He's waiting in his car parked in the shadows. The light fog settling all around. Strumming his fingers on the steering wheel absentmindedly listening to whatever song is on the radio. His thoughts are elsewhere, wanting to get away from the demands that weigh him down. He wishes to get away, just get on the road and drive. He's thought about it a hundred times over, but he knows he never will. He's a coward and he knows it. He knows in the end he'll follow along with his parents plans because what he desires is unattainable. No one knows of this, not his family, friends or peers. Well no one except for her.

A small smile forms on his lips at the thought. She was the one thing that mattered to him. The person he could talk to without being judged. She knew his secrets and would never tell. He wasn't supposed to like her, wasn't supposed to have met her. But he did and now he can't let her go. They have no future, they don't make plans, she doesn't expect anything from him. They don't see each other outside of their secret rendezvous, they both know that they are from different worlds, different classes. Yet they can't stay away.

For this he blames the night they met and that idiot, Naruto, for dragging him to that party. And the idiot's cousin, Karin, for bringing her friends. Especially the blonde one, Ino, who had decided to invite a friend from her dance class. The friend that wasn't a part of their group. The one that shouldn't have come one of their parties.

He had seen her from his spot in the kitchen doorway. He could tell that she didn't belong. Stretch pants, old t-shirt a size too small, but it was her smile that caught his attention. And he couldn't turn away.

He had watched her throughout the party, but he didn't talk to her. He didn't approach girls, he didn't have to. They'd flock to him because of his looks, his name and because he could get whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. She would look around the party, her eyes would wash over him but not stop, like she didn't know who he was, and everyone was supposed to look to him.

He's finally lost his patience when she walked right past him. Ignored him even when Ino had said something to him. He had followed them outside to the pool, where they had all decided to jump in. All except for her. She hadn't worn a swimsuit under her clothes like the rest had so she stood by laughing and watching. That's when he had made his move.

He approached her like he was a god, demanding her attention. She had just noticed his approach, her smile halted in curious concern and right when he was going to tell her that she should be fawning over him like the other girls, he was knocked off balance, plummeting into the water. As he stood to face whomever had dared throw him off course he wasn't surprised to see that it was that idiot standing by edge, pointing and laughing like a damned 3rd grader.

Anger wasn't the word to describe what he felt, no there was no word for it. He would kill is so called best friend, chew him up and spit him out. And he would have too, but it was the laughing next to the idiot that stopped him. The soft giggling hidden behind a hand. As their eyes connected it stopped. A bite of her lip, a small blush. That was all it took to know that she was all he ever wanted.

The small moment was ruined when he was ambushed by the other girls in the pool. Dragging him in to their games. He looked back over his shoulder to Naruta talking to her, probably making some sort of pass. He wasn't jealous, no, he didn't get jealous.

He was wet, his clothes soaked through. He was out in the drive way, by his opened trunk, digging through his gym bag for his extra set of clothes when she walked past him. Walked right past him, again. He spun around reaching out for her. His grip on her wrist stopped her as she turned to look at him. Big green eyes boring into his own. Words caught in his throat, what was he going to say? Seconds pass by, or minutes, he doesn't know. Neither say a word, there's a connection, they both feel it.

He tugs on her wrist so gently he's not sure if he really has, but she moves forward, inches from him, with her head slightly tilted, she licks her lips and pulls in her bottom lip slowly releasing it from her teeth. That one movement was the most entrancing, erotic, and sexiest thing he's ever seen. She parts her lips, words beginning to form when he closes the distance, capturing her lips, whatever she was going to say is lost into a soft moan. That kiss was never supposed to happen. The first of many that should never have happened.

In the time after that he learns that she isn't from a high standing family like his. She's 17 and she doesn't know who her parents are. She was abandoned to the state. She's spent her childhood in foster home after foster home. Her teen years in group homes. She was emancipated at 16, lives on her own, works in a café, has a small studio apartment on the wrong side of town. She has a GED and takes nursing classes at the community college. She dances like no one's watching. She answers to no one. Is responsible to only herself. And To him, she is freedom.