After Dark

Thirty-five

Wednesday afternoon Liam throws the car into park in the driveway of Ember's house. Ember hops out of the passenger seat with a grin. She closes the door to the car and skips up to her house.

Liam follows after her. He let himself be convinced to come over after school since Paige is going to be at a tutoring session in the library.

The house was quiet and seemingly empty when they stepped inside. Liam had seen both Chris's and Ian's car in the driveway though so he knows somebody is here. They both kicked their shoes off by the door and went up the stairs.

They slipped into Ember's room and the door closed behind them. Ember sits her bag down on a chair and then walks over to her closet. She pulls out a T-shirt and then goes over to her dresser to grab joggers.

"I'm gonna change in the bathroom. If you want clothes you can go ask Ian for some, I'm sure he won't mind letting you borrow some." Ember claims with a knowing smirk. Liam doesn't have time to reply before she leaves the room.

He stands up, deciding that he would like to get something more comfortable. He leaves her room and walks up to the door across from hers. He stands there awkwardly and knocks on the closed door.

"Come in!" The voice that shouts is Lucas's. Liam opens the door, seeing the blond boy stretched out on the end of the bed. Chris's legs are resting on his stomach while the boy is on his phone and Ian is sitting in a beanbag chair. Lucas grins when he sees him. "Liam! Hey!"

"Hey." Liam smiles, kicking the door shut behind him while coming in the room. His eyes go over to Ian's who's smiling at him from the chair. "I was wondering if I could borrow some clothes?"

"Yeah, sure." Ian smiles. "Take whatever from the closet, my sweats and shorts are in the top four drawers of the dresser."

Liam nods, walking over to the closet. He digs through and pulls out a dark blue shirt with a gray silhouette of a tree on the front. He then moves over to the dresser when he pauses. Sitting on top of it is a red and orange hoodie, more specifically, the red and orange hoodie he left at the campsite last weekend.

Part of him wants to pick it up and take it. He doesn't do that though, rather he leaves it and goes to dig through the dresser drawers. He pulls out a black pair of sweatpants and decides those will do.

With one glance over to make sure everyone is paying attention to the TV, Liam starts to take his uniform off. It doesn't take him long to change and once he does he folds his uniform up.

There's a knocking at the door and a second later it's opening. Ember sticks her head in. "Hey."

"Go away." Ian comments immediately. She raises her eyebrows and then scowls at him. "Let Liam stay here."

"Whipped." Chris laughs from the bed. Ian flips him off, turning to look at Ember and Liam.

"Liam, you wanna stay in here right? I'm better than Ember anyway." Ian smirks when his sister narrows her eyes at him.

"Uh." Liam looks between Ember and Ian. He doesn't want to pick one over the other. He looks back at Ian and shrugs. "Ember's the one that invited me here, I'd feel bad ditching her."

Ian's mouth forms a small pout while Ember cheers in victory. She flips Ian off. "Yeah that's right! I'm better!"

She then hooks her arm with Liam and marches off back to her room. Liam chuckles the way over. Once they get there he sits down, stuffing his uniform in his backpack.

"You did actaully want to hang out with me right? I'll understand if you want to go back to Ian's room." Ember lays down on the bed, looking over at him.