"She's so full of shit," Dominic muttered as we left the classroom for the evening. There wasn't much any of us could do besides waiting for the sky to clear itself up, and although I was theoretically the person who caused it, I didn't control it.

"You think?" I asked. "It all made sense to me, even if I didn't like some of the points she was making."

"Think about it, Lindsay. The talisman wanted you to find it, so why would it have any sort of connection to me?" Dominic asked.

"Maybe you guys get married in the future. Wouldn't that be funny?" Sierra said.

I looked over at her. It made some sense, but there was no way that was ever going to happen. He was only somewhat nice to me when no one else was around.

"I would rather die right now than deal with Lindsay the rest of my life," Dominic said.

I shushed him. "Don't let the talisman hear you say stuff like that. It'll make it happen. Trust me on that."

Like it would be a picnic to spend my life with him. I shook my head. He really thought too highly of himself for someone who only got to stick around because a piece of gold wanted him to.

Even if he was really rude about it, Dominic did have a point. There really wasn't a reason for me to get involved if the talisman was Dominic's, and if it could convince him to stalk me for a couple of months, it could definitely convince him to buy a metal detector and dig it up. None of that had anything to do with me, and he had made it very clear that he would have been much happier if I weren't around.

If Dr. Reed was wrong, then what was the right answer? I certainly couldn't come up with an explanation why the sky went dark after Sierra and Jack left us to go get pizza.

I hesitated. Maybe that was the problem.

"Lindsay, don't listen to him. I really think the talisman is playing a long-term game here. And I was the first person to say it was more than just a coin, so I think you should listen to me," Sierra said.

That was also true. She kept insisting that it was a demon coin, even when I told her to shut up about her stupid paranormal conspiracies.

If I didn't know any better, I would have said that it was merely a coincidence that my brain felt like how the sky looked outside—dark, swirled, confusing—but it had to be the talisman screwing with me. When did life get this way? It was only a couple of months prior that my top concern was that my parents wouldn't send me money for school after a summer of arguing about my grades.

I looked over at Jack. "Remember when you were mad at me because I wouldn't go to class and bought a metal detector? Those were some good, simple times."

He smiled. "Good, simple, annoying times."

Before any of us could reminisce about the ancient history known as two months ago any more, Dominic changed the subject. "Well, it's been real, but I really should head back to my dorm."

"But our hangout was only just starting," Sierra said.

"And it was very real while it lasted. But I really don't want to be here anymore."

I watched him as he turned around and headed in the other direction. "What does that even mean? Are we not cool enough for you?"

"It has nothing to do with the fact that you're not cool," he said and didn't turn around.

Well, screw you too.

"Is this about the pizza?" Sierra asked. "Because I definitely wouldn't put it past him to be a little bitch about this."

Jack laughed as the three of us headed back to our dorm. "Tell us how you really feel."

"I mean, honestly. I've tried so hard to make sure that he doesn't feel excluded because I know how much it sucks, but he doesn't even care."

"I know, Sierra."

"And you know what's the worst thing? That jackass DNA is gonna stick around in the population because it hides behind a cute face."

It wasn't that cute, but whatever.

The end of October was fast approaching, and my Halloween plans were probably going to involve the talisman. If I didn't figure out what was going on with the sky and everything else before then, I had a feeling it would make itself clear on the thirty-first, but all it was was a feeling based on scary movies.

The only other person around the talisman at the time was Dominic. Every single other time, I had an idea of why the bad thing happened, even if it wasn't what I intended or wanted. But with the sky, I didn't ask for anything, didn't feel anything, and certainly didn't want anything.

And if it wasn't him, that meant that it was probably Sierra or something. She was definitely cursed.

"I'll catch up with you guys later. I'm just going to go talk to him," I said.

"Dominic? Why?" Sierra asked.

I wasn't entirely sure why I thought he might be willing to talk to me alone more than he was in front of everyone, but the only time he was relatively nice to me was when we were alone, so it was worth a shot. If there was anything to Dr. Reed's theory, he probably knew something more than he was telling us.

"I just think he might know more than he's telling us. He certainly seemed excited to run away, didn't he?" I turned around, and although he was pretty far ahead at this point, I could catch up to him.

"You're probably right, Lindsay. But if he's not, you better help us eat the pizza," Jack said.

That poor pizza was probably sitting all by itself at the shop thinking that we didn't love it anymore. How sad.

"You know I could never say no to that. I'll see you guys when you get back." I headed in the opposite direction to catch up to him.

It would be interesting to see where he lived. It was only a tiny bit creepy that he knew where I did even though I definitely never told him, but that was an unfortunate side effect of unlimited uncontrolled power. His dorm room was probably darkened with blackout curtains, and his roommate was a vampire. That seemed like it would fit his vibe.

"Hey, Dominic. You walk really fast," I said and held my breath so he didn't know I had been running while out of shape.

"It's almost like I didn't want to be bothered," he said.

"I'm not here to annoy you. I'm here to ask you a few questions about what happened today."

"How is that different than annoying me?"

"This is serious, and no one else is around, so you can be semi-nice to me." I looked up at him, but he didn't look back at me. Instead, he kept his eyes straight ahead.

Was he ignoring me? I thought we were done with that.

"Come on," he said, and he turned down a path to a residence hall.

"I get to see your room? That's so exciting."

"It's not that exciting."

"And it's kind of funny that this time I'm the one who's stalking you instead of the other way around. It's just been a weird day, don't you think?" I said.

"Super weird, Lindsay."

We headed to his dorm room, which was tucked away by itself down at the end of the hall, and he opened up the door for me to peek inside.

To my surprise, there wasn't much decoration or personalization to the room at all. The floor was clean and everything was in its place, and if the sun would have been out, it would have lit up the room through the windows that were shaded with beige curtains. All of his books were stacked on his desk, similar to the system Sierra had on her half of the room, and I wondered why I thought it would be any different. I frowned. No vampire roommate.

I took a seat on the chair by the desk. I spun around in it, but I couldn't imagine how on earth he could get anything done with a spinny office chair and a TV nearby. "Can I gossip with you for a second?"

There was a single chair pointed at the TV only a few feet from me, and Dominic sat down there. "Sure."

The room didn't look nearly as lived in as Sierra's and mine, and with only one bed, it was clear that he was on his own in the room. That sounded nice after having Sierra borrow my stuff for a year and a half, but it would definitely get lonely after a while.

"I think you were right about Sierra and Jack. Sierra was going on about how you're so rude to us, but it sounded like they've had that conversation ten thousand times before." I smiled and shook my head. And the funny thing was that they were probably on the way to get the pizza while having the same conversation about Dominic and me.

"I figured," he said.

The conversation lulled, but he probably wasn't warmed up enough to say what was really on his mind quite yet. I decided to change the subject. "So you don't have a roommate? Must be nice."

"Much nicer than the one I had last year. All he did was complain about my hearing, so they figured I shouldn't have to live with someone who shames me for my disability." He put the last part in air quotes.

At least I knew that it was a serious topic once I found out that he was going deaf. Some people had too much audacity.

"I'm sorry," I said. "People suck. At least I only suck when I'm clueless. I never mean it."

He shrugged. "Lindsay, you can let that go. I'm not mad about that. I'm just mad at the situation. I'll miss music and movies with explosions, but then I'll never have to hear your voice again, so that'll be nice."

I laughed. "When the hell are you supposed to lose your hearing? Tomorrow?"

He told me that it would all be gone eventually, but I always assumed that it meant that he'd make it through college with enough to listen in class.

He finally cracked a smile and shook his head. "You wish. But I know that you didn't chase me down just to lose your breath and to talk about that. What do you really want?"

"You wouldn't happen to have any idea why the sky is like that, would you? I know you don't believe Dr. Reed, and I'm not saying you're wrong, but I really don't think it's my fault this time. You're the only other person who was around when it happened," I said.

"Didn't you give the other talisman to Sierra? Why am I getting blamed for this?"

"I'm not blaming you. That was the only other solution I could think of too, but Butterfly said that talisman had a kinder energy to it, whatever that means, so I just thought I should start here."

"You really chased me down so I could tell you what you already know?"

"Well, let's be real here. I don't actually know a thing. We're all just making stuff up and seeing if it works out," I said.

"So you won't be mad if I try to figure something out right now?"

I shook my head. "It'd actually be kind of helpful. I know you keep telling me I'm not stupid, but—"

Dominic got up from the chair and came over to mine. "Stop swiveling for a second."

I stopped swiveling just in time for him to lean down and kiss me. And even though I knew that it didn't mean anything (again), I couldn't help but let it envelop me with warmth.

The moment he pulled away from me, the room lightened up, birds began to chirp outside, and unless Sierra had just gotten the pizza she wanted at that exact moment, the explanation probably had something to do with Dominic and me.

"Dammit," he mumbled.

Yeah, that sounded about right.

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Hello everyone! How's it going? Thank you so much for reading!

Today I feel like asking a fun question, so what is something that you recently learned?

I kind of feel stupid for this, but I thought that artichokes grew on trees until about a week ago, but it turns out that they grow out of a plant on a stalk. I don't know how this makes me feel, but it is a lot of emotions at once.