"What the hell are you doing watching them, you creep!"

"I'm the creep? Okay sniffy."

Her eyes narrow, right before her head throws back in laughter.

She walks up the stairs to her dorm on wobbly feet. I walk behind her in case she falls. Also because I like to watch her ass. I reach up and grab two handfuls. She doesn't even flinch. She knew it was coming. And I plan on coming. Soon. All over her face. Fuck, I'm drunk.

***

"What is that noise?" She pushes her head further into my chest but the ringing won't stop.

"What the hell time is it?" Rose moans from her bed.

"Shut up," I tell all of them.

"Babe, it's your phone."

I blindly search for my phone on the nightstand and fling it across the room.

"Ow!" Rose groans.

"Sorry babe."

Lucy pulls back. "Huh?"

"Shut up," I tell her.

Then the ringing starts again.

"Luce, that's your phone now," Rose says.

Lucy sits up slowly. I open one eye to look at her. Her hair's all over the place, her makeup is smeared, she has a line of dried drool on one side of her mouth and her clothes are twisted. And she's never been more beautiful. "Who is calling so early?" She looks so confused it makes me laugh.

I sit up, just so I can pull her down with me. "Forget it, babe, just come back to bed."

Her phone starts to ring again, the same time mine does.

"Dude," Rose says, "You've got eighteen missed calls."

"What?" I sit up now and motion for her to throw my phone over.

Lucy reaches across me for her phone. "Micky?"

I try to focus my tired eyes on the screen and hit answer. "Yo, Jake?"

"You need to come to the hospital. It's Logan and Amanda."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

-LUCY-

Logan wouldn't see anyone at the hospital. We stayed for hours hoping he'd change his mind, but he never did. On the second day, we were told that he'd been discharged. Amanda was still there. She said that she hadn't seen him either, but that she thought he'd be home waiting for her. He wasn't. No one knew where he was. That was a week ago. When I went to see her at her house, Ethan, her brother, told us she needed time. She didn't want to see anyone that reminded her of Logan, at least for now. I understood, but I worried for both of them.

Now, we're on our way back from Logan's house. His dad answered the door looking worse than I'd ever seen him. He said that Logan had been locked up in the pool house since he got out of the hospital. He hasn't left, and he hasn't spoken to anyone. He told us to try, but also pleaded that we leave him alone if he didn't answer. He said it was best if no one pushed him, and that Logan just needed time. Logan didn't answer when we knocked. We didn't expect him to.

Cam squeezes my hand to get my attention. He glances at me quickly from the driver's seat of his Delorean. "You wanna stay at the cabin tonight? We can drive back early tomorrow for work. I think we just need to be away from the rest of the world for a bit."

I nod in agreement. "I think that sounds perfect."

***

He taps his finger on the side of my head. "What's going on in that beautiful mind of yours?"

I don't know how long we've been in bed, lying side my side, looking into each other's eyes. We haven't spoken a word, but that doesn't mean we haven't been communicating.

"I'm trying to understand it," I tell him.

"Understand what?"

I sigh and touch my forehead to his. "I don't get why such bad things keep happening to good people. First Micky and her family, and now Logan and Amanda. And I get that he wanted to keep his past a secret, I understand that, but I don't know why he won't talk to anyone now. I thought we were friends."

He runs his hand under my shirt and onto my back, where he rubs slow circles. "I wouldn't take it personal, Luce. I mean we're best friends. We grew up together, and he never told me either. Maybe I should have been a better friend to him, I don't know. I guess the only thing we can take from it is that life's short. Too short to be thinking that forever's always gonna be there."

I pull back slightly and lift my eyes to his, knowing that he's already watching me. I reach up and move his scruffy hair away from his eyes, then run the back of my fingers across the rough growth on his face, remembering what it was like when we were fifteen and he never had to worry about shaving.

His eyes drift shut at my touch, and when he opens them, they're filled with so much emotion, so much need, so much of him. He clears his throat before speaking, "Sometimes I wish I could be back here, back to this cabin when we were in high school and had no worries in the world. When we spent every second of every day together, and it was just you and me. Before the pressure, before college, before scholarships and work and life."

"Just you and me and our forever?"

"Yeah, baby." He kisses me once. "I love you, Luce. More than I ever thought possible." His eyes begin to glaze, but he blinks it away. "Let's never let the bad things in our lives outweigh the good."

"Does it ever scare you?" I ask him.

"What?"

"That we live too much for each other. Do you ever wonder what would happen if anything—"

"Shut up," he whispers, cutting me off. "I'm going to make love to you now, and we're going to forget that you just said that."