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Chapter Fourteen

Hazel floated through her high school campus, almost ghost-like. A little kid ran up to her, screamed, then ran off. Following him, she found that the campus was filling with water, coming from the lake.

As she crossed the quad, hoping to escape the water in the library, she saw her old classmates, all dressed up as extras from Hamilton. One of the boys opened his mouth and began buzzing furiously.

"What are you trying to say?" Hazel shouted. A wall of liquid, also buzzing, crashed down on her head.

~

Hazel woke up suddenly, gasping for air. A warm hand was laid on her arm and she flinched instinctively, forgetting for a moment where she was.

"Hey," a low voice said. "You okay?"

Her vision began swimming into focus. Theo's face was hovering over her shoulder, frowning.

She forced her breathing to steady, then rolled over onto her back. "Yeah. Fine. I just had a weird dream." Closing her eyes, other senses sprang into action and she could feel sheets rubbing her bare skin. Memories from last night began to filter through her brain and her eyes flew open again. She jolted upright, clutching the sheet to her chest. "Holy crap. We–"

"Yeah, we did," Theo said, sounding a little like the cat who got the cream. Hazel could hardly blame him though – as the shock began to fade, something similar to smug satisfaction flowed through her veins. She turned her head to see him lying on his side, head propped up on one hand, covered in the sheet from the waist down. He was watching her, half-smiling.

She laid back down, staring at the ceiling. "I can't believe I did it."

"Did you think you'd be a nun forever?" Theo asked, leaning over to kiss her neck.

"Something like that," she admitted, laughing.

"No more convent for you," he murmured, kissing up to her ear.

"No," she agreed, closing her eyes in bliss. Her brain began slowing, errant thoughts wandering in and out. One of those thoughts made her eyes pop open again. "Oh God. What time is it?"

Halting his attention to her neck, Theo rolled over with a groan to check the clock. "Um...it's nine-fifteen?"

"Crap, crap, crap!" Hazel burst out of bed, dragging the doona with her and wrapping it around her. "I'm meant to meet Mum for a birthday brunch at ten-fifteen." Another thought occurred to her and she began swearing even more vehemently as she hunted for her phone. "Shit, shitty shit..."

"What's wrong now?" Theo sounded amused.

"I never told them I was staying over last night – they're probably calling triple 0 right now." Without waiting for his reply, she went out into the living room and located her phone in her bag. When she opened it, she found four texts from her mother and three missed calls, from last night and that morning.

"Shit, shit, shit," she swore under her breath. She sent a quick text to her mother apologising and explaining that she and Theo had gotten takeout, fallen asleep watching a movie at his apartment and that she'd be home in thirty minutes. Dumping her phone back in her bag, she took a deep breath and felt warm arms wrap around her shoulders from behind.

"Everything okay?" Theo asked, speaking into her hair.

"I think so. I mean, I am technically an adult, so I suppose I don't really need to be held accountable to my parents, but still..."

"Don't stress, Hazel." He kissed her forehead. "She'll be fine about it. At least no police were involved."

"That we know of," she quipped, then sighed. "Yeah, I hope you're right."