Heather had to do something. She'd met another girl named Jordyn, who knew what had happened but didn't think of it as all toxic. She was on Heather's side, but with hesitation and insecurity.
Heather didn't like Jordyn much, but she would do for her plan. She just planned to abandon her and Jordyn's growing friendship once they were done. She'd tried to convince Jordyn to think of a plan, but the only response she got was confusion from her.
On Jordyn's side, she was going to tell them what was going to happen in case Heather's plan actually would work, not like it would most likely.
-
"Heather?" Jordyn calls, skipping toward the teenager.
"You want something?" Heather asks.
"Yeah actually... do you remember Emma or Norman's Discord usernames and tags?"
Heather grabs her phone. "I'll send them."
-
Emma was listening to music when her phone vibrated. Who the frick is talking right now?
She read the message from Discord.
"Okay, eh, you don't have to believe me, but I befriended this Heather girl. The girl who framed you for cheating on your boyfriend, I think. I don't know. So, she's making a plan to get, like, revenge or something. My name is Jordyn. I think it's pretty important to say my name to my someone who is 'friends' with my 'friend' on Discord-"
She replies.
"Wht about what the plan is-?"
The person who messaged her is now offline since they didn't reply.
-
Jade picks up her phone, ready to scream into the microphones. Hurriedly, she scrolls through her contacts as fast as her phone would allow. She clicked on Emma's name and called. They normally called, but this time, Jade had something to actually say other than the usual, "I'm bored. Talk to me."
Emma answers and mutters a greeting to Jade.
"Hey, Emma!" She greets, hiding her excitement, but biting her tongue. It suddenly occurs to her that it would be better to surprise her.
"You seem energetic as ever," Emma remarks.
"I do?" Jade asks, mentally kicking herself. "I just finished a manga that I've already read before. That's probably why," she lies.
"I'm just bored. Please talk to me, Emma."
"Oh, okay. Uh... I just got a strange message on Discord."
"That's weird. What's it about?"
"It's about some girl who befriended Heather."
Jade clenches her fist that isn't holding the phone at the mention of Heather.
"And she said her, and Heather were making a plan to break the relationship between me and Norman."
"Oh, well, I think she's backstabbing Heather, then," Jade replies, an odd satisfaction running through her. "Which isn't considerably a bad thing. Actually, it's a good thing. Wish I could kill her, to be honest."
"That's a bit far for someone who only framed your friend for-"
"Best friend," Jade corrects her. "Don't forget, you're one of my only friends. I'd do anything for the small friend group I uphold of around four people."
Neither of them says anything. There's nothing else to say.
"So, how've you been? Who have you been talking to since me and Norman left?"
"Ray, mostly. He's in some of my classes," Emma replies to Jade's question.
"He's kind of annoying. He called me a tsundere more than once."
"Why?" Emma asks Jade.
"...I called him annoying," Jade replies.
"Honestly, you can be kind of a tsundere sometimes, though," she says.
"Well, uh, bye. I'm going to play Stardew Valley now. Hoping that I actually make any money this time," Jade mutters. "Bye!"
She sets down the phone and turns to Ace, who is staring at his switch.
"You're not telling her."
"Why?" He questions.
"Because," she replies.
"Because why?"
"I want her to be surprised," she lies.
"I know you're lying, Jade," Ace says.
"Hmm... I just want her to cry."
"You sound like a fake friend when you say that."
"Ah, I'm not. I want her to cry because she'd be happy!" Jade exclaims, extending her arms like a child would.
Ace smiles. "I guess I won't tell her if you don't want me to."
"...Ace...?"
"Want something, loser?" He jokes.
"Could you come with us?"
"Our old boss hated me; She isn't going to hire me again. She knew that you had to leave because of me with no choice," Ace mutters. "And unlike some, we could work with a long-distance relationship since we don't really get too close to each other, like in hugs or anything."
"Well, fine. I knew I'd do this once you found someone who would be willing to hire you."
"You just have to find somewhere to live."
Jade falls silent. "I'm moving once I find that. It'll probably be a small apartment. I don't mind."
"Are you sure you want to? I mean, we currently live with Halley."
"So? I'd rather live in a small house," she lies. She wouldn't. She just wanted someone else to be happy.
"You think of others over yourself. Completely unselfish. How?"
Before Jade replies, which was only a grunt, Ace turns his cold grey gaze back onto his Switch.
You're not a bad person inside, idiot. You care about me.
-
Two familiar girls approach Norman, and once they're closer, he realizes that they're Billie and Akira, two of Heather's friends.
"Hello!" Akira greets, smiling.
"Hey."
Billie sits down.
"So, we think the same of Heather, right?" Billie asks.
"I don't know. You guys are her best friends, right?" Norman replies, an edge of bitterness in his voice.
"No, that ended after her so-called conversation with her alternate account on Discord."
"I know you might not trust us, since we were friends with Heather, and we might do the same as she did..." Akira mutters.
"No, It's fine."
"You trust us? Could we be friends?"
"I trust you because you didn't even know that Heather was toxic."
Akira smiles. "Can I have your phone number or Discord username?"
"Same, I lack Discord friends," Billie complains, leaning back in the seat she's sitting on.
"After school, I can give it to you."
"Okay!" Akira replies.
"I heard you say something about your sister," Billie mentions.
"Jade? Well, we're not biologically related. I don't remember how we're living together."
"Why don't you?" Billie asks.
"So, I apparently had a girlfriend who committed suicide and-"
"That's terrible!"
"Akira, he's talking," Billie scolds quietly.
"Well, Jade said that I attempted it too, but I hit my head and now look, I have amnesia."
"Oh..." Billie mutters.
"She lied to me for a while. She told me that I fell down a set of stairs. After I found out she was lying, she also said that I had a fight with my best friend, who—She's my girlfriend now, but apparently, we had a quarrel about nothing..." He falls silent, then he flinches. "The girl who died—Olive—Noticed that we were getting closer, and she never had a good mental state. It was probably because I was one of the first people to show compassion to her, since she grew up in a terrible family and was bullied a lot. That's most likely how she fell for me. She did it for Emma's sake."
"Would she have hurt Emma otherwise?" Billie asks, before she gets a slap on the head from Akira.
"You're being too insensitive!"
"I don't think what she said was insensitive."
"What was the quarrel really about?" Akira asks.
"You hypocrite. Talk about insensitive," Billie mutters, joking.
"I knew that Olive died so I would be happier with Emma..."
"So, you thought..." Akira's gaze clouds with confusion.
"That Emma, in a sense, killed Olive," he answers.
A moment of silence passes through them.
"We're fine now. I wish that Ace didn't force us to move here."
"Ace?"
"Jade's boyfriend. Well, he didn't make us move here. Jade is eighteen, and she's considered an adult by now. She didn't want to put up with a long-distance relationship. Both are saying things about moving back."
"Well, I hope it works out."
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