Going Rogue

Sixteen

DREW

Early this morning, Grace finished my transformation and stood back, admiring her handy work. "I'm giving up the Inn business and chasing my hidden talent of cutting hair. Damn, I'm good. Have you always looked like a 1920s socialite back from war and ready to reconcile with his sweetheart? Because you do now."

I couldn't stop touching my freshly shaved neck. I understood cats and their perpetual need to be rubbed. Not only did it feel amazing and soft, but it was strangely soothing. It was nice that I didn't need to continuously move my bangs out of my eyes.

I laughed. "If all that's true, I guess you're a witch. I've never been that interesting." I stood from the little stool in her bathroom. The ghost of me walked in front of the mirror. I tried to focus on my face and my hair, now short and choppy on top. I tried to relish in the fact that the bags underneath my eyes were gone.

However, I couldn't look away from the bite, hidden away by perfectly cleaned gauze. All I could think about was the bite underneath the soft cotton as if I could trap all my horror and nightmares there. My eyes clouded and from Grace's silence, she must have noticed. I gathered myself and tore my eyes away to meet hers.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"Anytime," she said and our exchange of sad smiles was interrupted by Jess. He froze by the door, wearing another one of Liam's old T-shirts underneath a plaid thermal. Life sparked behind his eyes and he cracked a crooked smile.

"Hey," he crooned, swaying into the bathroom. "Have you seen my mate?" He bent down slightly to my eye-line, using the salute hand gesture to measure our heights. "He's about yea high. Very cute," he said, using the tips of his fingers to stroke my arm as I just shook my head at him. "But he's a lot more scraggly and smellier than you."

"He sounds nice," I pinched his side and he grinned wider, twisting out of my clutches. "You should find him."

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer, pressing a kiss to my head. He took a deep breath of me as if taking his first breath of fresh air in an eternity. After that, Jess reintroduced me to the house. I apologized to Liam for threatening him, but he just laughed it off.

He said, "It was the politest way I've ever been threatened."

He busied himself, frying bacon and eggs. Today, the special was pancakes. All pancakes were made to order, blueberry, strawberry, chocolate chip, Nutella, banana, eggnog, even lemon poppy seed pancakes and the signature Dearest pancakes made from cinnamon, buttermilk and the town's staple: apples. Everything was covered in warm butter to powdered sugar. The use of maple syrup was up to the discretion of the customer.

Dominic was at Liam's side barely giving me the time of day, but Ryan was breathless talking so fast. He continuously whisked together more and more batter. "That haircut turned out really nice, you look so much younger than I thought, but honestly, it's really great to see you awake. It's been pretty tense here-" Ryan blinked wildly, blushing to his ears. "I mean, um it wasn't that bad. We all knew you were gonna pull through. Jess was just really tense-"

"Red," Dominic leaned over the counter with a stack of chocolate chip pancakes, covered in gram-cracker bits and mini marshmallows. "Shut up and take this to table five. You," he finally snapped a glare at me. "What do you want? Get your order in."

"I'm fine," I said. They were busy, and I didn't want to bother them when they were in the middle of a rush. I had already noticed a bowl of fruit, stacking my claim over one of the bananas.

Jess gave me a look, climbing onto the bar stool in front of the island. He rolled up his sleeves and questioned me. "You're not hungry? Because I'm gonna get pancakes."