"Wow, someone's dressing up today," Gold comments the next morning, giving me a once-over and smiling knowingly.
I ponder between smacking her or ducking under my covers for the rest of the day.
I'm really not dressed up. I did change out of my hoodie and sweatpants into something more flattering—jeans and t-shirts, to be exact, but that's it.
"Who're you dressing up for?" Draco asks, his mouth full of food.
"Draco! Swallow before speaking!" Rainbow chastises from the sink, the sound of running water engulfing her words.
"Lunar!" Funneh's surprised shout makes me turn towards her. "Did you dye your hair?"
What is she talking about?
I frown. "What?"
"Your hair! There's a streak of teal!"
"I-it's probably just the sun," I stammer, a sinking feeling in my stomach as I hurry to the washroom.
It wasn't a trick of sunlight.
I reach up and curl my finger around the strand of teal hair behind my ear.
Yup, that's definitely my hair.
My breath catches, and for a long second, I seem to forget how to breathe.
Lunar, snap out of it, I think to myself firmly, and force a breath in. Then another. And another.
I imagine the strand of hair turning purple, but it doesn't.
I try again. Still no results.
Never, in my whole life, has this happened.
I try closing my eyes and imagining them gone, but of course, that strand of inhuman hair is still there. The sinking feeling grows as I try various methods to re-illude that strand, but none of them work.
Why aren't my illusions working?
"Lunar! We have to go!" Funneh yells from the front door.
A strange, panicky calmness comes over me as I shout back, "Coming!" and ruffle the hair in front, making them poofy. I hurry to our bedroom and change out of my t-shirt and back into one of my comfortable, invisible hoodies.
Better not attract any attention until I figure out what's wrong with my ability.
After flinging the hood on my head, I grab my backpack and join Gold and Funneh at the front door.
Gold's sharp eyes scan me over. "You changed," she comments, though it sounds more like a question.
"Yeah. It's a bit chilly outside today." I lie.
The sun is literally cooking the plants outside, and we hear Rainbow fuss over her dehydrated lilies in the background. Gold raises an eyebrow, but she turns and walks out the door with no further question.
Why is she only oblivious when it comes to love? I think bitterly as I follow her out.
I join my siblings, including Rainbow, outside Calix's apartment building. Funneh brought Alec, who brought Kyran, much to his delight.
They all stare at me. I take the hint and press Calix's dorm number. A beep sounds off, and a second later, the front door clicks.
Funneh, Gold, and Draco along with Alec and Kyran, manage to crack everyone up and soon enough I'm laughing along with them. We arrive at Calix's level, our laughter spilling out from the elevators and into the hallway.
The door is open before I get the chance to knock. Calix is standing in the doorway with his signature messy hairstyle.
"You made it!" He sounds pleasantly surprised, and I wonder, for a second, if confident Calix had doubted whether or not we would come.
"Nice house!" Funneh interrupts, barging past us and into his apartment.
"Shoes! Off!" Rainbow calls out as Calix invites us all in.
His front door opens up to a kitchen on the right, and an unmade bed on the left. A small door, which I presume leads to the bathroom, is at the back beside the sliding balcony doors. The kitchen is lit by a warm glow from the lights, and I see baking supplies laid out on his counter.
"How cute," Gold comments beside me.
I agree. This place, despite its size, is cozy. I feel strangely attached to his apartment already, and I've only been in here for five seconds.
A shout sounds and we all turn to stare at Funneh, who had opened a cabinet to reveal bags and bags of potato chips.
"Midterms Week was tough, okay?" Calix says defensively at the amused, albeit judgy, look I shoot him.
Rainbow assigns us each a task. I end up shredding cheese beside Calix, who's cutting pepperonis.
"I don't mean to be judgy–" I start, but Calix cuts me off.
"You're definitely judging," Calix says as he stops cutting to look at me.
"–but have you ever cut anything in your life? I swear, how are your fingers still there?"
"You're one to talk. Look at that!" Calix retorts shamelessly, pointing at the shredder in my hands. "You're not even using the right side!"
"They all look the same."
"No, you're using the smaller side. The holes on the other side are bigger, see?" He reaches out and flips the shredder, proving his point.
His finger grazes mine, and I feel the same electrifying shock from the day we first met. What does this shock mean?
"If you're so educated, why don't you shred the cheese?" I snatch my fingers away. "And I'll cut the pepperonis, since you clearly don't know how to."
Gold's giggles fill my ears and I look up to see where she and Kyran are rolling dough together. Kyran's clothes are doused in flour, and he stands there, looking adorably confused. His eyes are still on Gold though, following her every movement.
Funneh zooms past, laughing wildly. Alec's chasing her, a frustrated, yet amused, look on his face. "Funneh! Get back here!" He yells, a can of tomato sauce in one hand. I spot the smear of red on his cheeks and immediately understand what happened.
"Run, Funneh, run!" Draco cheers gleefully from Calix's bed, where Rainbow had sentenced him to after he spilled a bag of flour on the floor.
Rainbow, the only one who seems to actually want to eat pizza, was operating the oven. Although I doubt she actually knows what she's doing, as her fingers seem to be clicking buttons at random.
"Hey, Calix, how do you work this thing?" Rainbow asks, and Calix hurries over to help here.
This is a disaster.
Yet, as the laughter from my siblings fill the space around me, I feel myself relaxing. In moments like this, I start questioning why I bothered to hide my true form from them in the first place, Calix included.
It's for the best, Lunar. Maybe your family and Calix won't judge, but other people will definitely judge them because of you. Are you really going to burden them like that?
...No.
"Gold and Kyran! Hurry up with the dough!" Rainbow yells at where Gold is patting down Kyran's clothes, trying to rid the flour. I don't miss the pink tint on Kyran's cheeks.
"Are you having trouble?"
My gaze snaps back to Calix, who has finished helping Rainbow.
"Would you still eat this pepperoni if it looked different?" My mouth moves before consulting with my brain.
Calix pauses his difficult fight with the cheese to look at me. He blinks. "Well, if it were moldy, then no. That's unhealthy."
"But what if it were healthy, and it just looked different? Would you still eat it?"
"Well, yeah. It's food."
"But would you love it? Enjoy every moment of eating?"
Calix's sharp eyes hold my gaze, and I can see the confusion in them. I open my mouth to change the subject, but he says, "Yes. If I've committed myself to it, I will love it."
"And when does that commitment start?" Dammit, Lunar, stop with this nonsense! I scold myself silently, but I can't help it.
"From the moment I set eyes on it." His eyes are burning into mine now, and I can see every detail of his irises. He has small golden specks dotted around his brown, almost black, pupils, that seem to twinkle at me.
I have the sudden realization that we're standing very close.
Too close.
I quickly step back to distance myself. "You should go help Funneh and Alec with the tomato sauce. I think they're having trouble."
Half an hour later, we're seated around the foot of Calix's bed, the only area large enough for 8 people to sit down at once.
"Cheers!"
A clatter of pop cans clink, and there's a moment of silence as we devour the food.
"This ramen is so good!"
"Mmm, fried chicken!"
Various compliments rise up around me as I swallow a mouthful of dim sum.
Our pizza was a fail. Rainbow forgot to preheat it, and the inside was raw. The outside, on the contrary, was a burnt crisp. It was a unanimous decision to order takeout.
"Sorry about your kitchen, Calix. We'll clean it!" Rainbow offers.
Calix smiles from beside me. "Don't worry about it. I had a fun time."
"We should do this again! But maybe something less... messy?" Gold suggests, and we all laugh.
I'm enjoying myself so much that I almost forget about my failing ability.
Almost.
But as everyone quiets down, my mind thinks back to what happened earlier. If my illusion ability is slowly failing... is the rest of my body failing, too?