Tightrope

Objectively, You Two Had Major Bang Potential

Daria and Jace were waiting at my locker when I left my last class for the day. Daria's sunny smile mitigated the sheer hatred and disgust I felt towards Hartley and his entire face. She was clearly excited, because her bright yellow backpack was bouncing on her back as she jumped slightly on the balls of her feet. It exhausted me just to look at.

I felt, momentarily, like Jonah. 

Jace seemed faintly amused by her enthusiasm, as he always was towards Daria's antics. I'd never seen him even vaguely annoyed at her, come to think of it. And while I personally adored Daria and everything about her, I'd heard people say that they could occasionally find Daria's relentless optimism exhausting. Yet Jace spent more time with her than anyone else in the world. Though, to his credit, I don't think anything annoyed Jace. He was infuriatingly unflappable

Trust me, I was the expert at attempting to annoy Jace Hartley.

But no matter what I tried, he always responded calmly. Then hit back ten times as hard with a prank that left me FUMING; I did not have Hartley's insistent calm. Or, at least, he used to hit back. Pre-alien invasion. 

"Heya, Lena!" Daria said. "You excited? I'm excited."

"Ecstatic," I said, injecting, for the first time in my miserable life, zero sarcasm into the phrase. I bumped her shoulder with mine. "It's gonna be fab."

"So fab," Jace echoed, mocking.

"Totally," said Daria, completely missing Jace's dig. She eternally saw the good in Jace, completely blind to all his flaws. Good for Jace I guess, they wouldn't be friends if she was perceptive. "I never thought this would happen, seriously guys. My two favourite people, and you're finally friends."

"Friends." Jace seemed perplexed, as if the thought of a friendship between us was a foreign language he'd never thought to learn. 

"Besties for life, hey, Hartley?" I knocked my shoulder with his. I was pleased when this elicited an even more baffled expression, almost stunned. A faint smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. 

Daria regarded us joyfully, before the faint buzz of her phone caught her attention. She quickly glanced down at her phone, which I noticed was lit up with a plethora of text messages. She valiantly tried to hide the flash of hurt on her face by covering it with a small grin, but I saw that both Jace and I clocked her reaction.

"Hey, Dars, what's wrong?" I asked, while at the same time Jace said, "What's he done now?"

Oh. Nate.

Nate Lever was Daria's boyfriend of a year, though sometimes I forgot about their long-standing relationship. Nate didn't seem to have any desire to socialise with the rest of the group, unless we were heading to a party with booze, a bong and leggy blondes. Not that we ever mentioned that to Daria. I was awed that Daria had managed to stay with him this long.

My girly was drawn to douchebags, hence the dark-haired demon spawn behind her.

"Oh, it's nothing," said Daria, grinning broadly. But neither Jace nor I missed the sheen of tears in her eyes.

"For Pete's sake," Jace said, plucking Daria's phone from her fingers.

"Hey, don't invade her privacy, Hartley," I said, momentarily forgetting my deal with Austin and the be-nice-to-Jace policy. Daria came first.

Daria waved a hand dismissively. "It's okay. We don't really do privacy."

It was true. Jace and Daria were storybook best friends; no secrets, nothing barred. It was almost strange, how close they were. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were a married couple. Luckily for Daria, Jace had never appeared to have any intentions of romance. I already felt sorry for the poor girl—bewitched into friendship with Hartley—but if she also had to make out with the guy, I'd probably have to sail her across the ocean so she could recover from the spell he's obviously placed upon her.