Why am I starting a new multi-chapter when it already takes me five million years to update my current ones? Who knows, but I'm still so excited to write this.

The chapters of this fic will have little time jumps between them, for reasons that will soon become more obvious. I'm hoping to involve a little more angst in this than I do in most of my stories, but don't worry, there will still be plenty of fluff to go around.

I hope you all enjoy the first chapter!

Minus Two Weeks

"Straighten your back, and don't put it down too close to the wall or you'll scratch the paint."

Hanna Marin all but dropped the cardboard box of shoes that she was carrying down onto the floor, turning to face her father with a disgruntled scowl on her face. Moving into college was supposed to be new, exciting, the start of the rest of her life; instead, he was making it feel like a military operation.

"I can do this myself, you know," She huffed, spinning on her heel so as to make her way back down the stairs as soon as possible. "I really don't need you and mom to help."

A short laugh came from the bottom of the stairwell as Hanna watched her mother approach, three of the same sized boxes stacked up in her arms. "You sure about that?" She joked, "I mean I knew you had a lot of clothes, but this is taking it to a whole other level Hanna." After placing the boxes, all labelled 'tops', down next to Hanna's, Ashley Marin turned to face her daughter and ex-husband with a sad smile on her face, her hands planted firmly on her hips. "Well, that's everything."

"I guess so," Hanna shrugged her shoulders, looking down the corridor for any sign of her new dorm-mates – there was six rooms in her dorm, each of which would house three people, and she was still yet to see another student.

"I saw two girls in that room at the end when we came in," Ashley pointed out after noticing the way in which her daughter was scouring the building, "Why don't you go and say hi?"

"It's fine," Hanna waved her hand out in front of her, "I'll come to the car and say goodbye to you guys first, I don't want you to have to wait for me, you have a long drive home."

Ashley shook her head, "Sweetie, it's fine," She assured her with a smile, "Your father and I will stay as long as we have to." She picked up a big carrier bag full of bed linen and pillows, "Want us to help you unpack?"

Tom Marin cleared his throat, a bit too noisily for Hanna's liking. "Uh, actually, I have a meeting tomorrow morning, so I was thinking that we could head off a little earlier than we'd planned?"

Ashley raised her eyebrows back at him – she should have known that taking him up on his offer of a joint ride was a mistake. This was the day that they were taking their daughter to NYU to begin the rest of her life, and yet he still couldn't find a way to take some time out of his day to be there for her.

"Sure," She agreed with a tight smile, though both Hanna and Tom could see straight through it. "Honey, why don't you come down and have your photo taken outside before we drive off?"

Hanna rolled her eyes, "Mom, that's embarrassing," She laughed, though she still followed her mother down the stairs to the car as per her request, "I don't want my new roommates to think I'm a loser before I even get to meet them."

Ashley pulled her camera out of her bag as they exited the building, tugging on Hanna's arm until she turned to face her, a distinctly unamused look gracing her features. "Smile," Ashley encouraged, "The sooner you get this over with, the sooner your dad and I will head back to Rosewood."

As much as she loved her mom, that was all of the ammunition that Hanna needed to plaster a huge fake grin across her face.

"So, you just got put in the same room by chance?" Hanna asked in total disbelief, throwing back a shot of some disgustingly sweet alcohol that her new roommate Emily had offered to her. She had only met the girl, along with her other roommate Alison, about an hour ago, but they were already getting along like a house on fire. Though, maybe that had something to do with their now mildly inebriated states.

"Yep," Emily confirmed, turning towards Alison, "We had no idea that we were gonna be put in the same dorm, let alone in the same room."

"Sounds like fate to me," Hanna laughed, raising her eyebrows, "So do the university know that you guys are…"

"Dating? No," Alison laughed, "We didn't want to tell them and risk not being able to share a room anymore."

Hanna scrunched her nose up as Alison turned to place a quick kiss on Emily's lips. "Please don't tell me I'm going to have to listen to you two going at it all night," She whined, "It was bad enough having to listen to my friends at home having sex through the wall at house parties."

Emily almost choked on her vodka soda, "Jeez Hanna, we've known each other for like five minutes and you're already complaining about our sex life," She laughed.

"She's clearly a little bitter," Alison joked, "Obviously doesn't get enough of it herself."

"How would you know?" Hanna shot back, pushing herself up and walking over to her portable speakers to turn the music up a little louder.

"Boyfriend?" Alison asked, eyebrows raised.

Hanna rolled her eyes as she sat back down, "No. Not right now."

"Well, now we have an aim for tonight," Alison smirked, "Get Hanna laid."

"Ali!" Emily laughed, clearly a little embarrassed by the forwardness of her girlfriend.

"Yeah, no thanks," Hanna smiled, "I'm more of a long term kinda person. My parents would kill me if they knew that I was doing… that." She looked down at the glass of bright red liquid in her hands, "They'd kill me if they knew I was doing this."

"Everyone drinks at college," Emily assured her, placing a comforting hand on top of her knee, "I'm sure they know you're doing it."

Hanna scoffed, "Then you definitely don't know my parents." She was right – they didn't know her parents in any sense of the word. Hanna had been brought up in a broken home; her mom and dad had separated a few years back, and despite living away from him, her father still seemed to have an unfair amount of control over her life. It wasn't just that, though – there was a general air of expectation surrounding her family, one that meant she was almost required to get straight As, to get into a good college, to always look and behave perfectly. Sometimes, Hanna just wanted to let the world know how tired she was of being 'perfect'.

But, she didn't.

And so, nobody really knew just how much she hated it.

"Anyway," Alison blurted out, sensing the blatant unease in the room, "I told the girls in one-o-six that we'd meet them all in the common room at ten."

"Better get going then," Emily chirped in, "Hanna, you coming?"

"Yeah, sure," She smiled weakly in response, her head beginning to feel a little fuzzy after finishing her sixth drink, "Let me just grab my purse."

Hanna stood, playing with the strap on her black leather clutch bag as she watched Emily and Alison exit the room, holding hands and laughing together. She wondered what her parents would think if they saw her in the tight black and white mini dress that she was wearing, well on her way to being drunk, and fully intending to go past that point.

Hanna had never really been drunk before – she and her best friend from home, Spencer, had stolen a few swigs of vodka from her parents' basement on one occasion, and that was enough of a thrill to last her for the rest of her teenage life. Spencer didn't seem to mind the rules and regulations that came with having strict parents, she was that kind of a person. But Hanna had always wondered what it would be like to drink so much that she couldn't remember her own name, to experience nights like those that she had only ever heard people talk about. Tonight was about proving to herself that she was her own person, and that her parents couldn't control her forever.

The shot of vodka that she had decided would begin her transformation burned her throat as she strutted out of her new room, slamming and locking the door behind her.

She took a deep breath in through her nose and began walking, if a little unevenly, towards the large common room at the end of the dorm. She could hear music playing, people cheering and laughing, she could see the shapes of girls and guys dancing through the big square window in the door. For once, she allowed herself to be excited about something like this. It was a welcome feeling in contrast to that of dread, which she usually felt when she knew she would be doing something that her parents wouldn't approve of.

As Hanna took a final step towards the door, she curled her fingers around the handle and pulled it open in one swift motion. Launching herself forward, a big smile spread across her face, it took her a second to realise that her pathway into the room wasn't exactly clear. But by that time, the drink that had once belonged to the boy in front of her was now all down the front of her brand new dress, and she was pressed against the door frame with one hand on his chest, trying desperately not to fall onto the floor.

"Shit," The boy cursed, circling an arm around Hanna's waist in order to stabilise her, "I'm so sorry, I didn't realise you were there."

Hanna looked up at him for the first time since their little accident, a bright red blush spreading across her cheeks. "It's fine," She assured him, shaking her head as her blue eyes connected with his deep brown ones, "It was my fault."

The boy swallowed, ensuring that Hanna was ok to stand on her own before he unwound his arm from around her waist. "Caleb," He smiled, offering his hand to her, "Rivers."

Hanna looked down for a second before accepting his handshake. "Hanna," She informed him as their hands joined, "Marin."

"Nice to meet you, Hanna Marin," Caleb smiled as their eyes met again; Hanna couldn't help but think what a beautiful smile it was. "Can I uh, help you get that off?" He nodded down to the stain on the front of her dress.

"Help me what now?" Hanna shot back, raising an eyebrow.

Caleb's eyes widened as he realised that she had misunderstood him, "Oh, no no no," He qualified, "I meant the stain, not your uh, your dress." He cleared his throat, "Let me try that again. Can I help you get that stain off?"

Hanna laughed at his awkward attempt at a recovery, "No, I'm good thanks," She giggled, "I'll just go change, it's fine, I'm fine," She confirmed, waving a hand out in front of her. Caleb nodded in understanding, and so she turned back towards the door, stumbling a little in the process. Within seconds she felt a warm pair of hands on either side of her waist, and a soft chuckle up against her ear.

"You sure about that?" Caleb murmured from behind her, "How much have you had to drink?"

Hanna bit her lip – normally she would have been mortified, totally embarrassed by her actions, but the alcohol in her system was leaving her with little room to care. "Not that much," She giggled, feeling herself beginning to lean back into his embrace, "Just a little more than usual."

Caleb stepped around to her front, making sure to keep one hand planted firmly on her waist. "Come on," He smiled, warmly, "Let me walk you back to your room, at least."

"That's not necessary," Hanna assured him, pressing her lips together.

Caleb squinted at her, "Do you even remember which room is yours?" He asked, playfully.

Hanna rolled her eyes, laughing at his apparent lack of faith in her abilities. For a split second, their eyes connected, and she could swear that she felt a spark fly between them, compelling her to be someone that she usually, most definitely, was not. "Maybe not," She whispered, "Maybe I don't remember."

Caleb bit his bottom lip, his face a little more serious all of a sudden as his eyes pooled into hers. He studied her expression for a moment, trying to figure out what she was thinking. "Come on," He eventually decided, "Before anyone else notices what I've done to your dress."

As he tugged her through the door and gently led her down the hallway, Hanna couldn't help but smile giddily to herself; she felt, for the first time in a long time, free. And freedom felt better than she could ever have imagined.

"This is yours, right?" Caleb asked as they reached the last room on the corridor.

Hanna nodded as she fumbled around in her purse for her room key, "Yeah," She confirmed, opening the door, "You can uh, sit on my bed if you want to, I'll go change in the bathroom."

"You sure your roommates won't mind me being in here?" He asked, raising an eyebrow, "I know girls can be… weird about that stuff."

Hanna shrugged, "I mean I have no idea, but they seem pretty cool, so I guess they won't mind." Caleb didn't have a chance to answer before she was tugging on his arm and pulling him inside, closing the door behind them. "Sit," She ordered, pointing to her bed.

Caleb smirked, sitting down on the bed and keeping a close eye on Hanna as she walked over to her wardrobe, pulling out a strapless red dress. "What about this one?" She asked him, holding it up to her body, "Or do you think it will make my boobs look too big?"

Caleb almost choked upon hearing her words, "I uh, I have no idea," He chuckled – she'd definitely had too much to drink, "I don't really know anything about fashion."

"I wasn't asking you about fashion," Hanna sighed, rolling her eyes as she strutted over to the adjoining bathroom, "I was asking you about boobs."

Caleb bit his lip as the door slammed shut, and he was left to wait on Hanna's bed by himself. This girl was really something else.

He sat in silence for about thirty seconds before he began to feel awkward, and convinced himself that he should make an attempt to start a conversation. "So, what are you majoring in?" He asked, cringing a little at the sound of his voice breaking through the silence in the room. He spotted a half finished can of cider on the bedside table next to him, and reached over to take a swig of it; he was going to need to drink a lot more if he wanted to be on the same level as Hanna.

"Philosophy," Came Hanna's reply from behind the bathroom door, "What about you?"

"Uh, computer science," Caleb informed her, raising his voice a little as the music coming from the common room got even louder.

"You must be like, crazy smart," Hanna giggled, pushing the door to the bathroom open and stepping out in her second dress of the night, "Is this ok?"

Caleb had lost track of their conversation as soon as he had registered her presence in the room once again. For the first time that night, he took a moment to truly appreciate the way that Hanna looked, the way that her long hair framed her face, and the way that the dress she was wearing hugged her figure in all the right places. Finally coming to the realisation that she was starting at him expectantly, he cleared his throat and met her gaze, "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said you must be crazy smart, and then I asked you if the dress is ok," She smiled.

"Not really," Caleb confirmed scratching the back of his head. He watched Hanna's face fall before he realised that she'd gotten the wrong idea, "I mean, I'm not really crazy smart. This dress is definitely ok. It's more than ok, it's…"

Hanna allowed herself to blush as Caleb's compliment washed over her – it was unfinished, but as she watched his eyes run over her body, she was pretty sure that she knew what the end of the sentence would have been. "Thanks," She smiled, suddenly feeling a little shy. She looked down at his hands, noticing the fact that he was holding her half-finished can of cider from earlier, "You want your own can? We have a bunch over there."

"Sure," Caleb smiled gratefully, as she reached over and grabbed a can for each of them before sitting herself down on the bed next to him.

A contented silence filled the room for a minute or so as they sat and sipped their drinks, Hanna realising for the first time that night that she'd never felt this comfortable around a boy before. She'd only ever had one boyfriend back home, Sean, and she was pretty sure that he'd never really been all that into her. Their short relationship had felt forced; he was the star soccer player, and she was the 'it girl' of the school. Being with somebody else felt… nice.

"So, where are you from?" Hanna eventually asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked up at Caleb.

Caleb swallowed loudly, "Uh, a lot of different places. California, most recently," He confirmed, giving her a tight smile.

Hanna decided that there was more to the story, but she wasn't going to press him. Instead, she held her can of cider to her lips, and downed the remaining alcohol in one go. "I'm from Pennsylvania," She told him, placing the empty can down onto the floor beside her, "A really boring little town called Rosewood in Pennsylvania. It sucks."

She was slurring a little now, and Caleb couldn't help but smile at the care-free expression on her face. "Why does it suck so much?"

"Don't get me started," Hanna sighed dramatically, pushing her head into her hands, "All the people were boring, nobody would let me have alcohol, and all the boys were ugly."

"Sounds terrible," Caleb chuckled in mock sympathy. From the way that she was describing it, her idea of a place that 'sucked' was a lot different to his. In that moment, he didn't have the heart, or the mind set, to tell her about his experience of being thrown between foster parents in different states. For some reason, though, he had a feeling that he would end up telling her all about it someday, somehow.

Immediately catching on to his sarcasm, Hanna looked up, giving him her best death stare, "It was, ok?" She told him, "You don't know what it was like there."

"You're right, I'm sorry," He apologised, "I really don't have any idea of what it was like."

Hanna nodded, accepting his apology. She turned a little so that her body was facing his, before swinging her legs up over his lap and shuffling a little closer to him. "It's ok," She shrugged, "We don't really know each other, you're allowed to make mistakes."

Caleb smiled at her, reaching forward to tug the bottom of her dress down – it had ridden up when she'd swung her legs over his lap, but with Hanna being in her current state, he figured that she hadn't even realised. "Am I carrying you back into this party?" He joked, throwing back the rest of his cider before he placed the can next to Hanna's on the floor.

"Noooooo," Hanna laughed against him, "Let's not go back to the party, it sucked."

Caleb narrowed his eyes at her, "You didn't even make it into the party."

"And whose fault was that?" She slurred, a huge grin spreading across her face at the memory, "I can't believe you ruined my dress."

"Excuse me," Caleb laughed, faking offence, "Look at what you did to my shirt." He pointed down at a small pink mark on his top, causing Hanna to burst out into fits of giggles that he couldn't help but reciprocate.

"Shut up," She rolled her eyes, slapping his chest lightly, "That doesn't even count." She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth as she thought for a second, "Anyway, I still don't want to go back to that room. Let's just stay here."

"Stay here and do what?" Caleb asked, raising his eyebrows, although he certainly wasn't objecting to her idea.

Hanna pushed herself up and off of his lap, walking over to the mini fridge in the corner of the room and pulling out two bottles of red wine. "Get more drink," She shook her head, "I mean, drunk. Have more drink to get more drunk."

Caleb laughed, walking over to meet her, "I don't think you need any more drink or drunk," He joked, stealing one of the bottles of wine from her, "But I do."

Hanna's eyes widened as Caleb strolled back to the other side of the room, unscrewing the lid of the bottle and downing as much of it as he could before she ran over to him, dropping the other bottle of wine on the floor in the process. "Give it back!" She squealed as she caught up to him, jumping on his back and leaving them both with no choice but to fall down onto her bed, her legs eventually falling on either side of his body as she straddled his front.

"Nope," He refused, pressing his lips together to stop himself from smiling as he held the half-empty wine bottle up above his head.

Hanna shuffled in an attempted to stop her short dress from riding any further up her legs, before placing her hands on his chest and moving her face right up next to his. "Do it," She challenged him, "Or I'll never tell you the secret that I was going to tell you."

Caleb raised his eyebrows, "You don't have a secret," He whispered, his eyes flicking down to her lips quickly. What was he doing?

"I do," Hanna whispered back, "But now you'll never know." And then, knowing that Caleb was completely and utterly transfixed by her, she reached up and stole the bottle from his hand. "Yes!" She exclaimed, practically beaming with joy as she sat back up and took a huge gulp of the wine, squinting at it's bitterness before she let the almost empty bottle roll down onto the floor, "That was gross, now I feel sick." She held her hand to her mouth, squeezing her eyes closed as she waited for the feeling to pass.

Caleb sighed, "I told you not to have any," He chuckled, "It wasn't even good wine."

Hanna groaned, flopping forward onto his chest as the room began to spin, "Stop talking, I can't hear you anymore, everything is moving," She mumbled against him, her eyes scrunched shut and her eyebrows knotted together.

Suddenly concerned, Caleb wound an arm around her, stroking his hand up and down her back soothingly. "Are you ok?" He asked, genuinely concerned, "Do you want some water or something?" He was trying desperately to help, but it was hard given the amount of wine that he'd just consumed.

"I'm fine," Hanna hiccupped, her voice fading, "I just… I just need sleep."

"That's okay," Caleb assured her, "You're on your bed, you can go to sleep if you need to." Still stroking her back, he peered down at her face to see if she looked ill, only to find that she was sound asleep, the bottom of his shirt scrunched up in one of her fists. "Huh, faster than I thought," He chuckled to himself.

Caleb allowed himself one more minute to lay with Hanna in his arms before he forced himself to sit up, cradling her against his chest. He was making a concerted effort not to wake her up, even though he was pretty sure that's she'd be able to sleep through an earthquake at this point. Gently prying her fingers from his shirt, he slid her onto the bed beside him, before laying her down and then shuffling away. He ran his fingers through his short hair as he stood, trying to figure out exactly how he'd gotten himself into this situation.

Not that it was a particularly bad situation to be in, he thought.

Pulling the covers up around Hanna, he pressed a lingering kiss to the top of her head, a gesture that he didn't even question until he stepped back and touched a finger to his lips. He didn't know what had compelled him to do it, but the small display of affection had come completely naturally to him.

"Goodnight, Hanna," He whispered, flicking the light off as he left the room, returning to the party that she was never destined to attend.

Well... how was it? Drop me a review and let me know your thoughts x