Back in my dorm room I made sure to hide my USB in the false bottom of my sock drawer, just in case. I was exhausted from both the night’s activities and my early morning workout, so I stripped and fell face-first onto my bed.

The sound of knocking at my door intruded after a painfully short amount of sleep. Rolling over, I glared at it. Hopefully whoever was there would go the hell away. To my crushing disappointment, the knocking continued. After throwing my blanket back, I staggered over to the door without fully opening my eyes. The damn knocking needed to stop.

“What?” I snapped, slamming the door open and wishing a painful death from a thousand paper cuts on the sleep invader.

“Well, if I knew this was how you answered your door, I would have woken you up sooner,” Caleb drawled, running his gaze up and down my underwear clad figure. Scowling, I slammed the door in his face. He was not worth losing sleep over. Crawling back under my fluffy duvet, I sighed.

Seconds later, my door clicked open then closed and a man’s heavy footfalls crossed my floor before Caleb’s solid frame pinned me beneath him and squashed the wind out of me. He dragged the blanket off my face and grinned down at me.

“Good morning, sunshine!” he sang, looking far too pleased with himself.

“Fuck you, Caleb; it’s too early for your bullshit,” I growled, giving him my best dagger glare. With my arms pinned under the covers, I couldn’t push him off. At least not yet. “Why are you so goddamn chirpy anyway?”

“Aside from having just seen you in your underwear? Because that alone would be reason enough.” His grin turned flirtatious. “You never replied to my message, so I thought I would come over and take you out for lunch.”

The night before rushed in, filling in the exhausted crevices. After the shock of the memos, I’d given Lucy the all clear then ignored my phone. So I’d never answered him, and he should have taken the hint.

“I’m busy today; why don’t you go see if Anna and your brother need some company?”

Caleb’s grin spread even wider. “Holy shit, you are jealous! You made it pretty clear we were only friends; why should it matter who I get naked and sweaty with?”

“I’m not jealous.” I definitely am. “I just thought you had better taste than bitchy little Anna Greengate.”

Skepticism filled his eyes, but instead of pursuing the conversation, he rolled onto his side. Settling in next to me, he spooned me through my blankets and started poking me in the side.

“Come on, get up! It’s almost the afternoon, and I’m hungry!”

Shrugging off his prodding, I burrowed deeper into the duvet. My sides were insanely ticklish, and I had zero desire to share that weakness with him. When I tugged the pillow over my head, the asshole jerked it away.

“If it makes you feel better, I would have much preferred a feisty little redhead instead...” He murmured as though trying to seduce me, his breath hot on my neck. My toes curled and thighs clenched at that smooth, chocolaty tone. Shoving backwards, I dislodged him even as I got off the bed in an attempt to gain a little distance.

Stop it, Kit. You’re not attracted to him. He’s trouble for you, remember? Think about unicorns or roller-skates or cheese… Fuck, I’m hungry.

“All right, lunch. Let’s roll. I’m ready.” I propped my hand on my hip in my best casual, we’re-just-friends pose.

He smirked in satisfaction, making no attempt to hide his enjoyment of my figure. Oh, right, I was still only in my bra and panties.

“After I get dressed.” I scooted into my bathroom, gathering up as much of my dignity as I could on the way.

After a quick cool shower, I found myself stuck with whatever clothes were left lying around my bathroom. It would serve him right if I went out in a towel, but I wasn’t sending that message. Not attracted to him. Maybe if I told myself that enough times, I might start believing it. Luckily, I had most of the components of a full outfit, with skinny jeans and a forest green V-neck sweater that hugged my body in a flattering way.

Back in my bedroom I found the dangerously sexy fiend sprawled on my bed, seemingly asleep. When I padded closer, he cracked his eyes open. Ignoring him, I grabbed some socks and some low-heeled, over-the-knee, black suede boots. If I happened to bend over to zip them up in what I hoped was a somewhat alluring way, it was purely coincidence. I swear.

“Come on, Kitty Kat; let’s go before I decide I’m hungry for something else,” Caleb insinuated as he abandoned my bed and led the way to the door.

We signed out with campus security then took my car down into town. I’d had enough exercise at the gym not to feel guilty about driving such a short distance, and I wanted to be quick so I could get back and look at that memo again.

Grabbing a table in the little local diner, I chomped my way through two of their massive burgers as well as a large side of fries and around five cups of coffee with cream and sugar. He watched with amusement as I polished off the last few fries from my plate and licked my fingers. I didn’t apologize, not when I had been starving.

“So what were you doing last night that you couldn’t text me back?” he asked, slowly working through his own remaining fries.

Breaking and entering probably wasn’t the appropriate answer in this situation, so I just raised my eyebrows in what I hoped was a mysterious expression and said, “This and that.”

Luckily, I was saved from further questioning by the arrival of an extremely pissed off Lucy.

“What the hell, Kit? I have been calling you all fucking morning! Are your fingers all broken or something?” she screeched, red-faced and uncaring about where we were.

I tried not to smile; she really was cute when she was mad. “Ahhh nope, fingers are all fine, thanks Luce!” I held them up and wiggled them at her to demonstrate.

“Then I can’t think of any other reason why you wouldn’t be answering your phone!” She practically seethed.

Right, still haven’t checked my phone. In fact, it was probably still sitting on the passenger seat of my car. Luce had every right to be upset. We had protocols in place for a reason, and I’d gone off the grid without letting her know I’d made it back safe and sound. For all she knew, I had been caught on my way home and might currently be rotting in a cell or getting the snot beaten out of me.

“I’m sorry, Luce; I really didn’t mean to worry you.” I gave her my very best puppy-dog eyes. I really did feel awful for breaking protocol, and I knew she was probably dying to look at the stolen memo. “Come and join us? Caleb’s buying. Aren’t you?” I gave him a pointed look, and he sighed before passing Lucy a menu.

“Sure, just sit down, Luce. I may be already used to your unique way of yelling obscenities with love, but the rest of the diner is looking at you like you might start throwing plates.” He snickered at her as she looked around in shock, as though she was only just noticing all the other customers, and quickly slid into the booth beside me. Snagging a passing waitress, she placed her usual order of a burger and fries with a coke.

“What were you doing this morning that would have Lucy so worried about you?” my far too observant new friend questioned, and Lucy froze beside me. She always was pretty awful at lying when asked a direct question. Luckily, he had asked me instead because I had no issues with my poker face.

“Sleeping,” I replied with confident eye contact. “You know that; you rudely woke me up, remember?”

“Woah, what?” Lucy coughed on the glass of water a waitress had just delivered for her. “Why was Caleb waking you up, Kit?” Her scolding glare spoke volumes to why she clearly thought Caleb had woken me up, and I threw a fry at her.

“Not like that.” I laughed. “I was asleep, and this asshole decided to knock like crazy on my door, then let himself in and kept annoying me until I got up.” Caleb grinned broadly, and Lucy snorted.

“Good work, Cal. She would probably still be passed out if you hadn’t.”

“I live to serve,” he teased.

The waitress returned with Lucy’s soda, and as she placed it down, a small spark seemed to fly off her fingers, hitting a condensation ring on the table and hissing into a little puff of steam. I gasped and looked around to see if anyone else had seen it, but neither Caleb nor Lucy were paying any attention to the waitress. She herself had clearly seen something though, as her face had drained of color and her eyes were like saucers.

“M-must just be static electricity,” she stammered, meeting my shocked gaze with her own and hiding her hands behind her back. “Let me know if I can get you anything else.” It was an obligatory statement but not one she intended to wait for a response on as she scurried back to the kitchen.

“What was that about?” Caleb asked, looking confused. “You can’t get a static shock from a wet glass.” I had absolutely no idea how to explain what had just happened without sounding insane, so I just shrugged.

Lucy’s phone vibrated loudly on the table, and she picked it up to read the message. Her mouth twisted with disgust as she scanned the words, then looked up at Caleb through narrowed eyes.

“Did you seriously sleep with Anna Greengate on Friday?” she exclaimed. “God damn, Cal. I know she’s hot but that girl is just plain nasty! Even I wouldn’t go there!”

Caleb rolled his eyes and sighed. “Where did you hear that?”

“It’s all over school; she’s apparently telling anyone who will listen. What gives? I thought she was with your brother.”

“She is,” a whiny voice interrupted us. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t double down right?” As though she was Beetlejuice, there stood Anna herself at the end of our booth with her perfectly styled blonde hair, fake tan, and permanently stuck-up facial expression. Worse yet, she seemed to be sporting her new favorite accessory.

“Hey, bro.” Caleb greeted his twin. “We were just talking about you. It seems Anna here has been telling people about our study session on Friday.” There was a thread in his tone that clearly told Austin to sort it out. Austin just shrugged and sat in the booth beside Caleb, dragging Anna into his lap and giving me yet another unreadable look.

“Like I care what anyone in this shit show of a town thinks of me.” he sneered, dismissing me and turning to his brother. “I don’t understand what the hell we are still doing here anyway.”

“You know why we are here: because our cousin says we should learn more about the people of Cascade Falls and what makes this town so special.” Caleb’s words were delivered through gritted teeth, and I watched them with a frown. There was definitely subtext to that statement; I just didn’t know what.

“Special?” Austin snorted. “There’s nothing special here except a couple of kids who are good at sports and some pretty little rich girls who are easy lays.”

I half-expected Anna to be offended by such a callous statement from her boyfriend, but she just giggled and batted her heavily mascara-clad eyelashes at him.

“And then of course there’s Kit,” she said, shooting me a nasty smile.

Here it comes… She was probably about to out me as a poor, damaged orphan. Anna and her like loved to rub it in my face that I didn’t belong at CFA, but before she could continue, Austin cut her off with a cruel laugh.

“There is nothing special about Christina, unless you count either her ability to look good in that hideous school uniform or her skills in spending her daddy’s money on ridiculously expensive shoes as some sort of talent? God knows she and Lucy can’t have two thoughts to rub together in those vapid little brains of theirs or they wouldn’t be a year older than the rest of the senior year.” Austin’s eyes were cold as he spat these words out.

“Except,” she managed to squeak out between giggles, “Kit doesn’t have a daddy, do you Kit? You don’t have any family. No one loves you because you’re a giant freak.” Austin went still and frowned, even as Anna continued her cackling.

“Austin,” Caleb barked, “shut your girlfriend up. No one wants to hear this verbal trash, from her or from you. I think you owe Kit and Lucy an apology.”

Austin just glared back at his brother, making no move to deliver the apology, but he did clap a hand over Anna’s glossy lips when she opened them to speak.

I clenched my jaw. It was none of their business, yet Lucy seemed to think it needed explaining. “Jonathan adopted Kit when we were thirteen.”

Dammit. Tears threatened at the pained quiver underscoring Lucy’s words. Every time I think I’m used to it, something rips open the wound which won’t heal.

“And for your information, Austin,” Lucy snarled at the darker twin, the shake in her voice warming to anger. “We are behind because we had a shitty fucking upbringing. And I have an IQ of one hundred and forty three, you asshole. Come on, Kit.” After shoving away her plate, she grabbed my hand. With a tug, she pulled me from the booth, and we left.

I didn’t look back, not even when I heard Caleb swear in a low, almost inaudible voice.