Ivy

"That was quite the announcement." Roman's breath heaved, as he slipped into the chair opposite me on our usual spot under the tree in the green field. Students occupied the tables around us, some having their lunch, while some just hung around.

"It was that audible?" I asked, removing my hair from the ponytail before placing lunch on the table.

"Two people who are supposed to be staying away from each other, fighting over the school's broadcast microphone? Yeah... very audible."

I let out a breath. "I found him there this morning."

"What did he want?" He asked, placing his laptop on the table.

I shrugged. "It was weird. He wants me to teach him how to be a good leader, because I seem to be doing so well with the Rebel-lions."

"Sounds suspicious." He said.

"It is sus." Caramel's voice reached us as she sat at the end of the table, grabbing one of the burgers in front of me, before taking a big chunk of it. "Glory probably sent him." she said, with her mouth full.

I shook my head. "It didn't sound like he was sent."

"It's not exactly written on his four head, is it?"

"No, but he said something that had my mind totally off the fact that he might have been sent to me."

This caught Roman's attention. "Hopefully it's something capable of taking us a step closer to figuring out what exactly it was, Glory did to him."

"It is."

"Well, spill." Urged Caramel.

"He mentioned an accident. He said he had been in a bad car accident, and all he can remember is that there was fire everywhere. He said he lost some memories too."

Roman etched down his brows. "So, she manipulated his memories?"

"It's exactly what I'm thinking."

"Wait, wait. He did suffer through a house fire while he was like 10, right? Did the bitch make him think he was in a car accident?" Caramel asked.

"Seems so... this only makes me wonder how many of his memories she would have messed with." Roman said.

"There's got to be a way we can undo this, right? They do have that memory manipulator guy amongst them." I reasoned, but Roman shook his head.

"Glory isn't stupid, she wouldn't let Ethan any close to Dylan if she thinks he would be of any threat to her and whatever she did to Ethan." he said.

"That makes sense, besides Silas did say their powers don't work on Ethan except his, since they're both patient zeros."

Glory was one smart woman, but I doubt she closed all the loose ends.

"The only person who can undo it, is Glory herself. But there's a minus zero chance that she would ever undo it." I said.

"Except he asks her to." Caramel suggested.

"Why would he?"

"You can make him, get in his head. He's obviously drawn to you for some reason, right? Cause the story about him wanting to be leader of the year, sounds exactly like bullshit to me."

"I don't know how I'm gonna pull that off." I spoke. "But it's not impossible."

There was a small silence before Roman decided to break it.

"Did you find Yates, yet?" He asked Caramel.

She shook her head. "He's on the run, but not for long. I'm still looking. He hasn't shown up in school either, so probably word got out that we know."

Roman nodded. "I've been thinking a lot about it. What if— what if Malcom is in charge of it?"

"What?" I asked.

"I mean, think about it... he's been AWOL, and he has motives. Probably this was the only thing he could think would hurt the dimension, piss Glory off."

I thought about it, but it just didn't add up. "I don't know about that, Roman. Malcolm doesn't seem like the revenge type of guy. He's probably just held up in some farm house somewhere. Edith died; I don't see how he's ever gonna just shove that into the back of his mind."

"Yeah," Caramel added. "Besides, he's not the only one with motives. Michelle Daltimore is likely to have started this shit up all over again."

"God, that's true. No one's heard of her since the move." I noted.

"Maybe that's because she had been held up by Glory. My biggest bet is Glory got rid of her. Her staying silent and away from taunting the ones responsible for her brother's death doesn't add up." Roman said.

"You think Glory killed her?" I asked.

"I think Glory is a woman who is supposed to be long dead, and who is also capable of anything."

I let out a sigh, each of us sinking into our own thoughts, when my phone vibrated with a text message.

I dug for it in my pocket, seeing two messages. One from Markel, another from Fiona.

Markel's text was from earlier this morning.

Shit. I did get a notification earlier. Might have forgotten to check it.

I opened his first.

Markel:

Feeling much better this morning?

I sent a quick reply.

Me:

Hey! I'm seeing this so late. I'm doing much better, thank you, and sorry. Kisses.

Then I opened Fiona's message.

Fi:

Won't be sitting with you guys today, I'm avoiding Roman. See you at home. Xoxo

I looked up at Roman who seemed like everything was totally fine. He now had his wrapped sandwich in one hand, and he busied his other fingers with the keys on his laptop, nodding his head like he was listening to some sort of music no one else could hear.

My phone vibrated.

I looked down to see Markel's response.

Markel:

No sorries or thankyous when it comes to us, V. Kisses.

I smiled, slipping my phone back into my purse, looking back at Roman.

"You okay, Ro?" I asked him.

His raised his head, furrowing his brows. "What?"

"Are you okay?"

He blinked, looking over at Caramel, before his gaze came back to me. "Yeah, why?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, you just seem kinda... off."

He frowned. "Off?"

"I mean, you're always with some sort of device and always focused on—"

"Finding a way for us all to get out of here? I don't think I would classify that as off." he said, his focus going back to the system when a sound came from it.

I looked over at Caramel whose eyes were on her phone, probably reading through a text she got from Fiona too, because soon she looked up at Roman.

"You and Fiona had a fight?" Caramel asked, hitting the nail head on.

Roman's focus was definitely not on us, but he responded. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"She just texted me. She's avoiding you."

At this, he raised his head.

"She texted me the same thing too." I added.

He stayed quiet for a while, almost like he was sorting through a response in his head. "Fiona doesn't understand."

"Understand what?" I asked him, my eyes searching his, which for the first time, I noticed held a look that clearly showed how hunted he was.

"What it's like to be me. I don't blame her, cause to be honest, I don't understand it too."

I let out a breath, feeling the guilt of being so ignorant of what he might have been really going through, slip into me.

"Roman, you know you can talk to—"

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Pretend like you care. Or like you understand me."

I blinked. "Roman what are you talking about? I care."

"But you don't, look... I'm not trying to like—make you feel guilty or anything like that but, sometimes you act like you're the only one who has problems to be solved, and everyone else around you just melts into the background. It's totally fine not to care, Ivy. I'm okay with us solving this mystery together, we don't have to do the whole pretend thing."

"Roman—"

"All I ask is that you don't pretend to actually care about me, when the only person you seem to care about is yourself, Ivy." With that, he closed his laptop, grabbed his bag and lunch, and left Caramel and me on the table.

I looked over at Caramel.

"That was kind of unexpected." She said.

"Is he right?" I didn't know why I saw the need to clarify, when I knew then and there that he was. He really was right.

Caramel shrugged. "I mean, on some level, yeah, he was right. It did sound like he was trying to stop you from probing but—there's some truth. I guess."

I let out a breath, relaxing on the chair and shutting my eyes for a brief moment. "Caramel?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know where I can get a pack of cigarettes?"

__

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This update was supposed to come up on Friday, but I was ill, and today isn't exactly my best of days, but I wanted to just put this up really quick before the week finally comes to an end.

Sorry for the delay.

I announced on my Instagram on Friday, that there would be a slight delay, but I wasn't feeling too well to update sooner.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this update, let me know your thoughts, and your theories about who's really behind the Lit production.

Follow my Instagram to keep up with any sudden information I might pass across. The username is (therebeccayouknow)

I'll see you guys in the next update.

Bye.