A flutter grazes my cheek, making me almost whimper with the gentle touch as I realise that it's fingers stroking my skin softly, almost making me want to cuddle further in bed as a groan escapes my lips, earning a chuckle in return.

It's a familiar sound, that laughter.

In fact, it's so familiar that it has been a favourite sound of mine for years, which is why my eyes flutter open as they meet the light coming into the room. But most of it is blocked from my eye sight because a beautiful face is blocking it, smile spread on it.

"Welcome back to the living." He teases, his lips curved into a grin.

I rub my eyes, untangling my legs from the comforter but it surprises me when both of my thighs brush together, skin to skin. When that thought creeps in, so does a major throbbing in my head. That's when the realisation starts hitting in.

The window in my room isn't on the right side of the bed, it's on the left side but the sunlight is creeping in from the right in this room. I take in the brown furniture and bury my face in the pillow, the scent of Evan immediately hitting me, making me realise that I am actually in his bed.

In a quick motion, I sit up, taking in my surroundings as I look at my very amused best friend, studying my face as I literally come back to the living from whatever high I was on. It takes me moments to realise that the reason the skin of my thighs are brushing together is because I am not wearing any pants. My hand immediately goes to my crotch underneath the comforter, and a sigh escapes my lips when I realise that at least I am wearing my underwear underneath this baggy t-shirt of Evan's.

"So, last night was fun, huh?" He grins further, making me rack my brain as I try to form words on my tongue but don't come up with anything.

But then, the memories of last night seep in. I was at my house, crying because it had been two days since Chris left me alone in my bedroom after I asked for it. But he had been calling me, and texting me but my phone was on silent. I didn't feel like talking with him, or with anyone at all. At the same time, I felt fucking lonely because due to whatever shit was going on with my boyfriend, I had been ignoring both Evan and Breanna.

So, I decided to suck it up. I didn't bother to change out of my shitty night suit as I trotted down the stairs and to Evan's house. He welcomed me in, took me to his room and when he realised that I just needed a break from life, he pulled out tequila from underneath his bed.

"Shit." I whisper, realising that the throbbing was actually just a symptom of the hangover from last night.

"It was shit alright." Evan snickers, making me shoot a glare at him. He smiles, his hand coming up to tuck my hair behind my ear as he bites on his bottom lip, as if trying not to laugh as he eyes are set on my hair, "You have the worst case of bed head."

I swat his hand away as I quickly draw out my hair tie, freeing my hair before collecting them into a fist as I pull them into a ponytail. My eyes flicker to Evan but I realise that his gaze is actually set somewhere, which follows to my chest as my hands are midway through making my hair, stretched back behind my head.

Fuck, where the hell is my bra?

Quickening the process, I clear my throat to snap his attention back to me. If it were some other guy, I would have been doubting if something sexual went down last night, but it's Evan. I have no idea how I can tell, but I just know that we didn't even share a peck last night even though most of the things are blurry in my head right now and would come back as the day goes on.

I knew because I couldn't do that to Chris, not even if we were fighting or if I was drunk out of my fucking mind.

My eyes move to the table clock on the side, my eyes widening as I realise that it's afternoon, three flashing as I look at the time.

"I didn't wake you up for school." He says, as if reading my thoughts, "By the way, the whole group is downstairs. So, you should freshen up." He tells me.

The whole group is downstairs? Is he fucking kidding me? Why the hell would he bring the whole group to his house when he knows that I am sleeping in his bed, half naked!

"We didn't go to your place because almost everyone knows some shit is going down between him and you, so no one wanted to make it awkward. Luke suggested my house and I couldn't exactly say no." He explains and even though I'm still processing, I nod.

He takes a step back from the bed, and I sigh before rubbing a hand through my face as I slide out of the bed. I need to brush my teeth because I am sure my breath smells of liquor.

But, as soon as I do, I realise that Evan's shirt only reaches my upper thighs, and with no bra and only an underwear and this thin t-shirt, I practically feel naked just when I hear the door knob juggling, making both my eyes widen as my slow brain processes everything.

"Evan, we have been downstairs for fifteen minutes man, what the hell are you doing up here?" I hear Jordan's voice as the door swings open.

A very audible gasp leaves from Breanna as she looks at me, while Luke looks between Evan and I, then his eyes go to my clothing as a look of confusion takes over his face while Jordan's mouth hangs open.

I hear a giggling and a chuckle before two people come behind them, smiling at each other before Chris's eyes move from Stacey to me, his smile disappearing immediately as he looks at what looks like a trashed room and a half naked me, then back to Evan as his jaw twitches.

"An." I hear Evan's voice as my arms come up to cover across my chest, because I am just really not flat, and it's pretty obvious that I am not wearing a bra.

But I don't look at him, my eyes are fixed at Chris, an unreadable expression behind his eyes while there's still an amused smile on Stacey's lips. Her hands come up to his arm, as if trying to restrain him from doing something but that isn't what bothers me. She has proven so far that she clearly isn't over their relationship, so of course she touches him. What surprises me is that his face calms under her touch, a single touch.

"Adrianna?" Breanna says, stepping into the room as she looks at my face, "You alright? You look trashed."

Obviously, Evan being himself, finds this extremely amusing as he snickers earning a deathly glare from me, shutting him up immediately as he shrugs at me, as if he cannot help it.

"Blame him." I tell her.

"Excuse me?" He shrieks, "I was trying to help!"

"You gave me tequila! Tequila, Evan. Do I need to remind you what that does to me?" I glare at him, my voice straining because the alcohol has probably burned my throat so much.

He shrugs again, "I just wanted you to forget, and you clearly did want that. Considering you didn't even hesitate before drowning in it."

"I came here because I felt like shit ignoring her and you, but you offered me something to forget about last two shitty days. What did you expect?" I ask, my voice hoarse as I rub my temples.

"Come on, just go get freshen up. You reek!" Breanna smiles at me, pushing me towards Evan's bathroom.

I look back at Evan and he rolls his eyes before walking to his wardrobe, and pulling out a pair of my shorts and one of his clean t-shirts before throwing it at me. I catch it in my arms before Jordan whistles, making me realise that all of them were still standing there.

"Black is definitely your color girl!" He says, his eyes down on my thighs, and when I look I realise that my underwear is actually showing so I push Evan's shirt down before turning to the guy himself.

"Do I even want to know why I'm not in my clothes?" I hiss at him, my throat hurting.

"You puked on it! I wasn't going to let you sleep in my bed with that shit on." He shoots right back, making me narrow my eyes at him.

"Fuck you!" I grit my teeth together, making him wink at you. "And do you have any idea how this looks? Where the hell is your girlfriend? She would be on your ass about this." I point my finger at him, because honestly if Rose was here, she would have been pissed as hell.

I have no idea how Chris is still standing across that door without creating a scene. His expression is extremely blank though, making me nervous as to what's going on in his mind. Because if I would have found him half naked inside a girl's room, I would probably assuming the worst as well.

"She knows you're here. I called her last night." He rolls his eyes.

"When?" I ask, trying to recall the memory of him talking to Rose.

He chuckles, "When you were going on and on about how you 'want to swear off guys for the rest of your life and become a lesbian, probably date Breanna, but then that would break Luke's heart.'" He mimics my voice making my skin flush with embarrassment.

"I will castrate you in your sleep." I tell him and he smirks.

"Did she say anything about me in her drunk state?" Jordan asks, as Breanna and him settle down on the bed, making me glare at him while Stacey steps inside the room, her eyes roaming around it while Luke comes to stand in the corner of the room.

But Chris doesn't move. He's still staring at me with an unreadable expression, which is just really making me fidget now. I am about to open my mouth to say something to him, but Evan beats me to it.

"About you? No. About Sawyer and you? Definitely. I never want those mental images in my head about my brother and you ever again." Evan spills to Jordan, making my eyes wide as I gape at him.

"Oh my fucking god, was I high? What shit did I talk about last night?" I ask him.

"You were just curious about the gay thing after you established that you would rather have a girlfriend than a boyfriend." Evan nods, pleased with his answer making me smack my head.

"Every time you move your hands, your t-shirt moves as well." Breanna points out, making me huff as I tuck the t-shirt down.

"I'm out of here!" I mutter.

"No, wait, I want to know who got cursed out?" Luke says, finally speaking for the first time. When everyone gives him a confused look, he explains, "Whenever a person gets shit faced, someone always becomes a target of all the pent up wrath."

Well, that makes sense. I look at Evan for the answer and he shrugs, pointing at Chris, making me groan internally.

"Am I missing something here?" Jordan asks, looking between the two of us.

"Trouble in paradise." Stacey smirks, making me want to really punch her as my teeth grit together. "Well, come on! Your life is like an open book for everyone, so you might as well spill what happened." She crosses her arms in amusement, like my life is a source of entertainment for her.

She has no idea what kind of person I would be if I were an open book. I have kept things to myself, my feelings to myself for my whole life but I only started opening up recently when Chris came in my life. Just because I have a big mouth and speak whatever comes to my mind, it doesn't mean that my life is open to everyone to seek entertainment.

"Stace." I hear Chris's voice, he's glaring at her as if asking her to shut up but the irony that the only word he has spoken ever since he came here, laughing with her, is her name. The name he uses to call her by.

An involuntary scoff escapes my lips, making Evan make eye contact with me because I am pretty sure due to the silence in room, everyone heard me scoffing. I roll my eyes which reminds me of my hangover all over again.

"Come on, go get fresh. We'll be downstairs. I'll make you pancakes." Evan says, gesturing towards the bathroom and I nod, giving him a thankful smile.

I ignore Chris, not even looking at him because I really don't want to as I start making my way towards the bathroom. But then Jordan's voice stops me, making me turn around.

"Yup?" I ask him, since he called me out.

My eyes move to him, and he's wearing a smug look on his face as he holds up my bra from its strap on his forefinger, dangling it. "Black is definitely your color, girl!" He throws it at me, right at my face making me give him a deathly look.

Evan chuckles, winking at me, making blush rise to my cheeks as I groan, trying to be pissed at literally the world before I storm into his bathroom. As soon as I shut the door, I close my eyes, my forehead resting against the door.

But as I turn towards the mirror, my mouth falls open, "Oh my fucking god!" I shout, my hand coming to hold my head because it literally feels like it would explode.

There's an immediate knock on the door, "Claire, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"

It's Chris. I gulp, shaking my head as I keep my gaze at the mirror, "Evan?" I shout out for him and there's another knock.

"An, it's me. What's wrong? Open the door." He says and I am about to open it when I hear Chris's voice.

"You are not going in that bathroom with her barely dressed." He says to Evan, making me lightly knock my head against the door as a sigh escapes my lips.

Maybe letting Evan in isn't such a great idea after all.

"Bud, you seriously don't want to do this with me right now. Remember what I said about hurting her? Yeah, you did. Now be thankful that I have kept my calm after what she did last night, all because she wanted to forget about shit going on between the two of you. She cried like—"

"Evan." I snap from the other side, cutting him off, "That's enough."

"What's wrong, why where you shouting?" He asks, thankfully not speaking further about last night.

"It's just.." I trail off, my eyes flickering to other direction, "Your mirror."

I hear laughing, he actually laughs from the other side and I stomp my foot on the ground even though he cannot see me. What the hell!

"Evan!" I snap.

"Yeah, so you wrote that."

"Who's lipstick did I use?" I ask, looking at the mirror.

Yup, written in bold red letters on the mirror.

"Mum's." He replies.

"Seems like I had a lot of fun last night." I smile, closing my eyes.

"Yeah, you were smiling like an idiot when you wrote that, but then you burst into tears as soon as you finished." He says, making me wince as the memory flushes back because I was literally sitting by the faucet as I wrote it.

I collect myself, not aware if Chris is still standing on the other side or has he left. But something tells me he's there, brooding, but he's on the other side. It's like I can feel him even though I cannot see him.

"I just need something.. like cotton or kleenex to clean it up?" I say, looking around.

"Bottom drawer, An. Let me in, I'll help." He says, his voice even closer to the door.

"Did you not hear the part where I said that I don't give a shit what it is, you're not going in there when she's half naked." I hear Chris, and regardless of this situation, a smile comes on my face because he actually sounds jealous, and that just means that he cares.

"And did you forget the part where I told you to basically back off?" Evan snaps at him.

"Guys!" I yell at the two of them. "Shut it, please." I beg.

"What did you write on the mirror, Claire?" Chris asks me, making me frown because we haven't talked in two days, and this isn't the conversation I was looking forward to.

"Nothing. Just go, I'm cleaning up that thing and then taking a shower." I tell them, stepping away from the door.

"Don't be long. I'm going now." Evan says, but Chris doesn't say anything, and I know he's still standing there.

I hear him sigh, "Will you please open the door and let me in?" He asks.

"No."

I don't want to beat around the bush. I would have let him in but I am too embarrassed by what's written on the mirror. It makes me sound bottom line clingy and pathetic girlfriend, two of the things I never want to be.

"Claire, I am sorry. Just talk to me." He breathes and I keep my hand on the door, as if wanting to feel his presence.

"I'll be downstairs in a while." I tell him before I start looking for things to clean up Evan's mirror.

It takes me twenty minutes alone to rub through it glass cleaner which I found in the cabinets, which I am sure Evan had no fucking clue about was even there. While cleaning that, thousands of thoughts run through my mind, but I shut them out. Completely.

After that, I take a fifteen minute long shower, letting the warm water run through my body, my hair, calming me immensely.

When I am done, I pull on my shorts, unfortunately wearing the same underclothes as a day before, because even though I have a spare in his closet, I am not comfortable enough to keep my underwear and bra here.

I pull through his white t-shirt that he gave me before I sigh. I let my hair air-dry as I make my way downstairs. Everyone was talking amongst themselves but I ignored them as I made my way to the kitchen, but I could feel Chris's eyes on me as I took a seat by the island, studying Evan as he made pancakes.

"I cannot believe you're making pancakes for me at four in the day." I tell him when he slides a plate towards me.

He gives me a small smile, "We used to have it in dinner, c'mon!"

I bark out a laugh because Evan and I were so weird as kids. We forced Miranda to make pancakes for us in dinner and pasta for breakfast, because we wanted to be cool, like rebel kids. When she refused, we forced Sawyer to cook for us but then he got irritated from us as well so around five years back, Evan and I started learning things ourselves.

"Sawyer used to be so annoyed." I smile at the memory.

"We felt like we were a badass though."

I scoff, "What are you talking about? We're still badass." I motion towards the pancake, making him laugh.

But then a comfortable silence falls over. The conversation is still going on in the background in the living room, but my back is to everyone so it's helping me. Although I didn't miss the fact that Stacey was sitting by Chris's side when I entered, almost leaning on him.

"How do you feel?" Evan asks, passing me a glass of water as I finish eating, and sliding two aspirin with it.

"Better." I beam at him thankfully.

"He can't even keep his eyes off of you, An." Evan mutters, looking behind me then back at me, "Just talk to him." He sighs.

"You think I don't want to? I do, I really miss him because I have gotten so accustomed to being in his presence that I miss him terribly but I have no idea what to say to him. I am hurt, and I probably overreacted to the whole situation, but I can't help how I feel." I put my head in my heads as I stare up at him.

"Just.. tell him what you all just said. I am sure he'll do the most of the talking, anyway." He gives me a small smile of encouragement.

I nod, sliding off the stool before walking towards the couches, my eyes studying everyone while they still talk. Evan comes behind me, standing by my side as he does the same.