Lucas was beginning to look more and more worn down by the day. 

He came to school with red eyes and that same exhausted look about him. 

Had he stopped seeing the therapist? Or was it something else? 

I wanted so badly to check on him, but Delphine's lingering glances and sneakaway comments about him reminded me why I couldn't do that anymore. 

Some time in mid-November, Walker came to me between classes with the strangest request. 

"So ya know how I'm super generous and I always help you with Lucas and you love me so so much?" he asked, fiddling with his shirt. 

"Walker Oliver Norman, what did you do?" I asked exasperatedly. 

"Nothing!" Walker protested. "Or maybe something? I don't know, Y/N. You're gonna have to help me with this one." 

"Lay it on me in lunch, okay? I have class," I told him, because the last time I was late to Character Life, I had to read an entire chapter of The Trials of Apollo out loud to the class. 

"Alright, alright," Walker said, looking like lunch couldn't come soon enough. 

Come it did. Walker slid next to me, in Delphine's spot. Fiona didn't sit on my right anymore but instead on Delphine's left, between her and Lucas, which meant I was next to Brandon. 

"I think I did something," he said quietly. He glanced around the table at everyone else– Brandon, Lucas, Fiona, Delphine, and Giovanni. Rita and Jeveskia were nowhere to be seen. 

"Did what?" I asked. 

"I think I might be in a situationship." 

I blinked three times. "A what now?" 

"You know, a situationship. Where you aren't really sure what's going on with someone," he said. 

"With who?" I asked. 

"Rita." 

I stopped. Rita? Out of everybody? Yeah, they'd been vibing, but a situationship?  

"What makes you think you're in a situationship?" I asked, gently because I was confused, but of course I couldn't let Walker know that. 

"Well, I saw her crying at the stairs after school yesterday, so I comforted her," Walker said. "She said she was having issues with her mom. I stayed with her for a while, and we talked a lot. She kissed my cheek before she left. She left pretty quickly, too." 

I resisted the urge to burst out laughing. "That's your definition of a situationship?" 

Walker turned red. "Yeah, I mean... I don't know what's happening and stuff..."

I patted his back. "Come back when something happens, ginger." 

It was a little mean of me, sure, but that was not a situationship. That was a gesture of appreciation. 

He still looked sheepish, which was a look I hadn't seen on Walker since he stopped being the sweet-shy guy I'd first met in the reenactment. 

"So it's not a deeper gesture?" he asked. 

"Not that I can tell," I said. "She's just being affectionate. I'm pretty sure, anyway." 

"If you're sure," Walker said. He spent the rest of lunch with us, talking with Lucas about God knows what. 

I spent the rest of my day with a lot of different people. Jasmine was home sick, so I ended up rotating around in recess a lot. I talked with Jeveskia, who asked me if she should cut her hair or not. I skimmed through lines for the scenes they were recreating with Fiona. I spent most of recess after that with Theone, who I felt a little bad about almost never talking to. I had texted her a few times over the summer, and I always said hi in the hallways, but that was it. She told me thirteen, count em, thirteen different ways to apply lip gloss. 

A couple days later we were at Delphine's house, in her room, when Fiona dropped a bomb on us. 

"Freya's been spending a lot of time with me lately," she said. 

"That's nice!" I said at the same time Delphine said "She's planning your murder." 

We stared at each other for a moment. 

"Maybe she just wants to get closer to you," I said to Fiona. 

"Or she's figuring out the best way to kill you," Delphine countered. 

"I like conspiracy theories, but not that much, Delly," Fiona said. "It's sus, but I doubt Freya's trying to kill me." 

"Just saying. Your brother gets a room, the baby gets a room, but she has to share with you because you guys are twins. A knife to the back would fix that." 

We both stared at her. Clearly, Delphine was still recovering from her breakup. 

"I'm not crazy!" she protested. 

It was nice to be able to spend time with Fiona and Delphine again, without Delphine constantly texting Lucas, although Fiona had started texting Brandon every once in a while. I was seriously about to go crazy being the only one not talking to a boy. 

Jasmine was starting to miss a lot of school. 

"What's up with you? Is everything okay?" I asked her one day. 

She laughed. "Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry. It's just that I have to get checked I to the hospital every time I get a fever or something, since it could be something bigger. But don't worry. I'm okay." 

I wanted to worry, I really did, but I had no idea how cancer worked for the most part, so I took her word for it. 

One day I found Jasmine talking to Lucas at recess. 

It was the last week of November. One more week or two and we'd be off for winter break. And Jasmine was chatting animatedly with Lucas, both smiling. 

When he walked away, I went over to her and asked, casually, "What were you guys talking about?" 

She glanced in his direction. "Do you know him?" 

"Y-yeah, I know him." 

"He told me he's been feeling confused about stuff. He asked about you." 

I blinked. "Me?" 

"Yeah. He said you'd been avoiding him and he didn't want to push you, so he was just checking up on you. I told him you're okay. He looked pretty relieved." 

I frowned. It had sort of been shoved to the back of my mind, the Lucas thing. It had been over three weeks, I'd almost gotten used to it. Now I felt guilty all over again. 

"Why were you avoiding him?" Jasmine asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"I-it's complicated," I told her. 

"Tell me," Jasmine said. "Please?" 

I looked at her, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. She looked so excited to hear. How could I not grant her this? 

"Let's sit down," I said.