My imaginary friend is a sore loser.

  Which is ridiculous because she keeps winning.

  “Best out of 15.”

  “Y-you won.”

  “We aren’t stopping until I figure out how you cheated.”

  It's a coin toss, and the fact that I only won two times out of nine tosses so far is enough proof that I’m not cheating.

  I’m not delusional enough to think I can mount a comeback, so just let it end.

  “Come on Mai, toss it.”

  I already admitted defeat, I’ll even say the damn thing

  “I-i love Nina.”

  “I’m glad you finally came to your senses, but we aren’t done with the coin yet.”

  I already lost the bet I was forced to make, she now gets to decide who my favorite character in this show is, at least let me keep some dignity.

  “What are you waiting for?”

  I’m waiting for any of this to make sense, what was so wrong with me liking Subaru more?

  I toss the coin as Ami stares at it intently.

  “Tails.”

  She won again, I’m not big on math but just how does this make sense?

  “H-how?”

  “I don’t get it either, how could I be wrong twice? I have only been wrong once in my entire life and it should stay like that. This outcome is utterly ridiculous, I refuse to accept it.”

  I’m honestly surprised she is willing to admit to even a single mistake, but then again that hat she made me wear was a scarring experience, I doubt either of us will ever recover from that incident.

  “T-the hat?”

  “No, the hat wasn’t a mistake. We… We just needed to do your hair differently, we could have made it work, I’m sure of it.”

  The only proper way to use that hat is to set it on fire and you know it.

  Though I share the blame on that one, I thought it would look funny, not horrifying beyond belief.

  But if she can justify something like that, what does she count as her one and only mistake exactly?

  “W-what then?”

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  “I’m not going to recount my most embarrassing moment just because you are curious Mai, so drop it please. Just toss the coin.”

  Fair enough, there are plenty of things I rather she doesn’t pry into, so I should respect her boundaries.

  It has to be something I already know anyway, but she must have felt much more strongly about than I did.

  But the coin toss has to end now, it’s just impossible to lower the score back to zero here, sooner or later the number will just go up and things will just get worse.

  Guessing wrong on a coin toss isn’t even a mistake, just bad luck, or in her case just a temporary break from her extremely lucky streak, she just has to let it go.

  “I-it doesn’t count.”

  “I’m not letting you get out of our bet Mai, it's for your own good. You just sound crazy when you say Subaru is better.”

  I will never understand why she is so upset over that, but it’s not what I meant.

  “A-as a mistake.”

  “I know, but it’s still annoying me. Just one more and we can stop, I want to figure out what went wrong.”

  The laws of probability are what went wrong.

  I toss the coin and it spins in the air, waiting for Ami’s declaration.

  “Tails.”

  The coin falls on tails, probably fearing the retaliation that will come from the imaginary woman if it did otherwise.

  “I just don’t get it, let’s just finish the episode.”

  It’s finally over, but there is still something we have to do before we can put this whole thing to rest.

  “I-i didn’t cheat.”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  I got her now, it took weeks for this chance to come but its finally time to invoke the terms of our peace treaty. I knew we wasted that afternoon for a reason.

  I raise my hand with all five fingers stretched out and she completely misreads the gesture, giving me an imaginary high five.

  I meant I was invoking article five of our peace treaty.

  “A-article five.”

  She gives me a slightly confused look before sighing.

  “You mean our peace treaty? I forgot we made that, you really should start adding context when you talk.”

  Now who sounds crazy?

  “Fine, I’ll apologize, but you got to apologize too.”

  “W-why?”

  “You started the best of stuff when you lost the first three tosses, I would have never lost if you just accepted your loss properly.”

  Oh right, I was the source of all this evil, though I was forced into accepting that bet so it felt justified at the moment.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Look at that, Ami was right, if I say something often enough I’ll stop stuttering.

  “Article five says we have to apologize properly when deserved.”

  She remembers the treaty perfectly when it suits her needs.

  “I-i’m sorry I m-m-made you l-lose.”

  I got in my own head that time, she couldn’t just let me have my small victory there.

  “That was worse than usual. and after you said it so well before, what happened?”

  Miracles don’t happen twice in a row.

  “Okay, my turn. I’m sorry, I got upset over losing and took it out on you. I’m also sorry I forced you to say that again after you said it so well the first time.”

  She actually apologized for forcing me to speak, truly I have seen everything now.

  “So what are we doing about our bet?”

  I pick up a sheet of paper, draw a heart, with very shaky lines, and write Nina inside of it.

  I sit down in front of the TV holding my new sign, and Ami looks at it with satisfaction.

  She sits next to me and rests her head on my shoulder, which weighs nothing, and I play the episode we paused in the middle because I dared to favor the drummer.

  I still like Subaru best since she reminds me of Ami, but there’s no reason to tell her that.