At least it wasn’t raining.

Ester had stopped running and started trudging forward with her shoulders hunched and her head hanging low. Sometimes she’d pass someone on the sidewalk, but only nodded in reply to their greeting. Every time someone stared at her backpack in confusion, wondering why a student was still walking around the neighborhood so late in the evening with their backpack, Ester would feel herself break out into a cold sweat.

“Just keep walking,” Ester told herself.

She had a vague idea of where she was, not that it mattered. She was just walking. And she’d keep walking until… something. Something had to happen. Right? She wasn’t just going to curl up at the bus stop and fall asleep, was she?

There was a cough nearby and Ester jumped, then picked up her pace. Shadows were stretching and the world was covered in a yellow glow. It would get dark soon.

Her walking brought her, eventually, to a familiar house. Ester watched from far enough away that nobody inside would be able to see unless they were looking for her. Both of her parents’ and Carla’s cars were out front. They were all home.

“I can’t do this,” she realized, burying her head in her hands.

Carla was in there. Ester’s sister would do anything to help her. And she wouldn’t let their parents stand in her way. If nothing else, Ester would have a bed for the night. Then in the morning, when the spell was broken, her parents would realize that they were wrong and—

Ester started to sob.

“They can’t be bad parents,” Ester told herself, swallowing a lump in her throat.

But they did throw her out. And knocking on that door meant having to face them again. Carla was probably up in her room anyway and wouldn’t be the one to answer the door.

“Maybe if I throw a rock at her window…”

No, she’d almost certainly be seen. Who else could she go to? Ester pulled out her phone and cycled through her contacts.

Her old friends wanted nothing to do with her. She could call Thomas if she had his number in this phone, but she didn’t. Nor did she know Tamara or Khloe’s number. Most of the people in her phone were April’s friends, and they weren’t going to side with her over April.

Ester took a deep breath and started walking up to her old house. Blood was pounding in her ears with every step she took. But finally she was at the front door, and raised her hand.

Stephanie’s warning replayed in her head: “I just worry that you think it’s going to be all sunshine and rainbows when you return home to your parents, and that you might be disappointed if it’s the same as when you left.”

“I don’t want to go back to the way things were…”

She did know two other addresses by heart, though.

“No,” Ester told herself, lowing her hand, “I can’t go back to Anton. After all I said to him, he’d never… I wouldn’t deserve his forgiveness anyway.”

And the other address was Sue’s.

It was really late and would get dark soon. Sue was in a different neighborhood altogether, kind of far away. And Ester had given her just as much grief as she’d given Anton over the past few weeks. But she didn’t hate Ester.

Sue was a good person.

Ester turned and started walking away from the house. As she did so, she thought that she heard the doorknob click and took off into a run. She didn’t stop until she was a couple of houses away, then turned around. The door was closed.

“I must have imagined it,” she mumbled.

Ester kept walking. She took a deep breath as the sun started to dip over the horizon and the world grew darker. This was going to be a long walk and she felt very, very exposed.

It was properly night by the time Ester got to Sue’s neighborhood. Every rustle in the darkness made Ester jump. By the time she finally reached Sue’s house, Ester was a fidgety mess.

She hammered on the door. When there wasn’t an immediate response, she continued. The door finally swung open to reveal a middle-aged man wearing a scowl.

“Can I help you?!” he asked.

As soon as he saw the condition Ester was in, though, his expression softened.

“Can I talk to Sue?” she asked.

“What’s… are you okay?”

“Please, I need to talk to Sue.”

“Okay… come on inside.”

Ester stood in the front parlor while Sue’s father went to get her. There was a small couch and a couple of chairs, along with a china cabinet. The coffee table was covered in small books instead of magazines. Somewhere else in the house, Ester could hear a TV playing.

She felt out of place here, even though she’d been here plenty of times before as Eli. This felt like part of her old life. The truth was that Ester didn’t belong here.

“Eli?” Sue asked, entering the room with her arms folded, “What are you doing here?”

“I… I don’t have anywhere to go, Sue.”

“I don’t understand.”

Ester sat down on edge of the small couch and continued, “I broke the curse. I’m going to go back to normal now. But I can’t stay in April’s house. And I can’t just go back to my parents after what they did. I have nowhere else to go.”

Sue frowned and looked away, saying, “I’m sorry. But… I don’t understand. Why did you come here? I made it clear that I don’t want anything to do with you. Anyone else would have been better.”

“I don’t have anyone else, Sue,” Ester insisted, tears welling up in her eyes, “You’re the only person who doesn’t hate me.”

“Nobody hates you, Eli,” Sue told her, but refused to look her in the eye.

“They do. And I deserve it, too. I’ve been a shitty friend. But I did it. I broke the curse. Things are going to go back to normal now. I just need a place to stay for the night and everything will be fine in the morning—”

“Eli, no!” Sue cried, “You can’t stay here.”

“But I—”

“You can’t stay here,” Sue insisted. Her eyes were wide, but steely. “You can’t sleep here, we can’t be friends, we certainly can’t go back to the way things were—”

“Why not?” Ester demanded, “That’s what you wanted, right?”

“It was… but things have changed, Eli.”

“What things?”

“Just… things, okay?”

Ester curled her hands into fists and stood up.

“It’s not okay,” she said, “What aren’t you telling me, Susan?”

“I have a new boyfriend!”

Ester’s jaw dropped. For a moment, they were both silent. Sue blinked and looked away.

“How?” Ester asked, “It’s only been a month.”

“Yes, a whole month,” Sue replied, “A whole month all on my own. I got lonely, Eli. And there was someone who wanted to be there for me.”

“Who?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes!”

“Why?”

Ester growled, “I think I have a right to know who my girlfriend was cheating on me with.”

“We broke up,” Sue reminded her.

“I was always going to come back,” Ester replied, “You wanted me to come back.”

“Were you coming back to me? Because you seemed eager to jump into the deep end at every opportunity. And as for cheating—you went out with a boy yesterday.”

“It was a mistake,” Ester mumbled, but she couldn’t look Sue in the eye.

“And so was my trying to wait on you. I’m sorry. You have to go.”

“At least tell me who it is,” Ester pleaded.

Sue sighed and admitted, “It’s Leon.”

Ester felt her world shatter.

“…Leon? Are you serious, Sue? He threatened me! More than once!”

“Get out, Eli.”

“How can you think that it’s a good idea to go out with that shit stain of all people?!”

“He cares for me!” Sue retorted, tears in her eyes now, “And he was willing to keep our relationship secret until I was ready to tell people. Not that you care. I bet you’re going to tell everyone now. Figures. You’ve spent this whole month trying to ruin my life.”

“I can’t believe you’d do this…”

“Get out, Eli. I’m calling Leon and telling him about this.”

“You can’t!”

“He’ll come. You don’t want to be here when he does.”

She stormed out of the room. Ester stood there with her mouth agape. Her mind was blank.

But Sue was right. Leon would come if he knew Ester was here. And he wouldn’t be done with Ester until she was struggling to breathe.

Ester ran out the front door. It was fully night out, street lights on and everything. She didn’t know where she was going, but she didn’t slow down. Ester had to get as far away from Sue’s house as possible.

“I’m fucked,” she realized, once she’d finally slowed down, “Leon is going to actually murder me. I have to get somewhere safe. I’m so tired. What am I fucking doing?”

There was no helping it: she’d need to go back to her parents. Ester would promise to sleep on the front porch if she had to. Or, failing that, there were woods behind her house that she could sleep in. She had no food, so there wasn’t much chance of being attacked by a coyote.

It was just for the night. In the morning, she’d be a boy again and everything would be normal. As long as Ester held onto that, she’d be fine.

A bright light appeared at the end of the road, and Ester had to shield her eyes. Someone’s car was coming toward her with its brights on. She cursed under her breath and looked away. Ester kept walking, but realized that the car was slowing as it got closer.

Finally, it stopped and several people got out.

“Ellie, there you are.”

Her blood ran cold.

When Leon came into the bright headlights, he was sneering.

Ester ran. She ran faster than she had ever run in her entire life. Her lungs were burning. The sound of footsteps behind her stayed close.

She turned toward one of the houses, but headed for the backyard. It wasn’t fenced in, so she could see the woods behind the house. Ester would lose them in the trees.

“Come back here, you bitch!” someone called after her, but she just found another burst of speed.

Ester crashed through the underbrush, covering her face with her hands. She had to duck around low-hanging branches. Even with a full moon, it was almost pitch black out here and she was terrified for falling over a rock.

Moments after she made it past the tree line, Ester could hear the Boys behind her thrashing around in the bushes. They were right behind her. Ester gasped and pushed herself until her legs screamed in pain.

“You’re only making it worse for yourself!” Leon cried out.

Where was she going? Ester could make it to her house this way, but what was the point? And the only other house she knew she could reach was Anton’s. He was much closer. Ester needed that.

She took a hard left, avoiding as much of the underbrush as she possibly could. If they couldn’t hear her, they couldn’t follow her easily. Ester needed as much of a head start as possible if someone was going to open the door in time.

Her lungs burned and Ester started to stumble. The Boys were getting closer, jeering at her more loudly. But she was close to Anton’s house. Ester could see the lights in the windows.

Breaking out of the forest, Ester cried out. No words, just a frustrated scream. Just to get someone’s attention.

“Fuck no!” Leon growled.

Ester felt a hand on her shoulder, and then someone yanked her back. A hand covered her mouth and people started grabbing her arms as she flailed. Ester tried to bite the hand on her mouth, but she was being held too tightly. They started to drag her away, and she whimpered.

Then something collided with them, sending the whole group sprawling. Ester was thrown free and gasped for air. People around her were grappling and shouting. Someone’s elbow came down hard on her gut and Ester cried out in pain.

A loud bang filled the air, and the shouting stopped. People started scrambling to their feet and ran toward the woods. Ester felt someone grab her and she scratched at them, but they just tightened their grip and pulled her up.

Her legs were weak and she was out of breath. In the light of the house she could see a man on the porch with a rifle in his hands. Then she turned her attention to the person who was holding her. It was Anton, smiling at her.

Ester’s legs gave out, and she collapsed into Anton’s arms.

“It’s okay,” he said softly, “I’ve got you. Come on, let’s get inside.”