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  “Really, Lola? How trashy,” Brandon snapped, a look of disgust on his face as he stared down at her feet, dragging in dirt and weeds.

  “Shut up,” she growled. “You’re dead to me.”

  Mac got to his feet, his face absolutely livid. I got a feeling he wasn’t about to pop off on the mess, either. “You transformed in broad daylight?! Where the hell were you?!” he bellowed.

  Lola shrugged, impudently staring him straight in the eyes. “Where ever the hell I wanted, that’s where.”

  Before I could blink, a blur of yellow and green shot across the living room and knocked Lola to the ground. Allison had jumped up and zoomed across the room, smacking her sister down and slapping her across the face with such force that she lay above her, panting wildly. Lola growled and tossed her little sister off of her, rolling over a raising a hand to strike her across the face.

  Trent raced over and grabbed her wrist. Everyone was moving so fast that I thought I could feel my head spinning.

  Lola pulled her hand away and jumped up to her feet, screaming like a banshee before she turned on her heel and stormed out the front door, shaking the whole house as she slammed it behind her.

  “Maybe I should go,” I said, breaking the heavy silence that surrounded her departure. Trent grimaced and Brandon rolled his eyes.

  “Ugh this is so like her. To just come in here and ruin everything.”

  As he went on about how much he disliked her, though, I could see Allison looking visibly hurt.

  “Brandon, maybe you should—“ I started, but before I could say anything else, Allison rose to her feet and fled the room.

  “Oh shit, was that my fault?” Brandon said earnestly, gritting his teeth in awkward embarrassment.

  “She’s been on edge for a while now.” Mac picked up the mugs and placed them on the tray. “Since I asked Lola to consider leaving the pack. Just give her some space, she’s going through a lot, you know?”

  Hearing that made me feel beyond awful. Like someone had ripped the floor out from beneath me. I was the reason her sister was being insane and was being asked to leave. I was breaking up the pack.

  I suddenly felt really sick inside.

  “I’m going to go,” I whispered to Trent.

  “I’ll go with you, just in case.”

  I smiled at him, and said my goodbyes to Mac and Brandon.

  “Hey, try not to feel too bad,” Brandon whispered in my ear as I hugged him. “Remember, you can’t hide your feelings from me anymore.”

  I smiled nervously. Though he meant it in a cute way, it only served to make me feel uncomfortable on top of guilty.

  On the way home I had to force myself to not be distracted. I knew I was being a dangerous driver, with my scatter-brained thoughts, but I could hardly help it. The sun was setting, and traffic was getting heavier in the small, beach town as people who commuted were coming home.

  It took longer than it normally would to get home, and by the time we did I felt physically and emotionally drained. Trent could feel it, and he held my hand as we walked up the stairs, stroking it comfortingly with the back of his thumb.

  “At least it isn’t raining,” he said, his goofy, half-smile returning to him. I smiled in back. I missed his sense of humor—he had been so hot-headed and serious lately, and while I was coming to realize and accept that it came with the territory of a werewolf beaux (at that point I couldn’t dare to think the loaded word boyfriend), I missed the light-hearted nature of being friends.

  Inside I noticed that Sierra’s keys weren’t hung up. “She’s still not back,” I said, slightly disappointed and nervous.

  “She’ll be okay. If you think I have strength, Nick’s is of a completely different order. Like, literally,” he smirked. I was taking off my coat, distracted with thoughts of Sierra, when I felt him reach for my shoulder.

  “Hey,” he muttered, before spinning me around to face him and staring lovingly into my eyes. I lost my breath for a moment, rendered dizzy and speechless, the jacket slipping from my hand to the floor.

  “You look gorgeous when you’re hair is wet,” he said before pressing his perfect lips onto mine.

  And yeah, I died a little.

  He pulled away from the kiss and I almost moaned out in disappointment. He grinned at me, sheepishly and adoringly, and I laughed back, biting my lip in anticipation as he scanned my face for a moment.

  “I don’t wanna go…” he sighed.

  “Then don’t,” I breathed, bringing my hands up around the wet skin of his neck.

  “I have to go take care of a few things…you know, make sure shit doesn’t get out of control,” he sighed, exhaling in slight annoyance.

  “I get it,” I replied, knowing that it was only a matter of minutes before Lola went pouncing around in a park or something as a vicious wolf. “Do you want me to drop you off?”

  “Nah, you know I like walking in the rain.” His thick lips curled upwards and he moved towards me one more time, stealing my breath away as he kissed me passionately, his large, thick hands holding my face gingerly, igniting my skin with licks of fire.

  This time I completely forgot how to be. I was enraptured by heat and touch, and every moment I had ever been in love with him, every flutter of my heart, every time my stomach fell through my body.

  It was stupid awesome.

  Finally, reluctantly, he pulled away, petting my hair and giving me a goofy smile, with his eyes half-closed.

  “I want to do something special for you,” he murmured, catching his fingers in my messy, wet locks.

  “You do enough by being you,” I said, touching my hand to his cheek. He closed his eyes like he was relishing the feeling of my skin against his.

  “That’s not true. I have to do something to make up for all that lost time.” He opened his eyes and held his hand over mine, trapping it between his palm and his face. “Tomorrow night, around eight, can I come pick you up?”

  “I can drive over myself.” I felt slightly embarrassed.

  “Hey, let me have this,” he teased, pulling our hands down to our sides and weaving his fingers between mine.

  “Okay.” A flutter of excitement burst in my stomach at the thought of what in the world the surprise could be. I walked him to the door of my apartment, and he brought my hand up to his lips, giving it a sweet kiss. I laughed a little, unable to fight it. I just wasn’t used to seeing him act so chivalrous.

  “What?” Trent said, grinning and blushing a little. I know he wasn’t used to being this way, but it was endearing. It was wonderful.

  It was my dream coming true.

  “Nothing. You’re perfect,” I said, unable to fight back the giant goofball grin on my face.

  “No, you are.” He gave me one final kiss before leaving, and I could hardly do anything but breath as I collapsed on the couch, playing back the perfect kiss with all of those strange, beautiful emotional flashbacks, over and over again.

  I couldn’t figure out how my life had gotten to this moment, and while there were so many parts that were easy to regret, I couldn’t actually will myself to want anything to go away.

  I fell asleep on the couch for what couldn’t be more than a matter of minutes, when Sierra came home. The creaking of the front door woke me, and I opened my eyes slowly, disgruntled by the incandescent light of the single living room lamp.

  “Sierra?” I groaned.

  “Hey sleepy head,” I heard her reply. I sat up to take her in, and realized she looked a wreck. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her hair was disheveled and frizzy, as if she had walked around in the humid Floridian, post-rain air to dry out her wet locks.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I asked, quickly scooting over on the couch and patting down the spot next to me. She shut the front door behind her and took off a thick cargo coat I had never seen her wear before. She dropped her petite frame in the space next to mine, and then turned to give me a terse smile, her eyes fixed on the space between our laps.

  I
suddenly remembered how she went off with Nick and wondered how much she knew about all of weirdness that was going on. Or how much she even believed. I should have been relieved, happy even, that I might not have to keep any secrets from her any more, but I couldn’t help but feel strangely upset and worried. I could tell she was freaked out and scared.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted, lifting her gaze so that her hazel green eyes met mine.

  “What…What did Nick tell you?” I asked slowly.

  “Honestly…I know the first thing I should want to do is talk all of this out with you and stuff. And normally, that’s what I want to do when weird shit happens. But…I’m exhausted. And I don’t know…can we just watch those movies finally?” she asked, giving me a small, sad smile.

  “Yeah, of course.” I opened my arms and pulled her into a big hug, kissing her ginger hair and she sighed into my shoulder. We put on one of our favorite movies, Never Been Kissed, and snuggled up with some blankets and popcorn.

  At first we were both too weary and distracted to eat the little butter puffs in the big bowl on the coffee table, and all our laughs were just based off of cues since we had seen the film so many times. But eventually, right around the Josie Grossie scene, we eased back into our old ways, inhabiting the skins of the people we were only a few days ago, who knew none of the scary and horrifying things about the world.

  It was almost natural.

  Chapter Four

  The next morning I went to Cafe Doomsday and said hi to my old co-workers, ordered a vanilla cappuccino and fixed my resume while I waited for my old boss, Dan, to finish up some paperwork in his office. I was trying really hard to erase what I had seen on the news this morning from my mind—another wolf spotting, on the fringes of a popular nature walk by the beach.

  Clearly, Lola wasn’t going to stop transforming in public any time soon. Thankfully Dan interrupted my nervous thoughts and plopped in the chair across from me, casually dropping an elbow on the table.

  “So, the tour thing didn’t work out, huh?” he said, trying to act sympathetic even though I knew that he was happy to have a barista back.

  “Not really. So I guess I’m back here sooner than I thought I’d be.”

  “Well, we’d be glad to have you back. How’s you’re availability?” he asked me, pulling out a tablet and tapping into it.

  “Open. I’m completely free of obligations.” I forced a smile even though I felt terrible inside, having to acknowledge how the tour failed and our dreams fell apart.

  “Ok, we have the schedule made up for this week but I’ll let Jenny know you’re back,” he said, referring to our shift manager who made the work schedules. “We should be able to put you to work by next week. By the way, is Bad Moon still together? An opening band just bailed on Jim and he’s kind of desperate to find a group for his show this Saturday.”

  Jim was Dan’s twin brother who owned Deston Beach’s only rock venue, The Nightshift. I nodded enthusiastically, realizing Brandon’s surprise party could be taken to a whole new level—a surprise show!

  “Absolutely. Just send him my info and tell him we’d love to.”

  We chatted afterwards for a bit, but whatever small talk we made was negligible. My mind was stuck on the upcoming show and how great it would be for Bad Moon to play again. I was itching to get back to my apartment and draft out a set list.

  As I was getting my stuff packed up to leave, I heard a familiar voice blare over the speakers. I looked up, as if expecting someone to be as shocked as I was, but of course, everyone just continued on their usual business, the customers sipping at their lattes and the baristas bustling around behind the counter.

  “Sierra,” I hissed, hoping over to her while stuffing my laptop into my messenger bag.

  “What?” she looked over to me from the espresso machine for a moment. “Are you getting your job back?”

  “Yeah, but that’s not why I’m bugging you. This song, who is it?”

  The pounding guitar rhythm was familiar, and yet different. Lighter, but the vocals were eerily familiar. I could recognize that crooning sexy voice anywhere…

  “That’s Fun Aim,” she said casually as she pulled the wand out of the latte and grabbed the caramel bottle to squeeze out a design on top of the foam. “They’re like, this new top forty band. I really like this song, haven’t heard their album though. Not sure if it’s out.”

  “What?!” I nearly screamed. I couldn’t even care if I disturbed everyone in the shop. I was about to loose my mind. “But it can’t be…I didn’t even think they were signed yet…”

  “Bailey, calm down,” Sierra hissed, eyeing the customer behind me. She loved when I freaked out in public, but when she was at work she was always conflicted about my outbursts. No matter how hip Dan tried to be, he was definitely not cool with us disturbing the elderly clientele of Cafe Doomsday.

  “Sierra, Aamir is the lead singer of Fun Aim.” Her mouth dropped open and if I hadn’t caught her wrist, she would have kept dripping the caramel on the drink until their would have been a strange, disgusting blob of gold goo in the middle of the cloudy white foam.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, I’m serious. I mean, I knew they were getting big but Jeez, I didn’t know they were top forty!”

  “They totally are!” Sierra squealed. “Everyone is getting excited about their music video. Apparently it’s still in post-production, but stills of it keep being released and people are going nuts on blogs and stuff.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “Am I really this out of the loop?”

  “Apparently,” Sierra laughed, snapping the white lid over the paper cup. I always wondered why we had to bother with fancy designs on hot drinks when we just covered them up anyway, but Dan insisted that customers could taste our hard work. Yeah, whatever.

  “Monica?” Sierra called out, and I moved out of the way as she smiled and politely slid the cup across the counter towards an elderly woman. The woman gave me a suspicious look, clearly disturbed by my outbreak, but I couldn’t even pretend to care.

  Once she left I rushed back to the counter. “I know Dan’s going to yell at me so I’ll quit pestering you in a minute. But what else do you know?” I asked.

  “Um…I mean, not too much, the single was just released not too long ago. I think they have some EP on their website people really like that’s free. It has a bunch of different indie rock bands on it.”

  “Dammit!” I slammed my fist on the counter. The older woman harrumphed in annoyance. “We were almost on that E.P. Sierra! Bad Moon! But then I had to go ruining everything by sleeping around…ergh!!!”

  Sierra giggled. “I mean, also isn’t he potentially really dangerous or something?”

  “Right, I forgot you’re in the loop now,” I sighed.

  “Yeah, we’ll have to talk about that later. But for now…” she nodded her head behind me and I turned to see a disgruntled looking man in scrubs with his arms folded across his chest.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled before scurrying out of Cafe Doomsday and to my purple moped in the parking lot. I hurried home so that I could look them up on the computer, and sure enough, I found a wealth of promotional pictures. Fun Aim was dressed up in matching black and white clothing and had chains hanging from their pants, in a mainstream kind of new-punk way.

  There was an interview too. I must have watched it like three times in a row, my heart pounding furiously. I felt pretty guilty, because we had a shot to record with them. This could have been Bad Moon—they could have made it.

  ‘Stop thinking like that,’ I scolded myself and forced my laptop shut, deciding after what must have been an hour of being a creepy internet stalker that I needed to stop. Bad Moon could still make it their way. And it looked like Fun Aim was selling out a little. Not the worst thing that could happen, since their music was still really good, but I knew it wasn’t Bad Moon. They liked things a little bit raw, and that’s
how they should be.

  I made some lunch, a turkey sandwich on rye and potato chips, and set to work drafting up a set list, even though I hadn’t confirmed a booking. Thirty minutes later, however, I got an email from Jim inviting Bad Moon to play. I did a little happy dance in the living room before responding.

  I was nearly finished updating the website and all social media by Sierra got home and reminded me of my date with Trent.

  “Shit!” I yelled, checking the time and my phone. He had sent me a text about twenty minutes prior stating he was on his way.

  “Let’s get you dressed,” Sierra said, shaking her head and giggling at me. “We got to get you in something hot.”

  “If I have anything,” I grumbled, wondering what on earth I could wear that Trent hadn’t seen already.

  “What about that black dress your mom bought you as a graduation present?”

  I laughed, imagining the shimmery, tight little number. “I never even tried that thing on, I’m sure it would make me look like a shiny sausage.”

  “You don’t know until you try,” Sierra smirked. I laughed, put at ease by her silly smile. There was so much still unspoken between us, with the pack and my brother. But we’d get to it another time. For now, she’d just be my best friend/roommate dressing me up for a hot date.

  “Fine, but you can’t take a picture with your phone when I come out looking like the Weiner Mobile!” I chided, ribbing her with my elbow as I walked passed her towards my room.

  I pulled the tight fabric over my body and was surprised to find that the thing actually fit. As I tied the halter around my neck I couldn’t help but notice that the black shimmering fabric had a fun hint of purple, my absolute favorite color. I looked over myself in the mirror and gasped.

  “Whoa,” I muttered, checking out how well the garment emphasized my hips and breasts, in a way that made them look voluptuous, not too big.