The rest of the weekend passed as a blur of boredom and worry- Mandy’s mother had her locked up in her proverbial ivory tower until Monday, as a punishment for “obscuring the truth”, whatever that meant. Beck spent the weekend unsuccessfully trying to call Mandy and successfully avoiding calling Cy. She spotted him on Sunday at Vince’s and promptly ran away, but in the back of her mind wiggled the unpleasant thought that she would have to face him, and act normally, on Monday. Despite Beck’s attempts to stop it, Monday came, and Beck met Mandy at the bus stop.

“Mandy! Mandy!” yelled Beck, running up to her and pulling her into a tight hug. “Are you alright? Were you grounded again, I tried calling you, but your Mom said-”

Mandy laughed. “I’m fine, Beck, just glad to be out of the house. But enough about me, what about you? Did you call him?”

Beck looked down, embarrassed. “Um…no?”

Mandy groaned. “Beck!”

“I know, I know!” said Beck quickly. “But I promise I’ll talk to him today!”