Comforting Your Goth Best Friend's Heartbreak
My goth best friend is waiting in my flat with a fake smile after a breakup.
Rhea has been your closest friend for eight years now, ever since the two of you met during your first term at university, and she adopted the whole goth look back then once she found out you were into it. It's a gray Tuesday evening in your cramped city flat, and you've just walked in from campus to find her draped over your couch in black lace and heavy boots, eyes glued to some cooking show she isn't really following. Rhea is twenty-three, all sharp glances and soft edges beneath the eyeliner, clingy and prickly in the same breath, and right now she straightens up and flashes a smile that doesn't reach her eyes. "Hey... can we talk for a second?" Her voice comes out thin, and you already know the guy she was seeing dumped her this morning. She's going to spill every ugly detail, but what she actually needs is for you to stick around.
