I felt a weight on me, and it briefly worried me until my mind caught up to the night before.

Tori, homework, our talk, more homework, her passing out halfway through us watching Criminal Minds.

The weight was Tori.

I lifted my head and tried to work out if moving would be at all possible.

It wasn't.

One of her legs was between mine, her body was covering half of mine, her head on my shoulder, an arm tightly across my waist with her fingers bunched in my shirt.

A scream from upstairs made us both startle, Tori looked confused while I just ran upstairs after shoving her off me slightly.

"Riley, it's okay, I'm sorry," Rose's voice flooded my ears over my brothers screaming.

I skidded into the kitchen on my socked feet, Tori's footsteps quickly gaining on mine.

"What happened?" I asked, looking up at the woman.

"Jade. I'm sorry, I just-"

"Rose, breathe, what happened?" I asked a little calmer as she held Riley's hand in a tight grip beneath the tap despite his struggling and screaming.

"He burnt his hand, I didn't know he was downstairs, I was cooking his breakfast and set the hot pan on the bench, he grabbed it."

I nodded, lifting Riley -even through his thrashing about -up onto the bench and held his face in my hands, making him look at me.

"Riles, sh, Hey, it's okay." I tried to get him to look at me, but he kept struggling. "It's okay, Riley, come on, breathe, Buddy…"

He hiccuped and sobbed, snot running down his nose and lips.

Tori stepped over, grabbing my attention, making me look at where she was pointing.

"Tight," she said, watching as he spelled the word over and over again with his fingers.

"Rose, let go," I said calmly, watching as she did so before Riley cradled his burned hand to his chest, leaning against me.

"It's okay," I whispered, wrapping my arms around him and stroking his back.

"Tighter?" I asked softly. I felt him nod, so I hugged him tighter, feeling him slowly gain control of his breathing and his tears.

"Can I see your hand, please?" Tori asked him and he very carefully held it out towards her.

Tori held his wrist carefully, her hand open incase he wanted to pull away. "Burn gel?" She asked softly.

"I'll get it," Rose said, sounding completely helpless and distraught that she'd hurt him.

"Riley, can I dry your hand please?" Tori asked as I held up.

He nodded, but Tori couldn't see it through me. "He's nodding," I whispered.

She reached around me and grabbed a few sheets of paper towel, laying one on his hand without applying pressure. He whimpered, so I shifted, letting him see she wasn't meaning to hurt him.

"Here," Rose said, rushing back into the kitchen, holding a tube of burn gel.

Tori smiled at her briefly before looking at Riley. "Okay big guy, this will hurt a little, but I'll try my best to make it not hurt, okay?"

He nodded at her.

Tori dabbed his hand dry and carefully applied the gel, making him sniffle and whimper, but not pull away.

She then grabbed a hand towel from the folded pile on the corner of the bench and wrapped it around his hand, tying it to itself.

"There, all better," she said softly and patted his shoulder gently.

"Thank you, Tori," I said, making Riley hold a hand to his chin before pushing it off it, thanking her also.

"You're welcome," she said, smiling at him before stepping away so I could help him off the bench and turn the tap off that was still going flat out.

"Riley, I'm so sorry," Rose said, kneeling in front of him.

Riley nodded, moving back from Rose a few steps, making the woman look heart broken.

"Riley, why don't you go get ready for school then come eat your breakfast, it should be cooled enough by then," Tori said, stepping out of his way so he could get by her.

Riley nodded, running up the stairs faster than I'd ever seen him move.

"He really should eat before getting into his uniform," I told her.

"He'll be fine, Jade. He's a big boy," Tori said, smiling softly. "Now, I'm going to go lay back down, wake me when it's time to leave."

"Uh, no… not so fast, Vega. You need to eat."

"I don't eat breakfast, I haven't for the past three years," she told me, making me raise an eyebrow.

"You barely ate last night, you barely ate the burger I made the other night… if you don't eat much of your lunch today, I'm forcing my food down your throat. Literally. You promised," I said, raising my pierced eyebrow and crossing my arms.

"What?" She asked.

"You promised you wouldn't hurt yourself," I said a little softer as I moved closer to her.

"I'm not," she said, frowning.

"Not eating is hurting your body, Tori. Even if you don't feel the pain, it's still doing damage."

"I don't eat breakfast, but I will eat lunch. I promise, you can even pick what I'll eat."

"Me pick?" I smiled, nodding. "And you'll eat whatever it is? In entirety?"

"As long as it's not a huge meal, sure," she said.

"Can't wait," I smirked, making her eyebrow quirk up. She actually looked nervous. "Coffee?"

"I only drink hazelnut or French vanilla," she said, shrugging.

"You're in luck, I love French vanilla." I went over to the coffee pot, grabbing the pot and taking it to the sink to fill it with water.

I parked the car in the school lot, reaching into the back seat to grab both our bags and pull them through to the front before handing Tori hers.

"I'm just going to get some Jet Brew, do you want one?"

"Sure, Black?" I asked, and she nodded, slipping out of the car and making her way across the quad to the small vendor that stayed there.

I locked my car up and made my way into the hallway, sighing as people rushed about. I stepped over to my locker, opening it up and double checking my timetable that I had taped to the inside and smiled when I saw I had Sikowitz first period.

As crazy as he was, he was an amazing teacher.

I grabbed my notebook out of my locker and slipped it into my bag before closing my locker and making my way towards the room, just as the bell rang.

I knew the rest of the class would already be there talking, so I made my way through the door at the back of the room and took a seat.

Beck was sitting at the front with Cat and Andre on either side of him, Andre and Robbie were talking about monster trucks with him while Cat was playing on her phone, the obnoxious noises coming from the device led me to believe she was playing Grumpy Gerbils.

Tori came in through the front door of the room, Sikowitz a step behind her, talking to her. She just nodded, smiled, and thanked him before making her way through the chairs to hand me my coffee.

The other four in our group watching the both of us as Tori sat beside me, despite the empty chairs around the room.

They watched, almost as if they were expecting me to literally push her from her chair… like I've done numerous times before.

I sipped my coffee as Sikowitz started speaking, leaning close to her to whisper. "Thanks for the coffee."

She smiled as she took a sip of her own drink, her eyes on our teacher.

I found myself shifting my chair closer to her slightly so our thighs were touching as she kept her eyes on Sikowitz while he spoke.

I swear he's high ninety percent of the time.

He'd have to be to only drink from coconuts all day and talk about the things he does.

I pulled a pen from my bag, drawing small lines over my knee as I cross my leg to lay it on top of my other knee. The knee I was drawing on was steadied by Tori's knee, making her look down as I bumped against her before she turned her attention back to the front.

"Alright. I'm going to put you into pairs, but I'm going to make you pull a number from this box so I can do it," Sikowitz said. "Then, one person from each pair will come up and," he held up a second box. "Pull a category from this box. You and your partner will have three weeks to come up with a ten minute scene that you will play out in front of me, and only me," he said with a serious tone before clapping his hands together.

"Take one, pass it on, don't let anyone see your number," he said before handing the box to someone in the front row that I couldn't see from the angle I was sitting on.

"There will be no changing numbers, partners, or categories, this will amount to fifty percent of your final grade," he continued, making me roll my eyes and sip my drink. "I'm going to write numbers on the board, then I'll draw a line to them, that's how I'll choose. No telling anyone your topics you pick, no telling anyone your numbers, no telling or showing anyone your scenes."

He sipped from his coconut that he'd picked up from his desk and in the other hand, he wrote down numbers one through to twenty-five in a random order in two lines down each side of the board.

"Everyone have a number?" He asked.

"Yes," we all answered as I picked the last number from the box, crunching it in my hand so I wouldn't know until he'd finished.

I liked the element of surprise sometimes. When it suited me.

He drew a small line between each number, right in the middle of the board before he went to one side, put his coconut down, covered his eyes and waved his hand wildly up and down before dropping it on a number. Then, he went to the other side and did the same thing.

He went to the small line he'd made in the middle and wrote the two numbers he'd chosen. That continued on until everyone had been picked.

"Right, go find your partners," he said before leaving us all to do our thing as he went back to drinking his coconut. "And no one tell anyone but your partner what your category is," he said as if we needed reminding.

"Eight," Tori murmured, looking for her number on the board. "Paired with… thirteen."

I sighed, finishing off my drink as Tori got up from her seat and went about asking people who didn't yet have a partner what their numbers were.

I looked down at my paper, double checked it with the number on the board, then looked at my paper again.

"What've you got?" Tori asked, sitting back beside me with a pout.

"Thirteen," I said, showing her my paper.

"Oh," she almost sounded surprised.

But truthfully, when had Sikowitz ever not paired us up? It was becoming a habit of his. It was strange that even through a random pick, we were still together.

"Want me to go get a category?" She asked.

"Sure, pick a good one," I said, making her laugh slightly.

"As if I have any choice in what I pick."

"Last one," Sikowitz called out, holding up the box. "Who has yet to get their category?"

"Just coming for it now," Tori said, making her way to the front of the room to reach into the box and grab the last piece of paper.

Tori froze, her smile dropping as she read the piece of paper, making Sikowitz look over her shoulder. "You okay, Tori?"

"Y-Yeah, Yeah… it's good," she told him, clenching her first around the paper as she made her way to her seat beside me. "Here," she said as she picked her bag up off the seat and handed me the topic before moving out of the room just as the bell rang.

I waited till everyone had left the room before I looked down at the note in my hand.

Forbidden Romance.

"Fuck."

Sikowitz cleared his throat as he left the room, making me remember where I was before I scrunched the paper up and dropped it into my coffee cup, the last few drops soaking the paper instantly as I tossed the cup into the trash and made my way to my locker to get my books for the next class.

I looked up from my locker and frowned a little as I saw Sikowitz and Lane on either side of a very shaken looking Tori.

Fuck.