Tightrope

Pineapple in Your Sandwich

"So, the friends thing worked out today?" Knight said, chewing thoughtfully on the end of his spoon.

I'd asked him to meet me at the shops after school for a frozen yoghurt trip; he needed an excursion out of the house, and like the good pet owner I am, I paid. He was starting to get antsy anyway; I was receiving text messages every ten minutes with his random thoughts and feelings, as if I was his stream of consciousness diary.

Sometimes, I regretted buying Knight a phone.

The shopping centre was always busy after school. Hundreds of schoolkids descended on the building, buying movie tickets or new outfits or food. It was inevitable that I would run into at least five people from school in one afternoon.

Knight seemed chirpier for the interaction. Every time one of my classmates came over to greet me, he always interjected with a cheery hello and somehow had gathered each person's phone number by the end of the interaction.

I plucked at a strawberry from the top of my froyo and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it did."

"And does everyone at school know about your little foray on the dark side?" asked Knight, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"No." I stabbed my spoon violently into the mess of yoghurt and Nutella. "I would, quite frankly, rather die."

The thought of the whispers, the staring, the smirks from my classmates and friends. Lena is such a hypocrite. Good work, Hartley, finally taming the shrew. Because I'd just had to proclaim my hatred from the rooftops for a decade, hadn't I?

Knight smirked. "If this was such an issue, you could've just... not made out with him."

I gave him a deadpan look. "Thank you for that enlightening observation, I really appreciate it. Hadn't even considered that."

He tipped an invisible hat mockingly. "Just doing my part as your best friend."

"Is that not something we should have a conversation about? Like, did we agree that you were my best friend? Because I kind of always thought that like, maybe Kaelin or Alex or Jon—"

"I decided that. You have no choice in this matter."

My eyebrows shot skyward. "Love the democracy, always what I look for in a bestie."

It was true, though. The newfound friendship between Jace and I had worked out, though, as much as amicability between two sworn enemies ever could. Lunch had been characterised by subtle jabs and jokes—"did I actually just watch you put pineapple in your sandwich? Were you dropped on your head as a child or did you just feel like inciting anarchy today?"—but the regular heatedness was absent. Instead of arguing, it was almost as if Jace and I were... bantering. After everything, it seemed I was capable of playing nice.

Of course, there were still moments I wanted to choke him with his own intestines, but the soft smile on Daria's face every time I laughed at Jace's jokes or offered him a kind word? Well, it made everything worthwhile.

"Okay, but for real, it worked... almost strangely well?" I said. "Like, I thought being friends with Jace Hartley would be awful. But he was, and don't make fun of me, not that bad."

"Why would I make fun of you?" asked Knight, grinning. "It's not like you ever told me that you wanted to lock Jace in an empty room with nothing but a water tap and no drainage, so that he slowly drowned in his own pee or was forced to drink it. Like, if you'd told me that story, then I'd definitely make fun of you. But since you totally didn't, I can't think of why it would be embarrassing that you kind of like him as a person now."