The next time Cress saw Carswell Thorne was one week later at a karaoke club. Iko had dragged her and Cinder to Ladies' Night in hope she would get them to perform with her, and Cress had been sipping an iced tea in the corner while texting instructions on how to reboot a computer to Wolf.

"Hey you."

She looked up in surprise, her eyes locking with Thorne's annoyingly handsome face. "Hey," she said, finishing typing her instructions and sending them while maintaining eye contact, trying to conceal the panic that started to frost inside her chest. She'd really made a bad first impression. Even if he had a bad rep didn't mean she had to have been so sarcastic towards him, did it? "Can I help you with something?"

"Well, I'd love a foot massage." He quirked an eyebrow at her unchanging facial expression, and cracked a smile. "Kidding. Mind if I sit with you?" Thorne pulled out the chair across from her and continued talking, putting his feet up on the table, forcing her to edge her drink away from potentially being kicked. "Iko roped me into coming - she thinks she needs backup to talk to some guy that works here."

"Kinney." Cress broke eye contact for a moment to set her phone on the table facedown, giving Throne her full attention.

"Yeah, him. She the reason you're here?"

"Yup. Iko wants me to perform with her." Cress tried to contain rolling her eyes, but she couldn't help the sarcasm that dripped off of her words like syrup. "Not happening but at least there's entertainment," she said, and motioned to the stage, where singers were lining up.

"Why wouldn't you sing? You're really good." Thorne looked at her earnestly, really looked at her - like he was trying to discern the color of her eyes in the multicolor strobe flashes that robbed you of your eyesight if you caught a glance at the burning bulbs. "Don't deny it, I heard you in the Mech Shop last week. You were singing Skylar Grey, remember?"

"I remember," Cress mumbled, looking down at her hands. She didn't expect him to remember anything other than the snark-fest that happened between the two. Stellar first impression, Cress. "I can sing, I just don't sing in front of -" she motioned to the crowd with a vague wave of her arm. "Large groups of people. Not really a fan of the eyes of the masses staring into my soul."

"Why," he drawled, watching the way her eyes flickered between him, Iko watching inconspicuously and giving her a thumbs-up from across the room, and the obnoxious strobe lights flashing and burning after images into her retinas. "Sometimes a little soul-staring is good for you, like fresh air or another episode of Stranger Things."

"What other episode? Season One was only eight." She hoped he wouldn't notice the obvious change in conversation, but she wasn't getting on that stage. For one, she didn't like crowds. She especially didn't like being the object of attention of a crowd, and the stage was right where the attention was.

"Well, yeah, but still, it's the principle of the thing. Besides, it's good to break out of your shell."

"What shell?" she scoffed, immediately regretting the words as they poured out covered in a thick layer of glossy sarcasm and deadpan humor. "You don't even know me, Carswell Thorne."

"Well m'dear, that I'll have to disagree with. I know a little about you, Crescent Darnel." She stiffened immediately at the use of her full name - no one used it. No one had used it for a long time. "I know you're majoring in Computer Science and are probably going to graduate valedictorian, and you can text without looking," he said, motioning to her phone, now clasped in frozen fingers. "I know you're a damn good singer and have a pretty good sense of snark and sarcasm." Thorne paused. "Maybe a little too good of a sense."

"Thanks," she mumbled, blood flushing her ears and cheeks bright red. "It's just Cress. How do you know that?"

"I have mad skills, Cress," Thorne said, leaning back further in his chair, which was now teetering precariously on two legs. "If there's something I want to know, I can find it out."

"Which translates to?"

"I bribed Cinder to tell me." The devilish smirk was back in play now, assessing her carefully with wickedly intuitive eyes. Cress's blush receded a bit and she took another sip of her iced tea, taking her time to try and figure out what to say next.

"I guess I owe her a punch in the shoulder then."

Thorne threw his hands into the air comically, somehow maintaining his balance as he did so. "Hey now, don't let me be the reason for violence."

Cress smirked a little over the rim of her glass. "If Cinder's giving away information about me to people I don't know, I think she deserves a little payback."

"You don't know me?" Thorne seemed offended, and a little surprised at that. He planted the chair down with a muted thunk as it smacked down onto the slightly sticky floor. "I am offended. You certainly must know me."

"I know enough."

"Such as? I'm thoroughly enthralled with whatever is floating around about little old me." Cress smiled a little at the thought that Thorne didn't know every rumor and tidbit of information that had to do with him. He didn't seem like the type to not care. Honestly, he seemed like the type to pass along whatever ridiculous rumors were circulating, or at the very least, not deny them.

"Which rumors do you want to hear about?" Cress asked dryly. Before he could open his mouth to speak, Iko rushed over to the table, nearly knocking her drink to the floor.

"Guys! I need someone to duet with me. Karaoke. Now. Kinney is over there with someone else, and I need to show him what he's missing!" Iko was panting, and grabbed Cress's half-full glass to drain it completely. "This is serious!"

"Crescent?" Thorne prompted slyly, a smirk quirking at the corner of his mouth. She shook her head sharply, while she tried to make her eyes convey 'not happening even if Hell freezes over'. "Ah, I guess it's the Captain to the rescue!" He tilted an invisible hat on his head jauntily, offering his arm to Iko as she sighed audibly with relief. She flashed Cress a wink so fast that she may have imagined it as they walked to the line of singers. She sighed a little herself.

Maybe she'd misjudged Thorne?

He certainly didn't seem like that total jackass the rumors made him out to be most of the time. He looked like a nice guy as he sang Shout Out to My Ex tunelessly. Iko was great, but his voice made her wince. At least she was having fun onstage. Iko was practically the exact opposite of her: good with people, self confident, good in social situations. There was a reason she lived on the karaoke stage and Cress lived in the corner table with her phone.

Cress reached without looking in search of said phone. She should at least check in and see if Wolf managed to successfully breathe life back into his busted laptop, or if he still needed help.

Her hand slid across the flat top of the table, through the rings of condensation, and her fingers curled around the metal casing. She picked it up to recognize an unfamiliar lock screen of Thorne and Cinder. One of them was rolling her eyes, the other was laughing so hard the shot was nearly blurred.

Her phone was gone. Next to where it had been sitting was a piece of paper, scribbled on with black ink.

CRESS - FOR INSURANCE. MEET ME TOMORROW, I'LL TEXT YOU WHERE.

TAKE CARE OF MY PHONE ;)

Cress gaped, looking down at the stranger's phone in her hand.

She was going to kill Carswell Thorne.