Dante sat across from Naya on Manny's bed. He watched as Naya avoided making eye contact with him by picking at the soft faux fur of the fuzzy blue blanket Gloria had covered her in. Even though the new clothes she was given were dry, her wavy black hair was still soaked flat, leaving a large wet spot of river water on the back of Dante's highschool basketball t-shirt that hung loosely on Naya's body.
"So uh..." Dante cleared his throat and shifted awkwardly in his seat, "are you, ya know, okay?"
Naya tilted her head slightly in Dante's direction, focusing on a point just a few inches north of the post of Manny's bed. "Yeah, I guess. Kind of. I mean, it depends on what you mean by 'okay'," she replied.
"I guess what I mean by okay is..." Dante began as he leaned forward with his arms and ankles crossed, "if I were to let you go home tonight, should I expect to be called into a police office a week from now over the apparent suicide of a well off high school senior who lives on the other side of town? Because it sounds like I'd be the perfect person to pin it on."
Naya narrowed her eyes at Dante, "I don't know yet, but I'm dealing with the situation," she answered with her usual poise and matter-of-factly tone.
Dante scoffed, "You're 'dealing with the situation'? Are you freaking kidding me? I just saw you jump off a bridge and almost die! Do you have any idea how scary that was for me? Or how much it broke my heart to hear you begging me to let you go and just leave you there to die? What about when you passed out, and I thought you were for sure dead, and that maybe, for some reason, it was my fault?"
Naya flinched at the sharpness of the words coming out of Dante's mouth, but Dante continued on unphased. He had built up so much tension over the past few hours that once he started, he couldn't stop until he'd let it all out.
On the other side of the wall, Freddie reached for the door to stop Dante from going off on Naya and saying something he would regret later, but Gloria grabbed his arm, silently shaking her head no and giving him a knowing look. She had a feeling the only person who could pull Naya away from the edge was Dante. She had to hear what he had to say, completely unfiltered and completely uncensored.
"Don't you get it? I care about you! I don't know why, and I don't know how, but I know I do, and it's freaking me out. Was it the kiss? Because I can just forget the kiss if that's what it takes to keep you from jumping off damn bridges!" Dante shouted, bordering at hysteria.
Naya lowered her gaze and shook her head. "You and I both know that's not gonna happen." She sighed, "Look, when I kissed you, I thought maybe, maybe, things could be different this time, that no one had to get hurt, but then you kissed me back and I knew, in that very moment, that I couldn't have been more wrong. I knew…" Naya hesitated, "I knew there was no way I wasn't gonna fall for you... hard." She emphasized.
"And I tried to keep my distance after, but it got harder every damn day. I just… I was scared I might give in and fall back on old patterns. I was trying to nip the problem in the bud, make sure no one else got hurt. Because I can't go through it again. And I won't let anyone else go through it again," Naya said, keeping her voice steady, but Dante could see the tears that brimmed her eyes.
"Really?" Dante mocked and shook his head with disgust. "Ya know, I really… I really thought you were different. That you were more mature than the basic loca chica in highschool with all the petty boy drama and shit. What could have possibly happened to you to make you swear off men at the ripe age of eighteen, huh? That too 'for the good of the world' apparently," Dante said with finger quotes. "Did ya date a cheating dirtbag or something? Someone who DM'd girls on Instagram behind your back? What was it?" Dante interrogated, demanding to know.
"You don't know me!" Naya snapped. "You have no freaking idea what I've done."
"Then just tell me!" Dante shouted ,"Okay? I don't know you! I'm falling for you, but I don't know who you are and it's driving me insane! You're always so damn guarded and I never know what you're thinking! And I know you're putting on a face because I've seen your real smile! I've heard your real laugh! When you laugh, and I mean really laugh, the whole room just seems brighter. Like you're not carrying the weight of the world on your back for a second. And then you talk to me and it's all gone. Your eyes are glazed over, but you still look hurt, and I don't know why! Can you please just let me in?" Dante pleaded with a strained voice.
"Fine!" Naya barked and sighed, "Can you please just sit down first though?"
"What- oh," Dante realized that somewhere along his rant, he'd gotten up out of Manny's bed and was now standing up and pacing around, shaking his hands like a mad man. Dante took a seat at the other end of his bed, next to Naya's feet that were covered with a thick layer of blankets.
Naya exhaled loudly before starting, "The first thing you should probably know is that my full name is Nandita Das, and last year I was a junior at Meadowbrook High. Sound familiar?" Naya asked sarcastically. The name of the school did seem familiar, like he'd heard it over and over again until it was ingrained in the back of his head, but Dante couldn't place the memory. "But you wanted a full origin story," she continued, "so I might as well start at the beginning."