"Hey."

"Hey." Mina shifted her dress away from Fred as he took a seat next to her. She played with the fabric, waiting for him to talk, but not quite wanting to take the initiative for the conversation she knew needed to happen.

She wasn't even sure what she wanted out of this.

Hear him out? Sure.

But he could say anything. And if she had to deal with her feelings for him, she might scream. Or cry. Or both. She wanted to bury them deep down, only to never confront them again, but here they were resurfacing next to her despite her best wishes.

They sat silently, as Mina waited for Fred and as she assumed Fred was trying to figure out his words, together on that bench as the night sky shone down on them.

"So," Fred finally said, drawing it out as if he knew they needed to talk, but he also wanted to avoid the conversation. She looked over at him, hesitantly dropping her dress from her hands, ready to hear him out. He froze.

Mina raised her eyebrows slightly, waiting for the rest of his sentence to come out of his open mouth.

He smiled, and shook his head slightly, before looking back at her. "You look beautiful."

"Thanks," her voice tinged with confusion, and her heart hung with dread as the topic of their conversation still wasn't clear, "you wanted to talk about something?"

His smile fell, and part of her wanted to take it back, and just let him sit in whatever moment he had just been in. But she didn't and now they were here. The air hanging awkwardly around them, as he stared down at his hands in his lap.

"Things have obviously been a little awkward around us. I figured we should probably talk about whatever, because I would like to go back to being able to hang out with you."

"I am pretty great," she said, and he laughed, before bumping her shoulder with his.

"That's the Mina I missed." He murmured under his breath and she only barely caught his words. A blush worked its way across her face, and she nervously tucked a nonexistent piece of hair behind her ear.

She gulped for air, suddenly feeling way too hot despite the cool breeze.

"Where to start?" she asked to him, but mostly to herself.

"Why did you leave my house so suddenly over the summer?" He looked at her with a soft gaze, and despite the lack of pressure she felt, her hands grew clammy and her walls started to come back up.

"I forgot I had told my uncle I would be at his house early that morning," she said a little too fast, and he looked at her for a moment longer questionably.

"Really?"

"Mhm."

He watched her still, and she averted her gaze from his. "I don't believe you," she gasped for words, but he continued, "but you obviously don't want to talk about whatever, so I'll leave it. For now. I wrote you after that, why didn't you respond to any of my letters?"

Her eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "What letters?"

She could feel him growing frustrated, and he ran a hand through his hair as he let out an annoyed breath. "Pretending to not know about them doesn't help anything. Mina I sent you several letters, and I know they were received because I never had anything returned. If you didn't want to reply, then say that, but don't pretend that I didn't send them."

Mina felt insulted. As if she would pretend to not get a letter from him, what benefit would she get from that?

"I didn't get any letters, so I have no idea what you're talking about. And I don't like the insinuation that I would gaslight you just for the fun of it."

What about the World Cup?"

"What about the World Cup?" she asked, finding herself becoming more defensive by the moment.

"You were different. You didn't seem the same, and you had some guy with you."

She let out a breath.

She wasn't stupid, she could read the insinuation. She couldn't have any other friends? He was upset she had other friends when he was dating one of her friends? Maybe his apology earlier had been fake. Maybe he really was heartless, and didn't care about her feelings. He only cared about the reaction he got out of her.

"Nikolai?" She asked, trying to get a check on her temper, but already knowing it was a hopeless attempt. She was getting too worked up.

"And you go around with him all the time, completely ignoring your other friends." His voice was raising, and she rose form the bench. She didn't need this. He wanted to talk, and she could handle talking. She wouldn't sit here and be accused of things, and have her choices picked apart by him. He was one to talk.

"Newsflash, I'm allowed to have other friends." She grabbed her bag off the bench, done with this entirely. He stood up.

"But I don't want to be just-"

"-Fred?"

Angelina's voice cut through like a cold breeze. They both shut their mouths, Mina grinding her teeth. She took her time walking over, but when she finally reached them she wrapped her hands around Fred's arm. Fred seemed annoyed, but she was sure it was because she didn't want to sit patiently as he criticized all her life choices.

Angelina smirked at Mina as she spoke. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Nope." The word harshly left her mouth.

"Then you don't mind if I steal him, do you?"

Mina met Fred's eyes as she snapped out her words. "Go for it, he's all yours." She turned to walk away. Angelina was supposed to be her friend, but she was almost sure that they were a couple meant to be together solely to torment her.

She managed a few steps before she heard some shuffling and then some footsteps.

"Wait," a hand fell on her shoulder, and she turned, but she shrugged it off angrily, "Mina we have to talk."

"No, we don't. I'm done. I'm not just going to sit there as you pick things out that you don't like about my life and make up lies about me." Her eyes drifted behind him, to Angelina looking upset, standing where they were a moment ago.

"I'm not doing that."

"Yes, you are. I'm not going to have an argument about this." She turned but she was stopped again.

"You can't just ignore the people that care about you."

"Oh, so now you care about me?"

"Mina, of course I do."

"Because it doesn't feel like it-"

"-That's what I've been trying to talk to you about-"

"-well you've been doing an awful job of it."

"You drive me insane," he said, and she felt her temper reach her ears. If he couldn't stand her then why try to talk to her.

"Then I'm leaving."

"No, don't." He touched her shoulder again, and she jerked it off.

"Don't touch me." He held his hands up. "You don't own me, I don't have to listen to you, I'm leaving." She turned once again, ready to walk.

"You can't just ignore all your problems."

"Watch me," she began walking.

"This isn't how you treat your friends." Those words stopped her better than his hand had at any point.

She turned back, to him. "Oh? Then how do you treat your friends? Ignore them? Rub their feelings in their faces? Get upset with them when they get hurt when you do that?"

"Mina-"

"Don't," she held up a finger, "you wanted me to talk. So now I'm talking. No really, Fred, tell me how I'm supposed to treat my friends, because I wouldn't know from mine clearly. Do I get angry when they make other friends? Do I take my girlfriend and spend so much time I'm ignoring my friends, and then get upset when my friends spend their time doing something else."

"Mina, why are you so worked up?"

"Why am I so worked up? Are you kidding me? You opened this can of worms and then pretend you don't know-"

"-because I don't know."

Her voice snapped, "bull. Fred, you keep me around hanging thinking I might be right, and then come around with Angelina at all times. You get upset with me when I make one friend. You ignore me, and then when I track you down and actually tell you how I fell, you think it's perfectly fime jsut to play with my feelings. You insult me by telling me that I'm purposefully lying to you, you insinuate that because I'm not devoting every second of my day to you that I'm a terrible friend, and you have the nerve to pretend like I'm the one in the wrong in all of this?" She could feel the sting of tears at the back of her eyes, but she wouldn't let him see her cry.

"Mina," he snapped, "You're taking all this stuff out on me, when I haven't-"

"-you haven't? What tunnel have you been living in?-"

"-and I don't appreciate you taking all this out on me-"

"-I'm not doing it for no reason-"

"-yes you are, I've got no idea why you're doing this-"

"-Because I like you." She snapped.

Then she paused, realizing what she actually said. So much for keeping it buried down. Her tears felt hot, as they welled up, and while it was only a second she felt as if she stood there for years. He reached an arm out to her, and she dodged his grasp, not even letting him touch her. She stepped backwards, no longer able to hide her tears, and then turned to run.

Mina was barely able to find her way out of the ball, but managed to get away. She could hear the sniffles of other girls who's night went about as well as hers, but she didn't stop already too caught up in her own problems. She could faintly hear someone yelling her name, but she pushed her legs to run faster, to run farther, to just make it back to the safety of her dorm.

She didn't stop running until she was in her bed, her breath heavy from the exercise and from the breakdown she was about to have.

They were probably having a good time making fun of her, and how they finally had won. Her life was ruined.

As she had her breakdown, she wondered why she even bothered coming to the ball she knew it was going to me nothing less than a mess.

Okay writing this halfway through update day, but this'll go up because I'll be damned if it doesn't.

Also, I totally use certain phrases so many times as one of you pointed out with 'running into someones chest' and that's something I'll have to work on *writes that Mina runs into someones chest next chapter*. Also, Grammarly def sounds like a good idea, it's not something I would have even considered, although I think I'll hold off until the rewrite because I know I'll be overhauling a decent chunk of chapters and plots and as it is I'm writing chapters late and it's just one more thing on a list for me to do for this that might make me feel more burned out on this story than I already am. But the rewrite is far game for it.

The fact that you guys are so sweet with your reviews despite the very many errors I have in here (and will continue to have) really touches my heart. Thank you all so much!