You immediately snapped out of your trance to find your classmate Husk standing in front of you.

"Are you alright?" he repeated. "Niffty just ran past me crying. Did you two have a fight or something?"

You quickly wiped the tears from your eyes. "Why do you care?"

He scowled. "Well, fuck you then. I was only trying to be nice."

He started to walk away, but you grabbed his shoulder and stopped him. "Wait, wait. I'm sorry, Husk. I'm just a little upset about this situation with Niffty."

Before Husk could respond, the bell rang for class to begin again.

"You wanna talk about it after school?" he asked.

"Yeah... that sounds nice. I could use another friend right now."

'You just used me to get him for yourself!'

You flinched. Poor choice of words.

You could feel Niffty glaring at you for the rest of class. She refused to even talk to you. You were so upset, you could barely focus on what Mr Pentious was saying. He must have noticed too, because he asked to speak with you when class was over.

He slithered over to you after everyone else had left.

"What seems to be the problem today? You were barely paying attention. This isn't like you at all."

You sighed, hanging your head in despair. "I'm sorry, Mr Pentious. I'll try harder tomorrow."

"Did you and Niffty have a fight? I did noticed you seemed rather distant toward each other." He shook his head. "You two are always so close. I may never understand the minds of teenage girls."

Your head drooped further, almost resting on the desk.

"Now, now. I'm sure everything will work itself out," said your teacher, surprisingly sympathetic. "You'd better run along, and I hope to see you with a smile on your face tomorrow morning."

You did as you were told before you started crying in front of him, almost crashing into another student in your rush out the door.

"There you are! I've been waiting for you!" Husk grumbled. "What did Pentious want with you? Don't tell me you got detention."

"Husk!" you yelped. "Sorry, I didn't mean to keep you waiting. Mr Pentious just wanted to have a talk. Don't worry, I didn't get detention. We can hang out now, if... if you still want to."

Husk shrugged. "Yeah, sure. You wanna grab coffee or something?"

Before long, the two of you were sitting at a small table in a quiet café, sipping coffee. Husk barely gave his black coffee time to cool before pouring it down his throat. It puzzled you how he could drink something so bitter and actually enjoy it. You sadly stared at the vanilla latte in front of you. Normally you loved sweet lattes, but today you weren't in the mood to enjoy it properly.

"Are you actually gonna drink that coffee or are you just gonna have a staring contest with it?" said Husk sarcastically.

You lifted the cup to your lips and took the tiniest of sips.

Husk rolled his eyes. "You might as well tell me what happened with you and Niffty, then."

So you did. You explained everything as coherently as you could while trying not to cry, from the letter, to the puddle, to Alastor asking you to the dance.

"He finally asked you, huh?" Husk smirked. "About time."

You sniffled. "What do you mean?"

"Al's had a crush on you for ages. He's always talking about you."

You felt the butterflies rising in your stomach again. "H-How do you know this?"

"Al's been my best friend for years. I know pretty much everything about him."

"Really?" You pondered for a second. "Then how come I never see you guys hanging out at school?"

Husk scowled. "We do. But everyone is too busy popping a boner for that jackass to even notice I'm there."

You felt a pang of guilt, although his choice of words amused you.

"He got thirteen of those stupid love letters," Husk continued. "Thirteen! He showed me every single one. You know Angel in our class? You won't believe the filth he wrote."

"I got a love letter from Al," you muttered, feeling even guiltier. "Do you know if he wrote letters for anyone else?"

Husk's ears twitched. "I don't think Al wrote ANY letters. How many did you get?"

"Just one. It had to be from him though, I don't know who else would've written it."

Husk was silent. He downed the rest of his coffee in one gulp, shuddering at the sudden caffeine hit.

"But you... didn't get any letters at all?" you asked delicately.

He scoffed. "You should know. You delivered them." Husk slumped a little in his seat. "Big surprise. As if anybody would wanna go to the dance with me."

"Don't say that!" you snapped, startling him and several others around you. "I've only been hanging out with you for a couple of hours and already I can see you're a sweet, caring person. If it weren't for you, I'd probably be sitting at home crying right now, but you offered your friendship when I needed it most! I only wish I'd gotten to know you sooner. Anybody would be lucky to go to the dance with you."

Awkward silence. Husk turned a deep shade of red and couldn't look you in the eyes anymore. He was always so quiet in class, you were just beginning to realise this was the first time you had spoken to him properly. You would never have guessed he had such low self-confidence.

You steered the conversation topic back to the Niffty situation. "Do you think I should break it off with Al?"

Husk shrugged. "It's hard to say. I guess you should just do whatever feels right."

You thought long and hard about Husk's words as you tried to sleep that night. 'Do whatever feels right'... at the time, saying yes to Alastor felt like it couldn't go wrong, but now you weren't sure what to do. You desperately wanted Niffty to be happy, but if you dumped Alastor, he'd be crushed. Burying your face into your pillow, you let out a cry of frustration. There was no easy way out.

But throughout this entire scenario, a single phrase continued repeating itself in your mind.

'Bows before bros!'

Those words alone told you exactly what you needed to do.