As the Gym slowly got more crowded, I loitered by the doors, keeping an eye on the ticket taker positioned in the entrance hall. Finally, more people were starting to show up, forming a line long enough to keep her busy. Now that her attention was completely drawn away from the lobby behind her, I had a chance to sneak across it and into the adjacent hallway.

The halls were dark and empty. The hum of the crowd and thump of the music grew distant as I moved further into the vacant school. I was alert, listening for any sign of a custodian or security guard who might be making rounds. But the only sound was my heels clicking on the linoleum, each step echoing off of the lockers lining the walls, persuading me to walk faster.

I'd walked the halls a thousand times and knew where I was going, yet I found myself looking to the signs beside the doors, reading the numbers to assure myself I was headed in the right direction.

I made it to the door I needed and reached for the silver handle, praying it wouldn't be locked. A sigh of relief escaped me as it turned, allowing me to push the door open and slink inside.

I shut it quietly behind me, leaving the light off so it wouldn't attract any attention to the room, and hurried over to the window. Ian was waiting on the other side, five shorter boys surrounding him. As I unlatched it and swung it open, I could hear them whispering in excitement, bombarding Ian with questions.

"So how did you turn the power off in the school that one time?"

"Forget that, I want to know how you got into the basketball court."

"And how you almost got caught by Coach Hanks! I saw that on the news the next morning-"

"You can learn about it while we work," I interrupted. "Get in, we've got work to do."

The window was low enough to the ground for Ian to climb inside and just big enough for him to fit through. He brushed himself off once he was in-- he was dressed nicely, ready for his later task at the dance, and had something tucked under his arm. The other boys followed his actions and I shut the window behind the last one, looking at the team in front of me.

"Okay, there's seven of us, so this shouldn't be too hard. Thanks for coming to help."

"What do you want us to do?" Matthew asked.

My eyes darted around the lab, spotting what I was looking for in the corner of the room. "Okay, there's only one copying machine, so one person can cover that job. Anyone here ever used one before?"

The scrawny blonde raised his hand. "I use them a lot-- I do extra credit work as a teacher's assistant, so I have to copy worksheets like, once a week at least."

"Perfect," I said, reaching into my purse and handing him the ballot I'd taken from the dance. "We're gonna need a lot of these."

"Here," Ian said, handing him the thick white package he'd been holding. "It's extra paper, just in case we run out."

"Okay, we can split the rest up evenly-- three of us cutting the papers out, three of us writing Jade's name on the ballots. I'll make trips over to Roy whenever we build up a decent amount." I sat down at one of the long tables, taking out pencils and scissors from my purse-- not exactly the usual supplies I would bring to a school dance. "Whoever's cutting can sit at the end of the table, closest to..."

"David," the one at the copying machine answered.

"David," I repeated, nodding. "He can pass the copies to you, and you can pass the ones you cut out down to the writers."

The seats to my left quickly filled up, the boys grabbing the utensils and getting to work. As the first copy made its way down the line Ian sat next to me, taking the last pencil from the pile. The room almost immediately filled with hushed conversations from Matt and his friends, which I was thankful for. Listening to their gossip about school or enthusiasm about helping with the challenge might help me take my mind off of Daniel and the fact that he'd completely ignored the texts I'd sent him last night.

I didn't know what it meant, which was driving me crazier than anything else. I just wanted to know what was going through his head. Were we over? Did he just need a few days to cool down before we could talk about it? What would the outcome be if we did talk about it? I had a million questions with no answers, and I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever get any.

Through it all, the most stressful realization was that the lack of Daniel's presence wasn't as painful as I thought it should've been. I was stressed about it, and I felt guilty about betraying Daniel's trust. But I wasn't heartbroken or miserable, and somehow that made me feel even worse.

I'd been working absentmindedly for so long that I hadn't realized the growth of the pile beside me. "I'm gonna run these over to Roy and Jade, I'll be right back."

There was a chorus of okay's from the group as I stood.

"I'll come with you," Ian offered. "Just in case anything happens."

I looked over to the five boys, who were hard at work despite all the chatter coming from them. "Okay, sure."

We headed out into the noiseless hall, the sound of the door shutting almost making me jump with its contrast to the silence. We walked down the corridor towards the dance, the music becoming audible as we grew closer.

"So..." Ian prompted.

"So," I repeated awkwardly. Awkward was good, as far as I was concerned. Awkward was my only defense against what being alone with him felt like.

"Did you, you know, sort things out with Daniel?"

He probably already knew the answer due to Daniel's absence, but I couldn't blame him for being curious. As much as I tried not to think about it, this wasn't just between me and Daniel-- Ian was in the middle of it too. "Not exactly."

"I could still talk to him, if you want me to. He should be angry with me, not you."

"He should be angry with me," I corrected. "We've been over this. What happened was my fault too. Besides, if he won't speak to me, his girlfriend, I don't know what makes you think he'd be willing to talk to you."

"Good point." He nodded, silent for a moment. "I guess I'm just... I'm worried I screwed things up for you, Maddie. I wish I could fix it, you know?"

"I screwed things up for myself. I could've said goodnight and gone inside. I could've pushed you away sooner." We made our way over to the gym doors, merging with the few students who were hanging out in the lobby. I turned to him as we made our way inside. "Look, we have a lot to focus on tonight. We shouldn't distract ourselves with this-- let's just try to forget it for now."

"That's hard for me." His voice rose as we moved further into the dance, the music so loud it almost drowned him out. "Because every time I look at you I think about what we did. And... and I feel guilty for putting you in this situation, and then I feel even worse because, even though I know I shouldn't, all I can think about is how I wish I really did kiss you."

I wanted to hate him for saying it. I wanted to be angry, to shoot him down and tell him he was out of line-- and part of me was mad, but mostly, I was flooded with that feeling again, the one I only seemed to get around him. I looked away, scanning the room for Roy or Jade, ignoring the way my knees felt weak.

I spotted the pair laughing together by one of the food tables and looked back to Ian. I wished my stomach didn't flip when I turned and found him closer to me than I expected, thanks to the crowd pushing us together. I wished his eyes weren't so blue, and that he wouldn't look at me that way, like I was the only one he saw in the room filled with people. Mostly, I just wished that things were different, so that I didn't have to wish away what was undeniably the best feeling I'd ever had.

"I'll be right back," I managed to mumble, averting my eyes and pushing my way through the sea of people.

I made my way to Jade and Roy, who were all smiles, looking at each other with googly eyes and blushing faces. I felt bad for interrupting, but the fact was, we all had jobs to do. And as I passed off the ballots to Roy, giving him the count, I had to admit that I was glad to have a moment away from Ian.

Unfortunately, it was just that: a moment. It was confusing, really-- the reason I didn't want to be around Ian was because of how much I did want to be around Ian.

I didn't greet him when I walked back over, too confused by my feelings and still reeling from his confession.

He followed me to the exit. "You're mad."

"Yes. I am." We made it out to the lobby. Thankfully, the ticket taker was away from her table, meaning I didn't have to worry about her seeing us as we headed towards the west wing. "I mean, first you say you feel guilty about putting me in this situation, and then you say something that makes the situation a thousand times more complicated!"

"Maddie," Daniel's voice caught me by surprise and I halted, turning around to see him standing to the side of the doors. He was dressed the way I imagined he would've been: black slacks and a white button-up with a small bow-tie at the collar.

"Daniel-- I-- What are you doing here?"

"I figured I'd find you here. I thought maybe we should talk." His voice was hard to read, as was the look on his face. He somehow seemed apologetic and angry at the same time.

"Now?"

I could see his eyes move between me and Ian. He was unaware of the plan, which meant he was probably incorrectly filling in the blanks of why we were leaving the dance together. "Are you busy?" he asked, tone turning sour.

"Well...I mean..." I dropped my voice, not wanting any of the students loitering in the lobby to overhear, "We're in the middle of an assignment."

He rolled his eyes, scoffing. "I shouldn't have even bothered."

"I'll get back to the lab," Ian offered. "Take your time, I can handle it."

He began the walk back, leaving me with Daniel, who looked a lot angrier than he had a minute ago. "You're really too busy with this competition to talk about our relationship?"

I pulled him to the side of the lobby, away from the lingering students who had gotten suspiciously quiet since we started talking. "That's not what I said. And I've been trying to contact you for the past day, you know that. You're the one whose been ignoring me, Daniel."

"You say it like you didn't give me a reason."

"I did, I know that. And I want to talk about this-"

"Just not now," he finished. "Because the competition is more important."

"It's not more important, it's just-- we're in a hurry," I tried to explain, ignoring the fact that he didn't understand why I cared so much. The reason had changed so much since the start that maybe I wasn't even sure myself anymore.

"I heard about what happened yesterday. Please tell me that was Jade and not you."

"I can't."

He sighed, shaking his head. "Well then why should it even matter anymore? Now The Seven haven't done anything to you that you haven't done to yourself."

I clenched my teeth, my guilt shifting into anger. "It is not the same thing."

"It seems pretty similar to me."

"What I did last night... I did that because I wanted to. The Seven sharing those pictures was not something I wanted."

"Maddie... If you forget about this competition for tonight, then I'll forget about what you did with Ian. Just come enjoy the dance with me, and we can pretend none of this ever happened."

"You know I can't do that, Dan. Our friends need-"

"Those aren't my friends, Madeline, we barely know those people! Look, I know you, you know me. We're the ones you should be concerned about."

"I know them."

"Yeah, and I guess you care about them a hell of a lot more than you care about me."

"God!" I huffed, running a hand through my hair. "It's not so black and white, Daniel! Give me-" I checked my phone for the time, "Give me forty-five minutes and I'll talk about this for the rest of the night. I'll tell you everything you want to know, we can put everything out on the table-"

"I'm not gonna wait, Madeline. I don't want to be your second choice. You can come with me now, either we can dance and have fun, or we can talk. But if you don't... I'm just gonna go home. And I don't know what that means for us."

I sighed, looking into his eyes, trying to see if I was making the wrong choice. But they were filled with no discernible moral compass, just impatience and annoyance.

"I'll still look for you when I'm finished," I said, turning away and heading back down the empty corridor.