A few weeks after my afternoon with Nicole, I received a phone call from Destiny asking for Kate and I to meet her at the cafe they worked at. I couldn't help but worry; she sounded pretty upset when she asked. It didn't take long for me to get there, and Kate ended up meeting up with me on the way over.

"I hope she's okay," Kate was saying. I did, too. When we got inside, though, Destiny was sitting at one of the tables near the door, clutching her iPhone to her chest and looking as though she was trying her hardest not to cry. She was shaking like a leaf and judging by the redness of her eyes, she had already done a fair amount of crying before we arrived.

"Hey, guys," she greeted us. Even her voice was shaky.

"Hey. What happened?" I asked gently, sliding into the seat across from her. Kate took the one beside her.

Destiny hurriedly wiped her eyes as tears began to fall from them. "You, um...you know that guy I was with? The one from Chatham?"

"Yeah," said Kate.

"Well, I - I got a text from him shortly after I got home from school today, saying that he didn't want to be with me anymore and that he was interested in someone else."

"Damn," Kate responded softly, "I'm so sorry. Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. At some point, anyway. I just...we were supposed to visit each other again soon; he was going to come here to - to see the festival with me. To see Shadowmist perform."

"Hey, you could always come with Jess and I, and the guys," I offered, "We're all going to go together."

"That's sweet of you, Lana," Destiny managed a weak smile, "Yeah, I'll join you guys."

"Besides," chimed in Kate, "if this guy can't even be decent enough to end things in a better way than through a text, he isn't worth your time. I mean, I would understand it a lot more if he were to call you and tell you since he can't really come and see you right now or anything, but...you know what I mean. A text is just..."

"Impersonal?" I offered.

"Not really the word I wanted, but that works too, yeah," she replied. She then pulled Destiny into a comforting hug, which she accepted gratefully. I for one knew Destiny would pull through this; she was strong. All of the girls in our social circle were, even if they didn't fully realise it themselves. Destiny, Nicole, Bridgette, all of them.

"So, uh...when do you think Bridgette and Nicole will finally get together?" asked Kate.

"I give it until the day of the festival before that happens," replied Destiny, voice slightly muffled by Kate's shoulder.

"I agree," I added. "I do hope it's sooner, though. Like I said to Nicole, they'd make a good couple."

We were able to help Destiny take her mind off what happened, inviting her over to Kate's house to hang out and play a rather amusing game of Cards Against Humanity. Kate had not only the base game, but also the expansion packs and the customisable cards. We definitely had loads of fun when it came to the latter, and it turned out Destiny had a much darker sense of humour than any of us had thought previously.

Hell, she ended up winning the entire game.

We also played a few games of Uno, which was admittedly one of those games where it was more fun with more people playing. Cards Against Humanity was like that, too, but the hilarity of the game in general made up for it in that case.

After Destiny and I left Kate's house I ended up spending some time with Dallas, learning that while the rest of us were in school he'd managed to get into a bit of trouble. Nothing huge - he was caught stealing from a convenience store close to Alex's apartment building. Knowing him, he was probably trying to get hold of some cigarettes while he was at it, but from what I knew they didn't even keep those out in the open anymore.

Either way, he seemed proud of himself for managing to keep up his reputation even in this world. And I knew he would be; it was Dallas Winston, after all.

On the less fortunate side of things, Nancy Harding and Sean Perry were back up to their usual bullshit again, though like Vanessa they mainly seemed to go for Alex. That wasn't to say they left the rest of us alone - they certainly didn't - but she dealt with them even more than we did, probably thanks to Vanessa herself.

The more I observed all of that, the more I saw just how much Leanne was pulling away from her own group of friends - and, seemingly, taking Mickey with her. Because for how many times he and Dallas had gotten into fights, he seemed to try starting them less and less over the few weeks that had passed. Maybe Leanne talked him out of it.

Either way, it was one less person to deal with for all of us. I made a mental note to thank Leanne later.

I was thinking about all of this as Dallas and I were heading up to my apartment, and he noticed how deep in thought I was. "Hey," he said, "What's on your mind?" He didn't comment n how quiet I was; he was used to that by now since I was like that more often than one would think. I was at my quietest when I hadn't slept, of course, but still.

"Everything," I responded, "Sort of. I don't know."

With each passing day, I was more and more thankful to Alex for casting the spell that allowed the guys to stay. I knew there was no way it could only be temporary, not after things had been this good for this long.

Little did I know that what I thought I knew for certain would turn out to be very wrong.