Far From Home

Chapter Two - The Shift

A quick background on me: my parents split up when I was too young to remember and both remarried shortly thereafter. It didn’t take long for my biological father to slip out of my life like he was never there to begin with and my mom, well she was never home so I guess you could say she wasn’t really there either. I had turned 18 the day after I arrived at school and other than a sappy social media post put up for the attention it would get my mother, I didn’t receive any gifts or phone calls from my parents. But when my new friends discovered it was my 18th birthday they made plans to go out this weekend to the most popular nightclub in the city. I was looking forward to it and only had to survive two and a half more days of classes. However, my new friend Mary has her daddy’s plastic and a shopping addiction and tonight we were going to get new outfits for the occasion. After class I practically sprinted back to my room to change and meet her and we drove to the mall with the top down and the tunes up, singing at the top of our lungs like we were rock stars.

When we started shopping some of my old insecurities started showing up because Mary was a size 2 at best and I, well, I was definitely not.

“Why haven’t you grabbed an armful of things to try on? I told you, daddy is paying - Happy birthday Lilly!” Screeched Mary.

“I’m not great at shopping for my size and I have a hard time finding things I’m comfortable in,” I admitted.

“Your size?! Girl, you have t**s for days and an ass that even I’d like to eat a meal off of - you’re not in podunk anymore, embrace your gorgeous self and go try these on,” she said as she handed me a pile of dresses she’d practically magically summoned out of thin air. I laughed as I went back to the fitting rooms to try them on. Every dress fit perfectly and hugged me in just the right way and if I didn’t know any better I would say that Mary was obviously magic because I had literally never had that happen before. As I showed her each outfit she grinned and when I stepped out in a classic little black dress with red embroidered accents she squealed, “that’s the one!” I did a spin and found that I agreed with her, the woman in that mirror couldn’t possibly be me but of course she was and it was time I embraced my new life. As I turned to go change she grabbed my arm and yanked me backwards.

“What the hell Mary?”

“What is that on your neck?” She asked with a look that said she already knew the answer. As I stuttered trying to find the right words she put her finger over my mouth and said, “My lips are sealed, it’s not my place if you don’t want to talk about it.”

I gave her a sheepish nod and headed in to change. I was thankful that my T-shirt covered the hickey but I’d have to try to get it to fade before this weekend because not everyone would be as gracious.

Friday afternoon rolled around and my mood had been steadily increasing as the day went on but I was anxious and restless and I couldn’t tell quite why. I could not wait to party with all my new friends. Ryan and Liz would both be there so Ryan and I had texted the past couple days and decided to keep our ‘thing’ casual and more or less avoid each other tonight so there wouldn’t be any conflict. Initially I imagined it would be one of those cliche things where jealousy would get the best of one of us but honestly, while he and I had a good time together, I didn’t find my mind wandering to him like I thought it would. I walked up to my friend Sarah’s off campus apartment to get ready and pregame with all the ladies and I heard this voice mumbling. It sounded like it was literally coming from inside my head and I instantly got a headache but I shrugged it off and went to the elevator. There were 6 of us girls getting ready together and we would meet the rest of our group at the club at 10. We ordered pizzas for dinner, did our makeup while sharing tips and teased our hair maybe just a little too much. It was like a stereotypical gal pal sleepover scene from every teen movie but when Liz’s phone buzzed that the cars were 10 minutes from picking us up it quickly turned into the frat party scene from every other teen movie as we chased down shots and filled water bottles with vodka. Our university was private but it had a great scholarship program so some of the students like Mary, Sarah, and Liz came from rich, privileged backgrounds and others like myself were more or less just lucky to be here. I wasn’t wasting $12 on a shot when I could sneak half a bottle in for free.

We got to the club and followed Mary up to the bouncer who winked at her and let us right in. She led us to our VIP table for the night which had balloons and decorations and I thought I surely must be dreaming. The rest of our group joined us shortly after and over a round of tequila (my drink of choice), I was serenaded with the rowdiest version of Happy Birthday I’ve ever heard. Forgotten was the strange mumble and headache. If only I knew what was coming next.

We were on the dance floor dancing and drinking and having a great time when one of the guys yelled, “smoke break,” and a group of us headed to the patio to get some air. As we walked out the door my headache came back but one hundred times worse and even though we were outside in the cool air, I thought my body was literally about to ignite because I was so hot. As a clock somewhere in the distance chimed the stroke of my midnight I felt the worst searing pain I have ever felt and my bones literally felt like they were breaking.

“s**t guys, it’s midnight, she’s shifting,” yelled Sarah as she ran towards me.

“What the f**k is g- -,” is all I could get out before I was somehow looking at them from a different angle and they were all standing around clapping and cheering for me but I couldn’t speak anymore. What was happening to me?

I looked down at my hands and saw white luminescent fur. Well, I’m obviously dreaming now because that’s not even possible. I felt people patting my shoulder and Mary was beaming at me telling me that I was even sexier this way. Just then she must’ve picked up on the panic in my eyes because she asked a question that would change everything: “Lilly, did you not know you were a wolf?” And then everything went black.