It took about five minutes for my head to stop spinning. I guess I wasn’t bleeding or anything because Ali was sitting next to me snickering rather than worrying over my health. I sat up, glaring at the irritating little wench through the throbbing pain currently splitting my still tender skull. I dragged myself up into a sitting position, gingerly touching my aching cranium and wincing as I did. Turning my eyes from the cackling madwoman next to me I glanced at the flood of notifications that had hit right before I did.

Congratulations! By completing the quest: Be a man! You have gained 300 XP! You have reached Level 3! Plus two points to dexterity! Due to enduring a strong impact, your Stamina rises by one!

I reached up again to touch my head and found that despite still being in horrible pain and sending echoes of pounding drums through my entire skull, it seemed to be a bit less tender. It might be my imagination or my stamina might be contributing to my overall health already. It was odd that it had gone up, but presumably since I completed the quest upon jumping, I had leveled before I hit the ground, giving me a trainable cap of 3 on all stats. Along with the notification of my level and stat increases I also got another prompt.

By attempting to use your innate physical abilities to traverse the hidden paths of the world you have obtained the skill Roofrunning (D): Plus twenty one percent efficiency to reflexive movements to save yourself from falling while undertaking purposeful traversal of non standard paths. Plus twenty one percent efficiency to finding the best possible path to climb.

I smiled slightly at the blurb, enjoying my new skill and loving the fact that I had the highest level of that skill available for someone with my Dex. Ali noticed the expression and raised an eyebrow “Whats with the stupid smile? Do I need to drag you to the hospital for a concussion check? I’m a bit afraid I might have killed some of your few remaining brain cells. It would be heartbreaking if the one you have left tried to suicide out of loneliness.” She gave me a sugary sweet smile with a mocking edge, clearly impressed with her own cleverness.

I pulled up a handful of the shockingly green grass from the hill we were on and threw it all over her face and hair, laughing as she sputtered. “Don’t be absurd, if I had any brain cells left I would’ve stopped hanging out with you years ago. No, I actually got a skill from that stupid stunt. It’s even D rank, which is the highest available for my Dex score. I also got a few more points in Dex and another point in stamina. I’m sure if you wanted to repeat the move you could gain similar perks.” I actually wasn’t, I had gotten a quest and if she didn’t she wouldn’t level at all, but it didn’t matter because she would never do it.

Ali sneered over at me from her spot laying down in the grass. The slight wind tousled her golden blonde hair, and I found the smile sliding off my face as I lost focus and just took her whole face in. In the sun and the quiet park she really looked like an honest to god angel. My eyes met hers and we stared at each other for a minute before I cleared my throat and looked away. I expected a snarky comment but I froze in shock as I felt instead her head curling into my shoulder as she laid a bit closer to my side.

I looked down at her, my heart pounding at how close she was, and was bowled over by the sweetest smile I’d ever seen. “This is nice” her voice was soft and almost shy, not something I heard often from my Ali “It’s been fun meeting new people and seeing Erin, but I feel like we’ve been losing our us time. We don’t just sit and read or talk as much since we got here. I thought I would be spending tons of time with you on this mission but its turned out the exact opposite.” She laid her head back down on my shoulder, staring past me so she didn’t have to meet my eyes.

I understood what she meant though “I know, that’s part of why I invited just you on my little grinding trip today. With all our new friends and the school and family drama we haven’t had a lot of time for just us. I miss my best friend. I wont let us get lost though. Even after you marry Nick, even after we’re both grizzled and retired, I promise Ali, we’re going to be in each others lives. I cant imagine a world without you there for me, and you don’t need to imagine one without me being there for you because it wont happen. I’ll always make time.”

She snuggled closer, that same sweet smile spreading across her face “I’ll hold you to that, Ethan. No matter what happens, you cant abandon me or leave me behind. Best friends have to take care of each other.” I didn’t need to respond, because when I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her close I knew she understood. I don’t think theres a better feeling in the world than knowing you’ll never be alone.