Dean, my friend, my competition. The boy who pushed me to be better—who sparked a challenge that had helped me heal myself these past months. Heal wounds I thought would taint me for the rest of my life. The dark marks that I was certain would ward off anyone else from ever truly loving me.

Dean gently pulled away again, a deep breath shuddering from his lips, and it looked like an effort to stay in his chair. “I need to finish one more page addition on the school’s site,” he practically growled.

“Fun break over,” I said, smiling, my lips still tingling from his kiss.

“To be continued,” he assured me before turning back to his gear.

The song “Friends” by Flight of the Conchords blared from the cell on the table at my back, effectively stopping me from returning to the blog work. I swiped the cell to answer Hannah’s call.

“Hannah,” I said, drawing out her name so she knew she was in trouble. She’d known I was in Code Club tonight and usually waited until I texted her to call me for the recap. She was two hours early.

“Amber.”

I instantly stood up, the sob in her voice putting me on high alert.

“Hannah? What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Where are you?” The questions spewed from my mouth, my eyes widening as if that would help me hear better through her cries.

“Home. I’m f-fine.” The stuttered hiccup in her voice combated that statement, but I breathed easier knowing she wasn’t in a wreck on the side of the road somewhere—the same phantom road Mom was always hounding me about.

“Why are you crying? Do I need to come get you?”

Dean began packing up our gear, his eyes darting to me every few seconds. I loved that he was prepared to leave in a hurry if I gave the word.

“No,” she whined. “It’s my mom. She totally just went off on me. Kicked Jake out of the house.”

“Omigod,” I said. “What happened?” Flashes of them getting caught by either one of her parents doused me with ice water. Her parents weren’t insanely strict, but they definitely didn’t believe in sex before marriage, and they certainly wouldn’t stand for it in their house.

“She found out I’m on birth control.”

“How?”

Hannah was the definition of careful. She always did her research and switched up the places she got her pills from if there was even an inkling her mom would discover her. It wasn’t that she wanted to keep things from her parents; she just knew their stance on it. But she had to be safe. She and Jake wanted a family someday, but not now.