More titters as I was hoisted into strong arms. The scent was all wrong for Cress. I must have whispered his name, half out of unconsciousness because I heard more giggles.
“Your boyfriend wants you, Cress!” I heard a girl say teasingly.
I was sure I was blushing the closer I got to being awake. I tried to protest, move, but the arms holding me locked down tightly.
“Shh,” the person holding me muttered. “Let them think you can’t hear them.” I held still, eyes closed against the shame as the others teased Cress over my apparently obvious crush on him and how pudgy I was. They said so many cruel things, I couldn’t stop a couple of stray tears from falling.
“The flower was pretty at least,” Cress said. I could just picture his perfect face. While I would have liked to have said my feelings withered and died, they didn’t. I was pleasedhe liked the flower. “Shame about his body. I thought shifters were all muscular.”
“Nearly at my car,” Stone, the one carrying me, said in an undertone. He asked someone to open the back for him and laid me down gently. The guy was a gargoyle and very muscular for his age. I was impressed with how strong and careful he was. My weight hadn’t seemed to bother him at all. He found a blanket and covered me with it before saying his goodbyes and getting into the car.
“Wait until I pull away before you get up.” The car rocked as it made its way over the grass and onto the road. “You’ll be home in a minute. Are you okay?”
“Do you believe me?” I stayed where he left me, too despondent to move.
“I think you saw something that scared the shit out of you.” I got up and caught his kind eyes in the rearview mirror. “We had no business sending anyone in there alone. It’s lucky you’ve only got a few scrapes and you’ve lost your clothes.”
“Fuck, my phone too! My mom is going to kill me.”
“I’m sure she’ll just be happy you’re okay.” How I wished those words were true right then.
“You don’t know my mom.”
Mom was, predictably, pissed. She hid it well until Stone drove off then rounded on me with a million questions all while she treated my cuts and scrapes.
Eventually, I was able to get the story out. I could tell straight away she didn’t believe me. No one did. Why would they believe I saw a dingo in the woods or that it tried to eat me?
Dad convinced her to at least call the sheriff. A couple of deputies came out, and a group went into the woods to check.
Hours later they returned with my clothes and phone. They also had a stern warning for me not to go into the woods again since I was jumping at shadows and wasting their time, or I’d end up in jail for the night. They’d put me in front of a judge for lying and breaking the town rules.
I never felt so ashamed. Had I really made it all up?
There was proof I hadn’t when I caught the scent of the dingo on my stuff. He’d chewed one of my shoes! It had happened!
Angry no one would believe me, I threw the evidence in the back of my closet and stayed home for a while, waiting for it all toblow over. Everyone would have something new to talk about soon.
Like Cress, and his boyfriend, Frost. They were the talk of Haenvale.
My friends came over to see me. They tried to convince me that no one was talking about me. All it took was one visit to Rosie’s to show that was a lie. Everyone was still laughing about me. They hadn’t forgotten about me escaping the woods, bleeding and scared. They thought it was hilarious. No one thought there was a dingo, until Trisha visited my house.
I showed her the shoes and finally, someone was on my side!
“Babe, that’s so scary! Anything could have happened to you!” She folded her arms around me, her wings shimmering in the sunlight filtering through the window.
“Right? I need your help. I need you to convince my mom to let me go to college early.”
Trisha eyed me with doubt. “Ain’t no way.”
“I need to get out of here. I’m a laughing stock!”
Her brown eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Hmm, maybe we can go visit my aunt until it’s time for college to start. She lives in Westerlake. It’s a haven, too. We can tell your mom she’sgoing to do a makeover for you or somethin’ like it.”
“If she can get my mom onboard, she can do a whole body makeover on me. You didn’t hear them, Trish. They were so cruel.”
“Oh, honey.” She squeezed me to her. I’d never been more grateful for her friendship.
Against all odds, Mom agreed. Maybe she’d heard some of the things the town was saying about me. Maybe she just liked the idea of Trisha’s aunt whipping me into shape for the matchmaking Mom would do when I got home from college.
