The rest of the week passed quickly. School was better. Ashton never returned from the forest, so I never saw him again that week. Katherine and I had been texting and I found out she had the flu, and that she blamed me for giving it to her. I had to laugh at that.

Saturday rolled around and I found myself excited to work with Josh. Neither of us mentioned what had happened and we both seemed to have moved on. However, it was always in the back of my mind.

Waking up half an hour before Josh was supposed to be here, I quickly get out a pair of leggings and a Doctor Who t-shirt. I change out of my pajamas quickly and, pausing to look at my now clear skin, I smile and get into my clothes that I'm wearing today. The bruises are finally gone.

I walk swiftly out of my room and walk past my parent's room. Glancing in their room, I see that the bed is already made so I know that they've already left. I jog down the stairs and go into the kitchen.

I decide to make a bagel and cream cheese. Getting out the bagels and cream cheese, I quickly pop one bagel into the toaster. Realizing that I left my shoes upstairs, I run back up the stairs to my room and grab my moccasins and head back downstairs.

Once I enter the kitchen, the toaster beeps and my bagels pop up. I grab a butter knife and quickly spread the cream cheese on my bagel. I start eating immediately once I notice that I have ten minutes until Josh gets here.

Suddenly, a honk sounds from outside. I look at the clock and realize that Josh is early. I quickly finish eating my bagel and slip on my moccasins. Another honk sounds and I smile at Josh's impatience. I walk to the garage and open the garage door. I wave at Josh when the door gets high enough. He responds by pointing at his non-existent watch. I roll my eyes at him and walk to the keypad to close the garage door. I type in the quick five number password and the garage door starts to close.

I turn around and still see Josh pointing to his non-existent watch. I open the door to his car and Josh lets out an annoyed sigh.

"Patient much?" I ask him sarcastically.

"I can be patient, if I don't have to wait forever." Josh responds just as sarcastic as I was. Josh playfully glares at me as he pulls out of my driveway. I return his glare until I notice that he's not looking at the road.

"Watch the road, you idiot!" I shout at Josh. He chuckles and slowly turns his head to watch the road.

"I know where I'm going." Josh says.

I scoff, "But you don't know if a car will come barreling down the road and crash into you."

Josh simply chuckles again, but he keeps his eyes on the road. Quiet music fills the space and I realize that the radio has been on this entire time. I start to listen to it as Josh drives on.

We enter the main part of the town. Josh continues to drive through the town until we are on the other side. We keep on driving for a couple minutes until, through the trees, I can see the outline of a house. A small gasp comes out of my mouth as I realize where were going.

"You live here?" I exclaim when the huge house comes into view. This was the same house that I saw the day we came here. It looked even bigger up close.

Josh laughs, "Yeah, quite a few of us do." His laughing stops abruptly and he glances at me. His eyes give away what his mouth doesn't, that he wasn't supposed to say that.

"What do you mean? Do you have a big family?" I ask him, catching on quickly.

Josh hesitates, "Yes, kind of. I mean, I consider them family, but they're not. It's kind of like a," Josh stops and it looks like he's having trouble finding the right word, "like a community home. Yeah, a community home."

"Oh, okay." I respond. That's kind of strange that it's a community home, but I guess that explains why the house is so big.

Josh turns into what I assume is the driveway. We roll up towards the house. Josh makes a right turn when the driveway splits in two. I'm guessing the other way heads to the front of the house. We instead drive to where I assume the garage is located. My suspicions are confirmed when I see the open garage. We pull into the big garage and Josh parks the car.

Next to us is a nice, sleek, blue car. I look at it closely and realize that I've seen it before.

"That's the car that was outside my house."

"What do you mean? When was it outside your house?" Josh asks me.

"Josh, I swear that's the car that was outside my house and followed me to school one morning." I try to explain as I continue to look at the car.

"Evie, that's a pretty popular car. I'm sure that's not the car." Josh's voice of reason tells me. I turn back to look at him and he looks at me, expecting me to agree with him. I'm not in the mood for an argument, so I let it go right now.

"I guess."

Josh opens his door and I follow suit, both of us stepping out of the car. I close my door and then there's a short beep. I know Josh just locked the car.

"This is your house, why do you lock your car?" I ask him.

Josh shrugs, "We sometimes share cars, but this one is mine." I laugh at his possessiveness towards the car.

"Boys and their toys." I mock him. Josh shrugs again, probably agreeing with me, and motions me to follow him. I walk around the car and fall into step next to him. We reach the door that leads into the house, but before Josh opens the door, he stops me.

"Don't be nervous. People might look at you strangely." Josh seems to be choosing his words carefully.

I look at him curiously, "Why would they look at me strangely?"

Josh hesitates and again seems like he's choosing his words carefully, "I don't usually bring girls home."

I laugh. It's cute that he's self aware of what people will think of him with me, "You're so adorable."

"Hey," Josh's voice takes on a deeper tone, "I am not adorable. I don't ever want to hear that come out of your mouth again." Josh warns me. However, he ruins it by smiling at me. I make the zipping motion on my lips, telling him that my lips are sealed.

"They better be sealed." Josh mutters as he opens the door to the house.

My mouth drops open as I walk into Josh's house. Bright cream walls greet me, making the space seem larger than it is. Soft looking, white carpet covers the floor. We walk through the small hallway and into a living room. A long, elegant, dark brown couch sits in front of a flat screen tv. Two matching brown chairs sit on either side of the couch. A matching long coffee table sits directly in front of the couch. The tv sits in a large cabinet type piece of furniture. On either side of the tv, there's glass doors that open to reveal an amazing movie collection.

Josh keeps on walking through the living room and I trail behind him. We reach stairs that head up to the second floor. I head up the stairs behind Josh. That was only the living room, I wonder what the rest of the house looks like.

Once up the staircase, I'm surprised to see that pictures cover the walls of the hallway. Every picture is black and white and in a black frame. I start walking towards a group of photos, but Josh tugs me back by my arm.

"Come on Evie. It's not that interesting." Josh says, rolling his eyes, but I can tell he's nervous. His eyes glance to the pictures behind me and he tugs on my arm again.

"My room is this way." He says quickly and starts walking down the hall with me in tow. I follow him, but he doesn't let go of my arm.

We reach Josh's room and he opens the door and gestures for me to walk in first. I smirk at him and walk into his room. Once I walk in, I am greeted with a very masculine room. The walls are a nice, deep blue color, which match the sheets on the well-made bed that's against the wall in the center of the room. The bed is a deep brownish red color that surprisingly matches the deep blue. In the corner of the room, by the window, sits a desk that is the same brownish red color as the bed. A dresser of the same color sits next to a black colored door. It was a pretty nice room.

"Nice room." I voice my thoughts to Josh as I hear him close the door.

"I know." His voice is full of cockiness. I roll my eyes at him, though he can't see me doing it.

"Whatever. Let's get started, shall we." I respond, my eyes landing on a black lap top sitting on the desk.

"We shall," Josh agrees as he walks in front of me, towards the desk. I watch him as he grabs the lap top, "have a seat and you can use the lap top first."

"Have a seat where?" I scoff as I look around to prove that their aren't any chairs or anything to sit down on.

"The bed, the floor, I don't care. Just sit, Evie." Josh says playfully as he gestures to the bed and floor.

"I didn't want to be awkward and sit on your bed." I mumble dejectedly as I walk towards his bed.

"Ew, Evie. You're my friend." Josh says, disgust clear in his voice.

"I didn't mean it like that Josh!" I exclaim, my cheeks probably turning red from what he was suggesting.

"Hey, you were the one to suggest it." Josh shrugs.

"I was not!" I almost yell at him.

Josh laughs and walks over to me with the lap top. He sets the lap top on my lap and sits next to me. I open it and go straight to the internet.

"Well," I say to Josh as I start typing in the search box, "let's get started."

Three hours later and we hadn't gotten far. Josh kept distracting me by asking a ton of random questions. I had a hard time finding the information we needed for the project. We had switched off every hour with who gets the computer to look things up. Somehow, we managed to be laying down next to each other with the computer in front of us both as I search through websites.

"Do you sleep more on your back, sides, or stomach?" Josh asks his newest question.

"All." I respond quickly while searching through the latest website. Finding this website to be helpful, I quickly save the URL as a bookmark.

"Do you want to take a break?" Another question fires off.

"Yes please." I sigh out and close the computer. Josh takes it and places it on the floor so there's more room.

"If you wanted a break that bad, you could of just taken one." Josh says to me as he rolls over onto his back.

I copy his actions and roll over to my back, "We wanted to get this done today, remember?"

"I remember. But it is a lot of work." Josh sympathizes with me.

"I know, but I didn't realized it would be that hard to find information." I sigh out, rubbing my hand across my face.

"We'll finish it." Josh says while squeezing my other hand reassuringly.

Suddenly, the door to Josh's room opens and in storms a mad looking Ashton. Josh's hand quickly retracts from my hand, but it seems he doesn't move it quick enough. Ashton seemed to have caught onto the movement. Ashton looks at us again, laying on the bed, and his anger seems to grow. I can almost swear I hear another growl coming from Ashton. I quickly glance back at Josh, to see if he hears anything, and see that he is wincing very severely.

"Hey, Josh. You okay?" I ask him, worry seeping through my voice.

"Evie, you need to leave." The response doesn't come from Josh. The demand comes from Ashton's clenched mouth. I turn my head back towards Ashton, only to see that he is staring at Josh and I still. I gape at Ashton, my mind not being able to comprehend why he's here or why he wants me to leave.

"Now." Another demand comes out of Ashton's clenched teeth. His eyes flash to mine and I'm surprised to see that they aren't they're normal blue color. Ashton's eyes have turned many shades darker, and turned into a dark blue. One that could easily rival the night sky. I shake the color out of my head, and focus on my anger that's slowly rising.

"Excuse me, but who do you think you are, telling me to leave." I wasn't don't telling Ashton off, but my harsh statement was cut of by Josh.

"Evie, please. Go downstairs, I'll be down in a minute." The plead seems to be forced out of Josh's mouth.

"Josh-" This time I am cut off by Ashton.

"Evie." Ashton's growl interrupts me. I try to ignore the shiver that runs down my spine when Ashton says my name.

I gape at Josh and Ashton. I was sure Josh was going to take my side. Realizing my mistake, I get up off the bed and rush out of Josh's room. Passing Ashton, I accidentally brush is arm. Tingles shoot through my body at the contact.

I exit the room, retrace the way to the stairs and jog down the stairs. I walk into the living room and sit in one of the chairs. I don't know whether to be angry or upset, so I settle for both. Why would Josh take his side over mine? I know that Josh and Ashton don't have the best history and I trusted Josh with my secret. Though, the bruises are gone, it was the thought that counted.

"Evie." Ashton's soft voice interrupts my thoughts.

Anger triumphs, "What?" I spit out.

Ashton winces, "Listen, I'm sorry. Listen to me, please." My mouth closes and I decide not to say anything.

"Thank you," Ashton continues, "I'm sorry about being harsh earlier. I just, it's just complicated. I can't explain it and I'm sorry about that too. While I'm on a role, I'm again sorry for doing the whole project. I didn't know you would get mad. I thought I was doing something that you would appreciate, but I see my mistake now."

Ashton looks into my eyes as he says this. I'm surprised to see complete honesty shine out in his eyes. His expression turns hopeful as I continue to look into his eyes.

"Wow." I didn't know how else to respond. My vendetta against him and his apologies now seems very stupid. Ashton gives me a small smile and I suddenly find it hard to breathe. My mouth opens to respond with something better, but Josh comes down the stairs.

"Evie, you ready to go? Oh, I'm interrupting, I'm sorry." Josh quickly changes his direction and starts to walk to some place else.

"Josh," I quickly call out, "yes, I'm ready to go." Josh nods and heads towards the garage. I give a small smile to Ashton as I start walking to the garage, which is conveniently behind Ashton. I stand up and start walking towards the garage. When I pass Ashton, his hand shoots out and grabs my arm, stopping me. Tingles shoot through my arm and through my body.

"Bye Evie. See you later." Ashton's minty breath washes over my face. I find myself looking at his lips, which have turned into a smirk. I glance up at his eyes and see that he caught me looking at his lips. A blush finds it's way on my cheeks. Ashton's smile widens and I know he caught that too.

"Bye Ashton." I mumble looking down and trying to hide my blush. I feel Ashton's hand let go of my arm and I quickly scurry away from him, worried that my blush might increase. I head to the garage and see Josh already in his car. I keep my head down as I walk to his car because I know the blush is still present. I reach the car and quickly get in.

Josh I smiling, "Remember when you were in the hospital and I told you things were going to get better?"

"Yes." I say quietly, still trying to fight the blush.

"Just make sure that you give those things a chance to get better."