“Same,” I say. “It’s been two weeks. He’s ready to talk now? Well, maybe I’m not.”

“He should’ve apologized to us the next day,” Fitz insists.

You just direct, like we’re all side characters in your story.

I can’t unhear how harsh it was.

How over it Henry sounded.

Over Melted.

Over me.

And I just want to cry.

If we didn’t duck into the bathroom, if we let Henry come and talk to us and say I don’t even know what—I’m not sure how it would go. I don’t know what a conversation with Henry looks like right now. Awkward at best. Confrontational at worst.

I hate that.

So I avoid it entirely. We hang out in the bathroom until the bell rings, choosing to be late for our next class instead. Then we book it.

I’m running on empty the next three periods. My three test periods.

So that’s great.

Thankfully, study is next. In the library, I claim a table by the window and shuffle through my planner. Most days, I dedicate this forty-five-minute period to powering through as much homework as possible, so nights can be more or less dedicated to Melted. But today? I spend half the period answering one math problem and fighting my eyelids.

“Zombie solidarity.”

Reid stands over me, a chai latte in hand.

“So. Many. Regrets.”

“Logan and I did a Kiskadee run during lunch,” Reid says as he places the chai on the table because oh… it’s for me. I must be making a strange expression, or maybe it occurs to Reid how truly out of character this is for us, because he takes a step backward and clarifies. “It’s not—I just thought you might need this as badly as I do. Codirector.”

I pick up the paper cup and its warmth radiates to my fingers. “Thanks.”

Reid nods once before exiting the library without another word, his cheeks tinted pink. Huh. Yesterday, I FaceTimed Reid out of the blue. Today, Reid brings me a chai unprompted.

At least this truce is doing strange things to both of us.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

We’ve worked so hard on Melted’s script—and finally it’s time for our true debut as codirectors.

Auditions are crammed into the half week of school before Thanksgiving break, with rehearsals set to start the week after. HAVE A HE(ART) meetings are also scheduled to reconvene, with Makayla and Cherish in charge of organizing the art auction that we still very much intend to have and rallying the rest of the groups. Because even though it feels like the whole world revolves around Melted, there is, of course, still a bigger picture.