Twenty Two.

The next few days pass in a cycle of lessons and assignments. I'm trying to catch up, keep my head down, keep my eyes off him. There are looks exchanged, but they're a currency that don't buy anything more.

A few times, I think he's ready to talk, but something inside of him shuts down, and it's back to jokes shared across the cafeteria table, conversations about him and her and this and that.

It's Saturday night and we're nowhere different.

I link arms with Rose and Angie, using their warmth to stop shivering. In silver glitter and short-short denim, I'm freezing, but an excitement races through my veins like vodka. Sam is turning eighteen, and there's no better place to celebrate that than Circus Circus. A nightclub with bouncers who turn a blind eye and the best music in town. I have my fake ID, but I doubt I'll need it.

I'm proved right when we're let straight into the ultraviolet heartbeat of the club, the place already filled with all our friends, cheap booze, and a cloud of smoke. Rose leads us straight to the dance floor, where we lose track of time in a haze of laughter and sweet, sticky shots, dancing until we ache. I know Cullen is here, that he's watching. It spurs me on, hips swinging, hair loose.

Sam grabs me and spins me around, he sticks his tongue out, a blue pill on the end. "Want one?"

I shake my head, I'm buzzed enough. "Where'd you get that?"

"Birthday present from Paul."

"Paul?" I search him out, but he's probably hiding out in one of the booths that circle the dance floor, his own tongue down some girl's throat. "Since when did he deal?"

"Lighten up, B." He pulls me into a bear hug, squeezing my ribcage and covering me with sweat. "It was a gift."

I pinch his side until he lets go. "Gross, Sam. Go play." I push him back into the crowd, he laughs and stumbles, but styles it into a move worthy of a round of applause. I'm laughing when I catch Cullen's eye.

He's standing with a group from school, but he's not listening to them. I tip my head in acknowledgement, and he flicks his fingers for me to come over. My stubborn side tells me to turn my back on him, my drunken side wins out. I weave my way through the crowd. His face flashes every colour of the rainbow, his T-shirt black, eyes following my path. As I get closer, they fall to my bare legs. I catch him and get a hidden smile.

I lean up against the wall next to him. Its cool temperature seeps into my heated skin. "What brings a boy like you to a place like this?"

"You," he says, like a defibrillator to my chest, shocking any snarky response into nonexistence.

I'm grateful for the flashing lights, my cheeks flame. I bite my lip and chance a glance at him. He's unaffected, like he just told me the sky is blue, the sea is deep. A fact that shouldn't surprise me. I find myself fighting a smile under his fierce attention. I have to look away; it's too much like staring at the sun, so I focus on Rose and Angie and a hundred others swaying to the beat.

I spot Paul, head bowed with some guy I don't recognise. A slide of hands. Another exchange. I frown.

"He always do that?" Cullen asks, seeing it too.

"Not that I know of. Maybe he just got some gear for tonight?"

He doesn't answer. Paul mixes back with our friends, heading to the bar to buy a round of drinks.

Cullen turns to me, his arm brushing mine. "You having a good time?"

I waver a little on my feet, drunk but not too drunk to know what's happening. I won't do that again. "Yeah, you?"

"Could be better."

"How?"

He dips his head down, reaching for the silver chain of my necklace, fingers tracing it down my collar bone. "I want to kiss you."

Maybe he's drunker than I thought. I lift my eyes to his. "I …"

"Please," he breathes, and it's enough to remove any space between us; his lips brush against mine.

I pull back, move my mouth to his ear. It feels like I'm tearing myself in two, stopping what I've been thinking about for weeks. "I want to. But first you gotta talk to me."

He rests his head against mine for a heartbeat. Enough for his smell and the feel of him so close to send me falling from the high road. I'm reaching to pull his face to mine, when he jerks away, his attention drawn back to the club.

"Shit." He grabs my hand, pulling me around the corner into the shadows. Then he kisses me. Hard and fast, too quickly to take it in. I'm scrambling after the rush, when he pulls back, trying to remember to breathe. "Meet me tomorrow night, round 7 at the skatepark, I'll answer anything."

"What the hell's happening?" I say, but he's disappeared into the crowd as if there's an alarm going off no one else can hear.

I see the source as the crowd splits and swallows some new arrivals. The boys from outside the house party. Maybe they've come to collect their debt. I don't think Cullen is ready to pay.

AN: Thank you for reading xx

Love to Kim, Choc anf Gemmah for reading this over and over and over for me.