Their Bond

The sound of the slap rang in Daria's ears. "Don't you ever try anything like that ever again, or I will really hurt you," she screamed as she got out of the car. She slammed the door closed so hard it's rusty hinges finally gave out and it fell off.

As she walked up the path to the house she noticed the Fashion Club standing there in front of the door with shocked looks on their blush covered faces, "Why don't you all get out of my way." They obligingly moved.

A little while later Daria lay on her bed thinking. Should I tell Jane? With all the stuff happening lately, she might take it wrong, but then again she deserves to know what a bastard he really is too. She fell asleep mulling these thoughts over again and again.

Daria sat straight up in her bed at three with a half-remembered dream filling her mind. The details were fuzzy, but she knew it had something to do with her and Jane, and the now inevitable crash that was coming, but also a reforging of those broken bonds. The only part she clearly remembered involved Jane running from her through a knot of students in the halls of Lawndale High.

She got out of be and, gathering her clothes for the coming day, went to take a shower. The hot water streaming over her body helped, she was better able to think clearly and resolved to do what she had to.

Helen Morgendorffer was surprised when she walked into the kitchen to see her daughter sitting at the table, fully dressed for the day, eating Sugar-Tarts. "Is anything the matter, sweety?" She asked, noticing the semi-despondent look on her daughter's face.

"Have you ever had something you knew you had to do, no matter how much you didn't want to do it?"

Helen sighed, "Every day of my life, honey. Why? Did something happen? Is that why you look so down?"

The whole story came pouring out then: the parade, the fire, Jane's hair, then the incident last night with Tom. Daria was surprised to realize it actually felt good to be talking about these things she had been slowly locking away for the past few months.

"Oh my," Helen sighed, "and now you feel you have to tell Jane, no matter what it does to your friendship, and no matter how much that might hurt, because it's the right thing to do."

"Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"Well, Daria, I'm sure that whatever you do, it will all work out in the end."

"I hope so too."

Daria stood in front of the Lanes' front door, it was only six in the morning and she would be waking Jane up, but it was better that she do this here, in private, where Jane could just kick her out, than at school where if the whole thing blew up it would be all over school before the day was out. She rang the bell.

Several minutes and many ringings of the bell later, Jane answered the door. "Daria?" She yawned, "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Probably about ten to fifteen minutes past six, at this point. We have to talk Lane."

"Couldn't this wait until..." she paused noticing the look on Daria's face.

"No, Jane, it couldn't," Daria whispered. "Can I come in?"

Jane ushered Daria in and closed the door behind her. "So what's up? Why all this sudden urgency?"

"Tom kissed me."

"WHAT?!"

"Tom kissed me. Your boyfriend kissed me." Then for the second time in the past couple hours the whole story came pouring out again, "...then I slapped him, and told him if he ever tried anything like that again I would really hurt him. The door of his car was still on the lawn by the sidewalk when I came here." Suddenly Daria hugged Jane and began crying, "What ever else happens over this, please don't go abandoning our friendship over this."

Jane idly stroked Daria's hair and back, "Never."