The summer went by fast. After the beach trip, Josie wanted to go to an art exhibition that was open with free entry for high school students for a special event week, as part of a program to get young people into high class art.

While neither Mark nor Mary cared much about art, nor did they think they understood it, they both cared enough about Josie, that it was a sacrifice they were willing to make, so it was decided they would go that week.

As a kind of compromise, Mark wanted them all to go watch a basketball game. He didn’t have any wishes on which one he wanted to watch, but he had just never gone to one and would like to. 

It seemed that ever since he had joined the team at their school, basketball had slowly taken over and his interest in soccer had lessened so much that, even when Josie offered to stand on goal for him, he said he’d rather throw some hoops and ‘practice his three-pointer’. Mary was into the idea, her interest in basketball growing along with Mark’s, but Josie was less so.

But Mark would go to Josie’s art thing and Josie would go to Mark’s basketball thing. Such was the compromise of friendship. It wasn’t that much different from when they sat on the sidelines in the breaks between classes, watching Mark play or practice, so it would probably be a lot of fun, Mary had said as the final push to convince Josie to go.

Mary was happy to spend time together, the three of them, and wanted a sleepover. Meaning, she wanted a movie night where she got to pick all the movies, and no sleep was allowed. This was the hardest one to plan. 

While both Josie and Mark wanted to, Mark wasn’t allowed to sleep over at anyone’s place, nor was he allowed to hold it at his own place, so Mary and Josie either had to do it alone, or not at all. This matter was still up for debate as the day of the art exhibition came near.

The day of the art exhibition arrived. The three of them had decided to meet up near a train station and go together. Mark had suggested using his private driver again, but Josie had declined, saying she wanted to have ‘the full experience’. 

Mary didn’t know what it meant, but had automatically nodded in agreement, even though she had no preferences for or against, and Josie never explained it.

Mark had arrived first, dressed to the skies. Rather than looking like someone who was going to an art exhibition, he looked like someone that was going to the opera. He had a white dress shirt on, formfitted, showing his muscles beneath the thin silky fabric, buttons perfectly holding on, not a crease in sight. He wore a deep blue tie and deep blue pants to match, with a matching blue jacket to finish the look. His hair was brushed back and set in a smooth swirl.

Josie and Mary came together, bickering, having met up on the way as they always did, and while Josie matched Mark and had dressed up, Mary wore a hoodie and jeans, her short black hair messy. Her outfit the source of the bickering.

Josie wore a simple blue-green sleeveless dress that matched her blue-green eyes. It was long with a slit, showing off her leg. Her shoes were simple and black with a tiny heel, which looked comfortable enough to walk around in, but still more stylish than her usual sneakers.

“I suddenly feel slightly underdressed,” Mary complained, despite Josie having already told her she was when she picked her up.

Mary looked at the two of them. Without thinking she added, “you two look good together.”

The added statement made both Josie and Mark look each other up and down, something similar to disgust or complete disbelief painted in their features. A furrowed brow, a tight line at the side of the mouth, a twitch near the eye.

“I did say to dress up, I even asked if you were sure you didn’t want to go borrow something and change when I picked you up,” Josie said, ending the awkward moment of staring.

“I thought I did dress up! It’s my fancy hoodie. Look, no stains,” Mary said proudly, vaguely gesturing around her stomach area while pulling the hoodie taught to really show how clean it was.

“We have very different ideas of ‘dressing up’...” Josie sighed.

“But we thought this would happen,” Mark took over, a smirk painting itself on his face as he and Josie shared a glance. Then he pulled a black dress out from his bag.

“You didn’t!” Mary screamed in mock-horror, “I don’t do dresses!”

With one smooth movement, Josie went behind Mary, holding her arms tight, whispering in her ear, “You do today.”

Mark slowly walked closer to them, smirk growing for each step.

“Come on, do you really want to embarrass Josie?” He asked in a way that made it clear he already thought he had won.

Which he had.

Mary sighed deeply, and when Josie let her arms go, she held them in front of herself as if she was a criminal ready to get handcuffed.

“Lead me away,” Mary said as she resigned herself to her fate.

Mark and Josie laughed at the dramatics as the dress changed hands from Mark’s to Josie’s, and Josie led Mary into the toilet on the station.

After much half-hearted complaining, Josie led Mary back out, now fully dressed and even hair brushed, half of it put into a tiny bun.

“You look…” Mark started when he saw them, but didn’t seem able to continue.

“Beautiful, amazing, gorgeous,” Josie provided helpfully, nodding at her handiwork, “You, my good sir, have good taste in dresses. It fit her perfectly.”

And it did. It was black, but with light and dark blue details that matched Mary’s light blue eyes. The dress was mostly backless, with a big empty V, that showed off her shoulders and well-trained back.

“...different.” Mark finally ended and Josie looked at him with eyes that could kill.

“Thanks…” Mary answered, which was enough to get Josie to calm down.

Mary didn’t like compliments much, unless they were a specific kind. She liked to be told she was strong or fast, that she was cool or awesome, that she was a good friend or that she was someone people relied on. She liked compliments that spoke to her actions, what she did, what she said, her choices.

She didn’t really like compliments on how she looked.

And while she appreciated Josie telling her how beautiful she was, because it was Josie, and Josie would always be special and allowed to do things others weren’t, it was almost a relief Mark didn’t do the same.

If he had, Mary wasn’t sure if she would have run away or stripped naked on the spot, just to go like ‘haha, what about now?’.

So she was happy that Mark had not called her beautiful.

She truly was…

“Now we all look good together,” Mary said, deciding it was enough thinking and too little doing, “we have a train to catch.”

And they did, but they were in good time, even with the dress change, and just walked to the train.

When they arrived at the art place, Josie suddenly went sparkly eyed. Mary hadn’t put much thought into what the art exhibition was about. Somehow she had assumed it was like those they were forced to go to on school trips, with blobs of paint that looked like something she could do, and made no sense.

It was, of course, different from that. The exhibition was from an up-and-coming artist who had won some big prizes already, and wanted to support aspiring young artists by giving them inspiration on how to make art without spending too much money. Basically, it was exactly the same materials Josie had used all along. The entire place was filled with drawings made solely with a sketchbook and pencils.

“I can’t believe adults pay that much to come look at doodles…” Mary whispered to herself, when she saw the sign when they waited in line. It was handwritten in neat letters, but had enough personality to say it wasn’t made with stencils. It had a price sign, where, as they knew, it said the entry was free for high school students that could show a school ID, free for children following an adult, and adults were… so damn expensive.

Both Mark and Josie ignored her, but where Mark hid a little laugh, Josie hid a sigh.

After they had gone in, the place was split into different sections. There was a section with portraits, a section with landscapes, a section with random things called ‘warmup’ which was full of fruit, spoons, a random tree, a leaf, half a face with rushed lines and other things that looked like they were unfinished.

“I do that too,” Josie said, pointing at that section, “give myself everything from five seconds to ten minutes to draw as much as I can of something, and when the time is up, I put down my pencil, never touching it again. It’s fun.”

Mary nodded, as if she understood. She tried to understand, at least. But try as she might, she couldn’t.

“There’s something beautiful about things that will never be done,” Mark agreed, sounding like he got it. Josie nodded, smile spreading, before she pointed towards the portraits section.

“These are what I came to see. Look how effortless the lines look, but every single one is necessary. Look,” Josie said, holding her finger in the air in front of one of the lines in the middle of the face, “what do you see?”

“A finger,” Mary said, trying to be funny, and while she knew it would fall flat, she felt like she had to say something, even if it was wrong. To show she was listening.

“Lack of depth,” Mark said, looking at it with wonder in his eyes. Josie nodded eagerly, “Exactly! Amazing, right? Remove one line and the entire image changes. Add a line and it changes again.”

Mary felt uncomfortable. While she sort of understood what was being said, she didn’t really understand. Mostly it felt like they were talking a foreign language, where she could make out some words from guessing, but not enough words for her to be able to string together a sentence.

She felt like Mark had betrayed her somehow. They had been in the ‘art noob’ duo together, and yet he just had to show up and suddenly he got it. And she had lost out on another thing to do with Josie. The art part of Josie that Mary couldn’t touch…

She had even worn a dress for this. For Josie.

And while she didn’t actually hate dresses, she just didn’t like how they made her feel. All… girly… and stuff… She was a girl, no doubt, but whenever she was with Mark and Josie, she just felt like Mary, and the dress somehow got in the way of that. Made her remember things she didn’t want to think about. Made her consider things she shouldn’t consider…

She stopped herself. Nausea started crawling up her throat, slowly but surely, and she had to stop.

“Hey, sorry, I don’t feel super good, so I need to go get some air,” Mary interrupted them and went outside before either could offer to go with her. She wanted to be alone for a bit.

No, she needed to be alone a bit.

She needed to breathe.