The rest of the day went by pretty quietly. There weren’t any more calls that our group needed to attend to, but we did hear other groups being called up over the radio. Including Yankee Doodle Two, the group of cousins and their uncle from our town. There were also plenty of non-lame sounding call signs being called out.

  We made a trip down to one of the two local banks in town to set up accounts and get some money exchanged into Canadian dollars. We picked the one closest to our new house, though even that wasn’t much of a difference. One was seven minutes away and one was eleven. By the time we got finished we barely had time to run through the grocery store before everywhere started closing for the day. Small towns, am I right?

  Tomorrow we would need to find somewhere to switch over our phones so we weren’t reliant on wifi, somewhere to grab some more changes of clothing, and somewhere to get some cassette tapes to torture Mara with. The fact that we thought the last one was feasible in this tiny town wasn’t surprising, at least to us. John already had a lead on a music store for us to check out.

  We trudged back to the house, all of us more than a little worn out from the fight and all the bullshit bureaucracy from the bank and everything else. I wandered around the house checking out the rooms. It had obviously been set up as a rental. The master bedroom, which the boys had somehow managed to secure, was the only one with even a queen sized bed. The rest of us would have to make due with full size beds. I blushed thinking about being pressed up against Ashley in the tight little beds.

  “I’ll fix dinner,” Mara called from somewhere in the house.

  Everyone else basically ran to the kitchen to keep her out of it. I was glad everyone was aware of Mara’s biggest short coming, but now we all looked around at each other wondering who would actually cook and what we’d fix. Mara smirked at us from the doorway to the kitchen before sauntering off. We’d all been manipulated once again to get dinner done on Mara’s schedule. If I didn’t love her, I’d hate her.

  John started pulling things out of the fridge and I stepped up beside him to help out. Together we threw together a little stir fry for everyone that was simple and fast. Ashley hunted around for some wine or something to drink. It was definitely nice to have a break from snack cakes, not that there was anything wrong with them.

  Dinner was a quieter affair. We’d spent all day together, so it’s not like anyone needed to be updated on the goings on of our days. Mara asked me a little about my jacket’s upgrade. She was more than a little jealous. We talked about what we still needed to buy tomorrow and when we should hunt around for those dungeons. They weren’t marked on anyone’s maps so we’d have to search for them like we did the portals that got us here in the first place. Fortunately John had some idea of what it was we were looking for. Even I was a little excited to see what the fuss was about.

  After dinner we argued about what to watch on the single TV in the livingroom so long that I gave up and went to take a shower. John wanted to watch something explosion-y and violent. Mara wanted to watch gore and horror. Oliver wanted to watch something with some romance. Ashley wanted to try and find a compromise with everyone, and I didn’t care.

  I gave up on everyone in the livingroom and decided to try and read a book I found lying around in the house after my shower. It wasn’t much better as it was a very dry little memoir about some semi-famous person I’d never heard of before.

  After a while, Ashley cautiously entered our room. She’d obviously showered as well and was wearing a tank and panties. Neither of us had really packed pajamas of any kind unlike Mara and the boys who I found out had all packed something modest to sleep in when we shared the hotel room.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Ashley quietly slid under the covers with me, her foot immediately brushing against my calf. We both pulled away as if burned. I felt myself blushing like some kind of Victorian era virgin. Oh no! Our legs touched, how scandalous. Though I was thankful I’d decided to shave and she didn’t feel all my leg prickles or anything actually embarrassing.

  “Whelp, goodnight!” I practically shouted into the silent room before flinging myself onto my side and hunkering down beneath the blankets. I quietly slid the book onto the nightstand beside me and closed my eyes, praying for sleep to take me soon. And if not sleep then death because I was never going to live any of this awkwardness down.

  Ashley chuckled, “Goodnight, Grace.” I felt her settle down on her side of the bed after clicking off the bedside light on her nightstand.

  I lay there in bed for a long time, listening to Ashley’s breathing even out as she drifted off to sleep. It took me much longer to fall asleep. Every time I’d feel close, she’d brush against me, or I’d bump into her. The bed felt smaller and smaller the longer we lay in it.

  Eventually I must have fallen asleep because I woke up in the middle of the night to pounding coming from the front of the house. I startled awake only to find myself in Ashley’s koala grip as she draped herself over my back.

  “Shhhh…sleep,” Ashley whined in my ear.

  I stiffened in her arms before I heard the pounding coming from the front of the house again. I slid out from under Ashley’s body after prying her grip off of my waist. Her fingers had been gripping my hips like she was trying to prevent my escape.

  I made it to the front of the house right behind Mara. There was another pounding on the front door as we got closer. There was no peephole and no windows looking onto the porch, so Mara just flung the door open. Not like someone that would want to cause us harm would knock.

  On the other side stood a police officer in uniform. “Thank goodness,” he exclaimed. “We gave y’all a radio so we don’t have to come banging around for you guys when we need you!”

  “Sorry, they’re in the kitchen charging,” Mara yawned. “What’s up deputy Dan?”

  The police officer growled. “Keep one charged to use overnight from now on. We need healer Oliver. One of the other teams had an incident with some monsters tonight and his skills are needed.”

  “I’ll go grab him, just a second,” I called out as I raced back toward the bedrooms. Mara stayed by the door to make sure the cop didn’t come into the house uninvited. It maybe wasn’t the most polite thing to do to one of our allies, but it is hard to just dismiss the ingrained fear of police overreach and violence from being queer in America.

  I banged on John’s and Oliver’s door until John fuming flung the door open. “What the fuck?!”

  “Cops are here to ask Oliver to come heal someone that was hurt. Didn’t you hear them banging on the front door?”

  “Oh…no,” John sounded a little more sheepish now. He turned back into the room, “Babe, they need you out there.”

  “Coming,” Oliver’s voice called out.

  “Get dressed first,” I called back. “Pretty sure they didn’t bring the injured person to the house.”

  “Ok. Well let us get dressed. We’ll be right out,” John told me.

  I stepped back and nodded my head. John closed the door and I hurried back into the front of the house. “Oliver is getting dressed. And I think John will be coming with him to make sure he’s safe.”

  “Excellent. I’ll bring them back as soon as they’re done,” the officer called through the door.

  A few minutes later both guys came jogging around the corner. Mara and I stepped back and they said their goodbyes as they left the house.

  “Looks like Ashley got to sleep through the entire thing, lucky bitch,” Mara muttered.

  I couldn’t help blushing as I turned away. “Night, Mara,” I called over my shoulder.

  “Yeah, night.” Mara mumbled as she shuffled into her own room.

  When I got into my room, Ashley had starfished across the entire bed. Fucking hell. I yanked the covers off of her and started shoving her back onto her side of the bed. Not very kindly. Ashley grumbled and groaned the entire time, but went back to her side pretty easily. I crawled into bed on my side and pulled the covers over me. A few minutes later I felt Ashley scoot closer and wrap herself back around my body like a limpet. It was going to be a long night.