"I've known Hayley since I was three. We grew up together," Jay explained. "It all started when I got into kindergarten, all shy and afraid of anyone who came near me..."

"Your third week here, Jay! It's about time you tried to make some friends!" The teacher leaned over his shoulder, looking at the drawing he was working on. Jay always thought of sunshine when he saw her: her smile, blue eyes, and blonde curls lent her a much more friendly appearance than that of her colleague. The other teacher, Mary, who was a little on the heavier side, was way more strict, and never made any serious attempts at getting Jay to like her. She even tried to force him into playing with the others a couple times.

Jay didn't like that. He never wanted any more company than what his pencils could provide. He'd sit at a secluded table in the corner for hours in solitude, not even thinking about all the other children. He liked to draw. It's what he was good at.

"So what if I spend my free time alone?" He was always quiet, much quieter than his peers. He didn't run around screaming, bashing his head into every piece of drywall he could reach. He was calm, quiet, and very curious. He didn't speak much, even though his speech was already far ahead of what the other kids were doing at that age. The only thing that interested him – other than drawing – was the stories the teachers would tell.

"Well..." The teacher looked at him for a while, trying to come up with an answer. "Nothing as such, I suppose..." She tried to come up with some sort of follow-up, something to encourage Jay to join the others, but she had to go calm someone down. They probably banged their heads together. Jay was happy with how this interaction turned out, and with this distraction out of the way, he continued working on his latest piece, a fierce, menacing tiger.

Suddenly something small and blue rolled across the floor, sparkling with all the light from the windows, followed by a ball of messy red hair. The blue thing only came to a stop when it rolled under Jay's chair and bumped into his leg. He didn't even notice, not until he was almost swept away with his chair by the other child. His attacker didn't seem to care about his involvement though: she grabbed her prey, a little, blue glass bead, and triumphantly held it up in the sunlight.

"Watch where you're going, would you!?" Jay was holding back tears as he looked at the thick orange line now obscuring his tiger's face. "You've ruined it!"

"I'm - I'm sorry!" The little girl uttered, frightened by Jay's outburst of emotion. As she looked at the drawing though, she almost immediately forgot about it and asked: "Did you make this?" She asked as her eyes widened, staring at Jay from behind her red locks.

Jay didn't remember seeing her before. In all fairness, Jay didn't remember most of his classmates: if one had asked him to name some, he'd probably struggle to make it to more than a couple. He only remembered that one older kid who wanted to beat him up after accidentally dropping his food on Jay. Kids are cruel...

"Yes," he replied, "but now it's ruined! I have to start all over again!"

"Give it to me!", came the now enthused answer, leaving Jay very confused. She continued: "Give it to me! I like it even with the line." She reached for the drawing, but Jay was still hesitant: "Why would I give it to you? You're the one who ruined it!"

"I'll give you my glass bead for it!" She smiled, and then leaned in close, whispering in the boy's ear: "I found it in the garden, on my first day here. It's my most favourite thing!" She then got even quieter, her face as serious as a three year old's face can get. "I'll tell you a secret: it's not actually a bead. It's a marble. But I've always wanted a little glass bead."

Jay took a moment to think about the trade and then, upon finding it a good value, he gave the girl his drawing, getting the marble in return.

"There. Now we both have something to remind us of our friendship!"

Jay was not expecting such sudden developments. "Friend?", he asked, almost frightened of what this even meant.

"Friend!", the girl nodded, sending her whirling into Jay's face.

"From that day, from that moment, we belonged together." Jay was looking at something far in the distance, reminiscing about this one memory. "We went to school together, all the way until highschool. Nothing could break us apart. I always had her bead, she had my tiger on her wall. Of course," he smiled "things got way more complicated by senior year..."

"We really have to go ice skating already, all the rinks are going to close!" Hayley had just sat down next to Jay, with only a couple of minutes left until class. She looked her usual for a monday morning: her hair was messy, her shirt not quite tucked in properly. Above her uniform was one of Jay's sweaters. She must've taken it from his locker – she did this so often that Jay didn't even notice anymore.

"Seriously?" He didn't even bother to look up from his book. "You know how bad I am at skating..."

"Oh come on, it'll be fun! Besides..." She picked up Jay's sketchbook, flipping through pages upon pages of unfinished drawings. "...you're gonna stay bad at it if you keep refusing to come with me."

Before Jay could react, they were interrupted by someone smashing their fist into Jay and Hayley's desk, yelling at the two students. "Good to see you're still a bitch! I was worried you'd changed since yesterday." That's what got Jay to put his book down. He looked up, right into the figure's eyes: it was his cousin, Evelyn. She went to the same school, and was in the same class as them. Hayley looked up at her, seemingly unphased by her towering over the two of them.

"I'm sorry" she said, "are you talking to me?"

"Stop playing coy, dipshit" Evelyn was annoyed as ever. Jay had seen her like this a thousand times before. "I won't let you get away with your bullshit this time."

Even if Evelyn's attempts at intimidation succeeded, Hayley didn't show it. "And would you care to tell me what I did this time?"

"You're fucking with me right? This is ridiculous. I'm not gonna play along, we both know what I'm talking about!" She stared for a second or two, waiting for Hayley to say something. Seeing that wasn't happening, she let out a defeated sigh and began talking again.

"Fine. I'll humour you. You came up to us yesterday in the mall and started threatening us. You said you'd leak pictures of us online!"

Jay didn't know what to think. Sure, Hayley hated Evelyn – not quite so surprising given how much she bullied her ever since they started highschool – but she was too smart to do something like that. She was difficult sometimes, maybe a little ill-tempered, but she wouldn't do something like that. Jay looked at Hayley for answers, but she seemed just as confused.

"B-but I wasn't at the mall yesterday!"

"Oh really?" Evelyn took two steps backward, laughing a little, like she was on stage giving her grand performance. "Then it was all a dream! Or mass hysteria, since we all seem to remember, all four of us..." Her face grew dark again as she stared at Hayley. "You slapped me! And all I did was tell you to leave us alone!"

Hayley was growing more scared with every word. She was desperately trying to remember anything about what she was doing the day before.

"That's enough!" Jay grabbed his friend's now shaking hand, as gently as he could. "Hayley would never hit you, that's just absurd. And she said she wasn't even there yesterday!"

"Like you know where she was..." For all his years drawing, Jay never could have imagined brown as a cold hue, and yet the girl's deep brown eyes were as icy as can get. There it was again. Something unsettling about the way she was accusing Hayley. He'd seen Evelyn lie a thousand times before, and this didn't quite feel like that. "Maybe you don't know her so well." She looked at Hayley one last time as the bell rang. "Bitch" she said before finally leaving them alone.

Hayley was unusually quiet, her eyes almost glassy as she grew more and more frustrated with herself, trying to remember anything about what Evelyn might've seen.

"Would you like to go ice skating this afternoon?"

Hayley smiled a little, slowly nodding to Jay, but her eyes remained empty, fixated on some distant point beyond the classroom walls.

***

"I'm so going to fail maths..." Hayley had just left the classroom.

"No you're not!" Hayley had her report card behind her back, but Jay was both tall and close enough to see the big, red F on it.

"One more of these and I'm done. I need to get my shit together..."

"Come on, it'll be alright! I know you can do it." Jay tried to sound supportive, but he only needed one look at Hayley's attempt at solving an equation to know this was going to be difficult.

"Sure, Mr. Actual, Literal Genius When It Comes To Maths At Least, it'd be easy if you could just give me a bit of all that talent you're hoarding..."

"Maths isn't some impossible skill," Jay laughed. "You can learn it, just like you can learn anything with the right amount of effort. I'll explain the test this afternoon, mkay?"

"Like I don't have anything better to do on a friday afternoon..." Hayley looked outside. The weather was unapologetically nice, and people were flooding the streets to enjoy the sunlight.

"So" Jay said, "you don't need my help then?"

"Yes I do," Hayley sighed. "But we can't go to your place, your parents hate my guts!"

"No they don't! Well... Okay fine," Jay concluded, "We'll go to your place. Your parents just don't care about me."

"Or about me," Hayley said with a sudden shift in tone, but her face lit up a second later as the bell rang. "I'll be late from PE, I've gotta go! See you this afternoon!"

And that's how Jay found himself sitting on Hayley's bed, trying his best to explain equation systems to her. Hayley on the other hand was lying next to him on her back, not even trying to pay attention.

"...and once you have the value of X, you can substitute - Are you even paying attention?" He jabbed Hayley in the stomach with her pen, forcing her attention on him.

"Not cool, dude!" She screamed. "You can't just stab people with their own pen," she continued, laughing.

"What're you so preoccupied with?"

She took a moment before she answered, staring at the equation Jay had solved for her, not understanding any of it. "I was just thinking about how cruel you are!"

"I'm serious," she continued, "look at this! There's X and Y, always together, ever you first wrote down the equation. They grew together, changed together," she explained, running her finger along Jay's notes, pointing at all the stages of X and Y's shared life story. "But once you solve for X, only Y is left. She has an exact value now, we know how much she's worth, but don't you think it was so much better for her to have her value represented by X? Don't you think she's lonely now?"

Jay didn't know what to say. For all his interest in art, he was never the creative type. He wasn't really moved by the story, all he ever saw in maths was the clear answers, all he ever wanted was the truth.

"Truth drives a hard bargain," He joked, but for some reason the story about X and Y wouldn't let him rest.

***

"And what made you want to come with me to my art class?" They'd just finished, and Jay had just gotten the chance to question Hayley about it. "You hate art. You hate this class, I can't imagine you enjoying looking at a dusty old vase for ninety minutes..."

"And?" Hayley seemed almost flustered, tucking her hair behind her ears, only to take it back out a second later. "Maybe I just want to do something you like for once. Maybe I just want to be nice."

"That is... incredibly suspicious. If this is about bungee jumping, you can stop right now." Hayley laughed, tucking her hair back one last time.

"That's not at all what this is about!" She looked Jay deep in the eyes, in a way he couldn't recall her doing before. "It's just that" she continued "we're always do ing something I want to. I wanted to shake things up a bit."

"And what about the dress?" Jay still wasn't convinced by Hayley's performance. "Not that it's not really pretty or anything, I just... I don't remember you dressing like this before."

"Do you like it?" Her face lit up with excitement. "Maybe I should dress like this more often..." She put her finger on Jay's chest, making him redder than anything Hayley's hair had to offer.

"That's not cool man, you can't just...." But he couldn't continue, Hayley was laughing too hard. "I'm sorry," She said, "I should've known..."

"Do you know what day it is," She asked suddenly.

"It's... Thursday, the thirteenth of september."

"Exactly! And that means it's been exactly thirteen years since we first met. They say it's an unlucky number, but..." She looked at Jay again, who couldn't take his eyes off here since her stunt a second before. "Well. Things seem pretty lucky, don't you think?" She smiled.

"I didn't think you were so sentimental..." She wasn't. She could barely remember her own birthday. "We never... I don't know, celebrated it or anything! So why now?"

"You never made a move," she said as she grabbed his hand, "so watch and learn!"

And then she kissed him.

***

"Oh man! This is some stupid prank again, right?" Hayley was looking at the school group chat, where Evelyn had just announced her birthday party.

"I don't think so..."

"And 'Everyone's invited' means everyone except me, right?"

"I don't think so."

"Are you going?"

"Look, I know she's terrible, especially what she does to you... But she's my cousin, I have to be there if I don't want to be excommunicated from my own family. What about you?"

"I don't think so... She's saying more and more weird stuff about me. I don't even remember what the last one was, but now the entire dance team is against me. They'd take me off the team if they had a replacement... I might just quit, actually."

"But you love hip-hop! You can't just let her make you abandon what you're passionate about!"

"I wish it were that simple..." She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she was terrified of the things Evelyn had been saying about her. "There's my bus!" She gave Jay one last kiss before she got on. She waved, and Jay waved back with one hand, reaching into his pocket to tightly grip the glass bead with the other.

They waved until they couldn't see each other anymore.

***

"We should do something this afternoon!" Ever since Hayley told Jay that he wasn't active enough, he'd been trying to better himself. He still wasn't quite as creative, but she appreciated him trying.

But not this time. She shook her head, leaning over her notebook, furiously writing something down. Jay only needed one look at her to know she was journaling. If she had too many thoughts floating around, she wrote it all down.

"Why not? Is something wrong?"

She didn't react.

"Or have I been too... pushy since we got together?"

"No." Hayley was strangely distant, her voice calm and dry. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little stressed today. My mom's taking me to a psychologist. She said I've been acting strange."

Jay found that very strange. He knew Hayley's mother, she didn't care enought about her daughter to notice something so vague. Hayley left as soon as the bell rang, tearing the page out of her notebook and putting it in her pocket, only returning after the break.

"I'm sorry, I'm just a little nervous, I'm seeing a psychologist today!" She almost fell over as she was sitting down. She really did seem nervous.

"You mentioned..." Jay didn't understand why she repeated herself.

"No I didn't! Did I?" The page was missing from her pocket.

"And you wrote your thoughts down..."

"I'm sorry, I..." She flipped through her notebook, skipping over the missing page. Jay decided to ignore all this and comfort her.

"Nevermind! It doesn't matter." He reached over to hold her hand under the desk. He needed to know she was there, that she was real. He wasn't so sure.

***

"I can't believe this," Evelyn screamed. "A note? Threatening me?" Jay felt Hayley squeezing his hand. He got the feeling that Evelyn was trying to get his girlfriend into trouble, but something seemed off. If she wanted to make a splash, how come she didn't tell a teacher?

"And you were actually stupid enough to sign it???" Evelyn took a piece of paper out of her pocket and shoved it towards them. Hayley was too shaken to react, but Jay took it.

And there it was. The paper was crumpled up and torn around the edges, but Jay didn't care about that. He flipped the page around, and there it was: Hayley's handwriting, or something very similar. And yes, at the bottom of the page, in big, bold letters: HAYLEY.

Jay was relieved to see that. He knew Hayley's signature, and it definitely wasn't just her name spelled out like this. But before he could say anything, Evelyn grabbed her water bottle and splashed its contents on Hayley before storming off.

Jay was stunned. It took him a second to notice his girlfriend now crying on the floor. He sat down next to her and tried his best to comfort her, stroking her hair lightly. He didn't doubt Hayley, not for a second. Someone who writes letters like that wouldn't be on the floor crying right now. He knew Hayley. This wasn't her.

And yet for some reason, he couldn't take his eyes off the note. It was strewn right next to them on the cold stone tile, the ink already fading on one side.

***

"So you're definitely going?" Hayley was lying on her bed, swinging her legs behind her. Music played softly from the old CD player Jay had gotten him.

"I have to..." Jay's phone was on his desk, so he could work on tying his tie while he spoke with Hayley. It wasn't going well. He never could do it. He always asked Hayley to do it, and after a while they'd both gotten used to it. She was always around, after all. "And you're staying home right?"

"Absolutely." She rolled over, squinting into the lamp on her ceiling. "I'll just have a good night's rest."

"I'll try to leave early, maybe I can come over afterwards!"

"That'd be awesome!"

"But now I really have to leave," Jay apologised. "Love you!"

"Love you too!" Hayley said, looking at the bright, red dress hanging from her closet door.

***

"Hi Jay! You didn't end up coming –" she said as Jay opened the door for her. "What's wrong??" She asked, because he almost slammed it in her face.

"What's wrong?? Are you serious? How can you even show your face here anymore?"

"Jay, what are you talking about?" She was quiet, with a strange sadness in her voice.

"Oh please, cut the act already!" He said, rolling his eyes. Hayley had only now noticed the similarities between him and Evelyn. The same condescending tone, the same cold, brown eyes. Only this was the first time they were this cold when looking at her.

"But I really don't know what you're talking about," she cried. She was terrified to see Jay be mad at her.

"Really? Really?? You don't recall showing up to the party last night, after explicitly telling me you're not going to do that?" Hayley had never seen Jay this angry before. Not with her. Not at her. "You don't recall showing up, going up to Evelyn's boyfriend and kissing him on the lips? I was right there, Hayley! Is she seriously so important to you? That you would go so far as to cheat on me with his boyfriend, just to piss her off? And all while wearing the same dress you wore when we..." He had to take a moment to breathe. When he continued, his voice was quieter, but still shaking with anger. "Is this all I am to you? A way to get on Evelyn's nerves? Is picking up her cousin really such a funny way to annoy her?"

"Jay, I don't know what you're talking about! We're in love! I'm in love with you! I slept all night last night, I tried to stay awake and wait for you but I fell asleep and you didn't come so I didn't wake up until a few hours ago..." She ran out of breath. She looked at Jay, tears running down her cheeks, but he continued.

"Stop already!" Hayley tried to reach out, but he pulled his arm away. "Evelyn was right. She was right all along. Here, take your fucking marble!" He yelled, throwing the bead at Hayley.

She barely managed to catch it. Now she was standing there, not knowing what to say. This was more than a breakup. This was the erasure of everything that had happened in the previous thirteen years. Hayley cried harder, but something changed. She looked up at Jay with pure agony, as if she didn't even recognise her anymore. She turned around and left, running down the street with the bead in her hand, and tears clouding her eyes.

Jay looked with horror as the bead flew out of her hand, rolling across the stage.

An actor playing Jay was sitting right in front of the audience, wearing a tie that wasn't tied properly, his feet dangling off the edge.

He caught the bead when it reached him. The lights now turned to shine on his face, revealing this Jay to be older than the one the audience has gotten used to. He had a resigned look on his face. He was already over what they'd just seen.

"Life is a lot like this little marble, you know?" He said, looking directly into the audience. His voice had no discernable emotion, but his eyes had just a hint of sadness – but only the people sitting really close could see that. "So small, so unique, and so easy to lose... You let go of it once, and it's gone. All it takes is a stray car, and..." He threw the bead up, catching it on its way down.

He turned around to look at the actor playing his teenage self. This Jay, the one the audience had gotten to know, was still standing in the prop door frame, his eyes locked on a Hayley who was long gone.

Adult Jay walked over to him, sympathetically putting his hand on the boy's shoulder.

He didn't react.

He then took out a letter from his pocket and unfolded it before handing it to his younger self. Young Jay finally came to life again, grabbing the letter, his eyes widening more and more with every line he read. By the time he was finished, his face was streaked with tears.

The older one now turned to the audience. "That letter" he explained "is Hayley's diagnosis. It arrived only a few days after her death."

"She was a schizophrenic!" Young Jay cried. "And I didn't believe her!" He was crying too hard to continue. He buried his face in his hands, with his adult self embracing him.

At that moment another actor entered the stage. He was young and clueless, running to the two actors already on stage.

The two older Jays looked at each other, nodding softly before handing the bead to their younger self.

"Where did you find it?" His face lit up as he held the marble in his hand. "It's my most favourite thing!" He leaned in closer to the other two, whispering, as if telling a secret: "It's actually a marble, but that doesn't matter. Hayley gave it to me, on the day we became friends!"