I shook my head to try and clear it of embarrassment, searching for anything else that I could be thinking about right now. I reached back with my right hand out of habit, trying to reach for my phone. When my hand encountered the skirt, I realized I didn’t have my phone with me. It was still in the pair of sweatpants on the bench in the changing room.

“One second, I’ve got to get my phone out of the pants I was wearing.” Taking the distraction, I walked back over to the changing room while Delilah waited patiently for me. 

A brief bit of rummaging through the pile of cloth let me find the pocket and extract the phone within. My stomach briefly turned with worry, knowing that soon I would have to tell my friends what we had planned so that I could go home with minimal suspicion. I shook that line of thought off for the moment and headed back out to Delilah. “Did you want me to put the clothes I was wearing anywhere?”

Delilah shook her head with a smile. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll run it through the wash and put it back with Liz’s things after you and Liz head out.” 

“Okay, thank you.” I tried to pocket my phone, but quickly realized my folly. “Ah.”

Delilah giggled softly. “Not used to not having pockets are you?”

Embarrassed and looking off to the side, I shook my head. “No, I usually wear jeans that I can at least fit my phone in my back pocket.” 

Smiling kindly, Delilah shook her head back at me. “Nothing to be ashamed of. Let me get you one last thing real quick before we head back downstairs.” Saying that, she walked briskly over to a display that held dozens of different purses and bags. Taking a moment to consider, she held her cheeks between her thumb and index finger.

She came to a decision soon enough and picked up her selection before walking back over to me. “Here, you could use something to carry things around in. Skirts are a nice feature, but they do lack some convenient amenities.” She held out a modest handbag with a shoulder strap. It was a light shade of pink that had some kind of knotty pattern along its face. It was around the size of a thick novel, easily enough I’d think to fit the essentials for someone’s day to day life. 

My hands gripped the material of my skirt nervously. Purses were another thing that kind of went along with my anxiety about my self expression. No matter how femininely I presented, I couldn’t ever shake the feeling that carrying a purse was scary. I don’t even know which part I was scared of, but that fear had caused me notable trouble in the past when I could have really used something better to carry my belongings, but stubbornly tolerated the inconvenience. 

“Sam dear, like I said there’s nothing to be ashamed of. A pretty girl carrying her cute purse around isn’t something anybody would pay a second glance, unless they happened to think she was really cute too.” Delilah interrupted my internal spiraling with a frank statement followed by another tease and smile.

I let out a breath that I didn’t realize that I had been holding. “I know. I’m just overthinking again. Thank you…” I let her tease slide by while I released the tension I had built up. 

Delilah once more offered the bag to me, and I let myself think a little less about it for a moment. I took the offered bag and held it awkwardly in both hands, with one hand still also holding my phone. I took a deep breath to bolster the confidence I had mustered, or maybe to just delay the rampant worries, and slung the strap over my shoulder. With the bag in place, I slid my phone into an exterior pocket that seemed well fit for storing it. 

It felt a little silly to be carrying a purse that only had a phone in it. Although, I guess that feeling was better than my other self-imposed concerns. Shaking my head free of the unhelpful lines of thinking, I looked back up at Delilah to find that she had been looking at me with a thoughtful expression.

“Hold on, I know I said that we should go but there’s just one more thing. Last one, promise!” With that, she sped back over to the vanity at the back of the closet. She retrieved something from one of the drawers and quickly returned again. “May I brush your hair out a bit? Just a little bit could really make it shine.” She looked at me almost pleadingly, nearly giving me puppy-dog eyes.

I didn’t exactly feel like it would be a bad thing, so I nodded with a ‘sure’ and she had me sit down back on the bench angled a bit to the side. She started running the brush smoothly through my hair, seemingly not encountering any knots somehow. I probably should have one hell of a case of bedhead right now. 

“Fun fact, Weres don’t get split ends! You should still take proper care of your hair, but it should be easier to manage now that there will be less worries about damaging it. It’ll just heal! Well, unless you specifically shift with intention to have split ends?” Her exuberance shone clearly through her voice and actions as she carefully brushed out my hair. 

Trying not to tilt my head along with the question, I asked, “Wait, but isn’t hair dead? How can it heal?”

Delilah shrugged in the corner of my eye. “Not sure honestly. Maybe it is still considered part of yourself enough that your abilities recognize it as something to maintain. A lot of a Were’s powers are more subconscious and instinct-based than active. There are less researchers applying modern science to supernatural forces than you might think, so sometimes the answers to questions like that are hard to come by. So many of those that could find the answers are so stuck in the past they might as well be a walking piece of history.” 

That was actually really cool. A lot of fictitious beings either have a really long life or are functionally immortal. Well, kinda like I apparently was now. Shouldn’t that mean that there are beings alive that would remember the fall of Rome? The building of the pyramids? How much further back could you find walking history for? The dawn of humanity? Even further? 

“Turn the other way please.” Delilah moved to the other side of me and I followed her directions.

Wait, are there beings that remember a time before Earth even existed? Are there supernaturals from other planets? Wait, those are basically just aliens. Did a supernatural create life on Earth? Did they create Earth itself? Does this mean gods are a real thing? Oh man, how deep does this rabbit hole go?

“And done!” Delilah stepped back out in front of me. “Oh, wonderful! You look lovely Sam! You’ll knock someone right off their feet!” She looked and sounded so cheerful as she complimented me that I couldn’t help but let a blushy smile raise the corners of my lips. 

“Um, thanks?” I kept my eyes facing off to the side nowhere in particular out of embarrassment.

“Sam dear, have more confidence in yourself.” Delilah placed a hand on my shoulder. “You are a sweet young lady with a good personality. Take it from me. I have met… so many people in my life. I have a sense for them that one can only develop after countless years of social interaction.” I looked back up to Delilah, waiting for her to continue after her rather dramatic pause. “You’re a nice girl Sam. Do your best, okay?”

I didn’t really know what to say after that, so I just kept it simple. “Thank you Delilah. I’ll do my best.” Having Delilah so blatantly throw compliments at me reminded me a lot of how my friends often chose to counter my bouts of overthinking with reassurances and hugs. The thought brought a wider smile to my face.

“It’s almost as nice seeing you smile as it is watching you puzzle over the secrets of the world. The way your expressions changed from one thought to the next was endlessly amusing. I’ll have to remember to get you thinking about more mysteries to keep you occupied so you won’t have time to think too much about other things.” Delilah giggled deviously as she walked back over to the vanity to deposit the brush.

My indignity took a second to process, but when it did I blushed furiously. Delilah had read me like a book. She purposefully distracted me with interesting information. That… probably wasn’t a bad thing? It definitely has put me in a better mood now, and the information is actually helpful as well…

I really need to be careful around her. She was sly as a fox. Which is funny, considering Damian is the fox that I know and he doesn’t seem nearly as mischievous. Her friendly rascality hasn’t been harmful, but she clearly had the know-how to manipulate people. At least she has been using it for good or just embarrassment so far. She hadn’t done anything bad that I know of.

“Sam? Are you ready to head downstairs?” Delilah approaching from behind me startled me for a moment, causing me to tense up briefly. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. Come on, let’s go.”

Delilah once again took my hand and led me away out of the closet. We didn’t stop this time, and made our way through the master bedroom. I actually got a moment to look at it and was both floored and yet unsurprised by how decadent it was. A grand fireplace with a set of chairs in front of it lay at the side of the room. Ornamentation of all kinds tastefully filled the walls without making it feel cluttered, while one of the walls only had a massive set of windows that gave an awe-inspiring view of the estate and the surrounding woodland. At the back of the room was a massive four poster bed with decorative curtains lining the rails above it. 

Seeing the bed being empty made me curious. Wasn’t Damian supposed to be resting? “We aren’t disturbing Damian’s rest, are we?”

Delilah calmly shook her head as she walked slightly ahead of me and to the side. “Not at all, he has a private place to rest. No need to worry yourself over him.” 

Her answer only invited further questions as we exited the double doors of the bedroom and came into the hallway. This house was big enough to have an extra room, sure, but why would Damian use that instead of the master bedroom? Was this one of those ‘couples that don’t sleep in the same room anymore’ kinda things? That would be kind of awkward. I’d like to stay as far away from that as I possibly can. That’s just a guess though, I shouldn’t make assumptions. Well, nothing that I can do about it then.

I didn’t have much more time to think before we started coming down the stairs. Liz was standing by the door, luggage and a backpack at her feet. She leaned against the frame of the door with her arms crossed and looking at the ground. She changed clothes herself since I had last seen her. She now wore an outfit that really, really worked on her. 

A stylish leather jacket over a dark, tight-fit top with a band logo on it, dark blue jeans with a tear at the knee on one leg, and black combat boots. As my improved eyes moved back up her body after reaching her footwear, I spotted the bulge in her jeans. I struggled to not let it do things to me, which mostly succeeded in making me think about her other curves.

As we started getting closer, she raised her head and glanced our way. Once her eyes landed on me, they widened and stayed affixed to me the rest of the way down the stairs. I tried to fight the blush that threatened to fill my cheeks and meet her gaze, but the intensity that played in her eyes made it difficult to not turn away. 

Once Delilah and I made it to the bottom of the stairs and approached Liz, she finally gathered herself and quickly looked anywhere else with a light dusting of pink on her cheeks. It had only been a couple seconds, but the way she scanned over me felt like it lasted for ages. 

It was almost like she was checking me out. Kinda like I was just checking her out. Frankly, I hadn’t noticed that being aimed at me much before in my life that I had noticed. That Liz may have been looking at me that way… I shook my head of that notion and filed it away in the ‘forbidden’ section of my mental library.

Trying my best to distract myself, I brought up the first topic that came to mind. “Wow, you really packed up quick. I didn’t think we spent that much time finding some clothes for me.” The red on my cheeks didn’t really hide the fact that I was trying to move on without thinking too much more about what just happened.

Liz shifted her position a bit, no longer leaning against the doorframe and standing a bit awkwardly. “Most of it was already packed, I just had a few things I needed to add in and get changed…”

I tilted my head questioningly. “Already packed? Were you all planning a trip before… uh, last night happened?” 

Liz seemed to recede into herself a bit more, her face scrunching up uncomfortably. She didn’t seem like she was going to say anything. I almost felt bad for asking, but thankfully Delilah came to the rescue. “No Sam, we were not.” I turned my head to face her while she spoke. “We tend to keep emergency travel provisions at the ready should we need it. Life as a supernatural can sometimes mean having to respond quickly to threats. One of the most effective ways of dealing with some of those threats is simply leaving it behind.” An unsaid tone of sadness hung in her words.

There was a somber moment of silence that hung in the air before she spoke again. “But at any rate,” she turned to look at Liz, “Do you have everything you need?” 

Half-heartedly looking at her mother, Liz replied, “Yes mom… I’m ready.” 

Delilah smiled gently at her daughter. “Okay dear, then could you please pull your car around front and get yourself loaded and ready to go?” She then turned to face me. “Can you speak to your friends so we assure they aren’t going to be concerned for your well being? I don’t think we should put that off any longer than we have already.”

I grimaced, realizing that I should really take care of that with the story we came up with. If I held up any longer, they might switch back from teasing to worrying about me again. “Yeah, I think I can do that,” I said begrudgingly. 

With a nod and a clap of her hands Delilah said, “Okay, I’ll leave you two to take care of that for a moment. I’ll be right back to see you off. Don’t leave without saying goodbye!” Delilah trotted off with a spring in her step, heading back upstairs. 

A bit taken aback by the suddenness of her actions, I stood there confused for a moment. I shook my head and sighed, ready to face the music. I looked over at Liz, only barely managing to not feel exceptionally awkward. “I um, I’m going to go make a call.”

Liz met my eyes and stayed there for a moment. It took a moment longer than was normal for her to reply with, “I’ll go get the car.” 

We both stood there looking at each other for another moment, stuck in a silent staring contest in which we weren’t sure who was going to look away first. I may have gotten a little too occupied admiring her eyes again, as she was the one to eventually turn away. Without a word, she opened the front door and left the house with the door swinging shut behind her.

It took me a moment to regain my bearings, and when I did I started blushing furiously. I can’t believe I just stood there and stared at her for that long! What the hell is wrong with me! 

In response to my immense embarrassment, I went over to the sitting room and sat down at the same spot I had been several times today on the couch, and set my purse on the table in front of me. I picked up the nearby throw pillow and used it to muffle my yell of frustration. Why do I have to be so awkward?! I’ve only exchanged like two whole sentences with Liz, so why am I so easily worked up around her?! She’s just a really attractive girl. No big deal. I’ve seen plenty of those. 

An attractive girl that I am about to spend four hours on a roadtrip with… An attractive girl that is going to be living with me and teaching me about supernatural stuff for the next month while her parents go off to parts unknown… Living with me… Oh… Oh damn.

My thoughts started to wander back to this morning, waking up nestled comfortably against Liz. Pulled firmly into the safety of her embrace… With her equipment against my lower back… What she could do to my new body with her equipment…

An unfamiliar warm fluttering in my stomach caught me by surprise. I rubbed my legs together out of some kind of instinct. Then it hit me. 

No! Shit, I cannot be getting worked up about Liz! I let out another yell into the poor, unsuspecting pillow. Focus! Dangerous supernatural forces! Learning to control my unknown and potentially dangerous supernatural abilities! Living together with a pretty girl…

I dropped the pillow into my lap and slapped my hands against my cheeks. Come on! Control yourself! You aren’t some hormonal teen! Temporary roommate! Not a problem! Just a roommate! Also live-in tutor I guess…

I shook my head more forcefully than was necessary and my hand went to pick up my phone. I need to call my friends. Tell them the obvious lie that I cooked up. Hope that they won’t be angry with me or be disappointed… Okay, I feel like I’ve come full circle on my spiral now. I’m just gonna do the thing, I can’t let myself continue to think down this path.

With a resigned sigh, I called Lexi, the de facto social leader of our group and host to the weekend trip. The phone rang a couple times, making my heart beat harder with every tone that died without Lexi picking up on the other end. 

Thankfully, after the fifth tone Lexi picked up the call. “Hi Sam! Are you on your way back?” 

The excitement in her voice made me feel really bad, and I almost forgot what story that I was going to be going with and just said yes. My better, or at least other senses led me to solemnly committing to lying to my friends. “Actually, I had something that I needed to let you and the others know…”

Maybe she was reading my tone, but Lexi shifted suddenly to a seriousness that caught me off guard. “Sam? Is everything alright?”

Her genuine concern almost made me cave again and just tell the truth, but Delilah’s words about it being dangerous to tell them the truth held me back, and ultimately I just started talking as if I was reading the words from a script to the best of my mediocre acting ability. “I don’t know. I just heard from my neighbor that there was smoke coming from over my house. They called the fire department and then let me know about it.” I paused briefly, but not long enough for Lexi to say anything else. “Liz offered to drive me home so that I could make sure everything was okay. I feel really bad about leaving you all here though…”

The silence that hung in the air was tearing me up inside, just waiting for what Lexi was going to say for not even a couple seconds. I felt really bad lying so blatantly to my closest friends, and the fact that I didn’t feel like I had much choice in the matter hurt a lot. 

Lexi finally broke the silence after what felt like ages, but was likely only a couple seconds longer. “Liz knows how far away ‘driving you home’ means, right? If it’s an emergency, we can pack up here and start heading home early. I’m sure the others will understand that something important came up.”

I couldn’t tell what her tone meant, but my mind was already latching onto the worst-case. “Yeah, she knows how far away home is from here… I don’t want to have to cut the trip short for you all if I don’t have to. Liz is already getting the car ready. She seems like she really wants to help.”

Lexi paused another agonizing moment before responding somewhat flatly. “It seems like you’ve already made up your mind about it. If you’re sure about it, then just promise me that you’ll be safe okay? Send us updates. Let us know when you get home safe. If you don’t, I’m going to be really upset with you.” 

I still couldn’t get a good read on what she might have been feeling through the phone. I felt so deeply guilty about lying like I was, but all I could do was commit at this point. “I will Lexi. I’ll be sure to let everyone know that I’m okay. Thank you for understanding.”

Letting out a long sigh, Lexi said, “Just be safe? Please?” 

The concern that bled into her voice shot another pang of guilt right into my chest. “I promise.” I barely held back a sob that I could feel rising in my throat. “Anyway, I need to get ready to go now. I’ll talk to you later Lexi…” 

Lexi didn’t reply for a moment, a tense silence dangling between us. “Talk to you later Sam. I’ll see you on Monday.”

A beep signaled the end of the call. I let out a breath of air I didn’t realize that I had been holding. With it, the sob that I held back also came out. The floodgates breached and tears spilt down my cheeks. I wrapped my arms around the pillow that still sat on my lap and hugged it tightly against my chest.

Not long after I started crying, I heard someone come into the room. I couldn’t quite tell who it was through the tears that clouded my vision, nor did I even look in their direction. 

The couch beside me shifted with the weight of someone sitting down beside me. A gentle, motherly voice came from them. “Did something go wrong on your phone call?”

I shook my head less so out of denial of the question and more out of frustration. I tried to answer through shaky breaths and sobs. “My friends know I’m lying… It was- it was such an obvious lie and I know they saw right through it. I can’t tell them the truth. They’re gonna hate me. Think that I just ditched them-*sniff*- because I didn’t want to spend time with them…”

At that point I couldn’t be bothered with more words and just buried my face into the pillow I held, trying to deaden the sobs that wouldn’t stop. Slowly, a pair of arms encircled me. I didn’t see a reason to stop them, so I allowed it to happen. A few more careful movements nudged me to the side, where I leaned into the embrace offered to me. 

My vision still blocked by the pillow, I only took in the world around me through the steady movements of a hand along my back and the hushed words that I couldn’t quite make out. I leaned a bit heavier into the comfortable warmth and let the tears continue to flow.