The rest of our Topgolf adventure was miserable. Dad and Adam were wasted, and Adam kept making these jokes that only Trent and I understood to mean something. It made me fearful of going home tonight, of being alone in my house with him. It let me know that he remembered what he did to me, and that he planned on doing it again if he could. At one point Trent put his arm around me in response to Adam's comments. To my surprise, it didn't add to my discomfort, instead it made me feel safer. Was that what it was like to be able to trust someone?

Trent reluctantly left around nine that night, after Mom came and pointed out that it was a school night. Trent didn't want to leave me, and honestly, I really wanted him to stay too. I knew my parents would never go for it though, and I promised Trent that I would text him all night. It's not like either of us would be getting much sleep anyway. Before he left, Trent checked to make sure the lock on my bedroom door worked and couldn't be easily picked. I assured him that I had the only key in existence in the house, and I told him I would lock up behind me as soon as he left. I walked him to the front door, turning him to face me before he left. I took a deep breath and wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my head in his neck and taking in his scent, committing it to memory. Trent stood in shock for just a second before wrapping his arms carefully around my waist.

"Thank you," I whispered in his ear.

"Anytime love," he whispered back. I gave him a weak smile as we reluctantly let go and he walked out the door. After locking up, I ran up the stairs in the same fashion one might run upstairs from their basement at night to avoid getting attacked by ghosts. Only my ghost was real, and he was staying in the room down the hall. I peered into my room to make sure Adam hadn't snuck in, and upon seeing the coast was clear I rushed inside, shutting and locking the door behind me as promised. I threw on some pajamas and jumped into bed, getting under the covers with my laptop and picking a random show to binge watch overnight on Netflix.

Trent and I texted all through the night, talking about everything and nothing. We talked a lot about TV shows, which ones we like and which ones we didn't like. I found out he was obsessed with The Office and Brooklyn 99. Those were two of my favorite shows as well. He hated teen dramas while I absolutely lived for them. Degrassi and Gossip Girl being some of my favorites. We both also shared a love for nerdy shows like Battlestar Galactica and The Mandalorian, and I was shocked to hear he had never seen an episode of Star Trek. That was a show that Dad and I watched all the time when I was little. We watched the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, we absolutely loved the whole series. I made Trent promise to watch it with me someday, every season of every series. Yes, that was me assuming that Trent would be around long enough to watch multiples series of a TV show.

Around one in the morning I heard footsteps in the hallway outside my bedroom. I froze, shutting my laptop and burying myself under the covers. I heard a knock at my door that was too heavy to be my mom's, but not quite as heavy as Dad's. It was Adam. I held my breath and didn't respond, hoping he'd go away. I heard my doorknob shake and Adam tried to open the door to no avail. I let out a soft whimper and curled up in a ball under the covers, shaking and waiting for him to go away. After a few more tries at the door he gave up, and I heard his footsteps retreat back down the hall. I breathed a sigh of relief and took the covers down from over my face. My phone was buzzing with texts from Trent like crazy, but I just ignored them. I tried to regain my breath after my moments of terror, but no matter what I did I couldn't calm down. So, I got up and went to my bathroom, fishing around my vanity drawers for my razor, and finally regaining control of my breathing as I felt the cold metal hit my skin. I texted Trent back when I climbed into bed, telling him how Adam tried to get in but that I was fine. We continued talking through the night, and I was relieved when the sun rose, and I had made it through my first night with Adam.

I ran right for Trent when he came to pick me up that morning. I had him arrive right when my parents would leave for work, that way I wouldn't have to be alone with Adam. I hugged him tight, just as I had the night before, his familiar scent immediately comforting me. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged as tight as he could. "God, I love being able to do this," he whispered against my hair. I smiled to myself and hugged Trent tighter, then I felt him stiffen underneath me. I looked up at him to see his brows furrowed together in anger. I turned to where he was looking and saw Adam staring out the bay window in the living room at us. "Let's go," Trent said and opened the door for me. "Do you like coffee?" He asked as he drove away from my house.

"Yeah," I replied. He took us in the opposite direction of school, but in the direction of our local Starbucks. He pulled up to the drive thru and asked what I wanted. "C-caramel macchiato, grande."

"Hi welcome to Starbucks can I interest you in something to eat this morning?" The perky barista asked.

"Do you want anything?" Trent asked. I shook my head no. "Have you eaten breakfast this morning?" I shook my head no again. "You should eat breakfast, do you like chocolate chip cookies? You seem like you'd like chocolate chip cookies." I nodded. "Yeah, can I get two warmed up chocolate chip cookies?" Trent asked the barista.

"Okay, two warmed up chocolate chip cookies, anything else?"

"Can I get a grande quad shot americano with cream?"

"Okay, a grande quad americano with cream, anything else for you today sir?"

"Yes, and a grande caramel macchiato."

"Okay and a grande caramel macchiato, are these drinks both hot?"

"Yes please."

"Alright anything else?"

"No, thank you."

"Alright you can pull up to the window for your total." Trent drove around to the window and I took my debit card out of my wallet and went to hand it to him.

"No, it's alright babe, I got it." He said, politely pushing my hand back towards me.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Yes, the least I can do is buy you coffee and a cookie," he laughed. When the barista opened the window, Trent handed her his card. She had long brown hair pulled into a ponytail, a half sleeve of floral tattoos, a nose ring, and she was dressed in all black, her nametag said her name was Mandy.

"Here you go, handsome," she winked at Trent as she handed back his card along with the two cookies.

"Thank you, here you go babe," he said loudly as he handed me one of the cookies. My face heated up when Mandy flirted with him. But the look of disappointment on her face when he called me babe made me smile. Mandy disappeared from the window for just a moment and came back with our drinks.

"Here, have a nice day," she said as she plopped the drinks on the counter in a huff, quickly disappearing again into the window. Trent and I laughed as he drove away.

"Should we be afraid to drink these?" Trent joked, lighting a cigarette as he drove away from the drive thru window. It felt nice to just be laughing with Trent, getting coffee on our way to school like we're just a normal high school couple. For that drive to school I completely forgot what was waiting for me at home as we ate our chocolate chip cookies and sipped at our drinks.

"So, u-um, I have a question?" I said nervously.

"Okay, you're scaring me, what is it?"

"Are we going to be o-out at school?" He looked thoughtful for a moment, as if he hadn't considered it before. We were just pulling into the school parking lot and I thought it would be important to talk about this before we got into the building. I knew that Trent had never been with a guy before, I had never been in a relationship before. No one really knew me unless it was as Kyle's punching bag, and Trent was the resident bad boy. There were so many reasons I was nervous about being open about us at school, but I also wasn't sure I wanted to hide it. So, I decided to leave it up to Trent. I was out, and it wasn't a big deal. I didn't want to take the decision away from him.

"What do you think?"

"It's u-up to you, I'm already out so, but this is n-new to you."

"I don't want to hide you like I'm ashamed of you. So as long as you're okay with it, I want to walk into that school holding hands, proudly showing off to the whole school that I somehow tricked the greatest guy in the world into dating me." I blushed as he complimented me so much.

"That is absolutely not true, because I'm dating the greatest guy in the world." Now it was Trent's turn to blush. It amazed me that I could make him blush or get nervous. I never thought that I would have that kind of effect on a person.

We got out of the truck and Trent walked around to my side. He put his hand in mind, our fingers lacing together in a way that was becoming like second nature now. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the stares and comments we would probably get. With Trent by my side though, I felt safe, I knew they couldn't get to me. We began walking toward the front door of the school, students walking outside already gawking at us as we passed, and I began to feel my throat close and my breath become short.

Trent squeezed my hand. "It's okay, I'm right here." I forced myself to take a deep breath in, holding it for a few seconds before letting it out slowly. "We don't have to do this you know?" He asked.

"I want to." I reassured him, opening the door and heading inside, Trent right behind me and our hands still laced together. As we maneuvered the halls there were even more stares and whispers, a few disappointed looks, some very, very angry ones. A few teachers noticed us, and their expressions were either ones of support or confusion. Some almost went to say something to us and then either thought better of it or decided they didn't want the confrontation. I had never had so many eyes on me at one time, it was one of my worst nightmares. But walking down those halls, Trent's hand in mine, I felt like a million bucks. Trent Rodriguez was my boyfriend, mine, and the whole world knew it. And I was his.

As we got closer to my first period class my anxiety grew and my stomach turned to knots. We would soon see Kyle and his friends, and I was not prepared for whatever abuses they would hurl at us. As we rounded the corner, I braced myself to be thrown into a locker, or have slurs shouted at us, but when I made eye contact with Kyle all I could see was a look of shock on his face. He looked down at Trent's hand in mine, at Trent's goofy grin as we strutted through the halls, and the shock slowly turned to disgust. He didn't approach us though and didn't say anything. A smug grin spread across my face as we approached my first period classroom. I turned to face Trent, giving his hand a tight squeeze before letting go.

"See you at lunch?" I asked.

"Of course, have fun," he said. I was about to turn and walk into the classroom when Trent gently put his hand on the back of my head. I was so taken aback, and my face blushed instantly, I was unsure of what he was trying to do. As I started to panic Trent slowly bent down and placed a gentle kiss to my forehead. "Bye baby," he said as he turned and walked down the hall in the direction we had come from. Once I calmed down, I walked into my biology class with a stupid grin on my face, greeting Ms. Reynolds who was standing near the doorway.

"I saw that," she half whispered as I walked by. I blushed a deep shade of red and quickly made my way to my desk, only to notice the smile on her face as I sat down. I didn't think she wouldn't be okay with it, but it was still embarrassing having your teacher comment on your relationship. I tried really hard to focus on Ms. Reynold's genetics lesson, but I just kept fantasizing about Trent. Not like sexually or anything... okay maybe a little bit. I was mostly just imagining what it would be like to trust someone that much, to be that close to someone. I could already see my walls breaking down around him. He could hold my hand without issue, I was able to hug him. Him kissing my forehead didn't make me panic that much, in just a short time I was making a lot of progress. I was letting him in, and he was proving worthy of the space he was occupying in my heart and in my life. Maybe everyone was wrong about him.