"I didn't let them in, Finn! I promise I told no one!" I protested as we walked down the hall towards my room.

He was practically steaming, anger and disappointment in his eyes whenever he looked at me. I'd recovered my strength after receiving treatment for my injuries, all of which were minor. Raphael had cursed at me like a sailor as Finn had paced with a new level of anxiety before forcing me back to my room, our latest argument now boiling over.

"I didn't want to go inside the Mimic! I was shoved inside with Samaria."

"But you did want to go to the swimming hole, didn't you? Just to piss me off with your new, absolutely wonderful best friends Gabriel and Archer?" Finn snapped with a snarl that hung on the two names.

I narrowed my eyes in annoyance. "That has nothing to do with your original argument! You're angry at me because you think I told them the combination to get into the Mimic, which I didn't. I didn't tell a soul that you took me in there once before and how would I even know the combination? You punched it in, not me!"

"Then how did they get inside, Kate?" He replied, not even looking me in the eyes as we turned a corner. "You were the only one who had knew anything about the inside of the Mimic in the slightest."

"Archer stole the combination from Annie's room when they were moving out her stuff. That's how they got in, not through me." I shook my head, feeling so unbelievably angry. "I can't believe that you would think I'd do that! That I would betray you and be so utterly vain as to think I could complete the Mimic in one attempt even when I can't control my meraki just to show off in front of your little guardian students!" I hissed at him, shaking my hands in the air. "I can't control anything about it! I burnt the fucking place down to save you! You're welcome, you jackass!"

"So I should thank you for nearly killing yourself? For exhausting your meraki and being a step away from giving yourself brain damage just for me?" Finn barked with fury, shaking his head as he seethed. "You were almost completely unconscious before I managed to get you out! We both were almost burnt alive! You need to learn to control your meraki before it kills you, Kate. You will kill yourself if you don't stop being so reckless!"

"Oh, why would you even care?" I shook my head in reply. "You've been furiously angry and annoyed with me all this time. You think I'm a child and all I ever do is annoy you. I try to help you and I just piss you off more. What else do I do besides make you mad?"

"I do care about what happens to you so do not make the assumption that I don't!" He replied with force, looking at me now as I swallowed. "You are trying to piss me off so you can't act like it is just my fault! I admit that I haven't been nice to you, Kate, and I'm sorry for the way I've acted. I am just... furious with you! I tell you to be in your room by 9 and you went swimming instead, nearly giving me a heart attack when I couldn't find you! Did you like making me miserable? It seems like you really enjoy it especially after what you've done tonight."

I scoffed, "did you ever think that I was frustrated with you becoming my new babysitter? I've just earned my freedom to leave my room, which you know makes me miserable. You're taking it away because you're annoyed with me after calling you out on your shit. I'd say that you like making me more unhappy because you can't stand to be wrong!"

"This argument again? Fates! I can stand to be wrong, but tonight I really am not!" Finn snarled, making me narrow my eyes. "You deliberately disobeyed me, your guardian superior who is in charge of keeping you safe. And you ran off and nearly got yourself killed if I hadn't come after you! Samaria is concussed, Raphael has a broken arm, and you nearly burnt yourself to a crisp. This is why I need to be with you, Kate, and you just want to flip me off as you walk in the opposite direction!"

"I didn't mean for any of this to happen..." I protested, but Finn cut me off short.

"You meant to go to the quarry and you meant to hurt me on purpose. You can't deny that, can you?"

I fumbled for words in silence as Finn narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

"Fantastic. Thank you for being such a good friend. Oh wait, yes, I seem to remember a certain conversation taking place not too long ago where our friendship was terminated. I wonder who initiated that turn of events?"

"I was angry with you!" I snarled, trying to keep up with his quick pace as we maneuvered through the hallways. "You make me so angry!"

Finn took in a deep breath. "That's all I ever seem to do."

This made my heart clench as I bit my lip, "Finn..."

"I understand that you may no longer wish to be my... friend, and I'll accept it. But now you have to respect me for who I am: your guardian. If you don't want to be friendly with me, then I won't be affable with you either. I'll make sure you're in your room by 9 every night and we won't talk like we used to any longer. That sounds about what you want. Considering how miserable and angry I make you all the time, isn't that right?"

No, you don't. I wanted to say, my heart beating so fast inside my chest. You make me so happy when we aren't fighting. And I get so angry with you because I care so much. I care about you more than I ever thought I could. Us not talking makes me miserable. Us fighting makes me miserable. Not being with you makes me utterly miserable. All I want is to be with you and that would make me the happiest girl in the entire universe. Why can't we get there? That's the thing I want most, because I don't want the distant Finn and the guardian Finn, the Commander. I want kind Finn, sweet Finn. My Finn.

"I'll take that as a yes then." Finn replied as he licked his lips. "Wonderful. At least we've cleared this up. You no longer have to pretend to get along with me and you are free from talking to me. You have my full permission to tell your new friends how much of a jackass I am any time you want. Go right ahead."

"I didn't talk badly about you with anyone!" I said, my once kind thoughts dissolving as anger replaced them. "You don't trust me at all! That's why we aren't friends any longer, because you always want to blame me for everything."

"And what you're doing right now isn't blaming me for all of this?" He questioned, making me groan in annoyance. "I did trust you until you created all this mess. I've let you go wherever you please and only have given you a time where you have to check in with me. I apologize for being such a tyrant, really I don't know how you survive me. Now, you've shown me that I really can't trust you to wander as you wish. I'm going to accompany you throughout your whole day now after this incident. There is no doubt in my mind that I shouldn't keep an eye on you at all times."

"You're going to follow me around now? Like my babysitter? Like a stalker?" I shook my head in disbelief. "I can't believe you! You are turning more into Reynolds everyday!"

Finn glared at me, "as it turns out, maybe you do need a Reynolds to keep you in check. Perhaps I'll just ask and see if I can put Reynolds and myself in charge of you so that way you have us both? That sounds like a fabulous idea if I do say so myself."

I ground my teeth together as I let out a hiss of anger, clenching my hands into fists. "You are awful! Absolutely awful! You know how much I hated him and you're just trying to make me miserable even now."

"That's my speciality now, isn't it?" Finn replied as we stopped in front of my bedroom door. He now turned to face me directly, making me take in a breath to be able to meet his icy, blue eyes. "In bed. Now. It is 1 in the morning and you have to be up at 5:30 for breakfast. Enjoy your short hours of sleep because I'll be here at 5:15 sharp to walk you down to the dining hall."

I stared him in the eyes, feeling my temper rise. "You're actually serious about accompanying me everywhere? I can't believe you."

"I am deathly serious. Do I look like I'm joking?" He did look very serious indeed, and I decided that I wouldn't question him about it. "At 5:15 a.m. I want you up and ready. Do you understand me, Stratton?"

This made me pause as my anger subsided and I gazed at his face with a completely new expression. Stratton. He'd really devolved into using my last name?

"Do you understand me?" He repeated, emphasizing each syllable as he looked down at me from where he stood.

"We really aren't friends any longer, Finn?" I asked, the fury dying in my chest all over again as a certain sadness filled its place.

This made him pause, unwavering as he looked down at me in silence. He licked his lips before standing taller, hardening every feature of his face until he looked the absolute cruelest I'd ever seen him before. "We aren't. You've made that very clear, and I will respect your wishes. You and I are no longer friends. I'm only with you because Secta has assigned me to you and that is it. We don't need to speak and I will only speak with you to detail your schedule for each day. That is all we are from now on out, Stratton. Praise Fates we are both free from each other! I will never have to speak to you again or make you so terribly miserable all the time. Congratulations, we are now strangers, and that is all we will ever be."

I stared at Finn's face, a horrific pain swelling inside my chest that made a lump rise in my throat. Gazing into his blue eyes, all I could do was blink, feeling my fingers begin to quiver as the only thing I really wanted to do was burst out in tears. My chest felt ready to cave in just like the Mimic, nearly taking my breath away.

I could feel tears begin to swell in my eyes, and I wondered if he began to notice them as he shifted his weight uncomfortably, the ice in his eyes appearing to melt away slowly the longer he looked down at me. But I couldn't cry in front of him, proving his theory about my childish status. I couldn't let him think that about me any more.

Instead, something far worse occurred that felt so wonderfully right in the moment but utterly destroyed me in the next. It all came up out of my wretched, aching heart that felt so broken as I felt a new energy of self-preservation took over my body. It all came out as the angriest scream I'd ever given in my life, making Finn stiffen like the dead.

"I can't believe you are doing this to me! I can't believe you are going to keep me locked up like a prisoner. You know how much this hurts me but you don't care! I can't believe how much of an asshole you really are, and that I was dumb enough to think you were really a nice guy when I should have believed the rest of Gabrian when they said how incredibly mean you really are. I should have believed Gabriel when he said you were only being nice to me because I was the new girl. Fates, I'm such an idiot to believe that you treated me differently and that the majority was wrong! You've proved to me now everything they've ever said about you." I snapped, stepping forward closer to Finn as he took a quick step away from me.

"We don't need to talk anymore or be civil or be anything. I don't care." I retorted. "You only ever hurt me, all the time, and I can't stand it any longer. I can't stand you! I can't stand the Commander, and I've decided that I can't stand Finn either. I thought that I could, but I was wrong after all of this mess. I.. I..." I shook my head, so much emotion taking over me. "I hate you! I hate you for being my babysitter, for being Reynolds! I hate you for not trusting me and blaming me for everything all the time! I hate you for making me believe that we could become friends when we never stood a chance. I despise you! I despise you the most out of anyone here and I want to be as far away from you as possible! Do you understand me, Shay?"

I stared at him, so much raw feeling bubbling over inside me that I could feel myself visibly shaking. Adrenaline had taken over as I looked at Finn, his face hard like rock as he gazed down at me. There was an awful silence as I began to hear all the words I'd just poured out inside my head, horror filling my stomach. What the hell had I just done?

Finn looked me in the eyes. "I understand, Stratton. Thank you for your... honesty. Goodnight."

With that, he was walking back up the hallway, leaving me completely alone in the hall. When I got back into my room, I sobbed until I couldn't breath. I had killed two things tonight: the Mimic and the potential of an us.