Chapter 4 Things Friend's Don't Do.

Aria had just stepped out of the campus library when she saw Iris standing by the stairs.

She stopped. Not dramatically. Not like in a movie. She Just... stopped.

For a second, she considered turning back inside. Sitting down. Pretending she had forgotten something. Anything to delay what this was about to be. But she didn't.

Running would only drag this out, and Aria was already tired of dragging things.

So she walked forward.

Slow. Measured. Like every step needed to be deliberate so she didn't lose control halfway through.

Iris didn't move when she saw her.

Didn't wave.

Didn't try to close the distance.

She just stood there, like she wasn't sure she had the right to come any closer.

That, somehow, made it worse.

Up close, Aria could see it clearly her eyes were swollen, red around the edges, her face drawn in a way that didn't suit her. Her hair was tied back, but not properly. Loose strands clung to her cheeks like she had been pushing them away and failing.

She looked like someone who had been crying for a long time. Aria noticed.

But she didn't care.

"Aria."

Her voice was soft. Careful.

Aria stopped a few feet away. Far enough to keep something intact. She didn't know what, exactly. Pride, maybe. Or whatever was left of it.

"What do you want?"

Iris flinched, and Aria registered it the way someone registers background noise acknowledged, but not engaged with.

"I need to talk to you."

"There's nothing to talk about. "There is."

Aria let out a small breath. Not quite a laugh, but close enough to carry disbelief.

"Is there?" she asked. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks pretty straightforward."

Iris's eyes filled again. "Please don't do this."

"Don't do what?"

"Shut me out." That almost made Aria smile. Almost. Instead, she tilted her head slightly, studying her like she was trying to understand something that no longer made sense.

"You should've thought about that," she said quietly, "before you kissed my boyfriend."

The words landed exactly the way she intended them to. Iris flinched.

"It wasn't supposed to happen," Iris said quickly, like she needed to get the sentence out before it collapsed under its own weight.

Aria's gaze sharpened. "That line again."

"It's not a line. It sounds rehearsed."

"That's not fair.

"No," Aria said. "Fair would've been hearing it from you before I had to see it myself."

That shut her up. For a moment, neither of them spoke. People passed behind them. Laughter somewhere in the distance. A door slamming. Life continuing like nothing had shifted.

But here, right here, everything had.

Iris inhaled slowly, like she was bracing herself. "It didn't start the way you think."

Aria crossed her arms. "Then tell me how it started."

There was a pause.

Too long.

That pause did something sharp and quiet inside Aria's chest. "It started a few weeks ago, Iris admitted.

A few weeks".

Aria repeated it in her head, not because she hadn't heard, but because she needed to understand it properly.

"How many weeks?" she asked.

"I don't know exactly."

Aria blinked once. "You don't know?"

"I mean... it wasn't physical before."

Before?

Aria let out a soft breath. "So there was a before.? That's not what I meant."

"It's exactly what you meant."

Iris swallowed. "We just talked."

Aria held her gaze. "About what?"

Iris hesitated.

That hesitation answered enough.

"About things he should've been talking to me about?" Aria pressed.

Aria nodded slowly. "Right."

She looked away for a second, then back at her. "That's worse, you know."

"I never meant to hurt you."

Aria let out a quiet, humorless laugh. "That sentence is doing a lot of work for people who already did the damage."

Iris stepped closer. Not enough to touch. Just enough to feel like pressure.

"It wasn't planned. We just kept spending time together and he was confused and I-"

She stopped.

Aria's eyes narrowed slightly. "You what?"

Iris looked at her, and this time she didn't look away. "I was there."

That landed differently.

Not softer.

Just... clearer.

Aria exhaled slowly. "So while I was trusting both of you, you were positioning yourself as the alternative?"

"That's not fair."

"It doesn't have to be fair," Aria said. "It just has to be true."

Iris's voice rose, sharp now. "You think this was easy for me?"

Aria stared at her.

"No," she said, her voice dropping, steady and controlled. "I think the difficult part belongs to me."

That quieted her again.

"I hate myself for this," Iris whispered.

Aria's expression didn't change. "That sounds like something you need to deal with on your own. Aria-" No."

The interruption was immediate.

"You don't get to do that," Aria continued, her voice colder now. "You don't get to show up here crying like I'm supposed to help you process what you did to me."

Iris went still.

"You don't get to hurt me," Aria said, each word measured, "and then make me responsible for how guilty you feel about it."

Aria took a breath. Slower this time.

"You were my best friend."

The words didn't rise. They didn't break.

They just... settled.

Iris's face crumpled. "I still am."

Aria looked at her for a long moment.

Long enough to remember things she didn't want to remember.

Then she shook her head. "No."

"Friends don't do this," she said. "They don't stand next to you, learn everything about you, and then use it to get close to the one person they know matters."

"I didn't take him," Iris said weakly.

Aria met her eyes. "Then why did he kiss you back?"

Iris said nothing.And that nothing said everything.

Aria stepped back.

This time, the distance wasn't accidental.

It was chosen.

"I need space."

"For how long?" Iris asked, panic slipping into her voice now.

Aria held her gaze, steady.

"I don't know."

"Long enough to remember who I am without you in my life."

And then she turned, leaving Iris exactly where she had been standing.