By Monday, everything between them had reverted back to... not nothing, but not something, either.
Connor still sat beside her in class.
Still showed up five minutes late.
Still leaned over with half-whispers and half-smiles.
But Regina could feel it.
Something was different.
He was more quiet than usual. More distant.
Sometimes, she caught him flinching at the sunlight streaming through the windows.
Or snapping a little too sharply when someone accidentally bumped into him in the hallway.
She didn't know what to make of it.
And when she didn't know what to do, she wrote.
That day, she was curled up in the corner of the campus café with her laptop open, typing halfway through a nonsense poem about full moons and blackout curtains, when a voice interrupted her.
"Can I sit?"
It was Mandy.
Regina looked up, surprised. They weren't exactly friends. Not enemies either—just... connected by Connor.
"Sure," she said carefully, pushing her drink aside.
Mandy sat across from her, fingers wrapped around a paper cup. She didn't sip from it.
"You've been spending time with him," Mandy said.
It wasn't a question.
Regina blinked. "Is that a problem?"
"No," Mandy said quickly. "It's not. I just... thought maybe I should say something."
Regina waited.
Mandy looked down at the lid of her cup like it held the script she'd rehearsed a hundred times.
"There was a night last semester," Mandy began, "a full moon night. He was different. Not angry, not drunk—just... off."
Regina stayed quiet.
"He left early. No one knew where he went. But I followed him." Mandy's eyes lifted. "He didn't know."
There was a pause.
Regina frowned. "What did you see?"
Mandy took a breath, then let it out slowly. Her fingers gripped the cup tighter.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me."
Another pause.
Then:
"He wasn't himself."
"He was growling. Like an animal."
"I swear I saw his—his eyes glowing. And his back... twisting."
Regina's stomach flipped.
Mandy must've seen the disbelief on her face.
"I know how it sounds," she said quickly. "I sound insane. That's why I never told anyone."
"Then why tell me?"
Mandy looked her dead in the eye.
"Because I don't think you know what he is."
Regina's lips parted slightly. "What are you trying to say? That he's some kind of—"
"I don't know," Mandy said. "But he's not normal. And when the next full moon comes, just… be careful."
She stood before Regina could respond.
And left the coffee untouched on the table.
That night, Regina lay in bed, staring at the calendar on her wall.
The next full moon was in six days.
And somehow, her hands wouldn't stop shaking.