"I'm so glad you're back," Rapunzel told Thomas. "I missed you."

Thomas tore his eyes away from something over Rapunzel's shoulder. "Yeah. Me too."

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "You're distracted, aren't you? If I turn around, I better not see a certain brunette." She stared at him, challenging him to deny it. He held her gaze for a moment, but then looked down. "I knew it! Thomas, you gotta get over her."

"I was over her," Thomas protested. "Until I saw her again. It's easy not to think about someone when you don't see them for three months."

Rapunzel leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. "Thomas, Hercules is still after her and now Helga's gone. So…"

"I'm not going to pursue Meg. I broke up with her, it's done."

Rapunzel nodded in approval. "Good. You can do so much better."

"Like who?"

"I don't know," Rapunzel admitted. "But, there's gotta be a long list of girls who are better for you than Meg."

"You're biased. You never liked her."

"True."

"Well, don't worry; I'm not getting involved with that drama again."

"Good call."

Thomas looked over at Meg again. "Still…"

"No! You're done. Go find yourself a rebound and move on."

Thomas laughed. "Yes, ma'am."

"Thank you." Rapunzel picked up her sloppy joe sandwich. "Anyway. How was your summer?"

"Boring. Literally all I did was work in the mail room. I didn't know anybody, so when I wasn't at work, I just hung out at my dad's the whole time."

Rapunzel eyed him suspiciously. "You lied to me."

"What are you talking about?"

Rapunzel shoved her tray away from her and dropped her head in her hands. "You thought about Meg all summer, didn't you?"

"No-"

"Don't lie to me again. I know you did. You had all that time on your hands; what else would you do? You thought about her and wondered if she was with Hercules. You probably drove yourself crazy. You're hopeless."

"Oh, come on! You can't blame me. I loved her, Rapunzel. And we didn't exactly end things on good terms." Thomas ran his hand through his hair. "She was so mad at me. I hurt her."

"So? God knows she hurt you plenty."

"She didn't cheat on me. Hercules made the only thing up."

"He also said he lied about that, remember?" Rapunzel pointed out.

"I believe her."

Rapunzel picked up her sloppy joe again and took a big bite. "Here we go again."

"I already told you: I'm not getting involved with that again. I just need some closure. It'll do us both good."

The bell rang and Rapunzel dropped her sandwich back on the tray. "Just keep this in mind: you're my best friend and I'm in a band with her, so inevitably I'm gonna get caught in the middle of this."

"It's called closure for a reason. I need this to move on."

Thomas and Rapunzel tossed out their garbage and headed out of the cafeteria. "You're powerless against that body and those purple eyes. Just admit it: you're not strong enough to be face to face with her again."

"I'll prove you wrong. Meg doesn't mean anything to me anymore."

XXX

"…Meg doesn't mean anything to me anymore."

Meg hadn't meant to be eavesdropping, but she couldn't help hearing Thomas as he and Rapunzel walked passed her.

Meg's heart sank. She hadn't been hoping to get back together with him, not after how things ended. But, she also hadn't expected him to hate her.

"Meg." A strong hand seized her wrist. On instinct, she pulled away. When she saw it was Hercules, she realized her instinct had been correct.

"Leave me alone, Hercules. I don't know how many times I have to say that before you finally get it."

"I need to talk to you. Now."

"No."

"Please? Just hear me out. Afterwards, if you still hate me, I'll leave you alone."

Meg studied him. "You swear?"

"I swear."

Meg led him away from the crowd leaving the cafeteria. "All right. But, make it quick."

"I never wanted to be with Helga. She kinda blackmailed me into it."

Meg rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. That's ridiculous. What could she have possibly had over you?"

Hercules shifted his weight awkwardly. "Actually, it's what she had over you."

Meg couldn't help laughing out loud. "Let me get this straight: you're expecting me to believe that you cheated on me with Helga because she had something on me? Yeah, right. Even if that's true, why wouldn't you just come to me first? Why was your first instinct to cheat on me?"

"She came to me at the Homecoming dance. She told me she knew about you hooking up with Gaston-"

"What?" Meg hissed. "How did she find out about that?"

"I don't know. But, she told me if I didn't leave you for her, she was going to tell Vanessa. I knew how much your friendship with Vanessa meant to you, so I agreed. She wanted me to prove I was going to follow through-"

"So you slept with her." Meg's breathing became heavy in anger. "But Vanessa stopped being friends with me as soon as we broke up. You could have come clean then. And why didn't you just tell me what was happening at the dance. Why humiliate me like that?"

"I didn't want to ruin any chance you might have had at being friends with Vanessa again, so I stayed with Helga. And I tried telling you, but you wouldn't listen to me."

Meg wanted to lash out at him. She bit her lip to keep from doing so; she bit it so hard she drew blood. For some reason, she hated him even more now. "Vanessa wasn't with Gaston when he and I hooked up. We didn't do anything wrong. You should have just let Helga tell her. But, instead, you humiliated me, ruined my reputation and put Helga in position where she always had something to use against me."

"I thought I was doing the right thing. I'm so sorry."

Meg held up her hand to stop him from saying anything. She shook her head and just walked away. It didn't matter what his intentions were, it didn't excuse him from what he did. She would never forgive him.