Luke checked his phone again.

She was late.

Get a grip. He stuffed the phone back into his pocket and sighed. It was two minutes past eight. She was a grand total of one-hundred-and-twenty seconds behind schedule.

The sun edged close to the horizon, throwing a lurid twilight over the bulk of the college library that loomed behind him. He loitered awkwardly on the steps, pacing back and forth, trying not to look too shifty to the steady straggle of students who flowed in and out of the glass-sheathed foyer. They were supposed to be meeting to work on their assignment for tomorrow's seminar with Doctor Maresfield – a study session that had been come a regular feature over the past few weeks.

She hadn't been late before. He pulled his phone out again. Two more minutes had elapsed. Luke pursed his lips in annoyance. He didn't have her phone number. She'd never offered it and he'd felt a little invasive asking, given how she still seemed to want to keep everyone and everything at arm's length.

So far he hadn't figured out a way to broach the subject of what he'd seen last week at he archery range. Truth be told, he still wasn't entirely convinced that what he and Gabi had come across was even real. He'd spoken to her several times, verifying that they'd both seen the same thing, but it still nagged at the back of his mind. The weird glow; the footprints and the same ethereal shimmer coiling around Oaklynn's feet guilty as blood.

But guilty of what, exactly? For all he know she'd walked through another patch of glowing fauna. The woods that encroached on the campus from the east were thick, and formed a broad, sweeping arc around the town's southern edges. Who knew how many secrets they might hold?

In the end, unable to figure with a way to bring it up, he ended up saying nothing at all.

Which left him here, loitering outside the library, wondering where she was and what to do. He jammed the phone back into his pocket again and sighed, leaning against the handrail that bisected the steps.

Just when he was beginning to feel a sense of genuine worry, Oaklynn finally materialised out of the descending twilight. He jerked upright, glancing at the phone that had been in and out of his hand constantly. She was nearly half an hour later than normal.

"Hey," Luke said. "What kind of time do you call this?" He tried to keep his tone light; no sense making a scene out of this. For all he knew she'd fallen asleep in her dorm or something.

"Sorry, sorry," she replied, stomping to a halt in front of him. Her cheeks were flushed and she huffed, blowing a strand of hair off her nose and adjusting her skewed beanie with one hand. "Had a bit of a long day as it is."

"You alright?" He glanced around then tested out a smile. "Usually I'm the one getting scraped over the coals for running late."

"Yeah, I'm good. Just had to deal with something."

"Something involving those three goons from the other night?"

She frowned. "Maybe."

"Oaklynn, if that creep is still following you around you just should call campus security and get his ass hauled out of here."

"No, no, no." The words leapt from her mouth so sharply that she seemed to surprise herself. She sucked a breath through her teeth. "Look, I know how it can seem, but Kasper's not dangerous. He's not going to hurt me."

Luke snorted. "He sure gives a good impression."

"It's just his way. But he's not even the problem, really."

"Then who is?"

"The rest of his family." Oaklynn explained reluctantly. "That's why I'm late. I went to their stupid meeting. That was what the note Kasper gave was about. They just wanted to meet with me."

"And they couldn't have sent you a text?"

"I don't have a phone."

A flash of surprise contorted Luke's face before he realised, with the abruptness of a slap, that he'd never actually seen her with one.

"Sorry, I didn't realise."

"Don't be. I get by just fine."

"So..." He pulled a worried face. "What did they want, exactly?"

"It doesn't matter." She smiled contemptuously. "Let's just say we had a frank exchange of views and leave it at that, okay?"

"That doesn't sound good."

"It went about as well as I expected it to." She shrugged "But it's done with now. Whether they like it or not, it's not my problem." Then she stepped past, turning him with a gentle hand on the shoulder to pivot along with her. "Can we talk about something else? Anything else?"

"Like Maresfield's tweed addiction?"

"That's one thing," she laughed, a burst of her brightness returning in an instant. "Hell's bells, you'd think he stowed away on the Tardis and got dumped here by mistake."

"I wouldn't rule it out." As he walked Luke twisted his body side on to her, gesturing to himself with one hand. "What do you think? I could rock a waistcoat like that, right?"

"Careful, Arbor," she warned. "I might buy you one and put that theory to the test."

"And we'll all have a good laugh."

He put a shoulder to the revolving door of the library and Oaklynn tucked in behind him, pressing hands against his backpack to propel them both through and into the warmth of the foyer as fast as she could. Luke stumbled through, but she had a firm grip on his bag and tugged once to pull him upright.

"Well, I hope you are ready for the evening of a lifetime," he told her as she moved around beside him again.

"A night spent cross-examining pre-industrialised societies in eastern Europe?" Oaklynn pouted in accusation. "I bet this is where you take all the girls."

*

It was nearly eleven by the time they left the library, bidding goodnight to the fat, jovial security guard at the front desk who had settled in for his night shift. Dark fully descended on Lasquette Bay, held arm's length by the lights that lined the campus paths and spilled from residence windows.

Luke stepped into the dark with Oaklynn by his side, his head a little sore from staring between laptop screens and text books for the last few hours. She'd made it all bearable though – he hoped he'd done the same for her. She was still smiling, so that was a good sign. Thoughts of confronting her about the strange glow and the figure in the woods had trickled away the more they talked.

He marvelled at how everything seemed less banal when she was around. Hours in a library trawling through anthropological reading lists wasn't exactly anyone's idea of a scintillating evening, but she made it fun. Made it somehow lighter. He tried to square that energising person with the same individual who could lock up if you prised too deep, or asked the wrong question. Some things she kept off limits, the rest of the time she embraced whatever chaos she could find.

After experiencing it for these past few weeks, he wanted to ask something different.

They wound away from the library, looping towards her residence halls to the south of the campus. A handful of other students passed them, some more raucous than others, potential late-comers to the Growler that evening. The occasional member of campus security drifted ghost-like between the buildings.

About halfway to her residence, he finally mustered up the courage.

"Hey, I'm finishing up classes at five tomorrow," Luke began, battling to keep the nerves from climbing right out of his mouth. "You got anything on in the evening?"

She shook her head, weaving back and forth on the path as though following some imaginary line. "Nope – just a quiet night with me, myself and I. Why? Is Kenny finally throwing that party he keeps threatening everyone with?"

Luke chuckled. "Not yet, but I think it's looming on the horizon."

"I wonder if I should be excited or terrified?"

"Both, I think." He tried to get things back on track, derailed innocently and effortlessly. "But, tomorrow, you're free?"

"Yeah. What's up?"

"The Show House is running a Predator double bill at seven. I thought we could head down for the night."

She beamed, white teeth glinting in the light. "Sounds great. I didn't realise all of you were connoisseurs of the finer things."

"Yeah, but-," He paused awkwardly, feeling the heat on his cheeks as he pushed through the misunderstanding. "No, I mean, not with the others, just you and me."

"Oh." Oaklynn shrugged. "Well, sure, why not? We hang out as it is, don't we? Certainly a more fun-filled evening than you showed me tonight." She bumped her hip to his with a grin.

"Yeah, definitely." Luke winced as he tried to fumble for the words. "I just..." He hoped she might put two and two together. In fact, he suspected she already had but was deliberately ducking the implications. That didn't exactly bode well.

But he pressed on. Have confidence in yourself, Luke, his mom had told him as he stepped out the door for Lasquette Bay. Have some trust in that gut. It's got us all this far.

"You just...?"

"I meant you and me, on an actual date. Together. Like a couple."

Oaklynn stopped so suddenly it was as though someone had removed her batteries and left her stranded. She looked at him and a geyser of panic came boiling up from the pits of his stomach.

Had he jumped the gun? Had he just way overstepped his bounds and blown a hole in their friendship in the process? They were only a few weeks into the semester; she was clearly still dealing with other problems. Finding a boyfriend was probably bottom of her priority list. What the hell had he been thinking? Luke was backtracking before he knew it.

"Sorry, forget it, it's stupid. I just-,"

Oaklynn took a hold of his hand, and the words fled back down his throat. For a moment she didn't say anything, just gently holding her fingers in his. He felt his nerves slowly settling at her touch, a soothing sensation ebbing from where their skin touched. The corners of her lips tugged upward every so slightly.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Me? Yeah, yeah I'm fine," he found himself babbling. "It was just, you know we've been hanging out, we have fun, I like you and... well I think you like me. But if you don't want to go further than that, I mean, just forget I said it. It was just a stupid idea. I get it."

"Luke, Luke, calm down." Oaklynn squeezed his fingers. "It's alright."

"It is?"

"Yeah, it is." She glanced to her left and right, then released her hold on him. The touch lingered like a balm.

"So-," He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, not sure what to say next. "What does that mean, exactly?"

Oaklynn folded her arms, a frustrated expression on her face. "I like you a lot, Luke. When I came to this town I didn't really know what to expect, but it's been pretty good so far. A lot of that is thanks to you."

He could feel it coming like the boulder from Raiders of the Lost Ark. "But...?"

"It's complicated."

Luke felt like he was deflating. "You say that a lot."

"I know, I know. And it's not fair to you, I get it." She gave a helpless shrug. "It's not fair to either of us. There's just more going on than just you and me."

"Kasper?"

"It's not just about Kasper. I just ..." The frustration on her face flickered to full on anger for the briefest instant. "I wish I could tell you more. But I can't. I just have a lot to deal with right now and you can't be in the middle of it."

Luke pushed his hands into his pockets. "If you're in some kind of trouble, you know you can talk to me."

"I don't need that, Luke," she told him. "I can handle my own problems. But you and me, what we have when we're just... hanging out? That's what I need, just something normal. Someone who doesn't make any demands on me. Someone who isn't telling me what to do or how to think every god-damned second. I don't want things with you and me to get complicated as well. At least, not today."

The disappointment dug into him like a jack-hammer but Luke swallowed it down and forced himself to nod. The fact that the problem didn't seem to have anything to with him only took a little of the sting out of the experience. It might not have been his fault, but it also meant there was nothing he could do about it.

He did, however, understand where she was coming from. They had a good time. Romantic or not, he enjoyed being around her. He didn't want to ruin one thing by striving too hard for the other. Luke took a deep breath summoning his composure and burying the rejection deep. He could mope about it later.

"Yeah, of course, I get it," he said, pressing a resigned smile onto his face. "We good?"

"Of course we are."

Then she surged forward and hugged him so tight it made him gasp. Her arms wrapped tight around his shoulders and she squeezed in an embrace that just meant thank you. Luke gently eased his arms around behind her, clasping his hands together and hugging her back. Her hair pressed against the side of his neck, sending the scent of lavender washing over him.

She turned her face and pressed her lips against his cheek. It was only for a brief instant, but he felt warmth emanating from the contact, tingling across his skin like a benevolent shock wave. Oaklynn turned her face away again, her chin finding his shoulder, fitting there like it belonged. He could have stayed there for years.

In the end though they eased apart, arms opening, cold air drifting into the space between as they stepped back. Noise from the student union trickled between the buildings as, for a moment, neither of them spoke.

"So?" Oaklynn said at last, tucking her hair sheepishly back behind her ears. "You still going to walk me home?"