Lizzie rolled over, throwing an arm over her eyes. There was a sliver of sun peeking in through the curtains, and it was right in her eyes. To her surprise, her hand smacked into someone’s face.

“Ow.”

Lizzie sat up, peering down at Landon, who was holding a hand over his eye where she had just hit him. “Sorry.”

“I’m okay.” He groaned, eyes closed, and snuggled back in.

“It’s the pageant today,” Lizzie reminded him. She grabbed the remote and turned off the TV that had been sitting silently on the main screen for who knows how long after their movie ended.

“I’m not going,” Landon murmured into his pillow. 

Lizzie thought about arguing with him and demanding that he follow through on his commitment to her sister, but then she snapped her mouth shut. As much as she loved Josie, Landon didn’t owe her anything today. 

“You don’t have to babysit me,” Landon said after a long minute. “I promise I’m fine.”

“I’ll stay - if you don’t mind.” Lizzie twisted the corner of the blanket between her fingertips. “I think I might be the one who needs a babysitter.” 

Landon picked his head up to furrow his eyebrows at her. “Why do you need a babysitter?”

“I’ve been … making some bad decisions. Because of feelings.” 

“Yeah, no. That explains it completely. Wasn’t vague at all.” 

“Shut up.” Lizzie laughed and pushed his shoulder away. She stared at him, calculating whether she could trust him or not. “It’s Hope. I’ve been … messing around with her.” Lizzie took a deep breath. “Hooking up on and off. Kind of … whenever she feels like it.” Which sounded even worse now that she said it out loud. “And I couldn’t figure out why until recently, but it makes sense. Why I’m always so willing to bend my morals for her. Why I’ve been so convinced I can get her humanity back.” She smiled a little at how ridiculous she was. “I’m a fool in love.”

“You think she would turn her humanity back on?” Landon asked.

Lizzie laughed nervously. “I think I’m no longer the unbiased perspective I thought I was.”

“Here.” Landon pushed a bundle of blankets out of the way to make room for Lizzie to lay down next to him. “Come tell me about it. I’ll be your unbiased opinion.”

Lizzie snuggled into the blankets and just started talking. She spilled all of it - how she thought Hope might be starting to feel emotions, how she swears Hope was crying, how she seemed scared and worried. Lizzie backtracked and re-explained things, went out of order, and got off on tangents, but through it all, Landon listened patiently. 

“So what do you think?” Lizzie craned her neck to look up at him when she had finished. “Am I crazy?”

“Definitely not.” Landon smoothed the blankets over her shoulders. “It’s like a dimmer switch, isn’t it? It starts to come back slowly before it all comes rushing in?”

Lizzie nodded. That’s exactly what it was like. Except, once things started slowly coming back in, Hope had the opportunity to jam the switch back in the other direction by doing something reckless and brutal. All Lizzie had to do was make sure she didn’t do anything like that.