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Sasha, Anne, and Marcy decided to sleep at Anne's house that night. Marcy's parents were no longer living in the state, and Sasha's parents would let her do whatever she wanted. No one was ready to say good bye yet.
The first thing Marcy had to do was call her parents. She didn't even know where her house was, nor where she was meant to be. Marcy's parents nagged her for a bit, then they all started crying together. They told her they would be there to pick her up Tomorrow morning, and then they would have to go out of state and into Marcy's new home. They told each other that they loved each other, cried a bit more, and then Marcy hung up. She was leaving Los Angeles tomorrow morning. Then she cried some more. She had accepted that she would have to say goodbye to Anne and Sasha during her time alone in the core, but it still hurt. She wasn't ready yet.
The Boonchuys were more than willing to have Sasha and Marcy over for the night. They both stayed in Anne's room the whole time, not even leaving for dinner. Marcy and Sasha borrowed Anne's pajamas that night.
They only had a few more hours to be together, in person. They spent those hours talking and writing. They wrote down the names of every Amphibian that they had known and loved. They put details of their adventures and shared stories that they had not had the chance to yet. They cried more, and they made bracelets for each other with beads and yarn in colors of pink, green, and blue. They said that they wouldn't forget each other or the memories that they shared. Once they had covered most of the baggage that they were willing to share with each other in that moment, they got into a more lighthearted, sleepover mood.
"Okay, this might be our last sleepover together for a looong time. What do we do?" Sasha asked.
"Uhm... we could watch a movie? I don't know, I think I want to just chill tonight," Anne suggested
"Ooooh!! Can we watch War of Warlocks? I know that you guys aren't really into it, and I totally get that, but it's been a while since I've seen it, being stuck in Amphibia in all, but you shouldn-" Marcy started to ramble.
"Oh yeah, hey I've wanted to see the end of it. If you're that interested in it I wanna finally watch the whole thing. If you like it, it's gotta be good, right?" Anne grinned back at Marcy.
"I really wish we had seen the end before we got to Amphibia. Just seeing the beginning of it helped us out a bit," Sasha looked back at Anne.
Marcy honestly couldn't help but feel guilty again. She knew they didn't mean it. They didn't care about War of Warlocks at all, but it was her favorite movie, and she would take the chance to watch it. She pulled up a streaming service and typed in its name.
"You know, you guys really don't have to watch it, if you don't want to, don't feel forced or anything, it's just a movie-"
"Mar-mar, it's alright. We do want to see it. You aren't forcing anyone," Anne had a look of worry in her eyes but tried to put a reassuring smile on her face. She took Marcy's hand in her own and looked her in the eyes. She wanted her to know that it was okay to want to share your interests with your friends. She was dying inside at how much just this had affected Marcy before. She had grown in Amphibia, and she had grown to love Marcy's weird, nerdy interests as well. She loved Marcy, and she loved every bit of her, including the long, wordy movies that Marcy loved to watch.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Hey, Sasha, you too right?"
"Of course. Come on Marcy, let us watch the movie. Pleaseeeee," Sasha did her stupid puppy eyes and knelt on the floor. Sasha hadn't gotten to speak with Marcy in way, way too long, and fighting with her while she was part of The Core had affected Sasha more than she would have liked to admit. She wanted her last memories with Marcy to be doing something that she enjoyed, and if watching this long nerdy movie was what she wanted, Sasha was more than content with it.
Marcy giggled. It was alright. "Okay guys, just for you though." She rolled her eyes at them, then felt her eyes water up. They did care for her.
"Okay okay I need to get us snacks then, just give me a second. I'll get popcorn too!" Anne jumped off her bed and ran down the hall, slipping and almost breaking a leg in her socks.
They watched the movie together, giggling together at the cheesy humor and all of the lines that Marcy could dramatically quote word for word. They flicked popcorn at each other and made a mess that Anne pretended she wouldn't have to clean the next morning. They were exhausted half way through but they all stayed awake together. By the time the movie had ended, they were giggling in their sleep-deprived delirium and making jokes that made no sense.
"Hey... guys?" Sasha muttered into her pillow, her voice dripping with sleep.
"Yeah?"
"So like.... waddo we do when Marce's actually gone?"
They stayed quiet for a bit. They all thought maybe the other two had gone to sleep.
"Cuz i was thinkin... what if we like... had a day of the week where we facetimed for a bit and had like. a long distance sleepover?" Sasha spoke out, after the silence had gone on for a little too long.
"Mmmmmm... I think I'd like that," Marcy almost whispered. "Maybe we could have a game night and call on discord."
Anne giggled. "Heehee. we could... we could-" she yawned loudly. "-we could do a movie night one day. ooooo we could eat really spicy food on call and make fun of each other for not being able to handle the spice." she giggled again.
"Can we write overly formal letters to each other and send them in the mail with in detail descriptions of how school's doing?" Marcy nestled her head in between Anne's head and shoulder, lying perpendicular to her.
"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh but we're already gonna have'ta do that for English classes." Sasha flopped over to face Anne and Marcy and pulled her blanket closer around her. Anne reached over and held her hand.
"Come on Sash. You can do anything you put your mind to," Anne started giggling again. Everyone else followed suit. They laughed until their throats hurt and they were out of breath. It wasn't even that funny, but their brains were drunk on sleep deprivation and they were happy together.
They cuddled together on a pile of blankets and pillows on the floor. They muttered stupid little lovely things to each other and held each other tight.
Their bodies were exhausted, but it was 6am and the sun had risen. They all forced each other awake and went to get breakfast. They stayed in a quiet, comfortable motion. They sat on the couch together, eating cereal and leaning on each other's shoulders. Anne cried quietly to herself. The last time she was on this couch she was with the Plantars. Sasha and Marcy hugged her. They knew what was wrong. They could just tell.
Finally, 8 o'clock sprung. Marcy gathered her things and hugged and thanked Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy for letting her stay with them that night. Sasha, Anne, and Marcy all got into the car and held hands until they arrived at the airport. They stayed silent, almost in mourning.
They piled out of the car and went through customs together. Marcy gave her singular bag (borrowed from Anne as well) to be checked. It was filled with nothing but memories from Amphibia. She had nothing but memories.
Marcy's footsteps got slower and slower as her flight got closer and closer. The airport was huge and wide and open. It was a bit overwhelming having to walk this much while she was completely lacking sleep. Regardless, she found her landing port and stopped. She turned back to the friends she had known since she was four years old, friends who she would never be able to replace. They shared experiences with each other that no human in the galaxy would ever be able to relate to. They had grown together and she had no idea how she would make it without them with her. Their fates were intertwined with a prophesy and they were being torn apart by space. She ran back towards them and hugged them tighter than she had ever before.
She let the tears fall. "What am I going to do without you by my side?"
They stayed there for a minute, still silent.
Marcy sniffed. "Promise me that you won't forget me. Promise that you'll stay in contact. Promise me that we'll stay friends, even if we can't be as close. Please."
Anne hugged her tighter. "I promise."
Sasha put her hand on Marcy's hair. "I promise, I promise Mars."
"Remember what we said last night? About game nights and movie nights and karaoke? We'll do that, right?" Marcy was shaking.
"Yes. We'll do all of that. I promise. And I'll call you everyday after school. And Sasha will write you long, complicated letters full of detail."
Sasha giggled, and then started crying harder. "N-no I won't."
"Yes you will."
"Okay, yeah, I will."
They laughed again and wiped their tears.
"And you'll visit us, right? Every summer?" Anne's voice cracked with every syllable.
"I'll visit you every chance I get."
A robotic, feminine voice echoed from the intercoms, startling all three of them. "Flight 13B is now boarding. Please make your way to the boarding station."
Marcy wiped more tears from her face. "Okay guys. This is... This is it." She hugged them again, this time gently and with meaning. "Thank you for everything. Thank you."
"We'll always be here for you, Marcy. Remember that." Anne whispered into Marcy's hair.
"Yeah. Don't you dare forget about us." Sasha squeezed her shoulder and after a moment's hesitation, pressed one kiss onto Marcy's cheek.
Marcy gasped and touched her face. Sasha's was already getting red. "Yeah. Yeah, I won't." she pulled them in closer for one last time. "I love you guys. Really, really thank you. I'll see you again soon, and I'll text you when I land." Then she broke away. She blew her nose into a tissue, grabbed her bag, and ran to catch her flight.
And on that airplane, just before takeoff, Marcy felt happy. She knew things would end out alright, because even though she wouldn't be in the same state as her two closest friends, she would text and call them everyday. They wouldn't grow apart. She was ready.
Marcy gave her friendship bracelet a small kiss and fell asleep.