Maybe it was better if Rachel didn’t come back, Adam thought again. She had been absent from practice two days before, and she hadn’t tried to contact him in the week since the “incident” at her house.

The kiss.

It had surprised him when the kiss they shared had grown from a simple distraction into something so intense. And now, regardless of what he told himself, he had ended up at the convenience store, staring at the condom section.

Again.

It was the third time he’d done so in so many days. Each time before, he had managed to talk himself out of buying anything. Nothing could happen; nothing would happen, but unfortunately, his own internal monologue hadn’t convinced the parts of himself that craved human contact.

He’d not had sex in way too long, and now Adam was coming up with more and more excuses to be with Rachel each passing day: “The Order would never know”, “Rachel hadn’t seemed against the idea of a purely sexual relationship”, or “It would only be for one night. She wouldn’t be in any danger.”

Tired of hemming and hawing, he grabbed a package and stalked to the counter to pay for them. Never hurts to have them on hand... Another lie he told himself.

“Planning on a good time?” the lanky teenager manning the register remarked with a wink.

Adam’s deadly glare had the employee losing his smirk and taking a hurried step back. Without saying a word, Adam handed him the money and left with the box of condoms in his pocket.

Once back home, he tossed them in his dresser drawer and vowed, yet again, to not need them.