Maddie's eyes remained solely focused on her lap, never once abandoning the sight of her black denim jeans in favor of anything remotely more interesting. Jason had grown bored of talking aloud and being ignored, so with an overdramatic sigh, he rested his head on his hand and stared at the nearly bare table. Luna sat across from him, but her eyes were trained on a table sitting on the other side of the cafeteria. Her brows narrowed down, and she was distractedly stabbing at her salad with a fork, completely forgetting to ever take a bite.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered.

"What?" Jason asked, perking up with interest now that someone else had finally decided to talk. "How awkwardly quiet we're being? I'll say, I have to agree-"

"No," Luna interrupted, shaking her head but keeping her eyes focused on the table across the room.

Madeline finally looked up from her lap and followed Luna's eyes to where Dylan, Zach, and Carson were all sitting. They were mixed in at a table with a few kids from the soccer team as well as some girls that were on the cheerleading squad. If she squinted, she was pretty sure she saw Lana sitting at the edge of the table, staring intently Carson. Madeline held back a scoff, only slightly eased by the fact that Carson hadn't so much as glanced in Lana's direction once.

"Just leave it alone," Maddie told Luna with no weight in her voice.

"Those are our friends," she continued, seemingly to herself more than the other two people at the table.

Before Maddie or Jason could say anything more, Luna had pushed herself up from the table and was marching across the cafeteria in the boys' direction. Jason and Maddie watched as Luna's hands slammed down on their table, drawing the attention of everyone sitting there.

"There's no way that's gonna go well," Jason cringed.

Luna was usually calm-tempered, frustratingly almost all the time. It was quite hard to actually do something bad enough to piss her off to the point of retaliation. One time in eighth grade, Maddie tried to test Luna's limits by stealing her bag of chips at lunch every day. Two weeks later, Maddie was sure Luna had finally had enough, and was shocked to find that Luna had brought Madeline an entire brown paper bag full of lunch foods because she assumed that Maddie's parents had been away and there was no food in her house. Moral of the story: Luna's really hard to piss off, which makes her even more scary when she is pissed off.

"No, definitely not," Maddie agreed.

They could only see Luna's backside, so they concentrated on the boys' reactions. As minutes pass, the two watched as the their faces slowly changed from detached to slightly annoyed to kind of shocked, then to downright fearful– Zach was practically cowering when Luna raised an arm and pointed in the direction of where Maddie and Jason sat.

It wasn't much longer before Zach and Dylan were both on their feet and defeatedly scurrying away from Luna. They slowly approached Maddie and Jason, constantly checking over their shoulder to check if Luna was behind them.

"Hey, guys," Zach greeted sheepishly, feigning a smile as he took the seat on Maddie's left.

"We thought we'd come join you for lunch," Dylan finished, plopping down next to Jason.

"Oh, how kind of you," Jason responded sarcastically, giving Dylan the side-eye. "Thinking of that all on your own, too."

No one said anything more, as all four of them turned their attention back to Luna, still hovering over the table where Carson still sat with a straight line on his face.

"What'd she say to you guys?" Madeline asked, watching as Luna wagged a finger pointedly in front of Carson's face.

Zach shrugged, "Just a couple of overdramatic threats. No biggie."

"Funny," Jason responded. "You all looked ready to piss your pants."

"Okay, so she may have suggested that we were childish little brats and a few other things in a very impolite tone."

Dylan hummed his agreement, "You're forgetting that she threatened to tell Samantha and the entire cheerleading squad some 'secret' about your underwear drawer."

He cringed, "I was trying to leave that part out. Should I tell them what she threatened you with?" Dylan held his hands up in surrender, quietly shaking his head.

They all watched as Carson spoke back to Luna, and although none of them could make out what he was saying, the tightness of his jaw and squareness of his eyes hinted that he was relatively angry.

Finally, Luna seemed to have lost the remains of her self-control, and she grabbed on to Carson by the shoulder of his t-shirt. With an exceptional amount of strength, she managed to haul Carson up from his seat and began forcibly dragging him in the direction of their table.

Luna practically tossed him into his seat before returning to her spot next to Maddie and picking up her fork and digging back into her salad like she had not spent the past seven minutes scaring her friends into eating with them.

Awkward looks passed between all of them, all slightly uncertain of how to break the tension.

"So, I got a really good picture of Mr. Phillips' butt last period," Jason said very nonchalantly, as if this was a normal conversation they would have if this was a normal lunch. However, this was not a normal lunch and this was not – actually, no, it is exactly a normal conversation Jason would start.

Dylan sighed, bringing his hand up to his temple, "J, how many times do we have to talk about how weird that is?"

"Okay, but wait until you see the picture to say that," Jason argued, pulling out his phone to search for the photo. "This one's a good one."

"Isn't Mr. Phillips almost thirty?" Zach asked. "And married?"

"Yes," Dylan responded at the same time that Jason let out an 'aha!' and shoved his phone into Dylan's face. Dylan very quickly glanced at the photo before rolling his eyes and deleting it off of Jason's phone.

"Dylan!"

"Dude, he's your math teacher, and you have enough photos to make an album of his ass," Dylan reasoned. "That's just weird."

"But have you seen his ass in khakis? God, he looks so good in khakis."

"Hey, so can we talk about something that's not a teacher's ass?" Luna asked, a hint of annoyance in her tone.

It seemed as though the guys had collectively decided to not get any further on her bad side than they already were today, so they moved on to talking about a movie that was coming out on Friday. Although everyone seemed pretty excited about seeing it, both Carson and Maddie elected to staying silent. Madeline stared disinterestedly stared at the table, stealing glances at Carson every now and then. Carson's eyes were fixed to the wall to his right, his lips curled into a frown.

"Okay, but we're getting two things of popcorn this time," Luna decided. "Zach and Jason literally devoured the entire box before the movie had even started last time."

Jason was spitting out some sort or retort at Luna when Carson quietly pushed himself up from the table. Everyone's eyes followed him, including Maddie's.

"Where are you going?" Dylan asked.

Carson shook his head before giving a shrug. "I just don't want to be here."

No one tried to stop him as he walked away and disappeared out the doors of the cafeteria. The table fell silent for a moment, Jason seemingly running out of foolish things to say to lighten the mood.

It wasn't long before Maddie stood up from the table, not even bothering to give her own half-hearted reason for ditching them, before rushing out the doors opposite of the ones Carson had left through.

"Well, now that they're gone, we might as well address it," Dylan said, running a hand through his hair.

"I know," Jason spoke first, before anyone else could. "Carson has been dressing like he's homeless, and I did not pay for his subscription to four different men's fashion magazines for a year so that he could-"

"Not the issue we were talking it about, J," Luna cut him off with a certain edge to her voice.

Jason rolled his eyes. "It's an issue worth addressing," he muttered under his breath.

"Let's start with the separate lunch tables," Luna provided, turning her attention back to Dylan. "I mean, seriously, Dyl?"

"He didn't want to sit with her!" Dylan defended. "Was I supposed to carry him to the table?"

"That would've been funny."

"Not the time, Zach."

Dylan sighed, "Look, for his sake, I won't go into detail, but he's still pretty hurt over the break up."

"So is Maddie," Luna added.

The two of them stared at one another for a while, neither having anything relevant to say. Dylan battled airing half-solutions and compromises, but none of them sounded good in his head– someone would always end up hurt. Luna was attempting to find a way to air her opinions without sounding biased, but even that was proving difficult.

"Look, I know it's a tough situation," Jason started.

Dylan pinched the bridge of his nose, "J, seriously, if you're just going to make a joke, now is really not the time."

"I actually wasn't going to make a joke," Jason said defensively, giving Dylan a nasty look. "What I was going to say is: I know that this is a tough situation, and we all want the best for both of them, but we were all friends first. Just because they've complicated things by dating does not mean we can or should be taking sides. We didn't do that when Zach and Luna broke up."

Luna and Zach glanced at one another. It was true, when they broke up, it almost went completely unmentioned. Everyone brushed it under the rug and acted like it never happened, and, after a while, it seemed less and less relevant. No one picked sides and no one was hurt.

"And we definitely should not be encouraging them by making efforts to support one of them while possibly hurting the other."

This time, Dylan and Luna exchanged a look of guilt as Jason's – surprisingly wise – words resonated with them. He was right: their friendship was made of thicker fiber than who loves who most.

"I agree," Zach said, resting his arms on the table. "They're both our friends. It doesn't seem right that years of a friend group like ours should end because they can't figure out their emotions."

Luna bit her lip, debating whether or not to shed light onto an extension of this minor crisis. However, it would have to come out sooner or later, and it was better to do it now while everyone was pouring their innermost feelings out onto the lunch table. "Maddie doesn't want to go on the class trip," she blurted.

"What?"

"What do you mean she doesn't want to go?" Jason asked. "It's Paris."

"She says she thinks it'll be easier for everyone if she stays home. That way there's no arguing or awkwardness."

"Please tell me you told her how stupid that is," Zach groaned.

Luna nodded, "Of course I did. Didn't change her mind, though."

"She's seriously not going?" Dylan asked. Luna shook her head.

"So, how do we fix this?"

"We just can't help them," Luna decides. "We won't give them any opportunities to change the flow or split up the friend group. And we get Maddie to come onto the trip– whether it's by her freewill or by shoving her into a carry-on suitcase."

Dylan nods, "If they want us, they have to have each other, too. That simple."

*

Simple was truly the worst word that could have been used to describe their plan to keep Carson and Maddie from splitting them all up. The idea itself was simple, sure, but the actual execution of the plan was truly gruesome.

Following lunch that day, nothing had really changed. Although the four all were fully committed to being neutral – or, as Jason put it, "Switzerland" – they all had separate classes in the afternoon, and couldn't monitor the Carson-Maddie situation. By the end of the day, despite a piss-poor attempt on Jason and Zach's part to stage a 'coup,' Maddie and Carson had yet to speak to one another, and they both seemed pretty set on keeping it that way.

The uncomfortable amount of silence only lasted for that afternoon and the day following. On Thursday, both Maddie and Carson grew tired of acting unbothered and sadness quickly turned into anger. Instead of averting his eyes, Carson would all but glare at Maddie. Instead of sulking around with a permanent frown on her face, Maddie would accidentally snap at anyone who tried to talk to her, especially if they brought up the topic of the class trip– or Carson.

Jason optimistically suggested that the situation would get worse before it got better, but the thick layer of tension that rest between all of them at lunch was enough to dissuade even him. No one dared to say anything out loud, in case it would be the final straw for either or their two most dramatic friends.

"I mean, really, Mads, I think you're being quite ridiculous," Dylan droned on beside her, casually leaned back in the seat of his desk while crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't care what you think," Madeline bit back; not too harsh, only enough to make him realize she was tired of this redundant conversation. For the first time in her life, she wished that class would start early, just so Dylan would be forced to stop pestering her. She glanced at the clock– two minutes seemed like forever.

She watched as two students rushed into the classroom, both scurrying to sit in the last few open seats and pull out last night's homework. "You're seriously not going to go because you feel bad for us?" Dylan asked. "That's a pretty lame reason considering all of us want you to come."

She scoffed, "Not all." Dylan rolled his eyes, gritting his jaw and shaking his head. "Besides, I have other reasons."

"You feel guilty," Dylan stated like it was the most obvious thing – it probably was – and taking Maddie's silence as a response. "You're punishing yourself because you don't think you deserve to have fun. That's silly, Madeline, and not normal."

Just as the bell rung, Carson sauntered into the room. His eyes scanned over the desk until he found an open one, the only open one, which was on Dylan's other side. His lips pressed firmly into a straight line, and he shifted on his feet. Maddie could tell with one glance at him that he was considering how bad the consequences would be if he ditched class– all because of a damn desk.

Maddie allowed her head to fall back, her hair freely hanging down as he let her head loll. "If you're going to give me another lecture about my self-destructive behavior, can we wait until like midnight? I've been having trouble falling asleep and I think that would knock me right out."

Dylan rolled his eyes and muttered something along the lines of smart-ass. He glanced over at Carson, who begrudgingly slid into the seat beside Dylan. He sighed. "All I'm going to say is that the forms are due tomorrow," he continued quietly. "So you should really think about what you're deciding before it's too late."

The teacher walked in a few moments later, dropping a thick binder on her desk with a loud thud. He turned his back to the class as he began writing things down on the whiteboard. Some students pulled out notebooks and were gracious enough to pretend to be taking notes, but this was an all-seniors class, and most of them had mentally checked out weeks ago.

"Decide what?" Carson asked, his tone gruff. It was clear he felt the need to be involved in the conversation, considering he wanted Dylan's attention, but he did his best to ignore Maddie.

Dylan spared a glance at Maddie, who said nothing and kept her eyes trained to the front of the room. "Nothing," he answered tiredly.

A few minutes passed before anyone spoke again. "This blows."

"Your mother told me that if I catch you in the act of skipping another class, I have her permission to kick your ass and hand deliver you to her or the principal," Dylan responded calmly.

Carson huffed, "Whatever. I could take you."

For a second, it seemed like this could be a normal conversation. For a second, it felt like they could pretend this was old times, and Maddie could say something like 'Hey, Carson. I'm here, too, though you probably couldn't see me over your big ego' or something with more thought or wit behind it. Only for a second, though, and she had to bite her tongue to keep any sort of comment to herself.

"I don't even have the paper," Maddie whispered to Dylan, occupying herself with a tedious conversation. Only fifteen minutes had passed since the bell rung, and each second stretched on for an hour. "I gave mine to Luna."

"I'm sure they've got extras," Dylan responded. "Just ask after class."

Maddie shook her head, "I've already made up my mind."

"Then why did you bring it up again?" He asked rationally.

"Because she likes to be the center of attention."

Madeline's head swiveled to Carson's direction. He sat unbothered with his legs kicked out in front of him, one ankle crossed over the other. One of his elbows rested on the surface of the desk, propping his head up on his hand, and his other arm was extended, as he casually flexed his fingers into a fist before relaxing them. If he felt the holes Madeline was burning into the side of his face with her eyes, he was certainly doing a great job of pretending he didn't.

"Okay," Dylan breathed out, shifting forward in his seat. "Let's maybe not go there."

"No, no. Let him speak," Madeline insisted, but it held a threat within. "He couldn't be bothered to speak a word to me in three weeks, and that's the first thing he says. I'd love to hear more."

Dylan opened his mouth, probably to stammer out some sort of diversion, but his thoughts were still scrambled when Carson had started speaking again.

"Of course you'd love to hear more about yourself. Like I said, you're an attention whore."

"Guys," Dylan warned, adding more weight in volume to his voice in hopes of gaining control over the situation. But he was ignored completely.

Madeline scoffed, "That's really the best you've got for me? I'm an attention whore– you held out for three weeks to come up with that one?"

"It doesn't have to be good, it just has to be accurate," Carson responded. "And it is."

Madeline rolled her eyes, and let out a small, humorless laugh. "You're wrong. And such an ass."

"I'm serious, you two need to stop," Dylan cautioned, trying to push himself far up enough in his seat to block Maddie and Carson's view of one another. "People are starting to look over."

Carson shook his head, the ghost of a smirk on his face. "I know you better than you know yourself. You love attention because you love anything that involves you."

Madeline wasn't sensitive enough that the comment should have bothered her. But it was the way he delivered the first part of the blow– I know you better than you know yourself. He hadn't said it bitterly or sarcastically. He spoke it truthfully. Like it was an inherent fact, one that practically pained him to know. And maybe it was, and maybe it did, because she felt that way about Carson– she felt she knew him better than he knew himself.