Written by Ellie West

“Hera, I have to leave. I’m going to New York City.” 

But Hera already knew. In fact, for the last couple of weeks, she had been hoping to hear this news, directly from June’s lips. Hera couldn’t sleep at night wondering if her plan had worked. And now she knew: it did. 

“June…” Hera began, her voice quivering. 

Hera would have smiled if June had said this just a few weeks ago. She would have been overjoyed, really, knowing that the largest obstacle keeping her from her goal was finally overcome and that she would never see June again. But today, now, in the warm orange sunlight and evening heat, in June’s barren bedroom beginning to collect dust, these words felt bitter. 

June seemed angelic, like the beacon of light amidst no hope. She smiled in spite of her circumstances, in spite of the news that she would be leaving the city she’d called home since birth and all the things and the people she had grown to love so much. She shone brightly against the plain and empty background her soon-to-be-abandoned room provided. Yes, she still seems full of love and full of grace like she always has been, Hera thought. 

“There’s nothing else to do.” June said. “My things are packed away— my existence has been erased from this house and this city now.”

Hera thought to herself that it hadn’t. June’s spirit was in her room, painted in an absolutely pristine bright white like she liked it, decorated with the nicest her father could afford, which June reluctantly accepted. And her presence would still linger at the school where Hera and her friends would feel empty and incorrect without June. All of the other students would feel it, too, losing a student who had attended for years upon years and who was a role model for all of her classmates. 

June would stay with Hera, most of all. Having been best friends for what seemed like forever, Hera had inherited much from June: twisting a strand of hair between her index finger and thumb when she was nervous, using only lip gloss— never lipstick— and spending Sunday nights solely with coffee and schoolwork. 

“I just wish I knew why.” June said. Her eyes weren’t scornful or upset. Her expression didn’t hope for vengeance against the person who had done this to her. She was a shining example of blissful ignorance. 

This saddened Hera. There was a part of her that wished June would be upset, that she would stop at nothing to discover her father’s motivations for sending her off so suddenly. That way, Hera could be brought to justice. If June would refuse to acknowledge Hera’s friendship ever again, Hera would feel like her evil deed had been righted, at least a little bit. But June did nothing. 

Hera wondered mostly what June would think if she did know. Was June aware that Hera wasn’t a true friend, how conniving and envious she was? Surely an intelligent girl like June would have suspected something. But maybe a well-meaning girl like June would set her suspicions aside, Hera thought. 

“I-” 

Hera’s breath caught in her throat. 

She wanted to confess to everything now, how she was always jealous of June and her boyfriend and her status. How, while the pair appeared to be the best of friends, Hera was holding all of June’s secrets close to her heart and fantasizing about using them against her someday. How when June won at something, or was happy about something, Hera felt like crying, resenting her own failures. And more especially, how Hera had always been in love with Elias but had rejected him, knowing June loved him too. 

Now, Hera had him all to herself. She had the school in the palm of her hands, too. She was top-of-the-class, June’s natural successor to “most popular girl in school” and valedictorian. This was all Hera had ever wanted to be, and more importantly why she had exposed June’s most sacred secret to June’s father. But why did it feel so wrong, now? 

Hera took a deep breath. She went through everything she wanted to say in her head, not skipping over a single detail, clearing her mind to finally say it all.

“June…” 

What June would think wasn’t important. Hera had accepted the worst. She hated herself for what she had done, and she hated herself for losing June so easily. She remembered when June had discussed going to New York before, when they were still children. The girls sat on June’s bed and cried for hours, not saying a word until they started to laugh. 

June looked similar to how she did that night. She sat on that same bed, though this time it lacked the sheets and blankets and pillows, and smiled at nothing in particular. There was bittersweetness in her expression, like she was sad but even so she was happy to be sharing this moment with Hera. 

“I have to…” 

The words began to roll off Hera’s tongue, but they didn’t reach her friend. “Hera, I love you.” June said. 

Her words cut through the thickened air, striking Hera in the heart and rapidly displacing her thoughts. Any hint of tension in Hera’s throat, previously overflowing with words, seemed to dissipate with the day’s light as the sun dipped below the horizon. And any lingering questions in Hera’s mind dissolved quickly, too.

“Thank you for being my friend.” June said. “I don’t know what I would have done without you all this time.” And she laughed. 

Hera’s eyes welled up with tears, but she shook her head firmly. Seeing June laugh like she was a child again filled Hera with a joy she didn’t know she could access. This was the feeling Hera had sought time and time again, this is why Hera had schemed and betrayed. She thought, somehow, she would get closer to moments like this: moments of pure, unbridled happiness. 

“I love you too, June.” And Hera started to laugh, too. 

The sun had gone by now, leaving the girls to seem alone in the nearly empty, dimly lit room. But neither of them acknowledged it. They only kept laughing. Nothing was funny, and things clearly weighed on the pair’s hearts, but there was an unexplainable bliss in the unspoken goodbye.