The red glowing numbers grew by one in the dark. I waited in the silence knowing it would be over in less than a minute. I flipped the alarm off before it could break the night. Five in the morning, as usual too early. As usual I played out the fantasy where I ignored the time, rolled over and just went back to sleep.

And as usual I got out of bed.

I pulled on clothes, making a side trip to the kitchen and grabbed a protein bar. It was peanut butter, not my favorite, but I stuffed it in my mouth anyways. I hated running on an empty stomach even though Dad said I should. Maybe this was my one way of rebelling a little. It took me longer than it should have to lace up my shoes and took longer than needed to pull on a fleece and grab a headlamp.

Some days were harder than others.

But I always got out the door.

The all too familiar running path had given me miles and miles of time to think, time to see next moves, contemplate life, or the weekend party or just nothing. I thought about nothing this morning.

Years of running the same route had made me fit enough to run for hours, not that I ever wanted to. My breath hung in the air for a moment before disappearing as I ran through it. The whole route was five miles. Five miles of pounding pavement and cold. Five miles of time alone.

I was back at the house just minutes before six.

Another side trip to the kitchen where I gulped down a glass of water. Dad was right. I was slow.

The run took me three minutes longer than it usually did. I wanted to blame it on the cold, but Dad would say that's just an excuse. I hated running in the cold, or maybe it was just the running I hated.

I left the glass on the counter and headed down into the basement, our glorified home gym. Dad had spent way too much money on the equipment. I was expected to make the most of it, earn the money back or something like that. He said when I make it pro I could pay him back then. It was all state of the art stuff and had taken me and him ages to get it all in. After a few hours of swearing and googling how to get it assembled it was up. He said it was worth it, I just groaned at the thought of ever having to move it.

An hour later, I was sweaty and out of breath. I lay on the floor, arms flat out, legs straight. I hated abs, probably why I always did them last. I checked the clock on the wall and signed, just under an hour to shower, change and get to school.

Claire's alarm went off as I passed her room on the way to the shower. She groaned and slammed the alarm off. Not a morning person.

The bathroom tiles froze my bare feet, but the shower was hot. Steam had filled the room when I got out, forgot to turn the fan on again. I wiped the mirror off.

I should shave.

The stubble on my chin was more than a five o'clock shadow; it'd have to do for now. I washed my face and wiped on some deodorant. Back in my room I dug through a pile of clothes finding a pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt that were clean enough. Pulling them on, I did a once over in the mirror.

Not too bad.

I'll be the first to admit it; I'm a pretty good-looking guy. Maybe not model good-looking but at least above average, I'd take that.

Mom and Claire were downing cups of tea when I reached the kitchen. Coffee sat ready in the pot for me. Fresh blueberry muffins sat on the counter. I stuffed one in my mouth choking on the heat of it but swallowed it anyways.

Dad was already off at work.

"Morning," Mom said over her cup of tea, "How'd your run go?"

"Average," I grabbed another muffin and poured a mug of coffee.

Mom glanced at the clock, then back to me.

I sighed.

"We're going, we're going," I said between bites of muffin. Claire gulped down a few more sips of tea and grabbed a muffin of her own.

"Bye, Ma," Claire called shoving her feet into boots.

"What?" she scowled at me.

"Nothing," I shook my head trying to hide a grin, "Nice outfit."

She was wearing purple tights, red boots, some sort of yellow dress thing and a jean jacket. Claire glared at me.

"Just because you can't be bothered with fashion," she said eying my own clothes.

"Yeah, okay, whatever," I threw on an old jacket and we stomped out to my car.

It was an old red Mustang Dad had given me a few months back for my seventeenth birthday. I might have mentioned it was my dream car once or a hundred times, but would have been happy with any car. It had been a huge surprise. I still wasn't sure how Dad had managed to buy it.

I backed out of the driveway and we were off.

The car rumbled, shook a little, sometimes the shifter was sticky, but it was mine. I turned the radio on; Claire pulled on her headphones and stared out the window, still too early for her. We didn't talk on the way, she was half asleep and I wasn't really in the mood.

Senior parking at the school usually filled quick, but this morning a few spaces were still open. I parked as close as I could to the school and shut the engine off. I hated walking further than I had to. Claire grabbed her bag and left without saying anything. She'd go to the cafeteria with her friends and they'd all Instagram their breakfasts or something. I didn't get it. Claire said I 'd never get it.

I almost made it in the building when a red head tackled into me. I caught myself leaning a hand against the glass door and felt my lips pressed against hers.

It was funny, after not seeing each other for nearly twelve hours; I missed her like I hadn't seen her for a week. We parted for a split second, her green eyes smiled at me. The eyes of precious gemstones I once told her. She had just laughed.

She kissed me again. I picked up my bag and held the door for her.

"So you missed me?" I asked laughing wrapping my free arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah, one whole night is just too much," she said in a mockingly strained voice, "I just don't know how I could go through another night like it."

"I can't imagine the pain."

She was so perfect.

Kelsey laughed. She had that perfect smile, amazing eyes. She wore a grey low cut V-neck shirt that barely covered her stomach. Her jeans were skintight. I wanted to peel them off her right there.

We were the hottest couple at the whole school and everyone knew it. People moved out of our way when we walked down the halls. They whispered, they wanted to be us. Who wouldn't?

Some days it was just too good.

I stopped at my locker, shoved my bag inside and walked with Kelsey to her first class.

"See you at lunch," I said and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. She grabbed me in a hug and then disappeared into the room. I wandered off to my own first class.

"Hey man, what's up?" Matt came up beside me slapping me on the shoulders.

"Not much," I grinned, "How's things with Bryerly?

"God, why do you even ask?" he groaned, "I never know what the hell she's thinking and she won't tell me anything. I don't know how much longer I can last."

Bryerly was head cheerleader. She and Matt had met when he'd nearly run her over going for a touchdown. Since then they'd been a couple, but had a few problems.

"Have you tried talking to her? That does seem to work sometimes."

"Yeah, easier said than done. Every time I open my mouth I feel like I'm getting screamed at for nothing I did," he paused then added, "Thank God she's out today. Some kind of stomach bug or something."

"Gives you a little break, eh?" I smiled and pulled the door open to the English room. He nodded and we sat down in the middle of the cluster of desks just as the final bell was ringing. It was going to be a long day; I rolled my eyes at Matt, who gave a small nod back, Mr. James was a complete douche.

Morning classes dragged on. I got scolded for laughing in class, got a bad grade on a pop quiz, Matt texted me saying he was going to get his ass kicked. I assumed he meant by Bryerly.

Then it was finally lunch.

Stood in line for a while with Matt, poked the end of a straw into the girl standing in front of us.

"The fuck, dude?" She whipped around.

"Sorry, Alex," Matt laughed, "But it was funny."

She rolled her eyes.

"Are you guys ever going to grow up?"

"Depends," Matt stifled a laugh, "Are you ever going to get boobs?"

"Are your balls ever going to drop?" she grinned back.

We had both known Alex since first grade, and loved making fun of her almost as much as she loved making fun of us. And if you asked her, it was apparently pretty easy to do.

I grabbed lunch, piling a bag of chips on the tray, and then followed Matt to our table. Kelsey was there, a salad sitting in front of her. I sat next to her, squeezed her hand and dug into the turkey sandwich.

Eleven of us sat around a table designed for eight. I didn't know the girls that well, besides Kelsey and Alex, but had grew up with the guys. Matt, Sean, Henry, Chase, and Toby.

We all played sports. Matt and I had been playing football together since elementary school. Sean, Chase, and Toby were dedicated to hockey. Henry played everything else. We all became friends freshman year, had some killer parties, made some killer mistakes and somehow all managed to make it to our senior year.

"Hey, hey you guys see Clarissa today?" Chase asked through a mouthful of sandwich. He had a thing for the band geeks. Rissa was pretty hot, definitely not my type.

"I thought she was going pop out of that shirt she was wearing," Alex laughed, "I would kill to have half of what she's got."

"Why are you looking at her boobs?" Chase poked her, wagging his eyebrows.

"Maybe I'm into girls," she ran her tongue up and down the banana she was eating. We all laughed.

"Gross, I would never do that!" One of the other girls shrieked, throwing a potato chip towards Alex, who caught it and ate it.