"Fiona, wait! Please! I can explain!" Farid rises, holding his hands up in supplication.

He ducks again as Fiona's other shoe almost nicks his ear. "Okay, that one was close!" Farid chuckles awkwardly, both shocked and amused by Fiona's response.

She stomps over, wagging an angry finger in his face. "Damn the Gods, Farid! Why didn't you call me?!"

Suddenly caught between the two, Sebastian's eyes go wide. Sensing the fireworks to come, he starts to back away, thinking up a plausible excuse for his hasty exit. "Oh my, look at the time!" Of course, he's not wearing a watch. "I'm gonna go because I've got this... Well, I've got this... I've got something really important to do. Alrighty, then! Byeee...!" He whirls around and waves over his shoulder as he calls out down the hall, "It's great to see you, Fi!"

And just like that, he's gone.

Facing Fiona alone, Farid takes a cautious step forward. "Okay now, Fi, why don't you just take a deep breath? Maybe it's time to call a truce, huh? You know, just talk this out." He shrugs helplessly.

Farid takes another step forward and gingerly reaches out to touch Fiona's arm, but she immediately pulls it from his grasp.

"Ugh!" she roars. "I don't believe this! I don't frickin' believe this!"

Fiona scoops up her tennis shoes, turns around, and begins marching off down the hallway. Farid follows.

"C'mon, can't we take a breather?" he implores. "Honestly, I can explain everything."

Fiona whips around.

"Explain what, Farid?!" She asks, sarcastically. "How it was okay for us to get together graduation night only for you to pretty much ignore me... for almost a week!"

"Okay, that was a shit move," Farid admits.

"You think?!" Fiona snaps and stares at him in wide-eyed condemnation.

Farid, at a loss, sits down on a wooden bench tucked inside an alcove in the hallway.

After a moment, Fiona joins him. Farid scrubs his hands over his face, then looks at her in earnest.

"Fi, you have to admit, we made a mistake that night." Farid attempts to explain. "It was a really stupid thing to do. I don't know what we were thinking."

Fiona blinks in disbelief, then looks away, hiding the sting of his unintended slight.

"I mean for Pete's sake, Fi, you're like a sister to me!" Farid asserts, oblivious to what he's implying.

Fiona pops off the bench, incredulous. "Seriously! After everything that's happened, how could you say that to me?!"

"Because it's true!" Farid retorts with his arms spread wide in defense. "We've known each other since we were, like, six years old. What do you expect? Okay, so maybe you're not like a sister, but you're definitely like a cousin which still makes that whole night really damn awkward."

Fiona stands before him, arms crossed in front of her. "I don't know if you remember this, because you were really, really drunk, but this thing between us..." she says, motioning wildly between them, "...this whatever you want to call it, this was not my idea."

"I know and I've apologized, like, 1000 times!" Farid insists.

"By text, you dumbass!" Fiona snaps back. "Do you realize how lame that is?!"

Farid slaps his hands over his face and concedes, "I know, I know." He groans, then leans back against the wall and sighs, defeated. "It was a stupid thing to do, and you deserved so much more," he says. "I don't know... I guess... I guess I knew, at the time, that we'd crossed a line and it was all my fault. Honestly, Fi, I just didn't have the guts to face you afterwards."

Not knowing what to do with his confession, Fiona finally sighs and joins him on the bench.

"Look, Farid," she says, "it's not like you made me do anything I didn't want to do, okay. It was a graduation party, and as you very well know, I wasn't entirely sober myself. It's just that, well..." Her voice softens. "We've been friends for so long, and we spend so much time together. I just thought... Well, I thought maybe you were finally ready for something more."

Farid lets out a long, low "Please, don't go there" moan.

But after a prolonged, uncomfortable moment passes, he says, "Fiona... you know how much I care for you, how much I love you. That's not in question here, okay? And there's no question that you're one of the most beautiful people, both inside and out, I know. But I just don't love you in that way." He huffs out a breath, then adds, "It's weird, but I could never put my finger on it before; but I think it's because you're my best friend, and I couldn't imagine hurting you more than I already have. If we got together, that could actually happen. And if it did, I'd be crushed. I think being friends, the very best of friends, is the dynamic that works best for us."

Impatience masks Fiona's disappointment. "Fine, fine!" she says as she struggles to slip her tennis shoes back on. "What's done is done. There's no point in rehashing the entire thing anyway. I, for one, just want to forget the whole night happened." Deciding a detente is probably in order, she looks over at Farid and gives him the tiniest hint of a smile. "Anyway, it looks like we'll be working together, so we might as well put this behind us, right?"

"Yes! Yes! Let's do that!" Farid agrees with great relief.

Fiona cocks her head. "So, wait," she says, "I thought you were heading off to Edinia after graduation. What happened?"

"Sebastian happened." Farid rolls his eyes. "I have to babysit him, at least for the next few months."

Fiona shakes her head and laughs. "One day, that boy is going to wake up and say to himself, 'You know, being a perpetual screw up is a pretty raw deal. I should really do something about that.'"

Farid laughs, then kisses his fingertips and thrusts them heavenward saying, "From your mouth to The Great Master's ears."

They laugh together.

"And what about you?" Farid asks. "How'd you get roped into all of this?"

Fiona sighs and says, "Oh, Father's second cousin, once-removed, is on the High Council. There was some kid from the Devereaux family who was supposed to be here, but there was a death in the family or something? I don't know. But when Father found out there was an opening, he couldn't pass up the opportunity for the family to climb the fabled social ladder. And since he has no sons..." She shrugs. "The Academy gets me. I'm sure Father thinks I'll screw it up somehow."

"Oh, c'mon!" Farid exclaims. "Given that you kicked my, and pretty much every guy's ass in our year, I think the Academy is lucky to have you."

"Oh, please!" Fiona tries to hide a tiny smile. "Don't even try to suck up to me, you bastard."

Then, suddenly, she stands and straightens her favorite lavender sweater, brushes off her jeans, and levels a sharp gaze at Farid.

"You, sir, are still in hot water," she informs him.

Farid's eyes widen. "Wait! What?!"

Fiona begins to take off down the hallway while Farid, frozen in place, yells after her. "You mean after all that, I'm still not forgiven?"

Fiona doesn't stop. "Nope! Not a chance!" she responds.

After a beat, she looks back over her shoulder and cracks a sly smile. "Your road to redemption will be long and difficult, my friend. Long and difficult!"

-------------------------------------

A/N - A few days ago, I posted on my wall that I was going to turn episodes into chapters. But even though this is the novelized version, I still like to think of them as episodes, especially (as you new readers will come to see), each episode has its own, specific story arc.

Is it weird to have "episodes" inside of a novel? Would that turn readers off, you think? 🤔