Sarina was pissed.

She was sitting in the most worn booth at the hotel restaurant, drinking her coffee while it was still hot to purposefully sting her mouth. Danny was late and at this point, she wouldn’t have been surprised if he was off being all buddy-buddy with fucking Rion.

She slapped her cup down on the tabletop with more force than necessary, causing the couple in the booth a few seats away to look at her. She didn’t care. People could look at her however they liked.

Fuck them. Fuck all of them. Fuck everyone.

When she heard that Danny had come back to Misty Meadows, she’d made the mistake of getting excited. Danny was a great guy, always fun to be around, and he actually listened to her unlike everyone else in this shit town. But Danny showed up and was suddenly planning birthday parties for Noa and inviting Rion and not her.

Exactly what the hell was wrong with Danny? Did he get hit on the head while he was in the city? Was he just trying to piss her off?

There was a jingle as the hotel door swung open. Sarina fixed a glare on Danny as he walked in, letting her head rest on one of her hands while she drilled her fingers against the tabletop. Danny spotted her, his eyebrows lifting. He paused to order himself a Coke and then came over to sit with her.

“What did I do to deserve that look?” he asked. “Can’t I at least say hello before you’re mad at me?”

“No,” Sarina said waspishly, “because you’re being a fucking dick. What the actual hell, Danny?”

He cracked open his pop and took a sip. He was so calm that it just pissed her off more.

“Okay, so like…what did I do?” Danny asked. “I asked you out for coffee. That makes me an asshole?”

“Like you didn’t think I’d find out about the birthday party that you organized for Noa!” she snapped. “And then you invited Rion! And you went out of your way to not invite me! Yeah, Danny, that makes you a huge fucking asshole!”

“Geez, Sarina… I didn’t organize the party or the invites,” Danny said, though he looked apologetic. Finally. “It was kind of Peter’s idea. And his parents. They didn’t want to invite you. And it wasn’t even a birthday party – it was just a get-together.”

Sarina opened her mouth to argue but nothing came out. She snapped it closed, glowering. Danny had derailed her completely.

Peter… So it wasn’t entirely Danny’s fault. As much as she wanted to be mad at Danny, she couldn’t pin all her anger on him. The Murphys would have final say about who was invited over to their house. Still…

“Monique said it was your idea,” Sarina told him.

“Well, I mean, I might have made suggestions…” Danny said, taking another sip of his drink. “I’ve been hearing things about you… You’re not making a great case for yourself. It shouldn’t be a surprise that you’re not welcome at the Murphys.”

“A case? For myself?” Sarina repeated. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“People are saying you’re beating up Rion,” Danny said. “He has a black eye to prove it. You really think anyone was going to put you and Rion in the same room together?”

“I don’t beat up Rion,” Sarina scoffed. “I just push him around a little, usually when he’s being a dick. It’s not like he can’t take it – he’s a guy. He should just get over himself and man up.”

“Whooooa, wait. Excuse me. What?” Danny said, balking.

Sarina waved a hand dismissively, though Danny’s reaction made her inwardly recoil. Why did he sound upset?

“Maybe you don’t know but Rion cut up his friendship bracelet,” Sarina said. “The one Amber herself made him. Remember? He’s been a total dick since Amber… Since she passed away.”

She half raised her arm to show Danny her own bracelet, but Danny had already raised his. He was still wearing his bracelet too. That dimmed the uneasy feeling that was forming in the pit of her stomach. At least, it did a little bit.

“I heard all about that,” Danny said. “That’s not an excuse to beat on him though. And saying all that crap… What’s wrong with you?”

“Like I said, I don’t beat on him,” Sarina said. “Rion brought this on himself. I don’t know why you’re siding with him.”

“He’s my friend,” Danny said. “Sarina, he has a black eye. That isn’t nothing! That’s really bad! Like, you hurt him bad enough to bruise. What if you broke his nose? Or an arm or a leg or… This kind of thing is serious!”

“Rion’s the one who started it!”

“He hit you first?”

“No! He wrecked his bracelet and he’s been a total asshole since!”

Danny let out a sound of frustration. He reached up and scrubbed at his face hastily before he let his hands drop to the tabletop.

“Okay,” he puffed out. “Run everything by me. What exactly has Rion done? What makes him an asshole? I need your side of the story. Give me details.”

Sarina had to pause. She felt breathless from getting so worked up. She took another sip of coffee, trying to collect her racing thoughts.

She had to make Danny understand.

“He calls me names,” Sarina started. “He’ll call me a bitch or even…even a…the ‘c’ word.”

She lowered her voice. She didn’t care about swearing, but her parents would lose it if she used ‘prick’ or ‘cunt’. Those were the only words she could get in serious shit for so she had to use them sparingly. News traveled fast in Misty Meadows. Sarina didn’t need to go home and have her parents freak out on her just because she was trying to explain herself to Danny.

“Seriously?” Danny said, eyebrows going up. “Rion’s said that to you?”

“Yeah,” Sarina said. “He’ll say those things to my other friends too. They can vouch for me.”

“Okay,” Danny said. “And was this before or after you started…‘pushing him around’?”

“I don’t know. Doesn’t matter,” Sarina said, though she was sure it was after. “He’ll hit me back too. Look.”

She turned to the side to show Danny her upper arm. The bruise was very faded but it was still there from where Rion hit her.

“He shouldn’t hit you,” Danny said. “But you shouldn’t hit him either. How’d you get that?”

“He took a swing at me,” Sarina said. “He doesn’t give a shit about Amber or anyone else. He just shrugs off any conversation like it doesn’t matter, like Amber doesn’t matter. And now he’s trying to be all friendly and cute with you. It’s the kind of thing he used to do with Noa.”

“Sarina, what on Earth are you talking about?” Danny said. “Rion and Noa have always been best friends.”

“Oh, come on, Danny,” Sarina scoffed. “Rion was always about having Noa all to himself. You know exactly what I mean.”

It had always been a sore spot for Sarina. The whole Noa and Rion thing…

Sarina had always liked Noa, from the moment the rumours hit town, before he even moved in or she met him face to face. People talked about how he was a sweet kid in a tough situation. His dad was a psycho who beat his wife to death and tried to drown Noa, to kill his own son. Everyone knew the story.

Sarina felt for Noa. She had known he was going to be in the same grade as her and she’d wanted to be his friend. She’d decided it before she even met him. And when she did meet him, her opinion had increased tenfold. Noa had been a quiet, gentle boy. He was easy to like.

Then Rion had come along out of nowhere. Suddenly they were best friends and Rion pushed Sarina out of the way. He used that comic of theirs to make fun of her and they were always doing things together, Rion always hanging out with Noa. There was no room for her.

Sarina never liked Rion. He was the weird, quiet kid with the weird, quiet dad. Rion’s mom had died when they were all little, like when they were in kindergarten or something. She didn’t remember Rion even being broken up about that. She probably wouldn’t have known what happened if the whole town didn’t gossip.

Maybe Rion was some kind of unfeeling psycho?

“I don’t know what you mean, actually,” Danny said. “And that has nothing to do with my relationship with Rion. He’s not being ‘cute’ or whatever. He’s just being himself and honestly? He seems really hurt and lonely.”

“He’s probably just manipulating you,” Sarina said. “You’re a good person, Danny. You can’t see it because you don’t want to. He’s a two-faced, back-stabbing liar.”

“What else has he done then?” Danny asked. “What’s he done to you?”

“Other than what I told you about? And the obvious?” Sarina said, gesturing to her bruise. “He’s stolen my stuff before. And wrecked my homework. Some of the most awful things come out of his mouth and he’ll lose his shit for no reason.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, he’ll have a meltdown or a freakout. He gets to be a total psycho, losing it when no one’s even doing anything to him. He’s fucked in the head. The guy will have a fit over nothing but then shrug off stuff about Amber.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. …What? What is it?” Sarina said. Danny was frowning, staring right at her. He looked concerned, almost disapproving. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“The way you were talking about freakouts, it kind of made me think of…” Danny began but then gave his head a shake. “Would you say he…panics or something? For no apparent reason?”

“I guess?” Sarina said. “I figured it was just to get us in trouble. Or to get out of class. He lost it in Chemistry once and got suspended for a couple days, I think.”

“It seems like…” Danny began and then hesitated. “I mean, Noa’s kind of like that too, right?”

“What?” Sarina said. “What are you talking about?”

“Remember when we were at the graveyard?” Danny said. “Noa closed his eyes and stood there and…he pretty much started hyperventilating. I mean, that’s different from what you’re saying about Rion, but…”

“Noa has panic attacks, Danny. He’s got all this shit he’s been through so you can’t even blame him,” Sarina said. “Rion doesn’t. His little fits are nothing like Noa and his breakdowns.”

Danny opened his mouth and then closed it. He paused, obviously thinking it over. Finally, he let out a long breath.

“Okay. Right. You know what? How about this?” Danny said. “I’ll talk to Rion.”

“And what’s that going to do?” Sarina said with a dismissive snort.

“I’ll talk to him about the stuff he’s done to you and make sure that he knows it’s not okay,” Danny said. “He’ll probably listen to me. We’re friends. Maybe I can convince him to apologize to you or something. Then you can apologize to him, and… I mean, that won’t fix things but it’s a start. Right?”

Sarina pinched her lips together. She hated the idea of having to apologize to Rion. She really, really didn’t want to do it. After all, she hadn’t done anything wrong. If anything, she was dishing out justice.

But…having Rion apologize… That was too good to pass up.

“I don’t think he’ll do it,” Sarina said.

“You let me worry about that,” Danny said. “If he says he will, you can meet up. If he doesn’t follow through, I’ll talk to him. And if he doesn’t want to say sorry, I’ll find out why and try to change his mind. Sarina, let me help. You don’t want things to be like this, do you? Don’t you remember how great it used to be when we were all together as kids?”

Sarina remembered, though she never considered herself to be Rion’s friend. She missed spending time with the others; hanging out at the lake, making friendship bracelets, wasting quarters at the beat-up arcade machine at the rink, biking around town…

And Sarina missed Amber.

She missed the days when she hung out with Amber and Celeste. She missed being the cool younger girl who was included with the older girls. She liked how they’d paid attention to her, how they’d always let her join in. She missed gossiping about cute boys with them and she missed the special way Amber would smile when she talked about Jesse. She missed Amber’s laugh and her sense of humour and…

“I wish things were different,” Sarina said. “I wish Amber was still with us.”

“Me too,” Danny said without hesitation. “But you know what? Amber would hate to see us the way we are now. It would break her heart, don’t you think?”

Sarina felt a stab of guilt. Danny was right. Amber wouldn’t have wanted any of them fighting.

But Amber wouldn’t have been happy with Rion for wrecking his friendship bracelet. And she was gone now, making everything she left behind so, so precious.

Rion was the one in the wrong.

“Amber wouldn’t be happy, but Rion would have broken her heart ten times over,” Sarina said bitterly. “I should have kept Rion’s bracelet. I shouldn’t have given it back to him even if it was ruined. It’s probably long gone by now.”

“I don’t think so,” Danny said. “Rion offered to show it to me. I don’t think he can bring himself to throw it away. I mean…maybe he wrecked it in the first place because he got emotional?”

“He sure didn’t seem emotional,” Sarina said. “He couldn’t give two shits when we all found out.”

“I’ll ask him about it,” Danny said. “Listen Sarina…I want to work things out. I want to make things better. You want that too, right? Work with me here.”

Sarina heaved a sigh. “I want to work with you, Danny. It’s just… Rion is a problem. He’s the problem.”

“I know that’s what you think,” Danny said and held up his hands when she shot him a look, “and you might be right! But I need to work with Rion to figure that out.”

“Even if he lies and stabs you in the back?” Sarina asked. “Danny, I’m going to be pissed if he hurts you.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Sarina, you’re already pissed. I don’t know how he could hurt me. And if he does stab me in the back or whatever, I’ll call him out on it. I’m not rolling over and giving up. I want to get to the bottom of this. Okay?”

“Fine,” Sarina said. “Good luck, then. You’re gonna need it.”

“Hey! Danny! Sarina!”

The voice calling out to them was a familiar one. Celeste had just come to the restaurant portion of the hotel from the bar side. There was only a hall and a door between them, the restaurant portion being family friendly and the bar side being… Well, it was a bar and they served alcohol.

Celeste walked over to their table. She had some plastic bags in hand and they looked heavy. Both Danny and Sarina sat straighter in their seats when they turned to greet her.

“Celeste. Hey,” Danny said, flashing her a smile. “What are you doing here?”

“My dad wants to have a barbeque this Saturday so he asked me to pick up some things for him,” Celeste said and then raised one of her bags. “He wanted beer.”

“Oh, cool,” Danny said. “That sounds nice.”

While Celeste nodded in agreement, Sarina asked, “Did you walk here?”

“Yes, it’s really nice out,” Celeste said. “The weather is perfect this time of year. There’s not as many bugs and it’s finally starting to get colder.”

“Are you going to be okay going back with those bags?” Sarina said. “They look heavy.”

“Hm? Oh, it’s not that bad,” Celeste said and then hesitated. “Oh. Sorry. Am I interrupting? Were you two on a date?”

Sarina had already started shaking her head but Danny quickly said, “Oh, no no! Not a date!”

“We’re just hanging out,” Sarina said.

Sarina might have contemplated going out with Danny once or twice as a second choice (after Noa, of course). Now it was weird to even think about. Danny felt more like a brother to her; the kind of brother who was cool and fun, unlike her real brother. Travis was born a loser.

“Oh, right. You said you were meeting up with Sarina today, didn’t you?” Celeste said to Danny.

He smiled and laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah. I did. We were just catching up on stuff.”

“We’re pretty much done.” Sarina slid out of her seat. “Let me help you home with those bags.”

“Oh. Wait,” Danny said. “Sarina, about the whole thing with–”

“You get back to me when you’ve got that apology ready,” Sarina said, cutting him off. “Then we’ll talk. Okay?”

“Okay,” Danny agreed. “I guess I’ll let you know how things go.”

Sarina held out a hand, wanting to take one of the bags. Reluctantly, Celeste handed her one.

“Are you sure you want to help?” Celeste asked. “I’m fine to take it myself.”

“It’s cool. I want to do a bit of catching up anyway,” Sarina said. “See you, Danny.”

Celeste and Sarina said their goodbyes to Danny and then headed out. Like Celeste said, the autumn air was feeling much cooler already. It was warm out only a few days ago but now it was already getting chilly, some of the leaves changing colour. It was like a switch had flicked and the weather started to turn.

Sarina walked down the road with Celeste. They were pretty much neighbours so they weren’t strangers to walking home together.

Sarina’s family lived on an acreage at the edge of town. Where their family’s property ended, Celeste’s family’s farmlands began. The Labelles had some fields that they farmed, but a portion of their land was dedicated to several greenhouses where they grew all kinds of plants and flowers. Sometimes even people from out of town came to shop there and they’d grown quite a reputation.

There was talk around the town that maybe within the next ten years or so, Misty Meadows might develop into a city. With some popular local shops like the Labelle greenhouses, and the fact that they had a small hospital on one side of town, it was a possibility. Sarina had her doubts since they didn’t even have a proper grocery store, just a shop with a mix of everything from produce to movie rentals. There wasn’t even really a restaurant, other than the hotel, which doubled as a bar…

“You’re sure you don’t mind helping me?” Celeste asked as they walked.

“Yeah, it’s not a big deal,” Sarina said. “We haven’t hung out in ages anyway. How’ve you been?”

“Okay,” Celeste said. “I’m glad that Danny’s back in town. I really missed him.”

“Yeah,” Sarina agreed. She had missed him a lot more when she didn’t know he was back in contact with Rion. “Hey, um… You were at Noa’s party the other day, right?”

“Yes,” Celeste said, hesitating because of the abrupt subject change. Or maybe it was the subject itself. “It wasn’t really a party for Noa… He hasn’t celebrated his birthday since Amber passed away. I mean, it must be really hard on him since she died on the fourth and then his birthday’s on the ninth…”

“Yeah,” Sarina said, cringing. “Yeah, that must be really hard on him. I don’t blame him…”

“It’s too bad that you weren’t invited,” Celeste said. “It seemed like it was because of Rion. I know you don’t get along with him but… Well… Peter really didn’t want to invite you.”

Sarina was hurt but not surprised by that. Peter caught her in the middle of a fight with Rion once. He’d flipped out on her and been cold and standoffish since.

The fight looked a lot worse than it was. That was probably why. Rion tripped over his own feet and gave himself a bloody nose by smacking his face into the dirt.  He was a mess before Sarina reached him. There wasn’t even that much blood but when Peter had shown up, no matter what Sarina said, he acted like she’d been trying to murder Rion. Which was totally unfair.

“Peter and I don’t really get along anymore,” Sarina was forced to admit. “But, um… More importantly, how’s Noa? You saw him, right?”

Celeste nodded. “I saw him. Actually, it was… It was a little crazy.”

“Crazy? What, did Noa act out or something? Another panic attack or…?”

“No, no,” Celeste said, shaking her head. “He was… He almost started acting like he used to. You know, before Amber died.”

“What?” Sarina said in surprise. Then she smiled, hopeful. “Really? That’s great!”

Celeste returned her smile. “Yes, it is. But, um… Well, he was his usual quiet self at first. Then Rion finally arrived and Noa… He started talking and showing us things and he was just so much more animated than I’ve seen in years.”

As hopefully as Sarina had been at the news, her mood dropped abruptly. The idea that Rion could make Noa act like his old self made her nauseous. That wasn’t right. It couldn’t be…

“Rion, huh?” Sarina said, trying not to sound bitter. “That’s… Hm.”

“I think that’s why the Murphys wanted to invite Rion over,” Celeste said. “Because Noa had a reaction when he was brought up at the graveyard. I wasn’t too sure how it was going to go with Rion around, but it really worked, you know?”

Sarina shrugged. She didn’t want to think too hard about it.

“It’s good that Noa was talking and stuff,” Sarina said, trying to focus on the positive. “It’s a good sign. Maybe all that therapy is finally working.”

“I hope so,” Celeste said and then hesitated. “Actually… Um… While it was great to see Noa talking and being more like his old self…it seems like he’s still really fragile. He…he wanted us to come up to his room and then… We thought it would be a good idea to check Amber’s old room. Apparently, it’s just storage now but…you know…”

Sarina did know. She would have liked to see Amber’s room too, like a confirmation that all of Amber’s old stuff was gone and that the room was cleaned out, different, alien. It was a morbid sense of curiosity.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Sarina said. “So, what was it like?”

“We didn’t get to look,” Celeste said. “Noa had a bad reaction. He seems to think that Amber’s room is…that it’s haunted or something. It made me feel so bad for him.”

Sarina fell silent. What could she say to that?

After Amber died, Noa had changed. It was like part of him had died with her or he had just given up. Sarina visited him several times after the fire and Noa… He’d been totally vacant. The Murphys described Noa as being unresponsive, but that word had never done it justice.

To hear that Noa was afraid of Amber haunting him was almost physically painful. Were those the kinds of thoughts he had all these years? Was it some kind of guilt that was festering and eating away at him this whole time? All because he couldn’t save Amber from the fire?

Sarina remembered him saying something like that. When Rion and Noa had been found, before Noa had totally shut down, it had been the only thing he seemed able to say – that it was all his fault.

He had a nasty burn on his hand, the scar still there today, from where he’d grabbed onto a doorknob that had been burning hot from the fire. There was no question that Noa tried to save Amber. Despite reassurances that everyone had given him, Noa didn’t seem to ever be convinced.

It was really, really sad.

Celeste and Sarina were silent the rest of the way, until they reached the driveway to Celeste’s place. They came to a stop.

“I think the Murphys are going to invite Rion over again, since Noa had a good reaction to him,” Celeste said. “Maybe we could arrange something though. I mean, so that you can see Noa too. I know you must miss him.”

“I do,” Sarina said, meaning it. “I haven’t spent time with him in forever. I’d really like to, you know, hang out.”

“Are you maybe going to work things out with Rion?” Celeste asked. “I don’t really know what’s going on with him but he seems… I don’t know. He was normal when he was at the Murphys’.”

She looked hopeful but Sarina didn’t want to lie. She shook her head.

“I don’t know. Danny wants me to work things out,” Sarina said. “We’ll see, I guess.”

“What Rion did with his friendship bracelet was awful,” Celeste said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I saw him but he seems okay. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to hear him out?”

“Maybe,” Sarina said reluctantly.

Celeste reached out and took the bag Sarina had been carrying. She offered her a smile.

“We should hang out some time,” Celeste said. “If not with Noa and everyone, then maybe just the two of us.”

“Yeah,” Sarina said, a lot less reluctant at that idea. “I’d like that. It’s been a while.”

“I still have your number. I’ll give you a call,” Celeste said.

They said their goodbyes and parted ways. Sarina headed back home, walking along the road by herself. She had a lot to mull over but the idea of hanging out with Celeste again, and maybe Noa, left her feeling a bit better.

But she was not looking forward to dealing with Rion. Not one bit.