Rising Shards

For some reason, meeting up at some kind of food establishment seemed to be the right spot for Iris and Maia to meet with Zeta to talk about Zeta catching the two in the middle of a make out session. They first met with Zeta at a coffee shop on campus, but this time they made the trek to a breakfast diner that was a bus ride away from school. Iris didn't understand why Zeta had to tell her girlfriend Oka about her accidental discovery, but figured they could bribe the two with pancakes and eggs and stuff into not blabbing anything.

"Kind of a cute double date thing here," Oka said, tapping her menu on the table.

"Well," Maia said.

"Well, what?" Oka said.

"Not really a double date," Iris said. "It's a dual best friends meetup."

"Exactly," Maia said.

"And the difference between the two is...?" Oka said.

"Maybe just...let that slide for now," Zeta said.

After ordering, the four made small talk until their food arrived, including talking about some school gossip, the staff mat ball game, and trying to make a pyramid with the menus.

"So did you two want to talk about...anything?" Zeta asked once their meals arrived.

"I guess," Iris said. "You start."

"Why me?" Zeta asked.

"You're the one who walked in on us," Iris said.

"Well, it wasn't really in, it was outside," Zeta said.

"What's going on here, exactly?" Oka said.

Zeta explained what happened when she caught Iris and Maia kissing. Oka didn't react much.

"Well, that's a bit awkward, but not the worst thing, right?" Oka said. "Did you want to have a double date just to talk about that?"

"Date? No. A dual best friends meetup? Yes," Iris said. "We just want to make sure Zeta doesn't blab about this to the authorities, which would get us all split up. And then she had to be all, 'well, I can't keep secrets from Oka, boo hoooo...'"

"Aww, you couldn't keep a secret from me?" Oka said, choosing to ignore the vocal quality of Iris' impression of Zeta.

"Heh, yeah," Zeta said. "I think we can keep it under wraps, right?"

"Yes, keep our B.F.S. situation under wraps," Iris said.

Oka poured some more syrup onto her waffles as she pondered.

"So, wait," Oka said. "I am not getting this B.F.S. thing. What is that?"

"What's not to get?" Iris asked. "We're best friends, we do best friend stuff."

"I just am not sure...what you mean," Oka said.

"You know, stuff best friends do," Iris said. "Hanging out, playing games, making out, holding hands, cuddling, biting each other."

Oka blinked, her stunned stillness threatening to overflow her plate with syrup. She started eating her food quietly, unsure of how to process any of this.

"Um, if I may interject with a thought," Zeta said. "If Kalei finds out, please don't tell her we knew."

"I'm just kind of confused," Oka said. "We can avoid telling prefects and the like, definitely."

"Well, that was the main thing," Maia said.

"I....hm." Oka said.

"I tried to say something, but..." Zeta said. "I was kind of hoping you would be able to put it into words better than me."

"I'm sure you did fine," Oka said, patting Zeta's hand. "As for you two, are you sure you want to just call what you have going on 'best friend stuff'?"

Iris and Maia looked at each other, then back to Oka.

"Uh, yeah?" Maia said.

"It sums things up nicely." Iris said.

"I'm not here to tell you what to do, or how to label yourselves, obviously," Oka said.

"Well, it kinda sounds like you're about to do that," Iris said.

"I just want to say, if you two are kissing and whatnot, my thought is just..." Oka chose her words carefully. "I hope you're thinking about what you have. Making something like that work isn't easy, and there are times where you have to reflect on what you want from your par–" She cut herself off, sensing Iris and Maia already about to react. "From your best friend. I don't want to judge you or make you feel bad or anything. It's good to think about important stuff like that is all."

"Yeah!" Zeta said. The two got all sparkly eyed at each other, which was a bit cute.

Iris tried not to pout as she poked at her own meal. It was good advice. She and Maia had been enjoying the fun of their B.F.S., and both had agreed to talk out what was going on more at some point. But would things keep being fun if they barreled forward and didn't stop to think about what was going on and really talk about it? Iris looked to Maia, worried she wouldn't have the same sparkly reaction from her that Oka and Zeta were giving each other, but Maia looked very content. Iris hoped it was one of those times where they understood each other without saying anything, because it felt like Maia wanted to hear all that. And if Maia was cool with Oka's advice, Iris was too.

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