I was always up at 1am. Not because it was a mysterious time for teenage guys, but because I give no shits about a sleep schedule. Plus I was always doing the same thing, which was nothing. I was usually watching a movie or just listening to music, really whatever to pass the time. Nothing special.

But here I was, a week and a few days before I started my last year of school. All I was thinking about was how either incredible it was going to be or how awful it was going to be. I saw no in between.

My thoughts broke and I jumped from my spot on my bed when I heard something hit my window. My heart was racing from the scare and I decided to sit and wait to see if it happened again. I sat still, waiting less than a minute for it to happen again. I flinched slightly at the sound and got up, praying that I wasn't about to be murdered.

I walked up to my window and barely opened a blind, looking down to see no one. It was then I peered up towards the window across from mine and saw Audrey Hart with her window wide open and navy curtains pulled back. I let go of my blinds and reached for the string to pull them up. I unlocked my window and pulled that up as well.

She sat patiently as I did this, pieces of her light brown hair being pushed out of her face by the breeze. I put my hands on the window sill and leaned out a little, letting her know that she had my attention now.

"I need your help." She quickly told me, without any form of greeting or explanation.

I narrowed my eyes at her, taking a step back and gripping back onto my window. I shut it easily and went to go reach for the string next to it. Suddenly she threw more things at my window, which I soon realized were pens. And apparently a handful of them too.

I repeated my process of lifting up my window and leaning on the sill. She looked a little pissed, but it was entertaining since I was still weirdly jealous of her freedom while I was stuck at home.

"Can I help you?" I asked, tilting my head to the side a bit. She shushed me, putting a single finger to her lips while looking around.

"Yes, actually. Please," she quietly said, her teeth gently tugging at her bottom lip.

"Depends on what it is." I replied. There wasn't much empty space between us, maybe 20 feet at the most. It would have been more, but her room in her house jutted straight out to the right of her home.

"I need a ride somewhere." She sheepishly said. Just by the tone of her voice I could tell that all of her friends had already turned her down and there was no way in hell she'd be asking her parents.

I sighed, "I wish I could help you out, but I'm grounded." I told her. She gave me this look, one that I can tell you that I didn't like, and stared me down.

"I've seen you take your car out a thousand times after midnight. One more time won't hurt," she said as she leaned a bit further out of her window.

"I'm actually locked in my house for a few weeks, maybe months. I really don't want to make it years." I informed her, raising my eyebrows at her.

Her head dropped and it hung low for a few seconds. I figured she had given up, but I sat for just a little longer. She peered back up at me, her face blank in the dim light. "Please, it's not that far. It's just down the road." She sighed.

Audrey seemed not necessarily desperate, but more in need. It seemed to me that wherever she needed to be was going to be a lot better than where she was now. I couldn't blame her, though. Anything at this point seems better than being stuck where I am. Well, were we are.

I paused for a second, just blankly staring at her. My fingers tapped faintly on the wood I gripped onto until

I finally decided to speak up again. "I'm not taking you to like, a drug house or anything, right?" I stressed, not wanting to be led to my death. At least not tonight.

She quickly shook her head, her eyes beaming with innocence. "No. I just need to get to a friend's." She assured me.

"Who's this friend?" I questioned. It wasn't any relevance to me, I was just curious. Or as everyone else would put it, I was a bit on the nosy side.

She leaned down onto her elbows, resting her chin in her hands. "You don't know him." She answered, tugging on the necklace that laid crookedly on her collarbones.

"I bet I do." I plainly said, watching as she twisted the chain around her neck. I glanced from her hands to her eyes that were smudged with mascara around the outer corners.

"You don't." She sweetly said, but something about the way she cocked her head told me she didn't want me to know. I tensed up as another breeze came through, my head turning towards the left as I stared out to the empty street.

I looked back to Audrey as her lips pursed together. I gripped a little tighter an my window sill, finally giving her an answer. "Fine," I shortly said. A small smile twitched at her lips and that's when I raised a single finger at her. "If I get caught I'm going to blame it all on you." I informed it. It was better to tell her this now than later.

"We won't get caught, I do this all the time." She assured me, her voice calm and quiet.

"Just be by my front door in 5 minutes." I told her, already pulling back from my window.

She nodded her head a few times and grabbed the handle in front of her that shut her windows. She did this one at a time and pulled her curtains across just as I shut my blinds.

I looked down as I stepped back into my room, not caring about the way I was dressed since I was just driving someone a few miles away. I shrugged and grabbed my phone from my charger and quietly exiting my room. I went straight downstairs to get my keys where my parents had horribly hid them.

I wasn't grounded often, but when I was I usually respected my parents choice of punishment, which the usually shortened if I kept up my good behavior. Which was always. Well, until now. Helping a girl sneak out of her house and drive to some person's house in the middle of the night was not only illegal since I can't drive past midnight, but also not a good decision. Either way, it was too late and I already told Audrey I was taking her.

I pulled out the small drawer in our kitchen and dug through it, easily finding my keys that were attached to a plain black lanyard for this soul purpose. I silently shut the drawer and held my breath as I tiptoed past my parents bedroom. I went straight for my front door and slipped through, slowly closing the door behind me.

I looked over to Audrey's house, seeing that she was walking from the side of her house and towards mine. I awkwardly rocked back and forth on my heels as she made her way up the side of my driveway and to me. As she came closer I could see she was dressed in dark denim shorts and a t-shirt that was about two sizes too big for her with a familiar logo.

I raised an eyebrow at her as she stopped in front of me, unsure of what to say as she stuck her hands in her pockets. I noticed she was actually kind of tall for a girl, she was maybe 5'6" or 5'7". It was my first time having a normal face to face interaction and not a simple wave or polite hello during a run in at our connected mailboxes.

"You like The Rolling Stones?" I asked her, eyeing down the big mouth right in the middle of her shirt. She looked down, pulling it out in front of her.

"No," she laughed. "Nicki Minaj's verse in 'Monster' is better than their whole discography." She told me, smoothing her shirt back down.

"I'm impressed that you decided not to fake that you actually knew their songs." I replied with a simple nod. "Even though I have to disagree a bit." I added. She gave me an easy smile, peering over towards her house as silence settled over us. "Uh, we can go," I said, pointing towards my car. She nodded her head and turned around on her heels.

I led the way, pulling my phone from my pocket and checking the time. It was nearly 1:30 and all I could do was hope that I wouldn't be getting pulled over. I unlocked the car, hating how loud it sounded. I knew my parents were sleeping, but there was always that doubt.

We both slid in, quietly shutting our doors.

"So where am I taking you?" I asked her, waiting to start my car to avoid the noise.

"You know that neighborhood literally right across from our school?" She questioned. I nodded my head and let her know that I knew what she was talking about. "That one. It's small so I'll just show you what house it is when we get there." She told me.

I sighed, starting my car and pulling quickly out of my driveway without a word. I pulled up to the stop sign before the exit of our neighborhood and peered over at her. "So I'm Luke," I said, getting a confused look from her as I drove off onto the road again.

"I know," she said, making it sound more as a question than a statement.

"We've been neighbors for a while and I've just never really introduced myself, so hi." I didn't exactly know what I was doing, probably just trying to get rid of the awkward feeling in the air.

She snickered, "Hi, Luke. I'm Audrey," she said, staring out her window at the passing objects.

"I think I had a class with you last year," I told her. I knew I did though, she was in my English class and was super smart. Not over the top stupidly smart, but you know what I mean.

"We did." She simply said. "Our teacher was seriously so awful." She lightly laughed.

"I barely passed that class." I told her, nearing the entrance to our school. I only lived a few minutes away and was glad this was less of a hassle than I expected.

She slumped a little lower in her seat, "I did okay, I did have to teach myself everything though." She looked over at me, muttering something about turning into the neighborhood where she needed to be. "It's the last house on the right."

I drove down slowly as I had never been in here and I had this fear that something was going to run out in front of us. I pulled up to the house and stopped in front of the driveway, instantly recognizing the car that sat in the driveway. No one could miss Ashton Irwin's black camaro from the 80s or something like that.

"I know Ashton." I quietly said as she undid her seat belt. She looked up at me with her phone in hand and gave me an unreadable look. "I'm not friends with him or anything, I just like his car." I joked, even though this was 100% true. I'd seen him around school and that was t.

"He's my best friend," She informed me. "He's nice." She simply said, a small smile on her face. She climbed out of me car, turning around to me for the last time. "Thanks for the ride, by the way. It really means a lot." She thanked me politely and I just returned her kind smile.

"You're welcome," I said back.

"And I'm super sorry if you get in trouble. I'm okay with taking the blame."

"It's fine, really. I'm sure I won't get caught." I told her. She nodded and quietly shut my door, giving me a small wave before hurrying towards his front door a pressing her phone to her ear.

I drove off as she did this, turning around in the small cul-de-sac. I passed his house once again and watched as they stood in his doorway, both of them tightly pressed to each other in a hug. My eyes went back to the road as I made my way home, my ride even more quiet than when Audrey was with me.

As I reached my house I made sure to turn of my headlights in case my parents woke up from the light that would shine into our house. I parked and cut the engine as quickly as I could and rushed from my car to my front door. I slipped inside and let out a long breath. I headed upstairs again and back to my room being extremely happy that my parents didn't have my head right now.

I laid on my bed, realizing how weird that situation was. I drove a girl who was practically a stranger to a guy's house with little to no explanation. All I really learned from that was Audrey has a lot of ball point pens and that she doesn't like The Rolling Stones. Also that her best friend is Ashton Irwin, but I'm pretty sure they're fucking.

Now here I was, envious of Audrey Hart yet again. She had someone to run to in the middle of the night, someone who looked like they were truly happy to see her. I wasn't jealous that she got to cling onto someone at night, but rather she had a person to call her own. I was kind of stuck with Michael and the food he buys me.

I groaned and sat up, going towards my light switch and flicking them off. If there was anything I needed it was a good night's rest. Even though I'm sure I still wouldn't get that, I could always try. And that's all how things seemed to go for as of right now. Trying, but never really getting. Working, but not really achieving. It was a part of life, just a vicious cycle and I was just now accepting this.

-

i hope i captured their personalities a bit more in this i'm trying to let it grow and stuff ya feel

and calum will be making his way in here shortly hehe

enjoy fam ily