With Friends Like These

It was a cool, breezy Sunday afternoon. Sana, Rey, Neil, and Heer were hanging out at Devil’s Diner for lunch. After paying, they began to head out when Rey said, “Do you think Krystal is gonna be pissed that we got Marigold Surprises without her?”

   “I saved some of mine for her in my leftover box,” Heer said.

   “There you go,” Neil said. “When in doubt, we always got Heer to the rescue.”

   “Oh God,” Sana said.

   “What? What is it?” Rey asked.

   Rey looked to see exactly what was agitating Sana. A boy in a gray hoodie and blue jeans was seemingly taking her picture with his cellphone. Before Rey could say anything to Sana, she started marching over to the boy. He knew this wasn’t going to go well.

   “What the hell are you doing?” Sana asked the boy.

   “What?”

   “Are you taking my picture?”

   “No.”

   Sana grabbed the phone from the boy’s hand, looked at the screen and said, “Then what is this?”

   “Oh, come on,” the boy said. “You’re pretty famous around here. You should take it as a compliment.”

   “I don’t appreciate my photo being taken without my permission.”

   “Oh, come on. It’s a public place. I have the freedom to do so.”

   Sana was about ready to smack the boy until Rey immediately stepped in and did the smacking for her, much to her surprise. The boy let out the biggest ouch Sana had ever heard.

   “She said she doesn’t want her picture taken! Respect that, boy!” Rey exclaimed.

   “Yeah, you get him, Rey!” Neil exclaimed.

   “Thank you, but you already knew I was going to hit him,” Sana said.

   “I was doing you a favor!” Rey exclaimed. “Krystal did your nails earlier today. Do you really think she’d want you to ruin them?”

   Sana sighed and grabbed the phone from the boy, deleting the pictures off it. She handed it back and began to leave with Rey saying, “I better not catch you taking anyone else’s picture again!”

   The boy took off with Sana saying, “The nerve of some people.”

   “Man, Rey, you really whacked that guy,” Neil said as he came up to Rey and Sana.

   “You know I would’ve whacked him just as hard,” Sana said.

   “Yeah, but we’re used to you whacking people,” Neil said.

   “Hey, I’m fully capable of giving people a smacking!” Rey exclaimed. “Especially when my friends are being wronged!”

   Sana noticed Heer was looking at something, seemingly startled. She asked, “Heer, what’s up?”

   Heer turned around, looking like she had seen a ghost or something. Sana turned to see a guy standing across from them. He had dark eyes and short black hair, covered by a blue baseball cap. He wore a blue hoodie with black shorts and gray sneakers.  

   Neil was surprised to see Heer walking away, not saying a word. She started pushing her long hair, hiding her face.

   “Heer, where are you going?” Neil asked, calling out to her. Heer didn’t answer. She just walked away. It was quite unlike her to just leave without saying anything.

   “Hey, dude, did you say anything to our friend?” Rey questioned the guy.

   The guy rolled his eyes and scoffed. His attitude annoyed Rey.

   “Hey, man, we asked you a question,” Neil said.

   “I didn’t do anything aside from just walking by,” the boy said. “If you should be questioning anyone, it would be her.”

   The boy shook his head and left. Sana was very confused, and she could tell that Rey and Neil were as well. She knew there was more going on that she didn’t know about.

***

   Later on, in the evening, Sana was alone in her room at the dorms. She pondered over what happened earlier in the city. What could have happened to Heer? Sana tried to talk to her when she got back, but she said she was tired and needed to rest. Sana wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth or just making an excuse for space, but she wanted to respect her need to be alone.

   Sana was about to get out her notebook to do some studying until she heard a knock on the door. She got up to answer it. It was Krystal standing outside in the hallway.

   “Krystal, what’s up?” Sana asked.

   “What’s up with Heer? She handed me the rest of her Marigold Surprise and wasn’t happy about it.”

   “Really? That’s how you figured she was upset?”

   “You don’t get it. Whenever Heer does something nice for someone, she gives the most wholesome smile. This time she just handed it to me and left. That’s not the Heer I know! What happened?”

   “I’m not really sure. Things were fine until this boy showed up.”

   “A boy?”

   “Yeah, it seemed like they knew each other. She like turned away and just left without saying a word. Rey and Neil questioned the guy about it, and he just gave us an attitude and said we should ask Heer.”

   “Did you get the boy’s name?”

   “No, we didn’t. It was really unusual.”

   “Can you give me some details about his appearance?”

   “What are you planning to do? Conduct a search?”

   “Hey, I have ways of getting information. Just tell me some details about his appearance. Let’s start with what he was wearing.”

   “Uh, blue baseball cap, blue hoodie…”

   “What shade of blue was the hoodie?”

   “What?”

   “What shade of blue was the hoodie? Was it a cobalt blue? Or a sky blue?”

   “I don’t know! Why is this important, Krystal?!”

   “Heer clearly doesn’t want to tell us who this guy is, so I have to gain as much intel and find out myself. I’m gonna go work on that now.”

   “Krystal, there’s no way you can find out who someone is based off such little information.”

   “Don’t underestimate me, Sana. I have my ways.”

***

   The next day, Sana was getting her books from her locker. She turned to see Heer was coming up to her. Heer said, “Sana, I wanted to apologize about yesterday. I shouldn’t have left so suddenly.”

   “You don’t have to apologize, Heer,” Sana said. “Are you okay?”

   “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

   “If you don’t mind me asking, who was that guy?”

   “Um, it really doesn’t matter. Anyway, I actually have to do some stuff before class, so I’ll see you later.”

   Heer left and Sana sighed. She wanted to help Heer, but it seemed like Heer didn’t want to talk about the situation. She turned to see Rey and Neil come up to her.

   “Did Heer talk to you?” Neil asked.

   “Yeah. She just apologized for what happened and jolted upon me bringing up the guy,” Sana said.

   “She did the same thing with us,” Rey said.

   “Man, I wish we could know who he is. She’s clearly affected by him,” Neil said.

   “Me too. But at the same time, it’s her personal matter. We shouldn’t force her to talk to us about it,” Sana said.

   “But we just want to help her,” Rey said.

   “His name is Jac Ashton,” Krystal said as she walked up to the trio.

   “Huh?” Sana said. “How do you know?”

   “I told you I’d find out who he is,” Krystal said.

   “How did you find out who he is?” Neil asked.

   “Well, all I had was a lousy description from Sana, but I did some snooping on the web and I found out about some new transfers to this one high school downtown, Red Rock High. So, I contacted my friend whose father’s sister’s cousin’s daughter went to middle school with him,” Krystal said.

   “Is anyone else scared of her?” Rey asked Sana and Neil.

   “Shut up, Rey. The point is she said that Jac and Heer were really close friends in middle school and around the time of graduation, he just cut her out without warning,” Krystal said.

   “Well, that explains why she reacted that way,” Sana said.

   “Seriously? Is no one scared at how she gathered intel like that?” Rey asked.

   “Forget that. What’s our plan for standing up to the guy?” Neil asked.

   “Plan? Guys, we don’t need to do anything,” Sana said.

   “What?! Why?!” Rey exclaimed.

   “Heer didn’t even want to talk about this. Do you really think she would want us to get involved?” Sana said. “The best thing to do is to leave it be.”

   Sana closed her locker and left with her books in hand. Rey couldn’t accept that Sana didn’t want to do anything. He looked at Neil, who looked like he had an idea in mind.

   “Krystal, what school did you say this Jac guy goes to?” Neil asked.

   “Red Rock High,” Krystal said. “Why?”

   “Oh, no reason,” Neil said.

***

   Later on, during after school hours, a group of kids were playing kickball outside at the playground of Red Rock High School. Among those kids was Jac. Rey and Neil came to see him playing without a care in the world. Rey looked at Neil and said, “Neil, are you sure this is a good idea?”

   “This is perfectly fine. We’re gonna show Jac not to mess with Heer.”

   “I know, but don’t you remember what Sana said?”

   “Sana is taking the easy way out. We gotta teach this boy a lesson. He has no idea who he’s dealing with. Now, are you ready?”

   “All right, let’s do this.”

   Rey and Neil walked up to the group as they continued playing. Jac turned to them. Rey could see that Jac recognized them.

   “What are you guys doing here?” Jac asked. “Your school doesn’t have a playground?”

   “Our school happens to have a lot of cool stuff!” Rey exclaimed.

   “We’re here to tell you personally that we don’t like how you treated our friend, Heer,” Neil said.

   “And what do you know about that?” Jac asked.

   “Well, not much, but considering how well we know Heer, we know you must have been a real jerk to her,” Neil said.

   “Right. Because Heer is so innocent and nice,” Jac said. “Perfect little angel that could do no wrong.”

   “Are you mocking her?!”  Rey exclaimed. “Dude, we could give you quite the beatdown for that.”

   “Really?” Jac scoffed.

   “You bet,” Neil said as he drew out his wand while Rey got ready to transform.

   “What are you two doing?!” a voice questioned.

   Rey froze, knowing who it was. He turned around with Neil to see Sana with Krystal. Sana certainly looked displeased.

   “Wow. Sana was right,” Krystal said. “You two would do something stupid.”

   “How’d you know we were gonna be here?” Rey asked Sana.

   “Krystal told me that she told you guys about Jac’s high school, and I knew you two would come to jump him,” Sana said.

   “Hey, are you saying we’re predictable?!” Neil exclaimed.

   “That and stupid,” Krystal said. “You’re lucky Prince is too busy hanging out with Zayn and Akira at Devil’s Delights to see this.”

   “We have every right to jump someone in this scenario!” Rey exclaimed.

   “Look, if you guys aren’t going to beat me up, I’m gonna get back to my game,” Jac said as he turned around to continue playing with the other guys.

    Sana pulled Rey by his arm and Krystal did the same with Neil. She said, “This isn’t what Heer would’ve liked.”

   “Yeah, but he deserves a beating for being such a jackass,” Neil said.

   “You know what? Since you two are so hung up on this, why don’t we just talk to Heer?” Sana asked.

   “I thought you said we shouldn’t ask her about it,” Rey said.

   “That was before you guys started throwing tantrums over it,” Sana said. “Come on.”

***

    Back at the academy, Heer was baking cupcakes in the home economics classroom. She was in the middle of frosting the vanilla cupcakes with a strawberry buttercream frosting when Sana, Rey, Krystal, and Neil entered. Before Heer could say anything, Rey said, “Ah! Cupcakes!”

   “Really, Rey?” Krystal said as Rey immediately grabbed one of the frosted cupcakes.

   “What? I’m hungry,” Rey said as he took a bite from the cupcake. “Damn. This is so good!”

   “Thank you,” Heer said. “What are you guys doing here?”

   “Well, we thought we’d talk to you about Jac,” Sana said.

   “How do you know about Jac?” Heer asked.

   “I did some snooping. I have quite the talent for it,” Krystal said.

   “I’m sorry. I really didn’t think she’d dig into it,” Sana said. “Or that these two would go hunt him down.”

   “We had good reason,” Neil said.

   “You don’t have to apologize. I probably should…for not talking about it this whole time,” Heer said.

   “Have you been baking to distract yourself from talking about it?” Krystal asked.

   “I guess so,” Heer said.

   “So, who is he?” Rey asked as he grabbed another cupcake to munch on.

   Heer sighed. She took a deep breath, knowing she had to explain herself. She looked at the others and said, “Jac was a close friend since I was in middle school. I didn’t have a lot of friends, but he was one of the few people who I felt like I could talk to about anything. We had a lot of common interests. From cartoons to baking, there was a lot we could share. It felt nice to have a friend like that.”

   “So, what happened?” Sana asked.

   “Well, there was a point where I noticed he would say things that I didn’t like or things that hurt me. When I would confront him about them, every time, he’d have an excuse or get upset,” Heer said. “It made me think I was doing something wrong. There was one time that led to an argument…or more so me getting yelled at. After that happened, I apologized in hopes we could move on and not let it escalate. And it seemed fine. But then one day, he basically said he didn’t want to be my friend anymore.”

   Sana could tell that Heer was hurt just by talking about everything. It may have been something from the past, but Sana understood that memories from our past can still hurt in the present no matter how much time has passed.

   “The reason I couldn’t talk about it is because sometimes…I feel like it’s my fault somehow,” Heer said. “Sometimes, I think about all the good times we had. I just wish it didn’t end like that.”

   “I understand,” Sana said. “But you should know it’s not your fault.”

   “Yeah. Dude was clearly an asshole,” Krystal said. “Ugh! Some people want to act like saints that can never do any wrong. Besides, who wants to have a friend who gets upset like a five-year-old child at a toy store every time you bring up something?”

   “The only loser in this situation is him,” Neil said. “He lost a great friend.”

   “And we gained one the moment we met here at RTA,” Rey said. “By the way, you need to make more of these cupcakes.”

   Heer chuckled along with the others. It was the first time she felt a hint of joy since she encountered Jac.

   “Thank you, guys,” Heer said. “I actually feel a little better now that I’ve talked about it.”

   “Well, let’s make you feel even more better,” Krystal said. “How about we go to Devil’s Diner for dinner? My treat!”

   “That sounds like a plan,” Sana said. “Is that okay with you, Heer?”

   “For sure,” Heer said with a smile.

***

   Later that night, Sana, Rey, Krystal, Neil, and Heer went to Devil’s Diner. Once they went inside, they were escorted to a table. As they sat down, Heer was stunned to see Jac sitting at a table not too far from them. Seeing her stunned expression, Sana turned around and said, “Wow. He’s here as well.”

   “I swear that guy is everywhere,” Krystal said.

   “Are you comfortable, Heer?” Rey asked. “We could ask to be moved away.”

   “Or we could go somewhere else for dinner,” Neil said.

   “No, I’m fine,” Heer said. She could see Jac had looked at her and went back to looking at his cellphone in hand. “I don’t want to run away like last time. I’m here to have a good time with you all. That’s all that matters.”

   “Aww, that’s our Heer,” Sana said.

   “Still, I’d love to give that jerk a piece of my mind,” Rey said.

   “Same here,” Krystal said. “Just look at his outfit. His shirt looks like it was made of duct tape.”

   “You know what?” Neil said as he got up. “Why don’t we say a few words to him?”

   Krystal smirked and saw Rey smirk as well. The two of them got up with Neil and Sana joined them saying, “No fists. I don’t wanna get kicked out of the restaurant.”

   Heer watched as her four friends circled Jac at his table. Jac looked up at them and said, “Now what do you losers want?”

   “Ha. Losers? We should be calling you that,” Rey said. “For someone with such a huge ego, you don’t seem to have decent comebacks.”

   “Whatever. I’m not the one trying to create a scene here,” Jac said.

   “We’re not creating a scene. We’re here to let you know that the only loser around here is you,” Neil said. “You could’ve had a great friend in Heer. And you blew it because you’re a little baby that can’t handle a bit of honesty.”

   “If you ever hurt Heer again or do anything to make her uncomfortable, we’ll be coming for you,” Rey said. “My partner here is pretty good at giving a smackdown.”

   “It’s true,” Sana said. “I’d smack you in the head right now, but I don’t want to get kicked out before dinner.”

   “We’re gonna be sitting close by. I hope us having fun doesn’t make you cry out of regret for what you could’ve had,” Krystal said.

   As the group turned around to head back to their table, Krystal turned back and said, “Also, that shirt is ugly as hell. I’d burn it if I were you. Bye!”

   Krystal joined the others back at the table, laughing with the others. While they were laughing, Heer watched them. She didn’t even bother to look at Jac anymore because she no longer cared about what she had lost.

   “Hey, guys,” Heer said. “I’m really glad you all are my friends.”

   “Aww, same here, girl!” Krystal said as she hugged Heer.

   “Now let’s order food,” Rey said. “I’m starving.”

   As her friends laughed some more, Heer realized that what she had right now was exactly what was meant to be.  

Copyright © 2022 Meryl T

All rights reserved. All illustrations created by Meryl T.