Again... in a tree.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan sighed, groaning. "Possibly not talking to me is who she is. I've kind of blown off her texts for the last few days..."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Oh my gosh, do not eff that up just because of this. We're going to fix this. She is like supermodel hot. Well...She isn't crazy is she?"

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Well I kind of didn't want to go pulling her in deeper and then dying so that it hurt her more," he pointed out. "But I... yeah. Probably ought to fix that."

"And I don't know. Is letting me stick around a sign of craziness?"

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"If it is, I belong in the nut house," she smirked.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Well yeah, but what other crazy people do we know? You're a pretty small control group," he joked.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Well. Do your social media followers count? Probably not. Hrm. Things aren't looking good for my sanity."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"My social media self is not me," Ryan said firmly. "Well... okay, it's like me exaggerated horribly. So that's not a good indication."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Haley sure seems taken with you online and offline," she teased.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Yes, well, if it gets her to actually focus on class, I'll take it. Besides, as glued to her phone as she is, I'm probably going to have to teach her how to make social media her bitch before she does something publicly stupid on it."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"Point taken," she smiled. "So are you done hiding in the forest with a bottle? Want to raid the kitchen and plot your glorious return to having a chance with the gorgeous French woman?"

[Ryan Gabriel]

He shrugged. "If you're hungry, we can. I'm kind of comfortable right now, y'know?"

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"I'm never not hungry. But yeah...this is fine," she said snuggling against him, her face out of sight of his.

Idiot. You want him so bad.

Shut up! We're just friends. We can't ruin that.

[Ryan Gabriel]

He leaned his head against his, trying to ignore how many possibilities there were in this moment. "I'm scared," he admitted. She'd probably know exactly how much those two words cost him.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

[Ryan Gabriel]

He squeezed her hand in return. "I hate feeling helpless. But I don't know what I can actually do with something like this."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"We work with people. With Weaver...the headmistress...even...Vickie if we have to."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"...I think dying might be preferable."

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph let out a healthy laugh. "Oh good, I thought I was the only one that can't stand that bitch."

It was apparently a pretty strong feeling if she was willing to swear about it.