“Or you could just leave Purgatory,” she calls after me.
I don’t even honor her with a fucking response. Don’t people realize that’s exactly what I want to do? Damn.
“Are you okay, Rez? Want to go shopping? That always cheers me up,” Moni asks as she shoots to her preferred size. I know she’s trying her best to soften the blow I just had. But if the fight story has made it out of school, I can only imagine what the other shopkeepers will say.
“Yeah, I’m peachy. I’ll just be as hairy as bigfoot. We can add that to my growing list of issues at the moment. But hey, I’m not really up for shopping now, but what about stopping by Sparks so you can get a coffee on me?”
I really don’t want to be out, but I’ll suck it up and go to Sparks for her and then call it a night.
“Hell yeah, I won’t say no to coffee. You’re the best, Rez!” She squeals and promptly faints, but I’m quick enough to catch her. Yay, win for me. Holding her like a toddler, I make my way over to Sparks, which is only a block away.
Walking into the store, I find a few other students inside giving me a curious look.Of course!Ignoring the haters, I roll my eyes and get in line to order. Two people are working the counter, one taking the orders and the other making the drinks, so the line seems to be moving steadily at least. Gus walks out from the back, and when he spots me holding Moni he smiles and waves me over to the side. As he prowls over to the end of the counter to meet me, his eagle wings ruffle behind him. He really is a beautiful Sphinx.
“What got her this time?” He nods at her.
Smiling, I lay her on the counter, “I asked if she wanted to come here.”
Gus throws his head back and laughs like a roaring lion, scaring Moni awake. With a flutter, she pops up and looks around.
Seeing Gus, she brightens, “Hey, Gussy. Can I have a drink? I’m running on empty.”
“Ha. You’re always on empty. Sure, let me get it started.” When he leaves us to make her drink, I take the opportunity to look around the room. I feel like I’m back in the classroom again as a few people look my way and then touch their own face. Biting the inside of my cheek, I try to hold back the tears. I’m an angry crier, and that’s what I’m feeling.
How dare these fuckers, people that don’t know me, judge me because of what some hoity-toity princess did to my face. Well, fuck them. I’m not going to let them see me at my lowest. I’ve been there before, and I won’t let that happen to me again. Tilting my chin back, I make eye contact with a snooty lady decked out in jewels of some sort and smirk, winking at her.
“I’ve never!” She grabs her lamp—a genie it seems—and walks out of the shop in a huff, making a mess of herself on the way out. Moni starts laughing and pointing at the lady. When she got up, she spilled the drink on the table and it spilled onto the back of her dress as she bumped into it again. She’s now walking around with a brown spot on the middle of her ass. Serves her right.
Gus comes back over with Moni’s gallon and hands me a drink as well. Seeing the mess, he nods his head in the direction of the spill and a young Nome runs around the counter to clean up the drink. As soon as Moni has her gallon in hand, she flies over to the Nome and starts having a conversation.
Moving my hair without thinking, I expose my cheek to Gus unintentionally.
“Wow. You have some nice healing going on there. That’s some nasty stuff.” He swings his tail over and pulls apart the tuft to show me where half of his skin and muscle is gone on the bottom. There’s a ring around the tuft that looks like a surgical scar. “You were lucky. Skin heals over time. Bone, muscle, and tendons not so much. Had a great doctor that amputated and reattached my tail. This sucker used to be eight feet long.”
“Really?” I ask, intrigued to learn more about him while sipping on my drink. Yum, white chocolate mocha. Moni slides up to my side just in time to need her brain bleached along with mine.
“Oh yeah, the ladies loved the tail. Man, the things I could do with that thing. I once—”
“Ahhh. No!” I set down my drink and wave my hands out to stop him. I’m notthatintrigued. “Nope. Don’t need to hear about your sex life.”
“Oh. Come on, Nerezza. It might teach you a few things,” he chuckles.
“Uck. No, Gussy. We will pass,” Moni chimes in.
I am curious about one thing, “How long was your recovery time?” I ask.
“Growing back the skin only took a week or so, but yours looks like it’s fresh, so I doubt it will be that long. You only have a little crease in the middle. Whoever patched you up was fast-acting,” he picks up a towel and places it over his shoulder. “The point is, Nerezza, wear it proudly. It means you survived.” Smiling, he points to the counter where the pastries are. “Help yourself. It’s on me,” and he walks into the back room.
He has a point. Even though I had just decided not to shy away, I needed to be proud of it.
That fairy bitch might try to take me down, but my ass is still standing, and she doesn’t know what’s coming her way if she doesn’t move.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Call Me Jane Doe
Rez
Iwake up with a start from the dose of warm water splashing me in the face. “Ahh!” Sputtering, I push my now sopping hair out of my face with a splat.Okay, who am I going to kill? Probably my damn alarm clock. I give up!
