AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Take this, Julie,” Nicole says, handing her a cup. Julie peers inside.
Don’t drink it, I silently beg, but she does, sipping it slowly at first. Then her eyes go wide.
“It’s good!” She says. “What is it?”
“My own special recipe,” Nicole tells her, and then the girls all giggle. “Come on, have a seat. What are you doing out here all alone?”
“Camping,” Julie says. That much was obvious. “What about you?”
“We’re on a journey of sorts,” Nicole says, and I don’t like the way she says that. Of sorts? What the hell does that mean? I can’t quite see all of their equipment and supplies, but something tells me that Nicole and Bernie aren’t here on some spring break getaway. They’re here for other reasons, and none of the ones I’m thinking of are good.
In fact, they’re all terrible.
“Well, seems like a good enough place to find yourself,” Julie comments, sipping her drink.
“Yeah?” Bernie asks, raising an eyebrow. “So what’s your story, sweetheart?”
Sweetheart?
Really?
Come on, Julie, I silently beg the woman. See through this. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
I’m itching to jump in like the white knight I imagine myself to be. It’s a dragon thing, I tell myself. I love the idea of saving a girl from trouble, of rescuing her from unforeseen circumstances that could terrorize and harm her.
There’s another part of me, a less noble part, that’s much too curious for my own good. A girl like Julie? What’s she doing in the darkness of the forest?
Julie rolls her eyes. “Bad breakup. You know the drill.”
“Do we ever,” Bernie snickers. She jerks her head toward Nicole. “This girl just got out of a cray-zay relationship. Then again, you probably know all about that.”
“Yup,” Julie takes a swig of her drink. There’s no doubt the alcohol is starting to get to her already. To a normal person, she might look the same, but to a dragon shifter? Julie’s starting to look less focused. Her eyes are glazing over, just a little. She’s having a hard time concentrating.
“What happened?” Nicole asks, placing her hand on Julie’s knees.
“My fucking best friend happened,” she says. My heart squeezes, tensing involuntarily. Ouch. Talk about cliché. I wonder what happened. Did she have too many late nights at work? Was her friend jealous of her beauty? Maybe she just got caught up with the wrong guy at the wrong time. I don’t know, but it’s insane to me that someone could even fathom hurting someone as beautiful or as sweet as Julie.
“Damn,” Nicole and Bernie say at the same time.
“Yeah. It’s funny, I always heard all of these stories about this shit happening, but until it happens to you? You can’t really understand. I didn’t, at least. I mean, Samantha and I were friends. Best friends, I thought. We lived together for a couple of years and everything. Working together, teaching together, living together: Samantha and I had it all.”
“So what went wrong?” Nicole asks. I notice she hasn’t taken a sip of her drink in awhile. I wonder what con she’s trying to pull. Two little humans won’t be difficult to overtake if things go wrong. The truth is that I don’t know any of them, though, and I shouldn’t make a snap judgment.
“I started subbing,” she says. “And tutoring after work. Thought it would be a good way to get a little extra money.”
“Ah. Boyfriend thought you were gone too much?”
“I guess. He and Sam started hanging out.” Julie stands up and starts pacing in front of the fire. She’s holding her cup tightly, but she hasn’t taken another sip.
“How’d you find out?” Nicole asks, softening her voice.
Julie starts to raise her cup to her lips, then seems to trip on something I can’t see. She stumbles forward, dumping the contents of her drink beside the fire. Nicole looks irritated.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Julie says quickly. “I’m so clumsy,” she giggles. “Did I get any on you?”
“No, but we have bigger problems than wet pants,” Bernie says, jumping into the conversation. She reaches for Julie’s cup. “Let’s get you another drink.”
“That’s okay. I can make it myself,” Julie says, heading toward the cooler.
