Tightrope

Objectively, You Two Had Major Bang Potential

Though, given she's dating Nate Lever—douchecanoe extraordinaire—maybe I need to take her to a 'poor choice of men' recovery clinic across the Pacific somewhere.

Jace's mouth compressed into a firm line. "Shit, Daria, can you please dump this guy?"

I threw all my books haphazardly into my locker, freeing my hands. "I am personally ready to fight the bitch. What did he say?"

Daria sighed and leant against the lockers, as if she could no longer hold her body up straight. "He said— uh, he said..." but she couldn't seem to get the words out. She swallowed, but it looked like it took effort. She couldn't talk for the effort of not crying.

I looked at Jace, who glanced at Daria for confirmation before reading out Nate's messages. She nodded slowly.

"'Lena and Jace? Are you fucking kidding?'" Jace read aloud. "Why the fuck am I dating the..." Jace paused, winced, and continued, "...school whore? Stop spreading your legs for Hartley, and start doing it for your actual boyfriend."

I was shaking. I couldn't see straight. I couldn't see anything but the murderous expression on Jace's face and the devastated expression on Daria's.

"What... the actual fuck, Daria?" I said, restraining my anger so that I could talk to her kindly. "Hon, you can't stay with this guy."

She nodded slowly. "But... but he can be sweet. And his grandma has been ill for the last couple months, so I haven't felt like I could. I mean, Lena, he doesn't visit her unless I ask him and I don't want her to lose that. And if she passes and he's lost my support, you know?"

"You're not responsible for his problems," said Jace, and he did a far better job at saying it without anger. Every word was infused with kindness and gentleness. "Or his grandmother's."

"I know," said Daria quietly, but she didn't seem convinced. Then she brightened. "Nothing some food and good company can't fix!"

I looked at Jace warily. I didn't know whether to push Daria to dump him, force them to break up by murdering him, or ignore it. Jace shrugged. If there was anyone, other than Daria, who'd had to deal with Nate, it was Jace. I got the sense that he'd had this conversation hundreds of times, read gross messages thousands of times, and contemplated murder millions of times.

Jace shrugged. "I mean, I'm hungry. Lena?"

I sighed. "I would like some chips in me immediately, actually."

Nate Lever might not be good enough for Daria, but I wasn't going to force her hand. As the designated BFF for life, that was Jace's job.

Somehow, while I trusted him about half as far as I could throw him (which was not at all), I did trust him to do the right thing by her.

Daria smacked her hands together in delight. "Awesome, guys. I'm literally so excited, you can't even understand." She was bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"You are providing me with a fairly good visual representation," I said drily.

Daria grinned and grabbed mine and Jace's wrists, dragging us in her buoyant wake.

By the time we reached the fish and chips shop, during which Jace and I interacted with warmth, politeness and zero sniping (much to Daria's confused delight), I was so hungry I could've eaten Jace. And Jace probably weighed double what I did.

Daria paid for the food, like an angel, and carried it from the beachfront fish and chips shop and set it down on Jace's towel. Our schoolbags were strewn across the soft white sand, and sand was strewn in our shoes. Fish and chips, on the beach, on a hot day... well, it just hit different.