Rising Shards

One evening shortly after Iris had been dumped by Olivia, she called Maia up. She had been calling pretty regularly, which Maia supposed wasn’t terribly different from how things always were with them, but Iris didn’t start most of her calls crying prior to the breakup. Maia prided herself on helping her best friend through her cry sessions, and each time she got Iris to laugh while she was feeling so down it was a huge personal victory. This call wasn’t going as well; Iris was still crying twenty minutes in.

“You wanna just go somewhere?” Maia suggested.

“What do you mean?” Iris said, audibly blowing her noise in a tissue. “Sorry, that’s probably really gross to hear.”

“I mean, you wanna just go walk around somewhere?” Maia said. “I can come pick you up.”

Iris agreed to that, and Maia drove her parents’ van over to get her.

“Thanks, MaiMai,” Iris said, sniffing. “It’s really hitting me hard tonight, I dunno why.”

“Well, maybe we can do something fun to take your mind off of it.” Maia said.

Maia kind of hated that part of her was happy Iris and Olive split up. She felt the weight of guilt every time she got excited thinking about Iris now being single. Then she remembered how crap Olive was to Iris especially in their breakup and the aftermath and felt a lot less guilty.

“What fun things can we do here?” Iris asked, fidgeting with the window controls next to her.

Maia tapped the steering wheel with her claws, trying to think of something that would be a good distraction.

“We could go to the park,” Maia said. “And watch the sunset, maybe?”

“That sounds nice, but I think that’s one of those things I’d get sad Olivia wouldn’t do with me.” Iris said, her voice quivering. “Why wouldn’t she even take me to watch the sunset?”

Iris bawled for a bit after that. Maia wanted to say that was just like Scrungy to treat Iris like crap, but the words wouldn't come out, her response being a silent flick of whiskers for some reason.

Maia’s parents let her take the van but only if she’d get gas for it, so she went to the nearest station. After she filled up, she found Iris inside the store staring blankly at a shelf of chips.

“See anything…fun?” Maia asked. “I don’t know why I said fun.”

“Doesn’t this chip mascot kinda look like her?” Iris said, holding up a bag of Cani Crisps that had art on it of an explorer girl who maybe vaguely looked like Olive if you squinted really hard.

“It doesn’t to me, but maybe we should look for something that doesn’t make you think of her.” Maia said. Something else that made her feel less guilty about being happy Iris and Olive weren’t together: the twinges of jealousy when Iris talked about her ex.

“Yeah, that’d probably be good, huh…” Iris said. “I think I want a slushie, but…”

“What’s up? I know they have slushies here,” Maia said.

“They do…” Iris said. She held her head low. “But I didn’t bring any money.”

“Just let me buy em,” Maia said. “My parents gave me cash to fill up, so…”

After paying, the two sat on the curb by a bright vending machine outside as Iris sipped her slushie.

“How is it?” Maia asked, finding the hum of the machine oddly relaxing.

“Ah.” Iris said. “Ah!” Iris grabbed her head.

“Dude, what’s wrong?” Maia asked.

“Brain freeze…” Iris said. “So not fair…”

“You were practically chugging that thing, you brought it on yourself.” Maia said.

“I guess…” Iris said. “Hey, Maia?”

“What’s up?” Maia asked.

She stared deeply into her slushie. “I’m…sorry I’m such a downer lately,” She said. “I’m sure I’m being a bad friend…and I know I should be a better…friend…”

Iris started wailing again. When she got really down, she apologized over and over for things that weren’t her fault. While Maia liked hearing Iris say she’d try to do better, to do more as a friend, and that hearing it made her fluttery every time, she knew that Iris could absolutely contribute next to nothing to their friendship and Maia would be just fine. Luckily, Iris wasn’t like that, but Maia genuinely would be fine even if she was.

“I’m sorry I’m such a bummer.” Iris said. “I don’t want to be, but I’m just really sad…”

“It’s alright,” Maia said. Usually she didn’t say much more than that when Iris was crying this much, but this time she wanted to say something. “I’ll be here while you’re a bummer, and I’ll still be here whenever you’re feeling better.”

Iris could only nod before she somehow sobbed even harder. Some teen boys walking by gave them looks, but Maia glared them away. The two stayed in the parking lot until Iris had sobbed it all out for the night, and a bit after as they stared ahead, with Iris recuperating as she rested her head on Maia’s shoulder.