Cents and Kents

I tried to find Dia in the town since it was Saturday and there was no school.
"Dia!" I shouted when I found her.
"Hey Agápe..." she replied.
"I just thought we've been friends for a while so maybe we should just forget about our fight.
"I know what you're trying to do."
"What?"
"You know, Éxy told me we should make up too. I know you're just trying to score some points with him."
"That's not at all what I'm doing! Our years of friendship just mean a lot to me and I didn't want to lose them over a cent."
"Then apologize."
"I didn't do anything wrong!"
"Fine, then just don't talk to Éxy. I'll never believe you don't feel anything unless you choose me over him." I hesitated for a while. I really did like having Éxy as a friend but I've only known him for a couple of days.
"No," I couldn't believe I just said that, "if we're really friends, you won't let one taur destroy everything. I believe you are better than this and you'll trust me when I say I don't feel anything for him." I heard her quietly say something and I could see pain in her face. It sounded like "help me." Her normal face returned again and she was back to how she was before.
"Don't try to pull that on me. I can't believe you'd trade our friendship for a cent you've only known a couple of days. Goodbye, Agápe." I have no idea what just happened. She's never acted this way before, something weird is happening.
I should go to the library to investigate spells. I was making my way there and ran into Fili.
"Hi, Agápe!"
"Hey, Fili."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to the library. Dia acted strange when I tried to make up after our fight -”
"You had a fight?"
"Oh right! You didn't know about it. She got mad at me because she kept insisting I liked Éxy, but I don't think she's ever acted the way she is now. I'm going to the library to see if there are any spells that would cause someone to act differently."
"Agápe, I know you're upset about the fight, but spells take a lot of intelligence and, more importantly, money to enact. I don't know what anyone would stand to benefit from breaking up your friendship."
"But I heard her say something like 'help me' under her breath and it looked like she was in pain. I probably wouldn't even consider the spell if it wasn’t for that."
"Alright, I guess there's no harm in trying, it just seems unlikely."
We both went to the library and looked through the books for spells. We read about the ones that controlled and there were only three.
"This one says that it controls people's bodies but not their minds, this one controls both mind and body, and this one just controls their way of thinking, which can influence their actions. The second one is the most expensive and most difficult to learn and the third one is cheapest and easiest to enact." I shared with Fili.
"Since she broke away from the spell, she must've been trying really hard to, so it was probably the first one."
"Someone's talking about it like she's definitely under the spell." I said with a smile.
"Yeah, well... I wouldn't believe it if she wasn't acting like she was trying to escape."
"Is there some way to reverse it?"
"It doesn't say anything, but I'm most concerned about WHO put her under the spell. Why would someone want to control her?"
"I have no idea, we've been friends with her for years so we know pretty much everyone she knows, I can't think of anyone who seems like they would do that."
"Hey, Fili!" Dia said has she arrived without even glancing at me.
"Oh, hi Dia." Fili said, looking closely at her face to try and see any traces of a spell.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Fili went back to looking at her normally.
"No reason." she said conclusively.
"Okay... So do you want to head to the bazaar?"
"Yeah, sure. Hold on one second, just want to say one thing to Agápe."
"Fine." Dia said with resentment in her voice. Fili led me next to a bookshelf where Dia couldn't hear us.
"I don't think she's under a spell. The book said the victim would have an unfocused gaze, but her's seemed pretty normal. Plus, she seems like her usual self."
"What about her saying 'help me' and everything?"
"She muttered it, it's very likely you just misheard her. The pain in her face probably was because she was just about to end a long friendship. That's not something this easy to do."
"I guess you're right. Then that means our friendship really is over." I looked over to Dia and felt fury that I've never felt before. As I was walking out as I walked by her, I felt all the anger surge through me, the pain of what she said. I felt my hand flying in the air and tingling when I heard a loud smack. I just slapped her.
"Ow!" she held her cheek in her hand and was in too much pain to fight back. The whole library turned to see the disruption of the silence and I ran out with tears flowing from my eyes.
I fled to my house where I quickly ran to my room and shut the door. It felt like I was in a near-death experience and my life was flashing before me, but instead of my life it was my friendship with Dia. I felt the moments I could never forget, the small ones I hadn't thought about for such a long time, and ones I wish I'd forget. I knew they were all gone, there would never be moments with Dia that would be the same as the memories.
6 years. That's how long our friendship lasted and she threw it away the first chance she got. I knew our fight wasn't the reason, there was no way a friendship could end over that. She must've been jealous of me or something, maybe from how well I do in class. Couldn't she have just confronted me about that though?
I'm so confused about why she did this. I was so deep in thought I didn't even realize I stopped crying. Without the tears blocking my eyesight, I moved to my desk and my math textbook. The polynomials help take my mind away from today. I heard a knock at my window. My bedroom was on the first floor so I could easily see it was Éxy. I noticed he was making sure not to meet my gaze.
"Have you gotten your crush for today?"
"No, but I can get one." I looked past him and saw a cent walking on the street.
"Hey!" He met my eyes and I blushed while looking away. "Nevermind." he continued walking.
"Ok we're good. What are you doing here?" I asked, my eyes still red from the crying. I can never seem to hide it when I'm crying.
"I just heard about the slap from some other students. Are you okay?"
"I'm not sure. I just realized that my friendship with Dia is definitely over. I denied it for a while by convincing myself she was under a spell."
"What made you change your mind?"
"Common sense for one thing. It takes a lot of money and experience to put someone under a spell and it doesn't seem like anyone would have motivation to."
"So it isn't impossible."
"No, but incredibly unlikely."
"But if she really is, then she'd need someone to help out of it."
"Well if a cat was stuck in a tree then it would need then it would need someone to get it down, but I'm not going to look through every tree just because a cat might be stuck in it."
"I guess that's a good point."
"It was more denial than concern. When I realized, with the help of Fili, that it was unlikely she was under a spell, I couldn't handle the fact that she really wanted our friendship to be over."
"Do you regret it?"
"I feel like I should, but my feelings are kind of numb right now. It seems like a situation where I would feel regret but at the same time, I don't think I would."
"It seemed predictable. You were angry at her and she was right in the room. Sometimes you just can't control things."
"Thanks for being there for me. You're a great friend." I saw him tense up for only a second and jut when I was about to ask him about it, I heard a knock on my door.
"Dia?" I said as I answered it.
"Hey Agápe. And... Éxy?!"
"I'll just head out and give you kents a minute." he walked toward the window.
"Oh, Éxy, there's a door."
"Right." he left through the door.
"I came over here to apologize but apparently you snagged Éxy the moment you got away from me!"
"Look, he came over to see me. I didn't invite him. If you can just, for once, listen to me then you'd know I don't have feelings for him! It wouldn't even matter now, since you made it clad you want nothing to do with me. Now I'd have freedom to date anyone I want. The thing is, I don't want to date anyone."
"Then why can't you stay away from Éxy?"
"Because it isn't his fault you're so untrustworthy that you won't even believe someone you've been friends with for 6 years!"
"I want to trust you, I wanted to apologize, but it's painfully clear that you do have feelings for him!"
"Éxy isn't an object, he has feelings too. Why can't you ask him if he has feelings for you before you get concerned about whether or not I do?"
"That isn't how crushes work for other people. If a crush doesn't like you back, you can't just shrug it off and move on. It hurts. There's a good chance that he's going to reject me and it just seemed easier to take it out on you."
"So you were willing to lose our friendship because you were afraid he'd reject you?"
"I didn't really want to lose our friendship, I just got caught up in our fight and said things I didn't mean."
"Okay, let's not get into the clichés. But... I forgive you, and I'm sorry for slapping you."
"It's okay, I deserved it." we hugged.
"Just to be clear, you do know I don't have feelings for Éxy right?"
"I guess I believe you, but you can't deny you had your crush face on."