"I am far too tired for this school thing," Noni groaned, slipping into her seat next to Alexa. She set her camera on the table and her head followed suit, resting on both of her arms. She let out a small whimpered and then muttered something about her previous class boring her to tears.

Alexa let out a small laugh and rested her head softly on Noni's shoulder. "I'm sorry, dearest. We can go to my house and you can take a nap if you want."

Noni tried to come back with some response but it was muffled too much to understand. Alexa just shook her head and gave Noni a giant (and very tight) hug.

"How is everyone's assignment going?" Mr. Vance asked from the front of the room.

Noni and Alexa both jumped. Neither were used to such loud noises from Mr. Vance. He was always so soft and quiet, which both of them definitely appreciated early in the morning. Not that it was particularly early.

A few people muttered responses and Mr. Vance just laughed at them, reveling in their complaints. He was always up for helping people but he also had a few students who were constantly complaining about projects and due dates and anything else they could think up. When he'd began teaching, it had annoyed him. Now it just amused him to no end.

"Mr. Bridger," Mr. Vance suddenly said sternly, though anyone who knew him well enough knew that he wasn't truly angry. "You're late. Why are you late?"

"I was talking to Ms. Carlin."

Alexa's eyes opened, recognizing the voice. It was Patrick. And his last name was Bridger. It was a lovely last name, in her opinion, and not one that she would've expected with him. She wondered how she hadn't thought about him not being in class but she quickly blinked it away when he sat across from her. She didn't raise her head from Noni's shoulder but she did smile at him.

"Hey," Patrick said quietly, glancing nervously over at Mr. Vance. The last thing he wanted was to make Mr. Vance any angrier at him. Then again, he wasn't familiar enough with Mr. Vance to know that he was never really that mad at anyone.

"Hi," Alexa replied softly. She knew she was blushing, she could feel it in her cheeks.

"Morning," Noni mumbled from her face's resting place in her arms.

Patrick couldn't hold back a laugh. "What's with her?"

"Tired," Noni whimpered.

"You can go now," Mr. Vance said, waving carelessly towards the door. "And good god, please behave yourselves. I do not want to have to take away your freedom."

Alexa cringed as one of the boys she hated did some terrible Braveheart impression. Mel Gibson would not have been amused and neither was she. She finally raised her head from Noni's shoulder and stood up slowly. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was tired. The fact that her parents hadn't let her sleep in the day before had her running on far too little sleep.

"Nap time," Noni yawned, standing up even slower than what would've been deemed humanly possible. She haphazardly scooped up her bag and her camera, hugging them tightly to her chest. "I'm sleeping in the car."

"Fine," Alexa laughed. She slung her messenger bag over her shoulder and looked down at Patrick, who was still sitting down. She felt herself blush again when she saw that his soft brown eyes were already resting on her. "Wanna come?"

Patrick didn't even try to hold back his smile. "Sure."

As the three of them walked out, Alexa glanced over at Noni and saw that her best friend was grinning widely. She resisted the urge to elbow Noni in the ribs only because she was doing almost the same exact thing. Patrick fell into step next to Alexa and casually looked over at her. When their eyes met, he noticed her cheeks flush slightly and he loved it.

After Noni had completely sprawled out across the back seat of Alexa's Range Rover, Patrick grabbed Alexa's hands and gently pulled her around to the back of the car, where he knew Noni wouldn't be able to hear them. Alexa looked questioning but also very intrigued. He wanted to kiss her so badly but he held back, knowing that he had to talk first.

"Sorry I didn't call you yesterday," he said first thing, still holding her hands.

Alexa smiled, loving the nervous look in his eyes. She thought it was utterly adorable. "It's alright."

Patrick tried to smile, he was just too nervous to make it work. "I couldn't think of anything to say."

"Oh, cute," Alexa giggled.

"Cute is such a manly word," Patrick laughed.

"I know, right?"

Patrick tried to think of something to say but he couldn't even think clearly, let alone come up with someone coherent to say. So he just tried to smile again. This time it worked a little better but not as well as he would've hoped. He was still trying to say something but nothing was coming to him so, hoping that she wouldn't mind, he leaned into Alexa a little bit, his sights set on another kiss like their one the other night.

The second Alexa realized what Patrick was doing, she took a step towards him and pressed her lips against his. The kiss was soft and short, but only because they knew they were being watched. But the moment that Alexa's lips broke away from Patrick's, she was already smiling at him. And he was smiling right back at her.

"Too cute," Noni giggled when Alexa slid into the driver's seat.

"Hush," Alexa joked, trying not to giggle herself. It was a total giggly situation and she wasn't too sure how she was managing to keep herself from bursting into fits. It would come sometime, she knew that. Patrick would probably think she was a freak but it was pretty inevitable.

The drive to Alexa's house was almost totally silent, aside from the radio, which was turned down pretty low anyway. Every so often, Noni would whimper quietly from the back seat and then they would laugh at her, but it only happened when they would go over bumps and Noni's attempts at sleep were disturbed.

"I'm stealing a guestroom," Noni declared, dropping her stuff on Alexa's floor.

"You can stay in here, ya know," Alexa said, a little confused by her friend's decision. She sat on her knees in the middle of her bed and stared at Noni, waiting for a little more explanation.

"If I stay in here, I'll never sleep and I need sleep."

"Ah ha."

Noni grabbed her two pillows off of the daybed that she always slept on and hugged them tightly to her chest. She gave a little wave to Patrick and then turned to leave the room.

"I'll go with you," Alexa said suddenly. She looked over at Patrick and smiled at him. "I'll be back in a second. Do you want a Coke or anything?"

"Sure," he said with a smile. "Coke sounds good."

Alexa stood up on her bed and jumped off the end, not really caring when her short, pleated skirt flipped up and showed off her lacy lavender underwear. Patrick bit his lip when he saw it. Not only was the idea of seeing Alexa's underwear a good one but they were also very nice underwear; the way they were cut they went right across her butt cheek and he'd gotten a bit of a show. He felt a little dirty for thinking of her that way but he couldn't help himself, Alexa was beautiful and he was a guy after all.

"This should be interesting," Alexa said as she walked down the hall with Noni.

"Huh?" Noni yawned.

"Being alone with him."

"Whatdya mean?"

"It'll just be random."

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Noni giggled, winking.

"Oh, that won't happen, trust me."

Noni was giggling again. "Uh huh, sure."

"It really won't," Alexa insisted. "I like him too much to mess it up."

"Ah! You finally admit to liking him."

"Hush." Alexa opened the door next to her and playfully shoved Noni in. "Sleep tight."

"Have good sex!"

"Oh, I will," Alexa said sarcastically, pulling the door closed. She tried not to notice how much she was blushing.

When Alexa came back to her room, she found Patrick paging through an issue of American Photographer that was lying on the floor. Alexa kicked herself for leaving her magazines everywhere but then realized that she was freaking out over nothing. At least her messiness had given Patrick something to amuse himself with. She handed him one of the two Cokes in her hand and then sat on her bed, leaning back against her headboard.

"We should watch a movie or something," Alexa said, flipping on the TV.

"Sure," Patrick replied, sitting down next to her. he leaned back also but tried not to get too comfortable, in case Alexa didn't want him there.

"Ooh," Alexa said as she flipped through the channels. She stopped on one of the many HBO channels she had, which happened to be playing one of her absolute favorite movies, My Girl. "We're watching this. But I'll probably cry."

"Why watch a movie if it'll make you cry?"

Alexa sighed quietly. "Because it's the sweetest movie in existence."

"Whatever you say," Patrick laughed. He set his Coke on the nightstand and turned his attention to the TV, where a very young Macaulay Culkin was riding bikes with a young blond girl that he didn't recognize.

Alexa set her Coke down on the nightstand on her side and set her sights on the TV, sighing again. There was no limit to the amount of times that she could watch this movie. She was in love with it and she had been ever since the first time she'd seen it, back when she was a little girl. And every time since she was old enough to understand, it had made her cry when Thomas Jay died and every time Vada got the mood-ring back, only it was blue instead of black.

After watching the movie for only a few minutes, Alexa felt Patrick's hand wrap around hers. She was a bit startled but a smile played across her face as she looked over at him. He smiled back, albeit a bit nervously. Without letting her smile fade, she leaned over and kissed him softly. When she pulled back, he kissed her again and this time it intensified.

Patrick's hands were holding Alexa against him and he felt her shift slightly so that she was almost hovering over him. The kiss continued on, deeper and deeper until it was all that either of them could take. As he kissed her, Patrick felt Alexa's hands on his sides, sliding up his shirt. He shivered, feeling her touching him. But he would never deny that he liked it.

Alexa pulled back a little bit and stared into Patrick's eyes. He was questioning her silently, asking her why she'd stopped. She bit her lip for a second before she went back to kissing him, telling the voice in her head to just shut up for once. The voice never did shut up but, over the years, Alexa had gotten quite good at shutting it out, lucky for her.