35: Bounced
Paisley clung to my hand like she would fly off into the sky if she let go, and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. We were standing outside the Silver Ridge guild house waiting for Ethan to come out with his stuff. How on earth I’d ever thought of this place as home was beyond me.
It was the type of place a 19th century English aristocrat would have felt proud to call home, with artful, sturdy looking faux defensive walls ringing a manor that was much more about image than it was about defense. It made sense though, attacking a place like this wasn’t even something the game allowed.
What I now found myself hating about it was just how gut wrenchingly generic it was. Blue, black, and silver banners hung from the grey stone. Well trimmed hedges lined the gravel path that led up to the main yard in front of the doors, where we were now standing.
“Where is he?” Paisley whispered, bouncing up and down with nervous energy. “Do you think he’s okay?”
I gave her hand a squeeze. “He’ll be fine.”
“I don’t know…” She said. Poor Paisley was not built for this type of thing. She was such an anxious mess.
“The game won’t let Marlon do anything but talk, and Ethan can handle talk,” I shrugged, giving her a comforting smile. “If he gets frozen like I was, he can take the free teleport to the front gate. He doesn’t have any reason to stay like I did, waiting for a verdict from a fake vote.”
Wincing, she nodded reluctant agreement. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
I sighed and turned, putting my arms around her neck from the side. “It’ll be okay,” I told her, placing a kiss on her cheek.
“You’re much more physical now,” she mumbled, her cheekbones gaining a little dusting of pink. “Used to be that when I hugged you, you’d stiffen up.”
Snorting, I grinned and looked up to the sky. “Uh, I hope you mean my body and not…”
“Oh my god,” she giggled. “No, I mean you hated hugs. Now you’re like this.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but found no words on the teleprompter. I had no idea why I was so much more willing to hug her now. Maybe it was my relationship with Elena. Hard to feel hung up on a hug when you were fucking one of your other friends.
“I like it,” she continued quickly, seeing my hesitation. “I used to have a lot of cuddly female friends back in high school. It doesn’t happen much these days.”
The gravel crunched beneath my shoes as I shifted and fixed her with a knowing look. “Doesn’t help that you were one of like ten girls in a guild of several hundred people. Silver Ridge is a sausage fest.”
As if to prove my point, the huge double doors of the guild house slammed open, allowing masculine chaos to spill out. Ethan was first, a rucksack slung over his shoulder and robes billowing with his stride. His face was a mask of rage that dimmed only when he saw me and Paisley staring up at him from the bottom of the steps.
Behind him rushed Marlon, and then behind him, Aquila and several of the guild officers. I recognized Tysian, their main off tank and my one time friend. His elfin features were twisted by anxiety as he ran a hand through his sleek copper hair. Beside him, Arca watched the boys tumble down the steps, her tall black wolf's ears curled to protect her from the sound of the incomprehensible shouting that was spewing from Marlon's mouth.
Seeing them was like a kick in the gut. They were the two who had recruited me into Silver Ridge in the first place. I'd been good friends with both of them until Arca's parents had disowned her for coming out as bisexual. Tysian had comforted her, and they had grown closer than ever. Unfortunately, as Arca had fallen in love with Tysian, she had begun to suspect me of trying to steal him from her. There hadn't been any big fight to break us, but they had both grown colder towards me, and I was forced to seek friendship elsewhere.
"You're being so fucking extra right now Ethan," Aquila laughed throwing the healer a scornful look. "You're a cool dude. You could just join us. We'd be such a cute thruple."
"Why would I willingly enter a relationship with not one, but two people who lied to me?" Ethan barked, whipping back around to face the growing crowd. "It's not really about the cheating, although that sucks."
Marlon's shoulders tensed up and he took a heavy step towards Ethan, anger and desperation mixing in his expression. "I was going to tell you, it was just hard to find the right time. You always said you were poly, so I thought…"
"Oh, fuck off!" Ethan hissed, giving his ex the finger. "God save me from idiots who think like you. Poly isn't just some get out of jail free card for horny dudes and their wandering dicks. If you'd spoken to me, and I'd said yes, we'd be fine. But no, you lied, you cheated, and you fucked over my best friend to cover it up!"
"Is this seriously about Rosco?" Marlon sneered. "He's been gone for like, three months now. Old news."
I fought to keep my expression in it's gawking bystander position. Old news? God, if I wasn't trying to conceal my previous identity, I'd step right up onto the plate next to Ethan.
"They are only part of this," Ethan said, stumbling slightly over the neutral pronoun. He'd almost said she. "Honestly, the fact that your little pea brain still can't comprehend why I'm angry is the reason I'm leaving."
Arca leaned over and whispered something in Tysian's ear, and he nodded, then took a step forward and cleared his throat. "Ethan, come on. Think of everyone else here. If you leave the guild, Arca will have to pick up the healing slack, and you know she isn't good with stress."
Ethan bit back a laugh. "You can fuck off, too. Just because you're a doormat for your self absorbed girlfriend, doesn't mean I have to be. I'm done, seriously. Both of us are."
The last was said with a gesture towards Paisley, and it was as if everyone had suddenly realised we were there. I knew we were both small, but really?
"It's the insane girl," Aquila commented. "What's she doing here?"
I gave him a wave. "Just moral support for my new friends. Don't mind me."
"Oh, decided to go straight, have you Ethan?" He asked, turning a cocked eyebrow back to my friend. "With two girls, as well? Are you sure this isn't—"
"Trading verbal punches with this lot probably isn't going to get us anywhere," I remarked to my friends, interrupting Aquila's poisonous upchucking. "Want to head out?"
"Good idea," Ethan agreed, turning his back on his old guild metaphorically and physically.
Something in Marlon's expression snapped, and he charged the lanky healer like a raging bull. Paisley tensed beside me, letting out a squeak of fear for her friend, but she needn't have worried.
Marlon bounced off Ethan like he was made of electrically charged concrete and went skidding back. He hit the steps with a dull cracking of skull on stone. Ethan didn't turn, but his lips quirked up into a mischievous little grin that only the three of us could see.
Definitely time to get the hell out of here. Ethan was liable to do something we might all regret when he got that expression on his mug.
The difficult part of our plan had been carried out, but now we had to deal with the ramifications. Paisley and Ethan had nowhere to stay now, and an inn wasn’t really a good long term solution. So, along with Noah, the three of them decided to get an apartment in the same block as me and Elena.
As soon as they had one, though, we all gathered in our apartment, where Elena had fixed up a big lunch. She’d also cut her hair shorter, and it looked… delicious.
“You cut your hair!” I exclaimed, bounding across the apartment towards her. “Can I touch it?”
Grinning, she bent over a little so I could comfortably reach up. Threading my fingers through her soft, fluffy four inch long hair, I pulled her down to my lips and kissed her. Oh god, that was nice. I liked this, I liked it a lot.
“Oh wow,” I murmured, giving her back her personal space with a grin. “Yeah, that’s hot as fuck.”
“Thanks,” she said, giving me a bashful smile. “I figured since you’re all pink and femme, I’d give the masc thing a go.”
Brushing it down for her where I’d messed it up, I nodded. “It looks so good.”
When I turned to help her with laying out the food, I saw Paisley watching me with wide eyes. She quickly looked away, but I called out, “What’s wrong, Pay?”
She laughed nervously. “O-oh, nothing… uh, I just somehow completely forgot you said you were a lesbian. Like, after the whole hospital thing, when you told me you were hooking up with Elena I don’t think I processed it until just now.”
“Is that okay?” I asked, worried now. I knew that my odd arrangement with Elena wasn't exactly normal. Pretty sure friends with benefits weren't supposed to randomly kiss like that, but— Shit, I didn't even think about how cringe it was to be super PDA heavy— was that PDA heavy?
Wait, was it… please don’t tell me that my being interested in girls was going to make her uncomfortable. I really could not deal with that.
“What?” she blinked in confusion. Her expression opened into one of concern and she waved her hands back and forth in the negative. “No, no, that’s fine! I’m pansexual. I just spent the entire time I was getting to know you as Keiko trying to figure out if you were gay or not, so yeah.”
I relaxed and reached over, patting her on the shoulder. God, this felt so awkward. Why did it feel so awkward? “Oh, sweet. Okay. Uh… well, the food is ready to eat. We can, um, talk about what to do with the new guild and stuff.”
“Yeah, sounds… sounds good,” she mumbled, turning to grab a plate to serve herself.
When I turned to grab one for myself, I looked up to see Elena staring at me like I’d just suggested we burn the house down. I tilted my head in question, but she just rolled her eyes and shook her head. Weird. Why was everyone acting so weird about this? Maybe the kissing and cuddling should be toned down? Was that it? God, I was so confused.
