Luz’s mouth hung open as she looked around herself. “You know, I don’t know why I never looked to see if there were any pizza shops on the Isles.”

Boscha snickered a little before heading to one of the booths of the small pizzeria. “Well, Amity sure wasn’t going to help you with that. After all, this sort of thing was usually not worth her time back before you came by.”

Amity rolled her eyes as she put her book bag into the corner and let Boscha slide in next to her. “To be fair, most of the time I was serious about needing to study and the rest of the time usually was my mom not wanting me to have grease.”

Amity took in a deep breath of the air before sighing. “I miss it personally.” She then sat down and fidgeted a little at being alone on her side. She wanted to sit next to Amity… But then again, plenty of times of smacking Gus in the face with her flailing usually left her side of the lunch table barren. “Is your mom really that against food like this?”

Amity smiled for a second as she crossed her arms and raised her nose. “If not by my hand or a five star kitchen, it is not deserving of my kids. Besides, do you want acne? I think not.”

Boscha broke out into a quick bark of laughter before sighing. “That was spot on. How long have you been keeping that in your back pocket?”

The serious girl blushed a little as she settled in. “It’s kind of new. Really ever since Edric and Emira have gone rouge, I’ve been trying to keep in touch with them through stuff like that. Jokes I can actually do that they might like.”

Luz pouted as she rested her head on her arms. “I wish I could do it. I usually end up just going into something closer to Cockney before Emira’s on the floor laughing.”

Amity snickered before raising an eyebrow at her crush. “You say that like that doesn’t always make them ask you to keep trying for five minutes so they can pretend our parents can’t talk right.”

“Please tell me you have videos of that.” Boscha then summoned her scroll phone and patted the table. “Come on, human, get up here so we can all get in on this selfie.”

Luz gasped a little before scrambling to get into place. Boscha had slowly been letting Luz show up on her Penstagram but had so far had always framed it like they were taken during random, five minute chats. A selfie wasn’t going to allow for that. Though she was a little dubious about what the caption for it might be.

Boscha didn’t even tell her how to pose though. Just to get in close so they could all fit in the frame. She did slip an arm around Amity’s shoulder before pulling her in so they were as close as they could. It only made the camera shy girl turn slightly red though as she looked away. At least it would show her good side? Maybe? Amity still wasn’t sure which side was her best side and Boscha kept refusing to tell her.

But she did slip some of her hair back and smile slightly when Boscha told everyone to pose. Boscha gave the camera duck lips as she did her dual eyed blink while Luz held up double peace signs, though neither showed up because she was afraid of covering Boscha’s face with them. Her smile dominated a fifth of the photo though so she got plenty of attention. She also was about an inch from touching Boscha and very afraid of losing her balance.

Luckily? For her, Boscha shoved Luz back to her side the moment the picture was done to get her space. She then whispered, “Bets on how long before Amity chokes on too much cheese?” And then finally dismissing her phone as she looked at Amity. “Oh, stop looking at me like that. I’m actually worried since I like extra cheese on my pizza.”

Luz chuckled before trying to look extra serious for a moment. “Unfortunately, I must agree with Boscha in my concerns. But,” she said as she couldn’t keep a straight face, “you seem to usually consider how cheesy I am to be a gouda thing.”

Boscha blinked a few times before slowly grabbing the pepper and pulling back on her arm. It was only by the good grace of girlish giggling from Amity that the human was spared from paying for her pun this time. This time. “Please tell me this isn’t a normal thing.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Luz gave her a rather succinct answer as she said, “Is it briecause you love them like I do?”

One of Boscha’s eyes twitched before gesturing to the pane of glass beside the table. “If Amity didn’t like them, you’d be out of this window, and I would be laughing.”

Amity shook her head with a sigh but couldn’t stop herself from smiling nonetheless. “You know, maybe you can actually tell Luz what you like. You know, see if you have common interests?”

Boscha scowled for a second as she leaned back a little and let the idiot lead. Luz wasn’t about to drop her streak though. “Well, I know one that’s pretty ball-er.”

Next time Boscha saw Luz on her court, the idiot was going into the spike pit. This wasn’t a question anymore, but a fact. “And, well, photography, duh. Otherwise, she usually tries to stop me from enjoying my time with other students.”

“Last time you were doing that, I found you giving someone a swirly in a whirlpool you’d made with one of your potions!”

Boscha sighed before whispering, “Ah, good times.”

Luz smacked herself before frowning a little. “What about people? I mean, we both like Amity, right?”

Boscha’s eyes glanced away for a second before she shook her head. “No. I don’t really ‘like’ people after all. I don’t give a damn about your friends, Skara is dead to me at this point with how she’s been actively making sure no one tells me about their meetups, I tolerate you,” and then she paused to point at Amity with her thumb. The serious girl hadn’t been surprised by any of this so far so had focused on the fact that they were ostensibly here for food. As such, she had just taken a bite of one of the breadsticks the place had given them as ‘complimentary gifts for her presence’ when Boscha said, “And I love Amity.”

Amity breathed in to shriek but instead the bite of breadstick stopped her. She let out a small wheeze before putting her hands around her throat. She then looked to her side and made a quick circle to command her familiar to get off of her shoulder and help her out so the other two could keep talking, even though she was terrified of where this might go.

Meanwhile, Luz did a spit take before yelling, “What?”

Boscha blinked a few times before asking back, “What?”

Amity tried to say something but, you know, still choking. Luckily, her familiar did indeed have a plan! So, while she wheezed, it leapt straight into her mouth. Luz was still preoccupied with the whole confession thing as her face burned up. “You just confessed you like Amity!”

Boscha frowned for a second before realizing what the two of them probably thought she meant. “Whoa, wait, I didn’t mean it like that! It’s completely innocent.” She then glanced between the two as she suddenly felt incredibly uncomfortable and like she couldn’t breathe. “D-Don’t you love your friends?”

Luz flailed her hands up in a way that would have indeed cold cocked anyone who was next to her before slamming them down on the table. “Yes!” She then looked at Amity as her mind screamed at her to course correct. “B-But I wouldn’t say that so they didn’t get the wrong idea!”

Amity finally was able to breathe as she spat out her familiar, who then proceeded to stand proudly with the piece of breadstick in place of its head. She panted a few times as she tried to just process everything. The server chose then to come up and put down the shake Amity had asked for. Perfect. She could just suck on this, let the cold chill her out, and then tell Boscha she really liked her too.

Boscha though desperately needed to get rid of whatever this dumb feeling in her chest was. She probably looked pathetic, even though the other two girls’ heads were currently spinning too much to really care, and she couldn’t have that. So, she said as she placed a hand on Amity’s thigh that made the serious girl’s face turn bright as the sorts of peppers that were going to be on their pizza, before the bully said, “Well, if you were brave enough to say it, you’d be able to do something like this without it being weird.”

Because it totally wasn’t weird. Boscha only thought about it from time to time because of those weirdos who would greet each other by getting way too close to each other. But she had to show Amity all of this meant nothing.

Unfortunately, a peck on the cheek didn’t do that. In fact, Amity just stalled out as she sat there and stared into space. Boscha didn’t notice though as she crossed her arms. “See? Nothing weird about it at all.”

Luz’s brain kind of snapped at that. Boscha, in about five minutes, had not only said she loved Amity, but also kissed her and made her crush look like she was about to pass out any moment now. That last part was her job! So, she pointed at her lips and proclaimed, “Yeah, well you’re looking at the lips that were brave enough to take her first real kiss!”

Amity looked at her familiar and for a second wondered if it could put the piece of breadstick back where it found it. Death sounded better right now than whatever this was. She considered for a second about trying to say something, stop them, but then Boscha had to talk. Boscha had to talk and she wasn’t about to back down from her rival. “Oh yeah? Then I’ll just have to fix that.”

And now Amity’s lips were firmly glued to the straw to her shake before anyone could try something that stupid. That wonderf- Stupid! Only stupid! Luz thought she had the perfect counter as she said, “Y-You can’t just say you’re going to kiss her!”

Boscha then stood up while cracking her knuckles. “Oh, that’s not what I meant. I was thinking more about the whole ‘looking at your lips’ thing. Now, pucker up. It’ll make ripping them off easier.”

Luz turned pale at the thought before pulling out one her sigil cards. “Save me, ice wall!”

Boscha looked down at the spell as it glowed. Slowly, it curled in on itself before smoothing out and lifting slightly in the air. Luz blinked a few times as she barely had time to wonder why she bothered bringing her light spells out with her before she had to focus on dodging Boscha’s lunge for her.

Amity decided she was done. She couldn’t take her lips off the straw, her throat hurt from the breadstick, and she didn’t want to be there when the guards managed to finally pull the two apart. Besides, she thought as she waited outside the pizzeria, she had to figure out how she was going to explain to her dad why he was going to have to pay for property damage because of the three trying to get a pizza.