There I stood, in front of the school at night. It felt so weird; I'd never been there at night before. Everything looked so different, even if I knew it was exactly the same. The past three weeks had flown by so fast, yet nothing much happened. Well...I panicked a little when I almost forgot to write my essays again, but I got them both done the night before they were due, so it was fine. Everyone at school was pretty much the same. Nathaniel and Chris were still going at it for SBP, I got used to spending time with Lysander every day in physics (or whenever he wanted, in general), and Chris and I never spoke of what happened between us for fear of anyone finding out. I never saw Castiel since that day; I was beginning to wonder if I ever would again. Before I knew it, it was Halloween, and Rosalya didn't hesitate one moment to get us ready, full speed. Ironically, now I had to stand here and wait for her, since she was waiting for her boyfriend to show up. She insisted that we should go in together, but we'd already been waiting for about twenty minutes.

"Hey, Rosalya!" I shouted to her from the top of the staircase. "Is he gonna get here anytime soon, or what? We've been standing here forever!"

"He should be here really soon!" She shouted back, but the way her voice sounded didn't seem too sure. We waited another few minutes before I finally decided,

"Um...hey, you know what? I think I'm just gonna go inside..."

"No, wait!" She ran over to me. "I gotta go with you, we're supposed to go together!"

"Why?" I asked her. I didn't see the importance of going there together, especially since she had a date anyway.

"Because...well...you'll see! Now c'mon, let's go!"

"Wait! What about–"

"Don't worry about him! I'll come get him when he gets here, now c'mon!"

"Okay! You don't have to pull me!"

Rosalya and I walked quickly through the hallways (which was really uncomfortable in the shoes she picked out for me) and made our way to the gym.

"Why are you stopping?" She questioned me as I pulled my arm out of her grasp right before she opened the door. "You're the one who wanted to go so badly, right?"

Well technically, you were the one who wanted to go in the first place, but... "I know, I just...I'm a little nervous. I don't go to these things very often...

"Well, duh! That's why you're here now! Don't worry about it, you look amazing!"

I had to admit I did like the dress she made me. It was a slender, black, sparkly dress with a green gradient at the bottom and detached lacy sleeves – one red, one blue. She even put a green trim on the witch's hat she got me. That did it for the "witch" part of it. The fangs and cape were a nice touch too, along with some long, fake nails. But what really created the "vampire" aspect for me were the little streams of blood she painted along the corners of my mouth down to my neck. Even so...I was scared to go in. However, Rosalya did not care. She said kind words to me, yes, but she said them while still pulling me into the room. After all, "she didn't dress up as a sexy zombie French maid for nothing." Personally though, I thought it was tacky.

When we got inside, all I saw were decorations. Lights and Halloween figures were everywhere. Little bats and ghosts hung from the ceiling. There were spatters of "blood" all over the floor. There was a snack table serving things shaped like brains or bones, and every single one of them had a plastic spider next to it. It wasn't at all scary, but I thought it was kind of nice. Whoever did this must've put a lot of effort into it... I thought, completely lost in it all. I didn't notice in that time that Rosalya had vanished, but when I finally snapped out of it,

"See? I told you I could get her to come here."

"Yes, I can see that." That voice... "Thank you, Rosalya."

I looked over and sure enough, there was Lysander. He too was dressed as a vampire, and Rosalya was standing right next to him with her hand on his shoulder. Only then was I beginning to see what was going on here.

"You...you set me up! How could you? Why would you? I'm outta here." Enraged, I stormed towards the exit. I didn't want to be here in the first place, but I really wanted no part of it now.

"Wait." Lysander said to me as he caught my hand. Gently, he turned me around and put his hands around my waist. "I just want to spend some time with you. I did have Rosalya help me a little, but only because I was afraid that if I asked you, you wouldn't come with me."

Well, I would've, but not because I wanted to. Rather, if Lysander had asked me himself, I would've said yes just to appease him. I couldn't let him find out the truth about me and Chris, so I would have done whatever it took. But to get me this way...

"You don't know that. You say you want my love and you say you want my trust, but it's kinda hard to do that when you pull something like this. This was incredibly underhanded, Lysander!"

"I know, and I'm sorry. But I really did want some time with you. You've been acting really strange lately, and I'm starting to get worried again. What's wrong?"

Well, the truth was, something was bothering me. I'd been thinking about Chris a lot more lately...since that night. I just didn't realize it showed. Lysander was catching on; that wasn't good. I couldn't let him figure out something even I didn't know what to think of.

So I lied. "Oh, you know I...it's nothing. It's just some school stuff I'm worrying about. Homework and studying and all that. That's all."

"...Really?" The look on his face told me he didn't believe it, but he didn't say anything about it anyway. "Well...I'm sorry to hear that. You know, you can come to me if you ever need help."

"No thanks, I got it. I'm very...particular with my work, you know how it is."

"Yeah." He smiled. "Yeah, I do. So, will you stay? Please?"

"...Okay." I answered, smiling back at him. "I'll stay with you."

And I did. I spent at least an hour dancing and talking with Lysander, and it was actually very nice. He was such a good dancer, I wondered if he'd ever taken lessons. Somewhere in the middle of one,

"...You look so beautiful, Darling. I'm sorry I forgot to tell you earlier."

Of course, that comment made me blush. "T-Thanks...you look really nice too."

He smiled back. "You have no idea how happy you make me. You really do."

Before I got a chance to say anything, he leaned in and gave me the gentlest, most loving kiss I'd ever received from him. In that moment, all I wanted was to believe him and everything he was saying. And maybe, to an extent, he was telling the truth. But there was always that darkness in him I knew he had that kept me from falling in completely; every time I started to believe him, that darkness came out. Always. Why should this be any different? After the kiss, he pulled me in for a hug. He held onto me tightly, so I did the same. As I stood there in his arms, I looked up, and immediately I saw,

Chris!

Chris was right there, just a few feet in front of me. The look on his face was so...shocked. I wasn't expecting him to be at a party like this, and clearly, he wasn't expecting me either. He didn't say anything, but that look of horror quickly became one of betrayal, and he stormed out as fast as he could. I wanted to go after him, but I couldn't just leave; it was too risky. So, I just held onto Lysander and prayed everything would be okay.

Please, let him be okay...

After another minute or so, I told Lysander I wanted to go find some of my friends, just to have some "girl time." He agreed and let me go, so I went looking around. I didn't care if I found Lucy or Jasmine; I just had to tell one of them what just happened. It was always easier to talk to my friends about something that worried me than to try and deal with it alone, and I couldn't exactly talk to Lysander about it. It only took a few seconds for me to find Jasmine standing by the snack table. She seemed to be really enjoying those spider cupcakes.

"Hey, Jasmine." I said as I walked up to her.

"Oh, hehh!" She replied with a mouth full of cupcake. "Hauw awhre you?"

"I'm fine...how are you? Those must be pretty good, huh?"

"Yeah, they're really good. I'm gooooood, just chillin', havin' a fun time. Hey, ya like my costume? I'm a PANTHER! Rawr!"

She put up her hands to show me her "claws," which made me laugh. In reality, she was dressed up as a simple black cat with ears and whiskers and everything, but if she wanted to say she was a panther, then who was I to tell her any different? "Haha, yeah, that's really great. How about me, you like mine?"

She stared at me a moment and tilted her head. "What are you, even? And what are those colors?"

"Um...well...I'm supposed to be some kind of a vampire-witch, and I couldn't decide which colors I wanted, so I got all the ones I like."

"Weird..."

"Yeah, well..." I trailed off. There was a reason I came over here to talk to her, and it wasn't to go on about costumes. I just didn't know how to say it. "So, um...you know my friend Chris, right?"

"Uh, yeah dude. We were in the same physics class for a while there."

Oh yeah, that's right...I totally forgot. She was there with us when it first started, until she had to transfer to a different one.

"Right...well...things are complicated with me and him right now, and there's someone else involved too."

"Okay..."

I told her everything that happened between me, Chris, and Lysander. As I told her more and more of what happened, her happy demeanor faded and was quickly replaced with a serious one. "Oh dude, that's not right. What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know,,,,." I replied nervously, looking away.

"HEY GUUUUUUUYS!" Someone hollered at us from a distance. I looked over to see Lucy charging at us full-speed, dragging someone along with her.

Is that...?

"Guys, you'll never guess what just happened! Adam and I just got back together! Isn't that great?!"

Sure enough, the person she brought with her was her ex-boyfriend, the one she was going to celebrate her Month-iversary with. "Yeah!" I said emphatically, smiling at the two of them. "That's amazing!" I wanted to question her about it, but at the same time, I didn't wanna bring up any bad memories the question might've caused. As it turned out though, I didn't have to; she was more than happy to explain it anyway.

"Yeah! Well, I was just walking by him in the hallway, and I noticed he didn't have his new girlfriend with him, so I thought, maybe I should talk to him. So I did! I went in for the kill, and now we're back together again! Isn't that right, honey?"

"Yup." He answered her, a little less enthusiastically than he probably should've, considering they used to be "in love," or so I thought. Instead, he sounded almost monotone. "You sure did, sweetie." Even his smile seemed fake. Looking at their couple's costume, I noticed that she was going as Dr. Frankenstein and he was her monster. That's...scarily fitting. I thought. Poor guy...

I could see in his eyes that he wasn't really into it, but I didn't wanna say anything. After all, I didn't know it for sure; I could've been wrong. Maybe the two of them really were happy together, and he just didn't like their costume or something, I didn't know. What I did know was that she really liked this guy, so if she was happy with him, then I was happy for her. Still though...there was just something about him...I didn't have a good feeling about it. I knew I'd have to keep an eye on him, for Lucy's sake.

Geez, I hope Lysander doesn't get the wrong idea about that too...

"Well," I said. "I'm really happy for you guys. I wish you the best of luck!"

"Thanks!" Lucy exclaimed before happily skipping off to go dancing, pulling Adam behind her.

I talked to Jasmine some more about what was going on there, and she agreed with me. Now that both of us had a weird feeling about him, I was certain something was wrong. Still, I had nothing against him. As pushy as she was, I just couldn't stand the thought of him doing something to hurt her again. No one deserves heartbreak from the same person twice.

…..

No one.

"Hey, Juliaaaaaaa!" I felt someone's hand touch my shoulder.

"Gyaaaaaaaah!" I jumped and turned around to see Rosalya. "D-Don't do that!" I yelled at her. "You can't just sneak up on people like that!"

She pulled her hand away and smiled apologetically. "Oops, sorry! Didn't mean to, I promise! Anyways, ….oh! Who is this?"

"Oh, uh...this is my friend, Jasmine. Jasmine, this is Rosalya."

Jasmine waved. "Hellooooo~."

"Hi, nice to meet you!"

Just then, I noticed that Rosalya didn't come alone. Standing there next to her was a tall, handsome young man with black hair and dark brown eyes who looked a little older than the rest of us. I could only assume...

"So anyways, Julia, this is my boyfriend, Leigh. He's the one who made us late." She said, playfully swatting him on the arm."

"My apologies, dear." He said. "I'm afraid the store kept me later than usual today. I'm sorry." Then he turned his attention towards me. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance. Julia, was it? That's such a pretty name..."

The way he smiled at me...it was just like the smile Lysander had when I met him. In fact, the entire vibe was the same. And, what did he say? 'That's such a pretty name...'?

…..

Oh no, not again...

"Oh...um...t-thank you. Nice to meet you too." That was all I really could say. I tried my best not to look at him, but I could still feel his gaze. To be completely honest, it was rather uncomfortable. Thankfully, Rosalya spoke up.

"Well, now that you guys have met, Julia, why don't you go get Lysander? We can all party together!"

"Actually," Lysander said as he walked up from behind me and took my hand. "It's getting late. I think I should take Julia home."

"Nonsense," Leigh refuted. "I just got here, and the party has just begun." He stared straight at me when he said that. It was like an arrow piercing my heart.

"We're leaving." Lysander repeated definitively, staring Leigh dead in the eye. "Let's go, Julia."

"Okay..." I agreed reluctantly, confused by this sudden decision. Still...something about Leigh didn't seem right. I was more than happy to get away from him, even if I had to escape with Lysander. At least with him, I felt a sense of familiarity; I didn't know Leigh at all. That feeling...that tension was so familiar – yet this time, it felt different. And not in a good way.

Maybe he picked up on that too... I thought, looking at Lysander as he led me out of the school.

Normally, Lysander would've tried to intimidate someone if he thought they were a threat; heck, Lysander was the threat. if Leighwas enough to make him run away like this, then...

What kind of threat is he?

Lysander stayed silent the entire way to my place, so all I could do was wallow in my thoughts. He never once let go of my hand though. In fact, he held onto it so tightly, it was almost like he was afraid to let go. Maybe he thought that if he did, Leigh would come steal me away or something.

No, that's ridiculous... I decided. After all, Leigh already had a girlfriend; there was no need for him to do anything like that. Lysander was just being paranoid, as usual. There was nothing more to it.

...I hope.

I said goodbye to Lysander once we'd reached my apartment. I had my hand on the doorknob.

"I'm sorry if I ruined your night." He said, seeming to regain the ability to speak. "I just needed you out of there."

"Why? Because of Leigh? Are you gonna be like this with every guy I talk to?" I had to admit I was a little upset; they'd gone to all the trouble of making me a wonderful costume and dragging me out there only to make me leave early. Don't get me wrong, I was glad to get away from Leigh too, but...I dunno, we could've gone to the other side of the room or something.

"Trust me, this is different. I know I'm not exactly...'thrilled' when I see you talking to other guys, although you know very well there's a good reason for that." Not exactly 'thrilled'?, I thought. That was an understatement. Lysander always went into "PTSD mode" if he saw me so much as look at another guy, let alone talk to one. But still, he was right. There was a great reason why he doubted me, so I didn't dare argue with him. Instead, I only stood there and listened. "But this time, it's really important." He continued. "I know Leigh. In fact, he's my brother."

"Really?" I asked. "I didn't know you had a brother..."

"And there's a good reason for that too." He answered, staring me right in the eye.

"What is it? Why does he bother you so much?" I waited for his explanation, but it never came. "Lysander, you're always telling me to be completely honest with you, so why can't you be honest with me? Please, tell me: why are you so scared of Leigh?"

"Scared? I'm not..." Lysander trailed off and looked away.

I pressed him further. "Lysander, you dragged me out of that dance because of him. You used me as an excuse to run away; that isn't like you. What's going on?"

"I...you're right. I can't expect you to tell me everything if I can't do the same. Look..." He took my hands in his. "I promise I'll tell you soon, but not tonight. It's been a long night for me, and I'm sure for you too. We could both use some rest. ….Is that okay?"

"Uh...yeah, sure. Okay. Sorry." I looked away, awkwardly. Maybe it was a bit insensitive of me to ask such things. I didn't mean to make him uncomfortable.

He shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. Really, truly, I am. You deserve to know this; you deserve to know every part of me and my life." Well, I wouldn't go THAT far, but... "All I can really tell you right now is that I need you to stay away from him. I know I always say that, and I always mean it, but this time...this time, I really mean it. For your sake..." He gripped my hands harder. That look in his eyes...I'd never seen him so serious before. Or terrified. In that moment, I saw something in Lysander I'd never seen before – fear. This whole time, I thought Lysander was just playing twisted games of fake affection to mask his desire to own me, but right now, all I saw was true, genuine fear for me and my safety. "Please, Darling." He begged me. "Whatever you do, please stay away from him. And if he ever comes near you, I want you to call me right away, and I mean right away. Understand?"

"Okay...I will."

Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at me. "Thank you. I'm so lucky to have someone who trusts me as much as you do..." Well again, I wouldn't go THAT far, but... "I love you."

"I love you too..." I said back to him, almost like a reflex. Wha–...What did I say?

"I know." His smile grew brighter.

My eyes widened. "Y-You do?"

"Of course." He assured me. "You always show me you do. You're there for me whenever I need you, despite everything I've done to you, and you never leave my side. If you ever left me, I'd...I don't know what I'd do."

Geez...what in the world happened to him?

"W-Well, I..."

"You don't need to say anything." He said, gently stroking my cheek. "What matters is that we're together now. Nothing will ever tear us apart again."

With that, he leaned in and kissed me just like he did earlier. It was so nice...agh, no, what was I thinking? I couldn't give in just like that.

After a minute, he finally let go. We said our goodbyes, and he left. I...why did I say that? I 'love him'...? How could he possibly know that? Even I don't know that! There's no way I love him. I don't...do I...?

I sighed to myself as I sat down on my couch. I didn't know what to do anymore. What was I supposed to do if I couldn't even trust myself? Frustrated, I picked up my phone. I was just playing around with it, when I remembered:

Oh yeah! I have to talk to Chris!

He looked so upset when he saw me with Lysander at the dance earlier. I wanted to call him and make sure everything was okay. He didn't pick up the phone the first two times, but it was really important to me, so I tried again. The phone rang once...twice...

"I have nothing to say to you." were the first words I heard from him.

"What do you mean?" I asked him. "What happened?"

"I dunno." He replied, sarcastically. "I could ask you the same thing."

"Chris, you know things are different for us in public than when we're just by ourselves. Lysander's everywhere, you don't know him like I do!"

"That doesn't mean you have to make out with him! Do you know how hard it was, watching you two be all 'sweet and cute' with each other?!"

"I'm sorry! Look, I'm really sorry, okay? But right now, this is the way things have to be. He thinks we're together, so I have to act...you know...like we're together. Sometimes that means kissing!"

"..."

"Hello?"

"Yeah...I guess you're right...it's just...I didn't think this would be so hard..."

"I know. But hang in there. We'll get through this, Chris. I promise." So I said, but could I really promise that? We were already two months into the school year, and I had no idea what to do about it. And from the sound of it, neither did he. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get back to normal again...

"So..." He continued. "I didn't expect to see you there tonight...you looked really pretty."

"Thank you." I replied. "A friend made that costume for me. To be honest, I didn't even know I was gonna be there, until a few weeks ago. My friend...uh...'convinced me' to go with her. Except...you know...she kinda forgot the most important details. I didn't expect to see you there, either."

On the other end of the phone, I could hear Chris laugh. "Oh wow, what a story. Well yeah, you know I don't really go to those things either, but I thought it would be good for my political reputation."

I was relieved to have lightened the mood a little, but now I was curious. "Oh yeah, I guess that would help. Any word on the rankings?"

"They said the final results will be out in two weeks. I got a few more people on my side, but...I dunno...Nathaniel seems pretty confident."

"Well, " I said. "If he wins, don't feel too bad about it. Nathaniel is experienced in this kind of thing; it's sort of his 'forte.'"

"How do you know that? ….Julia...Do you two already know each other?"

I choked. I'd basically just admitted to Chris that I knew Nathaniel. This...couldn't end well. "W-Well...um...yeah, we do. But it doesn't matter now!"

"Well no, of course not. I don't care if you knew him before. I'm not some insecure freak who can't stand basic human interaction."

That was clearly a shot at Lysander, but nonetheless, I reassured him, "Well, like I said, don't worry. You're gonna be great, and I think you can really win this thing! But just remember, if you don't win, there's an excellent reason why. And besides, you've already won, to me."

"Haha, thanks...you really do make me feel better. I just wish I could see you more often."

"Yeah, I know...and we'll be able to, someday. But hey, it's a good thing we can see each other at all. Let's hold onto that, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. We'll bring that bastard down someday. I'll make sure of it."

"Yeah..."

"Well...it was nice to hear your voice again. But anyways, I gotta go to bed now. I'll talk to you soon."

"Yeah, talk to you soon."

Then he hung up, and I did too. I knew he was right; we had to stop Lysander from controlling us this way...but...

Why do I feel sad...?

…...

Having decided that the events of this long night were probably messing with my emotions, I thought it would be best for me to go to bed too. After all, if I couldn't even think straight anymore, there was no point in trying; I would just end up driving myself crazy. So, I turned off the lights and got ready for bed. The moment I laid down and covered myself up, I was fast asleep. No wondering, no contemplating, no nothing.

I must've been more tired than I thought...