I woke up in the middle of the night. Lately I haven't been able to sleep throughout an entire night and woke up around 3 am. I read somewhere that means a demon is after you. I didn't believe that (okay maybe just a little bit) but it was still annoying waking up and not being able to fall asleep until a long while after.

Jay was next to me and his face was drawn into a frown. Where he usually looked younger and more peaceful while he slept he was now moving around the slightest bit and furrowing his dark brows. He was sweating the slightest bit and had pulled off the covers as well as his clothes, leaving him in nothing but boxers. My eyes were slowly getting adjusted to the darkness.

How strange. I was laying in bed with a boy who wasn't my boyfriend, yet not a one night stand or anything like that either. He was only clad in boxers and he was within proximity to me. In a bed. I was about to crawl out and go on his bed. It was too hot.

I got up and crawled from underneath the sheet that was on hotel beds. I had made it to the other bed when Jay shifted in his sleep.

"Mom?" He whimpered.

I looked over at him. His arm moved about the bed like he was searching for someone and his bottom lip quivered.

I sighed. I turned up the ac and pulled all the sheets off the bed and crawled back in, right next to Jay.

I put my head in the crook of his arm and ran my hand up and down his side.

He seemed to relax a little bit and soon his breaths became even and we both fell asleep.

The next morning when I woke up Jay was getting dressed. His hair was wet from the shower I assumed he had just taken. He was fastening his belt when he noticed I was waking up.

"Hey." He smiled. He was this closed off, sheltered person who drank and did drugs uet he was also so sweet and soft and sad at the same time. His brows were usually furrowed and his mouth was in a frown, but his eyes remained those sad grey eyes.

He had tidied up the room a little bit and when I got up he fixed the bed after me.

"Hi." I said, blinking in my groggy state.

I looked back up at him. He was looking at me but when I looked at him he was acting like he was folding pants. Since when does Jay clean like this? His room always had clothes all over the place and his bed was never made.

"Did you have a nightmare last night?" I said.

He froze. "Um."

He turned to face me. I was sitting cross legged on the second bed. "Yeah." he finally replied. "How do you know?"

I played with the horseshoe necklace my grandma once gave to me. "I woke up in the middle of the night. I don't know- I've been doing that a lot lately. No clue why. And you were twitching and you cried out for your mom."

He chewed on his bottom lip. "Yeah."

"What happened? She was okay when we left. Don't worry Jay." I tried my best to reassure him. I don't know why he was nervous or having a nightmare but maybe he was nervous.

"My mom is-" He stopped himself.

"You can tell me." I didn't want to push but also I wanted him to tell me.

"I'd rather not."

"Just know I'm here and I-"

"Alina!" He snapped. "No." He ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not telling you. Don't take it personal and shit. But stop pushing!"

I retreated. "Sorry."

I grabbed clothes from my bag and decided to shower. He didn't know what to say so he sat on the bed and acted like he was still cleaning.

I went into the bathroom and tried locking it but the lock was broken so I just hopped right in the shower.

In the middle of my shower I heard the door open. I jumped.

"Jay?" I called out.

"Alina I'm sorry." He said.

"Can we talk when I'm not standing naked two feet away?" I rolled my eyes before drawing the curtain open so that only my head was peeking out.

"I wanted to tell you as soon as possible."

"Yeah okay I'm sure those were your intentions." I groaned. "Are you horny or something."

"Ye- No. What. I just wanted to say sorry before you came up with some devious plan to spite me. You take forever in the shower so I assume you're thinking. Right now you could've been plotting. I had to put a stop to it." He had this irresistible grin on his face. "I'm sorry."

"Fine. I shouldn't have pushed either but you need to pipe it down with the yelling."

"I will!" He said adamantly.

"Okay!" I yelled, dragging out the y. "Now can you leave?" I peeked back out at him.

"I'll pull an Alina and hop in with you."

My heart froze. Jay saw my expression and laughed before raising his brow, challenging me.

"That was different." I said. Shampoo got in my eyes and I wiped it away. "Your dad would've suspected something and I had to think quick."

"Still Alina, I felt violated."

I groaned. I knew he didn't. This was Jay. I even remember his smirk. "No, you didn't!" I gritted my teeth. "And you've slept with so many girls I'm sure at least 30 people have your body down to memory. You're comfortable with that because you've had sex and done all this stuff and I-"

He raised a brow. "You're a virgin?"

"I think I've told you."

He shook his head. "Nope. I'm surprised. Alina it's almost senior year..." He said with mock disappointment.

"I don't know. I just am scared to." I said.

"What?"

I had my reasons. But I was in the shower and Jay was here trying to have a conversation. I felt so exposed. A thin shower curtain was preventing him from seeing me naked. And he was clothed which wasn't fair. "Can we be doing this right now?" I washed the last of the shampoo out of my hair and shut the water off.

"Why not?" He challenged. I knew he wasn't actually trying to do anything. Just he knew how to push my buttons.

"Because! I'm trying to get out of the shower!"

"Nobody's stopping you!"

"You are!"

"No I'm not!"

I peeked around the shower curtain again. Jay was sitting on the closet toilet seat, looking like he was on the verge of laughter.

I tried maneuvering myself so that I could grab a towel but not expose myself. I angrily grabbed a towel from the towel rack. I tried making my point by grabbing it aggressively, but I ended up knocking all the towels off.

Jay laughed. His laugh was so attractive yet I knew it was at my expense.

I dried my hair a little bit so that I wouldn't look like a wet mop coming out, and then I wrapped the towel around myself.

"Was that so hard?" Jay said.

I narrowed my eyes.

"I think it's time for me to go. Nice chat!"

I pushed him the remaining way out and closed the door. I quickly got dressed before coming out.

Jay was sitting on his bed fumbling with cards. This boy never touched his phone.

"You were so flustered." He grinned.

I felt heat rise to my cheeks. "I wasn't."

"Yes you were virgin."

He said it like it was a casual nickname. "Don't call me that." I rolled my eyes.

"Okay not-been-fucked."

"Because that was so much better!"

"Okay unpopped cherry."

Jay gave me migraines. "Just-"

He laughed and put the cards away. "I'm done pestering you."

"We can either go with them today or stay in Texas." I wanted to hang out with them I missed Jenny and Savannah and Hannah but also I wanted to spend time with just Jay.

No matter how annoying he sometimes got.

"Up to you."

I sighed and ran a hand through my wet hair. "This again. We can go with them and come back tonight. Or stay overnight there but we have a hotel booked already."

"Am I welcome there?"

He'd said he was chill with Jay staying and even though him and Griffin for bros he'd "pull through for my best bitch Alina."

"Yup. The house is huge and we can have one of the bedrooms."

Jay stood up. "When are we going and how?"