Page 42 of Supernova

I went for a classic swirl of signature tart before doing exactly what Kit had suggested and piling on my fair share of toppings. I was a basic ‘strawberries and chocolate’ type girl, going in for the warm Nutella, apple crumble, coconut flakes, loads of strawberries and finishing it off with a large helping of gooey choc chip cookie on the side. Kit had a major sweet tooth, filling her two flavour combo of mango and strawberry yoghurt with an array of lollies. Just when I thought she was done, she heaped on a spoonful of cookie dough and a sprinkle of Oreos—a very odd combination in my opinion but also very Kit. I was all about creating the perfect flavour profile. She was more of the ‘if you see it, eat it’ type. Billie of course was a ‘less is more’ kind of girl—which I expected from her—opting for signature tart with a small serving of mochi and popping pearls.

As we sat around and devoured our dessert, I filled them in on all the details of my call with Celeste. It was a combination of relaying the information and venting, starting with how I was so relieved my sister didn’t hate me and ending with how fucking mad I was that River was still coming across as the golden boy. My friends comforted me and let me talk their ears off, occasionally with a mouthful of yoghurt, all without judging. This was why I truly loved them.

When I was done, Kit used some very colourful and unlady like words to describe River and then went through a list of all the things she’d do to him when they eventually came face-to-face, including but not limited to, putting a muzzle on him—and “not in a kinky way”, as she so stated.

Contrastingly, Billie gave me some sound and extremely zen advice about not letting other people’s opinions of you control your life. Something about how their gossiping says nothing about me and everything about them and that I needed to let go of things outside of my control to protect my positive energy. She was going to work with both of us—because “Kit clearly needed some spiritual guidance”—to vibrate at a higher frequency.

All in all, it was a much needed therapy session. But just when I thought it was over, the girls shoved me into another cab to yet another undisclosed location.

When the car came to a halt in front of an old looking warehouse, I was truly confused. Kit didn’t give me much time to figure it out before she covered my eyes and led me to a door.

“This is where you kill me, right?” I joked. “I knew you were all too good to be true.”

“I think Kit’s dramatic-ness is rubbing off on you,” Billie teased from behind.

When Kit was happy with my positioning, she removed her hands. “Ta-da!”

I was staring at a wooden door. A neon sign above it showed an axe, flicking between two positions so it looked like it was being thrown. A soft buzzing noise radiated from the sign. My confusion only grew.

“Umm … okay?” I said, clearly befuddled.

“Come on.” Kit continued her pulling, opening the door to the mysterious place and leading me in. Billie chuckled before she followed.

We entered a dark hallway that was lined with vintage looking picture frames. Upon future inspection I noticed the first frame had a cartoon painting of Red Riding Hood with an axe. That was odd.

As I was pulled along I surveyed the rest. Each was a different cartoon character holding either a mediaeval styled weapon or quite jarringly sitting and drinking tea; Robin Hood with a crossbow, Alice in Wonderland with a teacup, Snow White with a sword. They were all lit with a different coloured neon light. “Guys … where the hell are we?” It was eerie. But cool. The hall opened into a wooden themed foyer that resembled an old-school fairytale tavern. And as if it were really a tavern, a bar sat across from us with barrels of beer on the wall and pints on the counter. It was like we were transported in time. Except just like the hall, modern neon lights scattered around and loud bassy beats contrasted the scene. There were other people dispersed around at different wooden tables and benches, drinking and laughing. I guess this was a bar. A really cool, really weird bar.

“Hey there, do you have a booking or did you want to take a seat at the bar?” One of the bartenders at the counter asked as we approached.

Billie went up to her. “Yep, I called about an hour ago.”

“Great, this way,” she said, coming around the bar. She walked out to the side and pushed through one of those very small saloon type doors. In complete contradiction to the previous space, she opened it to a modern hall full of different glass rooms and neon signs. They had brought me to a break room—it all made sense now. This place was very cool.

Once the worker had run us through the rules and we were suited up and in our first room, I turned to the girls. “What the hell is this? Couldn’t we have just spared in the gym or something? You didn’t have to do all this.”

Kit beamed at me. “We could have, but this is way more fun!”

We threw axes, broke plates and smashed things with baseball bats. It was everything I needed and more. When we were done, I slid down the wall laughing. My friends joined me on the floor.

Kit exclaimed, “Operation cheer up Vee: a success.”

“Definitely a success.” I smiled warmly, squeezing them close to me as we sat on the ground together, opposite a mess of broken glass and china. “Thank you, girls.”

“As much as we’d love to take all the credit, you should probably thank Griff. It was him who suggested you needed some girl time and we should take you out of the compound—give you a little break,” Billie added as she leaned her head on my shoulder.

“He did?” I questioned. That was extremely, and weirdly, thoughtful of him. I mean I knew he was sweet deep down but this was quite cute.

“He did,” Kit assured me.

I don’t know when or how it happened, but Griff had become a really good friend to me. In fact, throughout all our one-on-one lessons, I’d opened up to him quite a bit, without even realising. Although the beautiful creature, with all his flirting and suggestive banter, made me nervous to no extent, I was comfortable around him. I could talk to him—when he was being serious at least. And when he wasn’t, he was just fun to be around and a great distraction.

I had to admit, the boy was slowly thawing my frozen heart.

CHAPTER 25

The next day after training was done, I showered in a rush to get down to the daybed to read before dinner. I didn’t care if I was late to eat, I was reading today. From the morning, I had decided I needed the downtime and an opportunity to open the books I had bought before they got dusty.

I was elated to find the daybed empty and shining with the golden hour light; the ultimate reading conditions. I soaked it all in as I pried open my book.

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