AN: Non beta'd as per usual. Please forgive my mistakes. I'm not American, so there may be details that don't ring true. This will be five or six chapters of angst, with a bit of fluff and eventual smut. This is an AU fic but it's borderline pre-canon - the characters and their personal storylines (Luke's addiction and Cassie's T1D) are very close to the film with some major plot differences.

ALL OF ME

It started on a busy Saturday night in the hallway of a seedy bar in San Diego.

She often wondered if they'd not met then, whether things would have been different for them. Whether they would have ever found out each other's hidden truths. Whether they would have become… whatever it was they were to each other.

Cassie was seventeen, with the fake ID of a twenty something and the bladder of a forty-year-old mother of three.

No kidding, this was like, the fifth time she'd had to pee in the last four hours of her shift.

It was late, not only had she been on her feet serving most of the night, but she'd also played keyboard for the house band. Her head felt heavy and so did her boots. She couldn't help that she got clumsy when she was tired. Or, that as she stepped into the hall on her way to the toilet, her foot caught on a carpet pull and she slammed straight into the side of some solid dude in a baseball cap, with a flannelette shirt rolled up his arms.

Without thinking, the guy caught Cassie and steadied her with gentle hands, his hold lingering a little longer than necessary as he took in her startled, pale appearance.

"You okay?" His soft voice inquired - sad, hazel eyes beseeching her.

Even through her bleary-eyed, tired vision, Cassie marvelled at the sight of him. High cheekbones, full lips and a tiny little mole above the right corner of his mouth.

She had a fleeting recollection of seeing him somewhere else. But that couldn't have been possible, right? She hoped he didn't recognise her from anywhere. She was working there illegally, afterall.

"Watch where the fuck you're goin' Salazar'" his buddy beside him, muttered under his breath. Cassie stiffened at the sound of that voice saying her name.

Johnno fucking Ippolito. The scum of Oceanside High. She wished he'd pick another bar to do his dealings. Not just because having the supplier of her fake ID frequent the place where she worked, with said ID, was a little too close for comfort. Being near Johnno made her skin crawl. He was a creep. A kind of pathetic one, but also unpredictable and irrational.

Cassie realised the attractive stranger was still holding her, his large hands almost searing a hole in her jeans and the skin of her forearm. When he too realised and somewhat reluctantly removed his grip, their gaze met.

He didn't look quite as desperate or wasted as Johnno's regular acquaintances, but she could sense that same reckless abandon about him. There was something else there though, something deeper and tender - in his eyes, and the way he held his body. She imagined him hanging onto the edge of some gaping, weeping wound with a lifeline that was once strong and wiry, and was now a haggard shred of cheap thread.

He also had a wad of cash stuffed in his front pocket, which she hadn't noticed before. But who was she to judge? She'd used Johnno's services before too. Something about this guy told her he wasn't some teen trying to get a drinking pass, or in her case a working pass, though. It was in the stiff upper stance of his body, the tick of his jaw and the subtle but significant glances that he made around the room.

He was there for a fix.

And despite being drawn to his striking presence, and still reeling from his warm, reassuring touch, Cassie wanted as far away as possible from whatever dodgy transaction was going on between these two. She couldn't risk being associated with that kind of shit at her place of work. And she couldn't risk Johnno jeopardising her identity. She needed this job.

Plus, now she really had to pee.

Giving a very demonstrative finger to Johnno, Cassie turned on her heels, took the last few steps through the dimly lit hallway and pushed open the door to the ladies with as much energy as she could muster.

She didn't look back, but she felt one set of eyes watching her as she walked away.

"Rehearsal tomorrow?" Nora nudged her arm as they strode out of their school grounds, a week later.

"Ugh, I can't," Cassie huffed. "I've got that… family BBQ thing."

"Ohhh, your mum's new boyfriend?" Nora waggled her eyebrows. "Must be for real if she wants you to meet his family."

Cassie was trying not to think about it. It'd been a while since her mum had dated, and this felt different already. Different, as in, serious. Firstly, unlike her mum's previous boyfriends, this one was an ex marine - no longer serving. Secondly, Marisol hadn't told her about him until they'd been seeing each other for months. Six months in fact. And lastly, because he also had a family.

Turns out they met at the hospital where her mum worked, when his wife was dying. What the hell? Dude had just buried his wife and now he was moving onto her mum? That was fucked up. Right?

"So… remember how I told you Jacob had kids?" Marisol took her daughter's hand in hers as they pulled up at the modest but well-maintained house in Carlsbad.

"Yeah…" Cassie knew that tone. Her mother hadn't told her everything.

"Well… his youngest son goes to Oceanside High."

"What?" Cassie felt affronted. "Why didn't you tell me about this before?"

"I didn't want you to freak out…" Marisol quipped. "Like you are now."

Cassie huffed. It was weird enough that her mum was dating someone with kids, let alone the fact that they went to her school. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. What if it was someone she'd slept with? Oops.

"It's unlikely you know each other," Marisol seemed to read her mind. "Luke plays on the football team and he's only enrolled recently."

The football team? Super! Cassie scanned her head for any memory of a dude named Luke. She vaguely remembered Armando and Frankie discussing some new receiver, but she didn't pay much attention to their sports talk. Cassie was social. She socialised. But she wasn't invested in all the ins and outs of the High School cliques – she didn't have time for that shit. She was too busy working, or rehearsing.

Cassie glanced over at her mum and saw that she had her lips pursed and was studying her face.

"Is there something else?" Cassie asked, eyebrows raised. She was beginning to feel uneasy.

"Luke's been going through a tough time lately," Marisol sighed.

"Well yeah… his mum died and now his dad has a new girlfriend." She didn't mean for it to come out quite so snarky, but hell, she was done with this chit chat. She just wanted to get the whole thing over with. And eat. She could smell the BBQ meat wafting through the car window and it was making her realise how hungry she was.

Marisol narrowed her eyes and frowned. "Just… be kind, okay?"

Cassie made a face and shrugged. What did that even mean? Of course she would be kind, they were fucking strangers, and she was at their house, eating their food. Her mother should know that's how she'd behave, she raised her that way, after all.

As they got out of the car and she came around the front, Cassie noticed Marisol's shoulders stiffen. It suddenly dawned on her that her mum was nervous. Which only served to solidify Cassie's suspicions that this relationship was serious. She didn't really know what that meant exactly, but she knew what she had to do. Sighing, she linked their arms together as they walked towards the front door, leaning her head down onto Marisol's shoulder briefly.

"Te ves bello," she told her mum with genuine pride, and Marisol beamed.

Cassie knew straight away that Jacob was different to the other men her mum had dated. Despite the awkwardness and uncertainty of their first meeting, he had an air of stability around him. A calm confidence that didn't just come from serving in the military, it came from inside. And he was handsome, she supposed, in that weather beaten, stoic, square jaw kind of way.

In the backyard she met Jacob's eldest son Jake and his wife Hailey who were welcoming and easy-going, and their little ten-month-old, Spencer, who served as the ultimate icebreaker. Cassie didn't consider herself particularly maternal, why would she be at 17, but who didn't love kids? Especially when they had a way of making delicate situations more down-to-earth.

"Luke should be here any minute," Jacob stated plainly, scraping burgers onto a serving tray. "They're reviewing the film from last night's game."

Cassie had noticed numerous football trophies and sports awards lining the mantlepiece as they'd walked through the lounge to the backyard. It was obvious they were an athletic family.

"Do you follow The Pirates Cassie?" Jake opened the conversation. Her mum must have told them she went to Oceanside too.

"Not closely. I work Friday nights, so I can't go to matches. But I have friends on the team." And exes, she failed to mention.

"Oh, you have a job. That's smart. Where do you work?" Jake asked casually.

"Well…I have two jobs. One at…"

Cassie stopped when she recognised Armando's truck as it pulled up to the curb out the front of the Morrow house. She stiffened. What was he doing here?

A tall, broad-shouldered figure, Luke she assumed, stepped out and briefly signalled goodbye to the driver. She hadn't realised Armando and he were close enough to hitch rides. It made sense though, when she thought about it. She knew enough about football to know that if Luke was a receiver, they were both on the offense. Besides, Armando was the Oceanside Pirates' feature quarterback. All the boys wanted to be him, and all the girls wanted to… be with him. It was that cliched.

"Ah, here he is," Jacob announced.

They all watched as Luke strode across the front lawn, his lean, athletic legs in black chinos with timberland boots, fingers hooked into the varsity jacket he had slung over his back, a baseball cap backwards over short, cropped sides and a longish fringe. The more Cassie looked at him the more she realised there was something familiar about him. She didn't register who he was or that he was studying her just as closely, until he came to a halt at the fence line and Cassie took in his features, starting with the tiny little mole above the right corner of his mouth.

Holy shit!

Luke, the son of the guy her mum was dating, was the dude from the bar a week ago. The same guy whose touch she had been fantasising about every day since. The same guy whose sad, searching eyes she had imagined boring into her as he bore into her in other ways. Damnitt! She pushed those thoughts aside immediately. If they weren't inappropriate before, they definitely were now.

Cassie worried her lips and looked down at the table. She hadn't even suspected last week that the softly spoken stranger who'd caught her when she was falling was a high school student. But it wasn't just the underage thing that was coming up for her, it was the fact that… he had been purchasing drugs off Johnno Ipollito. When Cassie looked up at him again, she didn't just look straight at him this time, she looked straight through him.

Luke was staring at her too, dark circles under squinted eyes, his mouth agape, surprised. She hoped he wouldn't recognise her - she tended to wear more make-up at work and on stage, and a slightly "older" wardrobe, whatever that meant.

No chance. He was looking straight through her too. She'd never felt so naked.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

"You two know each other from school?" Jake asked as the silence stretched way out of the realm of comfortability.

Hailey and Marisol looked from Luke to Cassie and back again in anticipation.

"Salazar," Luke mumbled gruffly, surprisingly remembering the name Johnno had spat at the bar that night. It sounded foreign on his tongue. His voice was different from that night. Colder. Distant.

Stunned, Cassie narrowed her eyes at him. "Luke," she replied, pointedly.

What exactly where they doing? They didn't know each other. Why were they acting like it?

For a second the corner of Luke's mouth curled into a sardonic grin.

"Well, okay then." Jacob's voice cut through tension. "Seems there's no need to introduce -"

Jacob stopped short as Luke's face masked up into a sneer and he turned his cap around over his eyes, hunched his shoulders and shoved his hand into his pants pocket, walking past them all to the back screen door, which he flung open and smacked shut behind him.

Rude, Cassie thought to herself.

She could feel her mother's eyes on her, questioning or… calming? She couldn't tell which.

Whatever sense of stability Jacob had exuded earlier, completely unravelled in that moment. He took a deep breath in, puffed up his chest, excused himself and entered the house in a similar manner to his youngest son.

In the backyard, Jake and Marisol busied themselves with finishing the food prep, while Hailey scooped up an unsettled Spencer and offered him some milk at the picnic table. None of it distracted Cassie from the sound of raised voices inside the house.

She took a moment to breathe and sip some water.

She had no idea what had just happened. But she was pretty certain she couldn't trust an erratic, junkie, jock with her secrets. If her mum found out about her job at the bar and her fake ID, Cassie would have to quit. That would mean a significant reduction of funds to support her dream, and less practice and exposure with her music. She was not okay with that.

She had to think of a plan.

Sometime later, after Jacob returned from inside the house flustered, and Marisol quietly soothed him, Luke graced them with his presence. Meaning, he grabbed a burger and pulled up a camp chair beside Jake, as far from Cassie, her mum, and his dad as he could possibly sit. Then he sat there silent and still, not engaging, not making eye contact, nothing. He seemed almost oblivious to them, oblivious to everything really.

Cassie found herself wondering if he'd taken something. She was no stranger to the effects of drug use; it was pretty rife in the music scene and she'd experimented a little herself. Mostly with weed. She noticed he'd changed into a sleeveless shirt, and he was barefoot. Weird, considering it was getting coolish out.

Jake tried to include his younger brother, asking about the game and the review, but eventually Luke turned to his phone, grabbed a handful of chips and slunk back inside the house.

Cassie waited a little while before inquiring about the toilet. Marisol went with her.

"Are you okay?" her mother asked as soon as they stepped inside.

"Yeah." Why wouldn't she be?

"You're pretty quiet," Marisol commented, like it was unusual. Which, ok, it was, but circumstances.

"Ma, I'm fine, just tired from work last night, that's all." She turned down the hall where her mum had pointed in the direction of the bathroom. "I gotta pee," she said.

"We can go whenever you're ready to leave," Marisol called after her, heading to the kitchen to grab dessert from the fridge. Cassie hadn't recognised it earlier, but her mum knew her way around the place pretty well, and she hadn't been introduced to Jacob's kids like Cassie had. Almost as if, she'd already met them. Which begged the question, why was Cassie only just meeting Jacob today?

After she relieved herself, Cassie listened to make sure her mother had gone back outside and then opened the bathroom door, fully intending to confront Luke and make sure he remained tight lipped about their meeting in the bar.

She didn't have to look far. He was standing on the other side of the door, arms crossed, jaw clenched, blocking her path down the hall. When she opened the door further, he stepped into the frame and leant against it.

She raised her eyebrows, crossed her own arms and remained firmly where she stood.

This close, Cassie could see more clearly into Luke's hazel eyes, and she immediately noticed his pinprick pupils. At least, if he was under the influence like she suspected, maybe she'd have the upper hand?

"How do you know Johnno?" he asked. She wouldn't have found him so intimidating if he had his shirt on, but he'd lost that completely now and Cassie was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the tight muscle on display, right in front of her.

"I could ask you the same thing," she replied trying not to look anywhere but into those faraway eyes, for fear of betraying herself.

Luke took a big breath in through his nose, stared down at the ground and then brushed a hand through his hair.

When he spoke again, there was a hint of desperation in his voice.

"My dad can't know about… about that," to his credit, even though he was wasted, he looked her dead in the eye when he said it.

Cassie was relieved. She'd come inside the house looking for him to confirm the exact same thing. Now she needed to say it, get his word and get the hell out of there. Before she combusted.

"Neither can my mum," she said firmly, her eyes meeting his in silent agreement.

Luke nodded, unfolded his arms and placed them on his hips, but to Cassie's annoyance, he didn't budge.

"Can you move?" she asked, a little more indignant than she had intended. She put it down to the clear view she now had of his chest, shimmering with a light sheen of sweat. Apparently perfect pecs pissed her off.

Luke leant slightly backwards, and she shoved past him while he stood there watching her walk away, again.

Which was probably a good thing because when Cassie got to the end of the hall she went to turn left.

"Other way!" Luke called out and she spun on her feet and stormed out the back door. Noting Luke's crooked smirk as she did. How dare he make fun of her? She couldn't help it if she got confused when she was tired.

On the way home, Cassie was consumed with thoughts about the ridiculous predicament she had found herself in. She wanted her mum to be happy, she really did. And Jacob seemed like a good guy, minus the whole authoritarian thing. But how many more of these intolerable family BBQ'S would she have to endure before her mum and Jacob realised they weren't a match and called things off? And what about school? Up until now Luke and Cassie hadn't even known each other existed, would that change all of a sudden? She didn't know if she could continue to cope with the chaos in her head that he conjured. In a couple of months everything would go back to normal, right? It'd be just her and her mum again, doing their thing. She wouldn't have to worry about her truths being exposed and she could continue on, without any angst, saving money and making music.

Cassie looked over at Marisol who was smiling as she talked about the day. For the first time in the history of her mum's dating life, Cassie wasn't so sure things were going to end soon.

On Monday Nora was more interested in talking about the vintage records she'd found at the market than quizzing Cassie on her weekend.

It wasn't until Armando came up to them at their lockers, banging Cassie's door shut in front of her, that the topic even came up.

"What the hell Armando?" Cassie's voice was calm, but unforgiving.

"Saw your car at Morrow's on Saturday," Armando glared at her, his mouth one hard line. "Are you fucking him?"

Nora's eyes widened momentarily and then furrowed into a scowl. She stepped in close to Cassie, joining their shoulders and arms in a wall of solidarity.

"What's it to you?" Cassie seethed, clutching her books tighter in an effort to hold back the anger she could feel rising in her chest. She was so done with Armando's over-zealous jealousy. Thinking he had some kind of claim over her just because she'd fucked him once. Okay, maybe twice. But the second time was a mistake.

Normally Cassie wouldn't care about creating a scene, but she'd made an agreement to keep a secret and she didn't want to risk any unnecessary attention. She could have just told Armando that her mum and Jacob were dating but that was their business, and he didn't deserve to know. Cassie couldn't give a shit about what people thought of her - she was unashamedly herself, but that didn't mean she wasn't a private person or that she wouldn't protect the people she loved.

"Hey, Armando! Come on man," Thankfully, Frankie and Brandon appeared and shouldered their teammate away from the girls. Cassie may not have been able to contain herself if they hadn't.

"You good?" Frankie mouthed at Cassie as they walked off, his face apologetic. She nodded.

She opened her locker and finished getting organised for class. God was she looking forward to the day she could get the hell out of this place. High School drama was not her thing. Drama in general. She preferred to stick to the facts. The things that were real.

"Ah… what was all that about?" Nora raised her eyebrows in question.

Cassie knew she didn't owe anybody an explanation, but Nora was her best friend, and it could have helped to debrief after the confusion that had clouded her head the last couple of days.

So, she told Nora everything. Well, everything except the part about meeting Luke in the bar, feeling undeniably attracted to him, and then finding out that he was using. Basically, she told her that their parents were dating, and he was a massive pain in the arse.

"Luke Morrow is your mum's boyfriend's kid?" Nora looked exactly like Cassie felt. "Holy shit! Luke Morrow?" Cassie wished she'd stop saying his name over and over, so freaking loudly. "The new wide receiver? Picture perfect lips, Luke? Moody blues Morrow?" How was it that until two days ago Cassie hadn't known anything about the guy but here was Nora, some kind of expert? "You know he's hooked up with half the cheerleading squad already and he's only been here like, three months. I heard he got expelled from his old school and he lost his license. Everybody knows he's gunning for the star quarterback position on the team, so I'm not excusing Armando's behaviour by any means but that's probably why he was pissed. Also," Nora paused dramatically at her last point, "you know I'm not a dick person, but apparently he has a huuuuge-"

"Woah! Nora." Cassie put her hand up to gesture stop. She really didn't need details. "Seriously, how do you even know all this?"

"You're forgetting, I'm on the school paper." There wasn't a single thing those kids didn't know about what went on at High School. Even if most of it was unsubstantiated rumour.

Cassie had never been interested in gossip, in fact, she actively tried to avoid it, but as she walked to class, still reeling from the events of earlier, she found herself getting curious about how much of what Nora had just divulged about Luke was true. As much as she despised fake news, she also knew that there was often a hint of the truth buried somewhere amongst the quagmire of bullshit.

Expelled? For what? Drugs? It couldn't have been. Jacob would have known about it if that was the case, and Luke wouldn't be so desperate to keep his use a secret.

Cassie was starting to regret ever running into him at the bar and dreading their unfortunately inevitable future interactions.

She managed, for the most part, to evade him for a good three weeks. It wasn't active evasion, just a happy accident. In a school with close to 500 seniors, it wasn't difficult. Which explained why they hadn't come across each other during the three months Luke had been there. But it was bound to happen sooner or later.

And it did.

Cassie was helping Riley one day after school with some music instruction and Frankie dropped by after football practice to meet her. Luke, Brandon and a couple of other girls Cassie didn't recognise were waiting in the hall for them.

His eyes were on her as soon as she walked through the door, following her every move with that intensely curious gaze of his, until the leggy blonde beside him spoke and he shifted his focus to her, half smiling.

Luke smiling? That was new. She noted a dimple or two.

Seeing him at school was new too. She had now encountered the strange beast that was Luke Morrow in three seperate habitats and each time he was like a different creature. No wonder she was confused, right?

He looked surprisingly alert and fresh after practice, the same sleeveless shirt he'd worn in the backyard the day of the BBQ showing off his chiselled arms. They were literally nothing but muscle. And bone, and sinew, obviously. His eyes looked clear from where Cassie was standing and she wondered briefly if they had to do piss tests before a game. She hoped so. And then wondered why she was even concerned about it.

"Hey, we're going to the beach," Frankie said cheerfully. "You wanna join us?"

Cassie gave him her sweetest smile and declined.

"I gotta work." She swung her bag over her shoulder. "Have fun kids!"

Then there was the other time she spotted him having a heated discussion with Johnno in the parking lot of the bar where she worked. It was a Saturday; she went out to her car after the band's first set to get the snack she'd left in there and caught the two of them arguing in the corner of her eye. Luke didn't see her, and she was glad. His body language was erratic. She wanted nothing to do with that version of him. Any version of him really, except for maybe half-naked, standing in the doorway of the bathroom Luke.

Ugh. Her hormones were way out of control. She seriously needed to get a grip. Or get laid. One of the two. The latter would probably involve less effort.

Four weeks after the first family BBQ, Jacob invited her and Marisol to another.

Cassie didn't want to go. She was supposed to rehearse with Nora and her crew on Saturdays. They'd never get anywhere with their music if she was unavailable all the time.

"Can't we do it tomorrow?" Cassie begged her mum.

"I've got a shift this week," Marisol replied. "And besides, Luke has to work in the garage on Sundays."

The way she said "has to" made Cassie believe it was and absolute non-negotiable. She didn't think it would matter if he was working or not anyways. Dude would probably just spend the entire time sulking in his room.

Which was exactly what happened. At first.

Not long after they arrived, Cassie remembered her phone was going flat and went inside to charge it. She was expecting a call back about playing an extra gig that night, for the same house band at the bar where she worked. Honestly though, she could do with five minutes to herself, away from the sickeningly sweet couple-love on exhibit outside. As if watching Hailey and Jake be all cute and domestic wasn't bad enough, she also had to witness her mum and Jacob sharing soft touches and googly eyes. Ick.

When Cassie entered the living area and looked up from her fading phone screen to find a power point, she found Luke instead, standing in front of a pedestal fan, staring at the ceiling, dressed in nothing but a pair of navy blue, fitted boxer shorts.

"Oh!" Cassie looked away. "Are you quite right there?"

Seriously, what was his problem with clothes? It wasn't even that hot out.

"This is…my house," Luke drawled, lowering his head to glare at her.

"Yeah-uh." Cassie tried not to look at him, or at least, look down… at him. Did she mention they were fitted boxers. "And you have guests," she huffed.

"Not my guests," he retorted, tonguing the inside of his cheek.

"Excuse me?"

Luke grunted and moved away from the fan, his stride slow and drawn out. He walked across the carpet to the kitchen where he got himself a glass, tipped some ice into it, pulled one of his dad's beers from the fridge and popped the top. He picked up both the glass and bottle in one hand, brushed the fringe out of his eyes with the other and looked, kind of, in her direction.

"How bout you just…" he gestured with his hands, "go away," was all he could muster. Then he walked back out of the kitchen and down the hall. "Power points right beside you by the way" he added over his shoulder.

All Cassie could think about was, who the hell drinks beer with ice? And also, maybe one large part of Nora's rumour mill was actually correct. Too bad he was an arse.

"How 'bout you… put on some goddamn pants and at least try to be a decent host?" She heard herself call out to him. And then "couldn't be worse than being surrounded by love nuts," under her breath.

To her surprise, he did join them.

For lunch. Like 30 minutes after she'd mentioned it. Probably not her doing at all.

This time he sat on the grass, a little way back, eating his burger and quietly interacting with Spencer at the same time. Occasionally she caught him watching her, his gaze probing, like he was trying to figure her out.

Cassie only remembered the moment clearly because it was right before her world got turned upside down.

"Now that we're all here," Jacob cleared his throat.

"We have something we want to tell you," Marisol finished.

Cassie and Luke locked eyes.

Both brows furrowed. Both jaws clenched.

Cassie's head raced with thoughts. She shifted in her seat and noticed Luke stiffen on the grass, his previously slumped figure suddenly alert and frozen.

"Marisol and I have decided," Jacob continued, "to move in together."

Cassie dropped her drink.

Luke almost choked on his burger.

What the actual fuck?

AN: Thanks for reading, please leave a comment - anything at all! It literally keeps me writing.

I'd love to hear what you thought about these two out of canon. I've had so much fun writing it!