Looking over my shoulder, I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that it was just Seth.

“Hey,” he said, awkwardly stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“Can I come in or . . . ?”

I quickly shuffled back a little in my seat. “Of course!”

“Thanks,” Seth muttered and sat down at our table. He was as pale as when I had left him with Amelia, dark circles under his eyes and his hair sticking up in every direction. His shoulders looked tense, his fingers nervously making fists and then loosening them again.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He raked a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure.”

“Have you finally eaten something?”

“Don’t feel like it.”

Noelle frowned and picked up her bag, rummaging through it until she found a chocolate bar that she tossed onto the desk in front of Seth. “There. Eat something. You look like you’re about to faint.”

Seth stared at her and then at the chocolate bar, as if it was something completely alien. Eventually, he picked it up and started unwrapping it with shaky hands.

I watched him carefully, making sure he ate the entire thing.

“Did you have anything to drink?”

“I drank like four cups of coffee. I thought the caffeine would make it better because I didn’t really sleep all night, but now I feel like my heart is going to explode,” he said, pressing a hand to his chest.

“Jesus, Seth.” I handed him my water bottle. “What happened?”

Seth took a few sips before going back to fidgeting nervously.

“After the play, when everyone was gone, Jasper and I, uh, brought some boxes to the basement and then on our way to our rooms he . . . he kissed me.”

Noelle tilted her head. “And why is that such a bad thing?”

“It’s not a bad thing. I mean it wasn’t, it felt really, really good—like insanely good—but then I went to my room and I couldn’t sleep all night and I had this really fucked-up nightmare and I kept thinking about him and what if this was just a one-time thing?” Seth said, almost stumbling over his words in his hurry to get them out.

“Why would you think that?” I asked. “I mean, he obviously really, really likes you, everyone can see that—”

“But what if he doesn’t like me like that?” Seth answered with a panicked look in his eyes. “You saw him after the play was over. What if this was just an adrenaline thing?”

“Seth, you’re overreacting. You just need to stop thinking so much.”

He snorted, dropping his head. “Yeah, tell that to my bloody brain.”

“Did he say anything to you at all after the kiss?” Noelle asked.

“He . . . he called me his sun.”

“His son?!”

“What? No, his sun. As in sunshine.”

“Ah.” Noelle grinned. “Such a charmer.”

“That doesn’t sound like he wasn’t taking it seriously to me,”

I said.

“I don’t know. I’m probably just thinking too much into it again,” Seth muttered and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “I’d just really like to know where we stand right now.”