But I was wondering about something else and this time felt like it was okay to ask.  Surely this was a safe question that wouldn’t get me in trouble.  “Your friend – Nathan – is he okay?”

     Ren shot me a bright smile I could see even in my peripheral.  “Yes.  Well, no, I mean he was badly injured, but he will be okay.  Prey-type shifters heal faster than your average supernatural, I guess because they have to?  Something about their genetics.  Plus, Sorrel’s been helping him heal, so he should be fine in a couple days, honestly.  Anyway, Nathan’s at the hospital.  Err, our branch of the hospital.  All the hospitals in Avenglade have a branch which basically is for supernaturals.  We have our own medications and stuff.  If a human is injured by a supernatural and isn’t aware of our world, we send one of our doctors to kind of check on them, make sure they heal as well as they can, that sort of thing.  We try not to let them know what actually happened but try to minimize the damage as much as possible.”

     Had someone done that with me when I was 15?  I didn’t remember seeing that many doctors, just one as I recalled and he was distinctly human, but maybe one had come during the three and a half days I’d been unconscious.

     “Anyway, Nathan’s recovering.  He’s not back to full health yet but he will be.  Thanks to you.”  Ren beamed at me again.

     It was getting unnerving, all those smiles.  I wasn’t used to it and wasn’t sure how to handle it.

     “I’m glad he’s okay, but I didn’t do that much,” I said softly.  “And if it hadn’t been you, I could have gotten someone else hurt instead.”

     Ren shook his head once, forcefully.  “No, you did a lot.  Not everyone would bother to call 911 and even fewer people – even supernaturals – would dare call off a wolf like that to try to help a stranger.  Don’t sell yourself short.  Yeah, it was a good thing I was there, but I don’t know if someone else would have gotten hurt if it wasn’t me.  That wolf was very focused on you, it didn’t even notice me until after I’d already stopped it.”

     I gave another sigh of relief.  It kind of felt good to know that even if the person in the alley hadn’t turned out to be a fairy who could actually deal with the wolf shifter, it probably wouldn’t have mattered.  Well, it might have mattered to me, as in, it might have caught up with me and chewed on me a bit or even killed me, but at least someone else wasn’t in danger of being hurt.

     I was used to being hurt.  That was okay.  Sort of.  But the last thing I wanted was for anyone else to be hurt because of me and my choices.

     I realized we were almost to my apartment building and found my feet slowing instinctively.  That was a surprise.  That I didn’t want to end this moment where I was talking to someone, listening to what they said, and having them listen to me.  Especially so since the person was one of them.

     Ren seemed to feel the same way, reluctantly stopping by the door of the apartment building.  “So, um, do you have more errands tomorrow?  Or if you’re free, want to hang out?”  He seemed a little nervous as he asked this.

     I frowned, thinking.  “I planned to do it again tomorrow, but….”  I trailed off, considering our conversation and my realization that if I put aside my preconceived fears – based on years of experience, true – then it didn’t seem like Honey wanted to hurt me.  Did that mean I could stay at my job?  Would it be okay to just stay and see how things went?  Cautiously, of course.

     “I don’t know,” I finished.  Not a great answer, I knew, because he would have no idea whether I was free or not.  But I didn’t know, either.  I didn’t know if it was okay to throw away my plans of quitting my job and moving or if I should pursue them as originally planned.

     I just wasn’t sure anymore.

     “What were you doing, if I can ask?  You seemed to go to a bunch of the same type of places.  Looking for something in particular?”

     I hesitated, not sure if I should tell him, but I couldn’t really see the harm in it.  If he was going to insist on this friend thing, it wasn’t like he wouldn’t find out if I changed jobs anyway.  “Job hunting,” I admitted.

     This drew him up short and he frowned a bit.  “Wait – you’re leaving the café?  Why?”

     “I – I just thought I needed to,” I said quietly.  I didn’t want to put it all into words.  It felt bad, accusing his sister of possibly wanting to kill me.  Even if that was often the case with them.  Would it make him mad if I said that?  I really didn’t want to make him mad, not just because mad might equal pain for me but because he’d been so nice so far.  I didn’t want to make him upset with me.

     “Needed to?”  He repeated, then suddenly seemed to realize what I meant.  “Wait, is this because of Honey?  Because she knows about you?  You don’t need to change jobs on her account!  I mean, she’ll probably annoy you with a thousand thanks now and start to try to hang out with you during breaks and pester you about everything she can think of, but she thinks a lot of you, and she did even before this.  She wouldn’t say anything to get you in trouble – if anything, she owes you for more than just helping me.  You’ve known what she was for two plus years and never said a word to anyone.  That proves you’re someone we can trust.”

    I fidgeted as I listened, squeezing my hands together.  I wanted to believe him.  I really did.  I wanted to believe it would be fine to stay at the café and work with Honey and nothing bad would come of it.

     But all these years had taught me not to trust them.  Was it really okay to throw all that away just because one hot, friendly fairy said to?

     I had no idea.  “I’ll think about it,” I finally said.  “I don’t know about tomorrow.  Maybe.”

     “Well,” he cast about for some way to salvage his plans, “you still have to eat lunch even if you’re doing job searches, right?  Can we at least have lunch?  I can pick you up, take you back to the library, then meet up for lunch.  And take you to wherever you want to apply, if you’re willing.  I have a car, by the way.  We can use that instead of walking if you’d prefer.”

     That was a whole lot of suggestions all at once.  I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of him tagging along everywhere, but on the other hand, he’d probably just follow me anyway so did it matter?

     But a car was definitely too much.  “I’ll walk.  But…we can have lunch.”

     It wasn’t until I was back in my apartment, alone, before I realized that was a bad promise to make.  I didn’t usually eat lunch, and when I did, it was something extremely cheap and/or simple that I brought or made myself.  I doubted Ren would be on board with instant noodles or a mostly stale sandwich with a thin layer of peanut butter.  Maybe it wouldn’t matter what I ate as long as he ate whatever on his own.  But if we didn’t talk in advance about bringing something, that probably meant he planned to eat out somewhere.

     I groaned internally.  Yes, I could technically afford eating at some cheap fast food place, but I didn’t like spending my money on something extra like that.  Especially right now, when I was trying to figure out what my future held.

     I dumped my splurge money on the table and counted what was left over.  Four dollars and 63 cents.  Not a lot, but it should be enough to buy a burger at a fast food place.  I hoped, at least.

     And I really, really hoped this whole “friendship” with Ren wasn’t a bad idea.  I wasn’t sure how much choice I really had in the matter but even trusting him a little bit with the information I had given him so far made me nervous.  Up until now I hadn’t told anyone what exactly I could see.  Ever.  Not even my mom.  And the few times I’d started to even mention it, it ended badly.  I so wanted this time to be different, but was that too much to hope for?  It had never been different before.

     Was it okay to hope that this was a one in a million chance?  Or was I just delusional?

     I didn’t figure out the answer before I went to bed, and I didn’t figure it out sometime while I slept.  When I got ready in the morning, though, I found myself filled with a strange emotion I wasn’t used to.

     Excitement.  I was anticipating, in a good way, seeing Ren again.  It was strange to feel that way about anyone, let alone one of them.  I wasn’t sure if that was just as delusional as hoping to be friends with him or if it was all part of the same question.

     Sure enough, when I exited my apartment building, Ren was nearby, waiting.  With two steaming cups of coffee, one of which he offered to me.

     “Good morning,” he said almost shyly.  “I wasn’t sure if you like coffee and Honey couldn’t remember if you drank any at the café, so she was useless, but I took a gamble that you might and got you some.  If you don’t like it, that’s fine, you don’t have to drink it.”

     I took it almost as shyly and much more awkwardly, not sure how to answer.  I didn’t drink or eat anything at the café because while we got an employee discount, even with the discount it was too expensive for me to think of spending money on.  I had no more idea than Ren did on whether I liked coffee and if so, what kind.

     “Um, thank you.  And good morning, too,” I added almost as an afterthought.  Then I sipped experimentally on the coffee and found the flavor delicious.  Plus the warmth helped keep the early morning chill away.

     Ren seemed delighted that I was drinking it and eagerly took his place by my side as I started to make the trek back to the library.

     Something suddenly dawned on me as we started walking and, in true “me” fashion, I blurted out my question before I had time to think through the possible ramifications.  “What about school?  If you were following me around the last two days, what about your classes?”  Immediate regret at my forwardness in asking him something like that.  Would he be offended that I was essentially challenging his behavior?  I cringed slightly.

     Thankfully, and a little surprisingly, he seemed completely unbothered by that.  “When I disappeared without warning after school last Friday – a week ago yesterday – my parents contacted my university and told them I was going to be out indefinitely due to family issues.  They weren’t sure how long it would take to find me and deal with what they initially thought was a kidnapping, so it was safer to basically tell the school it might be a while before I came back.  Dad and Mom didn’t want me to go back Thursday or yesterday after all the stress of the whole curse thing and not eating for a few days.  Dad – he’s a doctor, remember – wanted me to take it easy.  I’m not sure following you around and dealing with a half feral wolf exactly counts as taking it easy,” he admitted with a smile, “but it was more fun than classes, at least.  I go back to class on Monday like normal, just then have to catch up with anything I missed.  It’s early enough in the semester I shouldn’t have missed any tests but there will probably be some other things I will have to deal with, reading assignments and stuff.  But I’m not worrying about that this weekend – Monday will be soon enough to focus on how far behind I got thanks to some witches.”

     That was good.  I was glad he hadn’t been skipping school for me – to follow me around, although that was really his choice anyway, but I also wasn’t sure if that meant he should be resting now instead of walking around town with me again.  Maybe I should have let him bring the car after all?

     “Any more questions?”  Ren seemed almost excited.  No, I realized when I glanced quickly at him before seeing he was looking at me, he was definitely excited.

     Ren didn’t call me out on looking at him, just continued with even more enthusiasm.  “Any questions about me?  Or fairies?  Or supernaturals in general?  Or, um, my family?  Plants?  Anything?”

     He seemed really hopeful that I would ask him something, and that was weirdly satisfying.  Because I was a curious little thing, though I constantly tried to squelch that.  But now here was someone wanting me to be curious, practically begging me to ask him questions.

     This…might actually be fun.

     “Do you fly?  I mean, you have wings, but I’ve never seen any of you – fairies – or anyone with wings – actually fly.”

     “We can!  We don’t usually in town because humans can see us.  There are a few smaller towns throughout the world that are made up entirely of supernaturals or mostly supernaturals with a handful of humans that know about us, and in places like that, fairies can fly freely.  Otherwise we’re pretty careful.  We can go into what we call our pure fae form though.”  He held up his hands, one on top of the other, about five inches apart.  “We get really tiny, about this big, and fly super fast.  Again, we don’t exactly do that often in the city, although it’s easier if we have to fly in the city because people are less likely to notice us when we’re that small.  The problem with the pure fae form is we just basically exude magic and we can’t stop it.  All good magic, but still.  If we fly through a garden, for example, everything within a couple feet of us will start growing and blooming like crazy.  It is actually really easy to track us when we fly around near any sort of nature.  Honey asked why I didn’t do something like that when I was cursed, because they’d be able to see the effects, but the curse prevented me from changing forms.  Anyway we also sometimes use pure fae form to fly around hospitals and places with a lot of injured people – we automatically throw off healing magic as well so it helps all the patients we fly by.  We can’t stay in pure fae form for long since we are constantly putting out all this magic and can’t stop it so we’ll eventually drain ourselves out if we don’t switch back.  It’s more of a desperate measures type thing or if we’re just really bored.”

     I was pretty sure I’d never seen a “pure fae form” as he called it.  I thought I’d remember a tiny fairy flying around.  But it sounded like they’d particularly avoid humans in that form, so it might make sense that none of them had ever flown near me.