Pull You In (Rivers Brothers 3)

"Did you leave anything at home?" I asked, wide-eyeing the items as she burst into my apartment, spreading the clothes across the back of the couch, then choosing the kitchen table to spread out an assortment of makeup.

"Oh, please. No one would even notice I'd taken anything with me," she said, smiling. "For our anniversary years back, my man built me a massive closet to organize all my stuff. It has a Ferris-Heel."

"I'm sorry... a what?"

"A ferris wheel, but it is actually a slowly turning shelf for my favorite heels. And it is everything shoe-lovers dreams are made of."

"I, ah, I don't wear heels."

"Well, if you fit into mine, you will be tonight," Fee declared, giving me a wicked smile. "Oh, good. Fuel," she said, going over to the coffee machine, helping herself. "What are your opinions on Chinese food?"

"Um, wait, what?"

I asked, having a hard time keeping up with her.

"You know. Lo Mein, fried rice, spring rolls..."

"I, ah, I like it?" I half declared, half asked.

"I'm starving," she declared. "Hunter wasn't home to feed me. I didn't feel like taking my chances in the kitchen. Besides, eating alone isn't as fun as eating with a friend while you Sandy-fy her."

"Sandy-fy," I repeated, smiling.

"Minus the cigarette because, ew. The leather though... you could pull off some leather. I didn't bring any, though, I don't... oh wait."

"Oh God," I whimpered as she went back to her stack of clothes. "Ah, is that a bra?" I asked.

"It's a corset. Well, sort of. It's a fashion corset. So it doesn't have the boning. Which you don't need anyway."

"I really don't think I can pull off leather."

"Listen, Sandy, we don't know what you can pull off until we try. Now let me go all Frenchie on you," she declared, grabbing my shoulder, pushing me down into a chair.

I'm sure, at some point in my childhood, I'd had playdates with other girls my age. Maybe I even enjoyed it. But the older I got, the less I seemed capable of forming bonds with anyone, trusting that I could let anyone get close to me because of all the bullying, so I missed the whole 'fun with makeup and clothes' part of my adolescence and early adulthood. This was nice. Nicer than I could have ever expected.

"I always thought the girls' nights in movies and on TV were made up," Fiona said, seeming to read my thoughts. "I mean, I grew up in the woods with a zealot for a father. We didn't even have TV or friends. So when I got out of that world, and learned about the outside world, I had no experience with it myself, so I figured the girlfriend thing was just made up. Like how people in movies make this massive breakfast spread and then only take an apple and walk out the door. Like made up silliness. But then I got some friends, and had some girls myself, and I see it's real. And it's a lot of fun."

"You... you grew up in the woods?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah," she said, nodding, shrugging it off. "No electricity. No 'outside corruption'," she said, air quoting the words. "Just the four of us. It was like a cult but without the enigmatic leader and all the flower crowns."

"Your parents and..."

"And my brother."

"I didn't know you had any siblings."

"Just the one. He's not around a lot. He's married to Darcy. Of Darcy. The band."

"The metal band?" I asked, feeling a little overwhelmed with all this information.

"That's the one. So they're usually touring the country, breaking into haunted psych hospitals, putting on a sexy show for the ghosts. But we see him on occasion. The girls go to the City to see them when they're around."

"Wow. You've had a really interesting life."

"Don't," she said, shaking her head down at me, waving a mascara wand.

"Don't what?"

"Start thinking your life is lame in comparison. Yeah, I've had an interesting life. But it also involved being permanently scarred by someone who was supposed to love me, and a drinking problem, and a cutting myself to pieces problem. It was a lot of work to get over all that shit."

"I'm sorry that happened to you."

"And I'm sorry your mind works against you and makes you think ugly things about yourself," she said, giving me a knowing look. "We are going to see if we can help you see what the rest of us see when we look at you. Do you happen to have contacts?"

"I, ah, yeah. I just never wear them. Kind of a hassle compared to the glasses."

"Oh, Chinese," she said when the buzzer sounded. "Okay, go put the contacts in. I'll deal with the food."

With that, liking this whole experience too much to object to doing something so small, I slipped in the contacts, ignoring the foreign sensation until it went away.