Amity and Luz looked up as the door opened and saw Boscha. The girl looked like she was ready to drop dead with how tired she looked. Amity got up before looking at her crush and let the idiot get up. Just like they talked about. Luz would apologize, try to break things up with a joke, and they could go back to enjoying themselves. Amity even planned to try to make Luz’s mistake into a plus side for Boscha so she had two new people to practice her makeup on. Everything was going to be fine.

Unfortunately, it also meant Luz cut Boscha off from getting to her dresser. The human also couldn’t look Boscha in the eye which only made her scowl. She could even face the person she was fucking over? Of course she couldn’t. She was probably too stupid to realize what she was doing. Which, to be fair, that last point wasn’t entirely wrong but that didn’t mean Luz wasn’t going to try. “I’m sorry. I don’t really know what came over me but I promise that I’ll behave.”

Boscha rolled her eyes before bringing a hand up and gesturing for Luz to get out of the way. The idiot didn’t move though. “Hey, I don’t want to just brush this off. I screwed up and I know you want to scream at me for it.”

Amity slipped a hand onto her crush’s shoulder and gently pulled her back. “Luz, calm down. If Boscha doesn’t want to talk about it right now then that’s fine, right?”

Those eyes. That tone. Amity didn’t look at her like this before. Boscha put a hand on her head. The potion was supposed to stop headaches and other shit like that. Why was there so much pressure then? No, it didn’t matter. The way to her dresser was clear. She could get her gum, take another swig from her water bottle, and they could just move on.

Luz then noticed the bag of cookies. “Oh, did your mom get those for us?”

For a second, Amity wanted to strangle her idiot. After all, how did she know exactly what not to say? She then looked at Boscha and watched as her old friend dropped the bag onto the ground. She stayed silent though. No glib comment about moms being overrated or a simple middle finger to shut her up. What was going on in her head? No. It didn’t matter. Luz would take care of this. “No, Boscha probably got them earlier today.” That would be it. They could move o-

“Why?” Boscha turned away from her drawers without having opened them as she failed to even notice that she was crying again. She was more focused on the fact that she was shaking with rage. “She’s taking everything else from me, so why not my secrets too? What does it matter anyways? Or are you going to just be another person to tell me that it wasn’t my fault? Just another reason to look down on me after all!”

Luz stepped back towards the other girl as she began to say, “No one i-” before gagging and failing to stop herself from asking, “What the hell did you eat?”

Boscha was too riled up now though, even as her brain tried to scream at her to back down. She was going to lose Amity like this. Then again, you couldn’t lose what you never had. “I thought goody two shoes like you didn’t like to lie.”

“Enough!” Amity stepped between the two of them before pushing them apart. “We’re here to relax, remember? So will you two actually ta-” She then stopped as her eyes watered and she had to cough at the smell that hit her like a truck. She recognized it though.

And when Amity looked up, Boscha’s heart broke at how furious her old friend looked. “What have you been drinking all night?”

No. No no no. This was her fault. That stupid human. Why did she try to be nice to her? Why didn’t she listen to Amity and put this off? Why did she have to be so stupid? Just the same old brute that she always was. “I-It doesn’t matter.”

Amity crossed her arms as she stood in front of who she thought had been her best friend. “It matters to me. You’ve been drinking from that water bottle for as long as I can remember. Does that mean everytime I came over you had to be drunk to deal with it? That the only reason you ever opened up was because you were wasted?” Amity shut her eyes for a second as she tried, and failed, to not cry. “Just… what was re-”

“You don’t get to say that!” Boscha’s chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath but her chest was so tight and she had screamed so loudly. Her dad would have heard that. Oh Titan. No. And now Amity… “No.” She turned away from her and tried to reach down to open the drawer she needed to. The gum could still fix things after all. It had to. It had protected her for so long after all. Long enough for Amity to have not thought twice about it until now. She just needed it and everything would be okay.

And then her hand that had been on top of the drawer to help support her slipped. Boscha crashed to the floor with a hard thump that made Amity’s anger almost instantly vanish as she realized what she was doing but it was too late. Boscha was losing it too badly at this point. She just began to babble now. “No. It was all real. It was supposed to be real. But no. I’m just a loser. We’re just losers. And now we’ll talk. And I’ll remember this time. I promise I’ll remember.” She pressed her hand into the wood and it began to smoke as Boscha just wanted it to stop. For everything just to go away.

Amity began to lower herself before looking at Luz. She had no idea what to do about this and this was unfortunately way out of her crush’s depth too. Whatever was going on here, Amity had no clue about. And she… She had no clue about it. How did she not have a clue about it? How did she never realize why Boscha was always calmer here than anywhere else? How did she not know why she would do this?

“Boscha, I’m so sorry. Please get up so we can talk about this.”

Boscha shook her head before whispering. “No. Just shut up. Stop looking at me. I’m not a loser. I’m not a failure. Please just… just…”

Amity flinched for a second before deciding to take a note from the one page she had for a situation like this. Only problem was that that page was from her parents and they didn’t exactly know how to deal with delicate situations like this. But a firm tone with a little compassion could do it. Could ground Boscha. Right? “Fine. Don’t stand. But at least turn around so we can t-”

“I said shut up!”

Boom!

All three of them were still at the sound. At the embers in the corner of the ceiling that Boscha’s fireball had hit. At Boscha’s trembling hand as she held it out from herself. Held it at the last person it was ever supposed to. And, worst yet, is Boscha knew that it was only because of her vision blurring from the tears that she missed. She’d been ready to… Ready to…

Bang, bang bang! “Boscha!”

No. She didn’t mean to. It wasn’t her fault. It was Ami- Wait, it wasn’t. It never was. Amity was too good to be wrong. Too important. Why else had she even bothered to try being her friend in the first place? And now her dad was going to break down her door any minute now and she’d be lucky if he got Amity and Luz out of the house before they ‘talked’.

She then looked in the corner and stared for a second at what she’d done about ‘talking’. Her eyes then slowly drifted to Amity who was simply staring at her. She looked stunned. Good. That gave her time. Boscha could still escape. Yes, she could make sure the two got out before she got what she deserved.

Luz moved to grab the bully as she raced past but Boscha was way too fast. Even her dad couldn’t stop her as she opened the door with enough force to slam the man into the wall. Then she turned, her feet slamming into the ground as she sprinted until finally the front door slammed hard enough to shake the house. Luz ran to the window to see Boscha running into the woods before she turned and tapped Amity on the shoulder as she said, “I’ll go make sure she’s okay!”

Amity’s pupils almost disappeared at the thought of the two of them together right now. “No! You don’t know what Boscha is capable of! Please, just stay so we can…” It was too late. Her idiot was already gone. Her otter with a dark side was about to get a dead side and Amity couldn’t move. Her body felt so heavy. So tired. She could barely think as she tried to process everything and instead just fell back and sat on the bed as she began to sob.

She only moved by Boscha’s father gently coaxing her to leave and several apologies to her for his daughter’s carelessness. They would talk. He would set things right. He promised. And in that moment, Amity just desperately wanted to believe it was true instead of what her brain was screaming at her was the truth.

======+++++======

It took Luz less time than she’d have liked to have found Boscha. Not because she wanted the girl to suffer for longer or the like but because she caught her wailing for what felt like a solid five minutes before actually getting to her. At least it seemed like Boscha had still been running during that time? For some reason, that didn’t make Luz feel better.

But the bully was still now. Or as still as a distraught, weeping girl could be. She was sitting against a tree and hugging her knees as snot and tears ran down her face. She kept looking like she was going to close her mouth before she lost it again and another wave of tears slammed down on her. It was a lot and for a second Luz genuinely wished she wasn’t there. She barely knew this girl. Regardless of their past, how was she supposed to help her?

No one else was going to though and that made the choice to sit next to Boscha pretty easy. “Hey.”

Boscha’s eyes shot open. All three were bloodshot but none of them looked at Luz. Her breathing looked like it stopped before Luz realized that the poor girl was struggling to even try to get some air in. It made her fidget and pat the ground but she didn’t go anywhere or say anything. She knew she was there and that’s what was important, or so she hoped.

Eventually, Boscha did move and Luz swore she could hear the other girl’s neck creaking as she finally looked at the human. “Are you here just to torture me? Haven’t you done enough?”

“No!” Luz moved to put a hand on Boscha’s shoulder before remembering the whole no touchy thing. “No, I ran after you because I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

Boscha glared at Luz for a second before hissing out, “Well I am, so leave.” She then buried her face back into her arms and mumbled, “I have to be. I always have to be.”

Luz gave the other girl a deadpan stare as she said, “Yeah, sure you are.” She then smacked herself and let out a small yell. What was wrong with her? “I swear I don’t mean to be like this!”

Boscha squeezed herself tighter but her voice was surprisingly calm outside of the cracks from her trying not to let her sobbing get in the way. “Of course you are. I just complicate things. You’re better off without me. Just like Amity is.”

Luz moved to be in front of Boscha before pointing at the other girl and deciding to try and use whatever stupid anger this was to her advantage. “No she isn’t! In fact, I hate that I thought she was. That’s why I looked through your stuff. I was…” Luz shut her eyes before looking away and saying, “I was jealous. Amity never acts like that with me. Like this cool, untouchable kid who chose that I was special. She acts more like, well, me.”

“Isn’t that good?” Boscha sniffled for a moment before finally running an arm under her nose. “She’s happy now. She actually does things. Amity never gave a crap before you. I was just throwaway to her. You actually mean something to her.”

Luz couldn’t help but giggle a little. “Are you kidding me? If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought you two were dating with how cozy you were getting on that bed.”

Boscha’s cheeks turned slightly red before looking up. “You… You really think so?”

Luz nodded as finally her worry for the girl beat out any dumb voices that told her she should shut up. “You were Amity’s best friend. That’s not something you just forget about and I think Amity will be sadder if either of us tries to make her do that.”

Oh. That’s right. Boscha’s chest collapsed in on itself again as one of her hands curled up into a fist. She always fucked up. There was no going back. Not after she attacked her. She was Amity’s friend after all. Friends don’t try to kill each other. But maybe… Maybe Luz is right? Maybe…

No, she wasn’t Crack! stupid enough to manage that.

Luz let out a small scream from the other girl smashing her fist into the side of her head and almost grabbed her when she saw specks of blood on her knuckles. “Boscha, what the hell?”

Boscha was numb to it. In fact, she felt the fact that something was sliding down the side of her head more than she felt the pain of the hit. For that matter, her arm was getting weirdly tight. Oh well. It was nothing. She had to be worried about herself for it to matter. “Just trying not to believe you. I attacked her after all. There’s no going back from that.”

Luz blinked for a moment before coming next to Boscha’s head and putting a hand over her mouth and her ear as she whispered, “Can I tell you a secret? Amity tried having me dissected the first time we met.”

Boscha blinked a few times before saying, “What?”

Luz crossed her arms almost proudly as she nodded. “Yep. But now we’re besties so I don’t see why you two can’t be.”

Boscha stared into space for a few moments before taking a long, deep breath and finally felt like she got some sort of control back over herself. “So the fact that I wanted to crush your throat back there doesn’t change anything?”

Never mind. She was still out of her mind.

Luz scratched her cheek for a few seconds before saying, “Uh… sure.” She then sighed before looking at Boscha. “Look, I don’t know if we’re ever going to fix whatever is wrong between us, but I’m willing to try to ignore it for Amity. What about you?”

Boscha looked at Luz as she slowly let go of her legs. “I won’t stop. I will become Amity’s best friend again. You know that, right?”

Luz merely stuck her tongue out before saying, “And I say why can’t she have two best friends?”

Why can’t she… In the moment, Boscha wasn’t really sure why she couldn’t. Amity was amazing enough to deserve it after all. She brought a hand and rubbed at the tears on one of her cheeks before saying, “Fine. For Amity.”

“There we g-” Luz was quiet. Boscha’s mind began to rile back up at the silence before coming to a dead stop at the human said, “That’s why you have so much foundation.”

“Fuck.” She raised her hand back up to cover the clearly purple bruise on her cheek. “It’s a Grudgby thing. I, uh, took a ball to the head and didn’t flinch.”

“That’s what I said Amity would do.” Luz then scowled and moved so Boscha couldn’t easily look away from her. “I know I’m dumb but unless you want to say your coach gives you those water bottles, I’m not that dumb.”

Boscha shut her eyes before hissing out, “It’s my problem. Not yours. I… I can take it. I promise. You don’t need to look at me like that.” The tears began to come back before she managed to breathe out, “I can do it. I promise.”

Luz sighed as she was only reminded of how far out of her depth she was. Was this a part of these dumb, high society families? Did Amity have to deal with this stuff? Oh, she hoped that wasn’t the case or Alador was going to find a suitcase full of fire sigils soon. However, no matter how far this was from her world, she knew one thing that any friend could do. “I get that, but if you ever decide you don’t want to have to do it, I’ll make sure Eda always has a place for you to stay the night.” Luz then held out her hand and gave her new friend the best smile she could. “Promise.”

Boscha stared at the human’s hand. If she took it, she would be admitting that she needed help. That she was weak. As pathetic as any other witch, other than Amity, on the Boiling Isles. She would need to throw away everything she’d worked so hard to appear to be, even if only to one person. But the idiot liked being weak and Amity liked the fact that she was weak so if this is what it took, “Okay.”

Luz’s smile became more genuine as the other girl reached out to her before she recoiled and screamed, “What is that?”

Boscha blinked a few times before looking to where Luz was staring. A purple circle was tight around her forearm. In fact, so tight that it was drawing blood and Boscha realized that it wasn’t the alcohol that was making her hand tingle. “Oh, right, the oath.”

“That’s what happens if you break it?” She then blinked a few times before shouting, “Wait, why is it even attacking you? I’m the one who came to bother you!”

Boscha shrugged. “I’m still taking your time. So,” she said as she forced herself to stand, “thanks for the kind words but I never needed help before now and I never will.”

Luz followed the girl as she said, “But Boscha-”

Her new friend wasn’t having it though as she put a finger on Luz’s lips with her good hand. “Let me put it this way. Fuck off before you cost me an arm on top of everything else.”

Luz opened her mouth to fight it but then looked at how tight the circle was getting. How much time did Boscha have? And how much pain should she be in? And… And just how much had she forced the other girl to drink if she didn’t notice until now that this was happening? She didn’t have the answers but she knew Boscha was right. She’d done enough damage after all. It was her fault that the other girl had broken her oath and misbehaved after all.

So, without another word, Luz ran off and the circle on Boscha’s arm disappeared. The bully raised her arm before flexing her fingers. It didn’t seem like she’d lost any circulation but she’d have to see if it caused her any pain tomorrow to be sure. For now she needed to get home. Get home and face her dad. Face the fact that Amity had left early. That the best thing that happened to her was indeed gone, regardless of what Luz had said.

And then deal with the ‘talk’ that came with that fact.

======+++++======

“Boscha.”

The bully winced as her arm lit up like a candle with pain. Did Amity not get it? Actually, maybe she did and wanted to finish the job. Too bad for her that the oath restarted its punishment each time she began to break it. At least until it got to phase two where it would move the ring to her neck. Boscha tried not to show any of this as she tickled her locker and ignored Amity. If she stayed quiet then maybe she’d leave.

Amity didn’t have any sort of plan and she knew exactly how to fix this. “I’m going to talk to you no matter what about last night. It’s up to you if it’s in the hallway or somewhere private.”

Fuck. “Fine. Meet me in the sport’s shed in five minutes to let this,” she wiggled her arm with the oath on it, which was also in a sling so it could rest after having come close to being permanently damaged the night before, “reset and give me time to unlock it for us. Alright?”

Amity nodded and five minutes on the dime the two met up in the small room. Boscha had moved some of the crates around to give the two of them places to sit, even if she hoped this wouldn’t take long. It shouldn’t after all. “I promise that I plan to keep the oath. In fact, I’ll do my best to never see the two of you again. I doubt any of us want any reminders of last-”

“Will you shut up!?”

Boscha blinked a few times as Amity screamed at her. The serious girl shut her eyes for a second but was too late to hide the tears in her eyes. “You trying to act tough all the time has got to be the single most annoying thing on the Isles!” She then pressed her fingers into her temples as she hissed out, “Especially since I hate that I never even considered that you could crack.”

Great. She didn’t need this. “Well, you’re forgiven. Can we be done now?”

Amity shut her eyes tighter before letting out a tense breath to try and calm herself. “No. I don’t want to be forgiven. I was your best friend. You put so much effort into having me be there that… I’m still trying to cope with what your water bottles always had.” She then sighed and let her arms drop to her side. “And I acted like that meant nothing because I never cared.”

Boscha shook with anger for a moment before getting up. “Thanks. Good to know. Now let me through before I make you.”

Amity shook her head before looking up and drawing a circle in the air, just like Boscha had two days ago. “Boscha, you said you wanted to try and do something about how you and Luz were. You shouldn’t have had to ask that. Not when I needed to fix how I was to you. And I want a chance to.” SHe then blushed a little but didn’t move her eyes from her old friend’s. “Especially since, if I learned anything from last night, it was that those memories meant the world to me at the time. I was just trying to be too tough at the time. So can we please drop our defenses and…” She looked at her outstretched hand and whispered, “please be actual best friends? Be what we always should have been?”

Boscha stared at the hand before beginning to whisper herself. “You realize I’m not going to magically change with this, right? I’m still going to hurt other students. I’m going to keep fighting with Luz. I’m not a good person.”

Amity nodded but then smiled at her friend. “Yeah, but I also know you’re not wrong. After all, if you weren’t capable about caring about others, you and I would never have gotten close like we did, would we? Besides,” she said with a much brighter blush than before, “I don’t want a second Luz that hates herself. I want my friend Boscha, faults and all.”

Boscha blinked a few times before she decided not to fight it. After all, if there was one person she shouldn’t cry in front of, it was her best friend, right? She slowly took Amity’s hand and shook it as the ring dissolved, both around their hands and on her arm. It was almost surreal to the bully, especially when she double checked by lifting her sleeve up and saw that the binding was in fact gone.

Amity then crossed her arms and her voice was as cold as steel as she said, “Now, we’re skipping class so you and I can head to my place.”

Boscha furrowed her brow before asking, “What? But Amity, you never skip class.”

Amity swiped her hair back before saying, “Consider it a perk of being best friends with a Blight. After all, no one hurts a Blight and gets away with it and that includes any of those they care about and I seem to recall there’s someone who has been hurting the person I cared most about for years now.”

Boscha blinked a few times. Perks of being with a Blight? No. No, she couldn’t just accept this. “Amity, I can take it. I’m used to it. I can’t have you taking pity on me though.”

The look that crossed Amity’s face made Boscha’s blood run cold. “This isn’t pity. This is wrath. It’s me looking at one of the strongest people I’ve ever known and wanting to do something for her once. To make sure that she knows that I think of her on the same level as myself and so will make sure that if she somehow finds a battle she can’t fight,” she then held up a finger to stop Boscha from speaking. “And I said can’t. Not that you wouldn’t win or take it, but that you can’t. When that happens, I want her to know someone will be there to be her champion.”

Boscha blinked a few times as she couldn’t help but think about how Luz fought Grom for Amity. She… She understood that she was saying she’d have done that for her, right? “But… But I have nowhere else to go.”

Amity smirked at that. “I don’t know. We both like sleepovers after all. What’s living together except one incredibly long sleepover?”

“What?”

Amity stepped closer before placing her hand on Boscha’s shoulder. It was the lightest touch though so as not to hurt the other girl because she doubted there was a spot on her old friend that wasn’t bruised. “Blights take care of those we care about and my parents are more than happy to be so close to a future fashion model and Grudgby star, just like they have been for the past three years.”

Wait, they actually cared? They actually wanted her around? “Three years…”

Amity nodded as she smiled at her friend. “I had to talk to them this morning about this to make sure you could move in with us. You stopped simply being convenient a long time ago though. Just a girl my age that was attached to a co-worker who could get work done with them while they were over.” Amity then pulled her arm back. “Now, are you going to follow me already so we can make sure that monster never sees the outside of a cell again? At least, if he survives to the end of the day.”

Boscha felt like she could barely breathe as she looked at Amity. Amity. Her best friend. The girl who made her hurt anytime she seemed to be in pain or angry. The girl she just wanted to see smile when she was around. And now she was offering to try and do the same for her. She was even willing to put up with her being around twenty four seven to do it.

“Understand that this is the best thing that could ever happen to us.”

Boscha shut her eyes as tears began to stream down her face before she ran over and tackled Amity into a hug. She didn’t feel any pain from it though. She wasn’t sad for once. In fact, she couldn’t stop sobbing as the two held each other until Boscha was finally ready to head to the Blight estate to be reminded she wasn’t alone and that Amity could still be the severe girl she’d always known. She just did it now for a good reason. It was incredible to see and, well…

Maybe Boscha could become a little more like that, no matter what she thought.