whole hidden person behind those walls of yours and whenever I get a glimpse I want to see more. I have fun with you, and you do with me too, Miss Getaway Driver." He winked. "So you just need to decide if you're ready to have a friend you will actually let see you, because I think I do...see you I mean."

I stepped out from under his hands, my head in a tailspin of words and emotions that I wasn't sure what to do with yet. Hunter looked at me carefully.

"What's it going to be?" He asked. "You going to tell your friends, or are you staying here?" He asked. When I didn't answer immediately he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Look, the last thing I want to do it make you uncomfortable, so I'm going to go get in my truck and I'm going to wait there for twenty minutes. If you want to go with me, I'll be out here, if not, after twenty minutes, I'll leave."

Before I could say anything he was turning away and walking to his truck down at the end of the lot. "Comfy clothes you don't mind messing up!" He called over his shoulder, then he shut his car door.

I debated back and forth with myself for a minute, then I turned and ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. I'll just tell them. It's like he said, it isn't a big deal if I'm not hiding it. Maybe I'm wrong about Jess and she'd be cool with it. She was pretty happy about how good he was to me last night.

That was another thing. He had no reason to need to come to my defense the way he did, and especially not to take care of me the way he did afterwards and I owe him big time for that. It's not a big deal unless I make it into one.

I ran into my room, passing a still sleeping Sarah on my way.

Comfy clothes, don't care if they get dirty, I repeated over and over in my head as I stared at my closet. There wasn't much that I did care about in there so I just yanked down an old red t-shirt that had my last name across the back on the shoulders and then I yanked on a pair of blue jean shorts and my older pair of Nikes since I'd noticed Hunter was wearing his. I wasn't sure how I was doing on time so I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and brushed my teeth in the mirror before dashing out of there too.

I walked up the hall to Macy's bathroom and I held up my hand to knock.

Just tell her. No biggie.

I clicked my nails on the door, my heart slamming around in my chest.

"Yeah?" She called.

Tell her!

"Um, hey..." I stuttered. "I, um, I won't be here for brunch."

She groaned. "What, why?"

"I...."

"Yeah?" She prompted, curiosity in her voice.

"I got called in to work earlier than I'd thought, sorry!" I called and rushed away from the door before she could ask me anything else.

Wimp.

I snatched my phone and purse and sprinted down the stairs. I hit the landing right as Hunter's truck was pulling out of the space and I jumped up and down, waving my arms over my head so that he'd see me. He hit the brakes and I could see his smile from here.

I jogged over, tossing my stuff into the floorboard and buckled up.

"Did you tell them?" He asked, clearly pleased I'd decided to come with him.

I bit my lip and shook my head. "I'll tell them tomorrow." I shrugged, trying not to feel like such a total baby. "So where are we going?"

"Well, Kit, that you are just going to have to wait to find out." He smiled at me. "Can't have you chickening out, can I?"