Quit Your Waning (Over the Moon #3)

JIHAE

“You’re sure you’ll be okay?”

Soyeon looked up at me like I was the one who was about to cry, squeezing her hand too tight, insisting that I crush her fingers as I walked her to Siobhan’s unit even if she was ten and already as tall as my shoulder. I gave her a tight smile, because she was totally right. Today was the day I officially lived alone again.

“Tch, of course,” I bluffed, rolling my neck. “I’m going to eat noodles and drink beer every night.”

She stopped in the middle of the hallway with an exasperated huff and the little luggage drone behind us coasted to a stop, her favorite things piled high on its teetering surface.

“No noodles except on weekends!” she scolded. “You have to eat lots of calcium, remember? And Ladh said that his mom has been working on yogurt, so just ask him to bring some to school if you don’t want to go to the hangar by yourself. You always yell at us to not be lazy, but you don’t even want to walk up a stupid hill to get healthy foods.”

I knelt down in front of her with a deep inhale and squeezed her hand. She didn’t know why I hated the hangar or that I had my abduction clothing stashed under the sink. I let her think I was lazy, because it was easier than the truth.

“Are you that worried?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Kinda.”

“Thanks for being worried,” I said, giving her a hug, voice a little more uneven than usual. “I’ll be okay. I’m coming over for dinner and games tomorrow. When school starts again, we’ll see each other every day.”

Soyeon sniffed back a runny nose and dropped her head on my shoulder. That’s when I realized that she felt… guilty. For being excited, for wanting to leave, for not taking care of me instead of the other way around. I swallowed a lump in my throat.

“Can you still pack my lunch after Halloween?”

“Of course. And we can have sleepovers anytime you want.”

Siobhan’s unit slid open down the hallway.

“Thought I heard you out here,” she said with a smile. “Have a cuppa?”

I stood and wiped my eyes. “No, I’ve got dinner printing.”

We hugged and Soyeon bounced into the unit, running straight into Ciara on the couch. The giggles erupted immediately as the food bay chimed and the drone waited patiently for us to get out of its way.

“Your hangover alright?” she asked once the girls were occupied with getting drinks for dinner. It smelled savory, buttery. “Mine’s shite.”

“Oh!” I clapped my hands together. “You should try the hytap! Sizzle came over this morning and showed me. Tastes like lemons, but it works really well.”

“The bilong?” Siobhan asked, brow raised. I nodded. “He can fit?”

“Barely.”

Siobhan burst into raunchy laughter and I smacked her shoulder.

“Sounds craic. I’ll give it a go.”

When I returned to my own unit, the smell of black bean paste and onions filled the hallway. Jjajangmyun, my old friend. I smiled sadly at the unit that was too quiet. No shuffles, no music, no humming, no slippers slapping on the hard floor.

I drowned out the empty nest with a cult classic about a man who realizes aliens are trying to destroy the world and kidnaps their leader with his circus performer girlfriend. Save the Green Planet! was an old favorite, definitely an indie film, and I’d always felt cool for finding it before it was well known. My thumb vibrated with a holotab notification, and I paused the movie to watch a vid of Ciara and Soyeon chasing each other through the hallway with pillows.

An eerie howl rose up over the jungle outside the open balcony and I snapped my attention that way. It sounded like Sizzle, but the hairs rose on the back of my neck. I stepped out into the muggy evening and listened. The siren call faded and the night chorus resumed, but I couldn’t help feeling as if he was waiting for an answer out there on his patrol. I waited for several breaths, listening for a reply, but the same howl rose again, and somehow it felt…

Desperate.

I opened my holotab.

Jihae, 21:47: Is that you?

The howl cut off. I stood in the darkness for a few minutes, listening to the jungle, looking for a big four-legged shadow along the treeline, but all was quiet.

Then an animal screamed. Something crunched. A tree shivered as if a giant had tried to push it over. And the howling began again.

I stepped back from the railing, heart in my throat, and for once, closed the sliding door. I stared at my reflection in the glass, and when my holotab buzzed, I jumped.

Sizzle, 21:53: Just making dinner.

I wrote and erased dozens of comms back.

Didn’t you say flesh is too jiggly?

What’s for dinner?

Oh yeah?

Nice.

Cool

Ah, I see:)

Enjoy dinner!

You can come over for dinner any time.

I deleted every single one, thinking about Sizzle in my unit at night. The way he’d eaten my leftover cup. My stomach flipped, hearing his voice in my head as he called me morsel and told me he liked my taste.

Then I thought about seeing him perched on my balcony. During the day, he’d looked like a demonic griffin, his eyes reflecting the sun like golden shields on a battlefield. Fur the color of rubies and coal dust. Imposing, powerful, completely otherworldly.

But at night with his Cheshire Cat grin and steam rolling off his tongue?

Sinful.

I slapped my cheeks hard with a shiver. What had come over me? Sizzle’s sizzling personality was fun. He didn’t scare me like the shilpakaari did because, as weird as it sounded, his physicality felt more familiar. Like a werewolf or something from a monster movie.

And I was lonely, so of course I would feel a sense of companionship…

But the slippery heat between my legs?

I worried my lip, staring at my now cold noodles.

Maybe it was his voice. That deep purr was like a well-oiled engine dipped in honey, inherently masculine and decadent.

He can fit?

Barely.

I squeezed my thighs together, hoping to quell the hollow ache, but it just made it worse. I sat down in front of the couch, and when I couldn’t find my favorite hugging pillow, I hugged my knees instead, swiping through monster movies on my holoscreen. I landed on a French film about werewolves. I watched, riveted and squirming in my seat. And when the pack was finally revealed in an ambush on unsuspecting campers, my hand slid down the back of my thigh and slipped into the hem of my shorts. My heart skipped as my fingers slid through wet folds. I bit my lip as I circled the hood of my clit, watching the campers get ripped apart.

It felt nice, but it wasn’t what my body wanted… I wanted friction inside. Something heavy and warm. I wanted someone to make my legs shudder and my breasts tingle from bouncing too hard. To take my breath away. I hadn’t been this hot and bothered in a long time.

I looked at the little bowl on the coffee table. Inside was nestled the little clump of pink and red fur Sizzle had given me. I took a deep shuddery breath…

… and smelled a bonfire.

I stood with an abrupt bark of laughter, pushing my hair from my face as I paced the living room. “What the hell?” I whispered, hands on my hips. Bonfire? It made me question my sanity. I paused the movie on the decimated camp with its raging campfire, staring at it wide-eyed.

Just to make sure, I threw the balcony door open again and sniffed the air. The good news was that the jungle wasn’t burning down. But I still smelled flames and wood and spices on myself. I bunched up my shirt and dragged the scent into my lungs. My heart stumbled over itself, flashes of heavy panting and long black claws playing over the backs of my eyelids.

I tossed my shirt over my head and jumped in the shower so fast, I nearly tripped. When it was still cold from sitting in the pipes, I yelped but appreciated the shock. I needed to get a grip.

Tomorrow would be like any other day. Sizzle and I would work on the haunted trail and make jack-o-lanterns, and all these inappropriate thoughts would surely blow over.