Page 54 of Shapeshifter

“I came to watch the rehearsal,” he said. “Are you lot slacking off or what?”

“Ah, yeah, about that.” I grinned. “We didn’t sound horrible today, so we’re getting a night out.”

“Get lost, boyfriend!” Tammie called out cheerfully as the others caught up to us. “I need a distraction, this lot need a break, and we’re heading into town to celebrate our progress. We don’t need any tagalongs.”

Dorian winked at her. “I could always sign up for the drama club.”

“Are you willing to wear skirts, tights, and makeup?”

His smile widened. “Doesn’t bother me.”

Her lips twitched. “Shithead.” She patted my arm. “He’s not so bad, but we’re still not taking him with us.”

“Tease,” he said, making her snort.

“Sorry,” I said, feeling a little bad.

“No worries,” he said. “I still got to see you. Call me later, okay?”

He dropped a gentle kiss on my lips, said his goodbyes, and then left us to it.

“So cute I almost threw up,” Tammie said.

“Tammie,” Emma said. “Don’t be mean.”

“Ah, he’s adorable,” Tammie said in a baby voice. “Don’t tell him that or he’ll get full of himself and won’t be adorable anymore.”

“Anything,” I said pleadingly. “Let’s talk about anything except for this.”

“Don’t mind them.” Chloe linked arms with me and dragged me along with her. Everyone else followed, over a dozen of us, hyper and happy, to the bus stop.

The atmosphere continued on the bus as Tammie regaled us with funny stories from her past, filled with people she used to know. That got me wondering about the future. Who in my life would end up being a funny story from the old days? I’d always thought my first best friend, Eva, would be with me forever, but we barely spoke anymore, aside from the occasional polite text.

As for Chloe and Emma? I’d been sure we would never be friends, that we had nothing in common, but now I enjoyed and even sought out their company. At first, I thought they were judging me, but looking back, I could see I was just as guilty.

As the bus sailed past the hospital, I noticed Emma in a rare quiet moment, gazing out at the building.

I nudged her. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “Thinking about stuff.”

“About Adam? He’s doing well, I heard. Nobody can hurt him, and he can’t hurt anybody.”

She shivered. “I hope so.” She shook it off, her expression smoothly switching to one of feigned interest, complete with a fake smile. “So what do you think? Can we pull off the greatest stage disaster of all time? Even hope to compete with performing dogs?”

Tammie overheard and turned in her seat to point her finger our way. “We’re going to be way more memorable than those dogs.”

I hoped it wasn’t because we embarrassed ourselves too badly, but I kept that to myself.

The skating rink was jam-packed.We had a lot of fun, mostly falling on the ice. The one bonus about my gift was that ice-skating didn’t feel so cold, relatively speaking. A couple of people, including Tammie, were good at skating. In the end, half of us kept to the side to watch while we nursed our fresh bruises.

Afterwards, we ate too much food, talked too much, and stayed too long, but overall, we had a great evening.

We walked to the bus stop more slowly this time, too full and exhausted to hurry. Groaning, Emma clung to Chloe and me, slowing us down. We lingered behind the others.

“Ugh,” Emma moaned. “I need to go into a food coma.”

“I told you not to eat so much garlic bread,” Chloe said. “Piglet. You couldn’t help yourself.”

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