I awoke hours later, the sun filtering in through the window. I struggled to get up, groaning with my usual morning grumpiness. Then I turned my head, catching a sleeping Zach which sorted out my grumpiness right away.

I reached for my phone, we had school today and my mom was probably frantic right now. To my relief it was still pretty early, perhaps we could get away with this somehow.

Gosh, he was beautiful when he slept. I almost didn't want to wake him up. He looked so soft, relaxed. I leaned down, kissing the corner of his mouth and felt his mouth quirk up in a smile.

"Good morning handsome," I whispered, close enough so that my lips still brushed against his. He grunted softly and all of a sudden his hands grabbed around my waist, pulling me on top of him.

"Good morning to you too," he said before capturing my lips entirely.

I instantly got hot and was close to giving in when he turned us around so that he was on top. He moved from my mouth to my neck, sliding his tongue against my sensitive spots.

"You've got quite a few of marks on here, babe," he said, chuckling softly. I rolled my eyes. Perfect. How was I supposed to hide them, it was still summer outside, no need for a damn scarf. If Tobias saw them, he would throw a fit. However, as Zach kissed me again, I forgot about Tobias. My tormentor was far away, and resting here in another set of arms, he couldn't touch me.

I smiled, hoping that Zach hadn't caught my mind running away. "Well, how will I explain them Mr Hickey-maker? School's starting in half an hour."

"Is that so... you smell really good, too, and...didn't you say: no running water?"

I chuckled. "Yes I did, but there's a lake outside, so get your sexy ass off of me before I change my mind."

"A lake, really?" he replied, sounding excited. It was such a lovely sound. He literally bounced off the bed, pulling my hand to get me up as well. I scrambled up and had to chase him as he ran downstairs. Where did he find all that energy?

I grabbed two towels from a wardrobe and got out, finding a naked Zach just outside. My eyes roamed over his body, stopping at his tattoos that I hadn't really had time to look at yet, then that glorious ass. I walked up to his back, kissing his neck.

"So, pretty nice view," he said.

"Hah, you're not even looking!"

He turned around, smiling. "I wasn't talking about you." Before I had time to pout he kissed me again, crashing into my chest. It was a playful kiss, and I loved it. It showed such a different side of him, one that I hadn't seen before. It made me smile as we were kissing, making it slightly awkward, but he just nipped at my lip and then ended it with a small peck.

"So, that lake..." he said, pulling up one side of his mouth in a grin.

"Right down there," I replied, pointing to the back of the house.

"How much time do we have?" His gaze traveled down to my erection.

I laughed. "Enough."

———

The cool water was a shock to my system, but it soon died down as I saw Zach splashing around, all wild and crazy. I looked at him, chuckling to myself. Who was this guy?

"Never been in a lake before, Zach?"

"Yeah, but it's ages ago. I think I was twelve or something..." He ran up to me, splashing me with water. Seeing as attack is the best defense I lunged forward, trapping him in a hug, my legs locking around his hips.

"Mmm, you're still sticky," I said, feeling the traces of our night on his body. He only smirked, so I began to rub it off in slow teasing circles, feeling his muscles twitch beneath my hands.

My skin began to tingle as his hands made their way over, tracing my spine all the way down. My head fell forward, landing in the crook of his neck. I realized it was only fair to give him something to remember me by as I obviously had a lot of them from him, so I started to suck gently, enticing an oh so rewarding moan.

"If you mark me, you'll have to buy breakfast," he mumbled.

"That's so unfair," I said, chuckling against his neck.

"Well, all is fair an' all that..."

Man, this guy would be the death of me. He was disarming, something I never expected of him.

"You're so buying," I said, looking at him sternly after breaking off my hickey-making process.

"Alright babe, I'll treat you."

Ah, I wanted to strangle him a little at that, taunting me further, making me feel like a chick.

I tried to get away from his hold, but he didn't let me. Instead he grabbed at my hair, and directed me to his lips once more. That sort of ended my inner discussion.

———

We managed to drive off at a reasonable time. I called mom and told her where I was. I wouldn't say she was happy, but at least she wasn't grounding me for more than a week. She did threaten to take my car until I reminded her that I had to take Lily to school. She had huffed at that, saying that I didn't really handle that very well at the moment – seeing as I was two hours away and school started in ten minutes. However, she sounded relieved that I wasn't with Tobias. Apparently she had worried—which I should have realized earlier. It was a dick move to not call her the night before.

We drove by a place I knew from my childhood and grabbed a to-go. I did smile when Zach paid, even if it made me feel a bit weird, however, the thrill of seeing him enjoy the breakfast was even greater. He managed to make it into an erotic scene, moaning and licking his lips, all while I had to force myself to concentrate on driving. Not easy, trust me.

The entire car ride was far more relaxed than the one yesterday. Zach seemed happy and I really didn't want to bring up the stuff that had brought us here in the first place. Sure, I wanted to talk about it, but I didn't want to ruin the mood. I knew this was just an interim. I had no illusions that he would suddenly become this guy permanently, nor that he would acknowledge what we have in public. Besides, before the situation with Tobias was resolved, I didn't think it was a good idea to spend time with Zach out in the open.

I wanted to talk about our options, but my tongue seemed to be tied up. It really didn't want to cooperate right now.

In the end, the subject of us and what we were never came up. It was never approached and my stomach tightened as we parked the car in the school parking lot. I tried to play cool, but I was anything but. My nerves had also put a lid on our conversation in the car, making it more awkward the closer we got to town.

"Seems like we made it to third period at least," Zach said, the first thing he'd said in quite a while actually.

"Yeah, so..." I wanted to ask, I really did. I wanted to ask everything, ask what he would be doing tonight, what I could tell my friends... but I didn't.

"Yeah, let's go," Zach replied to my unspoken question, assuming that I'd intended to get us out of the car.

Every step toward the large wooden door felt heavier and heavier. I shouldn't care about being unsure about our relationship since it was too early to tell, but I did. I let this guy get under my skin way too easily, but I couldn't help it. It just happened. He just nestled his way in there, and now I'd have a hard time getting him out of there. Something like that hadn't even happened with Tobias.

The corridors were filled with people running between classes. I looked around and then suddenly Zach was going in the other direction, leaving me behind.

"See you later Dyl," he said over his shoulder, his face unreadable, or perhaps I was trying to read it too much. Perhaps this was just him being a new kind of normal?

I wanted to stop him, turn him around and just kiss him in front of everybody, but I was stopped by the sound of a familiar voice.

"Hi Dyl!"

I turned around and saw Tyra bounce up to me, giving me a glare.

"You so owe me for yesterday you know. I waited an hour at the mall for you."

"I'm really sorry Tyra, but sort of had another date on my hands."

"What?" she shrieked, her voice pitched with excitement. "Why didn't you tell me, and who is this guy? It's not Tobias, right?" She suddenly looked worried, her mood switching in a heart beat.

"No, not Tobias. Not now, not ever."

"Good, but then who was it?" Her eyes trailed away from my face and down to my scarf. She grinned and pulled it away. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed, loud enough for people to turn their heads.

"Gosh, not so loud Tyra... and stop peeking" I whispered.

"Oh, come on! Is it someone here at school? Must be, otherwise you wouldn't have wanted me to stay quiet." She smirked, wiggling her eyebrows up and down. "It's Zach!" she finally said, her eyes bulging and her mouth like an o before she clasped her hands over it.

I huffed in exasperation, that hadn't been very quiet at all. Why did I always go for the loud spontaneous friends? The ones without a fucking filter?

"Oops," she added, far quieter.

"Now you owe me instead," I growled under my breath.

She just snickered, took my arm and hauled me away to class as the bell rang.

I tried to focus during the lesson, but my mind wasn't really there. I caught myself thinking about what we'd done, which made it a little tight in my pants until I reminded myself that things were slightly awkward between us. Nervousness replaced desire, but that only increased the twists and turns in my stomach. Tyra finally noticed that something was up and looked at me with a bit of pity in her eyes, making me roll mine in response. I didn't want her to feel sorry, this was all on me, and I knew it. I had made it awkward by hoping for something that wasn't allowed to happen. It would be too risky to show anything at school.

I thought of sending him a message before lunch, asking if we could talk, but I realized I didn't have his number, which made me smack my hands down on the table, earning me a curious stare from those around me. I was literally saved by the bell and ran out of the classroom with the intention of finding Tyra and Seb, hopefully at our spot in the cafeteria.

I felt so stupid for being nervous. I mean, we had had a great time last night and this morning, but here I was, running through the corridor, afraid to meet him. I was distracted enough to forget about being on the lookout for Tobias.

I sighed in relief when I saw my two friends at the back of the room. I went straight at them, forgetting to grab food. Perhaps I could lure Seb into getting it for me. He was far too nice for his own good. I sat down and instantly had two pairs of knowing eyes on me. Seb had obviously heard the tale through Tyra.

"So, you've been a quivering mess all day, you nervous for some reason?" Tyra said, getting straight to the point, as always.

"Hmm..." I answered, which wasn't really any useful.

"Hmm... is that it?" Tyra said pointedly. "You have a story to tell us and if you're not doing it now, then we're not getting your lunch for you—which you obviously are too scared to get yourself."

Damn, she nailed it again, too clever for her own good that lady.

"Alright, long story short: I wanted to escape Tobias, Zach found me. We had a run in with some scary guys, and I decided we should take a trip to cool him off, or rather I didn't want him anywhere near them... we ended up in my grand parents' house, and yeah..."

"And yeah...? You're doing it again, moron. Do we have to threaten you some more? Perhaps call Zach over?" Tyra continued.

I groaned deep in my throat with frustration. "Okay, okay... we fooled around, had a great morning, then I got nervous because we didn't talk about stuff, and then yeah. Here I am."

"Dylan, you idiot! You're not supposed to have sex with that guy, not when he's like this!"

"Like what?" I retorted, getting pissed at her attitude whenever we talked about Zach, especially since she never told me the real cause for her worries.

"Zach is zombie Dylan, he locks it all inside... sex doesn't mean anything to him. He'll break your heart. And with that Tobias guy around. Don't you think yo have enough problems?"

"Well, what if I don't believe you?" I ignored the question about Tobias.

"Dylan, that guy hasn't smiled for five years. There's nothing left in him. Trust me!"

"Well, you know what, he smiled four hours ago, a fucking breathtaking smile at that!" I yelled back. Our voices had picked up gradually, and the people around us had grown quiet. I could bet they were staring at us, but right now I only had eyes for Tyra, glaring at her.

Then all of a sudden her eyes flickered, looking at something behind me, or rather someone. Someone who snaked their arms around me, closing the distance between my back and their chest.

"Calm down babe," Zach's voice sang in my ear, driving away all those demons inside of me, just like that,