Ethan Morgan jerked awake. He swore he jumped about a foot in his bed. When his heart stopped thumping, he glanced at the clock. It was 3:45 AM. Why must it storm now? Ethan thought irritably as another long, deep roll of thunder sounded.

Lightning lit up Ethan's window, and he groaned. Thunderstorms never failed to cause him to feel uneasy. He tried to ignore his fears, snuggling up under his blankets and finding a comfortable position. But it was raining hard, and more and more lightning came, and the thunder seemed to be getting louder and louder, and the wind howled, and Ethan could barely stand it. He tried to think about what Sarah would tell him.

"You're fine," Sarah would say, like she did several weeks back, when it was storming on a Friday night and Sarah was babysitting Ethan's sister.

"Don't you hear it though? It's insane out there!"

"You're inside," Sarah had laughed. "You're fine!"

I'm fine, Ethan told himself. Then another clap of thunder sounded and Ethan promptly gathered a blanket and pillow and flew down the stairs. The teenage boy settled down on the couch, feeling much safer than when it had been upstairs for some reason. He curled up, focusing on getting back to sleep.

"I just love thunderstorms." Erica mused as she rummaged through her bag of nail polish. "They're so...calming. Too bad I don't sleep that much anymore. What color did you say you wanted?"

Sarah and Erica were holding a sleepover at Erica's house. Though, considering both girls were vampires, there wouldn't be much sleep.

Sarah sighed, a little distracted. The thunder outside was sending her into frequent flashbacks. It wasn't that she didn't agree with Erica about loving thunderstorms, it was that she knew someone who wouldn't agree. "Um, surprise me." She finally said.

"You seem so enthusiastic. If you didn't want to sleep over...if you can even still call it that...you didn't have to." Erica dropped the bag of polish and crossed her arms.

"No, no, it's just...I don't think Ethan likes thunderstorms too much."

Erica let out a laugh. "You want to go tap on his windows and freak him out, don't you?"

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "What?! No! Erica!"

"What? It'd be funny. Get to him in his vulnerable state, and it'll be extra priceless. He won't just not like storms by the end of the night, he'll hate them!"

"No, Erica."

"Well then why did you bring it up?"

Sarah bit her lip. She knew her best friend wouldn't understand. Even Sarah herself didn't understand why she so wildly desired to make sure Ethan was okay. Last time it had stormed, it wasn't this bad and it wasn't this late at night and Ethan had seemed so nervous. It was obvious he had a fear of storms and yes, it was possible that he was sleeping through this one, but what if he wasn't?

Moments passed, and Sarah said, "I actually have a really great color at my house that you don't and I think you're gonna love it. I'll run home real fast to get it."

"Okay." Erica agreed with ease.

But Sarah did not run home. Instead, she ran to Ethan's house, where she flew up towards his window, feeling like such a creeper. Ethan wasn't in his bed. Investigation was in order. Ethan's parents had given Sarah a key to the house, and she used it to sneak inside. She wondered vaguely if she could be considered a stalker, and concluded that she was being one only to a mild degree. After all, a character in Dusk would creep into the house of the girl he loved to stare at her every night. Sarah, on the other hand, was just checking on the boy that she sort of cared about on a stormy evening due to the fact that the boy was no doubt terrified of storms.

Sarah discovered a giant lump of blankets on the couch, and she knew it had to be Ethan.

"Ethan?" She whispered, slowly edging towards the blankets.

The lump did not budge.

Sarah tiptoed closer. "Ethan?"

Still, the lump did not budge.

Sarah was close enough to reach out now. She bent down on the floor so that her face was level with the spot where she assumed Ethan's head would be under the covers. She sincerely hoped that he was asleep and not in some sort of catatonic state from fear.

Gently, she pulled the covers slightly so that she could check on Ethan. His lip was pouted slightly, and he looked like he had maybe been crying, but he did appear to be asleep. He was so pitiful it was adorable. Impulsively, Sarah leaned forward and kissed Ethan's forhead, which was hot and sweaty from being under the blankets.

Ethan emitted a small moan, and his eyes fluttered open. Sarah's insides froze, and she began mentally preparing what to say and how exactly to say it in order to explain herself and not sound like the creeper from Dusk and how to say it in a gentle way and not a way that made it sound weird and it wasn't like she really knew exactly why she was here and...

"Stay." Ethan mumbled sleepily, before his eyes dropped back into slumber.