Josie felt hurt, and humiliated. But the thing hurting them the worst was the thing that crawled on the walls. It was there that day, too, and it had done something horrible during that apparently-fateful party. It had slipped its way between their eyes, into their blind spot and into their mind, encouraging them to say ridiculous things without even a care.

Marigold was unaware of his internal battle. “Well, I mean… it seems like you two are hitting it off again. He even went down to visit you!”

“Oh, I didn’t let him in my room,” they clarified. “Then he got super distant, and then he went back upstairs, and I… haven’t really heard from him since…”

She stared at them slack-jawed for a minute, then slowly put her beak back on. “Girl, you can not take a hint. Clean your damn room.”

Their eyebrows raised, and they opened their mouth a bit. Then they shut their mouth and simply nodded.

Alex was sitting in his office, wishing he had one of those desktop kinetic toys, when Josie unexpectedly burst into the room, giving him such a startle that he nearly slapped one of his mugs off his desk. “What? What is it?!”

“Dr. Process!” Josie was trembling like a leaf in the wind. “This is so important. Are we dating?”

That was the last thing he was expecting to hear from them. He was so shocked, he almost laughed. “Of course we’re dating! What makes you ask that?”

“Well, there was the Christmas party…”