Unfamiliar Territory
Chapter 4: The Meeting

A few people fit Mary’s physical description, but she was almost literally the only person I saw reading a book in this school. Everyone else just liked making up supernatural nonsense and stupid rumors.

“He had to be, like, as big as a horse to drag Spence like that. Really!”

I rested my head against the wall, heaving a silent sigh. Choosing to sit in the back of the classroom stopped people whispering about me behind my back, but it made it much easier to hear everything else. And, for the unforeseeable future, that everything was—

“Hero, man! Jules said Spence swore it spoke to him when he was in the water. Crazy, right?”

“So crazy!”

I stared up at one of the florescent lights when it flickered. Something about it suddenly made me very sad.

“Man, what’s keeping the teach?” someone wondered out loud.

The teacher was running late. I closed my eyes as I let that sink in. They were going to run out of things to say about that damn dog soon. And, after that, they’ll switch to their second favorite supernatural topic.

“She hasn’t said one word yet, has she?”

A trio of girls with their desks pushed together were talking, in not-so-hushed voices, in front of me. Like curious vultures, their necks craned over desks and around heads to look at someone as they continued their gossip.

“Yeah. Becca said the freaks probably ripped off her tongue when they kicked her out.”

Okay, first of all, disgusting. What sort of people joked about something like that?

But even worse were the ones who used insults like that. The freaks. Not the first time I heard someone called that in my lengthy career as a high-school student, but at this school that insult was practically synonymous when talking about the Tea Drinkers. I rapped my fingers on the desk.

“More like she’s so ashamed that not even a pack of freaks want her. If I were her, I would be trying to hide too.”

“What did you say?”

The girls jumped in their seats. All at once, they turned their heads to look back at me.

Strange. Had I said something?

They had bright blue eyes—all three. One of them looked down, then back up at me, and laughed. Her voice cracked. “Eh-Ew, it is looking at us,” she said, elbowing fellow blue eyed friends.

“Yeah, so gross,” another said, attempting a smile. The third remained silent. Silent enough to grab the attention of the other two.

“Em?” one said.

“Let’s just leave him alone,” Em said. I could barely hear her.

She avoided looking at me as she turned back around in her seat. The other two followed suit. They continued to talk, but it was nothing more than hushed whispers—their heads lowered.

I looked down at my hand. It was white. Shaking. I grabbed it with my other hand and it gradually stopped. The entire classroom had become quieter.

She was wearing a deep blue dress. Mary. The only person who wasn’t either looking at me or avoiding looking at me. A notebook was open on her desk and a pen held loosely in her hand. In her lap, she was reading a book—something thick and old. Every few seconds she would use her free hand to turn the page. Was she really reading it that fast?

She was small. Had to be the smallest person in class—maybe even the school. But everyone still treated her the same way they treated the intense Kat or the walking mountain, Stallion. Whispering about her behind her back, making up rumors—stories. And, whatever the circumstances, she was alone against them.

When she dropped her pen against the notepad, it was like a gunshot going off. Many people switched from looking at me to her, but she only pushed her glasses closer against her eyes and continued to read. One of the girls whispered something about her hair—how she was ‘trying too hard.’

Her hair was long, draping her small body almost completely. She could hide in it if she didn’t wear it in those pigtails. Another popular fashion of the time. It was the one thing that didn’t look right on her.

When class ended, and everyone prepared to go home, Mouse continued to read. I had spent the better part of class watching as she wrote pages of notes while still burying herself in her book. Her ability to read as fast had slowed during her note-taking, but it was still more multitasking than I thought was humanly possible.

As she packed her bag, her eyes never left the pages. When she finished packing, she remained in her seat and kept reading. The students were quick to leave when they were ready, but she seemed intent on staying to finish. I waited as well.

Soon, the room was empty save for Mouse and I. I waited a few moments more, cleared my throat even, but she remained focused on her book.

“Teacher of the year, huh? Last to enter and first to leave. What’s up with that?”

She flipped a page. Pushed her glasses back up. She was still facing away from her desk, towards me, but she never even looked up.

“Uh, Mary?”

“You shouldn’t talk like them. It doesn’t sound right, you know.”

She flipped another page and continued to not look at me. She couldn’t still be reading.

“Um, I was just...”

She glanced up with large brown eyes made larger by her glasses.

Crap. I didn’t think this through. What did I even want to say?

“What are you reading?”

She turned another page. No way. She wasn’t even looking at the book anymore! Mouse caught her mistake and quickly flipped it back. She held the book up until I could barely see her face. It was older than I first thought. The cover was worn and faded a bland whitish-brown.

“I don’t know what it’s called,” she said, lowering it until her large eyes were peering at me from the top of the book. “But so far it’s about some strange person who goes around asking personal questions to people they just met.” She lowered the book further, and I saw that she was smiling.

She giggled, a soft laugh held at bay by the open book she rose to cover her mouth. It was so sudden, I couldn’t help but chuckle, too. It was short and felt almost forced, but it felt good, too. I couldn’t remember the last time I had laughed.

“It sounds familiar,” I mused, crossing my legs and pretending to be in deep thought for a moment. “I didn’t think asking what someone is reading would be considered a ‘personal question’ though.”

“Depends on the someone.” Mary half closed the book to wag it at me a few times. “Need to be careful with assumptions like that, Alex.”

“Yeah, I guess—Wait, you know my name?”

“’Course,” she said, swinging back to face her desk, burying her eyes back in the book. “You’re the new student. Everyone is talking about you. Also, you’re in two of my classes, you know.”

“Ah, right.”

It fell silent for a moment. I looked around the classroom and froze when my eyes fell on the clock. Damn! I was going to be late! I grabbed my bag, stood up, and prepared to say goodbye to Mary when she spoke first.

“Should I assume that’s also why you know my name?” she asked.

Double damn. Did I say her name? I did, didn’t I?

“Yeah, course,” I said, moving towards the door. “Well, I should get going; it was nice meeting you, Mary.”

She nodded, never again looking up from her book.

I raced to the meeting room. I did not want to have to explain myself if I was late. I wouldn’t know what to tell them. That I was trying to get to know Mary before asking her out on a date?

No. I was going to tell them I wasn’t on board with this. There had to be another way.

I turned a corner and ran into a wall. I rebounded, falling back like I had been struck. The wall reached out and grabbed my wrist. I stopped so suddenly I thought I might’ve had whiplash.

“Whoa. Close one there,” Stallion said with a laugh, only releasing me after I found my footing. “Got someplace to be?”

“There’s a meeting today, isn’t there?” I said, still trying to get my bearings. I looked up at the mountain of a teenager and found I couldn’t see his eyes. He was wearing his ball cap pointed straight out. Strange.

“Oh, damn, really? Where?” Stallion almost instinctively grabbed the bill of his hat and lowered it while I looked at him. He looked from side to side. It was almost painful how obvious he was.

“Right here, actually,” I said, pointing to the door a few doors down from us.

Stallion flinched when I pointed. He laughed to try and cover it and rubbed the back of his head. “Oh, really? You don’t say?” He started backing up. “Hey, I hate to be that guy, but can you tell the others I couldn’t make it? Somewhere to be, something to do, you know how it...shit.”

“Wow! You guys got here early again!” Mutt called, the sounds of pounding footsteps echoing down the long hall as he ran up to us.

I looked back to see Kat and Mr. Mallard rounding the corner, but taking their time as they followed. Mutt greeted me with his usual big smile and turned to Stallion with a prepared smile for him as well.

It was very strange to see that smile slip away and a complete look of concern overtake his face in the span of seconds. Similar to Kat’s ability to lose a smile, but much, much, more jarring.

“Hey, Stallion,” Mutt said, quietly, “why do you got your hat like that?”

“Oh, this?” Stallion said with a little laugh, reaching up slightly to indicate it. “It’s nothing, Mutt. Listen—”

Mutt moved in a blur. Even though I was standing right there, I couldn’t keep up with what he did, exactly. One second he was standing still, and in the next he had moved back a step with Stallion’s hat in his hand. Mutt’s face became something so blank it almost made me sick.

His grip tightened on the hat.

“Who did it?”

His voice chilled me to the bone. There was no usual chipper tone—no joy. Instead, his words were laced with such an intense malice that I felt rooted in the spot. I only moved so I could see what it was Mutt was looking at.

It was Stallion’s revealed eyes. One of them was bruised and swollen.

“It’s cool, Mutt, really. C’mon, give me back my hat.” Stallion reached out a hand.

That’s when Mutt straight up growled. I had never heard a person growl before, but when Mutt did it he sounded like a rabid dog. Or a wolf.

“Who did it?!” Mutt nearly screamed. His words came out in a horrible snarl which echoed down the hall. His face twisted up with raw emotion.

“It was just some of my teammates messing around. It’s really no big deal, man.” Stallion’s voice was somehow calm and steady as he held up his hands. He glanced at me.

His eyes were telling me a much different story than his voice or his hands.

They were telling me to run.

“I’ll kill them,” Mutt swore, his voice now nothing more than a breathless snarl. He hurled Stallion’s hat to the ground with another blur of motion. “I’ll rip them apart!”

“Mutt.”

A new voice. A powerful voice. One I had never heard before. When I turned to spot the owner, I was expecting someone large and intimidating. Not the old and portly Mr. Mallard, who was all I saw.

The weakness in his usual voice was gone in one word that made all of us, even Mutt, fall silent.

“Heel.”

And Mutt stopped. Just like that. His shoulders slackened, his fists loosened and I watched the rage, all of it, melt from his face. He sank down to his knees and Stallion rushed over to him to keep him from collapsing. I was unable to move any further.

But I wanted to run. I wanted to so badly.

Mr. Mallard hobbled past us without looking at anyone. Stallion helped the nearly motionless Mutt back to his feet and followed him. I was vaguely aware of Kat watching me as she picked up Stallion’s discarded hat.

I still couldn’t move. I had forgotten to breathe for a moment. I wondered if this was all another dream. I even pinched my leg.

Nope, reality.

“Come on,” Kat said. She was now standing right outside room 314, facing me, her eyes expectant.

Right, the meeting.

“Ah—I think I might go home, for today,” I said, taking another step back. “Maybe next time—”

“The fog is back,” she interrupted, tilting her head towards a nearby window. “It’ll be safer to leave together.”

White clouds were all I could see out of any of the windows. We were back on that island. Isolated from the world.

Damnit. Why was it back today of all days? Still...

I took another step back, half turned away from her. “Still, I’ll be fine. You guys have fun without me.”

A firm grip on my wrist stopped me. It squeezed hard enough to hurt. I spun back and saw green eyes. How fast was she, exactly?

“Don’t risk it,” she insisted, pulling my arm slightly towards her. It was warm, so close to her. Like an aura. “Please.”

Her eyes were so unnaturally green. So bright. No one’s eyes could be that bright. They had to be fake. Nothing real could make my insides this twisted. Nothing real could change my mind so easily.

“If you would close the door behind you,” Mr. Mallard called as soon as I entered the room. I did as he said.

The carpeted classroom was mostly bare, save for the desks pushed up against the walls. A single chair remained near the center of the room in which Mr. Mallard had sat himself. Stallion and Mutt had found spots on the floor.

“Kat, could you please get our friend some tea?” Mr. Mallard asked, before turning to me and waving to the floor before him. “Have a seat.”

His voice had its soft cadence again. It made me wonder if I had imagined the way he spoke in the hallway mere moments ago. I eyed Mutt as I sat and was reminded of how real it all was.

He was pale, his expression blank. As he sat, he had his hands in his lap and seemed to be busy studying them. A stark contrast from the violent boy who threatened to kill people not even a minute ago.

Kat made her way to the teacher’s desk where I had somehow missed the familiar, fiery tea set laid out across it. I watched her back as she prepared the tea and poured the water in. She had taken off her jacket at some point since I last saw her. Her hair was cut short in the back too, the skin on the back of her neck was red. When she turned and walked back to me I straightened up.

I bit the inside of my cheek, preparing for another intense moment of eye contact, but she kept her eyes away from me as she kneeled down and handed me the cup and saucer. Did she know I was watching her? I took what she offered and held it in my hands.

“Drink. It will help calm your nerves,” Mr. Mallard instructed.

I looked down at the tea. Its color suggested it was hazelnut again. Kat’s choice. I drank it down all at once. It burned like hell, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the first time. I did not black out, either, though my brain did feel fuzzy for a nanosecond. My throat ached, but I did feel my breathing ease on its own as soon as I had finished it all.

“Now, I’m sure you have some questions,” Mr. Mallard said, even offering me an encouraging smile.

I looked back at Mutt who was still pale and staring at his hands. “Is Mutt okay?”

Mr. Mallard chuckled softly. If it was supposed to put me at ease, it had the opposite effect. “Oh, yes, he will be fine. A little winded, maybe, but he will bounce back to his old self in no time.”

I hesitated. “...What happened?”

Mr. Mallard tapped the bottom of his cane against the ground a few times. His belly rose and fell in time with his deep breathing. “Ah, now there is some new territory you might not be prepared to cross into,” he said. “For now, just understand that Mutt is special. He has a big heart and cares a great deal for his fellow club mates. It is a rare quality, and one I hope you come to appreciate, not fear.”

“But...”

Mutt was staring back at me—but there was nothing. Where once was immeasurable joy, and then terrifying rage, now there was nothing. How could one word have an effect like that?

“I know it’s not very helpful,” Mr.Mallard went on, noticing my distress, “but everyone has secrets. Personal business they only share with their closest of confidants. It has been a joy to have you with us these past few weeks, but you still have much to prove before you are one such confidant.”

My insides tightened as Mr. Mallard continued to smile. So, I still wasn’t one of them. Not really. As Kat had implied earlier, I still had more to prove. Even after a full month, I still knew next to nothing about any of them. I hung out with them, I acted nice around them, but it wasn’t enough. They needed more.

“What about if I get Mouse back?” I asked. “Will I be one of you then? Would you guys trust me?”

Mr. Mallard sat back in his chair. His smile faltered a bit. “You are one of us, I assure you,” he said. His blue eyes flashed between the others. “Though I wasn’t aware of this new development.”

“Now that we have a new member, I think he should be used to convince Mouse to return,” Kat spoke up. She was standing back by the table with the tea set, her arms folded and her eyes serious. “She won’t know he is a part of us yet, so he can speak to her freely.”

“Indeed? That is a very...forward idea, Kat, my dear.” Mr. Mallard leaned forward in his chair, both hands resting on the handle of his cane.

“Does that displease you?”

Stallion squirmed. Mutt looked between Kat and Mr. Mallard with a dull expression. I held my breath. There was something in the air between them. He stared intently at her. She did not budge. It reminded me of the first time I saw her, holding her ground before her fellow students.

Finally, Mr. Mallard sat back and laughed drily. “Not at all. It was merely a surprise. A nice surprise.” He waved a withered hand. “Please, continue.”

“My idea was to have our new member take Mouse out on a date and for her to develop feelings for him.”

As Kat pressed on, I couldn’t help but notice how she kept her attention focused on Mr. Mallard, no matter how long I stared at her.

“And why do you believe Mouse developing feelings for our young Casanova should be involved?”

“Two reasons. One, if she learns he is with us after she has already fallen for him, she will have no choice but to rejoin us. Two, if he can grab her attention and get her to develop feelings for him, it will show us that he has more potential to join than just what’s on the outside.”

“Oh, I’m not so sure,” Mr. Mallard said with a smirk, winking at me from behind those big glasses. “If Mouse is into the ‘pretty boy’ type I think our little fox could get by on looks alone.”

“How can you be so sure she would join just because I’m in it?” I asked. I was trying to poke holes in any form I could. I think Kat knew by the way she glared at me.

“You’ve never been in love,” she said, “so you wouldn’t understand.”

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from saying something very stupid. But, oh, how wrong she was.

So, then, in a way, maybe I did understand. Wasn’t she part of why I was here? Damnit, who was I kidding? She was almost the entire reason.

“Well, why did she leave you guys in the first place? If it’s something serious, do you really think she’d come back even if she did...fall for me?”

“It was just a misunderstanding—” Stallion started, until Mr. Mallard brought up his hand.

“It’s nothing that cannot be fixed,” Mr. Mallard said. “I agree with Kat that our Mouse developing feelings for you is a good first step.”

“But...”

My voice barely came out. None of them heard me. I looked at Kat, but she wouldn’t look at me. I knew she saw me, but she would not meet my eyes.

“So,” Mr. Mallard continued, turning in his seat until he was facing me, “has our new member accepted his first mission?”

She finally turned her head to meet my gaze. It was so sudden that, for a moment, I forgot I was expected to speak. “What if...”

My throat tightened. I tried to swallow, to clear it, but it was like I was being strangled. Kat still watched me. My chest felt tight.

Finally, I had to close my eyes. I lowered my head so she wouldn’t see—so none of them would see.

When had I become so weak?

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

“Did you hear that, Mutt?” Stallion said to his nearby companion, patting Mutt on the shoulder. “We’re gonna get Mouse back!”

I glanced up and felt a new wave of unease at the incredibly blank look he still had on his face.

“I suppose it is time to make it official, then,” Mr. Mallard said. He rose slowly from his chair. Kat and Stallion both moved to assist him, but he waved at them to remain sitting. We all watched as he made his way behind the teacher’s desk.

He groaned a bit as he leaned over and lifted up a present from the floor. It was wrapped in red and orange wrapping paper with a pretty white bow. He brought it from the desk and placed it on my lap.

I stared down at the present. The colorful wrappings had designs of trees and little woodland critters roaming all throughout it. I looked around to the guys, to Kat, and finally back Mr. Mallard who had sat back in his chair and was smiling at me.

“Go on.”

It was a hat. Well, more like a beanie. It was orange like the wrapping paper and had a design of what I guessed was a red animal’s head stitched onto the front of it. The little head rested inside a small white circle, helping it to stand out against the reddish-orange of the rest of the hat. It was simple in design, mostly triangle shapes, and I looked up and met Kat’s curious gaze.

“You catch on quickly,” Mr. Mallard said with an amused chuckle. “Yes, our dear Kat made that very hat.”

“You still have that thing?!” Kat exclaimed, shifting her focus from me and the hat to Mr. Mallard with wide eyes.

“But of course,” Mr. Mallard replied. “Just because most of you gave up hope does not mean I ever did.”

Kat fell silent. My throat was loosening up as I watched her glare at the ground. Something warm crept inside me when I saw the rose blossom on her face.

“Aw. Look, Mutt—Kats embarrassed!” Stallion teased.

“Shut it!” Kat hissed before shooting me a look that made me quickly hide away any funny business that might have escaped to my face. “I didn’t make the hat, I just designed the fox.”

“It’s a fox?” I asked, looking back down at the design. Sure enough, now that Kat had said it, I could see it clearly. Big upside down triangle for a head, two triangle ears, two little blue dots for eyes.

Stallion’s snickering brought back my attention and I jumped when I saw just how hard Kat was trying to kill me with a glare. “I didn’t mean anything by that!” I said, my increased heart rate matching my fumbling words. My mind was going a mile a minute. How would I make this up? How would I explain myself? I didn’t just dig my own grave. With three words, I had tripped and fallen face first into a grave already miles deep.

That’s when I caught sight of Mutt again. He was still staring at me, but some color had returned to his face. When our eyes met, a small smile started to spread. “Pretty cool, huh?” he said, giving me a thumbs up.

There was a pang in my chest. Maybe I hadn’t messed everything up. There was still a chance. I could still be strong.

I smiled back. I brought up my own thumb. I decided to speak with my heart, instead of my head.

“I love it.”

Everyone else had a piece of clothing or jewelry that signified them as a member of the Tea Drinkers. Each one was a different animal, but they all utilized Kat’s simplistic shapes. Mutt wore a dog tag that had a dog’s head engraved into it. Stallion wore a belt that had Kat’s design of a horse’s head as the buckle. Mutt and Stallion both showed them off proudly while Kat studied the ceiling.

Unfortunately, the hat was only the first part of making me an ‘official member’ of their society. I had to also be given a name. A society name, as they called it. Mutt, Stallion, Kat, and even Mr. Mallard weren’t their real names. I knew their real names: Ezekiel, George, Elizabeth, Mr. Grout, but they never called each other these. And, after a month of using their society names, anything else felt foreign on my tongue.

“So, my animal is a fox?” I asked, looking down at the little fox head sewn on the hat.

“Yes,” Kat said.

“Then, do I just pick my own name?”

“No, Mutt already—”

“Your name is Foxy!” Mutt exclaimed, racing up to me and extending a hand. “Official welcome to the society, Foxy!”

For a brief moment, I flinched. I wasn’t sure if he noticed, but I tried to hide it by giving him an irritated glare. “What if I don’t want to be called Foxy?” I asked, purposefully ignoring the extended hand and folding up my arms.

“Tough, Foxy, none of us liked our names when we got them. You get used to it,” Kat said and, despite the harsh tone, I felt the resignation already beginning to set in. I was putty in her hands.

“It really isn’t the worst name out there,” Stallion added, looking at me from under his ball cap, “and it does suit you. Man, even you have to admit that.”

“I don’t have to admit anything,” I said. I saw that Mutt still had his hand out to me. With a sigh of defeat, I grabbed it. “Except maybe that I have no choice with what you guys call me.”

Mutt grinned that grin which stretched across his face. He was gripping my hand too hard, but I smiled back.

The others came over and gave me their official greetings as well. All except for Kat. I spied her every now and then as Mutt and Stallion were discussing how awesome it was to have a new member. She had relaxed herself on the floor, her arms holding her up as she leaned back. She never appeared to be staring at anything in particular, but it definitely wasn’t anywhere near us.

I walked away from the three of them, who had all been absorbed in their own conversations. They fell silent as I kept walking, but I ignored them. She wasn’t aware of what was going on until I knelt down right in front of her. She watched me as I held up the hat I was still holding in my hand.

“Thank you. I know you didn’t make this specifically for me or anything, but you probably worked hard on it and I want you to know that I will take good care of it.” I took a breath. “And, also, I hope we can be good friends.”

Kat looked to the hat and then to me. Her face was blank, but her green eyes were ice cold and almost searching into my soul. “We’ll see how you still feel about us once you get to know the real us,” she said, looking from me to the guys who still stood behind me. “Once you get to know the real us, you won’t feel that way anymore. You won’t want anything more to do with us. But, by then—”

“Now, now, Kat, there’s no need to be rude,” Mr. Mallard chided, his voice taking on that note of authority. While Kat stared back at him, she made no move to say anything further. “Now, with this business out of the way, what say we begin our meeting and get into the details about how this date with Mouse should go?”

And that was that. I was officially a member of the society, hat and everything. We discussed the plans about the date, but I wasn’t paying the meeting much attention. I eyed Kat, who never looked in my direction, and wondered what she had been trying to say.

Was she trying to warn me? To scare me off? I glanced at Mutt, who was in the midst of explaining the variety of amazing foods they had at a particular restaurant.

Was she saying that wasn’t the real Mutt—that the one I saw in the hallway was? That they were all like that? No. Mr. Mallard was right. Mutt was just over-protective; he feels things stronger than other people. That wasn’t so abnormal. Then, what about what Kat said? Why did she say that? Was she still afraid I wasn’t sincere in my desire to be one of them?

I looked around at all of them. Mutt making elaborate hand gestures as he described the best way to eat pasta. Stallion laughing at his antics. Mr. Mallard looking both amused and intrigued. And Kat, watching them all, not laughing, not smiling, but still looking...peaceful.

It was all so fragile, what they had. There were so few of them. And just because they liked to visit graveyards, they were all social pariahs in our school. They only had each other. They needed each other. It was why they were working so hard to get Mouse back. Why Kat was so distrustful of me. Why they were all so secretive around me.

But I would prove her wrong. I would show them I needed them as much as they needed each other. And my first step towards that goal was to bring back one of our own.

I focused on the conversation with a new sense of purpose. They knew a good bit about the foods Mary liked and the things she liked to do. They gave me numerous suggestions on places to take her, gifts she might like.

They knew so much about her. I wondered if she had the same knowledge about all of them.

It fell on me to get her interested in going on a date in the first place. Kat suggested reading some of the books she liked in order to have some common ground to break the ice. Stallion and Mutt argued that I could just waltz up to her and use my ‘charm’. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at their idea, and take mental notes on Kat’s. I still knew next to nothing about what she liked—just a few ideas on the things she didn’t like. Well, besides drawing. Maybe.

But absolutely was I under no circumstances to even hint that I knew Mutt, Kat, and the others. If she even thought I might know any of them, then there would be no chance.

“Sounds like a pretty intense misunderstanding,” I said as we were leaving class, the club meeting over.

“She was the new kid, like you, a few years ago,” Stallion whispered to me. He held us back, letting the others build some distance before continuing. “She just didn’t agree with what it took to be one of us.”

“What exactly did she not agree with?” I asked, but Stallion just shook his head. “Okay then, do you really think liking me is going to make her suddenly be okay with whatever it was she didn’t agree with?”

“Loving you,” Stallion corrected, smiling and nudging me. “Loving you is gonna make her be okay with it. Don’t sweat it, Foxy, all you gotta do is go on a date with her. Everything else will just...fall into place.”

I looked at Stallion, but he ruffled my hair in return and hurried to catch up with the others. I stayed behind them until we were saying our goodbyes. They were all piling into Mr. Mallard’s car and Stallion offered me a ride home. The fog was gone, so it wasn’t necessary. I told them I would walk.

I didn’t tell them that I needed to walk.

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