"What if we've already missed it? What if we were meant to find that card earlier today? What if we were supposed to go to the occult place before they closed?"

We were back in the den again, Alexis was pacing back and forth while I sat on the sofa.

I reminded her, "We'll be there tomorrow. It's only one day."

"I know Chloe, it's just..." she sighed. "We wasted two hours sitting around doing web searches. If we'd gone to the corner store earlier we'd have found the card sooner. We could have gone straight from there to that pagan boutique."

She shook her head, "What if whatever happened, it was meant to happen tonight?"

"The weekend's not over till Monday night Lexi," I reminded her. "We have two more whole days to figure this out. Now c'mon, stop pacing and sit down. Worrying like this isn't going to help."

She sighed again but came and sat down next to me on the sofa. "I hope you're right. I should have realized sooner that I wasn't having any more of those deja-vu things. I should have figured out that we needed to do something else, that searching the web wasn't working."

"Stop beating yourself up, ok?" I tried to sound positive and confident. "Now how about we order in something for dinner? And maybe play some more of that game? Might help you to relax."

Alexis took a deep breath then nodded, "Yeah ok. You're right, worrying's not going to help any."

I smiled, then asked "Do you think Primo's will be open tonight? I kind of missed our regular pizza last night."

She got a distant look then slowly shook her head. "They're still closed."

"Another deja-vu?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Same as last night."

I tried anyways, but she was right. The phone just rang, nobody answered. It wasn't a good sign, them being closed Friday and Saturday night of a long weekend.

"I hope everything's ok with them." I shook my head, then asked "So what do you feel like instead? Or what did we order the first time around?"

Lexi looked kind of uncertain, then she shrugged "I don't know. I don't actually feel like ordering anything. Maybe I'll go see what your mom left us in the fridge, if that's ok?"

That surprised me, we always just ordered in. But I shrugged "Sure, I haven't really paid attention to what she left in there."

Fifteen minutes later Alexis had a frozen lasagna in the oven and we were back in the den getting ready to return to the video game. We had a couple glasses of cola, and I opened the bag of pretzels to give us something to snack on while we waited for dinner. The lasagna was going to take an hour or whatever.

As we both got settled onto the sofa again I asked, "Lexi? Everything ok? Are those deja-vu things still freaking you out?"

She nodded slowly, "Yeah. It's like, when they weren't happening I started to worry things were going wrong? But when they do happen it kind of freaks me out."

I sighed, "Sorry Lexi. I wish there was more I could do to help. But we're going to figure this out. I'm sure of it."

She smiled slightly, "Thanks Chloe. I hope you're right."

We spent the next hour focused on the game. It was starting to get harder now to clear the levels, like the first half of the game had been warm-up or something and now it was getting serious. The pretzels and drinks were all but forgotten as both of us just focused on killing monsters and recovering the scattered pieces.

We paused it for dinner when the food was ready. The lasagna wasn't half bad actually. It wasn't very big though and between the two of us we didn't leave any leftovers, so we'd have to cook again in the morning if we wanted breakfast.

After we were done we tidied up the kitchen then got back to the game again.

It wasn't exactly relaxing, as the game got kind of intense now and then. But I figured it was still a good distraction, like it seemed to help Lexi stop worrying about the other stuff for now.

We played a few more hours till she finally asked, "Chloe? I think I could use a break again. Maybe that's enough for tonight, if that's ok with you?"

I nodded "Yeah no problem Lexi."

She waited till we finished clearing the current level, both our characters levelled up and unlocked some more skills and stuff. We got all our bonuses and everything, then saved our progress. According to the menu we were almost three-quarters through now, we'd collected all but seven pieces of the cauldron.

As I turned everything off I commented, "Looks like we might actually finish this tomorrow? Or Monday anyways. Depends how much harder it gets towards the end, I guess."

Alexis nodded. "It's not half bad, actually. I mean for one of your dusty old retro games, it's pretty good. It must have been pretty popular back when it was new."

I shook my head "It should have been, but the studio went bust before they could release it. From what I've read there was only about a hundred demo discs made. That's why it's so rare, that's why nobody's heard of it."

"Huh," she frowned slightly, then picked up her glass and drained the last of her soda.

I sat back down on the sofa and had some of mine. She'd bought diet cola this time and it didn't taste quite as good as the regular stuff, but I didn't say anything. I wasn't sure if she'd grabbed the diet stuff by mistake or if it was intentional.

"Hey Chloe?" Alexis was staring at the floor again and her voice was kind of soft, she sounded a little uncertain.

I felt worried for her again and asked, "Yeah Lexi, what's up?"

"Do you still believe me about all my crazy stuff? Or are you just going along with it, to humour me or whatever?"

I was quiet for a few moments, then finally shrugged. "I haven't been thinking about it for the last couple hours, to be honest. Like, mostly just focused on the game? But yeah. I still believe you."

Lexi picked up the bowl of pretzels from where it was sitting between us on the sofa, and set it on the coffee table. Then she slid all the way across so she was leaning against me. Her head wound up leaning against my right shoulder.

I kind of froze for a few seconds, I had no idea how to react or respond to this. I felt her left arm snake around behind my lower back till she was sort of holding me around the waist.

Tentatively, I moved my right arm around behind her shoulders. She shifted to make it easier for me, and brought herself even closer against my side. Her head was still resting against my shoulder, her arm around my waist and mine around her shoulders.

It slowly dawned on me that we were cuddling. This is what cuddling was and me and Alexis were doing it. It felt good but I was kind of freaked out it was happening at all. I'm sure she could tell how uptight I was, she could probably feel how tense I was.

We were both quiet for another minute or two, before she finally whispered "I'm scared to go to sleep."

She sounded equal parts nervous and embarrassed. Like she was embarrassed to admit she was scared or something.

I was still kind of freaking out about the cuddle, and confused about how I was feeling, but I was also worried for her again. "Uh... Why? Why's that scare you?"

She sighed, "Like I said last night... Yesterday morning everything was so new and strange right? I felt like it was my first time in this body, even though everyone remembered I'd always looked like this?"

I nodded, but didn't interrupt.

"This morning it wasn't so strange. And like I said when we got dressed, this is me now? I'm not going to act or dress like a guy anymore."

"I remember, yeah." I nodded again. "Why's that scare you though?"

She whispered, "I'm scared that whatever happened to cause this, each day its getting stronger? Or each day the original timeline or whatever gets weaker. What if I wake up tomorrow and don't even remember the original stuff anymore?"

I sighed, "That's why you were freaking out so much about that new age store, not finding out about it till after they'd closed..."

"Yeah," she nodded. "What if whatever happened, it was tonight? And now we've missed it, and maybe tomorrow this will all just be normal and we won't even know anything happened..."

I frowned and thought about that for a minute or two. "I don't think that'll happen Lexi. But if it does, I'll still remember. Like, whatever happened it only affected you, right? So even if you somehow forget, I'll remember. I'll make sure we keep pushing to figure it out, ok?"

She bit her lower lip, then asked softly "Promise?"

"I promise."

I felt her relax slightly, though there was still tension in her.

"Thanks Chloe," she whispered.

She stayed cuddled up against me like this for another ten minutes or so. I still felt awkward but there was no way I was going to complain or push her away or whatever. It was weird though to see her acting so vulnerable like this.

Eventually she asked, "Chloe? Would it be ok if I stayed with you tonight? I don't want to be alone."

I kind of froze up for a few moments again as my brain struggled to process that.

After a second or two I finally asked, "You mean, in my room?"

Her arm squeezed my waist slightly as she replied "I mean in your bed, silly girl. Cuddling with you feels really nice and I don't want it to stop."

Once again I needed a few seconds as my brain struggled to parse pretty much every part of that. My heart skipped a beat and I felt a surge of joy as it sank in she'd just called me a girl. Like with my real name, it felt magical and amazing and validating.

At the same time my stomach did flip-flops as I realized she wanted to sleep with me. Even if it was just for cuddling, it was a huge leap forward into the unknown. I mean, I'd wished for years that me and Alexis could move beyond 'best friends', I'd daydreamed countless times we might someday be girlfriends. But I'd never actually believed it would ever happen.

And now here we were, cuddling on the sofa together. And she said it felt nice. And now she was asking to come to bed with me. It was almost more than my brain could handle.

"If that's too weird just say so?" she added quietly, though I could hear the disappointment in her voice. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

I finally got my voice back and shook my head "No! I mean, sorry I didn't answer right away, it's just, uh... I was surprised and didn't know what to say."

I took a deep breath then nodded, "Yeah you can stay with me tonight Lexi. I'd like that a lot, but I might still act kind of awkward about it because uh, yeah. This is all really new to me."

"Me too," she whispered. "But it's nice. Right?"

I nodded again, "Very nice. I'm sorry you're scared though."

She gave me another little squeeze, "Thank you Chloe."

We eventually got up, I think both of us were reluctant to let go of each other. We got ready for bed separately, took turns in the bathroom and all that. I was back in my track pants and t-shirt again, and I sort of stood in the middle of the room feeling equal parts anxious and excited.

A few minutes later Lexi emerged from the guest-room and stood in my doorway. She was wearing her dark blue nightshirt again.

She bit her lower lip then walked into my room and gave me a hug. She looked up at me and whispered, "Let's get some sleep, Ok?"

I hugged her back and just nodded.

My bed was only a twin, it was big enough for the two of us but not big enough to give us our own space. My heart was racing slightly and I wondered if I'd actually be able to sleep, or if I'd just be wide awake and awkward all night long.

We kind of fumbled a bit figuring out the best way for us both to be comfortable, but in the end I was on my back next to the wall. And she was on her side, curled up against me. My right arm was sort of around her, and her right arm was draped across my belly. Her head was half on a pillow and half on my shoulder again.

I still felt awkward but I also felt really, really happy.

"Good night Chloe," she whispered.

I whispered back, "Good night Alexis."

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