"You were gone for two hours!"

Helia was grilling Tania. Best friend or not, she didn't appreciate being interrogated twice in one night. Her parents had just finished questioning her on what they called "the drowning." They'd also asked if she was on drugs, pregnant, or in love. Standard parent-stuff that she'd been able to answer. About the drowning, she had no idea.

"I, uh, don't---"

"You don't know," Helia finished for her, quite sarcastically.

She paced back and forth on the fluffy pink carpet at the foot of Tania's bed, looking like she might wear holes through it.

"Dude, what's your deal?"

Helia faced her, hurt coloring her face. "This is just like 8th grade, when I had to be the last one to find out that you and Ryan kissed at Jesus's party."

Tania laughed. "Oh, c'mon, not this again. I thought nobody had seen us, and I was embarrassed, for obvious reasons."

"I deserve to know."

"What are you, my wife?"

Helia shrugged. "If I was, tonight you'd be sleeping on the damn couch."

Tania sighed, her eyelid fluttering beyond her ability to control. "It's like I told everyone else: I hit my head on a piece of coral, washed ashore, and I don't remember anything else."

The silence nearly forced her into telling the truth, but then Helia stomped to the bedroom door.

She addressed Tania briefly, "By the way, when you're lying, your eye twitches like crazy."

The door slammed shut.

Tania rubbed her eye, muttering, "Traitor."

Her heart was heavy from all the lying, and she hated hurting her friend the most. However, the truth would be confusing, not to mention laughable.

She collapsed in her bed, making sure the necklace was still under her pillow.

~*~

At school, Tania drifted from class to class.

In English, her favorite period, she drew pictures instead of copy lecture notes. Swirling patterns and renditions of fins covered the margins of her notebook.

Curious little bigot that he was, Racist Ryan peered at her artwork.

"Gnarly stuff, Tani."

She squirmed in her seat. She hated when he used that nickname, the one he'd called her in middle school, before he'd embraced the Racist persona.

Tania bit back a thank you, rebuked herself, then bit back a rude reply. In the end, she settled her a half-hearted smirk. The last thing she needed was Ms. Lopez catching them talking again.

After her tutoring sessions, Caleb picked her up. He had three surf boards mounted on the back of his jeep.

As she climbed in the car, he told her, "We can just hang out. We don't have to hit the water."

Playfully, she smacked his arm. "What the what, man? You're the one who taught me to get back on the board right away, spills and all."

A day ago, the prospect of Netflix and chilling with Caleb would've really waxed her board. Yet, now, something inside urged her to go back on the water.

"Hey!" It was Helia, strolling out of the science building on her way to the parking lot.

"Meet us at the beach?" Caleb asked.

She sported rainbow sunglasses, so Tania couldn't read her expression.

A second passed, and Helia said, "Yeah, okay." She nodded at Tania. "I like your necklace."

Tania's hand flew to the stone, her fingers running over the etched runes. "Thanks."

The compliment and subsequent thanks was their version of make-up sex. They shared a best-friend smile, and Helia headed to her car.