A Dangerous Friend

Of All The Bars in All The World

Once every two weeks. Once a week. Twice a week.

.

.

.

"Why do you come here?"

They were sitting at a table outside a café on the far side of town. It was one of Carla's work nights, and they had plans later. Jade looked up in surprise. "What?" she said.

"I don't mean I don't want you here," Tori said, quickly. "It's just... when we agreed to this, I thought it would be once a month, maybe. But now you're here every week. Twice a week, sometimes."

"You're sick of me already?"

"No! No. I'm just worried about you, that's all. Don't you have other stuff to do? What about college, and your other friends? I don't want you to neglect them."

"I do my college work in the hotel."

"And your friends?"

Jade stayed silent, and stared into her coffee.

"Jade?"

"Hmm?"

"I said, what about your other friends?"

"What about them?"

Tori sighed. "I thought we talked about the whole 'sharing' thing," she said. If you want to be my friend, you have to let me be yours, too. You have to open up to me once in a while."

"I know."

"So..?"

Jade hesitated. "I don't have any other friends."

"What?"

"People don't like me."

"Oh, come on, Jade," Tori scoffed. "That's not true."

"It is," Jade insisted. "Guys find me intimidating because I can't do the whole girlie thing, you know, flutter my eyelashes and drool over them, make them feel all big and manly like... like some girls can."

"'Some' girls? You mean me?"

"No," Jade said. "Of course not."

"Good."

"Well, maybe a little."

"I don't drool over people!"

"You drooled over Ryder."

"Yeah, and look how well that went," Tori said. "He was just using me to get what he wanted."

"Yeah, well, it's what he wanted that makes him just a fucking idiot," Jade said. "You were all over him. He had the chance to go all the way with the prettiest girl in the school, and he threw it all away for the sake of some dumb assignment. He deserved to have his car torched just for being so... wasteful."

"Well, I guess he... wait, what do you mean, 'all the way'? I wasn't going to go all the..."

"And the girls just flat out don't trust me," Jade said, ignoring her. "They all think I'm up to something."

"Well, to be fair," Tori said, "you usually are."

"I am not!" Jade said. "Not always. But even when I try to be friendly they run a mile."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"Watch this." A woman drifted past their table. Jade leaned across, and smiled. "Hi," she said. "How's it going?"

The woman's eyes narrowed, then widened in alarm as she began to back careful away, only breaking into a run when she'd cleared the edge of the tables and had an open route towards the main road. "See?" Jade said.