Page 18 of Emerald Moon
Harry glanced up from his phone and smiled.He’d only started transitioning a little over two years ago, and it clearly still made him feel good to be “one of the boys.”
“What about Edgar?He’s a boy and he’s staying at home,” Wil mentioned.
“Edgar is a grown-ass man,” Jo said, earning laughs around the table, including Edgar.
Diah smiled and clapped her hands together.“Alright, then.The boys will leave us, and we’ll have drinks at home for the girls, gays, and theys.”
“Technically, I’m bi, but for the sake of rhyming, I’ll let it slide.”Edgar laughed.
“Dishes for the dish crew, then.”Diah pointed at Jo and Harry.“And I’ll start on drinkies!”
Jo groaned.“I hate dish duty.”
Harry patted them on the back.“Gloves on.Let’s go.We’ll get it done quickly so we can be free.”
Jo yawned and curled up into a ball on their bed.“I really shouldn’t have had all those gin and tonics.I’m a thousand times sleepier than I was before.”Like caffeine, alcohol didn’t have much of an effect on werewolves at normal, human quantities, but werewolf cocktails were a thing that had come about in the past few years, and they were strong.
“You can go to bed early,” Wil suggested, sitting down at the edge of her bed.
“Funny how midnight is an early bedtime around here.”
“Well, when you wake up at noon —“
They snuggled into their pillow.“I know.I love it.One of the best parts of being a werewolf.”
“That good, huh?”
“The best.It’s the schedule I always dreamed of.It’s the schedule I aimed for my whole life, but everyone thought I was lazy.”Jo made air quotes around the last word.“Turns out I was just preparing.”
“Even for a werewolf, you do get up late,” Wil commented.
“No, you just get up too early for a wolf.You can always change your schedule, you know — be more like me.”
Wil made a sour face.“Changing my schedule is the worst.I like for things to happen exactly when they should happen.There’s a little wiggle room here and there, but anything else makes me feel itchy and wrong the whole day.”
“I get it.Not like, I get it because I’m the same — because man, am I not — but I get it because I know you and that makes sense.”They yawned again.“Wake me up if I forget my meds, okay?”
Wil stood and walked towards their shared bathroom.“How will I know if you’ve taken them?”
“Good point.Guess I’ll have to be responsible.”
She motioned towards the door to the bathroom.“Do you want to shower first or can I?”
“Pass.Too dang tired tonight.”They unfurled and stretched out on their bed like a starfish.
“If you’re not too tired, it might be a great time to message Cass.”
Jo lifted their head to look at Wil.They narrowed their eyes.“Where’s this coming from?”
She shrugged.“Just saying, if you don’t want your embarrassment to stop you and you want to be friends, sooner might be better than later.”
They let their head fall back on their bed.“I’ve got time.”
“We’re wolves.We’ve all got time.But waiting isn’t always the best,” she said and closed the bathroom door behind her.
Jo stared at the ceiling.There really wasn’t a reason to wait to message Cass, but they also didn’t have anything to say.Their brain felt mushy and making a new friend was better left for a good brain.On the other hand, Wil was right.
There wouldn’t be any harm in a short text.
