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You wave your hands in the air, "Don't make a big show of it. You'll look lame that way trying to impress everyone. Just tell this girl she's cool and ask if she'd like to share a toke."

Eiko's brows furrow, "That seems too simple."

You shrug, "Sometimes simple is the way to go."

She thinks over your advice with a skeptical expression, nodding, "I still want the blunts."

You chuckle, "Yeah, I figured. Will you be home waiting or should I see you at a secondary location?"

Eiko and you iron out the details of the drop off. She doesn't want her friends to meet you, some offense taken. Not that you want to be caught hanging out with a bunch of just-hit-their-20s anyway.

You move to sit down, "Sooo, what exactly do you like about this girl? Have you even spoken to her?"



Eiko opens the fridge, a mass of bubbles exiting. "I just think she's hot. She's in my engineering class and I heard her mention that she could bench 300."

"How shallow."

"You call me shallow. What did you even see in your partner?"

The memory is hazy, it must be the noodles. "Well, I saw her eyes first. We ### #### #### ##### ## ### ######. I fell for her at first sight. Literally. ####### ## ## #### and hit # #### ####."

Eiko snorts, the bubbles now collecting together around you, tone sarcastic, "Wow, you're such a romantic. Didn't you go to the hospital after?"

You playfully mime. "She actually drove me there after cradling me in her arms. I think she even cried a little." Her tearstained face is one of her clearest expressions in your mind.

Eiko mimes a gag. You laugh shamelessly.

A part of your face feels fuzzy. You ignore it. There's something you need to do. "Anyway, I gotta head to work. I'll see you later."

You feel a hand on your arm. The touch is vague, almost ghostly. So fragile that if you breathed hard enough, it could shatter.

Eiko speaks in what should be a whisper, yet it comes out from everywhere, a stereo filter of a memory, her face seeming more like someone else's that you can't quite remember, "It should've been you that got to finish school. You wouldn't have to do all this. Maybe all of this wouldn't have happened at all."

You pause, the words scratching at you, at an itch that you're used to ignoring. You have to ignore it, no matter how much it prickles, no matter how much the what-ifs, the should-haves, the what-could-have-beens stretch, seduce, beg and pile and scratch. You cannot look.



Besides, now's not the time for being sad. Not on your watch. You reach a hand out to pat her head comfortingly, the texture soft like a dog's fur, face normal again, "Don't be like that. I was failing my classes anyway. Just finish school for the both of us."

She stares, a certain droop to her ears. You don't regret it. And you can't help what's been done. You can only hope that she's better than you. Better off than you. You want a future for her that's carefree, where she can get the support that you didn't receive, and hopefully make something of herself that's not reliant on stealing from others. Where she'll achieve a high enough status to live comfortably. And won't feel the need to bend to the authority of a people that don't even live here. That's what it means to live well.

Knock, knock, knock

You glance at the door. Eiko doesn't seem to notice.

What was that?

>...