I head to the cafeteria and wait for Impa. She's a few minutes late, but I'm too happy to see her to complain about her timing. I hug her for a few seconds, making her laugh.

"Somebody missed me."

"I have a lot to tell you," I say as we leave the cafeteria.

"Tell me all about it when we're backstage. I kinda like the theater now, it's like a private show while we're eating. Makes me feel like royalty."

"Let's go anywhere but there," I suggest instead.

"Why? I thought you liked it up there."

"One of the actors saw us last time."

"Oh, that Romeo guy? Now you're scared we'll get in trouble?"

"No, that's not my concern," I grab the locket on my necklace. "The guy is... I don't even know where to start. He's in my astronomy course. And he sort of... Asked me out? Which doesn't really matter, but I just don't feel like--"

"He hit on you?" Impa interrupts with a wide stare and I nod. "Did you..." she stops.

"Did I what?"

"You know? Give him your number?"

"No, of course not."

"Why not? Is he not your type?"

"What do you think my type is exactly?" I want to know.

This is the second time she's made a comment about my type.

"I don't know, you never talk to me about this kind of stuff," she shrugs.

"Because stuff like this has never happened to me until last week."

Impa walks to the staircase and I follow without asking where we're going. She wouldn't tell me anyway. When we reach the top floor I want to leave the staircase but Impa grabs my arm and shakes her head. Then she pulls out a set of keys to open the door to the roof.

"Impa...?"

"I know what you're going to say. It's fine," she laughs.

"Where did you get those keys?"

"Would you believe me if I said I found them?"

"No."

"Hm. I'm borrowing them."

"Did you steal them?"

"What? Me?" She giggles and opens the door. "I would never."

"This is illegal," I whine.

"Not if you don't get caught," she chants.

"Still illegal," I chant back.

We step into the light. The ground of the roof is covered by a lawn in striking green. Impa shuts the door behind me and grins at me as I soak in the sun.

I follow her to the edge of the building. There's no wall, fence, or any kind of barrier, so I don't go too close to the edge. We sit down and Impa pulls a little plastic box out of her bag with a piece of fruit cake inside. She tries handing it to me but my eyes are distracted by the ocean view in the distance.

"Admit it," she says, catching my attention again.

"What?"

"Admit that this is a cool spot."

"Yeah yeah, it's a cool spot," I roll my eyes.

Impa even brought me a lemonade. Sometimes I forget to appreciate her and it's something I really despise about myself.

"How has your semester been so far?" I ask before I jump into my drama with Link.

"Pretty good," she says with her mouth full.

"How are your grades?"

"I dunno," she shrugs and opens the can of coke she brought for herself.

"But you're doing alright in your classes, right?"

I hope I don't sound controlling. I just want to show her that I care.

"It's only the beginning of the semester," she laughs.

"We're almost a month in."

"My grades are good enough, don't worry, Princess."

I frown. I love when she calls me that but after what happened Tuesday I feel like that nickname has been tainted...

"What's wrong?" Impa puts the coke down.

"There's something... Something happened this week."

I hate that we're talking about me again. I want to talk about her and see how she's doing.

"But that can wait," I add. "When do you qualify yourself for the MMA tournament?"

"What's wrong?" She asks again, ignoring my question completely.

"Nothing," I bluntly lie.

"What's wrong," she presses.

"I don't want to complain all the time. I want to know how you're doing."

"What's wrong?"

"Impa."

"Zelda," she mocks me. "I can do this all day. It'll be quicker if you just tell me."

"Fine... Someone else called me princess. Someone I'm really not fond of."

"Who?"

"I don't know his name..."

"Another guy?"

"Yeah from Lorule Academy."

"Wait, a guy from another school? When was this?"

"Tuesday."

"Tuesday? When? We saw each other on Tuesday."

"It was in the evening... A lot happened on Tuesday."

"Tell me," she says worried.

"I came late to my course and started to freak out over my grade. Pik walked outside with me to--"

"Wait, who's Pik?" She interrupts.

"Romeo."

"Oh, carry on."

"He walked outside with me to calm me down. Link saw us and assumed that Pik was hurting me because I was crying. Pik got annoyed by Link being protective of me and I ended up running away from both of them. I was behind the baseball field when..."

I feel so embarrassed. It's not easy to admit that I was molested. But Impa is my best friend, I can tell her anything, I know that...

"Three baseball players came up to me. One of them wouldn't leave me alone even after I tried walking away." My voice is shaking.

"Zelda..." Impa puts her hand on my shoulder.

"He kissed my neck and I slapped him."

"You did? Atta girl!"

"Yes, he was so mad... I actually felt bad for slapping him, but then he wanted to hit me."

"What?" she gasps. "Let's go to their next game, you point him out for me and I'll beat his--"

She pauses when I shoot her a warning glare.

"His ass," she says anyway. "What happened next?"

"Link punched him."

"I thought you said you ran away from Link."

"I did. But he was heading the same direction so he must have seen what happened."

"Or he was following you like some creep."

"He's not a creep," I snap.

"Wow, it was just a joke, calm down." She has both hands in the air.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to say it so aggressively. It's just been a really exhausting week and Link has been really sweet to me so I get annoyed when people talk down on him." 

Says me of all people... I'm probably the one who has treated him the worst, and that includes Revali, Pik, and that baseball player.

"Hm... So Link punched the other kid and then what?"

"I pulled him off when he wouldn't stop beating the guy and then he drove me home. Father wasn't there so I offered Link to come inside." Impa's jaw drops but I ignore it. "I fixed him up and we had a really nice time actually. He made me laugh when I was really upset and just helped me to feel better. I... We sort of..." I sigh and shut my eyes as I rush the words. "We kissed!"

"You kissed?!" She practically shouts.

"Not so loud!" I cry. "No one can ever know that that happened! Everyone is talking about Link as it is and if this gets out it'll only take minutes before it'll reach Father's ears. He'll force me to drop biology and--"

"You kissed Link! You kissed Link and are worried about biology?"

"Well, yes. Education is my priority. It always has been."

"Yeah, but... you kissed Link..." She says through her teeth.

"Yeah I know, it was a mistake... But... If I'm honest, I... I don't know... It was really nice. And now he's giving me the cold shoulder. He won't even look at me. I tried talking to him, but he brushed me. And today in English I sat down next to him and he smiled and touched my hand. It's just confusing. Really confusing... I need your advice. I don't want Link to be cold to me, but I also can't get close to him. I don't know what to do."

"What the heck Zelda!" Impa slaps my arm.

"Ouch!" I flinch.

"You kissed Link? What kind of best friend are you!"

What? I can't tell if she's actually mad or if she's acting.

"When something so horrible happens you're supposed to call me, not take a man home! I should have been the one to make you laugh when you were upset! I should have been the one you... Ugh!"

"I know!" I cry, "Impa, I'm sorry." I grab her hands to calm her down. "I was really upset and didn't know what I was doing. Link was there when everything went down and... it just happened. I'm sorry. I've been wanting to talk to you for the past two days but I wanted to wait until I saw you in person."

"If you had called me I would have met you in person. I would have met you after school! I would have driven to your house at 3 in the goddamn morning if you needed me."

"He stayed the night," I mumble and she yanks her hands away.

"You slept with him?" she yells. Why is she yelling?

"No! No I didn't! Lower your voice," I beg.

The door flies open and campus security glares at us with a serious mien.

"I told you not to bring your friends up here!" He scolds Impa.

I jump up and pick up my bag, scared of the consequences for coming up here.

"We're so sorry!" I whine at the man as I enter the staircase. Impa follows and stops by the security guard.

"I could get fired for this! Give me my key back."

"Sorry, Dorian." She says and places the key in his hand.

I wait for Impa at the bottom of the stairs and when she walks past me she doesn't even look at me.

"Why did he give you his key in the first place?" I ask, trying to keep up with her fast pace.

"Don't talk to me."

I stop and watch her walk away just like Link did yesterday. Why am I upsetting everyone? What did I do this time? I said I was sorry, she's overreacting. Or perhaps I'm missing something here. I get that she's disappointed in me, but she shouldn't be... She should be on my side, not judge me and run off.

I want to run after her and fix this, but I can't be late for biology. I'll have to talk to her after class. Maybe this will give me some time to understand why she's angry at me. I mean, even if I had called her that night, Father wouldn't have allowed her to stay on a school night, so it would have been a waste of a drive.

I enter the biology classroom 10 minutes early. Mipha is already at our table working on the project. She smiles at me when I put my biology book down.

"Hey Mipha," I smile. When her eyes meet mine I feel my heart sinking.

"Zelda, how are you? How has your week been so far?"

"Good."

I kissed the guy you love, thinking he's your boyfriend, is all I can think about when looking at her sweet face.

"We had a swim meet yesterday and I set a new PR," she beams.

"That's awesome!" I have no idea what a PR is but she seems pretty happy about it.

"Yeah but that wasn't even the best part," she's so excited, it's lightening my mood too.

"What was the best part?"

"Link was there and surprised me by staying afterwards to talk to me!"

My stomach flips and my smile turns into the face I make when I look at something moldy. Link went to Mipha's meet while I sat at home trying not to overthink our kiss...

"I thought you said you're childhood friends. Why does it surprise you that he's supporting you?"

"It's silly, I know," she says with a soft smile. "It's just that we haven't been very close since we were little. We lived pretty far apart and rarely ever got to see each other. We were really close in the beginning, but then I didn't see him for a couple of years and things were... different. Link came to visit me but he no longer resembled the child I first met. He had become an accomplished athlete. I was, and still am so proud. However... He hardly spoke anymore and smiled even more rarely. He is still the kind soul I knew, but something changed. I asked him if something had happened, if something was wrong. He merely shook his head. Perhaps it was his newly acquired height, but I felt he was ever looking past me, into the distance beyond..."

Sounds familiar. I don't know what to say so I just blink and stand uncomfortably by her side.

"Sorry!" She giggles and hides her flushed cheeks in her hands. "I didn't mean to sound so depressing."

"No, it's fine," I assure her.

I suppose I'm just a little surprised that Link shared so much with me and participated in actual conversation when he won't even speak to his childhood friend.

"Change of subject," she says and I'm thankful. "My brother and I are going to the beach on Saturday to surf and he said I can bring a friend. I asked Link but he has a game that day. Two games in one week, I hope his injuries won't worsen. Anyway, what I was going to ask is if you'd like to come."

I wasn't sure if we are friends but out of all the students at the college she's the closest thing to a friend I have, other than Impa. She is one of the few students who take their degree seriously and we actually have a couple of things in common. But surfing is not one of them.

"I don't know how to surf."

"I could teach you."

Father would scold me for wasting my time with a sport. No, this is my life, not his. It's on a weekend and I'm caught up in all my classes. This is not his choice to make. If I want to try something new or have fun, I shall. 

"Sure, sounds fun. Scary, but fun," I nod and a bright smile unfolds on her face. I don't know if I even want to go surfing, but I want to prove to myself and to Father that I am capable of making my own decisions. This feels good.

Two girls in the back begin to giggle and I can guess why. I look at the door and sure enough Link is walking in. He still has his hood up and his headphones on. He doesn't look at me or Mipha, and she doesn't greet him either. Strange friendship if you ask me. 

Mipha and I work on some extra credit while Link is studying what looks like some soccer tactics. Mipha said he has two games this week and since I can rule out Monday through Wednesday, he has another game either today, tomorrow, or Sunday. I'm guessing it's today, since he's memorizing those skribbles in his notebook. That would explain why he's shutting out the world around him. I remember Urbosa saying that he doesn't talk to anyone on game days. Anyone except for me, I suppose.