After Animecon: Making Plans (Patreon)

    “So…” Brian didn’t actually know what else to say, anymore.

    You look nice today? Do you feel less crazy? What’s it like, being yanked down from THAT sort of extreme?

    He was really trying not to dwell on how kissing her was potentially brainwashing her. He’d done it because he was out of options, and while it wasn’t ideal there really wasn’t anything else he could have done. She did look nice this morning, exceptionally beautiful—with her hair falling now in pale silvery ringlets his ex-girlfriend looked otherworldly. Exquisite. Each of the girls had their own unique sort of beauty they seemed to exemplify, and Christine’s presence was full of poise and elegance.

    She was like a princess.

    “Yeah, I have no idea where we go from here,” Brian admitted, blowing out a breath. “We’re, uh. Involved with each other, for now. I realize we broke up, that you’re my ex—but also like, I don’t know what parts of uh, of all that I should treat as you, and what parts I’ve gotta… I don’t know, sweep out. Mentally. With you not exactly being Chloe, anymore.”

    “I think you two need a fresh start,” Rebecca said, adding new sticks to the firepit in preparation for lighting it up today. “Take it as though years have gone by, and you’re getting to know each other all over again?”

    “Anything is fine,” Christine said in a small voice. “Whatever you decide is okay.”

    “Being like that... uh, actually doesn’t help,” Brian admitted with difficulty. “Just going along with whatever I say. Really, really just not cool with the whole ‘maybe I mind controlled you.’”

    “Ugh, Brian. Let it go!” Rebecca mumbled under her breath in a teasing tone. “Everything’s fine! So, stop that.”

    I really, REALLY wish I could just… get past that.

    “You didn’t,” Christine blurted out. “I just. Sorry. I feel like. Like I owe you so much, that I, I—I shouldn’t have the right to, um. To do anything but what you say.”

    “Okay,” Brian sighed. “But, I guess. Christine—I don’t hate you. I don’t blame you, really, for all of the things you did back when. When, you know. You were different. Because, you are different, now. Right?”

    “I am,” Christine affirmed in a distant voice. “It’s… it’s honestly like waking up from a bad dream. A really, really long, bad dream. An-and then finding out that, um, that a lot of it wasn’t a dream? That I really did all of those terrible things. Somehow.”

    “I feel that Stephanie was right,” Rebecca said. “Chloe had some, um, some psychological issues, that maybe needed therapy, or medication, or—or who knows what! Maybe there was an imbalance? And, yes what you did was magic, but the magic just… you know. Addressed all of that. Fixed things up, so that you’re back to the way you were supposed to be?”

    “Maybe,” Christine said with a non-committal laugh. “That feels like a cop-out, though. Like just an excuse to avoid taking blame, when I really do deserve to uh. I really need to take responsibility for everything I’ve done.”

    “Trust the magic, I think is what I say,” Rebecca said. “Trust the magic.”

    “For me, that feels like a cop-out because maybe what I’ve done is just mind-control you,” Brian admitted. “Maybe that’s what I’ve done with everyone, I guess just forcing everyone to uh, to fall for me. That kinda thing.”

    “It’s not that,” Christine said with a sad shake of her head.

    “Maybe,” Brian shrugged. “I don’t know.”

    “I really don’t think it is!” Rebecca said, looking up from the fire. “It’s—Brian, it’s really annoying that you just keep circling back to that all the time!”

    “Yeah,” Brian said with a nod, in full agreement with her. “I know. Trust me, I know.”

    “I wish the charm magic did mind control me,” Christine said. “Brainwash me. That would be better. Easier. But, it doesn’t. I wish it would. Everything would be… straightforward, then. Everything would make sense. Everything would be simple.”

    “Can you, uh,” Brian paused. “Describe it, I guess? With you, the charm magic has had the most… drastic effects? You might be the best person to ask about, I don’t know. The mechanics of what you think it did, what it does. How it changes you.”

    “It fixed me,” Christine said. “I was broken. I was very broken—but, you know that. It, um. If I had to put it into words, what it did was open me. It’s as though before I was insulated from all of you, I had layers and layers of… nonsense built up between myself and each of you. Psychologically. If there’s mental or emotional paths between myself and you, those had all been barricaded off with… nonsense junk. Labels, cruel thoughts, maybe me projecting my own issues out. All of the lines between myself and others were poisoned with so much hate.”

    Brian stared at Christine, but Christine’s eyes were pointed off in the distance somewhere, her expression hollow and defeated.

    “I guess the charm, it… yeah, it just fixed me,” Christine gave them a shrug of her shoulders. “Cleaned out those paths, opened them up. It’s a very… raw feeling. It’s very vulnerable, feeling exposed now where before I had built up such crazy… defenses. There’s no filters over my perception of you all anymore, and suddenly, it’s. I don’t know how to describe it. I immediately empathize and connect with each of you, now. While before even when we were speaking, I wasn’t hearing much of what you actually ever said. I was listening to you, but just listening for, well, for hooks, for material I could use against you, for things to better pad my arguments with.

    “Now, when you speak, when each of you speak, I hear you. It’s very very different. I-I um, and the attraction, it’s. Immediate. Maybe because there’s no distance or filters between us, anymore, it’s—it’s as though having feelings for you isn’t something that has to pass through all of these barriers and filter past all of these… mental checkpoints and criteria and examining it through the lens of my ego, anymore. They’re just right there. The feelings. Right away. Just, immediately close. Raw.”

    “I do think I get it,” Brian gave her a sober nod. “I’ve felt that. With the girls. The charm definitely helps… connect us.”

    “What’s goin’ on?” Emily finally returned, trudging over to join them around the firepit. “You all look so super serious. Like someone died. Which would be dumb, ‘cause we purposefully worked so hard at making sure we didn’t do that, last night. We saved Christine. You better not be getting all broody again, or so help me God…”

    “We were just talking!” Rebecca assured her. “Emily—pants!”

    “Pants, schmants, it’s way too early for pants,” Emily scoffed. “We got Kelly her coffee, she told me to tell you she’s cool with just drinking it cold. Which is gross, yeah, but hey—I’m just the messenger.”

    “I’m going to start the fire anyways,” Rebecca said. “So we can have campfire toast.” 

    “Sounds good,” Emily shrugged. “Need me to grab anything else?”

    “Sticks? Please.”

    “Okay, so—plan of action,” Brian said, rubbing his jaw. “Christine, you’re with us for now, so we may have to… re-figure out our living arrangements, back there at the apartment. Kelly and Emily have both been staying there, but yeah if it gets too crowded Emily also still has her room back with her family there in Seneca, too.”

    “Hey, whoa whoa whoa—” Emily began to protest. “I’m not going any—”

    “Emily should stay with you,” Christine interrupted. “I can sleep on the couch. I should sleep on the couch. I never did, even back when we were… whenever we were fighting. You always did, Brian. Me sleeping out there, that’s uh. Long overdue.”

    “I’m gonna be trying to focus on getting back to work, or getting my job back,” Brian said with a sigh. “Even if I can’t get back at the packing plant again, I could go all the way back and work through the temp agency again. They’re the ones who got me started at the packing plant in the first place.”

    “I can work again,” Christine offered. “I’ll start putting in applications.”

    “Lucca Italiano will have an opening, probably,” Emily suggested, tossing a single stick onto the pile Rebecca had started. “You could try there. They were needing more servers even before I bailed. You’re all gorgeous anyways so you’ll pull crazy tips, probably. You pretty ones always do, ugh.”

    Didn’t you say back then your tips were hurting because you started getting all sarcastic with customers who were being snappy with you or having attitude?

    Dressed in just her shirt and sneakers, Emily was pacing around just in the near vicinity looking for more wood for the fire—obviously wanting to linger around for the conversation rather than stray too far away. She didn’t have long, elegant legs like Christine but she did still have great legs, Brian realized. Cute, kissable thighs, a nice butt. It was hard not to grow distracted as they were trying to figure out their game plan.

    “Well. Kelly said she’s at Dollarydoos in town,” Brian remembered. “We’re going to have to figure out a uh, a schedule, I guess. Until we can get another vehicle, since that’d be way too long of a walk. My plant shifts, and yeah even the temp agency shifts, they both started at six.”

    “I can find some place close in town to work and just walk,” Christine shrugged. “It’s only fair.”

    “Or, I can wake up early, ride with Brian to work, then drive his car back,” Emily said. “So that it’s available for Kelly to drive to work whenever her shift starts. Or Christine’s job—you know, whoever. I don’t want to work again if I can help it, but I will if we need me to. Can apply at Marino’s in town there, or wherever. Just so long as we have someone stayin’ home and takin’ care of all the domestic stuff, too. Dishes, laundry, cooking. Being the horny battered stay-at-home housewife. Barefoot and pregnant, in the kitchen.”

    “Emily…really?” Rebecca shook her head.

    Rather than a joke, that felt like a not-so-subtle probe on Emily’s part, but when Brian glanced over to see Christine’s reaction, she seemed indifferent to the teasing. Chloe would have already been glaring daggers at those remarks or vocal in expressing her outrage and disgust—even in the months past way before AnimeCon Emily had picked up on using chauvinistic jokes simply because she knew they would get a rise out of Chloe.

    “If I can get a forklift job back somewhere, that can pretty much cover rent and utilities,” Brian shook his head. “Just, might need Kelly or someone else working part time—at least one other person, so that money doesn’t get tight for food and, well, basics I guess. With four or more of us there.”

    “I can help,” Rebecca offered. “I have my own vehicle, too, so. That can help. If you’re okay with five?”

    “Ooh, yeah,” Emily said. “I do think we should start uh, integrating Rebecca into our plans. If she’s gonna be with us. Which she obviously should.”

    “I—” Brian opened his mouth as if to counter, but to his surprise found he pretty much agreed with her. “Yeah, that… that makes sense. She’s in on our secret already with the charm stuff, we owe her a lot for what she’s done here, and. Well. I trust her. I’d love to have her with us as part of the group, you know—if she’s willing.”

    “I am!” Rebecca lit up with a smile. “So long as everyone’s okay with it.”

    “I am,” Brian affirmed. “Christine?”

    “Of course.”

    “I just assumed she was gonna be with us,” Emily nodded. “So, we’ll just run it by Steph and Kell? They’ll both be down. And, Steph is still finishing her semester, so she’s the only one who won’t be with us?”

    “I think whatever happens, I’ll still spend most nights at my grandparent’s place,” Rebecca said. “My Prince Charming is there, and I’ve been missing him terribly.”

    “Ooh, right, Rebecca has a cat,” Emily said. “We’re all cool with cats, right? In case Rebecca does move in?”

    “I’m cool,” Brian shrugged. “No allergies, or anything. Just, yeah. Gonna be getting super crowded.”

    “Rebecca, you’re still working at the nursing home?” Emily asked.

    “I’m not sure if I’ll go back this season,” Rebecca shrugged. “I have enough saved that I don’t need to, for a while—and with everything going on here, and then the ren faire coming up? I might be too busy.”

    “I think… I guess we need to plan to move,” Brian said. “Soon as the lease is up. The apartment’s really just supposed to be comfortable for two. Four is only gonna work if we’re real uh, ‘cozy.’ Five with Rebecca, six with Stephanie when her semester is up? It won’t work there, not at that place.”

    “So, we save up,” Emily discovered a nearby twig and snatched it up and then tossed it towards Rebecca’s pile of sticks. “If we each grab jobs for a bit, it’ll add up really fast. Grindmaxxing, yo. Getting our sigma grindset on.”

    “I’ll work part time, and then I’ll also do all of the household chores,” Christine spoke up again. “It’s only fair, after… after doing neither. For so long throughout the relationship, back when we were together, I was just a drain. I didn’t contribute anything except problems. I can manage doing both work and chores, now. I think I need to.”

    “We’ll see,” Brian mused. “I don’t want you overdoing it. We’ll also plan on driving out together to talk to your parents. Give your dad back all of that money.”

    “Okay,” Christine shrugged.

    “Ugh, kinda a waste though,” Emily made a face. “I mean, if she already has it…”

    “We didn’t earn it,” Brian shook his head. “Feel like we’re better off, uh, settling out accounts. Squaring everything off, so that we can put it behind us and move forward.”

    “He might not want any of it back,” Christine said, staring down at her hands. “He might demand we return all of it. I’m not sure how he’ll… how he’ll take any of this. Me lying to him, for so long. How I’ve acted, or even how I’ve changed. He may not understand. He may be forgiving, he may be furious. I just… I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

    “I’ll be there with you when we talk to him,” Brian said. “So—whatever happens, you won’t have to talk to him alone.”

    “Thank you,” Christine said in a small voice. “I, also um. I think even just past our… our close group, our harem. I’d like to make sure you have time for your friends, too. Michael, Will. Mark and Becca and everyone. I—back when I was Chloe, I was. I was working to isolate you from them, to make you feel excluded. More socially vulnerable, so that you would be easier to… manipulate. I… I want to make sure that we make that right. That we can fix that.”

    “I actually appreciate that,” Emily spoke up before the stunned Brian could muster a response.

    “A lot. Yeah. Thank you, Christine,” Emily said. “I, uh. I don’t think I’m gonna be able to just pretend like we’re suddenly besties, after everything, but. I appreciate it, and yeah—I’m gonna try, really try, to uh. To clamp down on all these instant, intense urges to just hate you and antagonize you in any way possible. And, hopefully the magic’ll come along in little blue sprinkles and help with that, but yeah. We def need to get together and pull Brian back out to a bonfire with everyone at Aunt Mattie’s place. Like the old days. Properly introduce Kelly, and everything. Yeah. Cool. Okay, you can all stop staring at me.”

    * * *

    Brian made a short trip out through the adjoining woods to help Emily find more sticks for the morning campfire, Rebecca made a trip down to the car to collect the food, and Christine was left to her own devices at the fire pit. She felt distinctly uncomfortable being without supervision for even a moment, all of the sudden hyper aware that right now no one was minding her even though she wasn’t in her restraints. That restless feeling began with a fidgeting leg that she forced herself to still, and then she stood up and fought the compulsion to pace back and forth.

    She wanted to follow Rebecca down to the car where Stephanie and Kelly were, but after a few steps in that direction, she balked and returned to the fire. Then, she started in the direction of Brian and Emily out amidst the trees—they were distant but still somewhat in sight. Christine stopped at the periphery of the cabin clearing, unable to head that way, either. After all, who was she to intrude on them, when maybe they needed a moment alone to talk?

    I just—they shouldn’t trust me to be alone, Christine tried to rationalize the dreadful feeling. No one can see what I’m up to. I don’t like it. Don’t like it at all—what if something happened? What if there was still a bit of, I don’t know, CRAZY? Lingering on in me. Someone should be watching me.

    Rubbing absentmindedly at her bare wrists, she found herself wishing they had thought to restrain her before they wandered off.

    Stop it. I’m being overdramatic, Christine told herself. This is going to happen more and more. They’re going to spool out more and more trust for me, to I guess see what I do with it. To see if I hang myself with it. I just, I wish they wouldn’t. It’s a lot more comfortable just being tied up and secure. I don’t want them to have to worry or wonder when I’m going to fuck all of this up and hurt everyone again.

    She started to pace back and forth.

    Don’t like being alone with my thoughts, either. Nothing good to think about. Would rather have something to focus on. Anything.

    Christine needed something to do, so she began to search out sticks for the fire. There weren’t any nearby, not after a month of Rebecca regularly cooking here, but all the same Christine picked her way through the brush along the edge of the clearing and managed to fill one hand with some little twigs. She needed to feel productive—she wanted to prove that she was useful and trustworthy. Idling by with only her thoughts for company wasn’t going to send her spiraling towards a panic attack, because she found something to do.

    Without realizing it, her frantic fingertips had snapped the little sticks she found into halves, and then into quarters. By the time Christine noticed what she was doing, rather than twigs she was holding a loose handful of chaff. She told herself it just made for better tinder for the fire.

    * * *

    “I think… we had better head back up, now,” Stephanie sighed. “They left Christine alone for a minute.”

    “Is that a problem?” Kelly asked.

    “It might be for her,” Stephanie closed the car door. “She’s—I don’t know how to describe it. Working herself up into a panic? I think she’d feel better if someone could keep an eye on her.”

    “Okay,” Kelly nodded slowly. “I guess we can indulge her? Rebecca, hey! Need us to grab anything?”

    “I’ve got it!” Rebecca called over from her vehicle. “I think this is everything. I hope you like french toast?”

    “Rebecca,” Kelly stared. “I fucking love french toast.”

    “I do, too!” Stephanie agreed.

    They hadn’t had much to eat yesterday evening, and she was feeling a little famished. She really hoped she would be able to eat. As they marched back up the steep incline, Kelly’s hand at the small of her back to help steady her amidst the clods of gravel and scraggly weeds that dotted the tire ruts… Stephanie wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep her appetite. Having Christine plugged into the invisible network of emotions she was tapped into was going to be a challenge.

    It’s like just a subtle undertone of STRESS, Stephanie frowned. Like, when I was passing by the power station on my bike over the summer, and there was that faint something in the air. Like my ears were ringing from a sound I couldn’t quite hear.

    As they reached the summit of the little hill and Christine made eye contact with them however, the strange pitch stopped. Or perhaps then the notes of shame and relief whirling off of the young woman made the subtle keening beneath too difficult to detect. Stephanie smiled at Christine, and the relief in the air grew, but then chasing after it a moment later the shame also expanded, as if not to be outdone.

    Hmm. I guess things would be a little too simple if just a smile and some kind words could mend everything that’s going on with her.

    Kelly followed Stephanie up and they stepped over to share a seat on one of the logs, while Rebecca coming up after them held a paper bag against herself with one hand and carried a half-dozen long, thin metal implements in the other. On closer inspection the tools had handles on one end and forked into two prongs on the other—they were campfire skewers. Brian and Emily tromped out of the trees to join them, and everyone was gathered.

    Okay. That’s a lot.

    Stephanie furrowed her brow as she tried to differentiate the four different streams of emotion which began to pool together into noise. Brian, Kelly, Emily, and Christine. Each of them had their own unique flavor, but focusing on them made it a little overwhelming and hard to distinguish what her own personal feelings were. Last night this had been easier, but then again last night Stephanie had started to feel the strain and just lock in on feeling one thing at a time. Anger. Worry. Affection.

    Her empathy had dropped in range and instead started to funnel certain things at greater strength, whereas this morning she was once again picking up nuance from each of them in a way that was disorienting.

    “You okay?” Kelly gave her shoulder a nudge with her own.

    “Yeah. Yeah,” Stephanie said, rubbing her temples. “Um. It’s distracting?”

    “What is?” Brian asked, dropping an armful of branches into the fire pit. “Emily’s legs?”

    “Thank you,” Emily gave him a little kick as she dropped her own bundle of sticks in.

    She still wasn’t wearing pants.

    “Steph?” Rebecca asked, looking concerned.

    “Brian feels better,” Stephanie said, pointing. “It’s like the ground is back beneath his feet and, um, and he can see a way forward again. It’s much better. Emily’s… a big sloshy mess of feelings? I have no idea.”

    “Same,” Emily said.

    “Christine, she’s uh, it feels like licking a battery,” Stephanie reported. “Can someone please hug her. Then, Kelly… is bored. Bored and hungry?”

    “I coulda told you that,” Kelly teased. “Uhh. I mean, sorry? I dunno. I feel like we did what we could, now let’s move on?”

    “Here,” Rebecca set down the bag and the skewers on top of the big cooler chest, and then opened her arms towards Christine. “Hug, hug.”

    “I—you don’t have to,” Christine grimaced, walking forward with her shoulders raised.

    “Then, I don’t read anything from Rebecca,” Stephanie finished. “Sorry, I—just, when it’s all together and it doesn’t… blend? It’s so hard to concentrate.”

    They watched as Rebecca took Christine by the shoulders and then helped them downwards, until the girl’s posture was more relaxed. The tangle of silver was especially beautiful here in the daylight, and Rebecca carefully combed Christine’s hair out a bit before moving in for an actual hug.

    “Mmmmh-mmhhhh!!” Rebecca gave her a big squeeze. “Any better?”

    “Um,” Stephanie closed her eyes, trying to zero in on Christine. “Now she’s just embarrassed…”

    “Savage,” Emily remarked. “So, uh. What’s for breakfast?”

    “Campfire toast!” Rebecca announced, releasing Christine and giving the girl a comforting pat. “I make really good campfire toast. Even Chloe couldn’t resist, and she was on hunger strike.”

    The squirming sensation of Christine’s embarrassment in her gut made Stephanie blanch and want to wriggle in her seat. It was—uncomfortable, in a way that tickled shame and prodded self-awareness but didn’t exactly engage with either in a direct way. In a rare moment of clarity Stephanie was able to see that Emily recognized the awkward situation and had actually been trying to help by immediately changing the subject to breakfast. Brian just felt awkward at the exchange, and Kelly’s emotional representation might as well have been pointedly tucking in a napkin and raising silverware as if urging them to hurry up.

    Stephanie let a giggle slip out.

    “Oh?” Kelly laughed. “You felt that? I was trying to like, broadcast that one at ya.”

    “Yeah, I just—wait, wait!” Stephanie held up her hands. “Christine, we’re not laughing at you. Kelly just… went all get on with it, I’m hungry, at me, and it was… jarring. Um. Emily, can you try hugging? It’s weird when Rebecca does it, because she’s a blind spot for me.”

    “Uh—” Emily opened her mouth.

    “I can do it?” Brian offered.

    Everyone seemed to pause and look over at him.

    “You really don’t have to,” Christine put on a bitter smile. “I’m okay.”

    While Christine’s body language only stiffened a bit and her expression gave little away, the emotions beneath that mirror surface spiked, acrid with terror and also vibrating with raw need. The need wasn’t sexual this time, it was a desperate plea for affection, a deep-seated and overpowering desire for the safety and comfort of simply being held in Brian’s arms. It was so strong that it jolted Stephanie up off her butt and to her feet, so powerful that now Stephanie also felt the need for that hug.

    “Yes,” Stephanie insisted, pointing at them again. “You do have to. Brian; hug. Please.”

    “You don’t have to,” Christine said again, still frozen in place.

    It wasn’t as convincing that time.

    “Okay. Well,” Rebecca clapped her hands. “Maybe yeah they should hug, but I guess they probably don’t need us all gawking? This time. Hah. Emily; eggs in the cooler, big mixing bowl is, too. I think for six of us, if you can crack open… let’s do ten? And stir them up, please.”

    “On it, boss,” Emily saluted.

    “Kelly, Stephie?” Rebecca took sticks from the pile and began to arrange them together at an angle in the pit. “Have you ever used flint and steel, before?”

   * * *

    Brian tried to think back to the last time he and Chloe had hugged, and he was drawing a blank. Crossed arms and frowns came to mind, and he remembered reading her body language on so many different occasions and deciding she was telling him to give her some space. She had never been one for touching or being too close, she hadn’t been one for public displays of affection.

    Or, maybe ANY displays of affection, Brian tried not to frown as he considered it. Fuck. When WAS the last time we hugged?

    It was possible they had exchanged one of those one-armed half hugs in greeting or parting, way back when they had very first started dating. It was a very distant memory now. By contrast, it was easier to remember that before Chloe, his first girlfriend Alyssa had been downright grabby. She had leaned on him, she loved putting her arms around his shoulders or simply pressing up against him.

    Things seemed similar to that with his girls, now. Emily and him were pretty comfortable getting into each other’s personal space, and Stephanie seemed to adore hugging him. He remembered embracing Kelly and feeling her tears back in the vendor’s hall of the convention, even. But when was the last time he and Chloe had shared a proper hug? They had been together for two years, they had been cohabitating already.

    Really stupid thought, but— Brian looked into Christine’s eyes. But, what if ALL of this craziness with her could’ve been avoided? Maybe she just needed a hug.

    He took another step closer, and opened his arms in invitation. Christine stared at him in a daze, and he watched as her lips parted slightly. She seemed ready to shrink back into herself, she was hunching up, holding both arms near her stomach as if unsure whether she should cross them and be defensive or use them to close the distance between them. Her red eyes were filled with fear, and she seemed unable to make a move either way.

    So, he took a deep breath and made a motion himself, wrapping his arms around her. She let out a small, startled squeak, and for several seconds Christine’s body seemed rigid with surprise. Then, small, cautious hands were felt on his sides as she held him in return. It was still a bit like having a stranger in his arms, however, so Brian’s hand slid up her back to cup the back of her head and he pulled her even closer, until her face was nestled in beside his neck.

    Only then did she finally begin to relax against him, and though he felt her inhale deeply as though she might cry, no sob seemed to come out. Her breathing sped up and then slowed down and Christine melted into his embrace. In turn, he felt a strong surge of relief—validation of some sort, a silver-speckled warm rush as if he was confirming things between them she wouldn’t have dared to ask. It was strange but also fulfilling as their magic presence brushed against one another and overlapped this tiniest bit along the edges.

    Usually it’s checking the mirror to see if you’re okay, Brian thought, slowly rubbing up and down Christine’s back with his free hand. This time, it’s like the reflection on the other side is what needed to check—but couldn’t until I stepped up to the mirror.

    Over Christine’s shoulder where the girls were crouched over the firepit, he saw Stephanie’s shoulders droop, and then the pink-haired girl wore a smile of contentment and simply let herself sag against Kelly. Kelly slipped an arm around her to help bear her weight, and the sticks she had been helping feed into the firepit were abandoned. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but a glance flicking over at Brian and Christine closed it again.

    Rolling her eyes, Kelly put on a smirk and hugged Stephanie tight.

    “Aw, fuck,” Emily swore from where she was off to his side by the cooler. “Alright, I’m gonna level with you guys. There’s gonna be some eggshell fragments in here.”

    “Emily!” Rebecca hissed. “Sshh! They were having a moment!”

    “Yeah I know,” Emily said. “S’what got me all distracted, fuck.”

    “Emily,” Brian sighed. “Just pick out the pieces.”

    “I’m trying,” Emily protested. “I’m like, chasing this little bit around the bowl with my finger here tryin’ to get it out of the goop. It’s a slippery fucker.”

    “You um,” Christine lifted her head and then nuzzled in closer against Brian. “It’s because there’s a little bit of invisible egg white around it. You can’t use your finger, you have to scoop it out with another bit of shell. It works.”

    “Yeah, and get your finger out of our food!” Kelly griped. “Seriously.”

    “I washed my hands, duh.”

    “That doesn’t give you carte blanche to poke your grubby fingers into what we’re gonna eat.”

    “Actually? It kinda does,” Emily said. “Oh, hey. It worked? Good call on the shell, Christine.”

    “You—” Christine tensed in Brian’s arms. “You’re welcome.”

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