"…You need to talk about it."

"No."

"Yes, you do!"

"Well, I'm not going to."

"Cody!" Adena whined loudly.

"For the last time, this is a library!" The elderly lady behind the circulation desk hissed.

"Fine," Adena huffed, grabbing Cody by the arm, "we'll leave!"

"Adena!" Her friend protested, quickly sweeping her many papers up off the table as she was dragged out of the room. "I was kind of working on something!"

"On what? We have no homework," Adena snapped, still reeling from the librarian's blatant attack on her basic human rights.

"Last minute stuff. Scholarships. Applications."

"Cody, it's almost March!"

"I know!" She replied, indignant, "But it can't hurt!"

"Do you even know where you're going?"

"Well, NYU was my first choice but…"

"But what? What?" Adena shrieked, thinking this was the breakthrough she'd been waiting for.

"But that was with Nate," Cody spat out reluctantly. "Happy?"

"Very," Adena beamed, "but back to Nate. How does that make you-,"

"If you say 'feel', I'll hit you."

"…Well, you have to talk about it!"

"No, I do not," Cody kept walking, straightening the papers in her arms, "Now, as I was saying, I think my second choice is Victoria…."

"Cody, you broke up!" Adena continued, relentless, "You must feel someth-," she was cut off by her own shriek as Cody grabbed her exposed arm between two fingers and pinched.

"Now," Cody said dryly as Adena rubbed her arm, "how does that make you feel?"

"You must feel something!"

"Tanis," Nate sighed, "please stop now!"

"No! It's been almost two weeks! And you haven't talked about it."

"Because I am a boy!"

"Oh, come on," she sat on Bates' desk, watching the president's son file requests for dorm changes, "don't you ever get tired of being emo?"

"Not really, no."

"Fine," she sighed, "whatever. But if you want to talk…"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll come to you," he rolled his eyes, "change the subject."

"Well…" she thought for a moment, "I went to talk to Cameron!"

"Ah," he smirked, "I was wondering how you'd managed to keep quiet for so long. How come I haven't seen you two cuddling in the halls yet?"

"Okay, one: emo kids don't say 'cuddle'," she stuck her tongue out, "two: you wouldn't know because you've kept yourself conveniently locked up since The Incident," Nate rolled his eyes, "and three: he wasn't there."

"Seriously?" Nate raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously," she nodded, "I just hung with Squib until Adena called about-,"

"Don't say it-,"

"The Incident," she glared pointedly.

"So where was he?" Nate ignored her.

"On a freakin' date," she said in an uncharacteristically calm manner.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously," Tanis confirmed.

"With who?"

"Some random from town. I don't think he's seen her since. Whatever, he doesn't know I stopped by, so…"

"You didn't tell him?"

"Well, it's kind of humiliating now…and I think Squib knew enough to keep his mouth shut, because Cameron hasn't said anything." They were silent for a moment when she spoke again.

"So, Nate…"

"Please don't start."

"But you need to talk about it!"

"Aren't you violating some kind of girl code by hanging with the ex?"

"Nah," she shrugged, "Cody's much mellower than when she was with Squib. I think we're safe. Now, come," she patted the desk beside her, "spill you heart out."

"I'm ignoring you now."

"Nice game, man," Cameron greeted Squib as he came off the court.

"Thanks," Squib smiled, panting.

"So, you hear the scouts rumor?"

"Yeah, I think I heard something about that," Squib rolled his eyes, "of course I heard the rumor about the scouts. Why do you think I've been showing up for practice?" He smirked.

"Man, if I could get a scholarship," Cameron said in an almost dazed voice, "no family business, no father…"

"Well, you'd better shape up then, my friend," Squib winked, "you've got a lot of competition."

"Go away, Adena," Cody responded to the knocking at the door.

"Try again."

"Squib?"

"Does that mean I can come in?" He asked, already opening the door.

"What are you doing here?"

"Gee, nice to see you, too."

"Sorry," she smiled. "Hi."

"That's better," he nodded, taking a seat beside her on the bed. "So, I missed you at my match."

"Uh, yeah, well, there was homework and-,"

"You don't have to worry about him- why would he go to a tennis match? Why would he go to my tennis match?"

"I wasn't avoiding Nate, I just-,"

"Who said anything about Nate?"

"Squib!" She cried, exasperated. "I don't want to talk about my feelings or whatever."

"Relax, if anyone knows about bottling things up, it's me," he joked. "I am here to persuade you to join us in the Open."

"Well, oka-,"

"Nate will be there."

"Squib," she sighed, "I don't wanna-,"

"Look, Cody," he said in a rare and serious tone, "you and I, we're friends, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"Okay, and the A group. We're all friends, yes?"

She sighed, "Yes."

"And Nate, as much as it pains me to say it, is our friend, too. And even I find it kind of weird that we can't all hang out anymore."

"I just…" she sighed once more, "I don't know. It'll be weird."

"Probably, yeah," he nodded. "But…we miss you," he smiled sweetly.

"Fine," she conceded, "whatever," she hoisted herself off the bed.

"There's that red-head enthusiasm!" He laughed, holding the door open for her. "But, if I may delve into your feelings for just a moment, why did you two…"

"Split?"

"Yeah," he blushed lightly. "Adena and Tanis said you won't tell them."

"It was nothing," Cody shrugged on her way out the door, "we just got in a fight."

It was, as Squib had promised, awkward. Especially when she arrived and all eyes were on her and Nate. But after she'd come out of her somewhat depressed state of silence and joined in the game of cards, she noticed that Squib was actually engaging Nate in almost friendly conversation, Tanis was, for the first time in a long while, not staring at Cameron and instead keeping Cody amused with her steady stream of chatter, and Adena and Cameron were finally behaving like proper friends, laughing like they used to, rather than two embarrassed children who'd had a bad experience.

It was about time, she thought as she smiled at Cameron's joke and threw down her three of spades; senior year was almost over.

Okay, so, first of all, the song for this chapter is actually called 'For the Windows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti' but that's really long. But it's by Sufjan Stevens and really good.

Nova- I need to email you! But I totally heard 'Crimson and Clover'! It's sung by a chick, yes?

And don't worry, children, this was not my attempt to skip over break-up awkwardness and make them instant friends (like 15/Love tends to do…cough). There will be drama! Passion! Adventure!

I know how it eeeeends! And we're getting close! …I think. Only four months left in the Bend and not Break-verse.

One last thing- this didn't go up as soon as it was written. But that's because my internet died and my brother stole the computer upstairs so I couldn't transfer and post. Nit may fault, see?

Review, and I just may update before season three premiers.