Okay so I managed to write this chapter this week because I have been postponing revision, and also because I love you all. Thank you for your nice reviews, they fill me with warmth and fuzziness. I might not be able to write another chapter for a few weeks, but I'm not entirely sure. Either way, I hope you enjoy this chapter. I honestly have no idea where this story is heading so I'm just rolling with it. But either way, enjoy.

Has anyone else finished the most recent episode? Isn't it fabulous. Feel free to clog my inbox with how cute Lysander's parents were, how much you wanted to hug Nathaniel when you met his dad or just how great the exchange was when you met Castiel's parents... But yeah, I'd love that.

Anywho, I don't own My Candy Love (I don't know whether I've disclaimed all over my other chapters but here it is in case any of you thought that I was the maker of MCL- ha! I wish) because if I did then we'd have at least gotten ourselves a kiss from someone other than Dake. Ugh.


The Next Morning

I wake up the next morning with a banging headache and the sounds of Push it Real Good coming from somewhere near my head. I force myself to open my eyes and automatically squeeze them shut one more, so just turn to reaching out blindly to find my phone. I instinctively press the button to accept the call and finally the sounds of 'ooh baby, baby' drift away. I really don't know why I made it my ring tone. I put my phone to my ear, lie my arm over my eyes and then speak into the phone. "Unless it's an emergency would you kindly go away?" I say without even looking at the caller ID.

"I prefer Nice Aurora. Your sassiness is getting out of control... I think we need an intervention," Is Alexy's response and he sounds far too cheerful for this time of the morning. Uh, I crack my eyes open to look at the clock on my bedside table. It's only 11 o'clock. Okay, not that early, but still. I snap my eyes closed again, that's all the work I'm going to be doing today.

"Shh," I reply and Alexy just laughs at me. I think that I hate him.

"We're having a group meeting at mine to discuss last night's events and you're cordially invited."

"I think that I just want to stay in bed forever and never go outside again."

"Did I say invited? I meant that you have to come. Or I'll go round to your house and drag you here," Alexy answers and normally I'd dismiss his comment, but something in his voice tells me that he might just do that.

"Ugh, fine. But only because I like you."

"Thank you," Alexy says in a sing-song voice before promptly hanging up.

They better not expect me to look nice when I feel so awful. I literally have to drag myself from my bed, all the while closing my eyes. I grab my heart shaped sunglasses from my last holiday off the side and promptly put them on. I'm still in my dress from last night (and a mysterious jacket that doesn't belong to me, how weird) so I peel my clothes off, throw them onto my chair and then pull on the first clothes I can find, which just so happens to be a pair of grey sweat pants. I pull them on and then tug on a white tank top and a lilac sweater before shoving my feet into some flip flops. I'll face the mystery of the jacket later on. With that, without even looking in the mirror, I head downstairs and out the door. I have no idea how I got home last night, but what I do know is that I'm terribly thankful that my parents were visiting auntie last night. I don't usually drink, and I don't know how they'd feel about me drinking last night. Especially my dad. Either way, maybe sometimes luck is on my side.


I walk around to Alexy's, taking to the shade of trees as much as possible so the usually five minute walk takes ten. But I find myself on his doorstep later, knocking and cringing against the noise as it sends shards of pain through my brain. Alexy opens the door after a few seconds and his beaming face pops out from around it. I glare at him then realise that he can't see it through the sunglasses. Alexy opens the door wider and lets me in and I begrudgingly stomp inside. I hear Alexy's laughter as he closes the door. "Nice sunglasses."

I choose to ignore that comment.

"We're all in the living room," Alexy adds after a second and I go inside. The house is covered in plastic cups, streamers and the odd popped balloon, and it's a bit of a mess. But you expect that after a party so I think little of it. I head into the living room and flop down on the sofa without even looking around at anyone, but by doing so I nearly fall on top of Rosalya who mutters angrily under her breath.

When I finally look around I spot Rosalya sporting a pair of aviator sunglasses and a pyjama set looking just as rough as I feel, and then on the floor sits Violette and Iris who both look alright bar for the dark circles underneath their eyes. Over on the other sofa sits Armin and Kim, Kim looks completely dead as she lies there with her hand over her eyes and even Armin seems to have lost his cheer. Wow, the great aftermath of a party. "Melody can't make it. Her dad wasn't happy that she was back so late so she can't go out today," Iris informs me, obviously seeing the fact that I'm scouting out whose in the room. I nod my head and then flop back on the cushions, pulling a cushion up to my face so that I can shade my eyes.

"We make for an attractive bunch, today," Rosalya grunts out and I nod my head from behind the cushion.

"You only have yourselves to blame," Alexy says in his happy as ever tone and I take the cushion away from my face to throw it at him. I don't look to see if it hits him, but I hear the sound of a cushion hitting something and a little 'oof'. "I'm seeing a new side to you today," Alexy adds after a second as he throws the cushion back to me. I let it fall down next to me.

"Don't be a dick, Lex," Rosalya responds in a quiet, muffled voice and I peek over at her to find that she's taken the sunglasses off to rest them on the arm of the sofa and in their place is a cushion.

"Okay, okay," Alexy grumbles and sits down besides Violette and Iris.

"Yeah, we want them to help with the tidying up," Armin interrupts him and I swear we all shoot daggers towards him in that second.

"So what did you call us all over for?" Iris asks, trying to diffuse the tension that hangovers cause. I'd smile if my head didn't hurt so bad.

"We need to talk about what happened last night. Who remembers what? Who doesn't remember anything?" Alexy replies and I'm sad to admit that I fit more into the second category. I can remember up to the near fight between Rosalya and Amber (even if a lot of the stuff up until that point is blurry), can't remember much after that. Unfortunately I can still remember the one thing that I wish I could forget. Namely Castiel and Li. The thought alone is enough to cause me to shiver.

"I remember getting ready to punch Amber's ugly face right off..." Rosalya says from behind her cushion and I laugh even through my hangover.

"There wasn't any punching in the end, though," Iris adds, clearly one of the sober ones in the room. "Lysander was the one that broke that one up." I didn't know much about that. It must have been before Nathaniel and I arrived. I don't remember seeing Lysander when we came in.

"He did?"

"Yeah. He nearly didn't break it up in time," Iris tells me and when I glance at her for a second she shrugs one shoulder. I then snap my eyes back shut. "But he left after that. He told me to watch Rosa. I don't think that I saw him the rest of the night."

"So besides Amber's near-punch experience, what the fuck happened?" Kim speaks up for the first time, her hand momentarily moving from her face as she fixes us all with a glare.

"Well we still don't know who Castiel's secret hook up buddy was," Alexy answers and automatically the group (or the group who isn't shielding themselves from the light in the room) turn towards me. I can't see them, but I know that they are. I can feel it. "Aurora, care to share?"

"How do you even know who it is?" Violette says in a quiet voice and I peek one eye open.

"Ew. I saw them in the kitchen before they headed into the garden," I shudder at the memory and see Iris raise her eyebrows up at me from besides Violette. I take that as my cue to close my eyes again.

"Just tell us," Rosalya almost growls.

"It's not any of my business."

"I don't understand why you won't tell us. It's not like we'll tell anyone," Iris says in a calm tone. She may not tell anyone, but I'm not so sure about Rosa or Alexy. But her comment does cause something to jolt inside me. I honestly have no idea why I won't tell them. Why am I even protecting them?

"I'm just not a gossip. It isn't in my nature."

Alexy grumbles and sighs heavily, but seems to understand that he won't get anything out of me. "You suck... But let's just move on. We might be able to get it out of her later. When she least expects it."

"Iris kissed Armin!" Kim bursts out suddenly, a comment that causes all of our eyes to snap over to her before quickly moving to Armin and then Iris in turn. Both of them are blushing furiously, Iris almost the colour of her hair. I turn back to Armin and then back to Iris before repeating the action a few more times.

"You two kept that one quiet," Rosalya supplies after a moment.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Alexy asks, eyes focused on Armin who is still battling the blush.

"Is this awkward?" Kim adds after a moment and they both shoot daggers at her, I'm surprised that she didn't fall over dead. She already looks the part because of the hangover.

"Are you together?" Violette questions in her usual gentle voice. I'm glad she asked it, if any of the rest of us did it would probably sound like an interrogation, but Violette makes it sound sweet.

"If you have babies I bagsy being godmother to all of them," I shout out, slightly too loudly, and then turn to wincing.

"That's not allowed. In the bagsy handbook it says that's not fair," Alexy argues as he gives me a grumpy look, "It says that the family gets that job before all others."

"You wouldn't be godmother anyway, Alexy," Armin replies and rolls his eyes at his brother, apparently his blush has dissipated in the previous few seconds. "Because you're not a girl."

"Oh yeah," Alexy nods, his face returning to a cheerful expression. "You can be godmother, Ror."

"Slight problem with that plan... We aren't having children!" Armin speaks over his brother, sitting forward slightly to shake his head. When I look at Iris I find her hiding behind her hands. "And no, we're not together."

"You'd be such a sweet couple," Violette says and that just makes Iris bury her face into her hands even further.

"Guys," She grumbles.

"I think we should leave this conversation and let them discuss it later," I tell them then, mainly because I'm scared that Iris' face will stay that red if she blushes any more.

"Thanks," Iris says softly and I smile over at her and, having finally pulled her face away from her hands, she sends me a smile in return.

"So what have we got so far? I nearly had a fight, Castiel has a mystery lady and Iris and Armin got it on. Is that it?" Rosalya comments next and I have to smile at her bluntness.

"Yep, seems about right," Alexy nods.

"So what the fuck else happened?" Kim asked outright now, her head lifting slightly to look around at all of us.

"Should we go through it all in chronological order?" Iris suggested, offering a small smile.

"Good idea," Alexy agrees. "Okay so you all arrived, I greeted you and then I went off to play as host..."

"Violette and I went to go and dance," I provide, shrugging one shoulder.

"Then Kim and Rosa went to get drinks," Violette says quietly and we turn to the two girls. "What did you do then?"

"We just chatted in the kitchen... Well until Iris and Armin came in. Then we were all just talking," Rosalya answered, so nothing interesting there then.

"But then Armin ditched us to go and see Ror and Vi," Kim added before shooting a look to Armin, which I think is meant to be teasing. "Rude. It's nice to know their company's better than ours."

"And Melody went to find Nathaniel, didn't she?" Iris asks as she looks around at everyone in turn.

"No idea what happened there," Alexy replies, his shoulders rising and falling. "But doesn't she like him?" At our shocked looks because, really, how the hell did he know?, Alexy smiles innocently and offers one raised shoulder. His smile drops a little as he just gives us a wry look. "My crush detector is top notch..."

"I saw Melody later though... She didn't look happy," Iris comments. "But she didn't tell me what was wrong."

"Maybe she told Nathaniel?" I input, because I have no idea either. It can't have gone very well if she did tell him, and I feel a burn of sympathy towards Melody because she's a nice girl. Either way, it's all speculation. I may have seen Nathaniel later but he didn't give anything away.

"We'll have to get the details from Melody later," Rosalya says.

"Then I saw Iris and Armin gettin' it ooon!" Kim breaks through the conversation and grins wickedly over to the two of them and I find myself laughing.

"It wasn't like that," Armin replies, blushing lightly, and we all start laughing at that.

"That's probably when I went out to see Lysander and Rora in the garden," Alexy says, saving his brother from getting even more flustered. He then turns to give Rosalya a very pointed look. "Round about the time you threw up in my mother's plant pot. Thanks for that."

Rosalya rolls her eyes and gives him a very bored look. "You really need to forget about that." But then her expression smoothes out into a smirk as she directs her gaze at me. "Do we want to know what happened there?" She teases, winking at me. I hate her.

"Nothing happened," I say outright and Rosalya and Alexy both give me exasperated looks.

"You looked very cosy..." Alexy comments as he tries to act casual by peering at his finger nails.

"There was nothing cosy about it. It was probably more sickening and awkward. Definitely not cosy," I knew that I was going overboard but with people like Alexy and Rosalya you had to in order for you to get your point across. Otherwise they just wouldn't listen. "But that's when we all went to dance, right?" I ask, in an obvious attempt to steer the conversation away from Lysander and I. It may not have been the most subtle attempt, but it works because Rosalya and Alexy turn away from me to look around at the group of our friends, most of which nod.

"Rosa, Armin and Kim weren't, though," Iris supplies.

"I think Rosa was throwing up in the fish bowl that time," Alexy shoots in Rosalya's direction and Rosalya just lets out a long, exaggerated yawn.

"No, I think that's when I drunk called Leigh," Rosalya responds and she blushes a little. It doesn't suit her. Girls like Rosalya don't blush. "Not my finest moment. It's lucky that Leigh loves me or I think that we'd have parted ways between me doing a rap version of Shakespeare's sonnet 18 and telling him how much I liked the way he did my coffee." Rosalya shakes her head. "I'm never getting drunk again."

"That's cute," Alexy answers and then laughs. "In an odd sort of way."

"There's worse drunk calls. Believe me," Armin replies. I turn to look at him with raised eyebrows and, after catching my look, he just shakes his head like it's too embarrassing even to talk about.

"I think that Armin and I were playing battle shots at that point," Kim added, turning the conversation back to the main reason that we were all round here.

"I hammered you," Armin grins for the first time today. Games, even drinking ones, can make him happy even in his time of hangovers.

"Then Aurora went to get a drink," Violette supplies, aiding us all in our quest. That was when I saw Castiel and Li. But I don't mention that, instead I just nod. "And we continued dancing until Amber came in. Rosalya heard what was going on and came in to defend Aurora."

"Thanks, by the way," I tell her and she just waves my comment off with her hand.

"And that's all I really remember," Kim comments and Rosalya nods her head to show that she agrees with that statement. I remember Castiel coming in, but after that very little, so I'm with them on this one.

"And Aurora then left with Nathaniel!" Alexy bursts through us all and then the eyes all return to me. Did I? I can't even remember whether I did or not. Was it Nathaniel that got me home, then? But he doesn't even know where I live and I doubt that even I knew where I lived last night. I don't think that I was in the right state of mind to guide Nathaniel back to my house without getting us both very, very lost.

And that's when it came back to me.


The Previous Night

Nathaniel leads me outside and sits me down on the steps outside the twins' house. He takes off his jacket and drapes it around my shoulders without comment and I would have given it back if it weren't so cold. The air was a lot chillier that it had been just hours ago, and the cold hit me hard in the face, as if someone had tipped a bucket of ice over my head. The world was still spinning underneath my feet but it had become a little more anchored now that I was sitting down. The air was thick, it hung around me like an icy jacket, and dark. I couldn't see any more than just the shadows and outlines of things in the dark, especially seeing as only a crescent of the moon was creeping out from behind a cloud.

"Are you feeling any better?" Nathaniel asks and his voice drags me back to now and I can suddenly feel the warmth of his hand as it lies on the bottom of my back. It stops the world in it's rotation for a moment.

"I will be... The air helps," I respond in a slightly slurred, slightly disorientated way. The words sound alright to my ears, but I don't know what they sound like to Nathaniel's.

"I should have got you a bottle of water," Nathaniel comments and I shake my head.

"I'm fine... You're doing that thing again," I tell him, but I'm smiling while I say it. Nathaniel tilts his head to the side in mild confusion.

"What thing?"

"Where you act really sweet and it makes me feel horribly inadequate," I answer, even though 'inadequate' sounds more like 'in-dee-quet'

Nathaniel's eyes narrow a little as he looks at me. It may be dark outside, but I can see his eyes better than I ever have before. I don't think I've ever realised how nice they look. "You're the opposite of inadequate... It's funny. Normally I find myself in awe of you when I'm around your person."

And I don't know whether it's his words, or how he's looking at me, or maybe just because of the alcohol. But I lean in. I lean in and I close my eyes. I get to only a fraction of a centimetre away from him, I can tell because his breath is ghosting over my lips, but then I suddenly feel a tsunamis wave crash through my stomach and I suddenly feel very much like a sea sick pirate on the seven seas. At the last second I turn away, over to the other side of me, and vomit up pink coloured sick all down the steps. Warn me to stay away from the punch in the future.

I turn back to Nathaniel through cloudy eyes as I wipe my hand over my mouth. Oh God. I feel vile. "Oh... Oh no. Gosh. Nathaniel... Uh..."

"Hey, it's no problem at all. I'm really going to get that bottle of water, though," I don't see Nathaniel's face this time because his head is ducked down- probably in disgust- and he hops up from the steps quickly. "Stay there... Let me just run and get some. I'll try and find some mints as well."

So that's how I found myself sitting alone next to a puddle of pink sick alone on a Saturday night. And I thought that my all time low was when I refused to take off my crocs for that year when I was thirteen.

I slump back against the steps, a hand going up to grasp my forehead as I squeeze my eyes shut. I'm going to regret that in the morning. I shuffle up into Nathaniel's place, further away from my own sick, and then yawn into my fist. I find myself nearly dropping off to sleep completely as my head lolls forward to rest on my hand that is placed on my knee. I'm only stopped from falling asleep completely by the sound of footsteps. My eyes open and I look up to see the figure of Castiel looming over me.

"I think flowers should stick to water rather than alcohol, Rose," He remarks as he sits down in my old place. He eyes my sick puddle for a second and then nudges me further along the steps with his elbow. "You're disgusting," He adds after a second and I can't really argue. But I do shuffle along to keep him further away from my sick. "Completely vile."

"I hope you mean a Black Rose... Because that would be fitting," I mumble and I watch as Castiel's eyes go over to fall on me. My head is back in my hands but my face is turned so that I'm looking at him.

"Huh?"

"They symbolise death... And I sure do feel like death right now," I fill in for him and then let out a groan to emphasise my point. "Darn pretty pink punch and it's not so pretty side effects."

"It's your own fault. If you could handle your alcohol better..." He trails off and I think it's for some intended affect but I can't be bothered to find out what right now so I just let my eyes close. He must sense that I'm not in the mood to come up with any kind of come back, because when I open my eyes once more he's just looking at me. I don't know what he can see in my expression but I'm not about to ask.

"Nathaniel's gone to get me some water," Is what I reply. I don't know why, but I do. Castiel turns away from me at that comment.

"I bet he has," I would ask what he means but he's probably just going to say something horrible about Nathaniel and I don't want to hear that right now. Especially seeing as Nathaniel's being so nice despite me nearly getting sick splashes on his shoes. He's quiet for a moment as he looks down at his shoes for a second. I go back to letting my eyes fall softly closed. Ugh, I want my bed. When he does eventually speak I raise an eyebrow without opening my eyes, of course he wants to talk about this. "So why didn't you tell Amber about Li? It's not like you're loyal to Li or like you want to protect Amber's feelings... After all, she hates you."

"I don't know."

"Yes. Yes you do."

I open my eyes then, let them focus on Castiel's face for a second. This reminds me a bit of his band practice, when we were alone in his kitchen together. But it also feels very different and I'm unsure why. I sigh heavily for a second. "I honestly don't... Maybe because it's none of my business, maybe because I don't like to gossip, maybe because it should be Li that tells Amber because they're friends."

"And?" Castiel pesters, I don't know what he hopes to get out of me but I'm pretty sure that I won't give him the right answer.

"And? Maybe because I really didn't want to talk about it."

Castiel sits back for a second. I'm not sure whether that was the answer he was expecting or not, but by the smug look on Castiel's face it's clear that he must have gained something more from my comment than I meant. I don't really have any clue as to what. Whether that's normal-Aurora idiocy or drunk-Aurora idiocy I don't know. I'm leaning more towards the first. "Aha."

"But mainly because it's not any of my business." Castiel's smug look falls and he nods for a second. He places his elbows on the step behind up and leans back, his head tilting up to the dark sky for a second. I frown as I look at him and then turn to look up at the sky for a second as well. "You're being very un-Castiel like."

"You didn't tell anyone, I think that I owe you a little of my un-Castiel charm."

"So why did... Why did you and Li happen? How did it happen? I wouldn't have thought that you'd like her," I don't know why I assumed that. I don't know Castiel. I certainly don't know what kinds of girls he's into.

"I was taking my mind off something. And anyway, fuck it, Li's not too bad if she doesn't talk too much," I would try and defend her on that point because I hate that whole attitude, but then again she clearly isn't the nicest of people. Especially seeing as she did that to Amber. Girl code states not to go after another girl's crush.

"I couldn't find any water bottles, so I got you a glass," Nathaniel's voice is heard from above the two of us and I look up to spot the familiar blonde boy holding out a glass of water complete with ice cubes and a little straw. His eyes fall onto Castiel before going back to me.

"I'll see you at school, Black Rose," Castiel tells me as he gets up off the steps and then walks into the house, making sure to barge into Nathaniel on the way inside.

"Here," Nathaniel leans down to give me the glass of water and I accept it with a thankful smile. "I'm sorry for whatever Castiel said."

"He was fine. And thanks for everything... I'm really sorry for, uh, before," I say to him as I take a sip of water and smile slightly.

"It's really not a problem at all. You were drunk, it happens," Nathaniel replies, apparently having gotten over his initial reaction in our time away from one another seeing as he continues looking at me.

"And about uh..." I trail off, but he has to know what I'm referring to. He does blush bright pink at that. So maybe he's not completely gotten over it.

"It's fine," He replies firmly and I nod taking another sip of my water.

"Nathaniel, take me home!" Amber stomps out of the house and down the steps at that exact moment, causing me to spill a bit of water down my chin so it dribbles onto my dress. She stops half way down the yard to look back at us. "Otherwise I'll tell dad." And then she turns back around and flounces the rest of the way down the footpath. It's then that Nathaniel turns to look at me to give me an apologetic smile and I nod, ushering him away.

"Go, she's your sister," I say with a smile as I raise my cup to my lips. Nathaniel nods and then stands upright. "I'll see you at school, Nate." I tell him and he smiles back to show that he returns the comment before then heading down the steps after his sister. He's only a meter away when I call him again and he turns around to face me. "Thanks... For everything."

"It's fine," His voice shows that he means it and he offers a genuine smile before continuing back down the path and out onto the side walk at the bottom of the garden. I watch him for a second before looking down at my drink. The water isn't helping that much, and while I'm feeling slightly better than I did inside, it seems to be slightly too late to save myself. I'm fading fast, my eyelids keep drifting closed and while the nausea is passed, I just want to get home so that I can go to bed. It's been a weird night, but I think that I just want to get home now. I should probably say goodbye to Armin and Alexy first, though.

I'm just getting up from the steps when I accidentally knock into someone for the second time tonight. This person is taller, though, and my head collides with their chest. I spill most of my water down myself and them, but where I expect curse words I look up to find the eyes of one Lysander. My apologies still slip from my mouth easily though, I don't think that I could stop them if I tried to. Lysander eventually gives me an amused look and shakes his head.

"Stop apologising," He says in his calm, even voice. He takes my cup from me and places it on the top of the banister that runs along side the steps. He then grabs me by the elbow gently, his long fingers wrapping almost the whole way round. "Are you okay, though? You've drank a lot..."

"I was just leaving," I replied as I looked up at him and he cocked up an eyebrow at me.

"You seem to be walking in the wrong direction."

"I was just going to say goodbye to Alexy and Arm-" My comment is cut off by a yawn escaping my lips and I rise my free hand to cover my mouth. "Oh sorry, I'm just so sleepy an-" I am once again cut off by a yawn and Lysander chuckles.

"I think we should get you home," He answers and while his tone is soft I can detect a hint of hardness behind it showing that I shouldn't argue with him on this because undoubtedly I'll lose.

"But-"

"The twins are both so busy dancing that they probably won't mind," He says and I know that he's just saying it to get me to give up, but I do eventually nod in agreement. Usually I'd put up more resistance, but I'm so tired that I don't think that I can even try to argue with him. So I just offer him a sleep filled smile.

"Okay," I mutter and he smiles back at me at that, his own smile relaxed and gentle.

"I'll escort you home then," Lysander then tucks his arm around my waist (to which he whispers "I don't want you running into anyone else" and I think it's a bit too late for that) and then leads us both down the steps. It's when I'm halfway down the steps that I realise that I'm still in Nathaniel's jacket, I'll have to give it back to him on Monday.

Lysander leads us both down the path of the garden and out onto the street, brighter here because it's covered with the glow of street lamps. Cars are still lined up along the streets and Lysander leads me along to a silver car a few yards away from the house. I can still hear the music from inside, but it's faded and muted slightly so I can only hear the beat rather than the lyrics. The moon is making a reappearance once more, it's head appearing from the cover of clouds. The street lamps guide us to Lysander's car and when we arrive I remember that he arrived with Castiel. "But didn't you drive here with Castiel?" I ask after a moment as Lysander lets go of me to pull out a pair of car keys and open up the car.

He turns to me then, as he's opening the passenger seat and helping me inside. "I'll just message him. He can probably get a lift with Leigh. He's picking up the girls, right?"

I nod and let myself get into the car with Lysander closing the door behind me as he goes around to his side. He gets in and we both put on our seatbelts before Lysander starts the car. He presses a few buttons on the radio, causing the sounds of some rock band to flutter out within the car and I smile slightly. It's nice. It reminds me of Castiel and Lysander's band, even if I'm biased and say that they would always be better than this. But it's still nice. It fills up the car in a good way, seems to warm the coldest corners. He turns to me and raises one eyebrow. "Is this music alright?" He asks and I just nod my head, letting it fall back against the seat and the window as my eyes flutter closed. My eyelids had felt so heavy and I don't think that I could have kept them open even if I'd tried. The hum of the car as it starts off down the road and the sounds of the radio guide me into sleep.

I wake up when the engine is cut off and Lysander's opening the door to let the cold air from outside leak into the warmth of the car. He closes the door once more and I nearly fall back to sleep, only stopped by the opening of my own door. "Aurora? We're at your house? Do you have your key?" I hear Lysander's gentle voice and it breaks through my sleep for a second. I open up my eyes and they lock with Lysander's, I don't say anything but I nod my head and pull out my key from where I'd tucked it into my bra earlier. He laughs at my hiding place but otherwise says nothing as he gently helps me out of the car.

Immediately his arm is back around me and he guides me up to my door, lets us both in and then he just looks at me for a moment. "Uh, will you be alright?" To which I just nod.

"Thanks, Sander," I smile sleepily up at him as I rest back against the wall by the door. He looks at me and says nothing for a long time, seemingly debating something in his head, before eventually leaning towards me and placing a soft kiss on my forehead. I think I'd have been taken off guard if I hadn't been so tired.

"Sweet dreams, Aurora" He murmurs in a quiet voice, close to my ear, before he steps back and away from me. Then he places my key in my hand and, after one final look at me that I can't even begin to get my head round, disappears out of the door.


The Next Morning

I'm snapped back to right now as Kim clicks her fingers in front of my face and Alexy makes various 'yoo-hoo' noises while Armin pretends to shoot at my head. I shake my head to clear the rest of my thoughts and then rub at my eyes. So I'd had a busier night than I'd originally thought. I look back around at my circle of friends, all with a mix of confused, interested and worried looks on their faces. I smile.

"Nothing happened," I reply to their original comment about Nathaniel. It may be a lie in some respects, the truth in others, I don't feel quite right telling the rest of them the truth. It just seems wrong so I plaster on my best fake smile. "He got me some water and then took Amber home."

The others, mainly Kim, Rosalya and Alexy, all groaned at the boring nature of that and then turn away from me. They seem more intent on finding out what happened with everyone else now.

I let them continue talking, sitting back against the cushions to think about the night before for a second, half listening to the conversation going on in front of me in case I'm addressed. Besides that, though, I just think about everything that happened and try to make sense of it all. All I know is that Monday is going to be an odd day, or just a day that I'll want to forget. I turn my head back to look at my friend's, tuning back into the conversation as they talk about Kim's amazing skills on the dance floor. I shake my head, run my fingers through my hair, and momentarily try to forget all about last night.