Car doors slammed closed, everyone stepped away from the vehicle, and it indeed seemed like they were finally ready to go. To Emily’s surprise, Stephanie and Kelly seemed to share a meaningful look with each other, and then both of the girls ceded Brian to Emily without a word. Having fully expected to be sidelined, Emily stared at Brian’s hand held in hers in surprise as their group trooped down the sidewalk towards the crosswalk. It was nice, and she was thrilled, but it was hard not to wonder if those two were communicating with magic somehow—or if it was just some sort of social savvy where the girls could sense that Emily needed some time with him.

Either way, it’s super appreciated, Emily couldn’t help but grin and give Brian a squeeze.

The long strip of concrete walkway that lined the busy road wasn’t wide enough for them to travel bunched up, so Emily and Brian led the way like they were a couple no, fuck me sideways, we ARE a for-real fucking couple, now, with Kelly trailing behind at a discreet distance and then Stephanie and Megan bringing up the rear. Megan seemed to be absolutely brimming with questions for what her pink-haired friend had been up to over the course of the weekend, and somehow the overweight girl spoke in excited whispers that carried even further than her normal speaking voice.

“Oh—oh you didn’t,” Megan could be overheard remarking after a flustered Stephanie murmured out an answer in a voice too tiny for Emily to discern. “You didn’t. Ohmigod. Was he, like… was it like, you know?”

“Brian... c’mon, what do you think about all of this?” Emily asked, sharing a look with him.

“All of this?” Brian gave her a smile.

She felt like a blatant obvious idiot like this trying to pose it as an innocuous question as possible, but thanks to all of Rebecca’s meddling, now Emily really needed to know what he thought. She missed just connecting with Brian. She’d had such a crush on him in high school—a crush that apparently hadn’t been as one-sided as she’d thought—and after the awkwardness of that botched attempt at kissing him years ago, and then watching in helpless frustration as he fell into the clutches of that psychopath Chloe, Emily felt they were long overdue for conversation.

About a lot of things.

“You know. The whole... this weekend thing,” Emily supplied, wondering how in the heck she was going to be able to tiptoe around the circumference of this weekend’s craziness with this line of inquiry. “You and me. You and Steph and Kelly—all of us. This weird hair color thing happening with us girls. Chloe snapping and going ballistic like that. That craziness last night—Brian that was like, an orgy. Bruh. What’s even going on anymore?”

“...I don’t know,” he replied after a long moment of consideration. “It’s been unreal, kind of like something out of a dream. But, then at the same time it feels more real. Like the rest of my year, the rest of my life has just been this kind of… I dunno, bleak sort of blah. But then, here and now everything’s bright, and the colors are vivid, and it’s like this is it. I don’t know what the it is in this, exactly, but this is definitely it.”

He let out a helpless laugh, shaking his head.

“I’m not making any sense, am I?”

“You’re making tons of sense,” Emily promised in a slow voice, inching in closer and tracing her fingers down his side. “Fuckin’... yeah, just tons of sense.”

When she relaxed her thoughts a bit and just focused in on Brian and her feelings for him and the sexy goddamned sound of his voice the blue feeling flowed. It was like she could touch on twinges of her charm magic, whatever it was, tap into a sexy fluid stream of… something. Emily wasn’t sure how to put it into words without simply exhausting all the wet words in her vocabulary, but there was definitely an emotional component to it.

Maybe just being closer to Brian like this makes it easier to focus on my personal charm magic stuff? Worth experimenting with. Ugghhh does it make me horny though, fuck.

“Yeah? I don’t think I’m actually making any sense,” Brian laughed. “Don’t think I’ve ever felt so… out of my depth. I don’t know what’s going on, but I do know I’m really, really glad you’re here with me for it. Yeah.”

“Yeah?” Emily beamed up at him, all but purring. “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” Brian said. “You’d never believe any of this if you weren’t here and I tried to tell you about it all later. You’d think I was making it all up. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Emily agreed with a little laugh of her own, shaking her head at what a wild ride this weekend had shaped up to be. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Brian gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m serious though, I really needed you to be here for this. Yeah.”

“Yea-you did?” Emily blurted out, just barely catching herself from getting baited into saying yeah? again. Normally she caught on to the yeah thing they did more quickly than this, but trying to dip into her senses towards her charm sense or whatever while they were walking and talking had her feeling more than a little dazzled and turned on. “You mean it?”

“Yeah,” Brian grinned, giving her a look. “You bring out the best in me. Well, okay maybe not the best but you bring out parts of me that don’t really come out otherwise. Yeah?”

It was a bubbly sensation, a unique watery something that was soaked through and through, saturated with the very essence of the idea of bright blue through some sort of synesthesia mindfuckery. But also it was as if the blue was pure distilled Emily, with all the random esoteric Emily bullshit filtered out. Just the real me—I think that’s like some inkling in the right direction. To figuring out my charm thing. I bring out the real Brian, and somehow, somewhere. He brings out the real me right back in return. Whatever that really means.

“Yeah?” Brian tried again.

Oh my God, I don’t even care. Just never let this feeling stop, Emily bit her lip. I love this so much. Love him. I have him, he’s mine. Well, ours. Close enough. He’s just so—well, he just SPEAKS to me. And, it just, it CONNECTS.

“Uh-huh,” Emily wasn’t able to stop herself from grinning back at him. She could read it all over his face, she knew that he could tell she could knew, and they’d still effortlessly somehow fallen into the trap of another one of their stupid meaningless yeah jokes that would be impossible to explain to anyone without sounding insane.

“Yes. I’ve got the meme magic,” Emily declared. “I’m the only one who can pull the worst puns outta you. The raunchy jokes, the innuendo, the stupid, immature Brian that’d’ve made Chloe burst a vein saying the wrong inappropriate thing. Yes siree, that’s me and my Brian. Yeah!”

Emily jerked her arm out and flashing Brian her most rad thumbs-up. Knowing how lame it was simply enhanced the radness of it.

“Yeah!” Brian agreed, slipping an arm around her.

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Kelly remarked in amusement, and when Emily turned to look the girl was rolling her eyes.

For some reason, it didn’t even feel weird that Kelly had overheard them being idiotic and goofy. Kelly didn’t seem to be making fun of how dumb her and Brian could get around each other sometimes, there weren’t any judgemental overtones apparent. The confident and beautiful red-haired girl was just adding in a little bit of her own. It was like she felt compelled to touch bases, to ensure she didn’t come off as too aloof and distant from them. Kelly was giving the two of them space to be stupid together, but then also still wanted them to be within reach of her.

It was a strangely pleasant dynamic to be around a girl like Kelly and for once not feeling like she needed to keep her guard up. Kind of similar to what it was like going around with Rebecca, feeling secure in the fact that Rebecca was the mature one who had all the right adulting answers. But, in Kelly’s case, she was covering that more social aspect of things. Kelly was like one of the cool popular girls who had antagonized her all throughout high school, but now Emily would get to see what it was like having one of them in her corner, for a change.

Is that the harem charm greasing the interpersonal wheels there, or what? Emily thought, glancing back behind them from Kelly to Stephanie and feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. It’s like Brian and I, we complete each other, but then adding in the other girls completes us even more, out to like way past what I ever would have even imagined. Relationship metaphor-wise, we’re like giant animal robot mechas that combine together into an even bigger, more badass giant robot mecha.

They reached the street corner at the intersection in front of the broad convention venue, and there was already a small crowd of tired but still-smiling convention attendees there waiting to cross. Emily hadn’t noticed, but there were a fair few people out and about on the streets here this close to noon, and between the midday traffic and all the others around she was forced to start raising her voice to be heard, and to lean in closer to him to hear his responses.

Not that she minded that at all.

“So, um. Brian. When you say things are like, bright and more vivid now with the colors, do you mean this at all?” Emily teased her bright blue locks out with a flick of her fingertips.

“Yeah, there’s that going on, too,” Brian said, looking like he still didn’t know what to make of it.

“What do you think’s going on?” Emily prodded. “What are your thoughts on it?”

“A big part of me wants to say it’s a prank,” Brian said with an uncertain smile. “Like, somehow you guys met up and… coordinated it sometime yesterday, somehow. For some reason.”

“You think it’s a prank?” Emily lifted her eyebrows.

“No, I don’t,” Brian ran a hand through his own hair as he struggled to explain. “It’s like, when I’m trying to puzzle out an explanation, that’s the best I can do. Or I should say, if it was happening to someone else, that’s what I would say this was; a prank.”

“So, you don’t think it’s a prank,” Emily summed up.

“I don’t know what I think about it,” Brian tried. “I don’t believe it’s a prank or some game or something, but my old guess doesn’t fit anymore.”

“What was your old guess?”

“Well, with Stephanie— on Friday, she was wearing these rabbit ears,” Brian explained. “Big felt ears, attached to a headband, for her cosplay. They were red and pink, she said she’d just dyed them; so a bit of color seeping or something and appearing in her blonde didn’t seem too out there. At first.”

“Wow, I can’t even picture her blonde,” Emily remarked, twisting back to give Stephanie a long look. “Like, a dirty blonde or a real light blonde? Goldenish? Bottle blonde? Platinum?”

“Uhhh,” Brian patted his pockets as if searching for his phone before appearing to remember it was still missing in action. “We did take some pics together yesterday. Yesterday morning. But, I think at that point she was already full pink like this.”

“Annnd, okay how do you think that happened?” Emily gestured for him to continue.

“I did it, I guess,” Brian conjectured. “Somehow. I don’t know what I did, but each time there was a bit more color—for each of you girls—it was from something I did. Kissing, and, ah, other stuff.”

Normally, she would have pressed his other stuff explanation with a salacious teasing remark of some kind, but Brian actually sounded like he was at a loss, that this was making him uncomfortable. Emily swallowed back the impulsive teasing words that were such an ingrained reflex to spurt out and simply nodded, letting him have another minute to figure out what he wanted to say.

“It’s—yeah, I don’t know,” Brian shrugged. “With Stephanie, it could halfway make sense with the dye, but then when it comes to you and Kelly who have—uh, well had—real dark hair already, I don’t even know. It seems impossible.”

“Gimme your best guesses,” Emily encouraged.

“You know what it is, don’t you?” Brian said, making a face halfway between an unsure smile and a grimace that made Emily intensely uncomfortable. He wasn’t even being serious with her here, but the fact that she was intentionally keeping the truth from him made it cut deep.

“We girls have… talked about it,” Emily said slowly, carefully choosing her words. “We’ve worked out some ideas, but no we don’t know anything for sure. We, uh. We wanted to… um. If it’s okay can we keep our guess to ourselves kinda, until we’re ready to talk about it with you? I mean, keep us girlses’ guess as to why it might to just between us girls. For now. If that’s okay?”

Brian frowned, and Emily did her very best not to shrivel up into a guilty husk beneath his gaze as he studied her, trying to puzzle out what was really going on.

“You guys will tell me if you feel like it’s my fault, right?” Brian finally asked.

“No no no, it’s not like about fault, or anything,” Emily quickly assured him. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You make us all—you make me so happy, and—I love you. I love you so much. We love you. Okay?”

Emily stopped him in place so that she could turn him towards her, plant a hand on either side of his face, and draw him into an insistent kiss.

“Okay,” Brian said. “I trust you. And I love you.”

The magic permeating her body swayed and almost rolled into a bow wave as Emily stared up into the gorgeous green of his eyes. Hearing him say it, hearing him mean it had a tangible effect on the blue coursing through her, because it felt like a speedboat had just gone roaring down her little length of calm river and everything was suddenly movement and motion in the wake of its passing. Aggh, and yep. Both nipples went hard like, right there with that smoldery look he’s got. It’s like I’m back in high school all over again.

“My guesses?” Brian cocked his smile into a lopsided grin and gave her a small tug forward, directing her along across the street. “Alright, let’s see…”

She hadn’t even noticed the traffic lurch to a halt in front of them or the crosswalk signal change—Emily had been absolutely glamoured. Fuck me, did Stephie and Kell both go through this to get their powers?! How do you, uh, how do you even FOCUS with all of this going on? Fuck the magic shit, I just want to jump his bones and bump uglies for the rest of the day.

“The one that’s most likely, but goes against my gut feeling, is that you all are in on it together somehow,” Brian admitted. “Hair dye, chemical applications. Maybe there’s time-delay hair dye? I’d be looking this stuff up on my phone if I had it.”

“Time-delay hair dye sounds cool,” Emily said. “What else’ve you got?”

“Well,” Brian winced. “Okay yeah this one’s stupid but it was a thought that came up— rabbits can completely change the color of their fur in the span of a few months. Like, winter fur is white, but in spring they’re brown or whatever. Doesn’t fit this situation for a ton of reasons, but it’s all that comes to mind when I think about hair that’s able to change colors naturally.”

“Sunlight can bleach hair,” Emily pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’s not natural—the sun counts as like, an outside, external effect.”

“The sun’s not natural?” Emily teased.

“You know what I mean.”

“Okay,” Emily said. “That idea’s… something. A little iffy. What else?”

“Magic,” Brian suggested. “Like anime magic, where the guy has a harem of girls and each one has different crazy colored hair.”

“Uhhh,” Emily’s heart leapt into her throat and she did her best not to tense up. “Anime magic.”

“Yeah,” Brian shrugged. “I know it sounds like it’s more stupid and unlikely and impossible, but I think it’s actually closer to my gut feeling on this than the other ones.”

“Okay, yeah,” Emily soldiered on. “Anime magic’s possible. Anything’s possible. What else?”

“Alright, I think this might be my best one,” Brian continued. “Body chemistry. I picked up an, I don’t know, a rare enzyme or had some strange reaction, and now my bodily fluids cause a weirdly specific allergic reaction in you guys.”

“That’s… huh,” Emily pursed her lip. “Allergic reaction but only to hair?”

“I guess?” Brian gave her an expressive shrug. “No clue what the crazy colors are all about, but I remember Will telling me once that there’s four different kinds of allergic reactions, and they all do different things. Like I said—I’d probably have more intelligent guesses if I had my phone this morning so I could look some stuff up.”

“Well anime magic’s my favorite so far,” Emily admitted as they stepped up onto the curb in front of AnimeCon.

“Thought it would be,” Brian gave her a small smirk. “But prank is still my first place guess, just in case you were planning on having an aha moment on me sometime later.”

“Duly noted.”

They both turned to wait for the rest of their small group gather again amid the other pedestrians and convention-goers. Kelly was right behind them, but Megan and Stephanie had lagged considerably behind as the two girls were caught up in a lively discussion with one another, with Stephanie surprisingly animated and gesturing with both hands while Megan kept interrupting with her reactions.

No further words between Emily and Brian were exchanged as their group met up and started to meander forward together. Emily let out a small sigh of relief as they crossed the convention plaza and they left the topic of anime magic behind them for now, because there was a time and a place for figuring out magic, and right now it was time to have fun at AnimeCon with the guy she adored. Emily hated mornings—anything before one o’clock PM was morning in Emily’s book—but today she simply felt like she agreed with the way Brian described the special significance of this weekend. This is it. Whatever ‘it’ is, this is definitely it.

She’d spent the entirety of this short trip across the street hanging off of Brian’s arm, and the only time he’d freed it from her grasp had been when he instead slipped it around her to hold her while they walked. In the past she’d always been more than a little touchy about her personal space, but everything had changed. Now it was like she was so completely enamored with this puppy-love affectionate skinship that she simply couldn’t let go at all.

Every color was more vibrant, every detail more beautiful and perfect. The AnimeCon banner gently undulated in the breeze from where it was affixed high above the entrance to the hall, scattered groupings of attendees in familiar nerdy trappings could be seen here and there, along with the occasional cosplay. The normal convention excitement she felt was amped up to eleven despite the fact that she wasn’t even in cosplay today. Everything was better than she could have ever hoped for.

Fuuuck I’m turning clingy already, Emily tried to scold herself, but all she felt was a giddy sort of glee. I just—I can’t even help it! We’re together, we’re really, for real actually together. I can’t help but be all over him.

As absurd as it sounded, being boyfriend and girlfriend was enhanced by the inclusion of several other girlfriends into the mixture. There wasn’t any room to be self-conscious or fret over whether she was good enough or if she was doing everything right here in her first real relationship. Emily was instead rolling up with a girl squad, and there was a surreal sense of security in feeling like they would support her.

If someone intimidating tried to hassle or antagonize them, she could rely on Kelly’s keen wit and barbed tongue to launch a counter offensive. In an instance where Emily wanted to disclose personal things she was shy talking about, she felt like Stephanie was even more innocent, which made her feel more comfortable and secure. Rebecca was still aloof from the intimacy of their team, but she had a firm handle on making sure everything worked out right for her friends—even now, she was probably somewhere on ahead acquiring new day passes for the two of them.

Even Megan’s pretty cool, Emily thought, giving the girl a thoughtful glance as their group passed through AnimeCon’s entrance doors. It’s nice having another SUPER GEEK who’s completely into stuff around. Mike, Will, Tanya and the others— they’re halfway to being total normies at this point and—

---

Where the fuck ARE THEY?! Chloe seethed, wringing the handrail in front of her as she looked down across the sporadic groups of AnimeCon attendees arriving through the multiple sets of double-doors.

She would recognize any of Brian’s costumes at a glance, and recollection of those other girl’s appearances was still so fresh in mind that each remembrance was still tinged with rage. The embarrassing retard hipster girl possessed some sort of Playmate Bunny costume, and Chloe was sure she wouldn’t forget seeing that stupid fucking pink hair of hers again. That whore who’d been slobbering on Brian’s disgusting knob—like the prostitute she likely for real actually was—wore Burando that didn’t fit right at all, and that made her figure memorable enough that Chloe didn’t think she’d miss it even if the slut wore a different costume today.

And finally, that rat Emily... Chloe felt the silver glass grind and twist and squeak in her mind. Well, it’s not like she ever shuts the fuck up, so I’m sure to hear that irritating fucking voice of hers before I even see any of them.

The Magical Doll Himari cosplay was only a hindrance right now, so Chloe had jammed the bag containing her costume into a small recessed area of broken limbs beneath a shrub near one of the parking garages on her way to the convention center. If she was able to recover it again later, that was fine. If not, then she would report Brian and his little band of miscreants had stolen it from her while threatening her with violence, and that was obviously fine, too.

She was now back in the ruffled beige halter-top and cut-off shorts she’d been wearing yesterday, with only her flats, a pair of sunglasses and her makeup case with her to combat the naked villainy that had all but destroyed several months of her meticulous planning and setup. Chloe couldn’t even wear the sunglasses right now to hide her gaze, either. Part of her early morning preparation had involved squinting an evil look into the restroom mirror at herself so that she could use her cosmetics to define dark circles of exhaustion beneath her eyes and blend them in. She’d then carefully dabbed her concealer brush to the tip of her lipstick nub and applied subtle color to her lids and lashline—now they looked puffy and red like she’d been crying her eyes out all night long. The rest of her face remained uncharacteristically bare, which grated on her sensibilities but was also a necessary sacrifice for the image she needed to convey.

I didn’t even WANT to have to do this, Chloe all but snarled in her mind. Her pupils were almost shaking with scarcely-contained ferocity as she clenched and twisted her hands around the safety rail. Mirror shards quivered with manic glee where they seemed to be embedded in the soft tissues of her brain, bringing on another dizzying spasm of pain.

You’ve all basically forced me to this point. You’ve no one to blame for what happens to you now but yourselves.

Chloe had chosen the high ground—she was arranging her ambush from AnimeCon’s overlook on the upper level. The balcony-like veranda was positioned just right for catching Brian and his little coterie of filthy skanks whenever they finally arrived through the entrance. They hadn’t arrived yet, but despite her mounting impatience Chloe was determined to see this through no matter what. Perhaps most importantly…

She wasn’t alone.

Andrea—pronounced An-dree rather than An-dree-uh for reasons Chloe couldn’t fathom, was overweight and sported a hideous dyed-black bob-cut, but with bangs that were trimmed back almost all the way up to her hairline. The hairstyle emphasized enormous block brows, eyebrows drawn on so thick and rectangular upon her forehead that it was impossible for them to be anything other than a bold and intentional fuck your beauty standards statement. Thick-framed glasses and the septum piercing that dangled from her nostrils completed the uhh YEAH I’m progressive aesthetic, and completely assured Chloe that Andrea’s preferred pronouns, gender identity, and orientation were all completely non-conforming.

The girl’s most endearing feature of all, of course, was the oversized ANIMECON STAFF tee she wore—Andrea was the perfect pawn for the confrontation Chloe had in mind. That shirt completely redeemed any shortcomings she might have had, it made Andrea a figure of power, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, and that the girl now stood watch beside Chloe at the railing meant her side now held the weight of authority here at the convention. It had been worth it spending almost twenty aggravating minutes after perfecting her own I’m pitiful please-protect me makeup to carefully single out just the right volunteer for her needs this morning.

“Are you okay?” Andrea asked with a worried glance.

“I just... want to feel safe again,” Chloe tried to sound brave. “If… if I’ll ever feel safe again…”

“I wish you coulda found me yesterday,” the pudgy staffer lamented. “The kind of harassment you’re describing is beyond problematic—it’s completely not okay. It’s basically assault. If only of us staffers had known—”

“I was, was just scared to say anything,” Chloe admitted with a weak smile. “I’m so used to no one ever believing me. I just, I just don’t want to have to be terrified all the time anymore— I-I just, I can’t…”

Although she was better versed than anyone she knew in applying party rhetoric to her own agendas, Chloe still had to remind herself to tread very carefully around these more blatant radfem types, even the dumber-looking ones like Andrea. Via internet correspondence feminists always got along swimmingly with Chloe, but in person the troglodyte clowns always seemed to subconsciously begin to resent her for possessing a traditionally beautiful face and perfect body.

Hah.

Chloe despised men more than most, but that by no means meant she was going to sacrifice the incredible leverage she could bring to bear against them and turn her appearance into a walking punchline like some of the other social justice warriors she’d met. After all, Chloe enjoyed having a graceful figure and the irresistible good looks that allowed her to get away with anything and everything. Why the fuck wouldn’t I?

“Are you sure you’re okay?” The staffer girl asked again, giving Chloe a look.

“It—it’s just a stress migraine,” Chloe carefully swayed on her feet in an unsteady way and brought a hand to her forehead. “I’ll be okay. I’m used to them.”

She’d already downed four ibuprofens earlier—selling a sob story about some spinal tension disorder to a hapless loser standing around with the smoker crowd lingering just outside the convention center entrance in exchange for them—but the pills had done nothing to stop the broken shards of silver that sometimes spun and twisted and bit into her brain like the serrated teeth of a saw. That infuriating pink-haired art hoe with the rampant chuunibyou was to blame, Chloe just wasn’t sure how the disgusting thot had managed to actually affect her just yet.

Probably overthinking it—it was probably that real nasty bitch with the rank B.O. just getting to me there in the hallway last night. But, why is my head STILL like this? Maybe it’s that thing where a person can have rare body chemistry and gut enzymes or whatever that I might just be specifically allergic to? Can I sue for that, maybe?

After getting only a scant six hours of sleep, Chloe had stiffened her upper lip and stormed out on the betrayer Rebecca and the greasepile fatfuck she’d forced them to shack up with last night. All the appropriate groundwork to salvage whatever she could of this weekend had been laid out last night, but no matter how much pain she had to bravely endure, Chloe still needed to be right here.

Waiting to catch Brian in the act of slinking back into the convention, playing her part to ensure that things went like they were supposed to. Fixing the right crimes on Brian would stain his reputation, him being removed—preferrably banned—from this stupid fucking convention he looked forward to so much every year would hurt, and hopefully some bystanders would step up to make things messy and heap on the shame, slander, and maybe even violence Brian deserved.

No one seemed to appreciate the sheer amount of work Chloe had put into reforming Brian into an appropriate boyfriend. The amount of reasoning and argument Chloe had to turn him into an unquestioning provider, the verbal hoops she had to jump through to make him realize he had certain obligations to fulfill simply to reparate the innumerable sins of his gender. The time and patience she’d invested in training to do the most basic of tasks like eat pussy on command just the way she liked it.

There wasn’t even a problem with my plan! That little goblin shitstain Emily just couldn’t fucking let go of that pathetic little torch she was carrying for him. As if you two would EVER be together—you basically have the body of a child, Emily. The best you could ever hope for is some pimply-faced manlet who’s on your level. Or some old pedophile guy or something. Not the Brian I was carefully—PAINSTAKINGLY—cultivating into proper human decency for myself.

It should have worked. IT SHOULD HAVE WORKED. Emily was the hyperactive little chatterbox—always trying to talk over her shortcomings, desperately scrabble for any bit of social clout she could get from that—because she obviously doesn’t have any other options. She SHOULD have been the absolute best avenue to have the news leak out, Chloe fumed. It was difficult to even maintain her pity-me face right now.

It SHOULD have been an open secret among our friends that Brian got me pregnant, that we were fighting, and that things were tense between us for ambiguous reasons. That SHOULD have put the pressure on him, people should have been approaching him with advice. Telling him that no matter what actually happened, he needs to STEP UP, that he needs to apologize and make things right because there was supposedly a baby at stake here.

Instead—nothing. Fucking nothing. Nothing at all. Against all fucking odds, Emily chooses the exact wrong moment to keep her filthy shit-trap shut. Brian has no clue. No one knows he’s supposed to be this asshole who got someone pregnant and then shirked the mantle of responsibility for ambiguous reasons. It SHOULD have worked perfectly. Any outrageous emotional response or outburst on my part? Automatically justified. Brian’s reputation as the DEPENDABLE GUY in our circle of friends? Called into doubt and challenged by everyone he knows. Unless he mans up and BEGS me to take him back. Promises me ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.

Just this last little painless bit of attitude correction and you would have been PERFECT for me. You were so close, Brian, Chloe shook her head in dismay. And now I have to ruin you. What a total waste of my time this has been. I’m going to have to make sure Emily gets exactly the comeuppance she deserves for this. Those are two girls are going to pay, too.

Then, as if summoned by her very thoughts—Brian and the girls appeared.

As improbable as it was, Chloe felt them arrive a mere moment before they stepped into sight, because it was as if their approaching presence was an atrocity that triggered a hateful storm of dancing sharp slivers within her mind. Chloe blinked away hateful tears as her brain buzzed with silver noise, but she grit her teeth and lifted her hand to immediately point in the direction of the entranceway.

“That’s them!” Chloe hissed out, nudging Andrea with her elbow. “You have your walkie-talkie? Those are the ones. Right there. That guy, and those three girls with him with the colored hair. The fat one, too. All of them.”