I woke up to the sound of my cell phone ringing. 2am. Why is this becoming like, a pattern? I'm really not loving it. Especially now, when I assume it means someone is dead.

"What?" I groaned to whoever was on the other end of the conversation.

"Shane? It's Caitlyn."

That woke me up. Lexi was with Caitlyn. After her two weeks of 'taking it easy' were up, I knew the first thing she would want to do – go dancing. And I was right. We all went – me, Lex, Jason, Nate, Caitlyn, Mitchie, and Ella – but the guys and I left early. I didn't want to leave her. I'd barely left her side since she got home from the hospital, which included cancelling all of our recording sessions. Now, we had to go to the studio really early to make up for that, so we went home to get some sleep. She was in good hands, so I wasn't really worried. I knew the girls would watch her like hawks, probably just as much as I would if I was there.

"What's up?"

"Lexi is out of control," she told me. Lexi? Out of control? My brain couldn't even comprehend that. "She had a lot to drink after you left and now we're trying to leave and she won't come with us. She's been dancing in the DJ booth for like an hour and she keeps saying that he'll take her home."

"He?" I replied. No 'he' was taking her anywhere. Over my dead body. "Who is it?"

I heard her asking someone who the DJ was. "Jam? What the hell kind of name is that?"

"Hell no," I said immediately. Lexi had met him a few times, but I knew him better than she did, and he was a total scumbag. I didn't even want him to look at her, let alone drive her anywhere. "Don't leave her with him. I'm on my way."

I grabbed my keys and drove to the club quickly. I didn't get it – Lexi barely ever drank, and when she did, it wasn't much. She especially made a point not to do it in public, because of the paparazzi. The bartenders knew who we all were, and they would always serve us whatever we wanted, even though other than Jason, we were all underage. We always stayed in the VIP section, though, where there were no paparazzi, and everyone else in there was usually doing worse than taking a shot of tequila even though you were 20 instead of 21, anyways.

Another thing I love about being famous is that I don't have to wait in line at clubs. I walked right passed the security guards and straight to the DJ booth. Sure enough, Lexi was still up there dancing. If I wasn't so pissed about her being anywhere near that asshole, I'd probably be thinking about how sexy she looked. She had always been an incredible dancer.

I waved to Caitlyn, who looked relieved to see me, and hurried up the stairs to the DJ booth. "Lexi!"

She spun around and a huge grin spread across her face when she saw me. "Shaney!"

She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me passionately. Instinctively, I my hands snake around her waist and I pulled her closer to me, but I caught myself and broke the kiss quickly. Now was not the time or place for that, no matter how hot she looked in that little black dress. I'm sure a million cell phones just took pictures that would be on the cover of the tabloids tomorrow. Everyone probably knew we were together, but we hadn't 'gone public' with it yet. I guess that's taken care of. "Lexi, let's go home, okay?"

"But I'm having fun!"

"We can have fun at home, too," I told her.

Unfortunately, not the kind of fun I wanted to have with her. Give me a break, I'm a 20-year old guy. But I'm also a gentleman, and I didn't want our first time as an actual couple to be when she was trashed out of her mind. And I didn't want her to do anything that she wasn't actually ready for, no matter how good of an idea it seemed to be at this moment. But after only kissing her for the three weeks following the best sex of my life, you can sure as hell bet it was all I was thinking about.

"I love you, Shane Michael Gray," she proclaimed.

"I love you so much, Alexa Marie Kennedy," I replied. "So let me take you home, please?"

She smiled and nodded. I put my arm around her waist and led her out of the club, closely followed by Caitlyn, Mitchie, and Ella.

"Thanks, Shane," Caitlyn said. "I'm sorry you had to get out of bed for this."

"Don't worry about it. I'm glad you called. Is one of you good to drive?"

"Yeah, I didn't drink," she told me. "I'll see you guys later. Goodnight."

"Goodnight!" Lexi shouted happily/drunkenly to her friends. "I love you guys! I had so much fun!"

I got her in the car and took her home. By the time we got there, she'd calmed down a lot and looked pretty tired, so I took her upstairs and helped her find something to sleep in.

"Can I sleep in your room?" she asked sweetly. She hadn't since it happened.

"Of course," I replied, sweeping her off her feet and carrying her to my bedroom. "You never have to ask."

She crawled under the covers and snuggled close to me. I had missed this so much.

"I love you, baby."

Lexi smiled and kissed me. Then she started kissing my neck, and her hands ran down my torso to the waistband of my sweatpants. God, I hate having morals.

"Lexi, not tonight, okay? You're drunk," I told her.

"Yes, tonight," she whispered seductively in my ear.

I needed to take about 80 cold showers in a row. Seriously.

"No, Lex. I don't want you to do something you're going to regret when you're sober."

She stopped groping me and looked me in the eyes seriously. She looked desperate. "Shane, I need another time."

"Another time for what? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Another time to remember when I think about the last time I had sex," she replied, before she continued to kiss my neck.

I let her, for a minute. I was just kind of shocked by what she had said. That was the first thing she had said about it to me, and as far as I know to anyone, since it happened.

I pulled away from her again and made her look at me. "Alexa, the last time wasn't sex. It was rape. Think about the time before that, with me. You may think you're ready now, but you may realize that you're not when you can think more clearly. If tomorrow, when you're sober, you still want to do this, then we'll do it, and we'll make it special. But it shouldn't be like this."

She sighed and gave me that look that meant she knew I was right. She lied down on her side of the bed again and rolled over so that her back was to me. I guess she was probably embarrassed that I had turned her down.

"I love you, Shane," she whispered to me.

"I love you, too."

I wrapped my arms around her and thought more about what she had said. I would try to talk to her more about it when I got back from the studio tomorrow, but right now while she was drunk it was probably pointless. After a little while, I fell asleep. The best sleep I'd had in awhile, with her in my arms. At least, for a couple hours.

"Stop, please."

I woke up when I heard Lexi's voice. "What, baby?"

"Please don't hurt me," she muttered.

She was still asleep. She'd never been one to talk in her sleep, but it wasn't really hard to guess what she was dreaming about.

"Lexi, wake up," I said, shaking her lightly.

"Let me go."

I shook her harder. "Lex! Wake up, it's just a dream."

Her eyes shot open quickly and she looked around frantically for a moment, eventually focusing her gaze on me.

"Hey, its okay, you're safe. I'm not going to let anybody hurt you," I told her.

Lexi looked at me nervously. "What are you talking about?"

"Have you been dreaming about it a lot?"

"Dreaming about what?" she asked, forcing a small laugh.

"Lexi, you were talking in your sleep. I heard you," I replied. Why was she playing dumb?

"I don't talk in my sleep," she told me. "I wasn't dreaming about anything."

She rolled over onto her side and I was left staring at her back.

"Lexi…"

"Goodnight, sweetie," she interrupted me.

I lied on my back and looked up at the ceiling. She used her 'this conversation is over' tone. Anyways, she was probably still a little too drunk to get straight answers out of her. I'd ask her tomorrow, when I talked to her about her earlier comment. But I couldn't sleep knowing that she was reliving it, even when she was safe next to me.