𝙰𝚜𝚑'𝚜 𝙿𝙾𝚅:

Something that I have struggled a lot with recently is never having enough time to hang out with Goh and my friends. But as soon as I heard that I was getting a break off for a few days, I immediately sprang to rekindle my bond with my best buddies.

I desperately wanted to start off by taking Goh on the most romantic date ever but I then realised how Dawn, my childhood friend, was going through a tough time.

Her childhood bully was back at her again and because me and Dawn are so close, I knew I had to do something to help.

When I woke up on one of those days I was off work, I found that the only other person awake on the couch was Dawn, which was perfect timing. I grabbed two Pepsis from the fridge and sat down beside her.

"Good morning, Dawn!" I greeted, handing her one of the drinks.

"Good morning, Ash," She responded as she took the can from my hand and set it down on her lap.

I'm glad that she wasn't pretending to be happy for the sake of it, but I was kind of concerned that she wasn't. She usually smiles every time anyone greets her, or at least puts in a little enthusiasm when replying to people, but not this time.

"Dawn, are you okay?" I asked.

"If I'm being completely honest, not really," Dawn sighed, "But I'm feeling a little better after yesterday, I guess..."

At least she's still able to see some positives in things.

"That's good!" I replied and offered her a reassuring smile.

She chuckled a little and muttered, "Yeah, I guess so..."

"Would you like to do anything today?" I asked.

"I'm not really sure..." The navy haired woman mumbled, "Why?"

"Well, I was thinking about maybe taking you somewhere as a treat to help take your mind off things," I explained.

"Oh, you don't have to do that!" Dawn protested, "Yesterday was more than enough of a treat, I don't want to be pampered or anything-"

"But Dawn," I interrupted, my voice serious.

"I still don't want to do anything though..." She sighed, "At least not right now..."

"Maybe later?" I suggested.

She wanted to refuse, but she couldn't bring herself to and gave up trying to argue.

"Sure, we can do something later," The navy haired woman nodded in agreement.

"Cool!" I grinned.

-----

After Goh and Chloe eventually woke up and went off to do things for the day, me and Dawn just decided to spend most of the day chilling on the couch. We watched movies, ate snacks, and other things too, but we made sure to keep whatever we did as relaxed as possible.

But while we were doing all of that, I was planning out what we would then do later. I still wanted that to be somewhat chill, but I also wanted there to be some added excitement to boost her happiness.

And that's when an idea that sounded good at the time came to my head...

But, it would have to be a suprise!

So, I waited until Dawn felt ready enough to go out, and we then left the apartment and walked our way down to town. And then we kept on walking and walking until we pulled up right in front of where I wanted to take her.

"A bar?" She questioned.

"Yeah!" I nodded.

"Are you sure about this?" The navy haired girl questioned, starting to look a little nervous.

"Absolutely! They've got a pride flag in the window, we're fine!" I reassured her.

"If you say so..." Dawn mumbled.

We walked inside and then sat at front bar. I then started ordering lots of drinks for us and I started as soon as we got them, but my best friend held back.

She started off by just drinking a bottle of water she had brought with her, but I did manage to get her to drink a little of her favourite cocktail.

Once Dawn did have that, she seemed to relax a little. She then had more of that cocktail, and she was able to get another one after that to.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"Better!" She smiled.

"That's what I like to hear!" I grinned.

As I had another pint of whiskey, I then noticed that Dawn seemed to be chatting with the person sat on the other side of her. My curiosity was piqued so I had a peek over from the back of her, only for my heart to drop.

Sitting on the opposite side of my best friend was Iris, my ex.

And, I've had many exes, Dawn even being one of them, but out of all of them, Iris scares me the most.

We were good friends before we started dating, and that's how most of our flirting ended up just sticking to being witty banter. We also used to come up with a lot of insults for each other to.

But, when I fell in love with a new girl that I actually felt a romantic connection with, she became very bitter, and she's been bitter ever since. That's why her immediate reaction was to glare at me when our eyes locked.

My best friend noticed her sudden change of attitude and became confused.

"What's wrong, Iris?" She asked.

"Oh nothing!" The purple haired woman replied dramatically, "Just that you've got a little kid sat next to you..."

That has always been her favourite nickname to call me for some reason.

Dawn turned to her opposite side to look at me before looking back at her.

"Oh right, that's what you always call him!" The navy haired woman realised and then laughed before turning back to me, "Look, Ash! Iris in here!"

"H-hi Iris!" I tried to greet her.

"Hello Ash..." She gritted through her teeth.

"You two bring off such different energy when you're around each other," Dawn pointed out before taking another sip of her margarita.

"How are doing?" I asked, trying to continue engaging in a conversation with her.

"So much better ever since I left you!" Iris answered, "I've even brought my new girlfriend with me!"

I leaned my head even further back to see a magenta haired woman that I recognised, but couldn't remember the name of in that exact moment, sitting next to her. When the purple haired woman tapped her on the shoulder, she then looked my way, but she only scowled at me.

"This is Georgia, and she's heard all about you!" Iris said, emphasising a lot on the 'all'.

"I can tell..." I chuckled nervously.

"Could we please get out of here?" Georgia asked her girlfriend, "I've never wanted to meet this little kid amd now that I have, I don't want to be anywhere near him!"

"Geeze..." I muttered under my breath.

"Now, now!" Dawn interrupted, "There's no need to turn this into an argument! Let's just have some more drinks! The next round is on me!"

And so that's what we did, and things did get better from there. We still had little arguments in between the drinks, but eventually everything started to add up in out systems and numb out any anger we felt, particularly for the two girlfriends.

We were actually able to start getting along with the help of the drinks too. We were able to go back to our witty banter and talk about the days when we used to be friends, and how it is possible to put our past behind us and start over again.

That was Iris' suggestion, so of course I was going to take it.

Once the night sky was as dark as it could possibly get and the texts from Goh and Chloe were becoming more and more concerned, we decided to head back home. We waved goodbye to Iris and Georgia before leaving to go back to our flat.

Once we were back, my boyfriend and her girlfriend were very angry at us, particularly me, but they had some sympathy too. We were both happy and safe, and that's what mattered the most...

-----

Hello!

I can't believe it's been a year since I've updated this...

I can't guarantee that I'm going to be able to keep this going, but I'm going to try my hardest to do so

But first, I'm going to have to do some editing on old chapters just to leave gaps in between paragraphs and fix the many spelling mistakes and plot hole errors that I noticed when having a glance at older chapters

If you still happen to be here, thank you for your patience and I will try my best to keep this going

Thank you for reading!