Daria and Jace were waiting at my locker when I left my last class for the day. Daria's sunny smile mitigated the sheer hatred and disgust I felt towards Hartley and his entire face. She was clearly excited, because her bright yellow backpack was bouncing on her back as she jumped slightly on the balls of her feet. It exhausted me just to look at.
I felt, momentarily, like Jonah.
Jace seemed faintly amused by her enthusiasm, as he always was towards Daria's antics. I'd never seen him even vaguely annoyed at her, come to think of it. And while I personally adored Daria and everything about her, I'd heard people say that they could occasionally find Daria's relentless optimism exhausting. Yet Jace spent more time with her than anyone else in the world. Though, to his credit, I don't think anything annoyed Jace. He was infuriatingly unflappable
Trust me, I was the expert at attempting to annoy Jace Hartley.
But no matter what I tried, he always responded calmly. Then hit back ten times as hard with a prank that left me FUMING; I did not have Hartley's insistent calm. Or, at least, he used to hit back. Pre-alien invasion.
"Heya, Lena!" Daria said. "You excited? I'm excited."
"Ecstatic," I said, injecting, for the first time in my miserable life, zero sarcasm into the phrase. I bumped her shoulder with mine. "It's gonna be fab."
"So fab," Jace echoed, mocking.
"Totally," said Daria, completely missing Jace's dig. She eternally saw the good in Jace, completely blind to all his flaws. Good for Jace I guess, they wouldn't be friends if she was perceptive. "I never thought this would happen, seriously guys. My two favourite people, and you're finally friends."
"Friends." Jace seemed perplexed, as if the thought of a friendship between us was a foreign language he'd never thought to learn.
"Besties for life, hey, Hartley?" I knocked my shoulder with his. I was pleased when this elicited an even more baffled expression, almost stunned. A faint smile twitched at the corners of his mouth.
Daria regarded us joyfully, before the faint buzz of her phone caught her attention. She quickly glanced down at her phone, which I noticed was lit up with a plethora of text messages. She valiantly tried to hide the flash of hurt on her face by covering it with a small grin, but I saw that both Jace and I clocked her reaction.
"Hey, Dars, what's wrong?" I asked, while at the same time Jace said, "What's he done now?"
Oh. Nate.
Nate Lever was Daria's boyfriend of a year, though sometimes I forgot about their long-standing relationship. Nate didn't seem to have any desire to socialise with the rest of the group, unless we were heading to a party with booze, a bong and leggy blondes. Not that we ever mentioned that to Daria. I was awed that Daria had managed to stay with him this long.
My girly was drawn to douchebags, hence the dark-haired demon spawn behind her.
"Oh, it's nothing," said Daria, grinning broadly. But neither Jace nor I missed the sheen of tears in her eyes.
"For Pete's sake," Jace said, plucking Daria's phone from her fingers.
"Hey, don't invade her privacy, Hartley," I said, momentarily forgetting my deal with Austin and the be-nice-to-Jace policy. Daria came first.
Daria waved a hand dismissively. "It's okay. We don't really do privacy."
It was true. Jace and Daria were storybook best friends; no secrets, nothing barred. It was almost strange, how close they were. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were a married couple. Luckily for Daria, Jace had never appeared to have any intentions of romance. I already felt sorry for the poor girl—bewitched into friendship with Hartley—but if she also had to make out with the guy, I'd probably have to sail her across the ocean so she could recover from the spell he's obviously placed upon her.
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.
"I'm literally so happy that you guys are friends now," said Daria, blowing on the steam wafting from her chip.
"We are no—" I swallow. Reassess. "We are not... used to it yet, either. It's super weird."
Jace was shielding his eyes from the sun with his hands as he plucked a potato cake from the paper wrapping. "I remain generally baffled by the entire situation, but I immensely enjoy the fact that I am not currently concerned this—" he waves his potato cake around "—has been poisoned or tampered with in any way."
I shrugged, ducking my head slightly so Jace's large form blocked the sun. "Just because I didn't tamper with it, doesn't mean someone else didn't."
"Who else would tamper with my food?" Jace asked. "I am not generally disliked."
I wanted to say that he was arrogant to assume that, but Austin would be mad at me. Plus, it was also true; he was well-liked. I chose to say nothing.
Daria filled in. "Well, I mean, the girl behind the counter was giving you the classic googly eyes. She might've slipped her number into your potato cake, and then you might choke on the slip of paper and die."
Jace laughed and knocked Daria's shoulder with his. I gave a faint squeak of protest as his movement allowed the sun to glare in my face.
"What are the googly eyes?" I asked.
"It's this look that girls give Jace sometimes," Daria explained. "Their eyes go all 'mental undress'. It's deeply uncomfortable sometimes."
Jace made a face, as if to say he personally doesn't find it deeply uncomfortable. I, admittedly, would also not protest people giving me admiring looks in the street.
"And then they glare at me," Daria finished.
"Because they assume that you two are dating," I noted.
"Yeah, it's super weird," said Daria, as if the thought was confusing.
"Oh, I agree," I said. "You are so many leagues above him. How they fail to identify that you could do so much better eludes me."
"Hey!" said Jace.
"Kidding!" I wasn't. But Austin could not know that. "Nah, I mean, I can kind of see how other people think you two are dating. I used to think that, but I mean, no one else at school ever did, which surprised me. Objectively, you two had major bang potential."
Jace and Daria shared a look of knowing. It was the kind of look you shot your best friend to silently communicate and leave the other person out. I would be offended, but it was Daria. I couldn't be offended by anything she did. Clearly, I was missing something.
"I mean, of course we're not dating," said Jace. "It's never been like that with us."
"Well, I figured that out when you started dating McKenna and Daria started dating asshole wanker."
"He's not an asshole wanker," said Daria, though she seemed more amused than offended.
"Eh." Jace was in disagreement. "Anyway, I can't believe you thought we were dating before that!"
"Well, you guys did have weekly sleepovers, telepathically communicate and spend every waking moment together."
Daria and Jace looked at each other with disgust. "Yeah, but not, like, romantically."
"You always said that, but I mean, you're gorgeous—" I gestured to Daria "—and you're passably attractive—" I eyed Jace with discomfort "—so I just figured you were hooking up."
"You think I'm passably attractive?" said Jace, delighted.
I ignored him.
Daria shrugged. "There was a time where I probably would've."
"What?" I exclaimed. I'd always thought they might've, but both of them had always been so vehement in their denial, I never thought they'd admit it. Jace didn't seem surprised by Daria's revelation, so they'd clearly discussed her consideration of breaking the best friend boundary.
"Yeah," said Daria, with rueful embarrassment. "I thought about it when I was fourteen or fifteen. Not in a dating way, because ew, I could never."
"Thanks, Dars." Jace did not seem offended, though.
"No problem. But yeah, I think I was just nervous because Zach Godwin had just asked me out, and I had no idea how to do anything. The thought of making out with Zach made me want to puke with nerves. Jace was comfortable and familiar, and I knew he would be patient with me and completely judgement free. I figured we could just hook up and then I wouldn't have to stress if Zach tried anything."
"So you guys have made out? People have placed bets." This was the biggest piece of gossip in high school history, to be honest. It was not scandalous, but by god, everyone would lose their shit. Jace and Daria were extremely popular, and everyone knew of their never-gonna-go-there unbreakable friendship. "Like, a lot of them."
I had bet that they had. The rest of the friendship group had bet no, with a confidence that shocked me. How could they know if Jace was attracted to Daria or not?
"Oh, god, I never asked him." Daria seemed shocked at the thought. "I wanted to, but I never could've."
Jace grinned. "I would've, you know. I would make that sacrifice for you."
Daria patted his arm. "That's because you're a great friend, Jay."
"And a horny teenager with a hot best friend," I said, on a cough.
Jace shrugged. "That too, I guess. But I never really thought of Daria like that."
I didn't particularly believe him. Like, yeah, they'd always said that. But Daria was stunning; sunnily gorgeous. How could you not think of Daria like that? But instead of calling bullshit, I turned to Daria. "Why did you never ask?"
Daria looked at Jace with question. A secret held between them, readily coming to both their minds. Clearly, he knew why she'd never asked. I envied them for that easy friendship. They shared everything.
Jace was silent for a moment, carefully weighing up his words. "She knew that I... held a bit of a candle... for someone else. It would've made the whole thing a little strange, hooking up, knowing that. It was, uh, a long-burning, fairly intensive candle."
Daria rested her head on Jace's shoulder comfortingly. Fairly intensive, huh? It seemed this candle for this girl had been a fairly well documented conversation between them.
"Aw, did Jacey have a bit of crush? Do you pine? Are you a piner?" I crooned. "That's cute."
Jace coloured a faint red, which made me grin. He was so easy. That was a definitive yes on the pining front. I guess Jace was a remarkably steady guy. He wasn't the type to like a girl in a fickle manner.
"Oh, well that makes sense," I said. "McKenna moved that year, right? You guys were on from day one, all romantic movie-like."
Jace paused for a moment, the sun behind him silhouetting his figure and casting his face in shadows that almost obscured the expression of vague relief melding with disappointment. Almost.
"Yeah," he said. "All romantic movie-like with... McKenna."