Chapter Text
“We should stop being friends.”
January 7
Amity wakes up crying from a nightmare as she recounts what happened to her and her childhood friend Luz. She wants to forget everything that happened that day for the past 5 years, but she can’t. Amity wipes her tears away and groans as she looks at the time and sees that she’s wide awake at 5am in the morning. Amity wants to go back to bed because she has school later that day, but she is stopped in her thoughts as she hears a knocking on her door.
“Ed or Em go away!” They always come to annoy Amity ever since she transferred to the same private high school as them, and frankly Amity just wants to be left alone for today. The knocking returns, louder this time, so Amity groans and walks over to the door.
“I swear you guys are in for it this time-” Amity opens the door and sees…
“Luz?!?!” Amity looks completely stunned as Luz is the person she least expected to come, at this hour, even to the same school.
“Hey Amity…” Luz waves and flashes a nervous smile.
“It looks like I’m your new roommate.” That’s right. Amity completely forgot her new roommate was arriving today. She liked the peace and quiet while it lasted. Amity almost thinks that her nightmare manifested into a reality as she steps aside to let Luz in. Luz walks over to her bed but she pauses.
“Look, I know that we both don’t want to see each other but let's try to make this work, okay?” Amity stays silent as Luz turns around and continues walking to her room. Amity is in utter disbelief and she looks like she’s seen a ghost. She never would’ve thought that she would ever see Luz again after what happened. Amity walks over to her bed and lies down as Luz gets settled in. You can’t be serious, Amity thinks. That fateful day replays over and over in her head, but Amity just wants it to stop.
“I’m moving.” A young Amity says.
“What?” Luz replies.
“My parents got a job opportunity in Arcadia, so I’m switching schools, we won’t be able to hangout anymore.”
“Can’t you just drive to my house? We can plan something, we can even meet up halfwa-” Luz gets cut off as Amity already knows she’s going to ramble on.
“We can’t!” Amity starts getting tears in her eyes.
“Is this because I was acting weird around your parents? Come on Ames!”
“I don’t like you anymore, you're so weird and annoying!” Luz is completely taken aback by this statement and steps a few steps away from Amity.
“That came out of nowhere! Are your parents making you do this?”
“No, It’s all me, it’s how I feel no one's forcing me to do this.” There’s a long pause between them as Luz starts getting teary eyed.
“We should stop being friends.” Amity says, no longer teary eyed, but completely composed like nothing ever happened between them.
And just like that, classes are already about to start. Amity gets her bag and is about to walk out the door when suddenly Luz calls out to her.
“Hey, um…” Amity turns around with an angry face and gives Luz a death glare.
“What do you want?”
“Principal Wells said you would show me around the school so I know where classes are?” Luz’s voice is shaky, and her eyes are avoiding Amity’s as she doesn’t want to start a confrontation.
“Yeah, classes are that way, bye.” Amity points out the door and leaves the room to head to her class. Luz is left there looking confused as ever trying to follow her schedule to where her classes are. The bell rings, Amity is in class but Luz still isn’t. She panics but then finds another student in the hallway.
“Hey!” Luz calls out to a girl wearing circular glasses and has navy blue hair with twin pigtails.
“Oh, hi, I’ve never seen you around before, you must be new.” The girl says.
“Yeah I actually just moved into a dorm with Amity.”
“Your roommates with Amity?” The girl’s eyes widen as Luz nods.
“Amity is one of the meanest people in school! Hope you're doing okay.” Luz changes topics quickly as she doesn’t want to talk about her past with Amity.
“Hey, where's science class?”
“Oh, I’m actually headed there now, want me to take you there?”
“Really? That would be amazing!” Luz suddenly snaps wide awake at this sentence and gives her a smile.
“My name is Willow by the way.”
“Nice to meet you! I’m Luz.” The two of them walk together to class as the teacher calls them out for being late. Conveniently, Amity is also in the same class.
“Dude, you never told me Amity was in this class.” Luz whispers to Willow as they take their seat.
“I didn’t know you wanted to know.” Amity rolls her eyes when Luz walks in realizing that Luz is in the same class as her which is going to be a pain. Amity looks to her right and finds Boscha asleep while the teacher is talking. Amity wishes she could sleep, she’s still tired from the nightmare, Luz showing up, and burnout from studying in general. She wishes she could take a break from everything but she knows her parents wouldn’t let her do that. Just like that, the bell rings and it’s time to go to lunch. Boscha wakes up from her nap and notices Amity looking at Luz.
“Hellloooo, Earth to Amity?”
“Ohhh, you're looking at the new girl, it would be fun to bully her, we should try before we go to lunch.
“Mhm.” Amity doesn’t want to hurt Luz more than she already has but she needs to in order to establish that she runs things around here. Nobody messes with Amity. Willow and Luz walk to Willow’s locker as they need to get some things before they go to lunch.
“Hey Willow! Ready to go?” A boy who looks very short with dark curly hair appears.
“Hey Gus! Almost. I’d like you to meet someone, her name is Luz.”
“Hi Gus!”
“Hi Luz!” Just then, Amity and Boscha appear out of nowhere just to tease them.
“Hey look, if it isn’t 4 eyes and her little group over here.” says Boscha. Willow looks down in embarrassment as Luz gets to see her bullied.
“Hey! Don’t talk to her like that.” Luz steps in front of Willow as she notices Amity standing behind Boscha. Her eyes widen in shock as she realizes who she hangs around with.
“Or what? Luz? Did I catch your name? Such a fitting name for a Luzer.” Boscha laughs as Amity interferes.
“C’mon Boscha lets go.”
“Aw come on Amity, the fun was just starting.”
“They aren’t worth our time anyway.” Amity and Boscha walk away as Luz stares daggers into the back of Amity’s head.
“Willow, you okay?” Gus asks as Luz is still distracted.
“Believe it or not, that was the first time Amity backed out of bullying us.”
Luz looks at Willow in disbelief, at the fact that Amity would bully people, and that she only stopped because Luz was there.
“Yeah, Willow’s right.” Gus says.
The three of them take their seats in the cafeteria as Willow and Gus explain Amity’s group.
“So basically, Amity is the head of the group while Boscha and Skara are her minions.” Gus says.
“It’s mostly Boscha starting the bullying though and Amity continuing, but that's the first time Amity didn’t do anything to us, and conveniently you were here. Do you guys know each other or something?” Willow adds as she tries to read Luz’s face.
“...You can say that.” Luz stops talking as she notices Boscha pointing at them and talking to Skara.
“Hey, what will it take for them to stop bullying us?”
“You could fight Amity.” Gus says.
“Ow!” Willow kicks him under the table.
“Why would Luz want to fight Amity?”
“Well, she is really athletic and strong, basically a jock. Plus, she IS a Blight, she can’t back down from a challenge.”
“Pffttt, no way.” The Amity Luz knows is funny, kind, caring, yeah no scratch that. A moment passes before Luz makes up her mind.
“If that's what it takes then I’ll do it.” Luz gets up from her seat as Gus and Willow follow her towards Amity’s table.
“Oh my gosh, they have the guts to come towards us.” Boscha laughs as Amity looks up from her phone wondering what this is going to be about.
“Amity.” Amity could even tell the seriousness in Luz’s voice, but she could’ve never predicted what she was about to say next.
“I challenge you to a duel.”
“You. WHAT?” Amity, Skara, and Boscha exchange glances as everybody knows you do NOT challenge Amity to a fight.
“You can’t be serious.” Amity says.
“Oh, I am, if I win you promise to leave us alone.” Luz says hesitantly. Boscha gets up from the table to confront Luz.
“And if you lose?”
“I promise to be the only person you’ll have to bully. You can do anything. Just leave Willow and Gus out of it.”
“Oh that's a deal right Amity?” Amity has a reputation to uphold, it’s not like she can turn down the fight. She IS a Blight after all.
“When?”
“Right now.” Luz gives a smirk like she’s been preparing for this all her life.
“Right now? Are you trying to get us expelled?” Amity gets up and shoves Boscha out the way to confront Luz and to make sure she’s hearing everything right. Luz pushes Amity and doesn’t say a word.
“Okay, fine.” Amity says. Skara leaves and scrambles to get a teacher before things get out of hand. But she can’t move fast enough as Amity already tackled Luz to the floor. A circle forms around them, students are chanting for them to fight. Luz swings at Amity, but it just barely misses.
“Seriously! What are you doing?” Amity is trying to make Luz stay still as she squirms and tries swinging again, but this time it lands. The girls continue to fight as a teacher finally comes and breaks it up.
“Okay, both of you to the principal’s office!”
Amity and Luz are both sitting in the Principal’s office as they await their punishment. The clock is ticking loud and Luz is getting antsy and has a black eye. Amity only has a bruise from the one punch Luz was able to land.
“I can’t give you both detention because of Ms. Blight’s reputation.” Luz looks at Amity and rolls her eyes as that basically means she bribed him.
“Look, you girls have bright futures ahead of you, getting accepted into this school is a big deal. So, I’m going to leave you two here until you can figure out your problems.”
“I’m not staying in a room with her.” Luz says as she side eyes Amity. Amity has a hurt look on her face as if she didn’t hurt Luz first.
“Yes you are. Oh and Amity put ice on Luz’s eye” The principal tosses Amity ice, which she catches and leaves before Luz can say more and locks the room. Luz stands up and walks to the couch behind them. Shortly after, Amity hesitates, but gets up and follows Luz to the couch.
“Let’s just get this over with already.” Luz is avoiding eye contact with Amity as she gets closer, just enough distance to talk.
“I don’t understand why you challenged me to a fight, you didn’t have to do that.”
“I did what I had to, I-”
When Amity gets close enough to reach her eye she touches Luz’s shoulder, very lightly, barely a brush, and presses the ice to Luz’s face, and her voice hitches. Luz pauses for a moment and tries to compose herself, or more like tries to stop all the feelings and memories from rushing back into her mind. Luz doesn’t want to remember. Not now. Luz shrugs Amity off.
“Right…sorry.” Amity puts her hand in her lap instead.
“Amity…” Luz’s breath is shaky. Amity notices this and it must mean she’s about to discuss something she’s uncomfortable with. She still remembers every action Luz makes.
“Why’d you do it?” Luz’s thoughts take over as she can’t hold it in anymore. Amity stops applying the ice as Luz takes it out of her hand and does it herself. Amity’s eyes flicker.
“What do you mean?”
“You know exactly, what I mean”
They look into each other’s eyes. This is the first time Luz is actually looking at Amity since she got here. It’s like they both are going through the same memory at the same time. They both stay quiet for a moment then Luz looks away.
“I mean when you moved you didn’t have to stop being friends with me anymore, but you did. Everytime we hanged out it seemed like you were so happy. What you said just came out of nowhere. It didn’t make any…” Luz stops in her tracks as she doesn’t want to explain any further.
“I told you…I didn’t like you anymore.” Amity’s voice gets soft and lowers as she turns her body towards the desk and not to Luz anymore.
“That's not true!” Luz snaps and says it louder than she meant to.
“Just tell me the truth! Every time you say that I know you're lying! We used to be so close and now…what I never mattered to you? Was I just some pawn in your game?” Luz looks at Amity intensely as Amity forms tears in her eyes. All the painful memories flooding back to her, hitting her instantly at once.
“No…Luz.”
“Then tell me!” Luz is basically begging Amity for her to tell her that it was something else.
“My parents…” Amity starts crying as she hugs herself, trying to comfort herself, trying to convince herself that if she told the truth everything could be fixed. That if her parents didn’t find out this happened everything would be okay.
“My parents said that if I didn’t stop being friends with you…they would ruin your family.” Amity covers her face with her hands and she seems like she can’t stop crying. Luz stares at her in shock. She’s torn between anger and sympathy as she remembers her mom can be a bitch. She wants to hold her, comfort her, do something, but she’s not ready to do that just yet. Luz’s voice gets low, and it softens so it doesn’t sound like she’s trying to hurt Amity more.
“You could’ve just said that.”
“I know! I was dumb but I was scared…I didn’t want my parents to find out, I didn’t want your life to be ruined because of me!” Luz and Amity both stay like that until Principal Wells comes back in. The door opens. Amity tries to wipe her face quickly, afraid, or not wanting to show her emotions.
“Well, it seems like you two made up. Go back to your dorms.”
Amity leaves in a rush while Luz is in a daze.
“Luz?” Principal Wells asks.
“Yeah, I’m going.” Luz gets up and just stares at the floor. She then walks out the room and follows Amity down the hall. When they reach their dorm, Amity is standing behind Luz, still trying to wipe away the tears. Luz unlocks the door and puts her backpack down on her side of the room. She then walks to her desk and turns the light on. She just contemplates what just happened. Meanwhile, Amity closes the door quietly, like she’s afraid of breaking the silence between them. Then she puts her backpack down next to her bed and sits down putting her hands in her lap and stares at them, not turning the overhead light on, just thinking that Luz’s light would be enough.
“Are you…okay?” Amity says, almost a whisper.
“I…don’t really know.” They both pause for a moment.
“You should’ve told me.” Luz says. Amity takes a breath.
“I know.”
“We could’ve dealt with it together”
“I know.”
“I don’t forgive you.” Amity’s breath hitches.
“...I know.” Luz then turns towards Amity and says,
“But I get why you did it.” Amity looks up at Luz with a confused look.
“I’m not saying that it was okay but I understand that you just wanted to protect me.” They both sit in silence for a bit longer until Luz looks away and turns off the light on her desk.
“I’m going to bed.”
“Okay.”
Luz climbs onto her bed while Amity lies in hers. They both stare at the ceiling long enough for Amity to think Luz is asleep. Then she hears Luz’s tired, but honest voice.
“I don’t hate you, you know?” Amity pauses for a second before responding. She turns towards Luz’s silhouette in the dark.
“I don’t hate you either.”
They don’t say anything else for the rest of the night.