"See, wasn't that fun?" Luna said overly happily, as she pushed open the front door of her house. "No boys, no weird agreements with evil spawns."

I rolled my eyes. I had heard her say this way too many times over the last two weeks. Every day, it's been her mission to "keep me distracted," as if this was some sort of Carson cleanse.

She had done a great job of turning this into that. I haven't even talked to him, let alone spend any time with him.

Weirdly enough, I think I am starting to miss Carson?

Not him, technically.

I think what it is, honestly, is that I just got used to having someone in the next room to annoy. I guess I just missed his company.

But not him. Definitely not him.

Carson hasn't even tried to talk to me. He just kind of stays away.

Even when we're all together, having lunch or at someone's house, he says nothing to me. And I have made a fair amount of comments to get a rise out of him; I've given him easy pass after easy pass, and still, nothing.

Yelling at each other used to be our thing, and now, he doesn't ever speak to me or pick fights with me for the hell of it. If we're being honest, it's probably an improvement for us, but still, it's weird.

The only time I even hear anything from Carson is when he's screaming on the phone in his room. He seems to spend a lot more time in there lately. Not that I pay attention anyways.

"Yeah, Luna. Lots of fun," I replied, breaking away from my thoughts.

She rolled her eyes, as she placed her large shopping bags at the foot of her bed. "You could at least try to make it sound real."

"Sorry, I'm just not in the mood today," I responded as I fell on her bed.

For the majority of the past two weeks, I've been putting up with her antics. I know she's just doing what she thinks is best, and honestly, I don't really mind. It keeps me from sleeping with Carson, and it made her happy. But today, I just did not feel like doing anything at all.

"Come on," Luna pestered, grabbing my arm and attempting to pull me off of the bed.

"Luna," I whined, "I really don't want to."

"Yes you do." She pulled me off the bed. I hit the ground with a thud and ignored the minor pain as I stood up.

"Fine, if it'll get you to shut up," I said.

Luna threw me the short, a red dress I had bought earlier today. I silently put it on, not having the energy to argue with her anymore.

* * *

I threw back another shot of whatever had been put in front of me before slamming the glass back down on the counter and sliding it across the table, away from me.

"Damn, would you like a chaser to go with that?" I heard someone call from my side, yelling over the music.

I rolled my eyes, ready to shoot down whatever pick-up line this guy had prepared after that.

Biting my tongue, I turned my head to the left. I was pleasantly surprised by the guy standing at my side. He was cute, tall, tanned skin, dark brown eyes, curly hair, muscular.

"I've never seen you before." He said, causing me to stop checking him out.

I scratched my nose, turning to try and find Luna in the crowd of people. I looked for about five seconds before deciding not to.

"Do you make a list of every girl that enters?" I asked. "Or do you just take photos of each one and add it to the collage hanging above your bed?"

He laughed, "No. I did have the collage, but my mother found it and made me take it down."

I nodded my head, "Should've hid it in your closet. On the wall, behind your clothes."

"This is Donahue High's playground. You can find pretty almost all of us here on weekends. They don't card," he whispered the last part.

I smiled, "I'm from the other side of town."

"Let me guess, you're one of those Valor Academy chicks?" He smirked.

"Is there a problem with that?" I asked

He shook his head and shrugged, "No, no. Sorry, I just know a few girls from there, and they're all... how do I say this-"

"Bitches?" I finished.

"Yeah," he agreed.

I shrugged, "You probably had the pleasure of running into Lana and her posse. Trust me, everyone else is fairly humane."

He nodded his head, "Glad to hear it. I'm Eli."

"Maddie."

Although this conversation was the best part of my day thus far, it was straining my ears. The music was too loud for me to keep this up.

"You wanna dance?" I shouted.

"Sure," he held out his hand for me to take. He led me through the crowd until we were sandwiched in with everyone else.

He placed his hands on my hips lightly and I threw my arms around his neck. We moved to the beat of whatever song played. He knew how to dance, that's for sure, and I just let him guide me.

I tried to enjoy myself, I really did. And I was so close to melting away, but then I made the fatal mistake of closing my eyes. As soon as I closed my eyes, I was shook back to reality. I pushed Eli off of me. He was stunned for a second, but I didn't stay long enough for him to ask any questions.

Before I could even process it, I was shoving my way through people, trying to make my way to the door. I reasoned that Luna would find her own way home (she always does), as I ran down the street, hailing for a taxi.

As I pushed through the cluster of people standing outside, I tried to make sense of what I just did. Part of me already knew, but I didn't want to admit it. Call it a moment of weakness, but there was only one thought running through my head: it wasn't him.

* *

I rubbed my forehead as I threw the house keys on the counter. All of the lights were off, which meant everyone was already asleep.

I trudged up the stairs, sulking the entire way. I couldn't switch off my mind. It was wrong, it was so wrong what I was thinking about. But I couldn't stop.

I opened the door, leaving the lights off. I unzipped my dress, letting it fall off my body, not bothering to pick it up from the floor. I took the hoodie that was always conveniently thrown to the edge of the bed.

I climbed into bed and wrapped an arm around his stomach, placing my head on his chest, feeling warm. His breathing hitched for a moment, and I stilling, knowing that he was aware I was here. I was ready for him to yell or force me out, but then, I felt him loosely wrap an arm around my back. His breathing went back to normal. I smiled: this, this is him.

* * *