"You have my full attention so don't leave out anything," I tell her before she starts to fill me in on Liam. Ryan sits on the couch next to her and the suspense has my heart hammering.

"So, Topher only knew about Liam's visions. He has no idea what else he can do and it absolutely needs to stay that because that's how Liam escaped." She clarifies and I nod in agreement. I swallow hard and hope this story won't rip my heart out.

"The agency was thrilled to have Liam. No one else there has visions of the future. Liam tried to tell them over and over that he has no control over his visions but they pushed him to try. They had him strapped to machines almost all day and monitored his sleeping. They wouldn't leave him alone. They wanted, more than anything else, for him to learn to control them so they could use them. Liam could smell their desperation so he started to lie, to try and get them to back off but it only made it worse. When his visions weren't accurate or didn't give them enough information they took out their frustrations on him. Liam then backtracked and started lying and saying he hadn't had any visions. That nothing had come to him. Topher instantly knew he was hiding something so Topher began controlling him and forcing himself into Liam's head to get what they wanted to know out. Some of his visions were of you and Liam completely flipped when they started threatening him about bringing you in. They thought they could threaten him into confessing his visions. But they wanted him to see things he didn't know, like they wanted him to seriously predict the future and he couldn't. He panicked, he was tired of the machines and the interrogations. His dad had turned on him and was breaking into Liam's head everyday. It was brutal Ellie, I've never seen Liam so broken."

My throat catches and I stifle a sob. I can't believe this. I can't believe they were treating Liam like this. It took Liam month's to get a decent vision of the school shooting last year and even then, he didn't have all the pieces and the vision wasn't fully accurate either. How do they expect him to control it and find pieces to puzzles he doesn't know?

"Where is Liam now?" I ask and Stephanie shrugs.

"I don't know. Which is why I asked you if you've spoken to him." I glance to her and shake my head at a loss for words. But then a question strikes me, "If Liam had to sneak out, how are you here?"

"Liam got me out. But then he disappeared minutes after we made it out of Virginia. He thought it would be safer for me if we split up. My guess is, is he wanted to figure out a plan to come to you but he couldn't chance me knowing."

"But you do know where I am, and so does he. He knows I am at school," I say with panic filling my voice. Liam, Topher and everyone else knows I am here and Topher knows my school schedule and dorm information.

"Yeah we all know you were here. So it wouldn't make sense for Liam to come and find you here. He knows Pepperdine is the first place everyone assumes he'd go. So he's not going to beeline it to you and get both of you caught. He also knows that Topher will try and get to you and use you as bait. Which is why Ryan and I had to get to you first."

"So what now? I can't just be a sitting duck," I snap and Ryan holds his hands up, finally ready to speak.

"We know. We need to think of a plan."

"Now I am going to ask you for the last time, have you spoken to Liam?" Stephanie asks me and I shake my head. Her eyes narrow and she doesn't believe me.

"I'm not lying. I haven't spoken to Liam since the day he left. He tried calling me tonight but I missed his call. It was from an unknown number so I couldn't call back."

"Did he leave a message," Ryan asks and I pull my phone out. I put his message on speaker phone and Stephanie and Ryan listen. When it ends I can tell Stephanie is deep in thought and she chews her bottom lip while thinking. I'm at a loss, so I have nothing to add. Suddenly, Stephanie spins her face to me and asks, "Who was the guy I saw? The one you've been hanging out with recently?" I suspiciously look at her and wonder why that's "pertinent." She can tell I'm hesitating so she adds, "I'm trying to help you. And you may already have something working for you."

I roll my eyes and say, "His name is Teddy. He's just a friend and I can't emphasize enough that he's just a friend."

"You make out with all of your friends?" Stephanie snarks and I glare at her.

"How do you even know about that?" I snap at her and she lets out a light laugh, "You were feeling guilty about it when you thought you ran into Colin. I heard you trying to shove it from your mind. Although I don't know why Colin would care?"

I look to her, "I wasn't thinking about it because of Colin. I thought-" I stop mid-sentence and Stephanie impatiently urges me to finish my thought. "I thought maybe Liam called me because he knew about it. I thought it wasn't a coincidence that Liam called five minutes after I intensely made out with someone. I thought maybe he was calling to try and prevent it from happening, but was too late." I look to the floor and guilt fills me. I was helping Teddy out but if Liam saw it in his vision, then he doesn't know it didn't mean anything.

"Actually you being a skank might help us in this situation if Liam did in fact see that vision," she says like she just had a stroke of genius. She can tell I'm confused and slightly pissed about her skank comment.

"Look, if Liam saw that in a vision then Topher knows about it too. Which means Topher and Liam might think you have a new boyfriend. And if they think you've moved on, Topher might think that Liam won't come to you straight away. Maybe he'd seek out Lisa."

"He wouldn't seek out his mother for help." I snap before adding, "Wouldn't Liam come straight for me if he thought I was having a fling with some guy?"

Stephanie laughs, "Um no. If you thought Liam has possibly been hooking up with some girl would you come straight to him to confide in him? No, you would be hurt and might want to stay away from someone who might completely shut you down. You wouldn't feel confident or safe if it were you. You could out him out of spite, say he left you and you moved on and he's out in the cold." I consider her words but Liam knows I wouldn't move on so quickly from him. Right? She points to me and adds, "Anyway, you say you and this Teddy guy are just friends. If that's the case why were you sucking his face?"

"I really don't have to explain myself," I say with an air of confidence, "But just so you know that I'm not whoring myself out, I was trying to piss off his ex-girlfriend. I was helping a friend because that's all we are." I overemphasize the last word hoping she takes the hint. She suddenly stands and snaps her fingers, excited again by something I said.

"Okay, so you were helping him out by making his ex-girlfriend jealous. Helping a friend out. Which means he owes you. Do you think he'd pretend to be your boyfriend? Like convince the world that you two are in love, the whole enchilada?"  I'm uneasy with where's she going with this but at the same time I understand it.

"If I make the world think I've moved on, Topher might not be convinced that Liam will seek me out." I say and she mouths "Bingo."

"Yeah but moving on is one thing, shutting Liam out is another. You have to make it seem like you think Liam is the biggest piece of shit in the world. Like you would just punch him in the face if you ever ran into him. Be a real psycho ex-girlfriend," Ryan adds and now I'm really uneasy. Only a handful of people know Liam left. My parents still think everything is fine and so do a bunch of my acquaintances and friends. Even the people that do know, know I carry a torch for him and that I would never be hateful towards him.

"That's not going to be easy. No one is going to buy it," I confess and Stephanie shrugs, "I believed that kiss when I saw it. I would have never guessed it was fake." She leaps up off the couch and strides over to me while pushing her wild blonde hair out of her face. She then moves her hand so it's held out to me. I look to her, confused as to what's she asking for and she pops her hip out, "Phone."

"Why?"

"I'm going to see how hard it is to believe." I clutch at my chest, knowing my phone is still tucked away but Stephanie isn't letting up.  She moves her fingers toward her, forcing me to hand over my privacy. I slap my phone into her hand and she immediately starts investigating. I don't know what she's digging through but she suddenly says, "It actually won't be that hard to believe. You've posted numerous pictures together. You text and call each other all the time if they pull up your phone records and he has that he's in a relationship on Facebook."

"Yeah but it doesn't say with who. I told him I couldn't put that he was my boyfriend because everyone I know still knows I am with Liam."

"Correction. Liam no longer knows, which means Topher doesn't know. I hate to say this but if you want to stay safe and keep Liam out of trouble, you'll convince the world that you've moved on. That Liam is no longer welcome in your life." She hands my phone back to me and I look to my screensaver of Liam and I.

"I can't have Liam think I'm not here for him," I say to Ryan and Stephanie as she takes her spot back on the couch.

"It might be the only way to keep you both safe," Ryan says and I'm still not convinced. There has to be a way to tell Liam that this will all be an act. I can't hurt him if I am his safe place.

"I'll figure something out." I say to Stephanie and we all are exhausted, both physically and mentally. And although this day has had some surprising twists, I think the biggest one was where Stephanie and I became allies.