YENA

Tina insisted I invite Lucy over to dinner to celebrate my official acceptance to the fashion design school. It was supposed to rain later, so Lucy decided to stay the night so she wouldn’t have to drive in the rain.

And once again Tina made a big feast.

It was nice to see Peter at home early, since lately he’d been working a lot. All five of us gathered around the dinner table once Lucy arrived.

“Now,” Tina said in a serious, motherly voice. “I’m worried about something that’s going to happen with you two kids, when you are on your own together over in the human world.”

I almost choked on a bite of food I was chewing.

I looked at Evan. He was looking at me too, frozen in place and starting to blush.

Then he looked down at his plate and started cutting into a piece of meat.

“And, uh, what’s that, Tina?” I finally managed to ask.

She couldn’t actually be referring to something happening between me and Evan, like… a romantic something, or anything to do with that…

No, she meant something else.

The way she worded it just made us both feel awkward.

Because apparently the romance, or whatever it was he and I’d been flirting with, was still fresh on our minds…

“I’m worried,” Tina said, “that you’re going to starve over there! What are you going to eat, huh?”

I saw Evan’s shoulders drop as he relaxed.

Did he really think Tina was going to say something else?

Did Tina… did she know about what had been going on with me and him?

“Which of you two is going to learn to cook?” Tina continued. “Yena will be too busy with school!”

“Well, I guess that leaves me, then,” Evan said between chews, over a mouthful of food.

“I guess it does. How about I give you a lesson tomorrow?”

Evan nodded slowly. Swallowed his food and said, dryly, “Sounds great, Mom.”

We finished dinner and Tina tried to feed us pies and cookies. Lucy refused, but I compromised with Tina and took a plate of cookies to-go, bringing them upstairs with us.

“Lemme see the acceptance letter,” Lucy said.

I closed my bedroom door, pushed the plate of cookies at her, and retrieved the big envelope from my desk.

She put a cookie in her mouth and took a big bite.

“Ta-da!” I pulled the letter out and held it up proudly.

“Oooh.”

I swapped the cookie plate for the letter.

“Goddess, Yena, this is so cool,” Lucy said, reading it. “You’re going to do amazing things over there.”

“Thanks,” I told her. “And hey, will you help me pick out my classes tonight? I need to do it fast, and even though I’ve been studying the course listings, I’m having trouble deciding which ones to start with.”

“Yeah, of course! That sounds so much fun.”

“Here.” I handed her the course catalog that came in the acceptance package.

“Ooh,” she said again, opening the booklet and eyeing it admiringly. “And so, you’ve got it narrowed down to a few classes to pick from, or something?”

“Yeah.”

I opened one of my desk drawers and fished around for my other copy of the course catalog. This one was kinda bent up and had post-its with my notes stuck to a bunch of the pages.

“How come you’ve got two?” Lucy asked.

Suddenly I felt nervous… like I wasn’t sure I should tell Lucy where I got this from.

But I opted just to be honest.

“I uh, actually met up with Adan recently, and he gave it to me.”

Partially honest, at least.

I didn’t feel like getting into the whole thing… explaining how he’d set up a meeting with the human professor, and everything. Seemed simpler just to say I got the thing from him.

It was the seeing Adan part, after all, that felt like it would be sketchy to try to hide from Lucy.

Lucy had a reaction.

She darted her eyes away from mine.

“Really?” she asked. “When was that?”

She put the letter down on my desk, stood up, and started pacing around the room. The rest of the cookie she’d been holding onto disappeared into her mouth.

“Hmm. Couple days ago, I guess,” I told her. “Why?”

She shrugged. “Just wondering.”

She went over to my closet and started pulling a few things out.

“Yeah,” I continued, feeling like I needed to explain. “He hit me up a little while ago and just offered, said he could get me some info so I could start preparing for the semester, while I waited on the admissions.”

“Hm. Cool.”

Lucy sounded distracted. She picked a pink dress out of the closet and walked over to the full-length mirror on the back of my bedroom door. Held it up to her body and struck a few poses, seeing how it’d look on her.

“Try it on,” I told her. “And keep it if you like it.”

She turned to me and smiled.

“You’re the best, Yena.”

Maybe it was the Adan thing… maybe it was a sarcastic comment. Like, Oh you’re the best for hanging out with the guy I like behind my back.

But Lucy sounded sincere.

Maybe she’d really moved on from the Adan crush.

She stripped and changed into the dress. It looked great on her, of course.

“Seriously,” she said, catching my eye in the mirror. “You’re such a good friend, and so generous. I absolutely love this.”

Lucy was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. I took the opportunity to start gathering up all the blankets and pillows from my room, getting ready to take everything downstairs. We were going to sleep on the couches in the den.

My little room got so messy so fast. I tidied up a bit. But paused when I got to my desk.

I picked up the acceptance letter. But stared at it for a while before putting it back in the envelope.

Because I started thinking about the timing of when it arrived.

It had to be because Nolan contacted the school yesterday.

But it could also have been the result of my very recent meeting with Adan and the professor.

Which one of the brothers really pulled the right strings to make this happen for me?

I just didn’t know which of them deserved credit for it.

I wanted to believe it was Nolan…

“It was!!” Lily cried out as I thought this. “He loves you so much, you silly girl!”

But Adan had all the connections…

I just couldn’t be sure.

“You can’t trust that liar,” Lily said. “Don’t you remember how he treated you before??”

I did remember. That’s why I was being careful with him.

“Not careful enough…” Lily laughed crazily, like she knew something I didn’t and she couldn’t believe what an idiot I was being.

I heard the bathroom door close.

Lucy returned and we collected up all the stuff we needed and went downstairs.

“Nolan is the one who treats you right,” Lily said. “You shouldn’t go so far away from him…”

“Quiet,” I told her. “I don’t want to argue about this anymore.”

“It’s dangerous…”

“I’ll be fine,” I insisted. “I’ll have Evan to take care of me!”

“Not just dangerous for you!” Lily shouted at me. “For Nolan, too! He needs you… don’t leave him!!!”

My heart sank. That wasn’t really something I’d thought about before.

Lucy and I got to the den and started making up the couches.

She was talking about a movie she wanted to watch, and asking where the plate of cookies had gone, or something. I could hardly hear her over the conversation with the wolf inside me.

Conversation… more like full out argument.

“Stop it,” I told Lily. “Nolan can take care of himself.”

She growled and barked at me. “No… he needs you more than you know.”

I took a deep breath.

“Let’s start the movie,” I told Lucy, trying to chase away the voice of my instincts and turn my attention back to my friend. “Right away. I’ll go get the cookies real quick.”