Stiletto Sisterhood

Original Edition: STILETTO SISTERHOOD: The next chapter ...

It wasn't every day a writer got to meet her characters, but here she was, Fallon DeMornay, slipping between the pages to do just that.

Inception, hold my beer.

And given the state of the pandemic sweeping across the globe, to say she welcomed the escape was an understatement. Here, she could do anything. Be anywhere, but it was to the heart of California she slipped to. Along the breezy, sunlit shores of San Diego.

"Thank you." Accepting the menu from the barista, Fallon turned immediately to drinks. This was going to call for booze. Both for nerves, as well as celebration. "Lets go with this." She tapped the item on the page. The Barista scribbled the order on her pad.

"Anything else while you wait?"

"No. I'll hold until my guests arrive."

"Sure. I'll get this through for now." She took off with a brisk stride, her pigtails bouncing as she wove across the patio and indoors to the main bar.

"Well, fuck me sideways."

Fallon's head popped around at that brisk, smooth voice—one she knew so well but had never heard quite so clearly until this moment. Shayne sauntered over, all lithe and tattooed, dressed in a ripped white tank covered in spray paint graffiti text, and loose-fitting jeans. Her shoulder length hair, somewhere between styled and sleep-tousled, was dyed a rich dark blue that made her eyes glow nearly gold in the sunlight.

"Hi." Unsure of what else to say, Fallon laughed. Why am I so shy? And holy, she's even more gorgeous than I remembered.

"Can't believe this." Shayne looped her in a fast hug. "You feel pretty...solid."

Fallon pulled back with a smile and a shrug, cheeks burning. "I know. Surreal." Beyond surreal. It was hard not to want to obsess and absorb every detail like a crazed fangirl. The shape of her jawline, the slight imperfect slant in her bottom tooth. The way Shayne's skin and firmness of her toned arms felt beneath her hands.

Solid. Whole.

I always knew you were more than voices in my head. You were real. You are real.

"The girls are close." Shayne pulled out on of the empty chairs, steel framed with red wire woven into a lattice. She boosted a foot up on the seat of another, her scuffed boots trimmed with chains and studded bits of metal. "It's a bit of a switch, eh? Being in our space versus us all up there." She swiveled a finger upwards. "In yours."

"Yeah, you guys were definitely a handful at times. Especially you with those three am wakeups." Fallon lanced Shayne with an arched glare but softened it with a smile. "Royal pain in my ass."

"I'd apologize, but what can I say?" Shayne feigned a wince. "I'm unpredictable like that."

"Definitely." Fallon set her arms the table, the steep top cool and rough from years of hard wear and tear. And sighed as the wind, smooth and briny, caught in her hair, tugging at her curls set loose and free. It felt good being here. Right. And already she was dreading the return to her living room. To reality.

Thankfully, the arrival of the rest of the Sisterhood banished that thought almost as quickly as it formed.

Priya reached her first, her thick dark hair longer than when Fallon had last visited her. And as the girls gathered into their section of the patio, Fallon hugged each in turn. It was almost as strange as seeing her friends off Wattpad Four girls for the first time—no longer just icons and avatars on a computer screen, but living, breathing people. And struggled not to cry in the wake of so much emotion burgeoning inside her.