Page 12 of Emerald Moon
“You’ll get there.”
“But when?When she’s already crushed me down to nothing?God, I can’t believe I have to be around them all at my little sister’s wedding.What if I go full wolf because my mom makes me angry and I ruin everything?”
“You get a plus one, right?Don’t go alone.I’ll go with you if you want me to.”
“Thanks, Wil.I’ll think about it.”Jo pulled their knees up towards their chest.“It was a nice trip, though.”
“Yeah?Tell me about it.”
They were slow to start, but the more they talked about the hike and the views, the better they felt.They unfurled from the tight ball they made on their bed and stretched out, looking up at the ceiling or over at Wil as they shared and laughed about things that had happened.
“Something happened, though,” Jo said, thinking of Cass being close enough to kiss in the tent and feeling a weird pinch in their stomach.
“A good something or a bad something?”Wil asked.
“Just a something.”They knew they were the one to bring it up, but it was still hard to say.“I think maybe she tried to kiss me?”Their face flushed hot at the memory and Jo blamed it on lingering embarrassment.
“And you’re not sure?”
“Not at all!She sort of leaned in, but before anything could potentially happen, I panicked and slipped into my sleeping bag well away from anyone’s lips.I don’t even know if that’s what she was trying to do.I’m not a person people just go and try to kiss all of a sudden, Wil.”
“I understand that,” Wil said with a grin.“People say I look too intimidating.No one would up and kiss me out of nowhere.”
“You’re about as intimidating as a kitten.”
“You didn’t always think that.”
“True, true,” Jo admitted.They sighed.“So yeah, you get it.No one tries to kiss me, so it probably wasn’t a kiss at all and I just made things weird for no reason.”
“Did you want it to be a kiss?”
“Obviously not!”Jo shot up in bed and stared down their packmate.“Otherwise I wouldn’t have hid in my sleeping bag to get away from it.”
“But if you hadn’t panicked, and if she was trying to kiss you, would you have let it happen?”
“That’s a lot of ‘ifs.’”
“Just asking,” Wil said, feigning innocence even as her expression said otherwise.
“I don’t know!Maybe.It’s nice when someone wants to kiss you.That’s an objectively nice thing.”
“Debatable.”
Jo laughed.“For me, it’d be a nice thing.It’s been a while since anyone tried to kiss me.I just don’t know if I like Cass like that.And anyway, it doesn’t matter because she likes women,” they added the last part quickly.
Wil waved a hand.“All that stuff’s fluid and can change.You know that.”
“I know that for me, but I don’t assume I know about Cass.”
“You still going to hang out with her?”
Jo swung their legs over the side of the bed.“Oh definitely.She’s way too cool to let my embarrassment get in the way.Plus, if I always let the embarrassing crap I did stop me, I’d, like, never get anything done.So, might as well keep going!”
four
Jonoticedthesunwas in a slightly different spot than when their alarm first went off.In a panic, they looked at the clock on their phone and jumped out of bed, knocking over a stack of books and stepping on a pile of half-clean clothes next to the bed.
Their side of the room was all about maximalist living.Every surface was covered in books, figurines, trinkets they’d purchased at conventions, and games for systems they no longer had but they still liked the art, so they kept the case.The walls were also covered in band posters and fan art hung up on a string of lights that zig-zagged along the wall.
