𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗜𝗡, 𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗜𝗡, 𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗜𝗡, chris sturniolo.

𝟬𝟮𝟳. rescue team

"beats me," she says.

nick huffs at the lack of interest in their answers and looks elsewhere, decidedly zoning out. his plan is changed though, when he spots clementine literally walking through the hallway. "speak of the fucking devil," he instantly speaks, gaining matt and astorias attention, making them turn their heads as well. his eyes linger on her for a moment before he looks back to them and hastily suggests, "i feel like one of us should talk to her."

matt's eyes widen and astoria laughs it off. "yeah, right."

"no like," nick frowns momentarily at astoria taking it as a joke. "i'm serious."

astoria pauses, examining nicks expression before a slight scrunch forms between her eyebrows. "umm," she starts. "no."

"why?" nick questions, now making astoria frown because she doesn't get why he's pushing it. "i feel like you should talk to her," he goes on to suggest, missing the wave of frustration washing over her. "you haven't talked to her at all."

astoria shrugs, nonchalant as ever when she avoids eye contact and mumbles, "we were never really that close, so."

at this, matt looks to nick, the two sharing a look of confusion. matt, his face all scrunched up, turns to astoria. "you guys were the closest out of all of us," he points out.

she instantly snaps her head around to look back at him. "uh, no," she forces a laugh, looking at them like they're the crazy ones. "nick and clementine were always the closest."

nick narrows his eyes at her, seeing past this whole act she's got going on right now. "that's fucking bullshit and you know it, stori," he says seriously, making her face drop.

her jaw drops momentarily before scoffing, "look, nick, i'm not talking to her."

nick rolls his eyes, actually getting annoyed now, and taking matters into his own hands—as per usual. "whatever," he says, getting up without explanation and walking off.

astoria and matt both watch his retreating figure, him going in the same direction clementine went in to assumedly try and speak to her. astoria turns her head to matt, hoping to see an understanding look on his face and coming up unlucky. he's quick to carefully ask, "why are you so scared of facing clementine?"

"scared?" she repeats, taking offense. "i'm not scared."

"mhm," matt hums, tilting his head as he's known her long enough to be able to read her like a book. he's not stupid; he knows what she's doing. "you can try and bullshit all you want, but everyone knows you guys were a lot closer than you've been acting like."

astoria frowns, hating how he can see right through her and looking to the table in front of her instead of him. she's silent for a moment before giving in and letting him hear some of her inner thoughts. "do you ever regret how we went about things?" she asks after a while, referring to when chris and clementine first broke up.

"yeah," matt answers without hesitation, giving her a look when he throws the question back at her. "do you?"

"all the time," she reveals quietly.

matt watches her wordlessly for a prolonged moment before speaking, "you act so indifferent about it when she's brought up, but i know that's not you, stori." astoria listens to him with a consistent frown on her face. "i just feel like there's something you're not telling us."