Noah was drenched in sweat by the time he had returned from wherever he and Hudson had run off to. They were gone for a few hours, and I must say it was a lot quieter without them here. Men are loud and obnoxious. Elliot is easier to be around. He's not like most guys, he's quite feminine. No offense to him.

"Where'd you guys run off to?" I whispered. It was only eight at night but I had assumed everyone else had gone to bed. Again, it was dead silent.

He shrugged his broad shoulders, "No where far, I just wanted to show him something."

The thin quilt that lay over me in the bed was scrunched as I sat up in bed to talk to him. I had changed into one of the light blue night gowns that was left by the previous house owners. He had to have noticed because he couldn't take his eyes off of my chest. "You okay?" I laughed.

His eyes darted back up to meet mine. "Yeah, sorry. New pajamas?"

"Yes, my old ones are covered in peach juice considering that's all we've been eating lately." I moved over so he could join me, he took the open spot graciously. "But it's free, so I can't complain." I wasn't going to bother him with the fact that some of the money we had brought with us was missing. Some of it had burned up in the fire. Quite a lot of it actually, all that was left was barely enough for us to live in comfort for the next few months. And now, it was going missing.

He pulled the covers back up to where they were covering our chests. Well, it was covering a part of his chest and had gone way past my lips. "I love you." He grabbed my waist and pulled me close to him. His lips crashed against mine as he got as close to me as I would let him without me pushing him away. When he tried to slide the lace strap of my nightgown down my shoulder, I backed away. I could feel my lips swelling from where he had kissed me hard.

"Are you ever going to be ready?" He asked me with a small groan.

I placed my head on his chest. "One day. Not yet, but one day." No one knew about my intimacy fear. And I couldn't let Noah know, but I was beginning to let go of the fear that had kept me from being with him. Soon, I would be ready. Every single time we got close, my hands pushed him away when my body wanted him to stay.

He's a good guy, Ashley. Just do it already! These thoughts always intruded in my mind every time after I would stop us, but even I wasn't going to bully me into giving up that easily.

After the adrenaline in his heart calmed down to a calming, drum like beat, I fell asleep with him caressing my hair like a child.

"Breakfast!" I heard Oakley call us down. I rolled over to wake up Noah, only to find that he was already gone. Hm. I crawled out of bed and threw on a large t-shirt over my thin gown. It was cloudy out, it was probably going to rain soon. It hadn't rained in a few weeks and God knows we needed it. Without the rain, we would soon run out of water. We each had a large bucket from Home Depot that we put out when it rained. Yesterday, I had emptied mine. We needed rain.

Ravyn sat down next to Oakley with Elliot beside her, for some reason, there was an empty seat next to Oakley. "Where's Hudson?" I asked.

"Who knows?" Oakley muttered, I could hear the scrape of her knife against her plate as she began to cut her peach roughly. "He told me he was going for a walk, but heavens knows he's probably lying about that too."

Noah and I exchanged a look. "Okay." He mumbled. I took the open seat next to her and then we all ate our breakfast. It was the same thing every single day. A peach and a slice of bread. We tried to save our money and only spent it on one or two things every two weeks. Except for the first Friday of every month, then, Elliot would have Ravyn splurge at the store and buy pancake mix. My mouth began to water at the thought, I could hardly wait another three days for the pancakes. If I was lucky, maybe I could convince her to get eggs. I doubted it, considering the money had been disappearing.

"What are you wearing?" Ravyn asked me. Her chocolate colored eyes seemed to cut holes in the baby blue dress peeking out from under the shirt.

"You like it?" I chirped. "I found it in the old dresser in my room!"

"Take it off." She demanded.

"What?"

"It's not yours. Take it off." She seemed to be even angrier.

I laughed. "This is crazy! I'm not taking it off. I like it. Why do you even care?"

She rolled her eyes. The sharp knife in her hand stood proudly when she stabbed the table with the tip. "You have your things, I have mine. And Jane had hers. And I'd appreciate it if we kept it that way."

I didn't know who Jane was. I was too frustrated to even question it. "Like secrets?"

She looked taken aback. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Oh I think you do. When are you going to tell everyone how the barn fire really started?" I questioned. I was aware that I had put her in a terrifying situation. I didn't care, she was being an asshole.

A look of anger and fear spread across her face as she stood up and left the table. "You're going to regret that Ashley. I guarantee it."

"Ash, what are you talking about?" Noah looked at me. "What do you know about the fire? It was an accident."

"Not so much." I sighed. "I have no proof but I have reason to believe that Ravyn was behind it. She was the only one in the barn with a lighter, she used it for her cigarettes. Now, when the fire started, there was no lightning, we had no fire pit inside, and it was thirty degrees out. She was the first one out wasn't she? Then Noah and I came back and found Elliot and Hudson, and Oakley jumped. Did she shout for any of you? Did she try and get you out? No, she didn't. Because she was afraid of what you'd say. She would rather have let you die than risk you finding out what happened. And judging by how she just reacted, I'm assuming that I'm correct about this."

Elliot played with his fork. "No." He said. "No way."

Oakley was just looking at the doorway as if she was following Ravyn outside with her eyes. Noah was looking at me as if I had kept the biggest secret in the world from him, but I couldn't make eye contact.

"She was acting weird." Oakley whispered. "After the fire. Her fingers were burned, but nothing else. When she was helping me with my leg, there was nothing about her that looked as if she had been touched by the flames. My feet are still covered in burns and it has been two months."

"I don't believe it." Elliot said. "Not Ravyn, she wouldn't do that."

"You saw how she reacted El." Noah said. "If you don't believe us then ask her yourself. She'd be more likely to tell you than the rest of us."

"And what if I was to lie when I come back?" He stood to go chase his friend. "I could do that. To protect her."

"Well, we hope that you don't." I claimed.

He ran out the door and called for Ravyn. Before we could see him leave we heard a grunt. "Ow." He mumbled.

Ravyn had returned. She wouldn't look at me but she stared the others down. "I have news." She said in a monotonous tone. She held up a paper. "It's done. They found the clothes down at the river. They believe that we're dead."

Suddenly the anger felt unnecessary, the worry, the stress. We didn't care about the barn fire, we didn't care about the Elle house being up for sale. All we cared about was the fact that we were free. We were safe, and nothing could change that. Our families were grieving, the town had loss six kids. Not one of us cared. The resentment we had toward one another was gone, because as a team, we had gotten away with our own murder.