Tightrope

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Crackhead

"I'm gonna hit you," Knight said, his tongue poking out in concentration. Tension pulled every muscle in his body taught, like an arrow strung upon a bow, loaded and quivering as it waited for release.

Austin scoffed. "Your aim is terrible."

"Your dodging is worse," Knight shot back.

"I will beat both of you," I proclaimed lightly.

It happened all at once. Knight's Princess Peach unleashed his green shell, which hit Austin's Yoshi squarely in the back, as my Diddy Kong released its blue shell, promptly taking Knight out of the equation, leaving me to sail past them both to claim a glorious Rainbow Road victory.

Diddy Kong raised his arms in the air, taking a victory lap—as he deserved to do, the little superstar. The Mario Kart music blasted from the speakers—a song of triumph—and I decided that the first dance at my wedding would be choreographed to this absolute bop.

Both Austin and Knight hung their heads in shameless defeat as I crowed over them, flinging my body around in a little boogie. One of my arms flailed out to hit Knight squarely in the forehead; I was not a gifted dancer.

"In your face!" I cackled.

"Oh, I still have one, do I?" said Knight pettily. "Thought you just knocked it clean off."

I made a show of examining his face. "Hm, looks a little bit funky, but I think that may have been like that before I hit you."

Knight's face went from smug and bitchy to deeply offended in a single breath. He shoved me lightly. "You cow!"

Austin seemed highly amused by our interaction. He had met Knight a number of times over the years, but, like me, had been too concerned with escaping the boring, fussy society events to bother making friends. Besides, Knight was totally annoying.

I plopped myself back into Austin's gaming chair, panting with exhaustion. Boogie was truly the best cardio. Both of the boys were lounging across Austin's bed, Wii remotes held loosely in their hands. Knight had elected to use the wheel add-on because it was "way more authentic, Lena". Both of them had gotten cold and pulled the duvet over their legs.

We had locked the door against my parents for security. Knight was still a secret and would remain that way; I hadn't gone to the effort of befriending Hartley for nothing.

My phone buzzed with an incoming text message. I went to reach for it in its position at the foot of Austin's bed, but Knight beat me to it.

"Aw, Lover Boy is texting you already," he crooned.

Austin plucked the phone from Knight's hands to get a look at the screen, both of their heads peering over the screen of my phone in analysis.

"Thanks, boys, I love the violation of my privacy," I said drily.

"For your information," Austin read aloud from my screen. "I have changed your name in my phone to Bestie4Life."

"Rude," said Knight, snatching the phone back, staring in disbelief at Jace's message. "I'm Lena's bestie for life."

"We have been friends for, like, a day," I pointed out.

"Woah, is that a PB for you, Lena?" Austin asked.

Now that was just rude. "I have friends," I said sulkily. But my mind was still caught on my phone, on the messages from Jace lying within. He must've texted me through Instagram or Messenger, because no way did he have my phone number. But why was he texting me? There was a big difference between 'I will no longer actively hate you and aspire to ruin your life' and 'hey we are legit friends who talk to each other when we are not forced to'.