The doubts continued to creep in Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Artemis was amazing but how many others were silently judging her just because she hung out with him? Abe decided to pretend he was sleeping in instead of meeting her for breakfast. It's not like they had made any definitive plans or anything. She probably wouldn't even notice.

His phone started vibrating as he worked on a Russian assignment. He almost ignored it, thinking it was just Artemis texting him, but then he realized it was a call coming in as a familiar ringtone accompanied the vibrations. That one was set for only one person. He answered.

“It’s only been two weeks, Trouble. Did something happen or are you just calling to bother me?”

“Just calling to check how you're doing. Not getting homesick yet, right, little Barty?” Abe bristled slightly at the shortening of his middle name. But he could give back good as he could take…

“What's that? You want me to text Mom where your porn stash is?”

“Fine. Abe…" Nicky conceded with a chuckle. "How are you doing away from home?”

“Fine, classes have been easy so far.”

“How have you been getting along with any of the other students? Maybe got yourself a girlfriend or boyfriend to keep you company…?”

“No.” His one word response was cold as steel. He didn't mean to say it so hard, but Nicky pushing right now was annoying him. He wasn't like Nicky, he wasn't interested in the same sort of things…

“Abe… I know that tone. Did something happen?”

“I…” He might as well tell his brother. Maybe it would even help him feel better or at least start to sort out his feelings. “So, I became friends with this girl. She's an athlete and super popular but puts in the effort towards classes too, you know? At first I had misjudged her but we got close after talking. I figured it was fine… different social groups and all but we got along really well for some reason.”

“That all sounds really great, Abe… But I feel like there's more, something that really upset you.”

“She's amazing, I know she is. Yesterday we were together when we met some of her teammates in the woods. They said… they said she was only hanging with me to get in my pants like I was just one off a long list.” Nicky sounded like he was going to say something but Abe continued. “I mean, Artemis has integrity. She isn't the type to befriend someone only to sleep with them. And while sleeping with a lot of people isn't bad in and of itself, I can tell she's likely the sort to be upfront about that if it's what she wanted. Acting like I'm one of a list of people she plans on coercing into having sex is an assault on her character. And these were her teammates. They should know her better than that.” He sighed. “What if… what if I'm ruining her reputation by being seen together? I mean, those guys can't be the only ones.”

Nicky took a deep breath as he figured out how to help his precious little brother. Abe had barely even had friends growing up. “Do you like her, Abes?” 

“No… I mean, yeah, but as a friend. She's smart and is letting me borrow her electric kettle so I can make tea in my room and we study together a lot since becoming friends.”

“And does she seem to enjoy being friends with you?” Abe thought back at all their interactions. Artemis was always smiling.

“I guess…”

“Then something you need to understand is that a good friendship is more valuable than reputation. If she's worth my baby brother wanting to be her friend, then she's not likely to care how it might affect her public image to hangout with you. And that's if it's even affecting anything at all. If you're acknowledging her intelligence, she must be pretty smart so you two being friends is more likely to benefit both of you.”

“You're just saying that because you think I need to be more social and maybe find a partner or two.”

“No, I'm saying that because you found a friend that seems to make you happy…” Abe couldn't deny having Artemis as a friend made him happy. “Now, knowing you, I bet you've been avoiding her best you can since, haven't you?”

“...Maybe.”

“Well stop. Now go talk to her, hang out or whatever, before I decide to drive all the way up and lock you two in a closet or storage shed for a few hours until you two sort things out between you.”

***

Artemis' morning was going fine. Everything was fine… Alright, it wasn't actually fine but she couldn't figure out why not. There was just something weird in the air.

She couldn't place what, but whatever it was made her skin crawl and she had a sense of foreboding. It was making her anxious and Arty didn't get anxious easily. Nervous or excited before a sporting event, all the time, but not the feeling of on edge she was feeling without reason that morning.

They hadn't had any specific plans to meet up for breakfast so she was only marginally disappointed when Abe didn't show up while she was filling her plate with eggs and bacon. He probably had stayed up late studying and overslept or had decided to get some work in before breakfast and was planning to go later. Or he could have even came and left before she got there. All perfectly reasonable explanations. So why was she still upset not to run into him?

Instead, she had the unpleasant luck to run into someone else, literally. Well, technically, two someones. The same two preppy girls from last week. It seemed they liked to dress even sexier on the weekends as their matching outfits left even less to the imagination than the last time Arty has saw them.

“Watch where you're going, Boulder Girl.”

“Sorry…” Arty tried to step around them, but the girls moved to block her path. “Excuse me.”

“I don't think so. You think a simple apology is going to suffice?”

“I don't know what you expect from me. I might have bumped into you, but it's only because you suddenly came up in my blind spot somehow.” Arty just wanted to walk away. She got a sick feeling in her stomach every time one of the girls spoke and last thing she wanted was to throw up or worse in the middle of the hall.

“We want compensation. Dusk here has a bruise from you now and you seem to be making a habit of getting in our way. You're gonna have to pay for that, Miss Rocky.”

“Excuse me?” Arty was beyond taken by surprise. “You expect me to pay you for you popping up out of nowhere in front of me? I'm sorry for actually bumping into you but there's no way this is fully my fault.” She was actually getting offended the longer she thought about it. “What snooty, high class privilege do you have that you think it's okay to demand that sort of thing from me when I was just walking. You're acting pretty spoiled and one of these days that sort of delusional entitlement is going to get you two into real trouble. So grow up and take responsibility for your own actions already.”

The one called Dusk took a step forward as if about to attack Arty but the other one grabbed her arm to hold her back. “This isn't over. You better watch your back from now on…” Arty wasn't positive as it was only in her peripheral vision, but she thought she could see pointed teeth as the girl talked while walking past her. “No one messes with us and gets away with it for long.”

Arty wasn't sure what surprised her more; the fact they picked a fight with her for seemingly no reason or the fact they just dropped it so suddenly. Well, maybe they didn't totally drop it but they did back down pretty quickly for all the fuss they'd been making a second before.

She shook her head and continued down the hall. The studious athlete headed towards the store, having decided during breakfast that it was about time she got herself a thermos so she could bring warm drinks to class. Once in front of the shelf containing the drinkware, she had a decision to make. Obviously, she should also get one for Abe. And they needed to be different so the two containers wouldn't get mixed up when the two got together to do stuff like study or just hang out. There was at least a little variety, if only in small details between the thermoses. They all had some form of the school's blue and yellow olive branch emblem, the biggest differences being size or what color the school name was printed in. She finally chose blue for herself and yellow for Abe. It just felt right for some reason. And she was okay with switching if Abe would rather the blue one. She paid for them and started back towards the dorms.

Of course, that is when she saw Abe who seemed to freeze when he first saw her before nervously walking in her direction.

“Hey, um… can we talk?”