After she got Jane home, and after she held her friend's hair while she threw up, she stayed there for a minute waiting until Jane finally fell asleep.

"What is going on?" she asked to the unconscious Jane that was lying in front of her.

No answer.

"Why am I even talking to you? You might as well be dead... but you aren't" the possibility scared Daria for a moment and she had to check that Jane hadn't stopped breathing ". I think I'll go home. I'll have to call Trent later. I'm probably coming to check how you're doing tomorrow morning".

Silence, but it was good enough for Daria. She left Jane's house, confused because of the previous events, and as she walked home she thought about Tom. She hadn't thought about him since she had decided things couldn't work between them. But what if they had worked between them? Daria hadn't tried it, but it was because of something more important than that. With Tom, she wasn't sure if things could work despite of her feelings towards him. She wasn't sure if her friendship with Jane could survive something like that. And with Tom, she couldn't picture him being in her life forever. What would happen when they went to college? When they moved to the next phase of their lives? When their high school romantic interest was just not good enough anymore?

She could, however, picture her and Jane being friends during their adulthood, after high school. Her friendship with Jane was something especial. She didn't doubt of the strength of their friendship, but, she thought, why did she need to test it? She preferred to proceed with caution when it came to Tom, because the odds told her that not approaching him was better than give it a try.

When she got to her house, still confused because of the mixture of feelings -seeing Jane in such a strange condition, speaking to Tom after a long time without knowing anything about him- she locked herself in her room. She thought about writing something to keep her mind off the events, maybe a new Melody Powers adventure or portray Jane's situation as a short story happening to someone else, but when she tried, the words just never articulated enough to get to the paper.

Daria sighed and put the notebook on the floor. She looked at the phone. She could still call Tom, check how he was doing and, most important, she would finally have someone to talk to about Jane. He was discreet enough to keep his mouth shut about Jane and about her talking to him. Maybe it wasn't bad if she talked to him. After all, it was not going to be anything that could put her friendship with Jane in danger, just a little chat between friends.

She changed her clothes, knowing the ones she was wearing had a smell that could make her have to give some explanations she didn't want to give. After that, Daria nervously, went downstairs to get some soda, also trying to check if someone was on the phone.

"Oh, Eric" said Helen to her cellphone, while walking around the kitchen", of course I'm not busy. You send me a copy of that contract and I'll take care of it, okay?".

Quinn was sitting in there too, reading a fashion magazine.

"Hey, kiddo!" her dad greeted from the middle of the kitchen, while he was reading a cooking book and going around the kitchen trying to find the ingredients in the counters.

"Uh, hey dad. I just came by to get some soda. Sadly I am too full to have some of your new, uh, delicious malaysian recipe of today".

"Don't worry, I'll save some for you to eat tomorrow".

"Gee, thanks".

She opened the fridge trying to find soda. They only had Quinn's diet soda, and she didn't like the taste of it, but it was good enough, she thought.

"Daria, don't you dare to take any of my carrot sticks" Quinn warned.

"Don't worry, sis. I already say I'm not up for food tonight".

"Whatever, I just wanted to make it clear".

Daria rolled her eyes, took a can of soda and went back to her room hoping to be away from her family and her dad's new foreign meal. She'd have enough time to feel sick due what was going on.

With a soda can on her hand, Daria took the phone and waited until a girl's voice picked up.

"Hello?".

"Uh, hey, is Tom around?".

"Yeah, hold on" after a moment she heard the Elsie scream 'Tom' really loud.

"Hello?" the familiar voice of Jane's ex-boyfriend said.

"Uh, hey, Tom" her shaky voice replied.

"Daria? Hey! I haven't talked to you since... well, a couple hours ago".

"Yeah. I'm sorry about Jane".

He laughed.

"No problem. Is the threesome offer still a thing?".

"It stopped being a thing before Jane said it" she chuckled ". So how are you?".

"I'm doing alright. What about you? How is it going?".

"Good, good... great".

"Is everything okay, Daria? I mean, don't get my wrong, but why are you calling me? I thought you were planning on cutting contact with me after what happened".

Tom's words triggered the memory of what had happened in the car that night, after Daria swore Jane she hadn't kissed Tom. What if the stress Jane had gotten from the betrayal was part of the reason why she had decided to drink in first place?

"Uh, yeah, I needed someone to talk to and I couldn't think of anyone else".

"What about Jane?".

"Tom" she felt weird addressing him with his name, it was like a reminder that she was speaking to him and that was weird ", it's about Jane. What I want to tell you is something that I want you to keep as a secret, can you do that?".

"Whoa, that sounds pretty odd. Jane was never like that back when we were dating. She even disliked the smell of booze whenever we went to the Zon to see Trent play. She was never much of an alcohol person" Tom confirmed.

"Maybe it's just me, but I feel like something weird is going on. I mean, I know Jane, she normally wouldn't get drunk like that. And she got to school hungover this morning. I'm going to need to talk to Trent about that. But I wonder why didn't he stop her from drinking all that beer. I know he was on stage and everything, but he cares enough about Jane to notice that, right?".

"Right" he agreed ". But you know how Trent is. He really thinks Jane can take care of herself. And she can, most of the time, but she needs some guidance".

"I don't know what to do, Tom. I am sure she won't be willing to talk about it, Trent will think I'm over reacting and I'll have no one else. What if something happens to her?".

"Look, I know this is scary, but maybe you could wait and see how it goes. I would help but, you know, I don't think I'm the appropriated person to talk to Jane. I think she still hates me because of what happened".

"She doesn't... she just maybe would be upset by seeing you".

"Uh, talking about seeing me... would you like to go out for pizza or something tomorrow?".

Daria felt the anxiety coming back.

"Uh... I think I... Tom, I think it'd be really nice to go out but tomorrow I have to go talk with Trent and Jane".

"Oh... okay. What about friday night?".

Something told her to do it, to say yes. She had denied herself the opportunity to get to know someone like Tom, whom she found interesting, but now Jane was too drunk to know about it. It wouldn't hurt, it was just a thing between friends.

"Uh, Tom, would you mind to go to the pizza place in about 10 minutes?".

"Sure, but I have to say, I didn't think you'd be up for hanging out with me".

"Yeah, neither did I. I must be losing my mind" she meant it as a confession.

"It's not like this is too weird, is it? We're just friends, hanging out, nothing else".

"Yeah, just friends hanging out. Don't tell Jane about it".

"I won't".

"Uh, look, I only agreed to do this because I needed someone. I need someone. I'm confused and maybe this wasn't such a great idea. It was hard the first time to do what I did so I wouldn't ruin my friendship with Jane. Now maybe I'll end up making mistakes".

"Daria, I know how you feel. I know you made a decision and I respect it. I'm not going to make you do something you don't want to do. But we can be friends, right?".

"I don't know... I guess so" Daria was just taking the cheese off the pizza without eating, like Quinn normally did.

"Uh, Daria? Are you okay?" he asked while looking at her with a raised eyebrow, wondering why wasn't she eating. He knew her enough to know she liked pizza quite a lot.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm just worried about Jane. I don't know, I can't help having a bad feeling about this".

"Yeah, I don't blame you. It's normal that you're worried. But it'll be okay. If you ever need someone, I'm here for you".

She shyly smiled.

"Thank you" and proceeded to bite a part of her slice of pizza.