"So, the friends thing worked out today?" Knight said, chewing thoughtfully on the end of his spoon.

I'd asked him to meet me at the shops after school for a frozen yoghurt trip; he needed an excursion out of the house, and like the good pet owner I am, I paid. He was starting to get antsy anyway; I was receiving text messages every ten minutes with his random thoughts and feelings, as if I was his stream of consciousness diary.

Sometimes, I regretted buying Knight a phone.

The shopping centre was always busy after school. Hundreds of schoolkids descended on the building, buying movie tickets or new outfits or food. It was inevitable that I would run into at least five people from school in one afternoon.

Knight seemed chirpier for the interaction. Every time one of my classmates came over to greet me, he always interjected with a cheery hello and somehow had gathered each person's phone number by the end of the interaction.

I plucked at a strawberry from the top of my froyo and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess it did."

"And does everyone at school know about your little foray on the dark side?" asked Knight, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"No." I stabbed my spoon violently into the mess of yoghurt and Nutella. "I would, quite frankly, rather die."

The thought of the whispers, the staring, the smirks from my classmates and friends. Lena is such a hypocrite. Good work, Hartley, finally taming the shrew. Because I'd just had to proclaim my hatred from the rooftops for a decade, hadn't I?

Knight smirked. "If this was such an issue, you could've just... not made out with him."

I gave him a deadpan look. "Thank you for that enlightening observation, I really appreciate it. Hadn't even considered that."

He tipped an invisible hat mockingly. "Just doing my part as your best friend."

"Is that not something we should have a conversation about? Like, did we agree that you were my best friend? Because I kind of always thought that like, maybe Kaelin or Alex or Jon—"

"I decided that. You have no choice in this matter."

My eyebrows shot skyward. "Love the democracy, always what I look for in a bestie."

It was true, though. The newfound friendship between Jace and I had worked out, though, as much as amicability between two sworn enemies ever could. Lunch had been characterised by subtle jabs and jokes—"did I actually just watch you put pineapple in your sandwich? Were you dropped on your head as a child or did you just feel like inciting anarchy today?"—but the regular heatedness was absent. Instead of arguing, it was almost as if Jace and I were... bantering. After everything, it seemed I was capable of playing nice.

Of course, there were still moments I wanted to choke him with his own intestines, but the soft smile on Daria's face every time I laughed at Jace's jokes or offered him a kind word? Well, it made everything worthwhile.

"Okay, but for real, it worked... almost strangely well?" I said. "Like, I thought being friends with Jace Hartley would be awful. But he was, and don't make fun of me, not that bad."

"Why would I make fun of you?" asked Knight, grinning. "It's not like you ever told me that you wanted to lock Jace in an empty room with nothing but a water tap and no drainage, so that he slowly drowned in his own pee or was forced to drink it. Like, if you'd told me that story, then I'd definitely make fun of you. But since you totally didn't, I can't think of why it would be embarrassing that you kind of like him as a person now."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," I admitted, blushing. "It is a little bit embarrassing to go back on my words now."

"Especially when they were so strong and visceral."

I sighed regretfully. "Fine, you win."

Knight licked at his frozen yoghurt smugly. It was deeply upsetting.

"I mean, I'm glad it wasn't uncomfortable. We have that group picnic thing that I told you about tomorrow, the one Daria organised?"

Knight nodded absently. "With the whole group, right?"

"Yeah, and some new girl Alex befriended yesterday. She's supposed to be nice."

"Good thing it's not awkward then," said Knight. "It would be awful if you spent the whole picnic watching Jace eat strawberries in slow motion like a dramatic rom-com sexy montage." Knight mimed a sexy, overdramatic slow eating scene, reminiscent of every trashy romance film. "It's nice that you're totally not into him at all anymore. Just friendship, right?"

"Right."

But then I thought of the elegant lines of Hartley's face, the sunset glow on his skin, the annoying reality that every time I heard his voice, my mind couldn't help but wander to the feeling of being caged within his arms. The warmth of his skin, the tight grip of his arms around me, the soft skin along his jaw.

Well, fuck. It was deeply annoying. If only they'd developed the technology so that I could sue my brain.

I would do anything to exorcise thoughts like that from my head.

I sat upright. "Hey, Knight, you have friends, right?"

He frowned. "Didn't we just cover this? You're not getting out of it, we are bes—"

"Yes, yes. I know. Best friends forever, you will be a bridesmaid at my wedding. No need to revisit the conversation. But I mean like... hot, cute friends. The kind that might want to go on a date."

Knight looked sceptical. "I appreciate the thought, Montez, but I'm not into dudes, and I'm really not that desperate."

I rolled my eyes. "For me."

Knight put his frozen yoghurt down. "For... for you? But what about Jace?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What about Jace?"

An odd expression sat on Knight's face. His eyebrows were furrowed with a seriousness that was deeply uncharacteristic and he seemed... uncomfortable. In an intrinsic and deep-seated way, as if I'd asked him to do something disgusting, like remove my tampon or yell at Daria.

He didn't answer me, instead staring me down with pleading eyes, as if begging me to understand his question. When I didn't budge or renege my question, he sighed.

"C'mon, Knight," I whined. "You owe me." That only added to his discomfort. Knight didn't like being reminded of the enormous unspoken debt between us; the one I didn't believe in, the one that friendship negated, but the one he could not forget. I held up my cup of frozen yoghurt. "Because I paid for these, nufty. I was going to have dinner tomorrow night on you, but there will be no debt if it's on one of your mates instead. C'mon."

Knight's shoulder's loosened slightly. "Yeah, okay."

I smiled. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"When do you want to go out?"

"Tomorrow night?"

Knight sighed. "Yeah, okay, whatever." He pointed a finger at me warningly. "But when Jace finds out about this, tell him you forced me. I had no choice. Oh, tell him you strapped me to a ticking time bomb!"

"Why would Jace care? We kissed one time; it didn't mean anything. Trust me, his only reaction will be to apologise to the poor guy."

Knight snorted. "Yeah, okay."

"What?"

"If they give out superlatives for 'Most Obtuse', I envy anyone who tries to run against you for the honour."

Knight picked up his frozen yoghurt again and shoved a loaded spoonful into his mouth. His selection today was a rather ambitious pyramid of frozen yoghurt, chocolates, Oreos and Nutella; he rivalled Chance for appetite, honestly. He didn't look directly at me as I poked his arm, instead focussing intently on the crushed Oreo atop his froyo pyramid.

"What do you mean by that?" I said, and I poked him again.

"If you don't already know, that's on you," said Knight. When I opened my mouth to protest, he shoved my froyo spoon directly between my lips. "I will be answering no further questions on the subject."

I harrumphed and crossed my arms, but Knight took no notice of this, thoroughly engaged by his food. Almost studiously, clearly desperate to avoid my piercing gaze.

It became increasingly apparent that Knight planned to stick to his word. I unwillingly relented, resting my chin in my palms with batted eyelashes. "But you will set me up with one of your friends?"

"Ugh, yes," said Knight. Then he dropped a glob of froyo on the tip of my nose. "Now stop doing those eyes at me. It's weird."

I wiped my nose with a grin. "Thanks, best friend."

Knight pointed at me. "I'm holding you to the bridesmaid thing."

I stood up with alacrity and offered him my hand. "Who else would I pick? Kaelin? She would make me look ugly."

With a gasp of horror, Knight ignored my hand and stood up. "Lena Montez, are you suggesting that you're choosing me because I am ugly and won't upstage you?"

"I'm just suggesting your ass would not look as magnificent in a dress as Kaelin's."

Knight appeared deeply hurt by this statement. "My ass is delectable, Lena, delectable."

"Yeah, okay, Kim K. Now let's go to Myer. I have a date outfit to purchase."

Because Jace Hartley was fixated in my mind, and there was nothing that wiped away memories like releasing a flurry of butterflies into my stomach. Hence, first date.

After a few hours of flirting with some unknown rich boy, exchanging pleasantries and maybe a few kisses, Jace Hartley's name would be inked firmly under the column of friendship. We would laugh, catch up for coffees, complain about the way our significant others never remembered to replace the toilet rolls, joke about our decades of shared hatred and history.

The thought of his lips on mine would fade to the recesses of my mind, nothing but a mistake I once made in the throes of heated anger.