As soon as I got back to my dorm, proper tears started falling. Jess was in there, working at her desk, but when I entered she quickly got up and pulled me into a hug, no questions asked. Yet. She brought out her stash of comfort food, which included Doritos and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. We sat on her bed together, and soon George showed up since Jess had texted him to come over. They both waited until I had some food in me and was actually in Jess's bed before the questions started.

"Was it Luke?" Jess asked softly. "Did you guys have an argument?"

I nodded.

"I will totally kick his ass," George said casually. I glanced at his height and thin frame dubiously while Jess stated flatly, "George, I hate to break it to you, but Luke would finish you like a cheesecake."

I let out a small laugh. Jess glanced over at me and continued, "So, do you want to tell us why you two argued? I thought you were in a good place."

"We were," I muttered. "Until Nathan showed up at the studio."

"He fucking what?" George exclaimed. "Oh, I am going to murder that asshole."

"With flowers, as well," I added bitterly. "But yeah, he showed up, Luke got pissed and started trying to tell me what to do, which then pissed me off. Nathan's been constantly texting me, so–"

"Wait, what? He has?" Jess said in alarm. "Why didn't you tell us?"

I shrugged. "I thought he would give up. But... he didn't. So I thought that I would just talk to him to shut him up, but Luke basically said that I couldn't talk to him."

"So, naturally, because he said you couldn't, you felt the need to," George guessed and I gave him a look.

"I mean, I guess so. I went outside with him and he gave this long apology speech, telling me he's ended things with that Isobel person, and then he asked me to come to his room tonight–"

"He what?" George blurted out.

"Not like that," I said hastily. "He said he's got something to give me."

Jess raised an eyebrow. "What, like a present or something?"

I sighed. "I honestly have no idea. And I don't know what he thinks he's going to accomplish by giving me something – if it is a present it's not going to make me forgive him."

"So you're going," Jess clarified. I nodded. "And then he left the studio?"

I nodded again. "I went to talk to Luke, and that's when the proper argument started. I was annoyed at him for trying to order me around, but he couldn't really see why I would even want to talk to Nathan. Then I told him I was seeing him again tonight, and then we got on to the topic of our relationship because I let slip something completely stupid, and... ugh. It's a mess." I sniffed and wiped my eyes.

"Noelle..." George started, clearly thinking carefully about how to phrase whatever he was about to say. "Why were you willing to talk to Nathan? After what he did to you? I mean, surely it wasn't just to piss of Luke, right?"

I thought to myself. "I... it was..." Why did I talk to Nathan? I could have easily just turned around and gone back up to the studio. Nathan wouldn't have been able to come after me, and Luke and I wouldn't be in a fight. That would really have been the better solution. "Maybe it was because if I didn't talk to Nathan, Luke would have. Or rather, he might have punched him again, or something."

"Do you want to know what I think?" Jess said cautiously. "I think you've only got, like, four weeks left of the internship, and I think you and Luke are both very aware of that. Maybe you two are scared to leave each other, so if you create arguments out of small things, then you'll be mad at each other and you think it'll be easier."

George started laughing. "Okay, Jess, babe, next time I've got problems, I'm coming to you. You're like an actual therapist or something."

I was thinking about Jess's words. Maybe she was right. It didn't make that much sense to me, but maybe subconsciously that was what I was doing. My bottom lip started trembling again but I forced myself to stay calm. "That's actually good advice, Jess. And also, I'm sorry, you guys."

"What are you apologizing for?" George said in confusion.

I shrugged. "Just for, I don't know, having a sort of break down on you."

"Noelle, honey, you can have a break down on us any time you want," he reassured.

"And I will always have my stash of comfort food," Jess added, giving my arm a rub. "It's going to be okay, Noelle. You and Luke will get past this argument. You've had arguments before, right?"

"A couple," I mumbled. "But usually I've been mad at him, and I always knew I would forgive him–"

"And he knows he'll forgive you," she said soothingly. "Couples argue. It happens. It's what makes you stronger."

"That's cheesy," I grumbled.

"But true," George commented. "I mean, hell, Ross and I argue all the time, about the smallest things. But we move on. And so will you."

I nodded but then paused. "Wait. You two are official now?"

He grinned sheepishly. "As of a couple of days ago."

Jess gave a little shriek of surprise and hugged George while I reached up and ruffled his hair. "You should have told us sooner!"

He waved his hand dismissively. "It's not that big of a deal."

"It is," I insisted. "Let's go out tonight to celebrate. Then a frat party after?"

"What about Nathan?" Jess questioned.

"Oh, that'll take like two minutes. And if it doesn't, then I'll just leave. He's not worth my time," I stated firmly.

"You are so right," George agreed. "Want one of us to come with you?"

"No, I'll be fine. But shall we go out at eight-thirty ish?" I suggested.

"Sounds like a plan. Giovanni's?" Jess offered and George beamed at her.

"You know me well."

***

Eight rolled around and I was starting to dread having to go and see Nathan. No doubt his roommate, Kyle – who hates me – would also be there. I was never really sure why he hated me. I remembered when I encountered him on the day I found out about Nathan and Isobel, and he made a snarky comment about Nathan always being at the flower store to buy flowers for me. Maybe he had really bad hay fever.

I snorted to myself as I walked down the corridors. I made myself laugh.

When I reached their room, I stopped and just stood there for a while. I really didn't want to go in. Maybe I should have just done what Luke said.

This firmed my resolve. Luke couldn't tell me what to do.

I knocked on the door and waited, twiddling with my hair nervously. Nathan opened it, a smile on his face.

"Don't smile at me like that," I warned. "I'm only here for whatever you've got to give me, then I'm going."

He didn't even look offended. He just kept smiling. "Of course. Come on in."

I stepped inside warily, seeing that Kyle was lying on his bed, earphones in and doing something on his laptop. His eyes briefly flickered up to me but quickly returned to his laptop, a completely unimpressed expression on his face. Yeah, he still hates me.

"You look really pretty," Nathan commented, and I turned back to him.

"You," I pointed a finger at him, "Do not get to say things like that."

He held his hands up in defense. "Fine, I was just making an observation. Are you going somewhere?"

"Yeah, so you better make this quick," I grumbled. I wasn't here for nice chit chat.

"Are you going to that frat party?"

"Yes," I snapped. "Stop asking question and just tell me why I'm here." I tapped my foot impatiently.

"Okay, chill." He paused. "I guess I'll see you there." I raised an eyebrow. "The guy hosting is on the soccer team with me."

I groaned internally. I really didn't want Nathan to be going to this party. The point of tonight was for my friends and I to have some fun, and to not have to deal with boy problems. "Outstanding. Now can you stop making small talk? I don't have time for this."

"Fine, fine. Well, when we, uh, broke up–"

"You mean when you cheated on me?" I interrupted, not in the mood for his deflections.

Nathan winced. "Yeah, well, it was about to be our six-month anniversary," he told me, as if I didn't know that. Of course I knew that. Not that I got him a present or anything.

"So?"

"So, I bought something for you. And rather than just have it sit in my room, I thought I should give it to you." Nathan picked up a box sitting on his desk and handed it to me. I didn't open it yet. I just stared at it.

"Why now?" I asked. "Why wait until now to give it to me?"

He grimaced slightly. "Well, at first I was too angry – at you, at Luke, at myself. But soon I realized I didn't have the right to be mad at you or Luke. You did nothing wrong. I was just displacing my anger at myself onto other people. And I realize that now."

I still didn't open it. "Why didn't you just give it to your side chick, or something?"

"Why would I do that?"

I just looked at him. "Uh, because you cheated on me with her?"

"But, Noelle..." He groaned. "Just open it. You'll see why."

Finally I took the lid off to reveal a necklace with a silver 'N' attached. I hated to say it, but it was beautiful. And it looked expensive.

"You don't have to take it," Nathan said quickly. "I just thought I would show it to you. I mean, you can see why I couldn't give it to Isobel, right?"

I shrugged.

"I wouldn't have given it to her, anyway, even if it didn't have an 'N' on it, because you're much more important to me. I hope you know that."

I met Nathan's gaze and saw nothing but tenderness and apology in his face. I hated that expression. I looked down at the necklace again. I kind of had no idea what to say, or what to do, whether to take the necklace or not. I put the lid back on, choosing to not decide now what to do. "Nathan, it's a nice gesture, but if I was that important to you, you wouldn't have cheated on me." It was a blunt statement, but it was true. I wasn't sure if Nathan thought this necklace would make me more in favor of forgiving him. If he thought that, he was seriously wrong. I briefly looked at Kyle, who was apparently still concentrating on whatever was on his laptop.

"I will be forever apologizing for that," Nathan said to me in a low voice.

"You better be," I muttered. I was still watching Kyle. Something was eating at me. I was remembering the night I found out, and something didn't add up. "You remember that night?"

He flinched. "I try not to."

"Well, try now," I said flatly.

Nathan sighed and said quietly, "Well, you came to my dorm, right? To talk?"

"Yeah, because you asked me to."

He frowned. "When?"

I gave him a look. "Uh, the note? The flowers – they were tulips?"

Nathan looked utterly confused. "You hate tulips."

He was right. I did. "Are you saying you didn't leave flowers and a note in my room on that day?"

"I didn't leave flowers and a note in your room on that day," he confirmed. "What did the note say?"

"Just that you wanted to talk." I observed him suspiciously. "Are you sure-"

"Noelle," he said in annoyance. "Why would I lie about this? If I left you a note saying I wanted to talk, wouldn't I have been in my room, and not in, um–"

"Isobel's. Yeah. Whatever." I scowled at him. "Well, if you didn't leave the note and flowers, who did?"

"Got me." Nathan ran a hand through his hair.

"Okay, well, I've gotta go," I said, taking a step towards the door.

"Wait, but how are we going to figure out who left the note?"

"I don't know," I responded, frustrated. "But I have to be somewhere."

"Can I text you?" he asked, a little too hopefully.

"No."

"Come on, Noelle, aren't you curious about who left the note?" Nathan dropped his voice. "It could have been from someone who wanted you to find out about Isobel and I."

"And who might that be?" I questioned impatiently.

He observed me for a moment. "Maybe it was your new boyfriend."

I rolled my eyes so high I thought they were going to go into the back of my head. "Oh for fuck's sake, Nathan. Luke wouldn't do that. He didn't know, and how would he? No one knew, right?"

Nathan looked down. "Right."

"God, I can't believe you would even suggest that," I said in slight disgust. "I'm going now." I was about to leave before I stopped and turned around. "And by the way, you can keep the necklace." I slammed it down on his desk and left without a backwards glance.

I shouldn't have gone to talk to Nathan. All he'd done was put me in a bad mood. Luke had been right, and that pissed me off more than anything.

But... something had come out of that. We'd figured out there was a chance that me finding out about him and Isobel wasn't an accident. Someone else had put those flowers there, and had wanted me to catch Nathan cheating. Who would do that?

When I got back to my dorm, I told Jess and George everything that had happened. They looked just as stumped as I felt.

"This is some gossip girl shit right here," George commented, pacing the room. "Was it signed, like, 'XOXO, Nathan'?"

Jess and I laughed. "No, I mean, it was signed 'Nathan' but no XOXO." I sighed. "I thought I was done with Nathan. But he wants to figure this out."

"You don't, like, have to find out who did it, if you don't want to. You know that right?" George said. "You can be done with Nathan, if you want."

I pressed my lips together. "I know. But I'm curious. In a way, I'm sort of thankful to whoever did it. If I hadn't found out about Nathan and Isobel on my own, I'm not sure he would have told me. And then I'd be in a very different place to the one I'm in now."

Jess and George nodded in acknowledgement, but then Jess clapped her hands. "Let's forget about Nathan for tonight. Let's go out and just have some fun. We can decide what to do about all this shit some other time. Tonight is for us."

"Agreed," I said with a smile. So we left, and we didn't think about Nathan, or Luke, or anyone at all.