The Secret Lives of Fireflies

Friends

               "Luce, huh?" Koda and I were in the park. I was lying down and staring at the sky, my heart filled with all the warmth in the world. Luce made my heart fill like that every single time. And Koda was sitting next to me, looking around the park while he listened to me talk. So of course I'd told my new friend about her. I mean, Devon could only listen to me rave about her for so long before she rolled her eyes and told me to ask her out already.

"Yeah, Luce." Her name rolled off my tongue and I smiled around it. It was a good name.

"She sounds great."

"She is. You should come meet her sometime, come hang out at the bar. All my other friends have met her already, so it seems " Dev was still recuperating. I hadn't even had a chance to tell her about Koda. And even if I did, I wasn't sure what I'd say. Dev was my best friend, there was no doubting that and I couldn't think of a future where Dev wasn't my best friend. Maybe Luce and I wouldn't get married and have the most adorable kids on the planet, maybe I wouldn't have other friends in my life, maybe Koda and I would lose touch in a week, maybe I would never find someone to settle down with. But Dev? She'd always be there. But something about Koda was different from her. Something about him made me feel more...open. There was something I could be around him that I was afraid to be around anyone else. And maybe it was because he was new in my life, maybe because he was just the kind of guy I could feel like that around, I wasn't exactly sure, but there was something that put me at ease. The worst part was that I wasn't sure what it was that I was hiding from the world. I wasn't sure what baggage I was carrying that I only felt safe enough to set it down when it was just Koda and I. And maybe that's why I hadn't told Dev about him yet.

"Friends? Is that what we are now?" He said, turning his glance to me and a wide, charming smile took over.

My face felt hot and I glanced away from him. "Well I mean, I consider you a friend, we talk a lot and hang out and isn't that what friends do?" Were we not friends? Did he not think of me that way? Maybe he didn't really like me that much.

"Good, I like that. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one thinking we moved on from acquaintance stage. I'd love to meet your girl sometime, she seems pretty great, but as your friend I still would like to meet her and see if I approve. You know, part of the job of beings friends."

I nodded, "Understandable. Well my friend Dev—"

He mock gasped and a hand flew to his chest. "Other friends?! I thought we were exclusive!! How dare you? Making me trust you like that, only to go flaunting your other friendships about!"

"Well I never said we were going steady," I said after I'd finished laughing. "Anyways, my friend Dev is kind of stuck at home for a while, recovering from a motorcycle accident because she's as reckless as she was when she was ten, but now she actually as the means to be that reckless."

"Is she okay?" His laughs and jokes turned serious and he seemed genuinely concerned, not that fake, I-have-to-ask-because-you-brought-it-up concern.

"Oh yeah, she's fine. I mean, she will be. She's really banged up, but honestly she's fine. She's probably enjoying the time off from class and work and stuff. She even got a dog a couple weeks ago. Her parents are really worried, keep sending her money to make up for the lack of work and stuff, which she would turn down if, you know, she was able to work. And she's with her girlfriend Sara all the time because of it, really she's doing just fine. But she can't come to the bar for a while, and well, Luce works at the bar most of the time so I still would like to go, but it would be nice to have a reason other than to just drool over her from afar."