Forever Changed

“That woman is impossible,” she said, shoving a large bite into her mouth and washing it down with a swig of wine.

I couldn’t help laughing out loud. “Well, she did make Christmas a little easier,” I said, still laughing.

“At least we know the hag’s good for something,” Mom said with uncharacteristic sarcasm.

“Amanda—impertinence,” I said in a perfect impersonation of Grandma’s voice.

Mom choked on her drink of wine as she busted out laughing. “Yes, I guess my impertinence is shining through,” she finally said when she was done coughing.

“What do you think, Peanut?” I said, nudging Megan with my hip as I stood up, making her giggle.

“Weelll, as fun as these last three days have been, I think I’m going to go out for a little while,” I said, edging for the door.

“Kass, I want to meet your new friend,” Mom said, sobering up and not letting me off the hook now that Christmas was over.

“Okay Mom,” I said, resigned as I headed out the door.

I drove the two-mile drive to Drake’s garage, wondering how I was going to get around introducing Maddon to her.

“Hey, babe,” Maddon said, jogging over to me and swinging me up into his arms before crushing his mouth to mine. “It’s been a long three days,” he said, pulling back slightly.

“Tell me about it,” I said, wryly.

“So, did your mom ever switch out the ham?” he joked, tucking me under his arm as we made our way to the garage together.

“It was a close call at one point when Grandma questioned the wisdom of Mom cooking roasted potatoes versus mashed potatoes. By the time that suggestion rolled around, my mom was fighting the urge to bury a meat cleaver in the back of Grandma’s head,” I said, able to laugh about it now.

“I could tell by your texts it was hit or miss for awhile there,” he said, laughing with me.

“So, you got the whole ‘SOS’ signal I was sending your way.”

“I had the getaway car all gassed up and ready to go,” he teased, pulling me in for one more kiss before we walked through the door. “I missed you, sweets,” he murmured against my lips.

“I missed you too, hero,” I said, using the nickname I had coined for him.

The same crowd looked to be there from the week before. Most of them greeted me in one form or another, making me feel welcome. It was hard to believe it had only been a week since the last time I had been here and become friends, or whatever I w

as with Maddon. In that short time, I had gone from, “should I hate this guy,” “to do I love this guy?” It seemed hard to believe one week had changed so many things about my life.

Forever Changed stepped out onto the stage to the same cheers as the week before. This time I cheered just as loud as the rest of the crowd and felt the stirrings of jealousy as several of the girls chanted Maddon’s name. I had dealt with jealousy over the years, but never over a guy. Usually it was over some silly material possession my friends had that I felt I should have. This jealousy was different as it coiled up through me. I wanted to claw their eyes, or at least yank their hair out.

I turned my focus off of them before I did something drastic like clothesline them or something equally extreme as they bopped up and down. Pulling my eyes off of them, I focused instead on the reason I was even here. Looking up at the stage, I found Maddon looking only at me. His eyes spoke a thousand words as my jealousy slowly drifted away.

I couldn’t but respond to his intense look and had to control myself from melting to the floor in a puddle.

“What did you think?” he said, jumping off the stage to join me during their intermission.

“I think you need to stop looking at me like that,” I chastised.

“Like what?” he said huskily, anchoring the back of my head into place with his hand.

“Like you could devour me,” I whispered back, oblivious to the crowd around.

“Just because we can’t, doesn’t mean I don’t want to,” he said, nibbling on my lip.

I shivered, having no problem imaging it.

“I have to get back up on stage.”