Tatum's cheeks lit up quickly as Kia teased her, and she lowered her head, glad to at least have the brim of her hat to slightly hide under as they spoke. "Y-Yeah, I mean. She is, r-right? I think she-- lots of girls t-think your sister is cute. She's not e-exactly ugly!" the redhead practically squeaked back, immediately feeling stupid. She only felt stupider as Kia kept talking, telling her the story about Mackenzie. "You don't.. I didn't i-influence, I mean.. s-she probably just settled in," she managed to murmur out.

She knew that Mackenzie did loads of things she shouldn't have done around school, that was part of being so close with someone like Hunter Sommer and those girls she hung around with, but Kia was probably right. Each year as they had progressed, it seemed like Mack got less and less detention, less trouble. She had just.. mellowed out. When she was around Tatum anyway. They had fallen into an easy routine together, and trouble was something Tatum tried to avoid most of. Trouble meant attention, and laying low was her style. Had Mack really changed herself to adjust to her? It was sort of silly, but it also sort made sense.

When the doors stopped, Tatum stood there numbly for a few awkward moments, before her head snapped up and she quickly followed Kia out into the hall. That sterile hospital scent was still all around them, and it was actually calming her down a little. It was the smell of a controlled environment. Recycled air and purification.

It was impossible for the red-haired girl not to tense up when Kia began to imply what she knew about their previous week, and she felt her head dropping down again, staring at the tiled floor under their feet. She didn't know if she could make a promise like that, with everything going on. It might not be directly her fault, but what if she caused the thing that finally made Mack snap? Fighting people off at school could only go on for so long. It could happen, and she didn't want to think about it. She let the conversation drop, just chewing her lip.

She kept up the small talk, trying to input where she could, and ducking away mostly whenever Kia waved at anybody. She mostly still felt numb, and she couldn't stop thinking about Mackenzie, where she was, or what she was doing. Maybe she had already gone back to the room and killed Kate and Hunter already. Who knew, really.

When Kia asked her what she wanted, Tatum turned on her with slightly wet eyes, before looking away and down the cafeteria a bit. She almost didn't even feel like eating. Her stomach, normally rumbling with the munchies by now, just felt sore and tense. "I'm r-really.. bad for your sister," she murmured, belatedly voicing her thoughts from earlier. She felt stupid for sure, it had been forever since they had even spoken out loud about Mack, but the blonde had never left her brain. "People are g-gunna-- I just a-am not good. I'm i-in a lot of, like t-trouble."