“Aha! I win!” Dahlia crowed happily. 

I groaned, but in good sport. I could never win against Dahlia. Or against anyone, for that matter. 

“Noooooo!” I groaned again, but still with a smile on my face. I leaned my head back against the top of the beanbag I was sitting in, slinking down the chair. 

Dahlia laughed as I mockingly frowned at the game screen reading “Player Two: Game Over.” I stuck out my tongue, and Dahlia laughed even harder. 

“Oh, you never can win at these games,” Dahlia said when she could catch her breath. 

“Which is why you love playing with me. I suck,” I said, revealing what we were both thinking. 

“Yes, but also because you have the most dramatic and precious reactions ever,” she told me, laughing again. 

This time, I joined her, laughing until it felt like my lungs would combust. 

“Ow,” I wheezed between my laughs and winces. 

“My statements exactly,” Dahlia agreed. 

I laughed again at that, but quickly stopped when my ribs complained. I sighed, and leaned forward to place the controller that I held back onto the table. Dahlia followed, and we both sank back into our chairs and relaxed. 

“I won’t push, but do you want to talk about... Y’know?” Dahlia asked. 

I lazily turned my head in her direction, and found her curiously staring back at me. I sighed, resigned. 

“Well, he’s a lot different than what I expected.” 

“I know what you mean,” Dahlia responded, nodding. 

“I mean, I expected a rude and big-headed ‘popular jock,’ but he’s actually quite... nice,” I said hesitantly. 

“Well, all of his friends are mainly known for being jerks and bullies, so I can’t blame you,” Dahlia told me, rolling her eyes. We both chuckled lightly at this. 

“Maybe it’s because he’s dating Victoria that I automatically assumed he was just as toxic as her.” 

“Hm. Yeah, that makes sense. Only a demon can date another demon,” Dahlia announced. 

I snorted at this unexpected statement. Chuckling, I told Dahlia, “He’s not a demon. Incredibly stupid, yes, but not quite a demon.” 

“I’m pretty sure you both are incredibly stupid, but what can I say? I don’t know him!” Dahlia said, her eyes going wide with false innocence. I knew she was teasing me almost immediately because her lips twitched, threatening to break into a wide smile.  

“Ha ha, very funny,” I told her sarcastically. She cackled at this, throwing her head back so far that her glasses slipped up her face and tangled into her hair, which I noticed she still hadn’t brushed. “Ah, dang it!” she exclaimed, her face contorting into a frown as she found her glasses caught in her hair. She moved to sit up again, hands already prying at the knots, but I stopped her from doing so. 

“Hold still, let me,” I told her. 

I stood up, walking towards her and sank to my knees behind her, sitting on my heels. She was still upside down, so she was able to stare straight at me. And by stare straight at me, I actually meant squinting at my general direction which was probably a meaningless colorful blob in an ‘Iris’ shape. I chuckled at her obvious focus and frustration, and got to work untangling the squirrel's nest that was her hair. 

Dahlia let go of her hair, bringing her hands back to her lap. She squinted at me, and I wasn’t sure if it was because she couldn’t see or if it was because she was debating asking something. 

“Iris?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Will you be okay if I go to boarding school?” 

I paused at the question. I wasn’t sure how to answer it. She would just feel worse if I said I would be miserable, but perhaps have some slight satisfaction from the confirmation that I would miss her. However, if I told her I would be fine, she would be disappointed and hurt that I wouldn’t miss her, but content that I was going to be fine. What to do? 

“I... don’t know...” I answered honestly. 

“You don’t know if you’ll be fine? Or you don’t know if you can answer?” Dahlia continued, her eyes boring into my cheeks even though I’m pretty sure she was aiming for my eyes. 

“I don’t know... Maybe both?” I hesitantly told her. “Will you?” 

She sighed at my question, closing her eyes, and I remembered that I was trying to get Dahlia her glasses back. I don’t know when they had stopped, but my fingers jolted back to life, continuing to uncover the glasses. 

“I’m not entirely sure, either,” Dahlia eventually said. 

We sat there together in a giant bubble of uncertain yet painful fear of the future. Dahlia’s eyes remained closed with her forehead slightly wrinkled in worry. My own eyes stayed open as I slowly worked her glasses off her head with my nimble fingers. 

As I separated the last few strands of hair from the glasses, Dahlia blinked her eyes open. She didn’t look at me, however, instead choosing to stare with glassy eyes up at her ceiling. 

I gently pulled her glasses from her head, and held them out to her. “Here,” I said quietly. 

“Thanks,” she mumbled back, slowly taking back her glasses. 

Now that she was free from the clutches of her own glasses, she sat up in her chair. I brought my own legs out from under me, and sat with my legs splayed out in front of me on either side of the beanbag chair that Dahlia occupied. I ever so slightly leaned back and let gravity bring me the rest of the way down onto the plush carpet floor. 

I saw Dahlia reach her now bespeckled head over the edge of the chair she was sitting in to look down at me. I lifted my head and looked up at her in return. 

“I might not have to go...” Dahlia said quietly as she pulled her right arm under her chin and draped her left over the back of the chair. “I might not even get to go! There is a test kinda thing I have to take to get in, and I was thinking that maybe...” 

My eyes widened as I deciphered what she was implying, shock turning to reprimanding as I told her, “Dahlia, don’t you dare even think about purposely failing that test for me! This would be a great opportunity for you and your future! Don’t let your worry about my capability to make friends stop you!” 

Dahlia paused, hesitantly mulling something over in her mind. She lifted her left hand and started gnawing on her nails. I don’t know if it was a conscious decision or an involuntary move. When she looked back at me, she looked thoughtful. 

“What if I failed for myself?” she asked. I blinked at her, thoroughly confused. 

What?

I blinked at her, and she refocused her gaze onto me and sighed, seeming to understand my extreme confusion. 

“What if I failed the test because I didn’t want to go, because I thought it wouldn’t help my future in any way?” she clarified. 

“Are you sure it would be because of that and not because of me?” I asked, slightly suspicious. 

“Yes...” Dahlia started, probably attempting to begin an argument. Her gaze wandered off of me again as she dove deeper into her own thoughts. 

I saw through her flimsy argument, if you could even call it that, and sat up to get closer to my best friend. “Dahlia,” I said, getting her attention. “I think you should go. It really could help you! Think about all the experience you could get! And besides, I’ll still be here over break.” 

I reached out to place my hand gently onto Dahlia’s arm in a soothing gesture. She jumped at the sudden contact and looked at me. I smiled sadly up at her, and gave her arm a squeeze. 

“I think you should go. At least try your hardest on that test. If you get in, you get in. If you fail, you’ll come back knowing you tried your best,” I told her softly, but still confidently. 

She sighed, resigned, and nodded her agreement. She looked me dead in the eyes as she fiercely said, “Just because I get in doesn’t mean I’ll enjoy it.” 

“I never said you had to,” I told her. “But Dahlia, there are some things out there that I won’t be with you for. Go out and enjoy life, with or without me,” I told her gently. “I want you to learn and experience and have fun. Don’t suffer because of me.” 

Dahlia smiled back at me, matching the sad smile that shone on my face. After a few minutes of just watching each other as sparkling tears slipped from our misting and blurry eyes, she nodded. 

“I-I,” Dahlia croaked before swallowing down her tears. “I’ll try, but only if you promise to try to as well.” 

Determination shone bright and fierce in her watery and magnified eyes. I reassuringly maintained eye contact and sincerely promised her, “Of course.” 

I smiled again, but this time, it held less sorrow. Gently, I let my hand drop away from my best friend’s, and let my arm fall down to my sides. Slowly, like before, I let gravity pull me down as I plopped back onto the soft carpet of Dahlia’s personal game room. 

My head dropped to the floor last with a gentle thud, my hair fanning out in a cloud of ringlets all spilling out from the ponytail that was low, on the nape of my neck. 

I closed my eyes and let all of my emotions wash over me in waves of pain and pride. I imagined us separating, tears and grief, like losing an extension of myself that had been attached for what felt like forever. But at the same time, I could see Dahlia, learning studiously, squishing a butt load of knowledge into her massive brain, and pursuing her dream with ambition and joy. 

This was the vision that made me so confident. Dahlia should have all that she could. She deserved the best the world could give her, and now that a chance came, I wanted her to take it. Embrace the gifts the world has and will give you, Dahlia.

I felt a warm smile lighten my face, and opened my eyes. As I focused on the ceiling above me, I realized that my tears had all fallen away, replaced with pure satisfaction. 

“You should go.” 

I hadn’t realized I’d actually said it aloud until Dahlia replied. 

“You won’t miss me?” 

Shocked, I blinked my gaze to stare astounded at Dahlia, who had a hurt look on her face. 

“Are you kidding me? Of course I’ll miss you, gosh,” I said, a bit louder than I had intended. In a quieter voice, I mumbled, “You’re crazy to think I wouldn’t.”

Dahlia huffed a soft laugh, shaking her head at me. I rolled my eyes and let my gaze fall back onto the ceiling. 

“I’m not quite as crazy as you, don’t you agree?” Dahlia asked me, laughing more openly now. I joined her, my laughter bubbling out in joyful peals. 

“There are some arguments to be made,” I objected, which made Dahlia laugh harder. Of course, her laughing only made me laugh harder, so we sat there together, clutching at our ribs as we giggled.

Once I heard that her chuckles subsided, I looked at her with a new seriousness. 

“I will miss you, and I hope you miss me. But! I want for you to reach your dreams, and boarding school might be your chance! If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll ‘make friends’ with Emilio.” Dahlia smiled and rolled her eyes as I lifted my hands into the air to surround my words with quotation marks. I continued, ignoring her. “But you have to promise me something in return.” I paused, making sure I had Dahlia’s entire attention, letting her know I was dead serious. “You have to try to have fun, make friends, and study as hard as you can. This isn’t just a learning experience. This is your life, and you should make it count!” 

“I will,” Dahlia said as she nodded, looking just as serious as I was. I maintained eye contact with her for a moment more, drilling my promise into her mind, before smiling. 

“Good.”