7.1 Friendship

The sound of ice cubes crackling in the heat broke the tension for a moment between Neti and Yomo, sitting at a table in their usual bar. He cleared his throat as he risked a glance at the woman who was staring at him with her hard eyes. She was clearly upset, and he had no idea why she was angry.

-So, why did you want to see me this morning?"

The student had been surprised to wake up to ten missed calls from the young woman and a message asking him to call her back as soon as possible. Which he had done. And that's how he found himself having a drink with her in the early afternoon just after his classes had finished.

Neti hadn't told him why she suddenly wanted to see him, and Yomo couldn't help but panic. No matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn't think of anything the three boys had done that would cause their friend's anger. So he waited patiently for her to answer so he could find out more while he sipped his mint lemonade while it was still fresh.

Neti watched him for a moment, then finally began to speak.

-What happened with Nils? Why isn't he answering my messages anymore?

Yomo looked at her for a moment. He had prepared for many things, but not this.

-Nils? Oh... he's a little tired so he's resting..." he began but stopped short when he met her friend's gaze.

Somehow he sensed that she didn't believe a word of his lies. It was strange because the three friends had never spoken to Neti about what had happened with Inja. True to the promise they had made to each other not to involve anyone but themselves in the story, Yomo continued to hide the truth from their friend.

-You know how he is, he can suddenly become moody and refuse to leave his house for a few days just to study..."

-Yomo," the young woman interrupted him in an authoritative voice.

She sighed and looked at him contritely as if she were being forced to do something she had wanted to avoid.

-Why don't you tell me the truth now?" she began to a stunned Yomo. "You think I don't know what happened last year? About Nils' involvement with the mafia? You think I don't know that you tried to stop the Matrone of the Gyriad?"

-Wait Net, who told you all that..."

-It doesn't matter who I know it from or how I know it! Yomo, do you know what it's like to feel left out? To realize that your friends don't trust you?"

-Net look, it's not that at all..."

-I don't care why you did it! Whether it was because you didn't trust me or because you wanted to protect me, the fact is that at no point did you take my emotions into consideration! At no point did you ask yourself how I felt about being treated this way!"

-Net..."

-No Yomo, now you will listen to me until the end," she said, her determined gaze planted in the man's green eyes, telling him to be quiet. "You can't even imagine what I've been through, putting all the pieces back together, between what the police were willing to tell me, the few slip-ups you couldn't prevent, Nils' condition throughout this whole thing, what I've seen of the Gyriad's actions, and the fact that you're getting close to Rau..."

-Wait, you spied on the Gyriad to get information? You're totally sick! And what does Rau have to do with it?"

-And what should I have done? Stand by and watch you go through hell to get out of the clutches of this crazy woman? And don't play innocent, I know very well why you're doing everything you can to get Rau in your pocket!"

-Are you completely oblivious? Do you realize that if they catch you, you'll disappear into thin air overnight? And again, what does my relationship with Rau have to do with all this?"

Yomo lost patience. He almost shouted his last sentence because he was so shocked by what the young woman had done.

-Do you realize that if you had told me about this in the first place I wouldn't have had to do all this?" Neti replied, just as upset as he was. "If you had included me in this from the start, I wouldn't have had to do all this and I wouldn't have put my life at risk so thoughtfully! But you left me no choice Yomo!"

The student held his head in his hands and fiddled with his hair for a few seconds, confused. He realized that she was right. From the start, they had decided to exclude her so that nothing would happen to her, and that was how they had kept everything to themselves without ever telling their friend. But it was true that they had never put themselves in her shoes. Neti may not have been as close to them as the three guys were to each other, but she was still a close friend who had shared their daily lives since the beginning of their studies. It was obvious now that he thought about it, that she would eventually notice something.

He remembered all the times Neti had turned up unexpectedly when they'd come back from a confrontation with the Gyriad or from a night spent working with the police. He had always found it strange that she managed to show up at times when they least wanted to see her, and they had continued to hide everything from her without question.

But now he understood. He understood that they had never been able to hide anything from her in the first place. Because it was the role of a friend to know when his friends were in trouble and to be there to support them. They had simply forgotten that Neti was their friend, too. And he could imagine the pain she must have felt, feeling so neglected.

-I'm sorry..." he said in a voice broken by emotion. "Net really I... you're right, we were idiots... we completely screwed up our way of doing things, and we shouldn't have left you out like that... we were all wrong from the start. I beg your pardon."

The young woman turned her head and swallowed hard. She tried to hide her emotion, but the tears came unstoppably to her eyes.