A/N: Hi! So, clearly, long time no see, but I'm going to be super real: I sort of didn't want to post any of this, but I finished it, so I guess I'm posting it. I'll be posting every Sunday on both and AO3. Anyways, please enjoy this chapter! Also, trigger warning for discussion of sexual assault.

The first half of the morning passed without event, though Eleanor did keep an eye out for her unknown attacker. She never saw him, but that might have been because of the boys' best efforts to keep her mind off the whole ordeal. Really, it was sweet of them.

On the way to lunch, Rob chattered excitedly about a new video game that was coming out, but Eleanor found she had limited patience when it came to violent, obscure video games.

"Eleanor!" Natalie beamed at her from the center table of the cafeteria, waving animatedly. "Come and sit with us!" The rest of the table was occupied by cheerleaders, some smiling in her direction, others looking down at their phones.

"Oh! Hey guys, I think I'm going to sit with Nat today," Eleanor said. Hunter scowled immediately.

"Nat? You're calling her Nat now? When did you guys become BFF's?" he sneered. Rich raised an eyebrow.

"Usually, Hunter has an extreme bias towards the cool kids, but I sort of agree with him. Why the sudden change?" Rich asked. At least he didn't look mad. Rob, on the other hand, looked ecstatic.

"Cheerleaders! Dude, if you're all buddy-buddy with them now, do you think you can score me a date?" he asked, already lost in a cheerleader filled dreamworld. Eleanor frowned.

"I'm not all buddy-buddy all of the sudden. Natalie just feels bad about what happened. She's probably just trying to be nice," Eleanor explained. Hunters scoffed, sitting forcefully in his place.

"Whatever. Call us when you're done playing in the dream house," he said. "Or not."

Eleanor couldn't believe what she was hearing. How dare Hunter get upset at her? It wasn't like she was abandoning them, it was just lunch! Natalie probably wanted to go through her yearbook again. Somehow, it felt embarrassing to tell Hunter and the boys what she actually doing with Natalie.

"Whatever," Eleanor echoed. "Call me when you're done being crazy." With that, Eleanor gathered her things and moved purposefully over to the popular table.

"Hi," she greeted them. There was a chorus of half-hearted hello's back. A few girls slumped over, putting their heads on their arms. They looked particularly pale.

"What's wrong?" Eleanor whispered to Natalie.

"Hell, if I know," she answered, frowning at her squad. "They went to some crazy party last night, and now they're probably super hung over."

"Woah, a party on a school night?" Though she did live in Manhattan, she'd never seen any high schooler party on a school night before.

"I know, right? So stupid. All I know is, if they're not ready for practice after school, they can kiss their spots on the squad goodbye!" Natalie directed her last words to the trio of girls passed out. One reached up to rub her neck but offered no acknowledgement. "Whatever. So, I was thinking about it and I figured it out!"

"What? You did?" Eleanor felt a sense of apprehension rise in her stomach. Maybe it was best she didn't know. Maybe it was best she put this whole mess behind her. She looked over to her table, catching Hunter's eye. He looked down immediately, face going pink.

"Yeah. It's probably someone who doesn't go here, or one of my brother's college friends! We'll throw another party and we can stake it out, try and catch this sleazebag—"

"Natalie, maybe we should just forget this," Eleanor interrupts, feeling far too self-conscious. It may have been a game to Natalie, but it was real to her.

"Oh! I just thought, like, it would be important, you know? Stop this kind of thing from happening to anybody else," Natalie said sheepishly. Eleanor softened.

"Of course, it is. I just want to take a break, you know? Figure my head out," she explained. Natalie nodded.

"I totally get it." She ran a hand through her perfect raven locks. "Sort of the same thing happened to me last year."

"Really?" Eleanor was shocked. It seemed hard to believe that such a strong, confident girl could be forced to do anything she didn't want to.

"Well," Natalie dropped her voice. "Not exactly the same. I was at this party, and there were these guys there. They were all cool and older and mysterious, all pale and dressed in black. I was talking to one of them, some European guy, and he kept getting me drinks. The next morning, I woke up all alone, in this bed I had no idea who's it was. So, I totally get it, it's terrifying."

"Shit, Natalie, that's awful!" Eleanor said, horrified. She seemed to be taking things far too lightly.

"The weird thing was that I wasn't even naked. Like I honestly don't think I had sex that night. There were these hickeys all over my neck though." She stopped talking abruptly, ducking her head. "This is way too much to be telling someone in a school cafeteria."

"No, I get it. It's good to talk about things like this with someone who might understand," Eleanor assured her.

"Yeah," Natalie chuckled awkwardly. "Let's talk about something else."

With that, the rest of lunch passed with casual conversation. Natalie asked her where she got her jeans, Eleanor complimented Natalie's skirt. After the period was up, they helped the exhausted cheerleaders up and walked, all together, to the academic hallways.

Grinning, Eleanor made her way to her sixth period class, feeling lighter than she had. She sat in her usually spot, in between Hunter and Rob.

"So?" Rob asked excitedly when she sat down. "How were the cheerleaders?"

"Tired, I guess. Apparently, a ton of them went partying on a school night! Can you believe that?" Eleanor said. Rob sighed dreamily.

"I wish I could party with cheerleaders on a school night." Weirdly enough, Hunter stayed quiet, though Eleanor was sure he'd have something snarky to say.

"What, no sass?" She asked him. Hunter shrugged and pulled out his notebook and pencil, flipping to a fresh page. Eleanor frowned at him.

"Are you ignoring me?" She tried again. No answer. "Wow, super mature, Hunter."

He kept up his silent treatment all through this class and the next, and didn't stop to walk her to mythology, like he usually did.

Luckily, Rich was in this class.

"What's up with Hunter?" She asked him quietly while they worked on a worksheet. They were supposed to be pairing Greek gods to their origin stories, but Eleanor already knew all the answers.

"I don't know," Rich admitted. "He's being weirder than usual."

"Well, it's not cool." Eleanor finished matching the rest of the answers. "It's not like I did anything wrong, but he's treating me like I ran over his dog or something."

"Or something," Rich said with a funny half-smile. "I'll talk to him about it later. It's probably just the double this month that's making him crazy."

"The double?" Eleanor asked. As far as she knew, the only job Hunter had was scaring his sister.

"Uh, never mind," Rich said quickly. "Will you check my answers?" While she knew something was up, she didn't push it. She'd ask Hunter about it later, after school or something.

After school, the boys all waited by her car as per usual, even Hunter. Eleanor rolled her eyes at him and told Rob he could sit shotgun. Hunter snarled, a weird sound coming from him, and slid in the back, slamming the door.

Once she'd dropped off the step-brothers-to-be, she turned to Hunter.

"Can you get up here for a second?" Hunter stayed where he was, pouting petulantly. "You can't expect me to give you a ride and be mean to me at the same time."

"Me?" Hunter exclaimed, breaking his silence. "You're one to talk!"

"What?" Eleanor said defensively. "Just because I sat with someone else for one lunch period?"

"You abandoned us for the barbie squad!" Hunter shot back. He did, however, get out and sit back down in the front seat.

"One lunch is not total abandonment. It's called having more than one set of friends," Eleanor argued.

"Oh, whatever," Hunter grumped.

"You don't own me! You don't get to decide who I get to hang out with!" Eleanor voice rose in pitch, but she was on a roll. She gunned it out of the boys' driveway and Hunter grabbed the headrest, looking nervous. "If you must know, Natalie was helping me figure out who that guy was, way more than whatever you guys were doing!"

"Wait, E, I didn't… I didn't know. I thought you were over it," Hunter explained quickly, looking guilty.

"Of course not! I just wanted to talk to a girl about it, and Natalie was being so nice to me," She said, losing steam.

"Hey, look, I'm sorry, E, it's just been… I don't even know, but I feel all nutty," Hunter muttered, running a hand through his mop of blonde hair.

"Because of the double?" Eleanor asked, watching for a reaction. Hunter stilled, looking up at her slowly.

"What?" He asked. The color drained from his face and his eyes got wider.

"The double?" She asked again, like she knew what she was talking about.

"You… you know?" Hunter whispered.

"Oh, of course," she lied. "Rich told me all about it."

"Wait, Rich told you? What exactly did he tell you?" Hunter pressed, sitting up straighter. Eleanor kept her eyes on the road, pretending to focus on the driving. "Well?"

"Uh, well he didn't give me all the details," she mumbled. Hunter visibly relaxed, leaning back in his seat.

"Oh, good, for a minute I thought—"

"What's the big secret anyways? You can tell me, I won't tell anyone," Eleanor interrupted, looking at him sharply.

"I don't know if I'd call it a secret," Hunter said hesitantly.

"So, what is it? Because I know something's up, just no one's telling me what. Rich was being annoying cryptic about it." Eleanor frowned, remembering the way Rich changed the subject every time she brought it up.

"Thank god for Rich," Hunter said under his breath. "Listen, it's no big deal, okay? Just forget it."

"Hunter, come on! I can't leave the group, but I don't get to know the secret?" Eleanor snapped.

"E, honestly, I'm sorry. You can sit with who you want, you don't need my permission. I'm sorry I was being an asshole. Will you forgive me?" Hunter put on his best smile, the one that made him look like a cherub. Eleanor blushed.

"Whatever," she said. "We're here, by the way."

Hunter sighed, reaching over to pat her shoulder.

"Are we cool? I don't like fighting with you," he admitted. Eleanor stared at him. How could someone be so honest and so mysterious all at the same time?

"Yeah," she said after a long moment. "Yeah, we're cool."

After dropping Hunter off, Eleanor made the drive to her own house. The carpet was stained with blue paint, a sure sign that her mom had been working. Oh well, Eleanor thought. Sober and working was better than drunk and passed out.

She set her things down and went to get a snack. Munching on an apple, she noticed an envelope on the counter, her name written on it in her mother's elegant script.

Eleanor,

Went to see some friends but will be back in a few days. Talking plans for a gallery exhibition!

Left you some money for food.

All my love,

Mom.

While she was thrilled for her mom, Eleanor couldn't help feeling a little jilted. Most moms greeted their children with homemade cookies when they got home, and Delphine couldn't even be bothered to be around?

Well, maybe not cookies.

Still, even Natalie's parents, two prominent surgeons, made time to eat dinner with their daughter every night.

Dejected, Eleanor slumped on the couch, pulling out her books. She might as well get a jump on her homework. There wasn't much tonight, but she figured she could work ahead maybe, or watch a movie, or call one of the guys.

Two hours later, Eleanor had finished up not only tonight's homework, but enough to take her through Thursday. It was only six, too early for dinner, so Eleanor flicked on the TV, flipping through channels aimlessly.

There was some black and white horror movie on, so she settled in. It reminded her of Hunter, a little.

Suddenly, there was an explosion and Eleanor jerked awake. She looked around wildly and found there was some B-list action movie on. Had she fallen asleep? The sun had set, and the living room was dark, so she figured yes.

She turned off the TV, letting the darkness settle all throughout the room. It was comforting, in a way, to be enveloped in a thick and creamy darkness. There was something rich to it. Eleanor peered out the window, watching inky trees sway in the breeze against a backdrop of navy, star-dotted skies.

Just then, something dark and big moved quickly through her yard.

Eleanor froze, and suddenly, the darkness wasn't so sweet anymore. The lovely shadows that had enveloped her turned cold and creeping, slinking in the edges of the room. Her breath came in shallow pants, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the windows. The thing blasted through her yard a second time, too big and fast to be an animal. Something about it struck Eleanor as other.

She fumbled for her phone and hurried to the switch panel, turning on all the lights. Wildly, she scrolled through her contacts and hit Hunter's name, pressing the little phone icon beside it.

"Hello?" He answered on the third ring, sounding a little distracted.

"Hey!" Eleanor worked to keep the hysterics out of her voice. "What's up? What're you up to, buddy, what's up?

"Uh, just video games." A beat. "E, is there something wrong?"

"What? No! Just…" she trailed off then, feeling quite foolish. "Nothing, never mind, I'll let you go."

"No, hang on. What's up?" Hunter sounded a little worried. Guiltily, she explained the situation. "Okay, I'm coming over."

"Wait, Hunter, you don't need to, seriously, you don't need to!" Eleanor protested. She could feel the embarrassment color her cheeks. It probably was an animal, a racoon or something.

Although, said a little voice at the back of her mind, racoons aren't normally human sized.

"Nah, don't worry. I'll get the guys, it'll be fun. Order a pizza or something," he said. Eleanor couldn't explain it, but at his smooth, easy tone, she felt the tension seep out of her body.

"Okay, if you want," she said, smiling a little. "Sounds fun."

"Awesome! Pizza at E's" He hung up then, and Eleanor fished the money out of the envelope, looking for a takeout menu. She ordered a few large pizzas, enough to keep three teenage boys sated.

Eleanor watched as not fifteen minutes later, the Sands Electricity truck came roaring up her drive way. Mr. Sands waved at her cheerfully. The boys all piled out, Hunter holding some sort of duffle bag. He waved his father goodbye.

Eleanor opened the door and greeted them, inviting them in and telling themselves to get comfy. Rob lounged on the couch, remote in hand, looking as if he was meant to be there. Rich stretched out on the recliner, criticizing Rob's choices.

"What's up?" Hunter's voice was friendly, but his eyes were serious.

"I just," she stopped then, unsure how to explain. "I saw something run through my backyard. It was way too big to be an animal and it was way too fast—"

"To be a human?" Hunter interrupted, looking deathly serious. Eleanor ducked her head, embarrassed.

"This is so stupid, I can't believe I panicked and called you," she mumbled.

"E, I'm glad you called. You can call me whenever, I'll be there when ever you need me," Hunter said with conviction. The room seemed to melt away, and suddenly, it was just her and Hunter, eye to eye, inches apart. Eleanor broke the moment first, blushed deeply.

"Um, thanks," she muttered. Her heart pounded in her chest, but she wished it would calm down. This was only Hunter, her dorky friend. Her tall, charming, protective—

Friend.

He was just her friend.

"Are you guys coming or not?" Rich called, bringing Eleanor back to reality.

"Yeah, sure, pick whatever, just not a horror movie," she said. The boys booed good naturedly but agreed, settling on a comedy instead.

Eleanor did not pay any attention what so ever to the inviting heat rolling off of Hunter in waves, where he sat so close to her, nor did she notice his clean smelling cologne. Absolutely not. Friends didn't do that sort of thing.

A/N: Let me know how you guys liked it!