The pair headed down to the Nut Sorting Room to check up on the order of things.

"Well, everything seems fine here!" Lauren said as she tried to turn out quickly.

She was stopped by Willy's hand, which grabbed onto her shoulder. Lauren closed her eyes briefly at the contact.

He turned her back to look at him and he gave her a small smile.

"No silly. We have to check each squirrel's progress and make sure they're happy."

Lauren shaped her mouth into a silent "Oh."

"Come on," he gestured for her to follow him, when she stopped him.

"Wouldn't it be faster if we each took half?"

"But I thought-"

"It'd be more efficient so we could get more done."

Willy sadly nodded. He wanted to get as much done as possible. So the two were on opposite sides of the large room as they worked. They were far from one another. They worked entirely singularly.

When Lauren finished, she saw that Willy was still working. She left without saying a word to him. She moved on to her next task.

Once Willy was all done, he looked over to Lauren- or at least where she had been.

Why'd she leave? Why didn't she at least tell me?

Instead of going to his own work, he went to look for the girl. He found her putting together samples in the Inventing Room.

"Lauren?"

"Hmm?" she didn't even look up from her work.

"Why did you leave?"

"I was done and wanted to get more work done."

"You could have told me."

"I suppose."

"Lauren, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

Willy made his way over to Lauren.

"Why won't you look at me?"

Lauren stopped and looked at him, an expression of annoyance had spread over her visage.

"All right, I'm looking at you now."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, ok?"

"But-"

"But what Willy?"

"Do you still love me?"

"I wasn't aware that I ever said I did."

The coldness of the words struck Willy hard. He turned on his heel and fled. He couldn't stand the pain of being near her. What would he do? For that matter, what had he done? Why was she so upset with him?

Willy made his way into the Smashing Room. This was where bite size candies were made by smashing the original sized ones. He needed to smash away his pain, his anger, and his fears.

Meanwhile, Lauren finished up her work, maintaining a stoic expression the entire time. Once done, she picked up a small lunch from the cafeteria. She finished it quickly and then went back to doing more work. Not a single thought ran through her mind the entire time. She knew that if she let one through, it would tear her to pieces. Lauren didn't dare think of what she had done.

At 9 p.m., both Lauren and Willy stopped their work and made their way to their rooms. They went down opposite ends of the hallway, and then saw each other when they reached the doors.

"Lauren-"

Willy was cut off by Lauren going into her room and slamming the door shut. So the chocolateer went into his own bedroom and slunk to the floor and up against the door. Silent tears streamed down his cheeks. His knees were brought up to his chest and he rocked himself. This was terrible, just awful.

As soon as Lauren slammed the door shut she screamed.

"ARGH! WHY?! WHY THE FUCK AM I DOING THIS?!"

She slammed her fists down on her dresser as she stared into the mirror. Her eyes quickly filled with tears, but she didn't dare let them fall. No. The pain could sit, but she couldn't let the visual of tears release it.

"NO!" she cried out as she grabbed a book and threw it at the wall behind her.

Lauren dropped to her knees and clawed her hands into the rug.

"I LOVE HIM, DAMMIT, I LOVE HIM!"

Lauren slammed her fist down into the rug a few times as she let a few sobs escape from her throat. Her eyes were tightly shut, but the tears were not allowed escape. Before long, Lauren curled up on the ground, hating herself, the world, and most of all Willy Wonka.