Fifty-Two Cards

Chapter 2- The Two of Hearts

Ares walked into the café and found their table. She texted, "WHERE ARE YOU?" on their group chat, and Nyah texted back, "omw class extended for a bit- could be a while" and Jenn didn't see the message at all. The message hadn't even delivered to Ace.

After 10 more minutes had passed, Ares looked at her phone and sighed. No new messages had popped up. Tired of waiting around for the others, Ares decided to get her own coffee before she fell asleep on the small cafè.

Nyah blushed as her small 5"1 figure was easily hoisted up by the girl who was much taller than her, and she smiled shyly. The girl smirked back, and said, "You have got to stop collapsing on me like this."

Nyah blushed even further, and the girl laughed. "I'm Jax, short for Jacqueline, which no one really calls me, so yeah."

Nyah whispered, "I'm Nyah," before hurrying off with her stuff.

Ares was watching their encounter with barely-disguised excitement. She knew about Nyah's pansexuality, but she'd never actually seen Nyah being attracted to a girl before. It was a warm feeling inside her heart, to see her closest friend, and the toughest person she knew, to seem so soft and just as vulnerable as the rest of them.

As they sat down at their table, Nyah looked at Ares' sparkling eyes, and shook her head in despair. "Don't you get any ideas now, kid. She's just a flirt, and I'm just not interested."

"She's just a flirt, huh? Well, she's doing her job just fine, isn't she? She's got you wrapped around her finger so successfully, you don't even realize!"

Nyah gave Ares her trademark death stare, and Ares immediately sobered down. "Yeah, yeah, okay, I won't bring it up, but I have to know- how many times have you tripped into Jax's arms?"

Nyah smiled sheepishly. "Well, there was this one incident..."

"YOU DIDN'T EAT FOR TWO DAYS?!?!?!?!" Ares yelled at Nyah, who looked attacked.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I need to take better care of myself, blah blah, that's not the point of the story!"

"Um, no, it's a very important part of this story, seeing as Jax somehow keeps catching you when you faint, and that is not okay because you shouldn't be fainting, not because it's Jax and it's a girl and I'm not a homophobe, and-"

"Ugh, would you shush? I'm just not having the greatest of weeks, okay? And Jax is in like 80% of my classes, that's why she keeps seeing me. Don't worry about me, will you? I'm gonna be fine." Nyah cut off Ares, rolling her eyes.

"Hold up- Jax is in 80% of your classes? And you just never noticed this before? How do you not notice someone as obvious as that? It's clear she's into you!"

"Uh huh," Nyah said, skeptically, and continued, "Well, she was just an entity in my classes until she caught me like four times over the past week, and now- well, now it feels like you're investing more in Jax than even I am. Give it a rest, will you?"

Ares rolled her eyes, hugged Nyah urgently, and whispered, "You're the strongest person I know, and it freaks me out to see you like this, so take care of yourself, okay?"

Nyah, taken by surprise, slowly hugged Ares back, and said, "I will, okay? I'll take better care of myself, don't worry. It's just been a long week."

Ares squeezed Nyah, and let go. Nyah smiled, and leaned back in her chair, pressing at her forehead. "I swear to the great God I don't believe in, one of these days my headaches are gonna kill me."

Ares shook her head, took out a muffin from her backpack, and forced it into Nyah's hands. "Eat this, will you? I'm gonna get you your hot chocolate, and I'm gonna make sure you have every last drop of it."

Nyah rolled her eyes, but smiled at Ares' retreating back as she took a bite out of the delectable chocolate muffin that Ares had sacrificed for her.

Jenn rushed in, her backpack flying off her shoulders as she ran in, and rushed to her chair. She wasn't as tired as she was flustered, and Nyah looked at her wild eyes with worry. "Hey, Jenn, you okay? What happened?"

Jenn breathed, "I need coffee," and put her head down on the round table.

Ares walked back to the table with Nyah's hot chocolate and her own coffee, and looked at Jenn's collapsed head with disgust. "Am I the only one who even cares about their health anymore? I swear, if Ace rushes in and collapses like you two, I'm gonna-"

"Gonna what?" Ace questioned mockingly, shaking his head at Ares' attempt to be threatening enough to incite some sort of change in Nyah's and Jenn's lifestyle. "I take plenty of care of myself, but I'm sure you could contribute in many ways, am I right?" he said, and smirked.

Ares rolled her eyes. "Well, isn't someone in a good mood today? I'm gonna get you and Jenn your orders, so would you take care of these two zombies? It's a daily job, and it doesn't pay anything, but it'll save your friendship."

Ace smiled. "Sold! I'll stay here, and maybe work on a sketch or something. I've been so uninspired lately, I swear..."

Nyah looked up from her muffin at this, and said, "Tried music?"

Ace shook his head. "I was hoping I wouldn't go through another dry spell, but yeah, trying to sketch and accomplishing nothing isn't better than just listening to some music."

As Ace pulled out his headphones, Nyah said, "No more MCR for you, boy. Listening to the same stuff over and over again won't help you out in your dry spell. Try Panic! At the Disco, if you have to do emo quartet at all, but I would love to see you try some other kind of alternative, like Paramore or Halsey, or Billie Eilish, even."

Ace wondered, and said, "Dedicatedly female alternative. I like it. In fact-"

Nyah grinned. "Already inspired? That's amazing! See? Trying out some new stuff never hurts anyone."

Ares, having placed their orders, heard this last statement while walking back to their table, and said, "And yet, I've placed the same orders for all of you for the past seven months. Go figure!"

Nyah shook her head, laughing, and groaned as the shooting pains in her head got worse. "Ugh, I wish you hadn't made me laugh, kid. Come on!"

Ace chuckled at this, and said, "Go on, off to sleep. I know you've had a bad week, and, I mean, our table's already hosting one Sleeping Beauty, why not another?"

Nyah smiled softly, and lay her head down on the table, using her hands as a pillow. "Thanks, you guys," she whispered before falling asleep.

Ace rubbed her shoulders, and gestured to Ares to sit down. At her protests, he shook his head firmly and said, "You haven't had the greatest of days either, I know. I can pick up our orders for one day, now can't I? Sit. Relax. Don't worry!"

Ares collapsed into her chair gratefully, and Ace went to get their orders.