That Thursday evening, Caroline, Viktor, and I all went shopping for a dress for that dumbass banquet.

Caroline agreed to help us out, apparently in an attempt to put the whole video thing behind us. Plus, she still cared about Viktor's career. Plus, she was bored.

"What you need is something that says, 'I'm just the side piece.' Classy, dialed down, but still there," she explained as we wandered the Mall of America.

Did I drive an hour just so I would know where everything was? Hell fucking yeah, I did. It wasn't quite the same without dragging Blaine everywhere with Arti, but the familiarity was nice.

"It's a fucking dress. How much can it say?" I asked.

"A lot. You're the supporter, and you're going to have to act like it. Nothing about yourself. Only him," Caroline said.

"I would literally rather eat cat litter. Used cat litter."

"That's disgusting. Look, there's a certain role you need to play as the leading lady in his life, and this is one of them. You may not like it, but for his benefit, you're going to have to deal with it."

I looked over at Viktor. "I'm about to fuck up your entire career."

"No, you won't. You're not completely hopeless when it comes to fancy things. You're at least okay enough at handling yourself," Viktor said.

"Wow, thanks," I replied. "Anyway, I'm tired. I really don't feel like fucking around right now. I just want to get a goddamn dress and move on with our lives."

"Well, I don't have anywhere that I need to be, so we can take as much time as we need," Caroline said. "We need the perfect dress, and I don't care if they have to close this place on us, we're going to find it."

"You'll look pretty no matter what you wear," Viktor said as he took a hold of my hand. I let him.

"Of course, she'll look pretty, but like I said, it's deeper than that," Caroline said.

It really wasn't, and I was getting close to telling her that if she was so concerned about how the fuck I looked, she could just go. It was silly, and I hoped Viktor wasn't expecting too much from me.

I didn't say anything else as we walked into a store.

The stuff on display was pretty, but I was a basic bitch. I didn't want colors, patterns, or anything that drew attention to me. My overbearing personality was enough to take on that job.

"This is all centerpiece stuff. We need something more subdued for you," Caroline thought out loud.

I mentally thanked her as something caught her eye in another direction.

I looked down at my hand, my fingers laced through Viktor's, then up at him. He was on his phone.

"Would you put that down for one second?" I asked with a slight laugh.

"I'm just trying to figure out what's going on with the Jardetzky twins. They just got suspended from the hockey team," Viktor said.

My eyes widened. "What? Why?"

He shrugged. "They did something they weren't supposed to, I guess. And it doesn't look too good, since it's for the rest of the season."

I grimaced. "Ouch."

Caroline came back with a black dress in her hands. "This is it." She held it up for me to see.

To my surprise, Caroline actually had decent taste. It was long-sleeved, simple, and classy.

Pretty much the exact opposite of me, but I still thought it was pretty.

I checked the tag to make sure it was the right size. It was. I wasn't sure how she knew that, but I also didn't know how she knew my Twitter password, so there were some mysteries that were better left unsolved.

"Perfect," I said. "Let's get it and get out of here."

"I need to see it on you first, just to make sure it's flattering to your figure," Caroline said.

I rolled my eyes. "It's fine. There's not much that's flattering to me, so—"

"Try it on."

"Tell me what to do one more time, and I'll make sure that you won't be able to talk for a while, okay?" I said, but I still walked into the changing room.

As I put on the dress, my phone vibrated.

"Hey Amanda!! It's Drew. I was wondering if you've heard anything from Caroline in the past 24 hours?" the text said.

"Yeah. I'm shopping with her right now, actually," I replied.

She sent two rows of crying emojis. "THANK GOD. Holy crap I was so worried."

"Why?"

"She just disappeared last night, and no one's heard from her since. I was so scared that she tried to do something stupid."

"Don't worry. She's perfectly safe, and she'll be back at the Sig Kap house within a few hours."

I poked my head out of the changing room door. "Hey Caroline?"

"The dress doesn't fit your boobs, does it?" she asked.

Viktor looked up from his phone.

Boys.

"Well, no, but that's not the issue right now. Is there any reason you just decided to ignore Drew?" I asked.

Her eyes widened. "Was she—?"

"Yeah, she's worried sick about you. Why'd you just disappear?"

Caroline moved her mouth, searching for the right words, but it seemed she couldn't find them. "I just—"

"She cares about you. We have to go back to Winterview now," I said, then shut the door. "That's just fucked up."

"No, right now, we need to find you a goddamn dress. I can't have you looking like you're homeless if you're supporting Viktor. That speaks poorly of his taste and class."

"The garbage bag was a one-time thing." I shook my head. "God, you rebel one time, and you get labeled for life."

"That's not the issue here, babe. I have a few concerns about your fashion tastes, that's all," Caroline said.

"And I have a few concerns about your idea of friendship, but you know, I suppose I can just casually ignore that right now."

"What's your issue with me now?"

"Who the fuck just doesn't tell their best friend what's going on? Who the fuck does that?"

"It's not like I had a choice."

I nodded sarcastically. "Of course. I don't think you've had a choice in a single thing you've done the entire time I've known you."

Just then, I got another text.

"YOU BITCH. WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME BLAINE DUMPED YOU?" Arti wrote.

To answer my question from earlier, me. I was the idiot who didn't tell their best friend what the fuck was going on.

"Hey, you two need to stop. I just want to go back to the university, and it sounds like both of you need a break from this. I'm sure you have something that'll work, Candy Cane, and Caroline, just stop irritating Amanda," Viktor said.

Caroline frowned. "Fine."

"Thank God," I muttered, then sent a reply to Arti. "Just slipped my mind. Sorry."

"He said that it was a temporary thing. Is that right?" she replied almost immediately.

I held my phone to my chest for a moment as my heart rate increased. Was that actually what he wanted?

"Don't ask me. I don't know at this point," I texted her back.

"Is my OTP dead?"

"I told you, I don't know." I thought for a moment, then tacked on another text. "We're your OTP?"

"Hell yeah. Ever since you first told him to shut the fuck up," she replied.

Well shit.

***

"It's a stupid banquet. Stop puking, you fucking idiot," I said to myself as I wiped off my mouth.

I just really, really loved social events, especially when everything I did and said had an effect on someone else.

I wasn't all that good at talking to people in general, and when there was something on the line, I was usually eight thousand times worse.

Viktor and I took Caroline back to Drew without getting a dress, so whatever I had would have to work. He told me it would all be fine (and that I didn't have to listen to a damn thing Caroline told me), but I wasn't naïve enough to think that I wouldn't mess this up somehow.

It wasn't like me to freak out over something like this, but it also wasn't like me to make a 180 degree turn in emotions in 0.2 seconds.

Maybe I was just dying. Nothing made sense anymore.

"You are a bad bitch, Amanda. Act like it," I reminded myself. "Stop throwing up all the damn time."

Of course, I was trying, but some things were easier said than done, namely being a bad bitch.

A knock came from the other side of the door, and I opened it up.

"Hey, Candy Cane," Viktor said and leaned down to kiss me.

"Nope. Not now," I said.

He frowned. "Are you stressed about tonight?"

I shook my head. "Not in the slightest. I certainly haven't spent all afternoon puking my guts out or anything."

"Ew," Viktor said. "You don't have to go, you know."

"Do I look like a quitter to you?" I asked as I pressed a moist paper towel to my forehead.

"If you're sick, you don't have to go. You can't."

"I'm not sick. I'll get over this as soon as this goddamn banquet is over."

"Are you sure?"

I wasn't, but I nodded anyway. "Yep."

"You're lying to me. I know it."

He knew me just a little too well.

"Okay, look, I'm pretty sure that this is just nerves," I said.

He pushed my hair out of my face. "That's still sickness. It's just all in your head, then."

I rose an eyebrow. "I'm not really sure if I should be offended, or—"

"Nope. I was just saying that your anxiety sometimes gets the best of you, and that's okay."

"It's really not okay. And I'm not an anxious person."

He smiled and hugged me from behind. "Okay, Candy Cane."

He buried his face in my shoulder.

"You're a baby, you know that?" I said with a chuckle.

He nodded.

I smiled. "It's cute. You're just a cute person."

He picked his head up. "You're cuter. Much, much cuter."

"I wish. Now get off of me. I have to get dressed, throw up one more time, then we can go, okay?"

He kissed my cheek. "Is the throwing up part really necessary?"

"I guess I feel a little better than I did earlier, so maybe not."

Viktor smiled. "I'm glad I could help."

Of course, he was the reason why I got worked up 99% of the time, but he also fixed that pretty well too.

He left the room, and I checked my phone.

"Remember: do not fucking talk. And no resting bitch face. Only smiles," a text from Caroline said.

I rolled my eyes. While that strategy would have certainly made my life much easier, it wasn't me. I was never any good at the whole "shut up" thing.

The door swung open, and Jackie walked in.

Her face immediately scrunched up. "What's that smell?"

"I threw up. Sorry," I said.

"Aw, are you okay?" she asked.

"Probably, and if I'm not, I won't even be mad."

"I actually have something that'll help with that," she said, then walked over to her table of natural remedies and voodoo beauty bullshit.

She held up a bottle of something. "I made this for you. It's lavender and spearmint."

"And what's that supposed to do?" I asked.

"The lavender is to calm you down and relax you, and the spearmint is to soothe your stomach."

"You made that for me?"

She nodded. "And one for myself, but right now, we're talking about you."

She held out the bottle to me, and I took it and removed the cap.

"Just put it on your wrist, and when you don't feel too well, just smell it. It'll really help, I promise."

I smiled. "Thank you. That's really sweet."

"Well, we can't have an anxious mess for Viktor's date, can we?" She laughed. "No, but it's so much better for you than some of those chemicals, and sometimes, you need someone to take care of you, since you're so busy taking care of everyone else."

She was such a sweet person, and I felt a little bad for getting pissed at her a couple weeks prior.

"Hey, I'm sorry for yelling at you for the whole Diego thing," I said.

"Oh, that? Don't worry about it. You told me a few things I needed to hear, and I don't think you have a thing to apologize for. If anyone does, it's me. I'm sorry for making you sleep in the hallway."

We didn't really need to apologize since we had both moved on, but it never hurt to say the words.

I shook my head. "That was a long time ago. Thank you for the apology, though."

"Tensions were just running high for the both of us, I guess. I can't wait for spring break. These classes are killing me," she said.

"That's still not for another month." I laughed. "But tell me about it. It's not even the classes that are bothering me, but everything else that's going on."

I had a relatively easy semester compared to others and the ones in my near future, and I planned to capitalize on it with a 4.0 GPA.

"Count your blessings, then. I'm failing two of my classes right now."

I grimaced. "That sucks."

She shrugged. "I'll figure it out, though. I always do. I've never gotten anything lower than an A- in my life."

My jaw dropped. "What the fuck? How?"

"Pushy parents and no social life. That's how."

That would do it, indeed.

Of course, my grades were the lowest my junior year (except for Spanish, thanks to Viktor) in high school, but they still weren't too bad.

"Damn," I muttered, then searched through my clothes for something to wear.

"Can I tell you something?" Jackie asked.

I held up my favorite skirt. Too wrinkled. "Sure."

"I miss you."

I looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're always with Viktor. You even sleep in his room. I miss my roommate, that's all."

I felt my face fall.

I hadn't even taken her into consideration.

"I thought you'd like having your own room," I said.

"I spent most of my life that way. I like the chaos you bring to everyday events. It's a lot better than being lonely."

I let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, but—"

"No, no. I was just saying. You don't have to apologize."

I didn't respond right away. Instead, I pulled a navy blue dress off its hanger in the closet.

"That's cute," Jackie said.

"Is it classy enough?" I asked, more to myself than to Jackie.

"I think so, although I'll be the first to admit that I don't really know much about fancy, important people stuff."

I nodded in response, then held it up to myself.

"Yeah, sure. I'll just dazzle them with my pretty eyes and fantastic personality."

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Thank you for reading! We're getting closer and closer to our climax, and of course, the end. I had a meltdown last night because of it.

But anyway, is there anything in particular you'd like to see in this book? I've pretty much got the rest planned out (although I can't make my mind up on the ending), but if you have any ideas, feel free to let me know. I'm sure I've left some things open-ended or some plot holes.