You can't help but think that Pete would be really disappointed if he knew this was how you were handling this whole morning after situation.

In fact, you're pretty sure he would strongly advise you to jump out the nearest window and shimmy down the rain gutter at the first given opportunity instead of doing what you're doing right now…which is a fantastic impression of a statue.

You've managed to get all of your clothes on despite the hangover that is making your head feel two sizes too small for your brain and you're clutching your still damp shoes to your chest but you cannot make yourself leave the room. This room that's become this perfect little world where it doesn't matter that the things you feel for HG are sweaty and confusing, it only matters that they're there.

"Myka, darling." HG's soft voice startles you a little and the bed squeaks with her movement somewhere behind you. "What on earth are you doing?"

You bite your lip and blink at the closed door you've been standing in front of for the better part of five minutes. Eyes darting down to the bronze knob while you hug your shoes tighter and tighter and ignore the faint swell of nausea in your stomach in favor of focusing on the way HG sounds.

"I think I should go." You murmur, glancing over your shoulder to find HG pushing herself into a sitting position in her huge bed, all sleepy and soft and slow and you swallow hard before turning back to the door. "Probably."

"You're not sure?" HG asks carefully and you shake your head, continuing to gnaw on your lip. You know what you should do and you know what you want to do. It's rare for those things to not be one in the same. Rare but not impossible.

"I mean, I should shouldn't I? Isn't that what people do after a night of questionable behavior?" You throw over your shoulder, only looking back when HG laughs quietly. "The walk of shame."

"I guess it depends if they actually regret the aforementioned questionable behavior." She murmurs, tucking her knees up to her chest beneath the sheets that still smell like chlorine and you watch her toss her hair out of her face with one hand.

"You talk in your sleep." You sigh, rubbing a hand over your eyes while your brain throbs in your skull. "Like your mind is so amazing that it doesn't even turn off at night."

"As great minds have the faculty of saying a great deal in a few words, so lesser minds have a talent of talking much, and saying nothing." HG quotes easily, ignoring your jarring subject change and you blink at her before turning to face her fully.

"You just quoted Francois de La Rochefoucauld." You sigh, dropping your shoes in favor of running both hands through your hair and it would really help this whole situation if HG was less incredible. "You just casually quoted Rochefoucauld."

"Myka." HG says your name soft and affectionate before peeling the sheets away and coming to stand in front of you barefoot and half clothed and so tangible. "Where are you going?"

"My parents are probably worried and sick. And-And Pete…he probably thinks I'm dead somewhere. We have a death pact, ya know?" You whisper, gazing at her helplessly.

"I'm sorry, a death pact?"

"Neither one of us is allowed to die without the other." You whisper, flashing back to that day with Pete. Sitting cross-legged in the grass with his pinky hooked over yours and promising to never live without one another. HG looks amused, watching you with big, dark eyes. "Last night was…a lot."

"A mistake?" HG questions mildly, smile faltering just a little at the corners and you kind of wish it were that easy but HG is standing in front of you with her hair everywhere and no pants and her face so open. You know its not.

"Overwhelming." You say instead, dropping your chin to look at HG's naked feet. Your eyes trace up her ankles, knees, thighs before veering back up to her face. "It was overwhelming."

"But not awful?" She asks, a smirk teasing at her mouth again and you roll your eyes a little bit.

"Not particularly." You mutter carelessly even as heat races to your face. "But I'm no connoisseur of, ya know, sex or anything…for all I know it could've been the worst."

"Did it feel like the worst?" HG challenges, reaching out with a single finger to trace a line from the soft crook of your elbow down to the heel of your hand and your fingers curl inwardly on reflex.

"It definitely did not." you whisper, fisting your hand closed as her touch retreats. You watch HG smile at that, pulling your bottom lip between your teeth again before glancing at the door over your shoulder.

"I realize that what occurred between us is a lot to process." HG starts, tugging your attention back to her. "Just as I know that a loss of composure is imminent and there's a good chance that after you leave here you will manage to convince yourself the ridiculous notion that the connection we share is nothing more than hormones and I…I am not ready for that yet. I really wish you'd stay a bit longer."

You rub at the back of your neck absently, wondering if HG's uncanny ability to know what you're thinking stems from your own obvious nature or HG's knack for reading you like a book. You give up, instead attempting to will away the alcohol induced headache that's making it even more difficult to breathe through the things you're feeling.

You swallow hard while she stares up at you, head tilting as she tangles her fingers with yours and you let her pull you back towards her disheveled bed.

"HG. I don't think-" You exhale halfway there and she stops, leaning up on her toes to kiss you soft and wet on your lips.

"Ah, if only that were true." She whispers when she pulls away, resuming your walk across the room until she's falling backwards onto the bed.

She tugs you down on top of her, one hand coming up to push your hair back while you hover above her, gazing down at her dark eyes.

"What is this?" You ask mutedly, the question surfacing suddenly while your heart thumps dully in your ears, like there's suddenly too much blood in your body and HG smiles up at you.

"Everything I could possibly imagine and nothing at all…" She whispers before hooking her knees against your hips and shifting her weight until you topple over.

You don't realize you're grinning until HG reaches up to thumb the stupid dimple in your cheek. "Goodness." She sighs, "If possible, you are in possession of the most crooked smile I've ever seen."

"Shut up." You laugh, sinking into the mattress as the two of you lie face to face.

"Really. Its nearly absurd how charming I find it." She hums as her fingertips move to slide across your lips and the feeling gathering low in your stomach makes you exhale shakily against her palm while your brain pulsates painfully. "Darling, stay. Just a while longer?"

"It feels like my head is going to explode." You admit, closing your eyes as she traces across your cheek and over your ear before her hand tangles in your hair, guiding your forehead against hers. You can feel her watching you, can feel the way your pulse flickers a little faster at that. "Who are you?"

HG hums a little, tucking your hair behind your ear. "Just a girl."

You're not exactly sure what will happen once you walked through the front door. You've thought about it the entire walk from HG's house. Uncertain thoughts settling heavily at the base of your skull, mixing with the hangover still flirting with your system and the thoughts of HG that haven't stopped since she sent you home with a press of her lips to your cheek.

But you have absolutely no frame of reference for this sort of situation, this disappointing your parents situation, so your brain runs the gamete from your parents not even realizing that you've been gone all night to finding your own face on the back of a milk carton.

You're debating whether or not running away forever is the appropriate course of action for this whole entire situation when a red pick up truck rumbles up beside you, slowing to meet your deliberate pace.

"Hey. Hey. Hey." Pete greets out the window, tapping his horn playfully and there's an unexpected kind of relief that settles in your muscles at his grinning face. "Want a ride?"

"To my inevitable death?" You sigh, shrugging "Sure, why not?"

The truck idles noisily as you climb into the passenger's seat, pulling the door shut and dragging your seatbelt over your shoulders.

"You look like crap." Pete says, eyeing you as you slump into your seat before throwing the truck into gear.

"Thanks." You murmur as the two of you continue towards your house. "What're you doing over here anyway?"

"Well, HG was kind enough to give me a call after you left her house this morning." Pete starts and sudden anxiety clamps down hard around your chest. You dig your nails into your thighs and try to breathe through it. "She, correctly I might add, figured I'd be worried since you just disappeared last night and told me to go pick you up since you refused to let her drive you home…she's very bossy FYI."

"Oh" You croak and Pete gives you a confused look.

"Yeah." He says and that sudden tightness eases away slowly.

"Pete, I'm sorry I didn't tell you where I was." You sigh, turning to gaze at his profile. "I know you worry."

You know Pete has a thing about people disappearing on him. You where there when his dad passed away, you were there when his sister went away to college and never looked back.

Pete shifts in his seat a little. "Yeah, well, not as sorry as you're gonna be when you step through that front door. What were you thinking? Staying out all night without talking to your parents."

"I know. I know." You swallow. "I-I just caught up in the moment."

It's kind of an understatement, It's more like the moment wrapped you up tight, tight, tight and still hasn't let go.

"Well, as out of character as that is," Pete drawls as you pull up to your house, tires nudging the curb just a little. "it's time to face the music.'

"I was kind of thinking, instead of facing the music, maybe I could just run away forever."

"I'll drive you wherever you wanna go. As long as you chip in for gas." Pete grins and you smile back. " I'll also go in there with you. Maybe soften the blow a little."

"I love you, you know." You laugh and Pete rolls his eyes. "But my Dad would murder you if we walked in together."

"I'll win him over eventually." Pete grunts, glaring at your house and you nod. "Eventually he'll have to accept that I'm the son he never had…or wanted."

"Yeah, I know." And you can feel Pete watching you as you stare at your house where suddenly looming in the distance. "I'm just…I need a second."

"Take your time." Pete says, putting the truck in park. "No need to rush to your inevitable demise."

So your parents are livid.

Your dad yells at you as soon as you step over the threshold and your mom cries the entire time your dad snarls at you in a thunderous voice you've never heard him use before and they both look at you like they don't recognize you.

You wonder if they ever even knew what you really look like. Can't help but wonder what they thought they saw.

"How grounded are you?" Pete asks on Monday as you shove your books into your locker.

"How grounded am I? Uh, very?" You offer, slamming your locker door shut to reveal Pete's face. His eyes are doing the same thing your sister's have been all weekend, watching you with a weird mixture of sympathy and pride. "Stop looking at me like that."

"I cant!" Pete cries as you shoulder your backpack. "I know you're upset but I'm weirdly proud of you for getting in trouble."

"I'm glad one of us is because my mom isn't even talking to me and my dad is just kind of gives me these disappointed looks." You mutter and Pete nods.

"That sucks. It really does, Mykes. But at least they see that you're a real teenager now and not some weird Stepford daughter." Pete tries and you think he may be just a little bit right.

"Maybe." you breathe and you arch a brow as Pete's eyes drift somewhere over your shoulder. "What? What is it?"

"Mykes, I need you to be my wingman."

You roll your eyes, turning to lean against it so your shoulder to shoulder with Pete. You follow his dreamy gaze to a girl you vaguely remember sharing a class with last year.

"She's out of your league." You laugh immediately and Pete looks at you incredulously. "What? She is!"

"No way!" He argues. "That girl is so in my league. Now, HG? That is a girl out of my league."

Your smile falters, you feel it sort of tumble away. "Okay, so, what do you want me to do?"

"Just, ya know, go set me up." Pete murmurs, giving you a funny look and you arch an eyebrow at him. "Are you alright? You're putting off a weird vibe."

"I'm just-I'm just hungry." You lie, giving him a reassuring smile and he frowns at you a little bit. "So, set you up?"

"Yeah. Yeah." He nods, turning back towards the girl. "Just go talk me up a little."

"And say what?" You laugh and Pete scowls at you.

"You can't find anything nice to say about me? You call yourself my best friend?" He asks and you shrug lazily.

"You have really great hair? And one time you ate a worm for seven bucks?" You offer and Pete's entire face lights up.

"Yeah! Okay! Start with that." He grins and you open your mouth to inform him that those aren't necessarily qualities girls are looking for in a guy but your voice dies somewhere in your throat at the sight of HG emerging from the sea of students in the hallway. She's headed right towards you and the only thing you can seem to do is flatten yourself tighter to the lockers.

And its so much easier to convince yourself that you don't really like HG in that way when you're not actually looking at her and feeling that feeling well up inside of you that makes you think your intestines are doing their best balloon animal impressions. You watch her approach and all that hard work, assuring yourself that it was only the alcohol that loosed your inhibitions and that her mind is the only thing you really appreciate, kind of dissolves away to make room for the truth.

"Speak of the devil. HG! What's up?" Pete greets and HG spares him a smile before focusing on you. Of course, she looks beautiful today and your mind drifts back to that night and you swallow hard, rubbing at your neck. "We were just talking about how you'd probably never date me."

"Hello Pete. I apologize for interrupting such a stimulating conversation but I've actually come to have a word with Myka." HG says carefully, throat working silently and you stare at her and can't decide what you want your body to be doing in this moment. "Shall we?"

"No!" You blurt and HG flinches a little, glancing down at the books she's hugging to her chest but that lasts only a heartbeat before she lifts her chin. "I mean…I can't right now. Pete needs help getting laid."

Pete makes a horrified sound, glancing at you with huge eyes. "I do not need help getting laid. I do not need helping getting laid!"

"This is rather important, Myka." HG says after a deep breath and your throat, your chest, your stomach all feels tight. "If you'd just give me a minute..."

"I can't, okay?" You exhale harshly and Pete is giving you another funny look. "I just-I can't. I'm helping Pete with something. We'll talk later."

HG looks disappointed but not necessarily surprised which makes you even worse somehow.

And with that, you're walking away. Across the hall to that girl Pete's been ogling.

"How do you feel about guys who collect comic books?"

After your run in with HG, you're week gets progressively worse and worse.

Artie gets grumpier and grumpier thanks to an onslaught of suspect "artifacts" that have him, and by proxy you, working around the clock to authenticate each and every one. Your fencing coach has decided that you need to be pushed during training to be ready for your next match and the Mathletes have been cramming for an up coming competition. Of course, you're also still grounded which means extra chores on top of your regular ones and your homework. You've also been avoiding HG at all costs for reasons you can't even really figure out when half of the time all you really want is to just see her.

All in all you're having a fairly crappy week, so, you shouldn't be surprised when you drag yourself home after a particularly grueling fencing session Friday night to find your home completely overrun with Tracy's snobbish, perfect friends and honestly you're not. But what does surprise you is HG sitting primly on your couch amongst the horde.

And you knew that she and Tracy were friends but you never really thought about what that meant. You hadn't thought HG the type to participate in your sister's arbitrary bonding rituals and yet there she is, amongst a gaggle of giggling girls.

There's a couple of seconds of your stomach feeling like its going to fall right out of your sneakers before you realize that you're staring and she's staring and-God… You look away, shifting your heavy sports bag on your shoulder, just as your sister appears from the kitchen holding a giant bowl of popcorn.

"Myka, you look gross." Tracy greets and you roll your eyes, pushing your hand into her bowl and pulling out a fist of popcorn. "Dad's still on the warpath so you might want to disappear."

"Thanks." you mutter, shoving the popcorn into your mouth before turning to head upstairs. You can feel HG watching you as you go but you force yourself not to look back.

"Hello, Myka"

The soft voice catches you off guard as you wander blindly back into your room from the bathroom. You whip your towel off of your head with a yelp and clutch it to your front while your heart nearly erupts in your chest from fear. Your eyes fly between your closed door, your desk chair wedged innocently underneath the knob and where HG is leaning so casually against your desk like she didn't just scare the crap out of you.

"Hey. Hi. Hey" You choke, sucking in a breath tossing your towel in the vicinity of your hamper. "You-you scared me."

HG frowns a little bit, looking a little less comfortable, posture straightening and you adjust your tank top and cotton shorts. "I apologize. For some reason I didn't anticipate the shock an uninvited guess might cause when I made the decision to sneak in here."

"No, its fine. I mean, what's a little angina?" You say, pushing your still wet hair out of your face while simultaneously willing your heart rate to drop into normal range.

"I saw you and couldn't resist." HG murmurs and you watch her fingers tangle around one another nervously and she looks different to you suddenly. Less like an intimidating, beautiful, brilliant person and more like a pretty girl that likes you and wants you to like her back and that makes you swallow hard. "I know that our meeting in the hall didn't go…as expected but I, well, I…"

"I freaked." You blurt. "I freaked out on you. You knew I would and I did."

"Understandably so," HG says softly, tilting her head to the side. "Perhaps the middle of a crowded hallway was not the ideal place to discuss a night of indiscretions."

"Perhaps." You mumble and HG smiles just a little bit.

"My apologies."

"How-how's the, um, the sleepover going?" You ask, trying to manage the havoc just being near HG causes inside of your body and HG stops smiling long enough to lick her lips.

"Fine. Your sister is very nice. As are her friends." HG's says and you roll your eyes, wriggling your toes against the carpet absently. "But I don't find the current film quite as engrossing as the other girls and I must admit to preferring the company of another Bering sister."

"So you decided to sneak into my bedroom?" You ask and HG at least has the decency to look bashful for just a moment. "And lock us in?"

"I did." HG laughs, pushing away from the desk to stand in front of you, smiling a little bit like she likes you and your heart drums up in your ears. "I just…I need to speak to you without you running away from me. Is that alright? "

You nod dumbly even as the tips of your ears burn and you wonder if any of this is really alright.

"You're bedroom looks nothing like I imagined." HG says after a moment even though her eyes are trained on you and you blush deeper, folding your arms over your stomach as she slips right past you. "In fact its far different than I'd assumed. Much more…feminine."

"You've thought about my bedroom." You wonder stupidly, watching her walk around your room, fingertips dancing over the stuffed animals on your bureau and the trophies standing up right and gleaming between the beat up books on your bookshelves.

"Oh, you have no idea, Darling." HG says coming to stand at the foot of your bed and you watch her hand brush over the comforter before sitting down.

The back of your neck is getting hot and you press your fingertips to the skin there as you move to sit gingerly beside her, almost close enough to touch but you don't.

"So, how long are you to be incarcerated?" HG asks quietly, socked foot nudging your bare one and you smile a little bit.

"Forever." You sigh, "According to my dad."

"Bullocks." HG mutters and you feel a grin spread across your face now.

"He's just angry. I've never really done anything like that before and he's just…" You trail off, smile melting away and you glance at HG, meeting her concentrated gaze. "He's angry."

"And what about you? How do you feel about our night together?" HG questions carefully like your answer matters and you take a slow breath as the memory wells up in your belly, curling like fear but warm like longing and eagerness. You have no clue how to put that into words.

"I don't know who that girl was that night. That-that morning." You admit after a moment, blinking down at HG's hand beside yours on the bed. "I don't usually do any of the things that I did but you bring out this person in me, I guess, and-and…"

"Did you like that person?" HG asks quietly and you breathe out slowly, brushing your fingers against hers lightly. "That girl that kissed me back?"

"It doesn't matter because-because-"

"It matters to me." HG cuts you off and you lift your gaze to hers. "Myka, you're so wonderful in ways I cannot fully express and I like you very much. So, it matters a great deal if you do, in fact, like being the type of girl that kisses me. That enjoys kissing me. It matters to me so please don't act as if this isn't significant."

"HG-"

"Myka, you must know that my intentions towards you extend far beyond friendship alone." HG says quietly and you nod. "I'm quite certain I've made that more than obvious."

"I liked being that girl." You whisper after a slow breath because you can't muster the effort to pretend otherwise, not when HG's looking at you with pleading eyes and all you can think about is how everything with HG should feel like a mistake but doesn't. "And your intentions are crystal clear. I just…"

"You're attracted to me?" It's a challenge and you swallow as you nod, acknowledging that truth.

"I'm…very…attracted to you."

Her eyes search your face and you let her look before hooking your pinky around hers on your bed.

You breathe out, staring at your bare knees for a moment. "I don't know what that means beyond-beyond… I mean, I don't even really know you HG. Not beyond the fact that your equal parts brilliant and shameless and-and something else that makes me feel like I want to be close to you all the time."

"I don't make it a habit of letting others know me, Myka but I find myself wanting to show myself to you." HG murmurs, dark eyes finding yours again. "The parts that are more than so called brilliance and shamelessness. Even the parts that aren't ideal."

She twist her wrist so your hands are sliding together and you're, like, 90% sure your palm is sweating so you loosen your fingers for a moment to wipe your hand against your cotton shorts before taking her hand again and HG just sorta grins at you.

"Sorry. You make me very, very nervous." You whisper and HG smiles just a little. "I have these-these jets zooming around in my stomach right now."

"Here?" HG asks, eyes dropping as she presses the fingertips of her free hand to your abdomen, brushing against the material of your shirt and you nod.

"Yeah." you croak and HG tugs at your shirt a little bit before meeting your heavy gaze. You think about kissing her and you bite your lip as the notion swirls around your brain.

It solidifies the certainty that that night wasn't a mistake.

"I should probably get back downstairs." HG murmurs, eyes wandering to your locked hands. "I don't want to peak your sister's curiosity."

"Yeah, okay." You swallow, sliding your hand from hers reluctantly and when HG stands you tip your head back to watch her.

"But I'll be thinking of you." HG says, moving the chair out of the way easily. "All night, I'm sure."

Then she's gone and your left blushing on your bed.

You're trying to finish your homework a while later when your phone goes off. It's a text message from HG that reads:

In the spirit of making myself more available. I am allergic to nuts from trees. I have 2 unpaid traffic tickets. I plan to be a writer in the near future.

You grin as you read it over and over again.

You can't sleep and it has everything to do with the fact that HG is right downstairs.

You lie in bed for a long time, alternating between thinking of her like some love sick loser and trying to force your mind clear so you can just sleep.

But sleep is elusive your mind seems to be fixating on the curve of HG's waist and the pretty way she'd look at you over an open math textbook and -and …god, you're in so much trouble.

HG likes you. Really likes you and yeah, you already knew on some level she liked you but you think about the things HG revealed all closed up in your bedroom and you can't help the excitement that beats beneath your skin.

As hard as you tried to deny it, you like HG too. Not just the way her brain, which is infinitely attractive in a way you've never experienced with anyone else but the way she flirts with you with her entire body and the teasing way she challenges you on nearly everything.

Somehow, you manage to drift off a little, thinking about HG's fingers curving against your ribs.

It's early and you kind of expect HG to be asleep amongst the nest of blankets and sleeping bags taking over the living room but when you hurtle down the stairs after dressing and brushing your teeth, you find her stretched out on the couch with a book open in her hands. The bottom step squeaks, giving you away and when HG notices you hovering awkwardly near the stairs she sits up with something you really hope is eagerness playing on her face.

The other girls, including your sister who you can identify by her familiar snores, are all asleep on the floor and you give HG a smile before making your way past the sleeping bodies to the kitchen. You're belly fills with butterflies when you hear HG give chase.

"You're up early?" She whispers quietly in greeting as you tug the refrigerator open and pull out a cartoon of orange juice.

"Couldn't sleep." you murmur, glancing at her just long enough to make something warm fizz in your stomach and a blush pool in your cheeks before turning in search of cups.

"Is that so?" HG murmurs interestedly and you can hear the smile in her voice as you turn to pull two glasses out of the cupboard, setting them down on the countertop.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you." You confess, ducking behind your hair while you pick up the carton of juice and begin pouring. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since, gosh…since I met you."

"Goodness." HG murmurs like you said the right thing, you set the juice down after a moment then fingers are tucking messy curls behind your ear and exposing the reddened tips. " It's a relief to know I'm not alone in that aspect."

You laugh a little at that, sobering when her fingers trace down the tendons in your neck and your insides clench.

"Myka, look at me." She breathes and you do so helplessly, meeting her gaze before your eyes drop to her lips. You're edging forward before you realize it, nose brushing against hers lightly while she exhales a tightly but the sound of footsteps reach your ear just as HG turns away smoothly.

"You guys are up early." Tracy yawns, rubbing at her eyes tiredly while HG leans backwards against the cabinet and your heart pounds.

"I'm going to the museum." You choke out, picking up a glass of orange juice and gulping down the contents. "Artie wants me there early."

You pick up the other glass of orange juice and gulp that one down too much to HG's amusement.

"I'll see you later, then?" HG plies, arching an eyebrow curiously and you set the glass down and touch your neck absently.

"Yeah, definitely."