Roxie had been looking for something to distract her from Nova’s impending doom, and for better or worse, it finally came.

A text from her father beamed up at her. ‘Call me when you get back to your apartment. ILU sunshine.’

Today marked the last day she’d be where he thought she was. She wanted the sun to shine for him a little longer. This couldn’t last; texts only travelled so fast, and more distance from Earth meant longer delays. He’d panic if she left him hanging for two hours, let alone two days. It ran in their blood. She stared at the message, wishing for the magic words to give him the truth while protecting his peace of mind.

The words never came, and the time to tell him passed long ago. There was nothing left to do but text back. ‘Okay ^w^ Love you toooo <3’

Roxie felt her rhomboids and deltoids stiffen. The rest of her back muscles, front muscles, muscles of all directions followed, leaving her too frozen to look away from her phone. Her brainwaves flatlined. Well, technically, she’d be braindead if that happened, and her brain was alive, even if it struggled to conjure up thoughts. She wondered what the brain waves of a completely functional, completely empty brain might look like. Was that even possible?

“Gonna finish your drink?”

Roxie sprang up from her phone and took a sip. How did she forget Krow’s presence? “Yep~”

The bartender’s smokey eyes lingered on her for a moment before she went back to pouring water over an ice tray. “You know, I was thinking. It must take a lot of energy, being you.”

“That’s why it’s important for me to refuel. Thank you for reminding me~”

“Heh. Refuel. I guess we’re not much different than machines at the end of the day.” Krow shoved the tray in a freezer under the counter. “We can’t fire on all cylinders all the time.”

“Wise words!” Such wisdom deserved a toast, so Roxie lifted her drink. “Even the finest blade dulls when overused. That kind of stress isn’t good on the body.”

“Can’t imagine it’s good for the mind, either.”

She shook her head too powerfully, for her locs nearly knocked her drink over. Embarrassed, she ducked her head toward Krow, who returned her sheepish smile with a sympathetic one.

“Relax. I’m not your audience.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t have to put on a smile for me.” Such a bold claim from Krow knocked Roxie into silence. “I’m more used to laid back clientele, anyway.”

“You think I’m putting on a show for you? Hmmm~ Interesting. I’d say I’m joyous most of the time.”

Krow polished a glass. “Sounds nice. I gotta wonder, though, what about the times when you’re not? What do you do then?”

“What do I do when I’m sad, you ask? I try not to be.”

She gave Roxie a look most perturbed. “Uh-huh… And when you try not to be sad, do you ever open up to friends at all?”

Roxie tapped a little tune on the countertop, gritting a smile. Krow probably didn’t mean to back her into a corner in such an irksome way, yet she felt trapped all the same. She decided to tell the truth. “Nope. I consider it my sacred duty as a good friend to never bring my friends down.”

“Do they ever bring you down?”

She glanced down at her phone, unsure how to respond. “It’s not like they’re bad friends.”

“Oh no, that’s not what I meant. I don’t know them like that. What I mean is, I dunno, even the best of friends aren’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s not realistic. It’s human to argue, to feel hurt, that kinda thing.”

“Yeah.” Roxie’s face relaxed. “If my friends ever come to me with something, I lend my ear, my shoulder, whatever part of me they need.”

“But you don’t trust them to do the same for you?” Krow looked into her eyes. “Aren’t you their friend?”

What a silly question! It was so silly, Roxie felt ridiculous for not thinking of it first. She sat with it, kicking her feet idly.

“One of my jobs as a bartender is to be something of a part-time friend. If you have something you wanna get off your chest, you might wanna do it now.” Krow set down her cup and looked toward the window. It cast more shadow than light at this point, thanks to the influx of people walking by. “Customers should start showing up soon.”

What a kind offer. Roxie stirred her drink, mostly ice at this point. Obviously, the situation with Nova was off-limits. The one involving her father, it just felt too impossible to talk about. But there was something else, something that resurfaced when she’d first told Angelo of her plight, and something that grew ever more present today.

She looked at the last text she’d sent Mia, still unanswered. “I know you’re not a fan of the IF, but one of my friends is in it. She’s been gone since June, on some kind of mission, but she’s back in town for one last day before it starts for real. And then she’ll be gone for…I dunno how long.”

“Are you able to keep in touch?”

“Mm-hm.” Roxie nodded. “But I only found out about her mission when she first left.”

“Oh wow, that’s–” Krow cleared her throat, holding back her disapproval. “Sorry.”

“We went to her house today. We got to be silly together, I dolled her up, and I gained so much knowledge about her I would’ve never known. It was so much fun! But then, I don’t know what changed. It just died.”

“What died?”

“Her sparkle? Her magic?” The English language couldn’t quite capture what had vanished from Mia. “I was really looking forward to gallavanting around town with her, but she went with someone else, and it’s not like they’re close. Now, she won’t even text me back. I don’t understand; am I getting on her nerves?”

“You’re gonna have to be more specific. Try to think of what happened before her ‘sparkle’ died. Maybe that’ll give you a clue.”

Roxie tried. She wracked her brain, eyes shut tight, even knocking against her head to jostle her memory. “I don’t knowww.” She lowered her forehead to the counter. “I never know. When I was training to become a nurse, I thought we were all getting along until one of my patients was like ‘You know, it’s really sad how they shut you out.’”

“Were they?”

“I still don’t know! Foresight, hindsight, neither blessing shines upon me. One time my cousin told me that I was a lot, like it was a bad thing.” She felt the shock as if it happened yesterday. “We grew up together, and I never knew she felt that way. I don’t know how to be less me. How can anyone be less of themself than what they are?”

Krow shook her head. “That’s tricky. Some people just aren’t gonna click. About your friend though,” she leaned a brawny forearm on the counter, “if I were you, I would give her a peace of my mind for leaving me out of the loop about her mission. Heck, if she were here now, I’d do it for you. Who does she think she is, disappearing on friends like that?”

“But didn’t you disappear?”

The light went out of her eyes, and she looked away towards nothing at all. Roxie might not always know when she’d said something wrong, but this was crystal clear.

“Sorry! I shouldn’t have–”

“That was different. You care about her.”

Roxie nodded. She did care, and where that should’ve brought her warmth, it only brought guilt. Was she really so different from Mia, disappearing on someone who loved her? She hadn’t stopped to consider what reasons might lie in Mia’s heart. “I should talk to her about it.”

“Atta girl.” Krow pumped her fist.

“Thank you for lending your ear. Without your wisdom, I would be lost.”

“All in a day’s work.” She smirked until a Carter’s Mart commercial came on TV again. Roxie tried in vain to point out the smiling woman on screen; Krow clicked her remote with the speed of the fastest gunslinger in the West. “Oh? Were you gonna say something?”

“That was my friend’s mom.”

Krow froze in place for a moment, staring at her as if she said something weirder than usual. “What was your friend’s name again?”

“Uh…” Code name or real name? Roxie decided to go with the code name. “McKenzie.”

“She goes by McKenzie now…?” The words came out so quietly, it’s like Krow wasn’t even talking to her. She laughed to herself. “Always knew it was a good name.”

A wave of deja vu knocked the obvious question from Roxie’s thoughts. Krow’s hair was shorter, and she looked a little more muscular, but if Roxie squinted, she did look like the girl from Mia’s family photo. “Are you two related? I think I saw you in a picture.”

“We’re sisters.”