✾

"I swear, I will kill you if you don't wake up, Iris."

"Sophie, go away," I groan, but I don't mean it. I look up at her and she raises an eyebrow at me, holding a bag of stuff in one hand. I immediately widen my eyes in surprise and sit up. "Wait, what's all of this?"

"The reason why I'm your best friend and nobody else is." She stood with her pink tank top and sheer white blouse over it, half tucked into a pair of jeans. She had sunglasses on her head and her hair was pulled back into a bun. "Look at you, Iris, you look terrible. I'm handing you a bath bomb and you're going to get in the shower and relax without relying on sleep to solve your problems. When you come out, we're going to fix you up so you feel brand new."

"Sophie, it's not that easy. I—"

"I spent money on you, Iris." She came up to me and started pulling on my arm. "I will drag you if I have to."

"My dad probably used up all the towels," I say.

She keeps pulling, slowly inching me forward before giving up and sitting on the bed in front of me with a huff. "He doesn't shower, Iris. Don't be like your dad. I know it sucks but you have to start somewhere and I'm... forcing you to start."

"Alright, alright, give me a second."

After getting up, I make my way to the bath and take the bath bomb she hands me. "While you do that, I'll go make myself busy."

It is more relaxing than I thought it would be though, and by the time the glittery water starts to get cold I'm disappointed that I have to get out. When I do though, Sophie has made some of her tea for me and shows me what's in the bag — candy, a new blanket (a soft, light purple one), and a book.

"This either gives you a little motivation or just plain makes you feel more productive if you read while you do nothing. And you're a big fan of books so I thought you'd enjoy it anyway."

"Thank you so much, Sophie," I tell her with great appreciation. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I don't know either," Sophie jokes, shaking her head. "But um... You'll have to wait before you read the book because I have news for you."

"Alright, what is it?"

She takes a deep breath before starting.

"Julian and I are dating!" she whispers quickly with excitement. Why she whispers, I have no idea. "And oh my God, he's such a good kisser. He just makes me so happy and I'm so happy he feels the same way about me. What happened was — Okay, so I was doing my thing, going to a movie late at night by myself because... Well, I had no reason, but I wanted to! So I got there and he was with some group of guys, and then we kind of looked at each other, and the next thing I know he's sitting right by me! And afterwards he suggests we go meet up somewhere, and so we meet up at his place. Huge house of course, by the way. He had a pool so we ended up swimming... And then it got a little more serious, because this whole time we were just screwing around, but then we just ended up kissing right there, in the middle of the pool. It was romantic! And then he just, bam! He asked, 'I know we don't know each other a whole lot, but I'd like to get to know you more. Do you want to start dating?' And I played it cool, I said, 'Sure thing!' Except I didn't, I said, 'Y-Yeah,' because, ew, nerves are gross. We're going on a date tonight and I get that like... You know, 'Don't kiss on the first date!' But c'mon, Grandpa, we already broke that rule by kissing before the first date. And I don't just mean kissing, I mean making out. Full on."

"Alright," I nod. "That's a tough pill to swallow but alright. You're happy now?"

She shook my shoulders. "Of course I'm happy now! But I'm going to go get ready now, just text me if you need me! Talk to you later, bestie!"

✾

I shake while I sit in the chair, deeply regretting coming here to this cafe. I keep my hands secure around my cup of hot cocoa as I wait for Amelia to show up.

By the time she does, she orders her coffee and sits down. She offers me a nice smile. "So Iris, we have a lot to talk about, which I think I've established by now."

One hand is wrapped around her frappuccino while the other is resting on the table as she clicks her long, sharp fake nails — pink and white gradients with a glittery silver accent. Her blonde hair is straight as it's swept back calmly behind her shoulders. Today she's wearing a pink floral sundress and smells like roses. Her long nails make repeating noises on the table, further intimidating me.

"What kind of drink did you get?" she asks.

"Iced grande caramel macchiato," I say a random order quickly, just so she doesn't think I think I'm some kid who's too good to drink coffee.

"Really, iced? Normally they put those in the plastic cups." She takes a sip from her drink, making my face go beet-red.

"Well n-no," I start to stammer, "I mean yeah, but t-they gave me hot chocolate. They mixed up orders. I took it anyway."

"Alright," she says slowly, nodding. "Anyway, so I didn't believe you at first when you told me you and Logan didn't have sex. So I checked the security cameras in the living room, and needless to say, I was obviously wrong. I'm so sorry about that, I just... I don't know, I was stupid enough to believe him. So anyway, there's different ways this can go, Donnelly; we move on and pretend nothing happened, or we beat Logan's *ss. If I can make a suggestion, the second one is favorable."

"Send me a video of what happened," I think out loud, "and you can spread the word to make him mad. That could be enough right there, all that, if I can get him in trouble. Is that... the right thing to do though? I mean I get what he tried to do, but I don't know if he should get in trouble with the law because of it."

"That was still an attempted crime — r-pe nonetheless. He would've gone through with it had no obstacles gotten in the way. And if that happened, where would we be? He'd still deserve to be arrested. The important thing is that he had the intention."

"You're right."

After a few moments of silence, Amelia starts to talk again. "So there's not a thing between you and Pierce?"

I shake my head and hold back a sigh. Why must everybody think that there is? "No, and there never was."

She laughs. "That's good. Pierce and I used to have an affair — before Logan, I mean — and, well... I don't know, it was really unhealthy. Nobody was taking advantage of anybody, we both decided we wanted to do it, but it was unhealthy nonetheless. We were both going through a lot and that was one of our ways of coping."

I can't say it doesn't breach my trust a little bit that he wouldn't tell me something important like that, but then I remind myself that there is nothing romantic between us and it shouldn't matter to me anyway. "Oh. Well, I'm sorry."

"I just thought you should know, in case he didn't tell you yet. But just so you know, I was the one who proposed the idea to him. I went through some stuff as a kid, and so it was this subconscious thing where I thought sex was just so important, and for me, that's all I was good for. I mean, I know that's not true now, but I felt like it back then. I was molested when I was a kid. And it didn't help things when I started developing bulimia, which... yeah, I don't know. I'm recovering now, but... I don't know."

She looks down and for once, I see the ever-so-confident Amelia not be so confident. It doesn't really bring me the kind of satisfaction I always thought it would bring me though, but it makes me more sad that she feels like that. She's just human like the rest of us trying to get through life and this is just another façade so people don't question her. Deep down, everyone has their own problems that they have to manage, and it was oblivious for me to act like she didn't just because she wore makeup and had a lot of friends.

"I'm really happy you're getting better now," I tell her, not knowing what to say. "And I'm sure everything with your — I guess our — ex doesn't really help. But I think it's good you're focusing on your health now instead of letting your problems completely shape you."

She nods. "Right. But you know, everyone has problems. And you can get past them, Iris. I noticed you haven't been showing up to school this week."

"Yeah." I sigh, an empty cup in my hand because there's no more hot cocoa. "I think I should go," I blurt out, changing the topic quite on purpose, "but it was nice seeing you."

She agrees, saying her goodbye before we both leave the coffee shop.

✾

Lovesick Boys