Drake Mauri Quellen's Story

Jackson almost laughed when Jess said that she could take him on any day, but instead, he held it back, and just sent her a quirky smile. "Darlin', you couldn't take me. You're the size of a leprechaun, and they're not the best fighters." He smiled, squeezing her hand lightly, a playful tone in his voice when he spoke. She was cute, that was for sure. Jack had never really noticed Jessica before; she was completely different from the blonde that he had such deep feelings for - for one, she was brunette. But, she was actually talking to him, and not letting herself drift away to think about another man. Jess seemed to enjoy just being around him, and that was nice. A nice change, definitely.

Her laugh was stunning as well, resounding throughout the empty hallway as they walked back to his room. It sounded like fairies laughing. He frowned for a moment when this thought flittered through his mind, but he let it pass - the strange things that he was thinking were a result of the whiskey running through his veins, nothing more. He was usually extremely level headed, but that was gone now. "Hey, you take that comment back, missy. I'm rather sensitive to people being racist about my Irishness." Jack's smile was once again mischievous as he joked around with the petite blonde, something he wasn't really used to doing, especially with people he didn't really know. But, Jess just seemed different. She was sweet, and nice. And liked him.

Jack just nodded as she spoke about wanting to leave anyway. He agreed with her statement, that most of the Noctrem students seemed like sluts and man whores; obviously, she was different, and so was Lulu, but most of them, he agreed with that. He slowed down for a moment, barely walking at a snail's pace when he saw Jess' eyes fade, loosing their colour, but only briefly. She was back to her normal self within a minute, and before he could ask her what was wrong, she was speaking again. Broken? He was confused. He definitely wasn't broken. Lulu didn't have that much of a hold on him; she couldn't turn him into a sniveling mess.... could she? Jackson stopped dead in his tracks and pulled his arm back into his side, bringing Jess with it. Soon, her body was pressed up against his, his face barely inches away from hers. His arm wrapped itself around her waist, bringing her even closer, close enough so that their chests brushed together with every breath. "I told the truth. That's what happened. I said something, and it backfired, and I'm over it."

And then, he lowered his head and brought his lips against hers, into a soft, yet passionate kiss.

---

Max snorted when Corentine said that she would have killed him if he had done the wrong thing, and he just shook his head. He knew that she wouldn't have killed him. She could have hurt him, or tortured him, thrown him into the wall, shouted at him, or anything like that, but she wouldn't have actually killed him. He didn't think she was capable of that, no matter how many times she threatened or ranted about wanting to kill someone, he was sure that she could never actually bring herself to do it. He had known that it was a risk, to walk up to her in such a weak state, knowing how much that she hated it, but he knew that the worst he would come out would be with a few broken bones. It would only mean a trip to Amy, anyway. Max could deal with the pain of being with Corentine; she had hurt him before, and would no doubt harm him again. But that was what you got when you got mixed up with the crazy that was Corentine Quellen.

Soon, the girl was collecting herself, and standing up, mumbling something to him about making him scream if any of this got out to the public. He followed suit, bringing himself up off of the floor and turned around, watching where she was off to. "Oh baby, please. You can make me scream in so many better ways." He smirked before the bathroom door was shut on him, and he moved to pick up some of the items that he flung off of his shelves, the ones that were still together. After putting some back in their original places, and then the others just wherever he fancied, he started picking up the broken pieces of china and glass, putting them all in a tissue that he grabbed out of the box. Nothing of much value was broken, nothing important to him either, thank goodness.

Within a couple of minutes, the bathroom door reopened and a cleaner, more composed looking Corentine emerged, a smirk on her face, which was instantly reflected on the male's face. Her emotions were once again being hidden behind a wall that seemed to be rebuilding itself slowly, her emotions under control once again after that little breakdown. That was one of the reasons that he chose to be with Corentine, rather than some of the other, more fragile girls around school, when he just wanted to quick fuck. She had no emotions, no attachments to him, nothing to distract him from his main goal of himself. It was definitely a good choice for someone like him.

Max slowly walked towards the girl, and wrapped a hand around her hair, gently pulling her face towards his when he was close enough. "Well, that's up to you. Do you feel like you need to talk shit some more?" He smirked, before then crashing his lips against hers, his hand staying knotted within her blonde curls. He wasn't sure if Corentien would be ready for intimacy, not after such a breakdown about a guy like the one she had just had, but he definitely wasn't going to refuse her if she was ready. He wanted her. He wanted to see her naked on top of him, moaning, and then he wanted to see her writhing underneath him in pleasure as he brought her to her peak. Oh yes, that was exactly what Max wanted.

Almost as soon as Ashleigh had made Zac aware of her presence, she regretted it. As soon as the reassuring words left the blondes mouth, she felt the male in her lap stiffen in response. This was so frustrating. Zac didn't want to hurt her, so he just buried his emotions inside himself whenever she came near... She wanted to help him and he was never going to let him do that properly. Ashy sighed. Men were confusing. 'Trust me not even the strangest sight I've seen tonight' She told the male, smiling down at him, reflecting back on the evening. Drakes...antics, Erin's friendliness? All of that was enough to make ones head explode. The truth was however, that with Zac, Ashy felt calm. She always had done since they met. He was a breathe of fresh air; a new perspective. Granted, they were silly together, but she had never once got angry at the male. It was true that he infuriated her when he hid things from her, but she'd learnt to live with it, as always.

'You do save me' She said quietly, resting her head on top of Zac's as he rested it on her shoulder, 'You just don't know it.' This was the truth. The thought of Zac and his disapproval of Sky had been enough to have the blonde walk away from the pyro, not just tonight, but other times before that. She ran her heads through her best friends hair, an action meant to sooth the recovering male on her shoulder; however it was equally calming for the blonde. She wboysanted to tell him about Drake, about how he made her feel inside and how much she hated it, but Ashy knew better than that. Zac had only just got out of one fit of rage; best not to start another one. Chances were, though she had never told him, Zac already knew. Ashy was rubbish at hiding things, she admitted it to herself, she doesn't feel comfortable talking about boys to a person she considered to be like a brother.

'Zac, that isn't true, you have other friends, not just me you silly donut.' Ashy stated, smiling down at Zac. She was trying to cheer him up a little, whatever Mo had said had hit him hard and she wanted to take his pain away from him; if making him laugh with crazy insults was the way forward, then so be it. 'You do i'm letting sleep alone tonight, right? Come stay at mine, we can watch crap movies, drink hot choco and reveal in the ice queens lair.' Ashy giggled to herself as she thought about her room mate. She was safe in the knowledge that Cor wouldn't be back tonight, or at least anytime soon. She was probably having sex with someone, if not several people by now, Ashy giggled again at the thought.

She jumped up, extending her hand out to Zac as he sat on floor, 'So what do you say? Gonna escort a lady home?' She asked him, a dazzling smile crossing her face.




'I also don't like people making reference to my height, didn't stop you there though, did it?' Jessica Coleman raised an eyebrow at Jackson, before bursting into more fits in giggle. Damm, What was happening to her? They had only met today and yet she didn't feel awkward or strange walking home with him. It was like the two of had known each other for years. Not to mention, the guy walking alongside her was incredibly handsome; he was well build, had incredible hair and the most amazing eyes. It wasn't even the colour that stunned Jess the most, it was the story that they told. Yep, she was defiantly tipsy.

There had been a very slight pause before Jackson had answered her question; shit. She'd ruined it, that atomspheare that she had enjoyed so much had just been shattered, all because she was too nosey. The brunette could have kicked herself. Then, Jack pulled her close. Normally, Jessica would have got out of the males grasp and asked what the fuck he thought he was doing, however now was different. She didn't feel afraid being this close to Jack, which sent alarm bells ringing in the back of the brunette's head. Before she could listen to them or respond to Jack's comment about his evening; his lips were on hers. She took a sharp intake of breath, surprised by this move. Soon enough however, she relaxed into his kiss. Her hand, which had naturally fallen onto Jack's back after he had pulled her in, were now making it's way up wards, so that it rested just behind his shoulder blades, her thumb playing with the nape of neck.

It didn't feel strange kissing a man she'd only just met; Jessica didn't know whether it was the alcohol she had consumed, but it felt.... right. For once, Jess didn't try to analyse what was happening, her mind was filled with the man who was kissing her. Jackson Murphy; nothing else, just Jackson. After a while, Jessica broke the kiss but stayed close to him, staring into the beautiful eyes of the male that had just kissed her. He looked happier now at least. Had that been her influence? [i] You couldn't make anybody happy [i] that dark voice in her stated. Jessica decided to ignore it. Instead, she shook her head slightly and smiled at Jackson, 'You are an impossible man Jackson Murphy.' She stated, before wrapping both her hands around his neck and kissing him once more.

The alarm clock next to his bed, beeping in his ear, awoke the male who had been fast asleep. Both him and Amy had fallen asleep on top of the covers after their conversation the previous night, and they hadn't woken up until now. Yesterday had been an extremely trying day for the two of them; Amy had announced that she was pregnant, she was already getting a bump, they were arguing more and more, and everything was collapsing slowly when it came to his school. Students were leaving every where, and more and more seemed to be joining from nowhere. It was confusing, to say the least, having extra students and loosing some, and Leo was loosing track of who was a member of his school, and who no longer was no. He pressed the button on top of the clock to stop the insistent beeping, and he gently shifted in the bed, turning to look at his beautiful girlfriend.

Amy's bump seemed to have grown again over night; the life in there seemed to be growing at an alarming rate, and the immortal Spartan was still quietly panicking about what they were going to do about it. How long was it actually going to be before they had a child? How long before he had to admit to the Headmaster of Noctrem that he had gone against his rules? How long did they have to get everything sorted before they could even think about raising a child in this environment. Amy couldn't even go to see a normal doctor with her pregnancy, as it obviously was a supernatural one; he was terrified about her health. Surely this wasn't going to be good for her. Everything seemed to be going too fast for the male, and he just didn't like it.

"Amy?" Leo sighed softly, the hand attached to the arm that she had fallen asleep on gently stroking her shoulder. His body was aching, that was for sure, since he had slept in such an awkward position, but he wasn't going to complain. Waking up to Amy was one of his favourite things that he had ever experienced, and a little bit of aches and pains wasn't going to destroy that happy feeling of his. "Babe, we have to get up." He pressed his lips softly against her cheek, before nuzzling her gently. "We actually have to teach children today."

---

Blonde hair stuck up from all ends underneath the duvet, and a groan emitted from the body that was curled up underneath. Erin wasn't sure if her roommate Loralei was in the room or not, but she sure as hell didn't want to deal with her general perkiness right now. She was extremely hung over, felt very sick, and she just didn't want to move. Her head was pounding as she dared to poke her head out from underneath the covers, but it went straight back under again. The brightness of the room had literally destroyed her eyes, and she instantly decided then and there that she wasn't going to be getting out of bed at any time soon. Who really cared about classes today? There was probably nothing good that was going to be taught on the first day - why should she even bother?

As she lay there, Erin was alerted to the soft vibrations that buzzed on her bedside cabinet, and she reached out a shaky hand from the covers to pull her phone underneath her safe haven. The brightness of the screen caused her to squint in pain, and she quickly turned the brightness of the screen down, until it was at it's lowest. Yes, that was definitely more comfortable to look at; it wasn't as if she was looking directly into the sun any more. A message from Cor was on her screen, along with a couple of missed calls last night from her friends, probably drunken calls asking where she was, or just them calling to tell her that they loved her. She opened the message from her best friend, her eyes skimming over the blunt words that stared her in the face. Blunt words from Corentine Quellen were never good, and she groaned as she realized it had to have something to do with Jay.

To: Cor<3

Okay. You may have to give me a few days to recover from last night. Seriously, I would rather be in hell than feel like this.

From: Erin xo

Erin tapped a response back on her touch screen, before dropping the phone next to her. She was probably in hell with her best friend, if Cor had seen her sitting next to her boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend, or whatever he was right now, but she just didn't want to deal with it. All she wanted to do was stay curled up in bed and sleep, for about a month. Yes, that sounded good. A month of sleep. Maybe by then, she may have withered away to nothing, forgotten about whatever stupid feelings she had for a certain brother of her best friend, and this hang-over may have vanished.

But that was a long shot.

---

The previous nights events were playing through Jackson's head in a dream; the frank admittance of his feelings towards Lulu, her running off to be with Drake, and him taking solace in a beautiful brunette that seemed to smile whenever she was around him. Jackson definitely wasn't the sort of person to have a one-night hook up, and he wasn't the sort of person to drink excessively either, but that night... he felt as if he had needed it. The want to be drink his sorrows away, and then be close with someone had just been overwhelming, to the point where he had actually acted upon those wants; a rare feat when it came to the usually gentlemanly Irish man.

Slowly, the male turned over in his bed, a bare leg brushing against his as he moved. His eyes slowly opened, taking his time with them as the sunlight streaming through the slightly open curtains was almost blinding. His head wasn't as bad as he had expected it to be that morning, but it was still aching if he moved it. Something else was aching too actually, although he couldn't put his finger on it. Jack decided that he was going to have to wake up Jess, to gently shake her awake, or something. He didn't know how to wake up a naked, sleeping girl that you practically just met and slept with, so he was probably going to go about it the easiest way, with just a hand on the shoulder, and a shake.

As he went to move however, Jackson felt himself stuck. He couldn't move. He soon pinpointed where that ache had been coming from, and he dropped his head back onto the pillow as he heard the gentle rattle of a chain. A chain? He exhaled a loud sigh when he looked up towards the ceiling, between his raised arms. Somehow, last night, Jess had handcuffed him to his headboard. He pulled gently on the restraints, feeling the metal of the hand-cuffs press into his skin, causing a discomfort in his wrist. Okay, this definitely wasn't good. Jack looked to the left, noticing a shape in the other bed, and the hair of Drake poking out of the duvet. He wasn't sure what had happened between his friend and Lulu last night, but he wasn't going to ask, because he didn't want to know. Besides, he was going to have enough to talk about if Drake woke up before Jess did, and found him in this.... predicament.

"Jess." Jackson breathed, his lips practically brushing against her ear, as he shifted as close as he could towards her, without rattling the chain that kept him restrained to the bed. "Please wake up." His voice was a hushed whisper, trying to be as quiet as possible, keeping Drake asleep. "I seem to be handcuffed to the bed, Jessica." The last he had remembered, Jessica had been messing around in one of the drawers of his bedside cabinet, and he was sure that was where the handcuffs had to have come from - even though they weren't his. So, she had to have been the one that had the key.

Right?

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beeep… the sound went on and on… and on. The blonde groaned quietly, wishing the damned alarm clock to everlasting hell… where it might burn for eternity. Yeah, she wasn’t in the best of moods, as one might guess. Her head was aching and so was her entire body, although to be perfectly honest, her body was aching quite nicely. She’d lost track of time and the amount of times she and Max had fucked by the time they were both spent and exhausted. At that point, Cor had crawled out of Max’s bed, tired enough to go to sleep on the damned floor, but she’d only just begun to gather her clothes – thong under the bed, dress by the door, and her shoes… well, she thought they were in the bathroom – when Max spoke to her, asking her to spend the night instead of leaving. Usually Cor always did the fuck-em-and-leave-em routine, and she knew Max was the same, so she had wondered why he suddenly wanted her to sleep over.

Not for long though, because her hazy, tired brain, didn’t really want to go back to her room with sickly sweet Ashy, and maybe part of her wanted what Max offered more than she wanted to admit to herself. In any case, Cor had been too exhausted to ponder things further and she’d gotten back into bed. Funny thing was, the two of them had been rigid as hell laying there for the first while, Max’s arm hesitant around the blonde, until they’d sort of simultaneously relaxed and then it had felt sort of nice. She was surprised to find that she had actually liked just sleeping with Max, and she couldn’t quite figure out what that meant. In any case, the damned alarm clock was killing her. She opened one eye slowly, searching lazily for the bloody thing. Locating it, she then moved her naked self, hoisting her middle above Max to reach the alarm on the nightstand on his side of the bed, her hands supporting her on the opposite side of him. His arms had still been around her when she awakened, and she hadn’t eve flinched. Weird, this knew relaxed calm around Max.

Corentine moved her hand then to push the off button, glaring at the thing when she found she couldn’t reach. That was just amazing; she had moved for absolutely nothing. Quite bothered with the thing, and in not the best of moods already, she then cast the machine a vengeful smile before wind picked up, smashing it against the wall, effectively cutting off the beeping. Noting that Max was stirring too – probably only due to her – she smiled wryly down at him. “I officially hate your alarm clock, so I’ll buy you a new one.” She told him, voice surprisingly playful as she moved back down to lie on the bed. Jay had yet to spring to mind, but then again, the blonde had only just awoken. However, her first class of the day sprung up immediately. Great, biology. Like shit wasn’t fucking awful enough, she had to start off her Tuesdays from now on, with biology class. That was simply fucking magnificent. She rolled her eyes at the thought, very seriously considering cutting, but if Max had classes during first period too, it’d feel weird staying in his bed anyway, so she merely looked over at him, a slight grin taking over her face.

“Good morning,” she finally said, noting his ruffled manliness only even more sexy in the morning, his body gorgeous as ever. Good morning, indeed, she thought to herself, her grin widening slightly before she added, “is it weird that I could really fuck you again right now?” They probably didn’t have time though, with it being 7 am, but damn, he was downright edible and Jay was starting to force his stubborn way into his head, only pushing the girl even more. Her own curls were surprisingly tame if you thought about it, lying almost perfectly atop her head. She had always been lucky like that. All that really had her looks ruffled were the activities of the previous night.

---

The young nurse was fast asleep, surprisingly comfortable, when the beeping of Leo’s alarm clock caused the male at her side to stir, and her as well. She didn’t move though, or even open her eyes. Instead, feeling blissfully at peace, the brunette remained where she was in that same position. Besides, it was Tuesday – both she and Leo had late classes. Well, she had her first one at 12:15, but there were still many hours to go there. So when Leo gently contacted her, his fingers brushing gingerly against the skin of her shoulder, his lips pressing down on her cheek, she merely smiled to herself before turning to him, a lot of her energy restored. It was amazing really, how much a good night’s sleep could do, although she was far from sporting her usual amount of power, she knew that much. The baby was still tapping her, but for the weakness last night, she had only her own idiocy to blame. She should’ve taken better care of herself, she knew that, but she couldn’t just let Chris be in pain either.

Violet eyes appeared as Amy’s eyelids fluttered open, and they settled on the handsome man now in front of her, a more vibrant smile adorning her features, the colour back in her cheeks. “I love you, Leo, but if you pull me out of bed at 7 am, in spite of the fact that I don’t have classes until 12:15, I will shave your head and glue feathers onto the skin while you sleep tonight.” She told him, her eyes glinting with humour. Of course she was kidding – she would never actually do that – but it should give him a pretty good idea of how much she did not want to leave the bed at present. In fact she had no idea why he wanted to, except to work – headmaster duties and all. Hah. Headmaster duties. Did those usually involve hiring very flirtatious, obviously still interested, ex girlfriends? And why the hell had Amy never even heard of the woman as it was? Why was she even there?

And while she was at it, what did they really need more PE teachers for? She just… didn’t get it. Was Leo still interested in her? Was Amy just being paranoid? No. No she wasn’t. She was being perfectly logical. What woman would just quietly accept this? Not her, that was for sure, and Leo was going to learn that soon enough. Gods, they were having a child together and all of this was just tearing at the seams of their already way too new and fragile relationship. Amy didn’t feel the least bit established, especially since their relationship was not public. This Katia person had no idea Leo was in a relationship, which to her would make him open game. And he wasn’t – not by a long shot. Amy would fight with teeth and claws when it came to keeping Leo. Usually she was rather mellow, but this jealousy was new to her. She felt sick even to think of the way Katia had been looking at her man, and to think of watching her flirt with him… it was almost enough to make her hurl again.

Her smile had slowly disappeared as the brunette’s thought took her down a darker trail. Some might call it pregnancy hormones and all, but though Amy was much longer ahead than she should be, it didn’t cross her mind. This whole Katia-deal bothered her more than anything, so, her mood seemingly changing in a matter of seconds, she added a biting comment; “but you’re welcome to leave, in case you have more exes to hire.” Normally this would have been so unlike Amy; she would have waited, taken her time, and spent some time chewing on how to handle it, but pregnant Amy was slightly angered, she wanted answers, and more than anything, she wanted an outlet for her irritation, preferably at the man causing it. So she didn’t care.

---

Not a big sleeper, Drake had already been awake for a while when he heard Jackson rustling with the cuffs little Miss Coleman had obviously chained him with. He grinned quietly, his back turned. Oh, this was priceless. He had put a pair of hand cuffs in Jackson’s drawer a while back – a drunken joke – and had actually forgotten all about it until now that he was actually using them, not something Drake had ever imagined would really happen. He had come in the night before, a half sleeping, drunken Lulu in his arms, immediately noticing the naked, sleeping couple in the other bed. Accustomed to much worse at Noctrem, Drake hadn’t even frowned, but had actually had to fight not to laugh out loud, waking the two, and maybe even calling Lulu back to earth. Instead, he had taken the keys from the night desk after putting Lulu in his bed and hidden them. Being drunk himself, that had seemed like the perfect idea. He was a freaking genius when he was drunk, he soon decided.

This was going to be the best morning in the history of mornings. A sleeping Lulu was currently in his arms, hidden from Jackson and Jessica with the help of a duvet and Drake’s own size. He was only wearing boxers himself, and Lulu… well… she was wearing everything but her underwear… which he had gotten rid of during a very heated make out session the night before. He had actually managed to keep himself from taking the last step; actually fucking her, because… well, he had lots of reasons. One among many, she had been drunk, and though she had been very eager, Drake had stopped. He had no clue how, thinking back on it. He had wanted her, and he had been very fucking turned on by her too, but no, the manwhore of all manwhores had actually stopped. Now, he wasn’t too sure what he thought of it, but he had to admit, just lying there with the blonde in his arms, was rather nice.

The only downside? He knew his involvement with Lulu was a thorn in Jackson’s eye, something he only considered an issue because Jackson was among the few people Drake dared calling friends. Not people he usually did things to bother – in fact, Drake tried to preserve those few friendships, but if it came to choosing between Lulu and Jackson… Lulu came first, which was why he had chosen to bring her to their room regardless of the complications. Lulu had been drunk out of her mind by the end of their stay in that common room… where he was pretty sure her underwear still was… and he hadn’t wanted to leave her, nor take her to her own room full of splinters and such nuisances. Primarily, though, he hadn’t thought much about it in his drunken state, only wanted to make sure Lulu was okay. Contrary to popular belief, Drake had real feelings for the blonde. The problem was that he couldn’t figure that out himself, because emotions were not something he was very used to.

He didn’t want to hurt her, and he had warned her, but he also wanted her, and she had chosen to disregard his warnings. Well, his and probably those of countless others. Lulu had been into him for a while; that much would have been obvious to anyone with eyes and ears – she did a piss poor job of hiding it – and he was sure her friends had talked against him, not to mention his own sister. Cor knew better herself though – Drake knew her words whispered in Lulu’s ears had been filled with anger, hurt and a wish to hurt Lulu, not the truth. On that note, he really needed to talk to his sister. Right now, though, he was enjoying this moment too much, so grinning quietly, the male waited to see what would happen.

It was pleasant outside for once. The weather in Seattle rarely cleared up but when it did the forestry looked spectacular. Clinton had always been a quaint town. Lulu had always thought that it was far more ideal than Stephenie Meyer’s pick of Forks. When it came to ideallic small town America Clinton was prettier, less inundated with logging, better managed and even though it was on the west coast of the country to a degree it had Southern charm. The kind of neighborly feeling that came with a town of 2500 where everyone knew everyone. It was beautiful and Lulu had always felt far more one with the town than her parents did. Her parents had moved there as a young couple to deal with as few normal humans as possible. The community had several families like theirs but they had always been discrete. Still, they would have meetings and today was one of those days. Lulu was seven, sitting on the front porch of their colonial style home. The Allen property was expansive – about fifty acres – and the long gravel drive way out front was a virtual parking lot. She may have been little but she knew whose car was whose. It was always the same people that her mother invited over to dinner parties and she was always sent outside or to the basement. Since it was sunny today she would play outside but with no one with her she found herself bored.

The tiny blond twiddled her thumbs before a flock of birds suddenly shot out of the tree line to her left. Lulu’s head shot up and she saw Grey emerge, his head thrown back in laughter. Four of his friends following him, carrying thick sticks and swatting at the tall grass. They were covered in mud but were clearly delighted with their antics. Lulu knew that they had likely been toying with the wildlife, Grey especially since his power worked on humans and animals alike.

It didn’t take long for Grey to spot her. At once Lulu stood and his brother pointed. She heard them all laugh and she knew what they intended. Immediately she moved to run. Mama had said not to got into the house so she darted down the porch steps as fast as she could. The boys began to pick up their pace like wolves who had spooked a deer. They weren’t about to let her out of their sight. And she knew what they wanted to do. She ran.

Lulu didn’t know where she was going. She headed straight into the woods, weaving between trees uselessly. The boys were older than her by four to five years. Much taller than her, they covered more ground. She had gone maybe five minutes when she heard them coming and then she felt it. The piercing pain in her head made her scream. It felt like someone had taken a knife to the back of her head and stabbed up from the base of her skull and up into her brain. The pain jolted throughout her arms and legs and immediately she tripped and fell to the ground. The boys quickly surrounded her and Lulu could only put her hands on her head and writh pain. Her whole body felt like it was expanding, her temples throbbing so severely. She screamed like they were killing her but only they could hear her.

“What’s wrong little human?” Grey snorted, kicking her with his muddy hiking boot. His friends laughed and watched as he circled her, his eyes locked on her and his power continuing for a minute until he began to tire. “You should kill her Grey. It’s dirty to have a normal one in your family,” one of the other boys told him. “Not today,” Grey shrugged, like he was procrastinating. “Mum says she could develop something. Maybe. I doubt it. I want her dead though. She deserves to die. Weakling.”

And it started again.

* * *

Her eyes shot open and she inhaled sharply, the nightmare fading as her eyes struggled to adjust to the dim lighting. Lulu could feel that she was sweating, a thick duvet was pulled up to her neck. It smelt different than hers. She shifted it slightly, her eyes zoning in and out on the pattern. It definitely wasn’t hers. And when she shifted to roll over her shoulders hit something hard. Solid. And she shifted to look over her shoulder to see Drake, his eyes closed but he was grinning.


"I seem to be handcuffed to the bed, Jessica…” she heard someone say. It sounded like…Jackson?

“I... appear to be extremely dominant sexually, I'm sorry,” a female replied. Lulu couldn’t tell who but she was in someone’s room and that person didn’t sound like Alli. Panic started to seize her, worse than when she was in her dream. Because even then, as a seven year old she could remember exactly what had happened. As she tried to push her memory she was hitting a wall. She had gone to the party, drank, seen Jackson…drank and then…met Drake…and then he’d carried her off on his shoulder…and then nothing. Nothing. Blank. “Oh. My. God.” She couldn't remember.

Lulu shifted slowly, rolling to face Drake, licking her lips and feeling the dry chapped swollen feeling that came with kissing someone for prolonged periods of time. She shifted, finding her legs entwined with his and his sheets. She tucked her chin and ran her hands over her shirt and skirt. So she was dressed…in her clothes. But…she was missing her bra. And her underwear. At that she turned rigid. And at that another revelation was made.

“Jackson, they're not here....”

“What’s not there?” Lulu asked. She sat up and immediately recoiled. "Jackson?" she asked aloud, startled. "Jessica?" A nearly naked Jessica was rifling through his bedside table and there was Jackson, only covered with a bed sheet and with his hands strung up to his headboard. “Oh God, no,” she said aloud, feeling the bile rise in her stomach. She brought a hand to shield her face, backing away out of habit only to throw her head into the wall. The resonating pain came with rapid onset nausea and this time it was no power hangover that had her groan. “Where am I,” she wondered aloud. “How did I get here? What did I do? You? Me? THEM…?”

Well, the first things out of Amy's mouth hadn't been what the man was expecting. A small smile cracked onto his face as she spoke, and he gently leaned down to press his lips to her forehead. "I love you too Amy, but I don't think I could pull of a feather-head, babe." He grinned, before then he thought about the rest of her words. No classes until 12:15? Then, he remembered that the schedules had recently been changed to accompany the rise in students, and he hadn't remembered that both Amy and himself that day had late classes. His only class that day was last lesson, anyway. "I'm sorry." He spoke, linking his fingers with hers apologetically, "I forgot, and my alarm was still set for yesterday's arrival. Forgive me?"

Leo felt a little bad about waking up his pregnant girlfriend so early, but he was sure that it would be forgotten soon. It wasn't that big of a deal, anyway, not at least to him, and it would soon pass. He usually woke up early anyway, Spartan training still embedded in his modern day routine, and he had a lot of things to do, things only a headmaster could do, and with the added students in his school, the pile of work on his desk was growing. The room grew quiet as neither of them spoke, and Leonardo looked down at the beautiful woman on his bed. She really was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life, and he was so lucky to have her to call his own. And now that she was pregnant too.... the fact had really sunk in to the male this morning, seeing the bump on her stomach, realizing that this was really happening; Leo was actually starting to look forward to the coming couple of months or however long her pregnancy was going to be. He had reacted badly at the beginning, when he had found out that she was carrying a child, but now... he wanted this to happen. He was excited to become a father.

Amy's expression had changed from an adorable morning smile to a face of pure anger and irritation, a looked that made Leo moved back slightly, pulling away from her. He was worried when she looked like that; it meant that she was angry. Which was never good. He sighed when she spoke, flopping back down onto his pillow, covering his face with his hands. Really? She was going to do this now? Just after he was going to tell her that he wanted to be a father, and that he was happy with everything? "Amy...." He groaned, dragging his hand down his face. This wasn't how she usually acted, and Leo was sure that it had something to do with her pregnancy. Maybe he wasn't going to enjoy these months as much as he had previously expected. "Please, you have nothing to worry about. Katia is just a friend who needed a place to stay whilst she recovers from her injury. There's nothing else to it."

---

This was getting rather awkward now. Jackson was strung up on his own bed, with a girl that he barely knew naked beside him, and the guy that had stolen the heart of his best friend and the girl that he loved asleep on the other side of the room. The male dropped his head back, as best as he could in his current position, and closed his eyes, and exasperated sigh escaping his lips. He ignored her comment about being sexually dominant, and just lay there. He just wanted to get out of this now, to forget the past evening, and go back to the way that everything was. But of course, that wasn't going to happen, was it? Jessica's words alerted Jack to the situation presenting itself, and he snapped his head back up, his eyes wide. "What? They're not here? Where else could the be, Jess?" He asked her, his eyes frantically following her around the room. He couldn't well stay here for the rest of the day, could he?

But the morning just continued to get worse. A soft, female voice that didn't belong to Jessica alarmed the Irish man, and his head snapped towards the Drake-shaped mound in his bed, the area where the sound had come from. Had he really brought Lulu back here? After everything that happened last night, everything that Drake probably knew, and he had still brought her back here? Jackson took in a deep breath and prayed, hoping that it had just been a mistake, a horrible, horrible trick of the ears. But when a blonde head popped up from behind Drake's shape, and Lulu's face registered in his mind, Jackson knew this wasn't a trick of the mind. This was real. The girl he loved was sleeping next to the man he was thinking of calling his best male friend, looking at him, who was handcuffed to the bedstead, with a girl they barely knew. This was a nightmare.

Jack moved to kick the sheet upwards, using his feet to cover more of his body than was already sheltered, bringing the cover up to the middle of his torso. It was better than nothing, he had to admit. He looked over at Jessica again who was searching for the keys to his release still, and he glanced around the room himself, hoping to see something shiny and silver. Nope. Nothing. A bang caused his head to turn to the left again, the sound coming from Lulu hitting her head. Usually, he would have rushed over and asked if she was okay, but after the previous night, he was sure he didn't have the right to ask her if she was all right any more, and he couldn't really move. Now he really wanted to just leave.

"Jessica, please. Find those god-damned keys."

---

The awkwardness between himself and Corentine seemed to disappear quickly, thank god, and Max stood there in all of his naked glory, holding out his hand for her to take. He wasn't sure what was happening to him, as he definitely wasn't the sort of person to care about what someone thought, especially a girl that he usually just used for his own pleasure, and he wasn't the sort of person to show cute gestures such as kisses on the cheek. A small shudder ran through his body when he thought about being more than just a player, more than the bastard that he had been for most of his life, and he didn't like it. It felt strange, and alien, and wrong to him. Although, it still felt, right? It wasn't as if he had a crush on her or something, or was feeling something real for her, but there was something new. Something that made him just want to care for her, every now and again, and to make sure that she was okay.

"I'm turning into a pussy, it seems." Max mumbled under his breath in answer to her comment, but he quickly pushed it aside, plastering his trade-mark smirk back onto his face, watching her stretch right there in front of him. He bit down on his bottom lip softly, appreciating the sight; she really was a Goddess of a woman, stunning even. He stayed in his position as Corentine moved to go into the bathroom and collect her phone, his eyes following her ass as she went, again, appreciating the beautiful thing in front of him. He didn't care that she was ignoring him, walking away from him; he got to see exactly what he wanted. His head titled to the side ever so slightly as he watched her pick up the phone and sigh, before walking towards her. The English teacher wasn't going to ask her what was wrong, but he was going to take her into that shower, and wash away all of the troubles that had seemed to come over her.

Max let himself be pushed into the shower, and he turned on the water with the hand that he didn't have placed on Corentine's hip. It came out cold at first, and he turned the shower-head to the side so that it wouldn't freeze either of them, before turning it back around onto them when the water warmed up. "You want to talk? But that's just not as fun." Max playfully pouted, moving around slightly so that the main stream of water was flowing onto her body. "Rebecca? Eh.... we dated for a little bit when we were kids, but it just didn't work out, I guess. Stop asking questions, and turn around." He smiled at her, picking up one of the bottles of shampoo off of the shower floor.

While Jess searched for the key, which Drake had of course conveniently hidden from her in all his drunkenness, the dark male remained unmoving, only breathing, a slight grin constant on his lips. He had his back turned, considering when to pretend to wake up, when Lulu began moving, and he opened an eye to watch her, curious to see her reaction. She seemed more than a little surprised and quite confused too. Apparently she didn’t remember much of last night; that much was obvious, not that he was startled at that particular revelation. The blonde had been drunk out of her mind, nearly passed out from alcohol when he’d finally carried her back to his and Jackson’s room. Ah, Jackson. This was going to be awkward, wasn’t it? He opened his eyes with that thought, wondering if maybe his drunken genius wasn’t all that much of a genius. This was really going to mess some things up, wasn’t it? As if the two hadn’t hit enough bumps lately. Interesting development.

He watched Lulu quietly as she whipped her head back and forth, sitting up with a jolt, the bed bouncing slightly with the movement. He made a face, silently cursing himself for not keeping her behind him, at least shielding Jackson a little bit. This was starting to really make him feel like a crappy friend. Which in itself was incredibly frustrating; Drake hardly ever felt bad about doing anything. Fucking feelings of friendship and… shit. Arcana really wasn’t going to do any good to his reputation of being a cold, heartless bastard. Too bad; he’d rather liked it, not that he cared too much about losing it either. Drake really wasn’t the type to worry about how others saw him, which was probably why he had no qualms about being a prick to Erin one moment, a nice, caring guy to Lulu the next, and feeling quilt towards Jackson in another. Or… well, to be perfectly honest, he did find it more than a little confusing.

He let events pass by then, watching Lulu as she took in everything, suddenly looking rather nauseous. Really? Well that was… rather prudish. Especially considering the fact that she was from Noctrem. Things like this were everyday experiences around there. Having been completely still the entire time, only thinking and plotting silently, it would seem rather sudden when he moved at once the second Lulu’s head hit the wall. He sat up, grabbing her and steadying her to prevent her from banging her head into the wall yet another time. “Jesus, Lulu, try to not hurt yourself for once, will you?” He sighed, looking her over as she began rambling. He couldn’t help but chuckle at her at the end there, though. Yep, she definitely couldn’t remember a thing. He put a hand on her forehead, the other flat on her mid-back, making sure she stayed upright. “Calm down,” he told her then, his voice steady and soothing as ever, with just a touch of amusement.

Then the male Quellen smiled, shaking his head, “I carried you here because you were drunk out of your mind, and your own room happens to be filled with splinters. Not the best place to put a girl in an alcohol induced coma.” His last comment had a playful touch before he moved his hands back to stroke her hair, moving to kiss her forehead then. “We’ll talk about the rest later, okay?” He was so not telling her that they hadn’t had sex though. With that, he carefully got out of bed, careful to not startle Lulu. He didn’t particularly care that he was only in boxers in front of… everyone in the room. What did he really have to be ashamed of, honestly? He turned around, not really able to suppress a grin at Jackson. “You know, I didn’t think you’d actually ever use them,” he chuckled then, not really caring that no one else probably found it funny. Jackson would laugh about it himself in… some time. Probably in a couple of years. But it would be excellent laughter at that point!

He gave Jess a look next, his eyes riding over her, evaluating, appreciating. He couldn’t say anything against Jackson’s taste in women; he had to admit that much. He sent her a smirk then, not caring that she had probably seen his particular once-over before he moved to his desk, getting the key from underneath his clothing from the night before, holding it up for Jackson to see. “Next time you probably shouldn’t leave the key out for everyone to see… and hide. Mind you, I applaud the kinkiness.” He smiled wryly then before looking at both girls, his expression changing from self-satisfied to serious as he apologetically told them, “if you don’t mind, my roommate and I probably need to talk, so…” He didn’t move to unlock Jackson, suspecting the other male would just run off considering what he had just experienced. Instead he let his words to the girls hang in the air, hoping they would grasp the fact that he was basically telling them both to get lost.

Usually Drake wouldn’t want Lulu leaving, but she could handle him throwing her out right now; he’d explain later, if she didn’t deduct it herself. Put simply, Drake had a friendship to mend and some explaining to do, and he didn’t want to do it in front of the girls. Mostly because it was none of their damned business.

---

"You want to talk? But that's just not as fun." Max said, and the words, playful yet seductive washed over the blonde, making her relax almost instantly. How the hell did that work? She brushed it off, explaining it by Max’s good looks and the fact that he completely turned her on. The man was mouthwatering, his dark hair and stubbles giving him an intriguing look, contrasting intensely with his light blue, consuming and utterly entrancing eyes, his gorgeous bone structure adding to the brooding, yet darkly seductive look of his entire face. And that wasn’t even the best part! Getting to the body, Cor could barely grasp how such a man could exist, and their electric attraction towards one another was almost her undoing. She attempted to ignore her constant sexual urges in the presence of this male, and smirked at him before speaking playfully: “Yeah well, you’re the one who won’t fuck me. I’m more than willing to cut first period.”

When the warm water fully hit her, the liquid running over her soothingly, loosening up her tense muscles, her body calmed even more than by Max’s words previously. She almost felt whole again for a brief moment there, a flutter of a real smile playing at her lips, her eyes closing momentarily as she listened to Max explaining about Miss Fields, or rather, Rebecca. Wait… Max… dating? Her eyes shot wide open and she laughed then, not quite able to contain it. “Are you telling me you actually dated? And then, of all people… the strict, uptight History teacher?” She couldn’t help it; the thought alone was simply hilarious. She doubted Rebecca had ever let a proper cock inside, or even had a drunken night out. To Cor, the blonde teacher seemed the exact opposite of Max and it was just very difficult to imagine them being together. What the hell? The two had obviously been very different when they were younger. Although Cor vaguely remembered Rebecca from when she was a student, and she was pretty sure no changed had been made since then.

She rolled her eyes when he told her to stop asking questions, and cast him a wry smile. “You’re really going to boss me around, Mr. Henderson?” She teased, her tone one of mock threatening, “because you know how I respond to orders.” In all honesty, during Sex the dominance of men was so hot. Jay, for one, was nothing if not dominant, and although she also liked to take over and rule the show once in a while, sex had a certain something with a more sexually dominant male. At all other times, bossing Corentine around would earn you nothing short of a bruise somewhere. Often worse. As he picked up the shampoo bottle from the floor, however, Cor actually turned around, eyes closed as she enjoyed the feeling of hot water running over her smooth skin, her back now turned to Max, the male who had just saved her from herself the night before. Maybe what she felt was some weird sort of… gratefulness? Could be. Although she was sort of still bothered by the fact that he’d seen her that vulnerable. Hmm.

She took a deep breath, calming herself as Jay once more invaded her sense. She had never had sex or anything inkling to it with anyone who wasn’t Jay in the shower. She had sort kept that their thing alone, part of her supposedly holding on to that memory, holding on to the fact that part of her experiences would still be his alone. Perhaps part of her had really known they would be reunited. She supposed that specific part of her had merely neglected to mention that he was going to hurt her worse than ever this time, though. A pretty big detail, if you asked the blonde. It was a pretty damned good thing she was able to conceal the majority of her emotions from Max, because she didn’t really want to start another waterfall. As it was, she was trying to think of something else, and as a result, she cleared her throat, talking to Max again… “we should do this again sometime…” She knew it was weak, but she just… needed something to distract her and obviously neither she nor Max were the types to have deep shower conversations.

The hangover was there. She could feel it the moment she tried to correct herself after banging her head into the wall. Yes, she tried to shield herself from the sight before her. Lulu didn’t want to see Jackson like this. She didn’t want to even think about what he had done. He was her childhood friend. Even when Beth was pregnant she hadn’t thought twice about what he had done to make that happen. He had had sex without protection and yes she had ribbed him for that but she had never wanted to visualize it. By then she had gotten over the heartbreak of being left behind. By then she had settled for dying alone and staying permanently in the friend zone. Here and now was something else. To see this now, after everything that he had said to her…that all was very present in her memory and that made her stomach churn twice more on top of the residual alcohol.

"Jessica, please. Find those god-damned keys,” Jackson demanded. She could hear his frustration and it was a reality that made her heart sink a little. Here she was in front of him, disheveled with just fucked hair and hickies down the length of her throat. She respected him so much to not be this girl, parading herself with another man in front of him. She was not that girl. And yet in that moment she was.

“Jesus, Lulu, try to not hurt yourself for once, will you?” Drake clucked at her. Lulu blinked twice, feeling as he took hold of her head, one hand on her forehead and the other on her lower back. His touch made her jump, a tickle running up her spine and making her squirm in his touch. “Calm down,” Drake chided her further. “Easy for you to say,” she retorted and she could hear in her head something from last night. Laughter to the point that her stomach hurt, writhing under his arms as he tickled her where she was insanely sensitive – just under her ribs. Her rant went on then, and she looked at him, watching him shake his head with a wry smile.

“I carried you here because you were drunk out of your mind, and your own room happens to be filled with splinters. Not the best place to put a girl in an alcohol induced coma,” Drake informed her. Lulu rolled her eyes, bringing a hand to rub her eyes. She bowed her head and he kissed her forehead, not even caring that Jackson was behind him. She blushed, again registering that she was in her t-shirt and skirt but without undergarments. Inhaling to speak, she turned to look at him again but he cut her off before she even started. “We’ll talk about the rest later, okay?” he told her. Lulu bit her tongue, watching at he removed himself from the bed effortlessly. Like a modern Adonis he stood, giving her a full view of his gorgeous naked back. Suddenly her mouth wasn’t so dry and she shook her head as he paused and looked over his roommate and companion. Lulu watched as Drake gave Jessica a once over. Immediately she felt a frustration creep over her. Mad jealousy took her for a spin, boiling in her stomach before taking over her hungover mind. He was giving her a once over, taking in every inch of exposed skin. Lulu almost wanted to growl and make some sort of claim. Who was she turning into? She snapped out of it quickly.

“You know, I didn’t think you’d actually ever use them,” Drake laughed, referencing the cuffs. Lulu cast a glance over at her friend then, seeing his frustration. “Drake,” she chided, trying to prevent him from rubbing in the situation. Her condoning of his behavior did nothing. Lulu doubted he even heard her. She began to pull herself from the bedding, finding her hand eye coordination somewhat faltering. Frustrated, she tore at his sheets from where they were tangled around her legs and within a minute she had herself free. She swung herself to stand, careful to keep her skirt in all the right places.

“Next time you probably shouldn’t leave the key out for everyone to see… and hide. Mind you, I applaud the kinkiness,” Drake smirked. Lulu scanned the room for anything that was hers and found only her heels from the night before, kicked off by the door – or likely taken off by Drake not that she could remember. Drake turned to her then and she looked past the man who had taken care of her last night to her best friend, looking him directly in the eye. She didn’t smile or frown, she just looked at him and felt…sorry. But it wasn’t pity because not a moment later did she look at Drake with narrowed eyes, trying to express her frustration with him. He had brought her back here knowing Jackson was his roommate. She had told him everything, that too was in her memory. Somehow it hadn’t dawned on him to be more considerate.

But then again, when was Drake Quellen ever considerate of someone other than himself? Rarely. And today was not one of those moments.

“If you don’t mind, my roommate and I probably need to talk, so…” Drake trailed. Lulu looked back over at Jackson, holding her shoes with both hands against her stomach, half wanting to cross her legs. Their room felt breezy – or maybe it was just her mind over thinking. The thud of her hangover was very present in her temples too, but she felt clarity when she looked at her friend.

“Jackson, I didn’t mean…” Lulu trailed, biting her lip as she fought for words. “I didn’t intend for you to see this.” Looking back over at Drake she smiled and flushed, eyes averting him. It was all she could say. There he was standing in front of her, chiseled body and all, and he had spent the entire night with her doing...something she couldn't remember. With that she pulled open the door. No sooner had she swung it open then she caught her bra, hanging on the outside of the knob. Raising her eyes to the ceiling, she prayed to God she hadn’t done what she was thinking she had done. Snatching it, she slipped outside into the hall. She kept the door open only so much as to squeeze through, closing it to let Jessica dress before she left…in something. It was up to them. And oddly Lulu found herself right in front of her blown off door, a makeshift curtain tacked over it in the meantime. Her room was opposite his. Again. Great. How had this happened?

Lulu knocked on the door frame before she stepped inside, immediately hissing when her left foot connected with a stray splinter of door. Her side of the room was still dominated by destruction and on top of it all was a note. Dropping her shoes and bra on the floor, she cautiously stepped over to collect it, glancing over to see her roommate sound asleep in her bed.

“I won't ask what happened here. But you're cleaning it up.

-Alli”

Wincing, Lulu tossed the note back on the bed, moving to her duffel bag still left at the foot of the bed in search of extra strength Advil.

When she had heard another female voice in the room, Jessica's head had snapped up. The site that greated her was a shocking one. It turns out that whoever shared a room with Jackson hadn't left party alone either. Lulu Allen was staring back at the brunette, looking bewildered and confused. Jess's eyes darted back to Jackson; he looked exactly how she felt. This was awkward. She had barely spoken to anyone who was in this room before and here she was, standing half naked in front of both them. This was definity a bad morning for Jessica Coleman.

'Jessica, please, find those god-dammed keys' She heard the frantic tone of Jackson's voice, but she had no sympathy for it. What did he think he was doing over here, writing a novel? 'I'm trying' she snapped, picking up one of his shoe from the floor and launching it in his direction. She understood his embarrassment; they were in the same boat. However, that was no excuse to treat her the way he was.. It took two to tango. He would do well to remember that.

Then, the male person beside Lulu stirred and she heard a voice that she recognized. Oh hell. She watched as Drake Quellen arose from the bed wearing... little more than she was. She stood up, her lips suddenly becoming a thin line on her face as she stared at the male in front of her. It made sense really, Drake was a self-confessed womanizer; the whole of Noctrem would think he was ill if he hadn't managed to pull someone last night. She watched as the male made a comment to Jackson, still handcuffed to the bed and then turned to her. She watched his eyes move up and down her briefly, 'Enjoying the view are we, Mr Quellen?' She asked acidly, not enjoying the way she was being observed like a piece of meat at market. She shifted a little as he brushed past her, lifting up his pile of clothes to reveal the blessed keys. What a complete prick. Then again, she didn't expect anyone in the room was surprised. 'And next time, don't be such a prick to your room mate, there's a good man' She replied to his comment, before striding across the room to collect her things. It was then that her eyes were caught on Jackson.

As she looked down at the man she had spent the night with, the brunette didn't have a clue what to say. She was pissed at him for treating her the way he had, but then again, she hadn't treated him amazingly well either. Plus, maybe Jackson mood was acceptable under the circumstances; she knew that Jackson was close to Lulu. To see someone violate your best friend like that? That would destroy anyone... She felt awful about what had happened. She almost wanted to say sorry to him, but reisisted, he had been willing. Simple as that. She stood up, grabbing her clothes from the night before. Then, she walked out of the boys room; running at a rate of knots back to her room.

She burst into her room, banging the door agianist the wall as she entered. She hadn't noticed a sleeping Mo in her room and frankly at this moment she didn't care. She was flustered, embarrassed and she felt like she crawling up in a ball and dying. Instead. she put her clothes in the laundry basket and strode to the bathroom, still dressed in Jackson's shirt. The brunette stared at herself in the mirror. She looked a mess, her hair falling out of the neat bun she had put it in last night and her eyes showing signs of tiredness. The brunette picked up a hair brush and started to sort out the mess last night had created. Well, the physical mess at least. That's when she noticed it. Right on her neck. A lovebite. Fantastic. Sighing, the girl exited the bathroom, not having time to shower, she stood in front of the wardrobe; deciding what to wear, preparing for the day ahead.



Ashleigh had been having the best sleep she had expierence in a long time; she always felt safer when someone was sleeping in her room with her. Besides Cor, that was. She had been slightly worried, when she had bought Zac back, that Cor was going to burst in and instantly judge her for having a male in their room. Not that she was in the best position to judge, mind you.

The two of them had been doing nothing untoward anyway, they had been watching films until what felt like the early hours of the morning, although Ashy didn't have much of a clue how the last one had ended. She must have fallen asleep. The blonde was then aware of a hand on her shoulder shaking her gently. She opened her eyes and gave a small smile, 'Mmm, good morning.' She said,looking up at the male she had shared a bed with. It sounded odd when she had said it like that, but that's how things were and it didn't feel odd for any of them.

Ashy was then aware Zac saying that he needed to go and get ready; why so soon? Something was wrong she could tell. She went to stop the male from leaving her room, but was the power of speech wasn't entirely with her this morning. She would ask him later how he was; though of course he'd say he was fine. She still hated the fact he hid his feelings from him, yet she told him everything. What was so bad that he couldn't tell her? Maybe she needed to talk to Mo and find out. She didn't want to go behind his back..but if he wasn't going to honest then so be it.

The blonde also felt the need to talk to Erin this morning at some point. She knew was going to be an impossible task with the girl probably being hungover and Cor being around, but she needed to check that she was ok, that she wasn't about to throw herself off a building generally.

Sighing, Ashy got out of bed, showered and got dressed quickly; she needed answers and she needed them now.

Lulu wrestled with the zipper of her duffel bag. The fabric was cheap and the luggage itself was long overdue for retirement. Frustration had her yank on it violently after two minutes and the fabric ripped. She hissed at it and inhaled sharply, looking over her shoulder at her roommate. No sooner had she turned back to her bag then an alarm clock sounded off. Lulu was startled, and she lost her coordination from where she was kneeling, falling forward into her bag and cussing under her breath. Her roommate shuffled and when Lulu looked over at Alli a second time the girl seemed surprised and just as caught off guard as she was. “Oh what she must think of me,” Lulu thought to herself, turning back to her bag and tearing back the fabric more so to get access to a small bag of pharmaceuticals that she kept with her – stomach flu remedies, Advil and the like.

"I might be stereotyping, but if you're looking for a hangover-related headache cure, there's some in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. There's some with caffeine in it, I think," Alli told her. Lulu sighed and pursed her lips, turning her head away from her roommate to roll her eyes. “While I am looking for advil, this is not normal. Neither was yesterday when I had a power hangover,” Lulu rebutted. “Well aren’t we getting off to a great start…” she added in thought, pulling the kit from her bag. Alli moved to the bathroom and before Lulu could think twice a bottle of Excedrin was flying at her. She moved to catch it only her hand eye coordination was less than stellar. It smacked her in arm and bounced onto the floor. “Didn’t need that,” she muttered.

"If you want the shower, you'll have to wait a few minutes," Alli called from the bathroom. “Is that a hint?” Lulu grumbled lowly, hearing the water turn on and the door close. She pulled open her own kit of pills, rooting through for her own extra strength Advil was it was nowhere to be found. Then it dawned on her that she had finished it yesterday morning. Now she had to borrow from her roommate and that thought just seemed to sour her mood further.

Lulu grabbed the bottle of Excedrin from the floor where it had fallen, popping the cap off and taking two pills as was recommended. Luckily she had left a bottle of water on her nightstand and using that she downed the medication, feeling limited relief. The water was refreshing, howveer, especially with her temples throbbing and her stomach churning with little food and much residual alcohol. Whisky. Damn Whiskey. Why did Drake have to indulge me? And where the hell was the bottle? Or the Jack’s that Jackson had given her? And her underwear?

That last part was rather mortifying. And she had no idea. As she moved to dress herself properly in clean clothes Lulu continued to glance around the room for her phone. Fortunately she had left it with her things the night before. When she unlocked the screen she was bombarded with a slew of texts from various people, the most urgent slew coming from of all people, her mother. Without reading them, Lulu deleted anything her parents had sent her. Still in the middle of checking messages, Alli emerged.

"Bathroom's free," Alli announced. Lulu tossed her phone on the bed and stood, walking past her without a word. “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” With access to her toiletries, Lulu brushed her hair free of knots, leaving it to hang straight, and applied careful but subtle makeup to cover the remaining dark circles under her eyes. She did have to admit that they were smaller than yesterday – a feat considering she was still hungover. Who was she kidding though? Drake and sleeping his bed had been the best sleep that she had had in months.

As Lulu re-entered the bedroom she watched as Alli flicked her computer screen. The blond paused, watching her roommate grow more flustered. How lucky would she be if what she was doing actually fixed the problem? Low chances, unless she had a little kick. Lulu held a hand behind her back, rubbing her fingers together as she concentrated on the computer. As she tried to get her power to kick in a wave of nausea rolled over her. At once the room blurred and she was forced to stop. Frustrated, she moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Rubbing her eyes she sighed before leveling with Alli.

“This is not the introduction that I wanted. And I’m going to be frank, having me for a roommate is probably the worst thing that could happen to you,” Lulu told her bluntly. “Yesterday Corentine Quellen decided to blow our bedroom door off it’s hinges because she could. And she got angry so her power went out of control, when she found her talking to her ex Jaysin, who had conveniently invited himself in to talk to me. I’m sorry about the mess and if anything you owned got ruined. I tried to clean up your side.”

So that explained the mess and the door and the splinters. What else was there? “And to be honest, when it comes to last night I can’t remember what I did. I don’t normally drink myself stupid, really. But my best friend…told me he loved me. And what it seems like an overreaction, it’s Jackson for Pete’s sake.”

At that she leaned forward and held her head in her hands, rubbing her eyes and still feeling that…anger and sadness over the revelation. He was right across the hall from her, freshly fucked and having seen her like this, becoming everything he said she would because Drake was Drake. Boyfriends were a little like dogs in that way, you started to change the way you dressed to accommodate them, to flirt. Her outfit had been his choice last night. Even this morning, she was wearing her skinny camo pants because they were more flattering and she knew she had all of her classes with Drake because they were in the same house.

“I’m sorry. I’m a bitch. If you hate me, join the club,” she muttered.

She laughed. Lulu winced the moment a chuckle escaped Alli’s lips. Then it ballooned until her roommate appeared sore. Lulu turned her face away, holding her tongue between her teeth and wanting to swear. But the noise, the motion, it did bring her back to last night. She closed her eyes and through the haze a memory seemed to come back to her. Earlier in Drake’s room it had partially come through. Lulu could hear herself laughing, squirming and writhing under Drake as he attacked under her ribs with his hands, tickling her despite her protests. Her stomach was sensitive too and it had started when he’d set her down on a couch (where were there couches in this place?) and laid down on top of her, trying to pull some move by sliding his hands under her shirt. Only she’d started laughing and trying to get away from him because it was far was sensual – she was stupid ticklish and he loved it the moment he found out.

Lulu blinked back to the present, biting on her lower lip where it had split last night. She could tell she had kissed him a lot. They were somewhat…swollen? The blond pulled the collar of her sweater up over her neck to hide the hickies. Alli’s laughter died down and Lulu forced herself to look back over at her. The brunette seemed incredibly amused. Lulu just wanted to smack the smile off her face. “Am I that irritated?”

"Oh, honey, I don't hate you,” Alli assured her. “Honey?” Lulu echoed, raising an eyebrow. “Sure, I was a little irritated by my room being trashed, but I'm not that shallow. None of my stuff was ruined. There's a few splinters in some of my shoes, but they'll come out easily enough. And now that you've told me exactly what went on in your life last night, I don't care. I mean, if my best friend told me he loved me, I'd freak out. And that's leaving out the whole Corentine issue,” Alli continued. Lulu shook her head. No, she didn’t have a clue. Yes, anyone was given to freak out. But Lulu felt hurt and shocked, with herself and with Jackson. Hurt that he would hold out so long on her, shocked that she hadn’t seen it – seriously how had she not seen it? But he had always been close to her, hand holding, hugging and kisses on the cheek. It just seemed part and parcel with his upbringing. And when he had moved away, he had never know how hurt she was. And when he had started dating Beth she had never dared tell him how betrayed she felt. She was happy for him, and now…he couldn’t be happy for her? It remained a mess in her mind and the prospect that Drake and Jack were now hashing things out across the hall terrified her. What would he say? What had they done either? Would Drake throw it in Jack’s face? He sure hadn’t been afraid to have her there in the morning in front of him. “Inconsiderate…hot piece of God…”

“Don't you worry about her. She's forever telling me to shut my fucking mouth. If I took everything she said and done to me to heart, I wouldn't have the motivation to do my homework, let alone aim for Ivy League and the Olympics. I know what you need!" She exclaimed suddenly. The flourish in Alli’s voice caught Lulu off guard and she flinched, shaking her head and watching as her roommate moved too rapidly for Lulu to follow. Before she knew it a chocolate bar was flying at her and while the aim was flawless, Lulu was too slow to catch it and it hit her square in the chest. Lulu grunted and collected the foil wrapped treat in her hands, running her fingers over the corners of the paper.

"Chocolate helps in every situation," Alli told her simply. Lulu shrugged, half smiling in return. It was all she could muster. Too much was going on her head, between processing last night and fighting to remember.

"If you need advice on arguing, I'm your girl. I argued with my parents almost every night for two months straight on what school they sent me to. Then we found Arcana. Just a useless piece of information for you. Do what you will with it," Alli continued. Did she always talk do much? Lulu blinked at her words, realizing that the brunette knew so little of her. “You’ll laugh in six months when you remember offering to help me with arguing. Trust me,” Lulu assured her. Alli sat back and Lulu straightened so that she wasn’t leaning over her knees.

“Anyway. Time for a subject change. Let's talk powers. Mine's dexterity. It's simple, really. I have perfect balance and aim. Not the best, but far from the worst. Yours is..." Alli paused and Lulu flashed her eyes over her roommates shoulder to see her laptop resuming it’s course as she has intended. "Luck manipulation, right? How does that work? Are you really good at poker?"

“Explains the Olympics comment,” Lulu sighed before sitting back and leaning onto her hands behind her. “And yes and no. I can manipulate probability, make things more or less likely. My parents loved it when I made them a million dollars in one weekend rigging games within the casino. But I prefer to help people, beat the odds, avoid the bullies. It comes down to understanding chance, and when and where it applies. By the way, do you know where there are couches here at Arcana? I’m trying to figure out where I was last night and I was brought somewhere…with couches?”

---

“I’m sorry, but exactly do you think you’re doing here?”

The voice had her eyes veer across the room, swinging from where she had been staring, expecting the hallucination of her mother to return, to just beyond the door to the medical center. A skinny blond was staring at her. From the looks of her she was older, and nearly a walking Barbie in appearance. Katia swallowed and looking behind her at the shattered glass jars and assorted medical paraphernalia.

“Besides knocking over everything in the school stash, I mean,” the stranger added. Inserisci commento, she heard her mother say. Say something. Katia squeezed her eyes shut, sucking in a deep breath and immediately regretting her attempts to relax. A jolt of pain surged from her lower back into her legs, momentarily rendering her feet numb before sensation returned and the pain was evident. She straight and clenched her teeth together, her fingers tightening into fists clenched so tight that her nails dug into her palms. It took her a moment to say something, for the fog to clear and for Italian prattling to ebb in her mind.

“I work here, My name is Katia Hunt,” she explained, her words strained. “And I take methadone to treat a fractured disk and aggravated back injury. It causes hallucinations and withdrawal symptoms. I need a sedative or analgesic to make it stop. And this is the only place that will have that don’t you think?” she concluded sharply, feeling her eyes water as she tried to move. She really should have taken on the botox injections the doctor had suggested – straight into her back muscles. It would have made them more supportive. Instead she had gone without and know here she was, trying to explain that she was taking pain medication to such degrees that when she went without it was like an addiction. Was she addicted? Was the pain in her mind? It didn’t feel like it right now.

"So you can go and tell Amy or Leo or whoever. I'm sure she would just love to see me this way. But I'd rather just...deal with it."

Jessica sighed when she heard Mo's groggy, hungover voice from the bed opposite hers. She liked her roommate, she really did, but now was probably not the best time for the two of them to be in conversation; for fear of Jessica saying something she might regret. She turned around looking at the...extremely hungover mess that was Mo. She had got dressed. This was something that the brunette, who was still wearing Jackson Murphey's shirt, was still yet to achieve. She gave a sigh; she was going to have to give that back to him. The shame.

'Just your average morning at Noctrem,' She began sharply, 'I slept with a man I have barely spoken to, woke up with him pissed at me and then to top it all of, had a run with a basically naked Drake Quellen; isn't life just fabulous.' She finished sarcastically.

Sitting down on her bed, Jessica ran her fingers from her messy brunette. She hadn't even had time to talk to Jackson. But then again, what would she talk to him about. The incident with Drake and Lulu had, quite rightly, provoked a reaction out of him. Could she talk to him about that? Jessica remembered his reaction when she had asked him about the talk he had been having with Lulu the night before. He had been extremely closed off and that had been when he was intoxicated; what hope did anyone have of getting any sort of feeling out of him now? Jessica turned back to her roommate 'It's just one big mistake, Mo.' She muttered, before promptly getting changed into an outfit. Nothing too fancy, but to it showed that she meant buisness to anyone that questioned her; which would be everyone. God, today was going to be tough; she needed something to take her mind off of all this. She needed to have some fun. With that, the brunette promptly pulled her phone out of her pocket and start tapping a message;

To: Sky :D
We need to talk... or get drunk; whatever gets me out of this foul mood
From: Jess xxx

Smiling to herself, Jess tucked her phone back into her bag; Sky would know how to cheer her up. The two of them were extremely close and despite his apparent addiction to sex, the brunette couldn't fault the pyro. They had fun; just not too much fun.

Jess then looked back up at Mo, 'Mo, what happened to you last night?' She asked. She had remembered her having a arugment with Zac, Zac storming off and Mo being dragged away but the master mind that was Alli Jackson. It seemed to the brunette that she wasn't the only one who had experienced some drama last night.

McKenna woke up at exactly seven in the morning with the sun, and the buzzing of her wretched alarm clock. With a groan, she turned to her roommate -- Jade -- who seemed to be heavily sleeping in her bed. Jade was pretty....Pretty scary actually, McKenna didn't care enough to try and cross paths with the girl, so she kept her side of the room tidy and simply stayed out of the way of the telekinetic. Tip toeing across the room, McKenna grabbed two towels, her shower basket and heads to the bathroom.

Thoughts ran through the girl's head as water pours down from the shower head, she was thinking thoroughly about the night before. The party had been more drama filled, life before Noctrem students seemed incredibly dull compared to what it was now with all the drama that had occurred. McKenna steps gingerly out of the shower, her warm feet hitting the cold grown with a shiver and she wraps her towel around her body. Staring at the fogged mirror, she brushes her hair out and wipes a makeup remover pad to take off the smeared mascara that began to drip from the steam of the shower.

After coming back into the room, she throws on her favorite pair of worn jeans with a loose-fitted top and puts her hair up in a messy bun -- which would later result in messy curls. She was always ready to go by at least seven thirty and was precisely out the door by seven thirty-five.

The mornings are routine for her, and the brunette meanders down to the cafeteria; she takes notice of the few students that were up this early in the morning, it always seemed to be the same few, of course none of the Noctrem students had probably gotten up yet.

Grabbing her daily herbal tea and a plate of food [cheesy eggs, a muffin, and an apple], she makes her way over to her usual spot outside under the tree. Pulling her sketch book out, she places her tea down on her sketch pad and began to eat her eggs.

The party last night had gone rather less well than she'd hoped, considering what had happened...The girl slowly begins to wonder what ever happened between Jack, Lu and Drake, not that she really cared... All that much. More curiosity than anything.

Kenna nibbles on her muffin as she opens up her history book -- along with her notebook and a pen -- and begins to read. There was this test coming up soon that she wasn't planning on failing. Her eyes dart up every now and then to see if anyone was walking by, but other than that she pays no attention to the outside world.


OOC: Coming soon; sorry, winter break...new job, blah

"Well, there are the house common rooms, the game room and then just the general common rooms upstairs. I don't think there's anywhere else. Any of them could be likely, if I'm honest. They'd all be empty when there's a party,” Alli answered. Lulu parted her lips and inhaled deeply, processing the information slowly and as best as she could. Her mind was again at war with itself and fast. What color were the couches? Black? Blue maybe? And the room had had a fireplace, that she remembered. It had been warm and she’d said it was sweet but he was hot enough to heat her up any day. Lulu knew she had laughed harder at her comment than he had. All she could hear in her head was her own chortle of giggles. Her cheeks still hurt as she smiled at the thought, frowning slightly as she blinked back to reality, Alli continuing to speak.

“And your power seems... interesting, to say the least. The most impressive thing I can do with mine is this,” Alli gestured, sitting up quickly from her bed to stand between their two beds. Lulu felt dizzy from how fast the girl moved, watching her slide her feet out of her shoes before effortlessly moving to plant her hands on the ground and lift her legs straight above her in a perfect handstand. Lulu’s eyebrows narrowed and her lips parted again, this time in surprise. Enough highly trained gymnasts shook when they performed such a move and yet Alli was stock still, even going so far as she bend her feet back to grab a ball with her toes, balancing it again effortlessly. “Wow,” Lulu whispered, unable to manage anything more.

"Not exactly the most exciting thing in the world, but they reward it at the Olympics. My parents have been trying to persuade me to go for them since I was six, for essentially anything involving aim or balance. It doesn't help that I've got a gymnast's stature. Essentially, I'm short,” Alli continued, moving quickly to right herself. Lulu leaned forward and rubbed at her forehead and temples again.

"Anyway, enough about me and my big dreams. What do you do in your spare time? Besides irritating Quellen, that is,” Alli asked.

“You mean when I’m bored or feel like killing time?” Lulu smirked, flopping back on her bed and staring at the ceiling for a moment. “I love to watch old movies and I find classic novels great reads. My favorite is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Charles Dickens is great too. I’m interested in history, especially architecture. Visiting old places where so much has happened is kind of my dream. I’ve never been to Europe or really that far from the west coast, aside from Washington where I grew up and Nevada. My parents tried to get me into gambling and I won them enough money to shut them up for now. As much as I love card games, they kind of killed it for me. When they discovered my powers it was the first thing they wanted. And I’m ranting aren’t I?”

It seemed to take awhile for her to explain herself. “Truth be told I don’t find myself with a lot of time on my hands. I’m often paying attention to other people, trying to make some crisis better for them. Of course, I get into trouble when I get retributive on the bullies. Hence Quellen and the rest…” Lulu gestured her hands in the air before letting them flop on the bed by her sides. She sighed. “I’m better at giving people bad luck in all honesty. I don’t know why. Probably has to do with my brother…” Lulu trailed, feeling her eyes glaze over momentarily. Grey was always on her mind lately, a scary reality. And the person she would talk to about the nightmares and her panic wasn't there. Drake didn't even really know the truth about her brother, about when he had tried to kill her for good, and how she had cursed him in her rage that followed. Would he understand or would he run? The thought made her squeeze her eyes shut. She just felt so stuck. "What about you?" she wondered aloud, not wanting to speak more about herself really and she was curious about her roommate.

'Ah, the old vodka hangover, I feel your pain my friend.' Jessica gave a small, sympathetic smile The Noctrem student had woken up with many a hangover, and Vodka was nasty stuff; stupid Russian people. Jessica then watched as the Mo thought out loud to herself, cottoning on to the fact that the brunette had been with Jackson last night.. She knew the two were friends, close friends by the actions of yesterday. Yet another side to this fucked up cube of her problems.... She didn't want her actions of stupidity to come between her and her roommate. 'I watched him storm out of the party last night, I was curious more than anything...' Suddenly Jessica felt a little uncomfortable around the blonde sitting next to her... ' He came onto me.' She finished pathetically, staring down at her lap.

It was then that she heard a knock at the door signalling Sky's arrival. Taking an inward sigh of relief, she walked towards the door. 'Well he had his boxers on and I had Jack's shirt on; anyway there are worse sights to look at in the morning.' She shrugged off, mentally slapping herself in the face for her last comment. If the Quellen male could hear her now. She could just see the smug grin on his face. Jessica chose to ignore her room mates questions about the content of the argument and the girl Drake had brought back. Answering the argument question would just be embarrasing and she wasn't sure poor Mo needed to know about the Irishman probably still strung up to his own bed as they spoke. Secondly, Jessica was never one for gossip or fueling it. Despite having never really spoken to anyone in that room other than Drake before this morning... she did have a small amount of respect for their dignity; espeically poor Lulu, although she still hadn't quite figured out that situation yet.

Finally, she wrenched the door open to see an extremely handsome and hyperactive Sky staring back at her. He looked reasonable this morning; despite the fact the brunette had no doubt the pyro had got into just as much trouble as she had last night. She put on a mock disapproving look, putting her hand on hip and staring at Sky. 'Why are so cheerful and dapper this morning when I know for a fact you cosumed more alcohol than me last night?' She cocked her head in a questioning look, before a smile crossed the brunette's face. 'I'm joking, if you weren't cheerful... i'd be worried' She told the pyro, hugging him tightly. She closed her eyes for a moment, breathing in his scent, 'You smell nice.' She told him quietly.

Leo knew that he was in trouble the second he let his eyes roll back into his head. He saw the dark look cross over his girlfriends face, and instantly knew that he had done wrong. There was an air of irritation hanging around her that he definitely didn't like, and he was regretting his actions already. But he couldn't help himself. There really was nothing for her to worry about, and she had kept going on and on about Katia being in the school. He was surprised by the whirlwind that was Amy's emotions at the moment, although he couldn't blame her - he was sure that it had something to do with the pregnancy - wasn't that a thing that happened to women when they were pregnant? They acted a little stranger than usual, and their moods took a roller-coaster ride?

The immortal headmaster was quickly snapped out of his little daydream however when Amy's shrill voice hit his ears, shouting at him, saying that she had lots of things to be worried about, and was irritated at him for hiring Katia. He just couldn't understand why it was upsetting her that much. His head cocked to the side ever so slightly as he listened to her speak, his eyebrows coming together in the middle of his forehead as he listened to her. Leo slowly began to see what was annoying Amy, when she said that she was upset with the fact that he had dated Katia. That thought made him sigh, and drop his head a bit. She was right of course, with her next statement. He had over-reacted when it had come to his girlfriend hugging Chris on his first day here. "But that was a completely different situation." He spoke, shaking his head. "I, have not touched Katia in front of you. I just didn't like seeing someone with his hands on the woman I love, that's all. Different situation, totally." He nodded, before letting her carry on.

Leonardo could see that Amy was holding back a lot of anger, and the pinching of her nose almost made him take a step back in fear. Angry Amy was scary. His eyes widened as she shouted at him, screaming about Katia being white trash. His mouth almost fell open in shock too, just as her's did - mirroring her expression. Leo just stood there for a moment, staring at his girlfriend.

"Amy..." He spoke softly, taking tentative steps towards her, until he was close enough. He then wrapped his arm around her waist slowly, his other hand moving to lay onto of hers, the one resting on her stomach. "Amy... please, stop this. I know I got angry the other day, but like I said - I just didn't like the idea of someone else touching my girlfriend like that. But... really, Katia's injured, and she's only going to be here for a little while, okay?" His lips pressed against her head in a gentle, soothing peck, trying to back up his words with a reassuring gesture. "I didn't get to date her, okay? I wanted to, but she got scared at the idea of commitment. She interested me, which is why I started to ask about her. But nothing happened between us emotionally, other than her running out on me."

---

Jackson didn't move.

His eyes stared blankly forwards, ignoring the silhouette of Drake out of the corner of his eyes.
He ignored the shape of Jessica storming out of the room in his shirt.
He ignored the upset face of Lulu as she tried to talk to him, apologizing before leaving.

Jack just did not move.

His arms were painful, suspended above his head, and as the door slammed shut, he turned his head slowly in the direction of the guy that was supposed to be one of his best friends. The one guy that he was supposed to be able to talk to about anything, and yet he was the guy that had brought that girl that he loved, and had confessed that love to last night, into the bedroom that they had shared, and slept in the same bed as her, knowing that he would see. He was furious at Drake. More than furious. But there were just no words to explain it.

Jackson didn't want to talk to Drake. In fact, he wanted to ignore him and walk out of that bedroom right now. But in the current position that he was in, he was in no state to be able to do that. In fact, all he could do was glare at the male who was standing in just his boxers, before taking in a big sigh. "Please, unlock me." He spoke quietly, yet harshly. He didn't have to put up any pretenses right now; it was just him, alone with the guy that he was seriously pissed at, and he wasn't going to be nice. In fact, he was going to be blunt, and rude, and very un-Jackson like.

It wasn't actually a shock to him, when he paused for a moment to think about it. Drake was exactly the person to go off and seduce the girl that his friend was in love with, when she was upset, and he was drunk. Oh yeah, that was very Drake like. His eyes were still trained on Drake, glaring at him as he though. Of course, it probably hadn't looked very good to Lulu either, seeing him waking up naked with a girl that the two of them barely knew. He dropped his head back onto the pillow and closed his eyes, a soft groan escaping his lips. "Drake, I'm not kidding. Get me the hell out of these cuffs." He spoke, another deep exhale coming from his mouth as he tried to calm himself down.

Jack wasn't feeling all that great this morning. He felt sick from the copious amounts of whiskey that he had poured into blood stream last night, his arms were sore from being strung up in such a stupid position, he had upset his best friend, slept with another friend, and was now being held hostage by the man that he despised more than anything right now.

Could this morning get any worse?

---

Max couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes as Corentine spoke, and he stepped closer to her, allowing his bare chest to press against her, dipping his head slightly to brush his lips delicately against hers, not kissing her, just brushing. "Ah, don't tempt me, you blonde demon, you." He grinned playfully, before turning back around, shampoo in his hand. His smile stuck on his face as the blonde spoke about him dating Rebecca, and he just shook his water covered head, little droplets splashing off in various directions. "Don't even say anything about my little tryst with Rebecca. She was actually less up her own ass in those days - and she was hot as hell. I wanted a good fuck, she said no, and unlike the dickhead I am now, I was nice and stopped pushing. Like I said, stop quizzing me." He liked it when she paid attention to him and listened to what he said. Corentine was always the sort of person that liked to fight against authority, and little wins like this over her, made him rather happy.

She had listened to him and turned around when he came back up, shampoo in hand. He squirted some into his hand and slowly began to run his fingers delicately through her long, damp locks, letting the soft liquid mix in between his own fingers, and her soft strands of hair. He then slowly let his fingers dance further down, traveling down, across the side of her neck, along her collarbone softly. He let his soapy fingers dance over her gossamer, glistening skin, enjoying the feeling of just being close to someone as beautiful, and as feisty as Corentine Quellen. However, before Max let his hands wander any further, as he had decided that his lessons could wait for another round with Corentine, he felt her tighten underneath his hands. Her voice was different too, soft and weak - definitely un-like herself.

"Corentine?" Max questioned her, his hands resting gently on her shoulders now. He softly began to massage her tense muscles, however staying at a slight distance. He knew that she was a wild card, and sometimes, it was wrong to ask her what was wrong, but yet, he couldn't stop himself. After last night... he just wanted to make sure again that she was okay, when she definitely didn't sound it. "We will do this again, okay?" Max smiled gently, moving one of his hands to cup her chin softly, turning her head ever so slightly to look at him.

"Are you okay, Corentine?" The brunette's voice was sincere and full of worry for the girl, a new feeling for the usually uncaring male. "You know you can talk to me, right?"

Amy was so out of it. She couldn’t believe she’d just said those words. And in front of her unborn baby too! What if her little bump could hear her? But she was just so frustrated and upset, and she didn’t know what to do with these intense emotions right now, except letting them out, and that didn’t even work for her. She looked over at Leo when he spoke her name, and she dropped her other hand to join the first one on her small bump. It was stupid, but she sort of felt like she could protect it that way.

Tears had begun pushing at her, but she was stubbornly holding them in. She didn’t even know what she was crying about, for Christ’s sake! She was angry, not sad. But then, she was frustrated beyond compare. Frustrated with her situation and pregnancy, frustrated with Leo, and frustrated with Katia, a woman who she didn’t actually know. It was all such a mess she could hardly describe it to herself, much less anyone else. She needed to talk to a woman. She loved Leo, and he meant the world to her, but there were certain things he just… didn’t get.

She sighed when Leo walked up to her, putting an arm around her, his other hand moving to rest on her small bump. Amy closed her eyes briefly, calming herself. All this arguing and panic wasn’t good for the baby, after all. She shook her head though, nearly giving up on her, when he chose to focus on the episode with Chris. She had only drawn in Chris to help Leo see how all of this with Katia made her feel. Obviously he couldn’t grasp that. Ugh, why was he being so… pigheaded about this whole deal? Couldn’t he just understand her and take her side and… kick the brunette out? Oh, that was so cruel. Why was she thinking like that?! What was wrong with her?

Perhaps it was a motherly thing; after all, Amy wanted to protect her family. If she lost Leo to Katia, she wouldn’t know what to do with herself…or her baby. She opened one eye to glare at him half-heartedly when he spoke of Katia merely being injured. “How long is a “little while”, Leo?” she asked him, her voice telling him she expected a short, while also honest, answer. She didn’t want to see Katia putting her greedy claws on her man. Ugh, again with the bitchiness! She shook her head, looking down at their hands on her stomach when he kissed her forehead. She silently told herself not to react to it.

He was trying to calm her down, and it really only served to piss her off all the more, but she tried to keep it in. However, it was just beneath the surface, boiling. At his next words though, Amy scrambled back, away from him, out of range, gaping at him. He had been the one who had wanted it? She had run out on him? He had wanted to date her? What if Katia hadn’t run? Would they have been together now? Her heart skipped a beat in fright, and she was hurt all over again. Finally, tears burst from her, trailing aimlessly down her cheeks, as she looked up at him, her eyes filled with anger and sadness.

They had unfinished business. If he had been the one to want it before, what would stop him from coming to want it again? And this time… she had come to him. She hugged her baby bump, taking another step away from him, which only caused her to bump against the wall as she silently sobbed, her breathing pattern uneven as she did. She couldn’t take this. It hurt, and so, as her legs began shaking, Amy sank to the ground, pulling up her legs, arms wrapping around them. It protected the bump better. She put her forehead against her knees, the sobs raking her body.

Her emotions were incredibly heightened, and so to some, Amy might be overreacting, but it seemed this pregnancy was going to rule her life for a while.

As Amy cried, she began speaking to him, her voice weak, but she was on the verge of screaming at him. Flat out screaming. She didn’t yet though.
“Leo, I can’t do this,” she choked out between sobs, “I can’t… can’t look at her every day, knowing you have unfinished business… knowing you wanted to be with her back then… knowing she was the only reason you weren’t. I… I can’t.” She hugged her knees tighter, not looking up at him as she weakly whispered, “I can’t lose you. P-please don’t make me be around her, Leo. Please.”

---

---

When the girls left, Lulu only managing a stuttered apology, which had caused a slight sigh to escape him, and Jess, well, her comments weren’t unlike her, so he’d merely smirked at her, replying with a simple ”good guys always finish last, baby.” Then he’d shut the door behind her and looked to Jackon, not entirely sure what he wanted to do, except keep the guy around for him to explain himself, not that he was yet entirely sure what he wanted to say. Surprisingly he felt really bad about this whole situation. Mainly because he knew it hurt Jackson, which in turn pissed him off. In some ways, Drake thought Jackson’s expression a little comical.

He was on the bed, still as stone, glaring at the wall ahead of him, completely naked. Drake was about to get the guy’s duvet, but stilled when Jackson spoke, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. Drake raised an eyebrow, glancing at him. “No.” He then simply replied, picking up the duvet and throwing it onto Jackson, a part of him getting that jackson’s situation was plenty embarrassing without the nudity too. But he wasn’t unlocking him just yet. Why? Well, it was simple: Drake knew Jackson would run out on him, and he needed to talk to him, which itself was a little odd. Drake didn’t usually give enough fucks to explain himself and his actions, but Jackson’s anger irked him a little.

Really, the guy was acting like Drake was hitting on his girlfriend. He was acting as though Drake had known of Jackson’s emotions when he’d begun having his own for Lulu, when in fact… Drake hadn’t even known Jackson when he started having feelings for Lulu, and now he was supposed to do what? Be unselfish and let her go? He would have, if that was what Lulu wanted, but it wasn’t. Drake didn’t quite see how Jackson’s claim on the girl was any bigger than his own. By chance, Drake and Jackson had become friends, good friend incidentally, but it seemed Jackson was going to blame Drake for actually having some semblance of feelings for once.

That surprisingly got to him, so when Jackson spoke again, his head falling back onto the pillow, Drake frowned, throwing the duvet on top of the guy. His tone was cold as he said “I know. I just don’t give a fuck,” in reply, finally looking wholly at the man he’d begun considering a friend. He sat down on his own bed then, still looking at Jackson as he continued. “You’re pissed about what exactly? That I brought Lulu here? That I happen to spend time with her?” He raised an eyebrow, placing the keys on the nightstand. Jackson wasn’t going anywhere until they’d resolved this. Drake wasn’t going to live with someone who potentially wanted to kill him.

“If it’s the first, I didn’t have much of a choice. My sister blew up her door; the room, her bed, her things – everything, is filled with splinters, and she was drunk off her ass last night. Leaving her to her own devices in there would’ve probably ended badly. It’s not as if we did anything in here. We slept next to each other. That’s it.” He continued, not giving Jackson the chance to cut in. “as for the latter, you need to get through your thick skull that I’m not using her. Nor am I spending time with her simply to get to you. I knew Lulu long before I ever met you and found out you have feelings for her. I actually care about the girl, which, frankly, is almost as rare as a polar bear in Arizona. And she was upset yesterday, which you know.”

He shook his head, sighing. “You’re acting as though I’m stealing your girlfriend, which I’m not. So get your head out of your ass.” Drake was being surprisingly blunt and straight with Jackson at present, which was another rare sight, but he figured he needed to talk some sense into the head of his friend. And hell, this was all the effort Drake was going to make. If it didn’t work – if Jackson was too self absorbed to understand Drake’s dilemma in this, then… well, then he’d simply have a friend less. It’d suck, but he’d live. He wasn’t really a fan of partaking in drama. He’d much rather start it, and then watch from the sidelines.

---

---

Max’s hands in her hair were so relaxing, she almost dozed off. She’d closed her eyes and was humming slightly in sign of relaxation, her muscles incredibly comfortable. This was quite enjoyable, and she rather needed it. Maybe she should treat herself to a day at the spa or something? This night and morning with Max had done a lot for her alone. She didn’t know why, although maybe it was because Max cared. She didn’t have, nor did she want, a lot of people to care about her, but knowing that Max liked her for who she was, well… it was a little satisfying.

Soon, however, his hands began exploring her skin and that was when thoughts of Jay hit her, causing her to tense up, all of her relaxed state of mind completely forgotten. Sweet memories of the two together in the shower almost caused tears to run down her peach-coloured cheeks, but she refrained, instead merely remaining rigid, her hands clenched at her sides in a stubborn attempt not to cry. She’d cried enough. He didn’t deserve her tears if he could do that to her… if he could actually fuck someone else. These thoughts had been the only things able to bring her to do what she had with Max.

Sex was therapy, and Max was a god in bed. Ergo: one very damned good psychologist, which was funny considering his job. It didn’t take her long to decide that she needed some sort of distraction, and so, her voice reflecting her current mood, she spoke, simply saying that they should repeat this: the two of them fucking, the sleeping together. It had been nice, and rather therapeutic. Most likely because it had given her something other than Jay to think about.

When Max replied to her, her name on his tongue filled with worried inquiry, she almost wanted to slap herself. Why hadn’t she just kept her mouth shut? She’d just had to say something, alluding him to her feelings and thoughts at present. It bugged the fuck out of her. Why did she have to be such a bloody idiot? She sighed when his hands began massaging her tense shoulders. She didn’t even want to reply, and so, she kept quiet. Right up until his hand moved to cup her face, turning it slightly towards him. She opened her eyes, her thick lashes fluttering.

She snorted at his words. He sounded so worried, and so diplomatic; careful, most likely wary of her reaction. He was talking to her as one would talk to a hungry lion about to attack. She had no actual expression on her face. In fact, she had no actual expression on the inside even. It was like she had suddenly slid into numbness. She sighed openly when he asked her whether she was aware that she could talk to him, and she turned around to face him, stepping fully into the water. She put her arms around his neck and closed her eyes as she leaned her head back, letting the water wash out most of the soap in her hair.

After a little while in silence, she straightened, eyes opening to look at him once more before he finally spoke, her eyes not quite readable. Most likely because Cor’s emotions were in turmoil – a turmoil she could not even access through the numbness. “Max,” she finally began, keeping her voice calm, but she couldn’t quite keep the pain out of the way she spoke. “I just lost the only guy I’ve ever loved. He left the party with a bitch, who I know sleeps around.”

“He was angry with me, and looking to get back at me for something I never did. He also happens to have been the sender of both note and condom. He wants to keep playing games, to keep hurting me, and I’m sick of it. So it’s going to be a while ‘till I’m feeling ‘okay’ again, alright? Asking me is redundant, because no… I’m not okay. I feel like tearing my heart out of my chest would be less painful than this, and I’m constantly fighting the urge to tear everything around me apart.”

She took a deep breath. Cor was being blunt, the only way she knew how to deal with things, even though she wanted to die, standing here being vulnerable. At the same time, though, Cor felt like Max had seen plenty already, so really, explaining all of this to him couldn’t possibly make things any worse. He’d seen her crying, for christ’s sake. Cor could count the amount of times anyone had ever seen her crying on one hand, and the majority of those had been when she was a kid.

She looked at Max’s chest for a little while, clearly wanting to say something more, but not quite sure how. Then, finally she looked back up at him, her hands moved to rest on his chest now. “Never had sex with anyone but him in the shower. Never showered with anyone but him.” Her voice was rather quiet, and though she didn’t want to be telling this to Max, she sort of knew she needed to. Not because of him, but because part of her recognized that if she was going to use Max the way she wanted to, he needed to at least know what he was dealing with,

And okay, maybe she did care about him... a little.

---

---

Chase nodded thoughtfully, chewing on a bite of apple as he listened to Amber speaking of her book. He’d hoped for something a little more academic, but looking at her, he could see the intelligence glimmering in her eyes, and so it stopped mattering to him. He wasn’t himself a huge bookworm, but he remained a smart guy, and so he didn’t expect girls to be either. It had merely been an indicator. And now, well, now he was a little interested as to her thought processes. If someone wrote down their thoughts, there was usually a particular reason for it, and that piqued his interest further.

He sunk another bite of the apple, and smiled at her when she asked him about his arrival, noting that she hadn’t seen him before. He hadn’t missed the fact that her lips had seemed to become redder all by themselves and he made a note to himself about asking her how that worked. He assumed it was part of her powers. Again, so weird seeing that stuff displayed so openly. He was having a bit of difficulty figuring out what her power might be, but he was rather fascinated. Not that he dwelled on it for long, instead preferring to answer her question like was proper and polite. He couldn’t just let her hanging simply because her lips had caught his attention… in more than one way. He was a young man, after all, and she was rather beautiful.

He only just started with a “well, I…” when her phone buzzed and she moved to check it. He immediately paused, his eyebrows raised just enough to be noticeable. She was checking her texts? Well, he told him as he regained his friendly smile, maybe she was just checking in case it was important. See, as Chase had been raised by two elderly people, the concept of cellphones had always been a little odd to them, and since he and his sister had never actually gone to a normal school while being old enough to have them, the rules had always seemed normal to him. And so, Chase considered it rather rude to be texting while in conversation with someone else. It showed a lack of interest, and it usually resulted in a decrease in the amount of attention given.

However, he recognized that maybe Amber simply had another take on this, and he didn’t really expect everyone to be the same way as him. He was just… having troubles shaking off the strict upbringing. He was determined to try, however. Chase had decided to try to school-thing, after… well, after being forced to, but well, he never did anyways half ways. He was going to try this and see it through. And he was going to learn in the process.

However, when she started typing, his toes curled. It was an involuntary reaction, and he wanted more than anything to be completely chill about this, because honestly he was starting to feel like a snob, which he wasn’t. There were just… certain things he couldn’t quite take and it was almost enough to quit the conversation then and there. Obviously she didn’t really have much of an interest, and he wasn’t about to push an unwilling girl in any direction. Hmm, maybe she was a pushover after all. He tilted his head to the side a little, regarding her curiously. All the while, he merely kept eating his apple.

Then, finally, she put her phone away and looked at him once more. Well, at least she apologized. And he didn’t really know what it had been about. Maybe she had a sick mother or something. He inwardly nodded to himself, deciding to forgive and forget, and so he smiled at Amber, putting his apple core into the nearby trashcan. He couldn’t help a little chuckle when she mentioned Sky though. “Sky, you say? Unless we have more than one Sky on campus, I believe he’s my roommate.”

He smiled at her before continuing, “regarding your previous question… yes, I’m rather new. I arrived during the party yesterday, but my sister and I decided to unpack and unwind after the long drive instead of joining everyone.” He chuckled, remembering Sky and his companion. “Although it seems we were missing out?” He couldn’t help it; he was actually rather curious. Maybe his roommate was merely the type who had fun no matter where he was. He seemed the type.

---

---

Rebecca thought over Katia’s explanation for her lacking classes on Mondays, and tilting her head slightly, she considered it. She supposed it was a possibility, but it didn’t really sound like the headmaster she knew. Leo had always been very thorough with these things as far as she knew, and she couldn’t quite imagine him changing the schedules again in a couple of days due to a new teacher putting Dance on the schedules. It would mess things up as they were changing schedules today. And so, concluding on that in her thoughts, she shrugged and sent a small smile in Katia’s direction. “Suppose so, but maybe you should double check. Just to be sure. We all just got new schedules today.” Then she continued by telling Katia about Leo’s usual whereabouts.

Rebecca paused when Katia thanked her, and she looked over at the brunette female, thinking without a remotely readable mien. She smiled in a surprisingly friendly manner when Katia attempted to elaborate, and feeling the woman’s discomfort with it, Rebecca brushed her off with a gesture. “Don’t worry about it.” She began, shrugging with her smile still present. “Really, it’s okay to need a bit of help once in a while. And you’re welcome.” She took the bottle of pills from Katia and put it back where she found it, closing and locking the cabinet. She wasn’t about to leave it around for students to get their hands on.

She looked around her, scanning the room. She’d removed the glass, locked up the cabinets. That left the pills out and about. She didn’t even know which went where and, well… Amy would notice different jars for them in any case. Her eyes soon went back to Katia, however, and she sighed when she was thanked for her discretion. However, she remained quiet as Katia began moving forwards, her legs a little too unsteady, but at least moving and she could stand upright on her own, so that was definitely improvement. She could see the relieve on Katia’s face and so, she decided to inform the woman of her own thoughts on this.

“I have to tell Amy something. You know that, right?” she looked Katia straight in the eyes, taking a stance in this for once. She had let the other run the show a little, because… well, Rebecca would’ve probably felt bad if she hadn’t helped her some in this situation. “She’ll notice the broken glass jars, the pills on the counter, the bottles rearranged in the cabinets and so forth. That wouldn’t really result in anything good for anyone.” She smiled apologetically. “So as much as I want to respect your wish of secrecy, it’s simply not entire possible. Well, either that, or you say something yourself. That way only what you want her to know, will be revealed.”

She was really trying to compromise with this woman, wanting to make sure no one got the sucky end of this. Which was a little weird. Rebecca usually wasn’t the type to pay that much attention to others. She would’ve most likely just gone to Amy herself without much consideration towards the stranger who had broken into the medical room. Maybe it was Katia’s blunt honesty that had earned her the blonde’s grudging respect, and on some level she knew Katia had told her more than she had told most others, and Rebecca didn’t wish to break that trust. Well, not particularly.

With Katia’s following words, Rebecca smiled, eyes landing on the stray pills on the counter once more. “I hope so. Although mostly for your own sake. This whole deal doesn’t exactly look comfortable.” The blonde checked the clock on her wrist, making sure she wasn’t in a hurry… which she still wasn’t. She had time before class. Her students would simply have to wait outside the classroom until she arrived. She wouldn’t be late in any case. She just wouldn’t be half an hour early either. She then looked back at Katia, adding a “you okay to walk properly now?”

It wasn’t everyday someone was paired with a roommate willing to help look for stray underwear left behind during some drunken adventure the night before. When Alli replied that she would love to help, Lulu scoffed in mild surprise. The girl just seemed like such a…goody toe shoes? Wanting to get into the Olympics, dexterity, up on time for class, probably one of a handful of students not hungover. The blond felt obligated to clean up her shabby act around her roommate but she still desperately wanted to understand what the hell had happened last night. Had I been of clear mind I would never have let him take me back to his room. I’m not vindictive. I respect Jackson. So what happened?

“And you're...Causton, right?" Alli asked. Lulu brought a hand to rub at the crown of her hair. “I….um sure?” she replied. While she had gone to the assembly she had been preoccupied with the fact that two boys in front of her had thought it funny to shoot spitballs into the back of a freshman’s head. That and her power hangover had had her leaning on Jackson for support and practically nodding off halfway through. "You've got English first thing, according to this. We'd better get looking. If you did leave any clothing there, you'd probably want to retrieve it before anyone sees it. Might raise a few eyebrows,” Alli concluded. The brunette was fast to get to her feet, pushing aside the makeshift curtain that was their door for now. Lulu slipped off the bed and dug through her backpack for her pair of beat up black converse. As she shoved her feet into them she watched Alli put on a pair of much nicer looking boots. When Lulu stood next to her, she realized the Brunette was relatively petite, even though Lulu herself was far from model height. She smiled and stepped through the curtain into the much better lit hallway. She felt the unsteadiness of her hangover catch up to her and she leaned into the hallway opposite of their room for a moment before stepping back, acknowledging that it was still Drake and Jackson’s room across the hall. Why do I keep forgetting that fact?

Lulu was immediately caught up in the loud hum of male voices behind the door. The wood and walls were too thick for anything to be discernible but she could tell the discussion was heated. At least they’re talking. But about what?...Me? She didn’t have time to think on it anymore than that.

"I think the game room's nearest here. We'll try there first, then check the four common rooms,” Alli said. Lulu had to hand it to her, she was a natural born leader. “Cool,” Lulu replied. “Lead the way.”

As they made their way through the halls Lulu tried her best to be as quick as she could. Normally she was a speed walker, cutting through crowds like she was Jason Bourne trying to get away from some government killer out to get him. She didn’t have much to offer by way of small talk, with her focus being on her prayers that no one had found her bra and underwear where Drake had left him. Oh God, what did I do? she wondered. How could he have left her in the dark on this? She was fighting with her memory again when they stepped into the game room. Immediately she knew it wasn’t right. “The couches I saw in my memory were black and navy,” she noted. “These are red and whatever else colors.”

She checked her watch again. Well, in all honesty she would rather be late for class than possibly permit someone else, or worse a staff member to come across her castaways. Lulu’s stomach twisted into a violent knot. “Look, I don’t want you to be late. So where’s the nearest common room for us, from our room?” she asked. It made sense in her head. In Noctrem, Drake had spent so much time with her in their nearest common room. Their late nights up had been eaten away there because both of their rooms had always been off limits for some odd reason. They had always looked in but never stepped over the threshold while the other was in the room. After all, Lulu had stolen some of his better liquor while he showered on occasion. But it had always felt like she was somewhere she shouldn’t be. That lesson held even this morning, she thought lowly. But she would be kidding herself if she didn’t admit how much she liked waking up to him, feeling his chest against her back, his head on top of her shoulder, his arm wrapped over her hip. That idea had her curling her toes in her shoes.

Lulu followed Alli to their next location, still just as pre-occupied, still just as troubled with her hangover. The more she walked, the more her head pounded but that didn’t stop her. The moment they entered the common room she knew it was the place. She moved to the couch closest to a mock fire place and started tossing away the pillows and cushions, finding nothing initially. “Ohhhh my God Drake, where the hell did you put them?” she said aloud in frustration, not even caring that Alli was present to hear her comment. She got down on her hands and knees and looked underneath it,, swiping her hand through the space to find something, her hand grasping at loose fabric and pulling.

Only to recoil at the sight of a red thong that was most certainly not hers. “Oh gross! Oh my God I just touched that. Shit!” she squealed, throwing them across the room and rubbing her hand like mad against her pants. She leaned up against the couch and looked at Alli before smiling, feeling her laughter coming on. “I can’t believe I just did that…” she snorted. "I didn't even know that I had that register in my voice."

With his girlfriend tightly wrapped in his masculine arms, without holding her too tight in fear of hurting their unborn child, Leo kissed the top of her forehead, probably for the thousandth time that morning, hoping to console her in what little way he could. He felt useless, and horrible - it was his fault that his Amy was so upset, and there wasn't a thing that he could do about it, without hurting someone else, someone that he had once been very close to. Words flowed out of his mouth as he tried to make everything better, holding her into his chest - but apparently something he said was wrong; very, very wrong.

"A little while is a little while, Amy. You know I could just kick someone out who needed a place to stay; I did exactly the same as I'm doing for Katia with the Noctrem students. I don't even have to socialize with her all that much, darling."

Leo never had to think about what he was saying, all that much, until he got into a relationship - especially one with a friend as close to him as Amy was. And now, as he tried to think over the words that he had just said, there was nothing that he could pinpoint to be wrong. All he had done was tell her the truth about his past with Katia, and that there was nothing else there between them any more, was that wrong of him? An expression of confusion came over the male as he watched his girlfriend scamper away from him, as if she was terrified of him. His arms stretched out slightly towards her, mentally trying to will her back into his grasp, but to no prevail. Something had frightened her, so much so that even his embrace wasn't comforting any more, and that worried him.

Suddenly, when tears burst from her eyes, flowing in steady streams down her cheeks, Leonardo started to panic once again. "Amy?" His voice was almost frantic as he watched her sliding down the wall, collapsing onto the floor in a mess. He rushed to her side, and used his thumb to ever so softly try and wipe away some of her tears. Of course, they were just replaced by more, but it was the thought that counted, and he continued to do so, as she just sat there and cried.

At her words, Leo froze, pulling back a little, so that he was able to look her in the eye. "Amy... really? We have no unfinished business, I can promise you. And you know how sound my promises are. I love you, Amalthea Roerig, and I will until the world ends and I cease to exist. You are the only person that has ever gotten themselves so deeply penetrated into my heart, and you will forever be the only one there. You're never going to loose me, Amy. I swear to you." His hand reached out slowly again to brush away a stray tear that was about to drop from the end of her chin, a caring smile on his face.

"I love you, Amy."

---

Whilst the blanket over his most private of parts caused some relief for the Irish man, it still didn't relieve any part of the anger, confusion, or guilt that had grown inside him over the last few days. He was angry at Drake, for bringing Lulu back here, especially as he was sure that the man who was supposed to be one of his best friends had been told everything by the girl of his dreams. He felt guilty for using Jessica the previous night to get over his own stupid feelings for his friend, and he was also confused as to what had actually gone on the night before - as well as being slightly stunned at the feelings he was beginning to realize had developed for the beautiful brunette that had spent the night in his bed.

At least she actually like him back, in some way, which was a bonus.

He had wanted to be let go, purely for the reason that his wrists were in pain, chafing from the metal around his wrists, cutting into his skin. Jackson wasn't going to run out on Drake, and leave the conversation unsaid; he wasn't the sort of person to do that. In fact, he thought it would be good, for him to get out everything in his system, to tell Drake how pissed he was at him. He just lay there with his body arched slightly to accommodate the awkward position of his arms, his eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling above him as Drake started talking to him, asking why he was so annoyed with the situation.

Jackson kept inside everything he actually wanted to say to the man - about how he knew that even though Drake believed that he was feeling something for Lulu, that he was going to get bored of her. It was the same story with Drake, and he didn't want to see Lu get hurt. A small laugh escaped the male's lips however as he was told to get his head out of his ass, and he shook his head, a movement he instantly regretted when the whiskey induced migraine started to penetrate his temples. "Seriously? I need to get my head out of my ass, Drake? How fun." Jack's accent was thick with his Irish drawl as his irritated voice filled the room.

"I'm pissed, because I wasn't enough of a man to tell her I loved her. Because I have no-one else to blame but myself, and my stupid chivalrous ways, whereby I thought I was going to hurt her, so I tried to move on. And I lost her. But I don't want to blame myself, even though I am the only one to blame. So please, just let me go, so I can go apologize to numerous amounts of people, and have a couple of aspirin before I die."

---

It was strange, having Corentine in his arms without any incentive to bend her over and take her as his own, but it was also rather nice. It was different, but something he could definitely get used to, that was for sure. Relationships were extremely unusual and foreign for Max Henderson, and also something he didn't want in the near future, but he wanted something like this. With someone like Cor. Nothing expected, or labelled, but.... a companionship. Yes, that was a nice word - Max wanted Corentine to be his companion. A companion he could have sex with whenever he pleased, but still.

The silence after his words was soon broken when Corentine turned around in his arms and wrapped her own around his neck, pressing her wet, lathery body against his, but letting her head drop back. She looked incredibly hot in such a position, and he had to hold himself back from bending her over and letting his hands roam her perfect body. Instead, he decided to listen to her, his own hands moving to wrap around her waist, holding her against him. It should have made Max feel uncomfortable, having a girl bear her feelings to him, as it was something he just wasn't accustomed to, but it didn't - again adding to the strangeness that the male was feeling. He liked it.

A small shudder ran through the males spine as he thought about this, shrugging it off to the young woman in front of him that he was cold, not thinking about deeper things. "No more asking if you're okay, got it." He smiled gently, removing one of his hands from her body to run through her hair, brushing out the last remaining bits of shampoo that were trapped between her blonde locks. He could see she was beginning to feel as uncomfortable as he was at the moment, and he wanted to move the conversation on-wards, to anything other than Jaysin, or Rebecca, or even their strange little agreement. But, if he did that, he was sure that he would be seen as insensitive, dick-like, or something along those lines, and seeing as Corentine was being so open with him - he didn't want to loose that connection between them.

"I can always get out, if you like." Max shrugged his large shoulders, looking at the woman in his arms. "Once in a life time offer, pet. I'm not usually this nice, you know." His trade-mark smirk appeared on his lips, dancing on his face as he spoke, turning the conversation in a lighter direction, as much as he possibly could.

Leo’s touch proved exceptionally bothering to her, even though he was merely wiping away her tears, looking at her with that half-panicked, worried look in his beautiful eyes. She just… couldn’t have him touching her right now. It was… too much. Regardless, the brunette remained in place, crying. She’d put herself in a corner, so there was no way of getting away from him anyways. Gods, she could hardly look at him. Every time her violet depths grazed him, they fell back onto the floor almost automatically, and her heart was aching in her chest. It hurt, and she didn’t even know why. He had done nothing. How could she blame him for being with someone else when they had not been together? She didn’t even know.

All she knew was that she had loved him and missed him secretly, while he had been off with some… some woman. And she couldn’t see them together. She couldn’t. Not knowing that they had been together. It was too much. When she spoke, sobs raking her entire body and cutting off her sentences in the oddest of places, causing her to stutter through it, she could feel Leo freezing up, pulling back a little. The movement caused her to raise her eyes, to try to read his eyes even though looking at him hurt so much. She just… needed to know what he was thinking. What he was feeling.

As he spoke, Amy felt her tears drying up and her lips curving into a vague smile of their own accord. She sniffled, looking up at him with part hurt, part love in her eyes. This man in front of her was the love of her life. Amy had known that for years, and she could feel her heart letting itself be swallowed by that love. As she looked into the most caring, loving eyes she had ever seen, everything else seemed to fade away. He loved her. She had nothing to worry about. It would be fine. Their bump would be fine… their family would be fine.

“I-” she began, not even able to properly speak a sentence, or to move enough to let her boyfriend know they were okay, when the earth began trembling beneath them. She froze, her eyes widening in shock. It couldn’t be. No. No, they couldn’t have an earth quake now! Not now. Please, not now! She had too much already and… oh gods, the kids. All of those kids! “Leo…” she said on a gasp, but he was already on the move, screaming at her to keep still and to remain exactly where she was. But she couldn’t do that! She needed to get outside and then she needed to help anyone she could. She needed to heal up anything who might have gotten and she… she couldn’t stay there.

As Leo stumbled his way to the panic button, Amy dared moving onto all fours, trying to achieve some kind of balance in the shaking building. Oh gods, she couldn’t die now. Leo would be alone again. She couldn’t die now. She shook her head, taking a deep breath before moving to get onto her feet, except she’d only begun bending her knees, pushing up her body with her hands, when a loud crack had her turning her head right in time to see one of Leo’d giant bookcases falling. She screamed, trying to scramble away, but the fall was too fast and as books began hitting her, Amy tried to curve herself into a ball, protecting both her head and her baby, but the movement had no time to reach completion before the big wooden furniture hit her hard, smacking against her bump, effectively capturing the lower part of her body.

She cried out in pain, tears falling as she tried to push off the bookcase. Oh… no. No! That flutter of life… that beautiful little beat in her… that extra flow of energy within her… it was gone. As realization hit, the word “no” echoed through the apartment, a pained scream. She couldn’t stop the tears from falling, and she didn’t care. The screaming didn’t stop either as she hysterically tried to push the heavy bookcase off of her, fruitlessly trying to save her little bump. It couldn’t be. They’d just given it life and now it was just… gone. “No, no, no, no, no no!” She kept screaming the words as she thrashed violently, but the bookcase wouldn’t budge. Her baby was… gone. Pain tore through her already vulnerable heart, breaking it into thousands of little pieces. Never had she experienced pain like this. Physical pain was nothing in comparison… it didn’t even register. Her baby. It was just… gone…

---

---

When Max without further discussion, merely told her he wouldn’t ask whether she was okay or not anymore, she sighed, feeling relieved. She couldn’t entirely pinpoint why, but she knew it had something to do with the fact that a conversation always ended up depressing and awkward. Just look at the mood between herself and Max at current. It was tense and odd and just sort of off in comparison to the usual ease with which they socialized. She and Max had always sort of gotten along effortlessly, like being around him was so… easy. It had never been forced or awkward, perhaps because they were so much on the same page without any words being uttered.

They just knew that they fit. Not like a couple (Gods no, they were both train wrecks), but as something different. Something she didn’t know what was. Especially not after yesterday. Maybe that was why she felt somewhat okay with talking to him. She’d cried in front of him, and had that been most other people in his situation, Cor would’ve never gotten past it. The embarrassment was too much, but part of her sort of had to admit that she didn’t entirely mind him seeing the more sensitive side of her. Contrary to what she wanted people to believe, it did exist. It just rarely surfaced at all.

Then again, Cor had always been taught that to care was to be weak, and weakness was the last thing she should ever want to be. She supposed she and Drake bonded over their fucked up childhoods, although they differed in one very important way; Drake wasn’t a sadistic type of guy. He didn’t take pleasure in the misery or downfall of others, although he sometimes found the reactions somewhat amusing. No, Drake took no pleasure from it. Corentine did. Then again, he’d been sent away for several years. She, however, had been left alone with a mother who cared mostly about the amount of power her pretty little daughter had, and building that power… was essential. In fact, it came before motherly concerns.

Of course her mother had not been a total failure. In fact, Imogen had spent a lot of time with Cor, and the two had bonded quite well, so Cor rarely thought of why she was the way she was… mostly because she didn’t really care to. She was a bitch, everyone knew that. She was a sadistic young woman with an unforgiving nature, and she accepted that, because she actually did quite like herself, but in situations like this, when her heart had been broken, she sometimes wished she’d learned a way to cope. Instead Cor had found her own medicine; sex. It probably wasn’t the best of cures, but it worked, and if she could keep to Max this time… perhaps things would go over better. A girl could hope.

When Max offered to get out, Cor smiled wryly, having reinstated her wall as she moved her hands down, palms against his chest before she pushed him up against the wall of the shower, feeling the water run down her back as she stepped up to him, her wet body pressing into his as she looked up at him. “Now, Max, why would I come to you, seeking ‘nice’…” She said to him playfully, eyes on his as she moved a hand further down, stopping at his navel before adding, “when bad is so much more fun?” With that, Cor leaned up, her lips taking his passionately.

If she was to get past Jay, then she needed to do it fully. Which meant she had to force herself into doing things she didn’t feel entirely comfortable with. She needed to kiss him. She just… had to. Part of her wanted to stop, to move away from him immediately, but she forced the contact, her mind focusing on the way his hands felt on her skin, the way his lips felt on hers, the way his body had always driven her wild. She needed to focus on those things… on the physical.

Cor had barely begun the kiss when the everything seemed to begin shaking. She drew back, looking around furiously. “What the…” she began, but stopped immediately when the glass of the shower began showing cracks. “Max… we need to get out of here,” she said then, eyes wide. “Like… now.” With that stepped forwards to pry then glass door open, except the second the touched it, the sounds of cracking glass filled the room.

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Chase was still waiting for some kind of reply, watching Amber with a smile on his face, when the ground began trembling beneath his feet, and as he looked around, people seemed just as perplexed as him, shocked into some kind of inactive state. His smile faded away immediately as he stood. “We should probably get outside,” he shouted to amber over the roar of the earth quake. To no prevail, because as Chase moved to grab Amber’s wrist to pull her outside with him, he heard a cracking sound.

As he looked up, all he really registered was a huge crack in the ceiling… and a great lamp falling straight towards him. He had no time to react, no time to think, no time to… do anything, as the huge piece of furniture hit him on the head, killing him instantly. His body crumbled into a heap at Amber’s feet.