Concern etches itself across both their faces.
“Have you guys heard of the blood wolf?”
“Yeeeees,” they say together, stretching out the vowel.
“So I’m sort of that…as well.”
“What?!”
THE PEBBLE IN YOUR SHOE
Aisha comes leaping toward me, a pastel-purple box in her hands, her high-pitched squeal shattering the silence of the theater’s foyer.
“I am so proud of you!” She wraps one arm around me and squeezes the air out of my chest. “You’ve done so good, kid.”
“Thank you,” I say, pulling away and rubbing the back of my neck. It’s not like Aisha to squeal and hop, but I guess telling her about my coming-out has got her all excited. A true ally.
“These are for you,” she says, holding out the box. It has the Magnolia Bakery logo printed on top and inside are six perfect, colorful cupcakes.
“I mean, thanks! What are these for?”
“They’re coming-out cupcakes!”
If I’d have known there’d be baked goods, I would have come out sooner.
“Okay come sit; I only have like fifteen minutes till I’m supposed to be backstage. These two-show days are killing me.”
Aisha pulls me over to a rectangular leather-covered bench. I wish we had more time to hang out, but her company is neck-deep in their Christmas season.
We sit and she leans back, appraising. “So how’d it go? Tell me the whole story, paint me a picture.”
“It was all pretty chill, they were really great about it.”
“And how do they feel about having the prince of pensive stares as their new pup-in-law?”
“Oh I didn’t tell them about Jasper—he… He’s not ready for people to know…just yet.”
She raises an eyebrow.
“But the thing is I’m glad I haven’t told them about him yet; this way it’s more about me and not all about him. You know?”
A semi-smug but very happy grin spreads across her face.
“You know what? That’s actually perfect. And they were cool?”
“Yeah, I’m really lucky.” I think about the other wolves I’ve met, the ones like me who aren’t as lucky. Omar springs to mind. His coming-out was the reason his pack disowned him. “Actually, they were more confused about the whole blood wolf thing.”
“Oh, so you’re just straight-up calling yourself that.”
I shrug. I know it seems like a lot, taking on the mantle of the sacred—or cursed, depending on how you look at it—blood wolf from the myths. But I don’t know how else to explain it. It feels right.
“So tell me more about that. How does it work?”
“At first it was like, wildly painful; now it’s just a mild headache and I can sort of feel people’s energy buzzing around my head.”
“Like we’re a bunch of flies?”
“It’s more that I know everyone is there, like I can feel my connection to everyone. And if I focus really hard I can sort of hear everyone.”
