ghost girl

- what your muse’s name is in mine’s phone

Andrea Pearson ( V boring I know )                  

- what your muse’s picture is in mine’s phone           

- what your muse’s ringtone is in mine’s phone                            

Nice To Have a Friend by Taylor Swift 

- my muse’s last text to your muse

[ 2:45 ] I know it’s been awhile since we’ve talked but someone gave me some bio notes to give to you [ 2: 46 ] I think they thought I was Kat [ 2:46 ] Figured you might need them for class [ 2: 46 ] I put them on your bunk 

- what your muse’s name is in mine’s phone

Connor ( The Guy Who Saved You ) Roberts

- what your muse’s picture is in mine’s phone 

- what your muse’s ringtone is in mine’s phone                          

Listen To Your Friend by Declan McKenna

- my muse’s last text to your muse

[ 12:39 pm ] So I know you made me promise that I would let you know if I went out again and I don’t know if you actually care or not but I’m at this bar called in The Round Up a few towns over 

[ 12:45 pm ] They have a mechanical bull 

[ 12:55 pm ] That seemed like relevant information at the time 

when she pressed the cloth to her knee and winced at the cleaning touch he wished there was more he could do. his mother was a nurse, he wished he’d absorbed some useful information from her but all he could bring to mind was keep wounds clean, apply pressure, and seek professional help. he felt worse when she revealed no one had known she left because she didn’t have any friends. he pressed his lips together as he thought for a moment. he’d gotten lucky. at broadripple he’d quickly found a group of outcasts to call friends, back home he’d had a small group of friends since early childhood, and even without those people, he’d always had casey. since the womb they’d been stuck with each other for better or worse. even if he felt alone, like no one understood him or wanted to – he’d never been alone in the way that astrid described. 

it left him at a total loss for words. he couldn’t assure her that she was wrong because he didn’t know. he didn’t want to offer his own friendship in that moment because, well, it felt inappropriate. though he’d helped her he’d still been the weirdo wandering around by himself at night with a camera. she’d at least clearly been somewhere. thankfully, then she asked something of him. he lifted his shoulders, a half ass shrug. “ who would i tell? ” he asked rhetorically in response. even if he wanted to tell anyone about this, he couldn’t imagine anyone believing him. “ your secret’s safe with me. ” he promised after a moment, holding his hands up in surrender. 

but he couldn’t stop there. he couldn’t quite just leave it. as evident by the series of awkward questions he’d already asked and the fact that he was still standing there. her answers were only making him feel more concerned for her, about more than just her knee. “ don’t you worry? ” he asked after another moment of silence. “ people not knowing where you are, and all that, ” he didn’t say what he was thinking but what if she had really, really hurt herself and no one knew. what if she didn’t make it back to the cabins and no one knew. he was worried about it and he didn’t even know her.

She adverted her blue eyes from his face, instead focusing on the damp wash cloth pressed to her knee. She stared at it with such intensity that one would think it was the most fascinating thing in the world, when really she couldn’t bare to look at his face. She didn’t want to know what his reaction her confession would be. He didn’t seem cruel so he wouldn’t scoff but maybe he would feel awkward and uncomfortable, or worse, feel pity for her. She didn’t mind being friendless, she had always been more comfortable with her own company, and in her limited experience with the connection of friendship she found that it could be a double edged sword.  

“Thank you...” She breathed, looking at him just long enough to send a slight smile his way before looking down again. She wasn’t totally sure if she believed him, after all it was hard to keep secrets in a place like Broadripple, she should know, she has overheard many of them. He at least seemed to mean it, for now. 

Her eyes shot up to look at him when he asked ‘Don’t you worry?’, her brows knitting together in confusion. Truthfully she had never thought of it like that, but he made a good point. What if something happened to her? Would she become the next student at Broadripple to just...vanish? “I guess...I guess I never thought of that...” She chewed on her bottom lip, thinking of the right words. “People don’t notice me...Which is fine, I don’t mind, not really...” She took a deep breath, almost as if talking so much made her winded. “I mean, you’ve never noticed me, right?” She phrased it like a question, but it wasn’t really, more like a fact. No one noticed her, she didn’t say it in a self pitying way, it was just the truth. “If no one knows where I am anyway why would leaving campus change anything?” 

“I’m...Astrid...by the way.” She realized that he probably didn’t know her name. She had already said more to him than she said to anyone on an average day, and he now knew more about her than most people at Broadripple besides her few friends, and he knew her secret, which was more than anyone in the whole world. It was only fitting that he knew her name. 

𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐒, 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓. “Maybe. I don’t really remember. I’m not in the habit of ordering the chicken pot pie at every restaurant I go to, so I can’t compare.” He lifts his gaze, shrugging. “But it was decent. I mean, really, what restaurant’s claim to fame is their chicken pot pie?”

His movements are big, overdone, and it’s only when he sits back up that he senses a flicker of discomfort coming from the other. He’s unsure of whether to ask her to sit, or if that would put her in an even more awkward situation, so he stays silent, hands clasped in front of him.

“She’s not dead, by the way,” he finally clarifies. “My mom. I - I just don’t see her all that much.” The tension, it’s subconscious, uncontrollable, overtakes his entire being, and he’s eager to release it, but something grips tighter, suffocating his insides, turning his lungs inside out. What results is a single breath, exhaled with the weight of something greater than he could ever describe.

It’s a relief when she shows him her phone, and truly, she hadn’t been lying. “Got a lot of moods there,” he comments, the corners of his mouth turning up. Rion leans back into the bench, continuing his curious expression from before. “So you don’t have a favorite genre that you listen to?”

A chuckle so soft that if you weren’t paying close attention you would miss it escaped Astrid’s lips. “The pot pie must be really good or everything else must be really bad.” She mused, the smallest of smiles playing at her lips. “And it’s only the best pot pie in Maine...Not even the east coast.”

 “Oh…” She said, her eyebrows raising ever so slightly. She was going to ask about his mom but she would be lying if she said she wasn’t curious. “That good...I mean it’s good that she’s not dead, not uh, not good that you don’t see her...Unless it is! Which is uh...Fine too, I guess.” Shut up, shut up, shut up, she thought, clenching her teeth together to keep from spewing any more nonsense. Her face flush deep red, and she hoped that it was still dark enough that she couldn’t tell. Should she ask him more questions about his mother? Offer him sympathy? She wished that she was socially skilled so that she could think of the perfect thing to say.

 She shuffled closer to where he was sitting, feeling a bit more comfortable now that they were talking about music. “Well my dad is a music theory professor, so he always wanted us to have diverse taste.” She said, fiddling with her headphones. “You should see his record collection, it’s amazing, really he has every record you could ever think of.” She became slightly animated when she talked about music, a stark contrast to her normally docile demeanor. “If I had to chose...I guess classical, but thats mostly because I play the piano.” She realized she was rambling and clamped down on her bottom lip with her teeth, suddenly feeling self conscious. “What uh...What do you like?”

now wet wash cloth in hand he turned back to face astrid, awaiting her answer. he felt the hesitation like it was manifesting physically in between them. it made him regret asking. truthfully it wasn’t his business, and he realised that more when she hesitated. he wasn’t owed some explanation just because he helped her. he’d helped her because she’d looked like she had hurt herself. if he wanted anything from helping her that made him a dick, and he didn’t want to be that. not at all.

but she did tell him. she did explain. in a way at least, he still had more questions but he held his tongue for a second. still regretting the first question. even if he didn’t think she owed him an explanation, and didn’t want her to think she owed him an explanation either, she still might think she did. he held the cloth out to her as she spoke so she could clean her wound. he wondered many things. like where had she gone, the dress implied some sort of party but the fact that conny had helped her and not anyone else implied she’d gone alone. how had she gotten there, how had she gotten back. why was she by herself. he didn’t know if he should ask any of them, much less how he should ask them.

“ the doors are kind of janky, i think everything sort of is around here, ” he decided to comment instead. focusing on the thing she said that he could relate to. “ it might have locked on its own, ” he offered, though he did suspect it was far more likely that someone had done it just probably not with the intention of locking astrid out. he held his breath for a moment, already knowing what he wanted to ask next. he didn’t want her to be uncomfortable, but again, he wanted to know. he would likely regret it the moment he asked, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad because he was alone too. he wasn’t judging, he just wanted to know what had led to her falling out of the window. “ and there wasn’t, like, anyone to let you back in? ” he asked, already hating what he was asking “ no one knew you snuck out? not, like, any friends? ” 

Astrid studied his face closely, trying to decipher what he was thinking. She didn’t see any judgement in his eyes, but maybe a bit of...what was it exactly? Not embarrassment exactly, maybe regret? Her brows knitted together in confusion. What did he have to be regretful about? After all she was the one who had been caught, scantily dressed, breaking God knows how many rules. Maybe he was feeling second hand embarrassment for her sake, she couldn’t blame him if that was the case, personally she wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole. 

 She silently took the damp rag from his hands, hissing slightly as she pressed it into her skinned knee. Was her wild night out worth it? Sure it had given her a rush at the time, and the drink had given her a temporary buzz but that was before she had ended up on the forest floor, and more importantly, before she had gotten caught. How long had she thought she could get away with this? She had gotten so used to no one noticed her she didn’t even think of the possibility of getting caught. She was the Ghost Girl, she was the last person people would expect to be breaking the rules and sneaking off to dive bars in the middle of the night. 

 Astrid had always been good at reading people, and she could tell that Connor was gearing up to ask her more questions, and she braced herself for the obvious. Where did you go? How did you get there? Why are you dressed like you belong on a street corner? She wasn’t expecting him to ask her about her friends. “I uh…” Astrid had a small – very small – handful of acquaintances at Broadripple, and an even smaller amount of friends. Two friends to be exact, and not even Kat and Isobel knew about her little habit. “I don’t really have many friends…” It sounded pathetic coming out of her mouth but it was the truth, there was a reason she had a reputation for flying under the radar. 

 “Please…” She started, chewing on her lip awkward. “Please don’t tell anyone about this okay?” She pleaded, looking up at him with her big blue eyes. “I mean...No one knows that I, you know, sneak out of anything.”

“Yeah, definitely a bit on the nose…” Emma couldn’t fight the amused smirk on her lips if she tried. Ghost Girl had jokes. That she didn’t hate. Color her surprised. Between Best Coast and the humble sense of humor, Emma had to admit she didn’t regret telling Astrid she could stick around. The Melleray junior observed her for a moment, head tilting to the side. She wondered then if Astrid had people she spent time with, someone who didn’t bring up that barely creative nickname every two seconds and make her feel like an intruder for innocently wandering into a public space. “Does the ghost handbook say anything about appearing in music videos? I could use some shots of someone walking around this place…” Olive branch: extended.

Astrid felt something stir inside her at the sight of Emma’s amused smile. Was it pride? Astrid didn’t know much about the other junior girl but she could gather that it might be hard to get that reaction from her. She knew that they were sharing a room in the cabins, Astrid had noticed her unpacking just as quickly as she had. She wasn’t so prideful that she thought they could be best friends, but maybe...confidants? “Oh um...” She chewed on her lips, trying to fight down the anxiety that was threatening to freeze her in place. It was obvious that this was some kind of olive branch, Astrid didn’t want to ruin that just because she felt silly in front of the camera. “Do I have to like...pose?” 

    The upturn of her lips, even if extremely brief, made Jay relax a little. He understood that sometimes people got anxious, or just weren’t great at talking to others, but he didn’t mind. He could do all the talking if people wanted him to, he was good at that. Still, it was good to see she at least received some of what he was saying well. It filled him with a bit of confidence. “That’s fair. I can get behind that,” He nodded with a grin when actually he couldn’t. Jay was a bunches of people kind of person, he loved people, he liked talking, he loved learning about other people. But anybody who paid a little bit of attention to him already knew that.

    Sighing, he nodded. “I guess it can be kind of like that out here, you know, with the elements and stuff. I’m glad it hasn’t bucketed down or something yet, imagine being stuck in a storm or something.” It was dark, damp and clustered with dirt already he could just imagine everything being swamped in mud at the slightest bit of rainfall. “But you gotta admit, it’s kind of amazing.” He looked around them. “Like, photos can’t even do this place justice.”

Astrid awkwardly nodded her head, giving him another small smile. She knew he was trying to be nice, but she had seen Jay around school, he was friendly, talkative, and always seemed to be around people. Nothing like her, but he wasn’t laughing at her or trying to convince her to branch out so she didn’t press on the subject. 

Anxiety started to climb up Astrid’s body. She hadn’t even thought about rain, at least now she could go on long walks, come to the run down church to escape, if the weather turned they would all be stuck in the cabins, without any form of escape. “I uh...I guess I hadn’t thought of that.” Astrid mumbled, swallowing the lump of anxiety that had formed in her throat. 

“Yeah pretty spooky...” She said in a wistful voice, looking at her surroundings. She didn’t mean it in a bad way, she actually found the decaying building oddly comforting. “I wonder how long for the crowds to descend...” She said almost to herself.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 is a concerted effort between her mind and her breath and her mouth, and he raises his head along with her inhale, nodding as she finally utters specific. It’s not the word he expects her to say, but he supposes it’s accurate. His gaze falls to the words, and the corners of his mouth perk up. “Nice that clothes can have good memories attached to them, huh?” Simultaneously, Rion gestures to her pants, having caught the hint of her smile when he’d commented on her pants. Funny how when the world was quiet, noticing things like that became easier. 

A slight chuckle falls from his mouth, sensing her defensiveness over her music choices. “Well, that was what I was asking. Sometimes I let Spotify kind of take over after a playlist ends…” Rion swings his legs over, finally sitting upright, as he leans on his knees, hands clasped.

“My mom loved Stevie Nicks.” He doesn’t know why he says that, it’s just the first thing that flies into his mind. It dawns on him that he uses the past tense, though she isn’t dead. Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t know if she’d still listened to Fleetwood Mac. Turning away, he sniffs, before glancing back at the girl. “Hold up — do you put the entirety of your Liked Songs on shuffle?” 

Astrid smiled ever so slightly, nodding her head in agreement. She thought of her extensive collection of junky sweaters, how some still smelled like home, and how they made her feel cozy and safe. “Is it really the best chicken pot pie?” She asked, curiosity getting the best of her. 

She shifted when he moved, her shoulder rising, as if she would fly away if he made any more sudden movements. Her blue eyes stayed trained on him, shifting from one foot to another. She wasn’t used to being alone with people, or people asking her questions, or even looking at her. She liked that she was practically invisible to her classmates, she worked hard to keep it that way, but this early morning walk had changed that. 

“She has – had good tase.” She said, hoping that he didn’t catch her slip of the tongue, or that her face had bloomed into a bright red blush. She wanted to ask what he meant by ‘loved’ but she didn’t want to pry, and it felt awkward to ask him such a personal question when they hadn’t spoken so much as a few words to each other before this moment. “Uh yeah....I have so much music downloaded I tend to forget what I added so it’s always a surprise.” She inched a little bit closer to him, angling her phone so he could see her screen, and began to scroll through her liked songs, giving him a glimpse of just how much she had saved. “I can’t keep track of half the stuff on here, it’s like a surprise each time.” Astrid may be shy but she could always find confidence when it came to music.

She’s got jokes. He thought smilling to himself, he thought of opening his mouth to say something but his attention was pulled to the corner of the church where he heard shuffling. A bird had been alerted of their presence and it flew away from it’s nest to somewhere further deep into the church.

“Yeah, it really fucking it, isn’t it?” Milo tried not to think back to what awaited for him in the cabins but it was hard not to. If he was anything he was a pessimist, as much as he hoped things didn’t turn out that bad in the end and that he might find something worth sticking around in the Retreat for, it just wasn’t in his nature. It was safer if you were already prepared for disappointment, then the fall didn’t hit as hard.

“I know what you mean.” He sighed. He knew that feeling a little too well. Milo was good around people, as long as it involved the use of sarcastic comments or passive agressive remarks. He knew how to make people trust him if he needed something from them, like father like son. But he was always waiting for them to mess up, to do something, that would either break his trust or hurt him in some way, that was why he prefered to keep everyone at at arm’s length — with the exception of Lucy, of course. “You know? For a hiding spot,” He said looking around. “I think we hit the jackpot.” In the condition oft he place he seriously doubted someone else might wander off and decide to step inside the old church. 

Astrid's gaze followed his to the birds that were flying through the church. "They're warblers..." She stated, pointing towards the little birds, flying around with a care in the world. “Not sure what kind...theres like, um, a million different kind of warblers but they’re all over this area...My dad is really into birds.” She said with a shrug, suddenly feeling awkward, because who really cared about what kind of bird it was?

She let go of a breath that she hadn’t realized she had been holding, relieved to know that he didn’t think that she was a freak. “Do you uh, do you at least like who you’re bunking with?” Astrid didn’t even want to think about who she had to spend indefinite future changing in front of, especially Drea, the person she had worked so hard to avoid since Freshman year. She only had two friends in the school, was it really too much to ask that she could bunk with them?

“You won’t um...” She chewed on her lip, looking down at her feet. “You won’t tell anyone about it will you?” She practically winced at how pathetic she sounded, like a child who didn’t want to share. She didn’t own the ruins after all, and even if she did, they found it together, so he as much ownership as she did, if any. But she had already grown attached to the old church, could already see it as the perfect place to escape to. “I just mean, uh, of course you can bring whoever you want...I just...um...Never mind, forget I said anything.”

𝐈𝐅 𝐇𝐄'𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐎𝐁𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐓, Rion would’ve noticed her skittishness, the way she jolts to an abrupt stop when she notices him on the bench. The girl’s vaguely familiar, but then again, everyone is to Rion, who has a good memory for academic facts and faces, but not one for names. “Yeah, well,” he starts, exhaling a small breath, “I’m not.” An obvious statement in reply to hers, and deep blues regarding her with a curious expression.

A single deliberate pause later, he nods towards her pants, delightfully loud for someone who seemed to be so shy. “I like your PJs,” he finally comments, amused, not at all meant to deride the blonde. Frankly, he isn’t one to talk, considering he’s clad in sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt emblazoned with KENNY’S — THE BEST DAMN CHICKEN POT PIE IN MAINE!, stolen all those years ago from the restaurant as a trivial prank. “Listening to anything good?”

Astrid awkwardly chewed on her bottom lip, looking anywhere but at Orion. Like the majority of Broadripple’s student body, Astrid didn’t know him very well, but she had observed him from time to time. When had he come to school? A year ago maybe? All Astrid really knew is that he joined the long list of people she didn’t want to run into before the break of dawn while she was in her bunny pajamas. 

“Uh, thanks? My mom got them for me.” She phrased it like a question as she looked down at the soft cotton bottoms, smiling despite herself at the sight of the cartoon bunny rabbits, sleeping with little Zzzzs floating around the. “I like your um, chicken pot pie shirt. It’s very...” She took a deep breath, as if talking this much was physically exhausting, which for Astrid, it kind of was. “specific.” Jesus, just shut up, she thought to herself. 

“I mean, I think it’s good.” She said twisting her headphones around her slender fingers. “I guess, I just mean, um...You might not like it, music is subjective.” Why couldn’t she just saw Yes like a normal person? She wished that the earth would open up and swallow her whole. “It’s uh Stevie Nicks, but it’s on shuffle, for all I know it will be the Bach next...Or Metallica.”

Was that… Best Coast? Emma swore she was hearing their track Feeling Ok right now. Color her surprised. She didn’t peg Astrid for an indie rock type of girl. Emma assumed she was strictly on Beethoven’s dick with the way she knew her way around a piano. “Make it into a sort of music video. Sometimes I talk over it. Shit like that.” She wasn’t entirely comfortable explaining her hobby, she wasn’t sure why. Maybe she was just protective over it, didn’t want to risk exposing it to the wrong sort of people who wouldn’t get it. Not that Astrid gave those vibes but you could never be too careful. “You do anything else besides play piano and hang around old ruins? Or are those strictly the only hobbies you’re allowed to have as a ghost?” A beat. “I’m kidding.” And then, “But seriously, what do you do?”

"Oh thats, um, thats really cool." She said it softly, almost a whisper, but she meant it. She liked hearing about people’s hobbies, or their passions, she liked how their eyes lit up with interest. Even if she didn’t know a lot about it, she could listen to people describe their interests forever, studying how they could get so excited over something that she had never even thought about before. Despite the fact that the joke was at her own expense Astrid’s lips quirked up in a smile, just for a minute. “No the ghost handbook is very strict about hobbies, I could take up pottery but thats a little cliche.” 

alexei’s gaze pans towards the blonde haired girl, seemingly distant. the kind of person that was physically in one place, but her eye’s seemed to be in another world away. she’s in… shock? wouldn’t most people be expecting him to be in trouble? a bout of humoured air, and a smirk curling in the corner of his lips “you tell me, sweetheart.” alexei keeps his attention fixed upon hers, blowing out a bout of smoke. 

She hoped that she didn't look like a deer in the headlights, even though she expected that that was, in fact, exactly what she looked like. “Well um,” She chewed on her lip, looking up and down the hall, as if he could be talking to someone else. “You’re not?” She phrased it like a question, because while she was sure that no, he could not smoke that in here, she was pretty sure that people like Alexei lived by their own rules. 

“I’m guessing he didn’t tell you that you needed more friends.” She mumbled, almost to herself, gesturing towards the office door.

”Stop laughing at my suffering!I’m trying to have a moment of mourning!This is a catastrophe!”,she declared.the bottom lip isobel used to make things go her own way was well and truly out and she did an excellent job at keeping a straight face.she knew her reaction was absurd and she didn’t mind what made astrid laugh as long as she was laughing.getting astrid to come out of her shell felt like an achievement.she took naturally to being the reclusive ghost girl of broadripple but isobel’s instincts told her that astrid had hidden depth once you scratched the surface.she thought that her instincts were never wrong.”i suppose so but every occasion is a special occasion when i’m here.”,she joked with a quick flip of her hair.she wasn’t egotistical enough to believe that her mere presence was a blessing but she wanted to be like the it’s a small world ride at dissneyworld ,known by everyone but hated by many for being irritating,

"I'm not laughing!" Astrid said defensively, despite the gleeful lilt in her voice and the smirk that she was working hard to suppress. She bumped her shoulder against Isobel’s in solidarity, giving her a smile that to some might seem to small to those who knew Astrid it was practically a grin. “Well this is very true, the school should name a wing after you, I can see it now. The Isobel Butler Auditorium!” She said in a dramatic nature that she had learned from Isobel herself before breaking into a fit of giggles. “Well I could take some of you snowglobes if you want, I could like, foster them or something, and you could visit as much as you wanted!”

in some ways her response was surprising, in others it wasn’t at all. on one hand, she was injured, having to cling to connor’s shoulder just to walk. if it were conny in that much pain, he’d want more help than a useless senior. on the other, the dress, the fact that it was well after lights out, the fact that she’d hurt herself trying to climb through a window – yeah, he supposed when he thought about it that way, he probably wouldn’t be too keen on it seeing the sister. either way, her reaction ( mainly the volume of it ) spooked him a little. a little jump in his step, and a glance away to double check no one had heard and stuck their head out a window. 

“ s’alright, that’s fair, ” he assured, looking back ahead as they drew closer to the little camp kitchen off the main hall. “ but you’ll go speak to the nurse tomorrow if it’s not any better, right? ” he was sure she would, and was also sure she wouldn’t need connor’s help there either, but he liked to check. he wanted to be sure that in the morning when they’d both try and pretend this didn’t happen to save themselves getting in trouble she’d look after herself. 

as they reach the side of the main hall, connor directs them towards a picnic table. carefully, he set her down on one of the benches. making sure she was totally stable before he moved away completely. quietly as possible he gathered a clean cloth and dampened it under the tap. letting it trickle onto the cloth as to not make too much noise. after all, to his knowledge the teachers stayed in the main hall. they could be mere feet away and nothing but a thin wall between them for all he knew. but that didn’t stop him from talking. making sure to keep his voice low. “ what were you doing climbing through a window? ” he asked, looking back to her for a moment. “ if you don’t mind me asking, ” he added a second later, he meant it but he did still want to know what she had been doing.

Astrid felt a surge of gratitude towards the senior boy. His name was Connor wasn't it? She wondered if he even knew who she was, if that even mattered. He was being kind, she didn’t think that too many other of her classmates would give her the same courtesy. “Thank you.” She said, the relief palpable in her voice. Was that the third time she had thanked him now, in a span of only a few minutes? “Sure, I’ll go see the nurse.” This was probably a lie but she was too surprised by his concern to laugh it off. 

She clutched his his shoulder as they walked to the dinning hall, hoping that he thought her shaking was from the pain and not the realization that someone had caught her red handed. She sat down on the bench, examining the scrape on her knee as he went to get a washcloth. It wasn’t so bad, no worse than a scrape that you got when you fell off your bike, it was the way her leg had twisted that hurt the most. She pressed her hand against her knee, feeling slight relief from the pressure only for the pain to come back worse when she let go, but at least it distracted her for a moment from the fact that she was barely dressed and had just been found sneaking back after lights off. 

She froze when he asked the inevitable question. Her thoughts raced with lies and excuses but she doubted that he would believe any of them. “No I guess I don’t mind...” She really didn’t mind that he was asking, if she was in his shoes she would want to know too. “I was trying to get back into the cabins, they locked the front door...” She chewed on her lip, debating wether or not she should say more. “I sort of, um, well...I sort of snuck out earlier...Obviously.” She said, gesturing to her outfit that she had no excuse wearing in a campsite at night.