Lottie’s head slowly turned my way, gaze narrowing even further in suspicion. “What. The heck. Went on. Between you,” she forced out in a stunted verse.

“Nothing,” I mumbled, avoiding eye contact from both Felicity and Lottie.

And either Felicity sensed my discomfort or, like usual, didn’t have time for chit chat. Because she then demanded from me, “So? Will you do it?”

“Do what?” I asked, feeling slightly disoriented as my stomach churned and my lunch started to come up my throat. How did he know I was on the team? Has he been keeping tabs on me? Did he look it up? Of all the messages he gets, how would he know to open Felicity’s as a way of getting in touch with me…

“Interview him.”

I was quick to shake my head. “Sorry. I can’t.” Before she or Lottie could press further, I turned on my heel and started heading towards the library.

The pair muttered for a while behind me, until their conversation became too far away. Yet it didn’t take long for Lottie’s voice to start calling after me. “Em! Wait up!”

“I’m not doing it,” I said through gritted teeth.

“But it could save our—”

“I can’t, Lottie. I really can’t do it.” I came to a stop, turning to face her. “Someone else can do it. But I won’t. I’ll even quit the team if I must. Nothing you say or do will get me—”

“Hey,” she said softly, hands gripping my arms as all eagerness washed from her face only to be replaced with concern. “I won’t force you, Em. It’s okay. Besides, Felicity heard you loud and clear. She was already messaging him back to tell him it would have to be another journo when I chased after you.”

I didn’t realise I was shaking until her thumb started to stroke my forearm. Taking a few deep breaths, I managed to calm myself and soothe the sting that had formed in my eyes.

“When are you going to tell me what happened?” she then breathed.

“I don’t want to relive the past, Lottie.”

Her lips pressed together.

I knew I was being a shit friend here by not telling her. I was also being a terrible team member for everyone about to lose the website. But this was a wound I was wary to re-open, no matter who asked me to. Though because Lottie was never going to rest until she got something from me, I said, “Sparknotes version? Frazer and I were neighbours. Never spoke until our final year of school, when we finally became close as he started to get into his music. I helped him set up his music, encouraged him to enter Unearthed High, and… then he got famous. The end.”

She was shaking her head. “I don’t understand what the issue is though.”

“Fame, Lottie. Fame is the issue. It’s a sickness that destroys anything pure about someone. Makes them forget who matters and forces them to toss aside anyone who won’t advance their status.”

As my words sunk into her head, understanding began to seep into her eyes as she clearly heard the essence of the unsaid. “I’m sorry he hurt you, Em.”

With a shrug, I pivoted away from her and began to walk up the steps of the library. “It’s whatever.”

“When you’re ready, I’d love for you to share with me what happened.”

“Why? So you can get a scoop?”

“No. So that I can help start putting back together the pieces of your trust he tore apart.”

The sting returned to my eyes as we found our seats, but I didn’t say anything then. In the end, after our laptops were out, I changed the subject back to our Media Ethics essays.

◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷ 

The campus was buzzing with excitement as Lottie and I exited our final class of the day and started heading across the grounds towards the car park. 

“I wonder why he’s here,” I heard one girl gush as we passed them on the footpath.

“I heard some of his friends from school go here. Probably catching up with them,” another said.

“I heard one of the journalism students might have an interview with him.”

My stomach tensed and my mind pleaded, Felicity… You better have shot Frazer down. It better be someone else they are talking about.

As that conversation faded out behind us, my ears were hit next with, “Do you think he’ll sign my bag? Or get a selfie with me?”

“Only if he signs mine too! I hope we get a glimpse of him before he leaves.”

It was at that point I realised it was definitely who I thought it was turning the campus into a gossip zone. Which was why I grabbed Lottie by the arm and whispered, “Can we take another path to your car?”

Her gaze narrowed as the cogs turned. 

I could tell Lottie was questioning whether avoidance really was the best strategy for me and was still clearly caught up on wondering about our past. Though thankfully she didn’t press right then and there. 

Instead, she said, “I’ll let us take the long way around if you agree to come to my place tonight and tell me every single detail about what went on between you two. Not the Sparknotes or Cliffnotes version. I want the full War and Peace version… except with fewer French and Russian people, I hope.”

Reluctantly, I nodded. Because if he was going to go this far to see me… if he was going to be in town for a while… if he really was the solution to saving our website, then Lottie needed to know everything so that she could help me find a way to never be near him. Hooking my arm around hers, we took the back path, around the cafeteria and away from the main courtyard where the people seemed to be congregating.

Unfortunately, the path didn’t completely hide us from view. We still observed the large crowd swarming him as we emerged from the coverage the trees provided and headed towards the car park. Nonetheless, it gave us the opportunity to give him a wide berth and not get swept up in the masses.

But, of course, I couldn’t help myself. As the yard screamed with excitement, my eyes eventually flickered to his crowd of adoring fans, circling him, trapping him in their cage.

And as he smiled and signed the paper, bags, books, and other objects thrusted his way, his head kept lifting, searching, seeking… until his head craned over his shoulder in my direction.

The forced friendly smile dropped from his face as his familiar ivy eyes locked on mine across the grounds. The fawning girls—and a handful of guys—around him demanded his attention, but the facade of Frazer Young was lost for a moment as he became fixated on me. 

My heart pounded in my chest.

My throat went dry.

A wall of memories and emotions came riding up my core, begging for me to react.

But stopping me from breaking was Lottie’s hand coming down on my arm, and her voice whispering in my ear, “C’mon. Let’s get out of here while the traffic isn’t bad.” 

And then she thankfully dragged me out the side exit towards her car, all the while I could feel his gaze tracking me as I left.

◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷ 

Lottie lived in a two-bedroom unit a couple suburbs over from mine, house-sharing with a nurse new to her profession. Her room was small, especially with her king-sized bed engulfing the room, but we still squeezed ourselves into the sliver of floor space as we unfolded the pizzas and drinks between us. We’d also grabbed a couple of tubs of ice-cream from the NightOwl that neighboured the pizza shop, both of which were sitting in her freezer for later when we’d probably need them most.

I often wondered how she could do it: share a house with a stranger. But she said it beat the alternative of living with her parents. Moving out of home, she proclaimed, was the best decision she had made for her mental wellbeing. 

And I had to admit: it was nice knowing we wouldn’t have to share our food with my little brother.

“So,” Lottie said once we were two slices in. “You were neighbours.”

“Indeed.”

“The type of neighbours who live in the same neighbourhood or—”

“His house—old house—was the one right next to mine. He bought his mum a fancier place closer to her work with his first lot of royalties so they don’t live next door anymore.”

She nodded slowly, before stating, “And you were close enough then to know that’s how he spent his money.”

“Yeah,” I breathed, suddenly feeling all my appetite wash away. “We were.”

“I’ve never seen you in any pictures on his Insta though. Like the old pictures from when he was in school before he was famous.”

I shook my head. “That’s because I made him take them down once he found out he won Unearthed High. Not that there were many of us. For the longest time, we never really said a word to each other… until halfway through our final year of school when I saw him in the park one day in quite the state.”