Hannah and her shower caddy were gone from the dorm by the time Cat returned. Their regularly scheduled lunch was coming up as soon as water polo was done, but all she could bring herself to do was lay down on her bed and breathe. Why was this so exhausting? She used to work and go to school every single day for years, never had a day off to sleep in or take a nap, and it was all fine. Even most of last semester, she could handle anything.

But now an early morning appointment and a conversation rendered her bedridden. At least there was that flu that Kelsey had, Cat thought to herself when Hannah returned from her shower.

“I think I’m coming down with something,” she lied. Her roommate hesitated as she played with her hair in the mirror, glancing back through the mirror.

“Are you getting what Kelsey got?” She shrugged. “Aw, come on! Kelsey’s finally better so we can all get lunch together!”

“Send my best,” Cat muttered as she draped a pillow over her head. Hannah sighed dramatically, but left her alone until she practically force-fed Cat soup for dinner.

Hannah had left to go to the movies with some girl she met on Tinder that evening, right when Cat felt well enough to actually do something other than sit in bed and read. Though she was a little behind on reading writing her essays. And she had more practice problems for pre-calc….

The weekend flew by fast enough for Cat to forget her conversation with Thomas and why she was exhausted in the first place. She wasn’t forced to face it until her shift started Monday night at Jittery Joes, when maybe about ten minutes into her shift, Cam strode in with a giant smile on his face. She was pouring milk into someone’s cup with a raised brow, and overfilled it when he surprised her by walking to the front of the line.

“Cam,” she started, shaking her head, “you have to wait just like everyone else. I can’t play favorites just because we’re friends--”

“I’m not ordering,” he said quickly. Upon further inspection, his clothes seemed a little damp, his hair still dripping.

“Late practice?”

“Yeah, it was a great practice.”

“I said--”

“I just wanted to say, I’m proud of you.” Cat set the jug of milk down a little too hard, squinting. She blindly reached for the cap to screw on, and her friend tapped the top of the machine she worked at to make sure he had her full attention. “No one said anything, but I know. And I’m proud of you.” She might have been failing her math class at the moment, but she could put two and two together. Cat’s eyes widened.

“Um--”

“Really. You’ve come so far so fast. You’re really kicking this PTSD thing’s ass!” When Cam said this, Jeffrey shot her a quizzical look as he punched some numbers into the register.

Cat didn’t return any enthusaism, glaring, instead, and spoke over the dings of the transaction. “Thanks, Cam. Maybe China didn’t hear you, though.”

“Oh--sorry. Just excited. Haven’t seen you yet today, but everything cleared out really well. I wanted to tell you.” After a quick glance of apology to her coworker, Cat left the latte for him to finish and scooted away to the far side of the counter, where Cam followed her like a bouncing little kid.

She crossed her arms. “What do you mean?” she whispered.

“I mean that we had a great practice today, because we finally got to play at all. Peter and I were talking about it--”

“Don’t tell him,” she blurted before he could finish. Cam was frozen in place for a moment, then looked behind his shoulder for a minute.

“Um, right, yeah, no...didn’t...do any of that.” He cleared his throat in the most convincing way. “Anyway, Nate’s not gone yet, ‘cause he’s still finishing out the month, but he’s dropping out because he can’t afford his sudden increase in rent.” Cat hardly had to look confused before he filled her in. “Turns out that if you pay month-to-month, the landlord can raise the rent at any time! Weird, huh?” She didn’t find that concept weird at all, because that was exactly why her family had to move three times in one year when she was in first grade, but she nodded very slowly. “Even weirder--did you know Thomas’ parents own half of Fraternity Row?” She couldn’t help but let a smile start to crack.

“Thomas raised the rent on Nate so he has to leave?” That sounded too good to be true. So he really did believe her--

“Yes!” Cameron finally figured out how to whisper, when it now didn’t matter that much. “Great job, Kitty-Cat.”

She laughed at him. “‘Great job’?”

“Yeah! You got a little justice! Not a full victory, but if his ass is gone, that’s a small one, right?” A sprinkle of warmth rose in her chest, and she shrugged, finally mirroring his excitement. “And he knows it was you, too. Like, he didn’t mention you at all this practice.” And, just as quickly, her smile faded.

“He what?” He talked about her at every practice? What the Hell?

“Yeah! So he’s quiet, so now Peter and I don’t have to shut him up.” Even though her friend still looked so pleased, she sobered a bit.

“You think maybe this might be a lesson for you to...not shut people up, too?” Cam looked confused, now. “How--what actually got you guys in trouble? Hannah said you just pushed each other.”

He pursed his lips in a way to try and look innocent, but it really didn’t work. “Um, yeah, no that’s...that’s it.” All she had to do was stare at him to make him squirm. “I mean, like, once. A couple times.” A beat. “A few times, and that last time, he fell more than Peter pushed, so, like...it doesn’t count and we shouldn’t have even gotten in trouble.” Cat could hardly even finish putting on a shocked expression before Cameron started to backtrack again. “And, like, is it ‘falling’ if there’s a wall there?”

“Cam!”

“I would argue he tripped backward more than was encouraged to fall.”

"Cam!"

“But the point is, it’s all good now!” He returned to his usual, sunshine expression. “And you’re getting back to your old strength. So everything’s good!” And, in such a fashion that could only be described as The Most Cameron Move Ever, he put on a toothy grin and held out his arms, nodding and silently urging her to celebrate with a hug. How could she say no to that?

She nearly tackled him over the counter when she squeezed his shoulders, and he pat her when he pulled away.

“That’s highly unprofessional of you, Cat,” he said when she returned to her side. “Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean you can play favorites.”

Even though everything Cameron reported to her that night was the highest form of relief, nerves still prickled at the edges of her stomach. She always knew how Cam was going to react to something--that was a given. But Peter? What would he say? And when he didn’t show up to lunch Wednesday night, the anticipation stretched so thin she nearly broke and asked Hannah to find out for her. But Hannah didn’t seem to be aware of anything yet...so for now, Cat opted to keep that lid shut.

Thursday, she was wound so tightly that she’d be going forward in time if she was a clock. Her second date with PumpkinKing was tonight--but she also had tutoring with Peter right beforehand, and she’d know for sure what he thought about everything she said to Thomas.

Then, there was the slight chance that maybe Peter didn’t want to talk about it. That maybe Thomas was tight-lipped and Cam was really just a King of Gossip as much as Hannah was a Master Detective. Surely, Peter would want to say something if he knew she had something to do with the changes in water polo, right?

But throughout their appointment, Peter never mentioned anything about water polo. From the moment she got there, he hounded her on the practice problems he assigned, drilled her about the theories they talked about in class right before her tutoring appointment.

“I’m spent,” she admitted when their hour was nearly up. It was getting late; the tutoring center was going to close in a couple hours, and she wanted to give herself a little extra time to prepare for her date. PumpkinKing couldn’t see her, but she still felt the need to dress up a little more. As the minute hand ticked closer to the hour hand on the clock directly behind Peter, the butterflies in her stomach fluttered even faster. If anyone could make her feel better about everything that happened, it was PumpkinKing.

Cat started to pack her things, shoving her new set of colored pens to the bottom of her bag before she grabbed her enourmous book.

“Cat.” Peter’s gentle voice halted her movements. With her book halfway into her bag, her eyes shifted up to him; his tone was a unique command, rarely used but so gentle and powerful. When her gaze met his, her book slipped out of her grasp and to the bottom of her bag without her intending to let go of it. His face was soft and relaxed, but the tiniest bit of warmth tugged at the sides of his eyes. He waited for her to respond, but her breath took any words that might have appeared. The sound of her bag sliding to the floor prompted him to continue. “I know--I know what you did for me.”

Peter must have been able to see her pulse quicken in the veins of her neck, or the tiniest gasp she made must have tipped him off that there was no way Cat could have predicted he would bring something like this up now. Really, in the middle of the tutoring center? Where people bustled about and groaned over midterms, and one guy in the very corner started to actually cry over his English essay?

He finally finished with, “I know that you told Thomas.” Cat was finally able to let out a breath, slowly, controlled. If she held it much longer, her limbs might have started tingling. But they seemed to do that already, hairs standing on end.

“I--” He inched forward against the table, interrupting her with his words now a whisper.

“I just wanted to say thanks.” She watched his lips form the sounds, the way they hardly parted. “I know you probably mostly did it for Cam, but still.” For Cam? The folds of his face didn’t show any hint of a lie; it made her brows furrow. Cam was never even sent to Tribunal. She never even thought of him in the first place. She kept adding his name to everything, sure, but it was never about him.

The knots in her stomach twisted even tighter; originally there for a separate cause of anxiety, now betrayed her for something a little more foreign, but so much more familiar. Staring at Peter like this, focused and unrelenting...was making her a little too nervous. Making her feel too jumpy, like her body might act on its own accord if she didn’t breathe more.

She still managed to try and speak. “You--” Resolve filled her lungs. “You pulled me out of a pond before I even actually knew your name.” She was the one that inched forward, now, even though she was normally so wary of his personal space before. “And if you didn’t do something when you saw me at--at the party--” Peter looked like he was going to say something, but she kept going: “If you weren’t around at either of those times, I could be dead or--” He flinched.

“Don’t say that--”

“I’m serious.” The air thickened. She tried keeping her face lax, but the weight of the moment kept her tense. Was it warm in here? It was getting warm in here. “Not letting you get kicked out for protecting me is less than bare minimum of what I could do. You have nothing to thank me for.” He didn’t seem convinced; his lips parted, as if he was about to protest, but she shook her head. “Even after everything….” But Cat’s words finally failed her.

“Everything?” Sounds of shuffling students were muffled behind him, somehow quieter than him, faded so far out of her focus.

Her throat tightened, but she swallowed her pride. “Everything--I’ve said. Even after I’ve been borderline cruel to you...just to get a rise out of you….” What was she doing? What was happening right now? Why couldn’t she look away from him, or lean back to her seat, or breathe? Only the slightest crinkle of his brow came into focus; the slight indentation, the hint of a dimple beside his lips, indicating he was trying not to smile.

“Not cruel,” he reassured. “Half of what you’ve said--I can never tell if you mean it to be, but it’s something I needed to hear.”

“You need to hear you’re an asshole?” Even though she kept her tone quiet, to keep the bubble of privacy around them, Peter’s laugh rang through, the forefront of her attention. Every other time he laughed this hard, he would throw his head back and she’d watch his Adam’s apple disturb the perfectly trimmed stubble on his neck, but this time, his eyes fell to the ground as he hid his grin from her. Cat fought the urge to force his chin back up so she could return to staring at his eyes. He recovered eventually, but shook his head.

“No, Cat…,” Peter said, his smile fading just slightly. “I think you know what I mean.” Her heartbeat rose to her throat when his eyes flickered to her lips. “You always know what I need.” And now she was distinctly aware of how he held his breath, how the invisible tug in her chest pulled her toward him just a little bit further--

Bzzzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzt!

Cat let out a small yelp and jumped back, her hand already covering her vibrating phone to try and shush it. But students and tutors stared at them all around the room while the thing nearly vibrated off the table. She clutched it tightly and hardly read the name of the alarm before she swiped it to silence. Five minute warning alarm...for her date.

“Oh, fuck,” she said to herself. Her date! Cat’s breath ran away from her; her head spun as she grabbed for her bag, her vision spotted from how quickly she rose from her chair. “I--I’ve--a thing--” she said through her gasps.

She stood behind the chair she pushed in, now, bag on her should as she finally regarded Peter. He blinked as if he just woke from a deep slumber, but a hard frown formed on his lips, and he didn’t look up at her. She knew that expression. Regret.

The ugly jab hardly reached her stomach when she said, “That--that was almost a mistake.” She hesitated, white-knuckling the strap of her bag. Peter didn’t look up to her directly, but he pursed his lips so tightly together they nearly disappeared.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said tightly, as if something was stuck in his throat.

Cat stammered, “D-d-don’t want to make, um, make you late for...your next...yeah.” But the urge to run overtook her, and she spun around and left before anything else could happen.

Running late, she messaged PumpkinKing while she stepped into the bitter, cold breeze. Be right there. His response made her stomach sink so, very low.

No problem. I’ll be online, waiting :)