It didn't take long for Kaitlyn's suspicions to be proven right. The Dream Lizards weren't slowing down in the slightest. They were just getting started.

  Seriously. How is this going so well?

  She had thought that her unofficial fan page was doing well before, but was quickly proven dead wrong. The live concert stuff shot those numbers into the stratosphere. People loved the band and their music, and they wanted everyone else to know it too. It was getting to the point where it was making her a little bit nervous.

  That's a good thing, right? I mean, it should be… At minimum, it means that I'm actually accomplishing something.

  She leaned back in her desk chair, balancing on its rear two legs as she thought. Elliot continued to act like normal, although it felt like he spent just a little bit less time in lab than before. That was a good sign. Just because the band was getting popular didn't mean that the entire school would come down on him in a rabid horde. In fact, aside from that one awkward fan interaction, she hadn't seen anyone else approach him.

  …That doesn't mean that no one HAS, though. It's not like I'm around him all the time. Maybe Esme might know better?

  Regardless, she knew for certain that word was spreading about the band—and not just online. Even Heather had made mention of them in passing, expressing all sorts of excitement about the rising stars and how seeing them in concert got her all sorts of clout.

  Kaitlyn shook her head at the memory, silently thanking her foresight. Though getting Heather involved in the social media stuff would have certainly made it even more successful, she was more certain than ever it would have ended… poorly, to say the least. There were already rumors that one of the members attended the school, and given the hungry look in the girl's eye… well, she was sure that Elliot wouldn't have appreciated the problems that came along with it.

  Shaking her head, Kaitlyn pulled out her laptop to do a little bit more biology reading. The next major event of the loop was coming up all too quickly—the post-Nationals party. She had a strong feeling that it would be an important one, too.

  I still haven't managed to get Elliot to hang out with me one-on-one much, which doesn't bode particularly well. But I can't give up hope yet. I'll just have to see if I can make something happen there… Or maybe I'll just get good info from seeing what's changed?

  Either way, the loop was coming to a close. All that remained was seeing what exactly her efforts had won her.

  ***

  Before she knew it, Kaitlyn was walking up the sidewalk toward Vinny's house. Around her gathered the familiar posse of cross country friends that she'd come to associate with this event—Rachel, Cedric, Irene, and Alex.

  Though at this point, Rachel's really the only one I'd call a "friend." I have talked to Irene a bit, too, but the boys… She allowed herself a wry smile as they exchanged good-natured jabs. Well, it's best not to dwell on the past too much.

  Ryan's stocky figure greeted her group at the door, pulling Cedric into an enthusiastic hug as usual, and invited them into the writhing mass of inebriated college students. As soon as they made it inside, Kaitlyn immediately scanned the room for Elliot. The sheer number of partygoers and dim lighting made it difficult to pick out any individual person from the crowd. However, she knew for a fact that the guy always showed up. And curiosity was making her too impatient to wait for a chance encounter.

  Rachel appeared at her elbow with a drink in hand. "Looking for someone, sweetie?"

  Kaitlyn nodded. "Yeah. I thought I saw one of my labmates in here… Oh!"

  To her surprise, Elliot wasn't the first familiar face she spotted. Rather, it was the Dream Lizards's lead singer that caught her eye. The guy wore a logo tee as usual, though it was impossible to read from this distance. She could tell that he was laughing and gesturing broadly, his arm around some girl that Kaitlyn didn't recognize.

  Is it just me, or… is that a lot of people around him?

  A harder look confirmed that, despite the already crowded nature of the party, there were a disproportionate number of people gathered around the scruffy-looking singer—most of them female. It also revealed a shock of ginger hair that had been previously hidden among the throng.

  Elliot stood in the same vicinity of his bandmate, though not quite at the epicenter of the high-density crowd. His hair hung loose about his shoulders, and based on the white shirt that he was currently wearing, he'd shed his flannel at some point after getting inside. He, too, was making conversation with the people around him. But as she watched, she couldn't help but notice a certain politeness to his smile, as though it were made from plastic.

  Well, that's not a good sign, now is it?

  From the corner of her eye, Kaitlyn saw Rachel crane her neck to follow her gaze. "Your labmate? Are they in that crowd?"

  "Yeah," Kaitlyn grimaced. "I think… he might need an excuse to be somewhere else."

  Rachel straightened. "Do you want help?"

  She considered it for a moment, then shook her head. "I think I can handle it. Thanks, though." As she began wading through the party, she called back to her friend. "I'll find you later!"

  Kaitlyn made a beeline for her labmate, trying to emulate his ability to slip through crowds as she did so. Her efforts were met with some success, though she still received quite a bit of jostling and the occasional errant elbow for her trouble. Apparently, the guy's techniques worked way better when one was tall and easy to spot.

  As she drew closer, she raised a hand and waved, making herself as tall as she could to be seen. By some miracle she actually managed to catch his eye. His eyebrows raised in surprise and recognition as she gestured toward the back door.

  A flash of something passed across his features—relief, maybe? Whatever it was, he excused himself, making for the door right after Kaitlyn. A short while later, he appeared at the back porch alongside her, setting a brown bottle on the railing as he ran a hand through his wavy hair.

  "Hey, Kate. Fancy seeing you here."

  She raised a questioning eyebrow. "I could say the same. How did you end up here?"

  "Ah, I'm here with friends." The ginger jerked a thumb over his shoulder and pointed inside. "My bandmates drag me along to a lot more of these things than I'd like, if I'm being honest. But it's all good. I don't get out enough otherwise."

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  Kaitlyn nodded. She'd already known the answer, of course, but it was still a good conversation starter.

  Elliot leaned against the railing with a sigh. "What about you? You never struck me as much of a party person."

  "Same thing, pretty much," she shrugged nonchalantly. "Cross country friends invited me along, so here I am."

  Elliot nodded. "Fair enough. So… what's up? Did you need something?"

  She hesitated. "Uh… nothing, really. Just wanted to say hi. And… well, you seemed like you kind of needed an excuse to get out of there. But maybe I was reading things wrong."

  Elliot chuckled. "Dang. That obvious, huh?"

  "No, actually. Not obvious at all!" She reassured him. "I just… had a hunch. You seemed a little off."

  He rubbed a hand down his face. Now that she could get a better look at the guy, he definitely seemed tired. His eyes were rimmed with the slightest bit of red, and his usually unruffled expression seemed a little more strained than usual.

  "Yeah… you could say that," he admitted. "For one, something in there's got my allergies acting up pretty bad. But also…" He paused for a moment, eying the darkened yard below. "You mind if we talk down there? Otherwise, I'm gonna keep looking over my shoulder every five seconds."

  "Oh! Sure." Kaitlyn straightened and gestured toward the stairs. "Lead the way."

  "Thanks."

  It only took a few moments for the pair to relocate into the shadows of the backyard. They found a quiet spot behind one of the shrubs, away from the lights of the porch and the foul-smelling clouds wafting up from the yard's other hidden residents. As Elliot leaned back against the fence, he seemed to relax a bit more. "Much better. Anyway, what were we talking about…"

  "How you seem kind of off?" Kaitlyn offered.

  "Oh, right. That." He crossed his arms across his chest, falling silent for a moment. "You ever get tired of people trying to talk to you?"

  Kaitlyn recalled some of the times where she'd been too exhausted to really keep up with Heather, much less engage in an actual conversation. "Yeah… people can be kind of exhausting. Don't get me wrong, I like hanging out with them and everything, but sometimes I just need some time to myself."

  Elliot shook his head. "Agreed, but that's not quite what I mean. I mean people talking to you, not because they actually care about what you say, but because… well, because they think you're important. They don't actually want to talk, they just want to be seen talking to you."

  "That's…" She blinked. "I don't think I've ever had that. Sorry."

  At her blank look, the guy gave an apologetic smile. "Never mind. It's nothing."

  It definitely doesn't sound like nothing. But I get the feeling I know why he's bringing this up…

  "Does this have to do with the band?"

  He nodded. "Right on the money. Yeah. Believe it or not, it's really been making waves these past few weeks. We're even getting offers from labels now."

  "That's… that's amazing!" Kaitlyn perked up. Had her work really accomplished so much in so little time?

  "It is. All the guys are over the moon about it."

  Despite his words, Elliot didn't seem to share their excitement. He simply gazed at the house, its lights sparkling in his emerald eyes. The weariness he'd shown earlier seemed to only intensify as he spoke.

  Ok. Something's definitely wrong here. I was pretty sure before, but now…

  She prodded him a little bit. "But… you're not?"

  Elliot grimaced, then slowly shook his head. "I guess not. Feels kind of ungrateful, doesn't it? But… yeah. Can't say that I'm a fan of how big this is getting."

  "But isn't it a good thing?" Kaitlyn pressed. "I mean, if you're getting signed to a label, that means you can make money—real money. Right? Or at least that people really like your stuff!"

  "I suppose. But that stuff isn't why I joined the band, you know." He waved a dismissive hand through the air. "It was just a hobby, something fun to do in my free time. Now that it's actually going somewhere… well, now I've gotta actually commit time to it. Practice more, work on songs, plan gigs… we've gotta actually start taking it seriously, you know?"

  Kaitlyn couldn't help but frown. "But… I still don't see why that's a bad thing. Why not just go for it? I mean, maybe you don't make it big big, but isn't it a cool opportunity anyway?"

  "You're not wrong, but… well, I like music, but I know better than anyone I'm no prodigy. That alone makes it unlikely that we'll be some standout success," he pointed out. "Not to mention that it's super unstable. Even at best, bands don't usually last long before they either break up or fade into obscurity. Which means I need a backup plan. Which means I need time to keep pursuing my bio degree and get a job that I can actually see myself doing for the rest of my life. And that'll be way harder now, almost impossible if we have to go on tour or something like that."

  Kaitlyn stopped, seriously considering that for a moment. Elliot's points made a surprising amount of sense. Even if they were a bit pessimistic about the band's prospects.

  No, not pessimistic. He's being realistic. Ruthlessly so, Kaitlyn realized. I mean, I want to believe that the current upward trend of the band will keep going, but… what if it doesn't? He's not the kind of guy to just go for it and hope everything works out.

  There were other possibilities, of course—Elliot could always take the Ian route of taking a year off to see how things went. But even if he were amenable to the idea, it didn't really seem like something he wanted to do. The way he talked, it truly felt like his hobby was just that—something that he enjoyed, but one that had overgrown its corner of his life.

  "I mean, if you really feel that way… can't you just leave the band?" Kaitlyn asked.

  He shrugged. "I've thought about it. But it would be kind of a shitty thing to do. And besides, Miles would probably skin me alive if I tried to do it now."

  She scanned her memory for the name. "Miles?"

  "The lead singer. He's the face of the band, but apparently, I'm not too far behind in popularity. Or so I'm finding out." Elliot's tone was dry. "Anyway. It's fine. I'll figure it out."

  Kaitlyn couldn't help but wince. If there hadn't been enough signs before, then this conversation all but confirmed it—she was en route for a bad ending. All her efforts to help Elliot had backfired, putting him in a worse place than when he'd started initially. At least, worse by some metrics.

  It's not as bad as it could be, Kaitlyn reassured herself. I mean, I can imagine plenty of ways that his life could be more miserable. This seems pretty mild as far as bad endings go. But still… it's not exactly what I'd been hoping for.

  It wasn't entirely unexpected, though. From the outset, she'd known that there was a possibility she was on the wrong track. Still, she'd wanted to explore this particular approach anyway, just in case.

  But if this is the bad ending… then what in the world am I supposed to do for the good one?

  "What's wrong?"

  Kaitlyn jolted out of her thoughts to find Elliot staring at her intently. "What? Nothing! Sorry, was just… thinking."

  He cocked his head to the side. "Really? About what?"

  "Just… everything you said, I guess."

  "Then why did you look so guilty?" He tilted his head to one side. "My problems don't have anything to do with you. Right?"

  Shoot.

  She bit her tongue. Once again, Elliot's insightfulness had decided to rear its head at the worst possible time. His ability to read her expressions was really getting old.

  Well… I guess I've already borked the ending, haven't I? So there's no real point in hiding things, even if I could.

  Kaitlyn shifted uncomfortably, her gaze falling to her feet. She took a deep breath. Knowing that the reset was only a few weeks away helped to ground her. Still, it didn't make this easy to admit.

  "I… well, this might be my fault. At least a little."