She was fastening her seatbelt when a Ford Ranger got out of the parking slot two cars away from them, and she saw a glimpse of Noah in the passenger seat with a small head peeking next to him.

She saw four people inside the car. There was a woman sitting in the passenger seat, while Noah and Lucille were in the backseat. She smirked, so they were going out as a family.

She stopped the bitterness that was slowly creeping in her heart. Feeling ashamed, she fumbled on her seatbelt, the rearview mirror, and anything her hands could touch inside her car. She was born and raised in a broken family, she knew how as a child, the only thing she ever wanted and wished for was to see her parents being together, and not fighting.

Being upset with the fact that Noah was together with his family right now, flooded her with too much guilt. She saw herself with Lucille. She remembered at the age and point of her life, she just wanted her parents to be together - in her case her mother was taken away from her in that car accident. But, Lucille still has both her parents and she has no right to be the reason for it not to happen.

"Was that our neighbor?"

Luke's question jolted her from her seat, "Huh? I didn't see." She maneuvered her SUV out of her parking space. She will bring Luke to her friend's store to get him some furniture and other stuff he would need in his new place.

"You are such a bad liar, Little Jessie." He shook his in disbelief. He saw Noah's car passed them by and Jess was stared longingly at the car as if she wanted to be in there with them. And right after, he watched Jess fidget inside the car, trying so hard to act unaffected.

"Yes, I am lying. I did see them. So, there. Can we just drop it?" she snarled bitterly at her friend. She hated herself the moment she spat those words. She couldn't believe how bitchy she sounded. "Sorry," she mumbled under her breath. She has her eyes focused on the road.

"Got it." he zipped his mouth, opened the car window, and threw an imaginary key.

She chuckled at what Luke did. She was glad that she has Luke right now to distract her. Furnishing his apartment is a good distraction -- since school is out and she finished all the projects and homework she had ahead of time because she was expecting to be having a spring break with her friends that now will not happen.

Her friends bailed out of their plan to be with their boyfriends. 'Tsk, such friends.' She was still salty about it, especially that she couldn't do anything since her friends were certified crazy over their boyfriends.

"Where is this place?"

She glanced over her shoulder as she watched the back of her SUV as they parked in front of a building that saw better days. The whole front of the building was sprayed with colorful graffiti. The building is not somewhere you should venture to when it's dark. Because even in broad daylight the building has the aura of a place you should not go into.

"What is this place, Jess?" he watched the dubious-looking facade of the building. "I didn't know you have some friends from this kind of place." He stared at Jess like he just met her for the first time. Jess has an aura of a sheltered princess - a princess that has a foul mouth and does not gives a fuck with anything or anyone around her. But this place is a different matter.

He would not be surprised at this point if a burly man, with tattoos, would order them to get out of the car and ask them why they are in this part of town.

"It's not what you think," she said as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

"Is it safe to leave your car here?" he asked as he did the same.

"Yes, this place is safe. They have enough CCTV for thieves to think twice. Besides, who would rob this place?" she chuckled.

"Well true. It's the last place I would expect to find something worth taking."

"But then, looks can be deceiving." she winked at her friend who was still not sold with the idea that the place is safe.

She got out of the car and pressed a buzzer next to the metal door. She looked at the top of the door to give the camera a clear shot of her face. Then, they heard the door was opened from the inside.

He grabbed Jess' elbow and asked in a low voice, "Are you sure about this place? I'm fine with IKEA."

She just chuckled and pushed the metal door. He wasn't expecting to see narrow stairs behind the door. Jess climbed up the stairs like she has been here before.

"Jace, I'm home."

'Home? It was supposed to be a furniture store. What in the world was she talking about home?' He followed her closely, thinking that he may be not a good fighter but he could use his height to protect this stupid girl ahead of him, skipping like Alice off to wonderland.

He got another surprise when they reached the top stairs and saw the whole open-spaced quite bright, for the glass window from the outside that was covered with dirty graffiti brightened the whole white floor with different colors.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" a raspy voice from a man that sounded like he just rolled off the bed jolted him from admiring the color of lights on the floor.

When he glanced up, his eyes met a lanky man standing almost the same height as him, he had bed hair that looks so damn sexy, he was topless and his washboard abs were displayed in full glory, he was thinking how nice it would be to have him on the floor.

He has some kind of vine tattoo creeping in his right arm to the base of his neck, in his skin that looks like hasn't seen a sun.

"How can I help you?"

His gaze moved to his face when he heard him speak in his throaty voice again, and he noticed that his eyes were green, and they looked sleepy because they were surrounded with such thick lashes.

"Bed. I want a bed with you." he stammered when the delicious-looking man named Jace chuckled. "I mean, we are here to buy a bed."