After dinner and dessert with coffee to help start at least trying to sober up the group, all of us were outside sitting around the huge firepit as everyone took turns telling me stories about the various crazy shenanigans the four of them have gotten into. Coffee in my own hand, Kal had a large sniffer glass of scotch, Devon had an Irish coffee, Beks was still drinking wine and Diamond was drinking tea. The crackling of the fire met with the sound of traffic right outside the buildings edges clashed the scene: just looking at all of us would make you think we were in the middle of a forest at a cabin somewhere, not in the middle of Manhattan. It was late-September now so it was brisk enough that I had to ask Kal to borrow a light sweater or coat despite the firepit, dude, I’m from LA and Hispanic, I’m not made for the cold and the jacket I brought was okay for the morning and early afternoon coolness, but now in the dead night, it wasn’t enough. Kal’s sweater however was absolutely massive on me, not only is he over a foot taller, but his shoulders were wider than mine so the sweater which was a dark wine red color hung across my entire collar showing the tops of my shoulders, the sleeves went to the middle of my hands and was a thick, dense cable knit.

“Alright, so…it was during the middle of the American Revolution…Kal being a proud and…die-hard European, betrayed the UK and came here to help all of us American soldiers.”

“You fought in the Revolution?” I asked

“I was born in 1760…of course I did, you think I adopted this accent because I like it? Please, I was there when it was established. I was 13 when the Tea Party happened, but…a little later, of course I had to help.” He said with a laugh, he was standing, the firepit lit him up from below in that ever so flattering horror movie lighting with the flashlight right under the chin.

“Geez”

“Anyways…Kal had deserted Europe to help us Yankees and me being the…ever so intelligent chaotic dumbass I am…decided to drag Kal into helping me with a thing.”

“And?” I asked

“It wasn’t anything really too big.”

“Kal took out an entire Spanish fleet on his own!” Devon said in drunken elation before grabbing Kal’s shoulders shaking him softly, “It was amazing! This guy can pick up a semi-truck with one hand and yeet it down the road five miles, but get him in water…boy he could do that with a backhand…he picked up a galleon and threw it in the air before just…jumping and crunching down on it and sank it!” he recounted in extreme energy and flamboyant movements of his hands, arms and person as her tottered on his bare feet.

“It wasn’t that bad” Kal said

“You were incredible!” Devon added softly shaking Kal again, who quickly moved his other hand to cover the top of his glass to avoid the scotch spilling out. “I’ve never seen anyone do what you can do!”

“Well, I am an only child, so it makes sense that I am the only person who can do what I can.” Kal said crossing his legs and wrapping his arm around his chest, resting his other elbow holding his glass on the black wicker arm of the chair he was sitting on. I was sitting across from him, Diamond and Bek on the loveseat together and the couch empty as Devon had placed himself in the center of the larger couch, but there were still two empty armchairs.

“Bro…bro…bro…” Devon said grabbing Kal’s jaw to make Kal look right at him, “We should go steal a boat and relive our childhood”

“It was your childhood…I was already over a century.” Kal added pushing Devon gingerly off him as Devon turned on his foot before seating himself back on the couch. “Why did I make him that coffee and not give him regular coffee?” he asked himself as he took another drink of the maybe four-five times older than me scotch. As the firelight washed over Kal, his skin glimmered with the scales across his skin in those rich blues, greens and teal tones, his eyes looked like I saw before: the solid gold with thin slit pupils, but the firelight made his scales look like his fathers: golden, silver and bronze. He was still just in his shirt and jeans unlike the rest of us who all tossed on some form of outwear because of the coolness of outside even with the firepit roaring between all of us.

“What about you, Kal…you tell him any crazy stories about you…far longer than all of us life?” Diamond said with a laugh, Kal rolled his eyes.

“You’re 26.”

“And you’re 358” Diamond said with a soft tilt of her head, “Next in age to you is Devon who is an even 260 as of this year, then Beks who’s 67”

“67?” I asked

“Fairies don’t age past our early twenties” Beks said with a shrug and laugh.

A thud sound made us look over to see Devon, asleep with his head over the back of the couch and complete deadweight against the couch, the thud sound having been the very heavy stoneware mug that his coffee had been in as it was no spilling across the floor. Kal sighed deeply before laughing, he stood up from the chair and grabbed his cane beside him and pulled the wand from it as he swirled it, the spilt coffee and whiskey lifted off the ground as he flicked the wand and threw it into the fire which softly crackled and sputtered with the liquid as he then flicked it and Devon just floated off the couch.

“The perks of being a gravity wizard.” He said as he just walked off with one hand using his topless cane and the other holding his wand, “I’m going to go toss him in the guest room, the rest of you are freely welcome to crash here if you wish.”

“Don’t either of you have work?” Diamond asked

“Tomorrow’s Sunday, I don’t work on Sundays!” Kal called out from the kitchen as Devon floated behind him.

“I also don’t work Sundays, the owner of the diner is super religious so everyone gets Sunday off.” I explained.

“If you asked, Kal could probably get you a job somewhere in the building his company’s in. Everyone there would welcome in a cute little receptionist like you.” Diamond said

“Could you…not call me cute” I asked

“Why?” she asked tilting her head over

“It…makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Makes me feel like you’re being condescending and patronizing me. Like you’re trying to make me feel awkward about being around all of you and for being friends with Kal”

“But…you are cute.” Diamond said leaning forward a little to rest her forearms on her knees, holding her mug of tea low between her legs as she looked towards me, as much light washed around and over everything making everything look so pretty and golden…all of the light seemed to be sapped away around her. Her green eyes seemed to milk over this rosy-red hue and I felt this sucker punch like feeling to my chest, but the moment it radiated through my chest…it was gone. “Oh…I see.” She said

“What…what was that?”

“Really, Dia?” Beks asked with a very harsh scolding and chiding tone to her voice. “Anthony, so sorry about her…Diamond is a siren: a being that eats people sexual energy…she literally needs sex to live, but she also has to eat people dreams and emotions. She can…focus her magic into her eyes to read people’s sexualities or send a pulse out to see people’s reactions.”

“…A siren?” I said confused looking towards Diamond who was now just sitting back on the couch, her legs crossed and sipping her tea with a brow softly raised.

“Tea is always drank and spilt around me” she said with a soft laugh.

“I can’t believe you did that” Bek said with a shake of her head. “Anthony is Kal’s friend, so what if he’s straight…you don’t just go using sex magic on them to see if they actually have a crush on someone they’re not going to be attracted to.”

“Thank you, Bek.”

“Someone’s gotta be here to level out this one” she added sharply elbowing Diamond in the ribs who just laughed.

“You bitch of a butterfly.” Diamond said looking towards Bek, speaking Spanish.

“At least she doesn’t need an elbow to the ribs to know when to stop talking.” I retorted in Spanish.

“Sorry about that, Devon may not weigh much, but deadweight like that its like trying to wrangle a drunk eel.” Kal said walking back out onto the deck. “What I miss?”

“Nothing really” Diamond said chipper as Kal picked his glass of scotch back up from the end table and sat back where he had been sitting before.

“It’s been incredible, Kal…but alas, I do have work tomorrow.” Bek said

“I’ll walk you out.”

“Come on, Diamond, I was your ride.” Bek said, Diamond laughed before looking towards me and shooting me a wink, not a flirty gesture…but a knowing one, unfortunately I had no idea what she knew that I didn’t.