The details of that morning were fuzzy; a haze of shouting and blurry eyes, but he knew she had been there with him. He faintly remembered her pink, watery, hazel irises, and the way her skin crinkled between her eyebrows with fear at the sobbing, panicked mess of a boy shaking at her feet. He recalled the way her voice broke when he screamed at her to get out. He really hadn't meant to hurt her. And he felt sorry for the person to have to had been there to witness his falling apart, something that had become all-too-routine for him. This time had been worse, though; worse than it had been in a while. Talking to Charlie on the roof that night had triggered some blockaded memory in the back of his head that he could only foggily remember fragments of, but whatever it was, it sent shivers up the back of his spine he couldn't explain. A day ago he had deemed her as his stalker, and now he found himself longing for her gaze on his back once more. Ms. Grant's class floated with a different aura this time around. He rested his head flat on his desk and closed his eyes. His hands twiddled anxiously in his lap.

"Mr. Prescott, you aren't sleeping in my class, are you?" The droning lecture came to sudden a stand-still as everyone's eyes landed on him. Ms. Grant put a hand on her hip impatiently as she waited for an explanation as to why he thought interrupting her class was appropriate.

"No, sorry." He sat himself up straight, his cheeks burning with embarrassment. For the first time, Nathan found himself lacking a snide response, and decided it wasn't worth the trouble today.

"Good. I know we've only got two minutes left, but continuing on with…" One by one, everyone turned back to their textbooks and resumed the riveting lesson Ms. Grant was determined to get through before the bell rang. Nathan turned around to see if perhaps the disruption had caught Charlie's attention, but he was surprised to see that she, too, had her head resting in her textbook. He rubbed his eyes, facing forward again, and tapped his feet irritably until the bell finally went off. He grabbed his bag, taking his time, hoping to give her a chance to catch up with him if she so desired. Why he wanted her to approach him so badly? Maybe he craved her acknowledgement, just so he could stop questioning his sanity and whether or not that night had happened at all. He stalled for as long as he could and finally glanced at her desk to find it empty. He averted his attention to the door, hoping he could at least catch a glimpse of her before she ran out. She was stalled at the front of the classroom, talking to Ms. Grant, who was cocking her head to the side expressing a look of concern. Nathan slowly walked past the desk, hoping to catch onto their conversation.

"…hope you're getting enough sleep. You never sleep in my class." The woman put a hand on Charlie's shoulder and squeezed it.

"I'm sorry, I was up all night finishing up a paper for Hoida's class. I wouldn't ever sleep in your class purposely, but sometimes you can't really help the fatigue."

"I know what you mean. I was a teenager once too. I'm not angry with you, I just want you to know I'm here if you need to talk about anything that's bothering you. We all are."

"Right, thanks… I know." Charlie smiled weakly at her. Nathan bit the inside of his cheek as he listened to her obviously made-up excuse, but the teacher didn't seem to catch on.

"Alright, I'll let you get to your next class now." Ms. Grant dropped her hand and waved the girl off. Charlie turned towards the door, meeting eyes with Nathan for a split second. He opened his mouth, almost about to say something, but she quickly looked down and dashed out of the class before he could, leaving him with an even more sickening feeling of discomfiture. Nathan dropped his gaze and followed her out the door.

"And you, Nathan." He stopped in his tracks. "I know you've got a lot of 'extracurricular' activities going on at night, but you need to make sure you aren't making up for sleep in my class." The teacher's voice took an apparent change in tone from when she was talking to Charlie, and Nathan felt his heart pumping with anxiety. He ignored her comment and stormed out of the classroom without saying a word.

Charlie strode past the parking lot as a shortcut back to her dorm. It was only ten a.m., but she really wasn't in the mood to do anything but sleep. She noticed a tall, shaggy-haired figure standing in the lot. Warren was leaning against the hood of his, presumably, new car that he'd been bragging about, and Max was standing adjacent from him with her arms crossed. They seemed evidently irritated by whatever it was they were talking about.

"Hey Charlie," Max greeted softly as she strode by. Warren looked slightly disappointed that she had run into them in their time alone, but smiled warmly anyway and waved at her.

"Hey dude, how's it goin'?" he asked.

"It's going as good as it can at a shitty art school, I guess." Charlie shrugged.

"Tell me about it," Max groaned.

"We were just talking about how off-the-wall Nathan's been lately. Have you noticed? Man, he really needs to chill out." Warren shook his head. Charlie raised an eyebrow at them, shifting her weight to one leg.

"What about Nathan?" She asked.

"Dude's been bullying Max." Max gave Warren a wary look in which he returned with an apologetic shrug.

"Bullying how?" Charlie asked, clearly piqued.

"You know, the usual, 'I rule this school and I can do terrible things to you and it won't matter!' business." Max muttered.

"Really…"

"Yeah, he's been extra high-strung these past few days… Something's definitely up with him." Max nodded.

"Well duh, the guy's a nutcase. Good thing his parents have enough money to hire as many therapists as he needs." Warren chuckled.

"That's not funny, Warren." Charlie snapped. He immediately stopped laughing. His eyes widened like prey about to be caught as she took a step closer to him. "You can't go around analyzing people like you know them. What if he does have issues?" She argued bluntly.

"Uh, the guy does have issues. Anyone can see that." Warren scratched the back of his neck nervously at the sudden shift in mood. "Don't tell me you're defending that asshole Charlie?" Max looked back and forth at the two of them, as if waiting for a response.

"I'm not defending anybody; I'm just saying it's a dick move to go around picking fun at other peoples' problems."

"You know him and Victoria have been hassling Kate lately?" Max interrupted, "I heard them bullying her about that…video." She rubbed her elbow. She seemed just as nervous as Warren at Charlie's sudden change in character.

"What?"

"They get some kind of sick kick out of it." Max sighed. Charlie bit her lip, realizing that for a moment it seemed she had almost forgotten who Nathan Prescott actually was. Slowly fathoming what Max had just said, she realized it wasn't that surprising after all. She slowly took a step back, her body progressively filling with regret.

"Actually, you should go talk to her… someone should. Kate's been looking so sad in the hallways lately, but whenever I ask her what's wrong she just ignores me. She only ever really talks to you, Charlie." Warren murmured.

"I've tried too… she hasn't been opening up." Max said, "Maybe you should go talk to her."

"Yeah, I'll go do that." Her voice sounded distant. "Thanks for uh… letting me know. I'll see you guys later." Charlie waved them off and headed back in the direction of the main school building. Max and Warren took a moment, giving each other a staggered look before resuming their conversation.

Charlie found them sitting on the desks in Mr. Jefferson's room like a pair of arrogant, snobby, rats. There weren't many students who had arrived yet, and the two weren't trying too hard to keep their voices down anyway. She approached them at a furious pace and stood square in front of them. The duo stopped their conversation abruptly and Victoria gave the girl a glance up and down.

"What do you want?" The blonde asked snarkily. Looking at her smug face now, Charlie realized the two had actually never shared a real conversation before, but she already knew she would never want to. Charlie ignored her comment and looked straight at Nathan instead as she spoke.

"Leave Kate the fuck alone." The sound of her brazen words silenced the murmurs of the few students who were in the room.

"What the hell? What is that supposed to mean?—"

"You know what I mean, Victoria." She volleyed back, before the other girl could finish her fake clueless act. "Stop fucking spreading rumors about her. Don't even talk about Kate. Keep her name out of your dirty mouth." Her accusations—though true—took Victoria completely off guard and she made a show of putting a hand on her chest, absolutely aghast. Nathan narrowed his eyes at Charlie, and leaned forward on his knees,

"Why don't you fucking leave huh? Who do you think you're talking to?" His snarled lowly. His forehead was right up against her nose, but Charlie's expression remained unchanged as she continued to stare straight into his beady blue eyes.

"Do you want her to go missing too?" She asked. Suddenly his face changed. Nathan's eyes widened and it looked like he was going to be sick. He softened his stance and sat up straight, averting his eyes away from her.

"What the hell does that mean? I'm not doing anything. The girl did it all to herself at that party, right Nathan?" She turned to him for validation, but he wasn't paying attention to her. Instead he leaned back onto the desk and cleared his throat before growling,

"Why don't you get outta here Charlie." But it didn't scare her. She only raised an eyebrow in response as the two stared each other down. Victoria realized Charlie had been talking at him the entire time, and had not even once glanced at her.

"Victoria," She started, finally breaking the tension with Nathan and shifting her eyes towards the blonde girl, "if you don't leave Kate alone, I will go into your dorm, and smash all your expensive rich-kid cameras, and bury it along with your huge fucking ego." Her face was so close that they were practically breathing in each other's breath. Victoria was simply horrorstruck, along with the rest of the students that had just shown up and decided to listen in on the little brawl going on.

"W-what the fuck did you just say to me?" She stuttered in disbelief. The class was only silent for a moment, and then the murmurs began.

"You heard me just fine." Charlie said. She gave Nathan one last remorseful look before turning to leave the classroom. Whispers about how "quiet little Charlie" just dissed Victoria followed her out the door. Nathan was absolutely livid, even more-so than Victoria. He hated the way Charlie had just gawked at him with disappointment, as if he owed her anything. Just a moment ago he craved so badly for her to just look at him, and now that she had, he absolutely hated it. He hated her, and her stupid haunting eyes that he wished didn't showcase so much of how she felt. Victoria still sat dumbfounded at what just happened and put a hand on her forehead.

"Did you hear that? What the fuck is her problem?" She scoffed, getting off of the desk. Nathan simply shook his head, but couldn't bring himself to say anything back.

Steam was practically fuming out of Charlie's ears as she made her way back to her dorm. She was on her way to find Kate, hoping the two could have a pleasant conversation that would calm her down from the disaster that had just taken place in Mr. Jefferson's class. She could almost see her room window when she ran into the last person she had wanted to encounter. David Madsen was, once again, scoping around the girl's dorm like it was routine. There was no way to avoid him this time. She took a deep breath and headed towards the front door as cooly as she could.

"You," He called. Of course. She reluctantly rolled her head in his direction.

"Yes?" She asked.

"I know it was you the other day. What the hell were you doing running around with a boy that early in the morning? We got rules here at Blackwell, you know that? And one of those rules is no mixing of the girls and boys in either dorm." He was practically spitting in her face as he spoke, and she was not in the mood to be interrogated. But she kept her face calm. She had already had enough confrontation for today and especially didn't want any from a Blackwell employee.

"Mr. Madsen—"

"And don't go telling me it wasn't you, cause I know it was. You think you were being sly by ducking your head down, huh? And who was that guy with you?" Charlie put her hand on the back of her neck and cracked it frustratedly.

"It was me, and I apologize. I know we're not allowed to have boys in the girls' dorm. Rest assured, we weren't doing anything we shouldn't be. We were studying late and he fell asleep—when we woke up we tried to sneak him back into the boys dorm so we wouldn't get in trouble. That's all."

"Oh yeah? I'm sure." He snarled dubiously. "Who was it?"

"I don't think—"

"Your boyfriend ain't getting cut loose just cause you're tryin' to cover for him."

"Mr. Madsen, I don't think my love life is any of your business."

"I am head security at this school, everything is my business." He stated angrily. She could tell he wasn't buying any of it.

"I really don't want to get anyone else into trouble, but I promise we won't do it again."

"That ain't good enough—"

"Anyway, I have to go now, I left something in my room and I have class in—ten minutes! If you'll excuse me." She quickly scurried away into the girls dorm, knowing he wouldn't be allowed to follow her. She could hear him grunt unsatisfied as she disappeared into the dorms; Once again escaping the wrath of Blackwell security. She almost felt bad for the guy; she knew full well that he was just trying to do his job, and felt guilty for having made it so much more difficult on him. Then again, her love life really wasn't any of his business. Instead of heading up to the third floor towards her room, Charlie stopped at the first floor to see if Kate might be in her room.

Warren was right; Charlie did consider Kate to be one of her closest friends, but it was true that recently they hadn't been talking as much as usual. Charlie was bad at keeping relationships constant, and she felt especially guilty that she hadn't been checking to see if Kate had been alright as of the latest happenings. She'd been so wrapped up in her own life that she'd completely forgotten about Kate's whole fiasco, which was of much higher priority than anything else at the moment. Before knocking on her door, Charlie caught sight of the demeaning message—probably from Victoria—scribbled on Kate's whiteboard and angrily wiped it away with her sleeve. She took a deep breath, and was just about to knock when she heard voices murmuring inside. It sounded like Kate was already talking to someone else. Charlie resisted the urge to press her ear against the door, mostly because it wouldn't have looked good for her if someone saw her. She sighed, disappointed at her wasted efforts, and turned towards the stairwell, deciding she could take a nap in the meanwhile and check back on her later.

Charlie's room was always messy. Not dirty, just messy. Clothes lay strew all over her floor, empty water bottles covered her desk, rendering it almost useless. The fact that her walls were cluttered in posters didn't help the cramped feeling, either. When the room was clean—and it rarely was—the posters added a nice homey atmosphere, but not now. They only made the walls look like they were receding in. The ironic thing was, Charlie hated messy rooms; but somehow she always managed to get it back to this state. Somewhere around the fourth time of intense cleaning she decided her efforts were futile and swore the room was meant to be like this.

She threw herself on her twin sized bed, the only spot not covered in clothes—and kicked off her worn shoes. She ran a hand through her tangled hair and closed her eyes. In the darkness of her eyelids, she visualized the night before, and tried to fathom exactly what had happened. What in the world possessed her to hide the keys from him? The entire fiasco would have been avoided if she hadn't pulled such a stupid stunt. And more importantly, what the hell happened to Nathan that had made him so afraid to the point of having a practically epileptic episode? It couldn't have been just any nightmare. He was shaking. His eyes were blurred, ringed with pink and watery. If she didn't know any better she would've thought he had seem a glimpse into the future, and known it'd be darker than all hell. It scared her, to see such a normally pompous boy become so small and afraid. It made her feel some ounce of sympathy for him, despite what she thought of him before. She was still fuming from their conversation in Jefferson's class, but she was less upset with him and more at Victoria for denying all the foul rumors she'd been spreading about Kate. Nathan was nasty, and he was rude, but she doubted that he was the one who'd been spreading Kate's video around. He was many things, but he wouldn't ever sink that low, not like Victoria would. Charlie covered her face in embarrassment as she recollected on what she had said to Victoria in front of everyone. She meant every word, but still, she shouldn't have made her anger so blatant. She had a feeling her days of being a nobody at Blackwell were slowly coming to an end. She turned herself over on her side and nestled her head into her pillow. The smell of her shampoo lulled her into a light sleep, and before she knew it, she was out.

A couple knocks on the door startled her awake. She awoke feeling like her dream had been interrupted, and glanced over sleepily at her alarm clock. Somehow she'd managed to fall asleep for twenty minutes. The knocks continued and banged in her head. "Door's open," She mumbled, half awake.

"Hey, Charlie, did I wake you?" Max's soft voice suddenly compensated for her obnoxious knocking and Charlie sat up to greet the girl.

"No, thanks, I needed to get up anyway." She yawned and patted the side of her bed for Max to sit down, but she politely refused the offer.

"Okay, good. I need to talk to you." She did that thing she always did when she was uncomfortable. Max had one arm gripping the inner elbow of the other and her legs slightly spread apart.

"Alright, what's going on? Am I in trouble?" Charlie joked, scratching her head sleepily.

"No, it's about Kate." Charlie cocked her head to show interest in what the girl had to say. "Listen, Charlie, this is for Kate's well-being, so don't hold out on me, okay?" she only nodded in response. "Okay, what do you know about Nathan Prescott?" Charlie was surprised that that was the first question to be asked. What did Nathan have to do with Kate? She thought for a while before answering,

"I know he's got issues."

"What kind of issues?" Max prodded.

"I'm not really sure."

"Charlie," Max decided to take up the offer and sat down beside her. Charlie scooted back a bit to make room between the two of them. Max's downturned eyebrows made her realize this wouldn't be as pleasant of a conversation as she thought. "This is for Kate's sake. Don't you care about Kate?" She asked. Her know-it-all tone of voice made Charlie scrunch up her nose.

"I'm closer to Kate than anyone at this school, Max. Don't go acting like you know her better than me."

"Then why haven't you been there for her at all these past few weeks?" Max's voice grew in volume as she began to get frustrated.

"You don't get to tell me whether or not I'm there for her, Max. Only she can tell me that."

"Kate is in her room right now, contemplating suicide! And instead of stopping by to see if she's okay, you've been sneaking around with Nathan Prescott? The guy you know has been bullying her and probably the main reason she wants to kill herself?" Max was almost yelling at this point, and it made the other girl shrivel back into her bed. "You haven't been there for her, don't pretend like you have." Charlie's heart suddenly sank to her feet. Juliet must have already spread the rumors; of course. Typical journalist. She was furious at Max's accusations, but at the same time she knew the girl was absolutely right. Every word she said was undeniably true. She hadn't bothered to speak to Kate at all for the past week, even though she was well aware that her friend was probably going through hell. Charlie's own self-absorbed nature was her biggest flaw, and frankly she was embarrassed, and ashamed. Max's determination to help Kate was relentless; she was being a good friend. Charlie was not. "I'm…sorry I didn't mean to yell."

"Max," Charlie pinched the bridge of her nose, "Look…I'm sorry. I promise you I would tell you if I knew anything, but I don't. I appreciate you taking care of Kate while I'm being a neglectful asshole. I'll go talk to her soon. Kate's a good friend. And so are you." Charlie sighed. She knew when to admit defeat, and this had been a major one. Max stood up,

"I'm just saying, you better start looking out for your friends more. There are some crazy things happening around Blackwell, and Kate needs you in the meanwhile. You know where I am if you need me." She fixed the strap on her messenger bag and gave Charlie one last glance before leaving the room. As soon as the door shut closed, Charlie stuffed her face into her pillow once more and gripped the corners of her bed sheets tightly. Warm tears soaked into the white fabric as she cried silently, letting the guilt of being a selfish, egotistical friend fill up her entire body. The thought of poor, innocent, beautiful Kate, sitting alone in her room, pressing a knife against her wrist, or pressing a gun up against her temple made Charlie want to vomit; she'd rather grab it from her and do it to herself just to rid the image from her mind. She needed to help Kate, starting now, and she knew the first place she had to go.