That night Ronnie climbed the oh-so-familiar steps to check on Laini. He was too worried to eat that night so he brought his leftovers up incase she hadn't been able to get to the pantry, being unconscious and all.

"Laaaaiiiiniiiiii"

He turned his head around the corner in the direction of their usual meeting place but she wasn't in the hall.

'She's probably lying down' he thought to himself as he began walking down the hall, peering into the dorm rooms. He turned suddenly as a soft voice which resembled that of a child who had just been woken up called his name.

"Ronnie?"

She shuffled out of one of the dorm rooms he skipped as his search grew more frantic. As she stammered towards him she would occasionally slant into the wall and trip over her own feet. As he saw this he rushed over to help her.

"Are you alright? What's going on? Did you pass out again?" Laini clamped her hands on the hysterical boy to calm him down.

"Whoa enough with the questions big daddy, I just woke up" she said through a giant yawn.

Ronnie exhaled and slid down the wall as he chuckled to himself.

"I appreciate the thought, though" she added with a reassuring smile.\

He looked into her compassionate eyes with his own smile that seemed to say 'why do I even bother'. The two of them sat like this until Laini broke the silence upon seeing the food Ronnie still had clutched in his hands.

"You gunna eat that?" she joked.

"Oh yea" he said, coming out of his trance and offering her the bits of chicken, baked potato and roll he hadn't mutilated during dinner with his wandering fork.

"Thanks, I didn't get a chance to grab anything today" she managed to utter with half of the roll already in her mouth. "You're the best" she said once she swallowed the roll and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

After acknowledging the compliment with a quick smile he instantly whipped out their usual deck of playing cards.

"Card player? Why yes I am. Why don't we save you the humiliation and just give the win to me, since we both know it'll go there anyway."

She gave him a slight punch in the shoulder as she slid backwards and assumed her typical card playing position across from the blonde boy she had grown so close to.