Breed

Chapter Seven

Mikaela shuffled anxiously. It was cold enough she didn't want to be standing around outside her apartment. But on the phone, Tucker refused to come to her door. It seemed petty, on the surface, but she suspected Tucker didn't trust either of them to be alone together. In his screwed up way, it was him trying to protect them both.

But the anticipation was getting to her. And it wasn't helped by the fact that her chaperon still hadn't showed, either.

"You look nervous," Demi said from behind her, and she jumped.

"Oh my god I peed a little," Mikaela said.

"Here, turn this way."

She faced towards Demi, who was sucking down an orange-yellow smoothy.

"The good news, is it's not super obvious you soiled yourself."

"Do I want to know the bad?"

"Your socks don't match. And few things in life scream, 'I can't keep my shit together without you' quite so loudly as mismatched socks." Demi grinned.

"You suck at moral support."

"That's what this is for," Demi said, and pushed her smoothie into Mikaela's hands.

"Smoothie leftovers?"

"Well, it was supposed to be all for you. But it's apparently a longer trip from the smoothie place to here, so I finished mine, and yours looked so good... I promise I don't have mono anymore."

Mikaela sucked some of it through the straw.

"Wait, how long is mono supposed to last?"

Mikaela shivered. "And why did you bring me a smoothie? It's winter, and cold."

"Because I didn't realize you're ingrate who doesn't deserve a smoothie..." Demi reached for the cup.

"Withdrawn," Mikaela said, and batted her hand away. "It is good. And thanks, for the smoothie, and for being here. It's..."

"Oh, I know. We had a lot of this conversation last night. Though I don't know how much you'll remember. You did finish like half of Iago's shots."

"He's a light-weight, and somebody had to pick up the slack."

"Yeah," Demi said. "Though if that's who I think it is, I think we both might need another shot."

Mikaela turned. Tucker was walking towards her. His apartment was one floor and half a dozen rooms down. "Hey," he said. He was bundled up, enough that he looked much larger than he was.

"Hey," Mikaela said.

"I, uh, I know we talked about lunch, but I'm not feeling very hungry, and something kind of came up."

"Oh, we were going to lunch, anyway," Demi said, and threaded her arm around Mikaela's at the elbow.

"Oh," Tucker said, raising an eyebrow.

"So if you want," Mikaela said, "I'll just sign whatever, and you can take care of your thing."

"Yeah. Cool," Tucker said. He pulled a small stack of papers from the back pocket of his jeans and unfolded them, and handed them and a pen to Mikaela. "Signature on the front page, initial at the top of the last and sign and date at the bottom."

"Mind if I read it?" she asked.

"Not at all." Tucker shared an awkward glance with Demi, then turned back towards the apartment. "It really isn't a bad place; I just got stuck in a bad position. It was screwed up before I started to transition. My roommate doesn't believe in locking the door. Like, the entire apartment is unlocked, 24/7. And she gets pissed, and screams at me if I lock it when I leave, because what if she doesn't have her key. And I just, I can't ever feel safe like that.

"I'm not sure the landlord would have let me go, but the transition helped. The girls I was rooming with weren't exactly comfortable with it, and when the landlady floated it to some guys who had an open room they weren't too keen on the idea, either. "

Mikaela sighed hotly. It all looked boilerplate enough, and she wanted to be done, so she scratched out her signatures, and handed the bundle back.

"Thanks," Tucker said. "And look, I've been talking to one of my girl friends, and she thinks you might be codependent."

"Stay out of my head," Mikaela said.

"It wasn't telepathy, just, an observation."

"Using psychology on me amounts to the same- so my objection's the same."

"Okay. But look, I, wasn't bringing it up to attack you. I think it might help, if you looked into the program they've got. It's community outreach, mentoring kids here from the satellite programs." He pulled a flier from his back pocket. "I think it would help, get you out of your shell, out of your funk."

Mikaela narrowed her eyes, but took the piece of canary yellow paper.

"I'm sure I'll see you around the campus." Tucker glanced again at Demi, who squeezed still tighter onto Mikaela's arm, then he shrugged and walked away.

"So, are you done molesting my arm?" Mikaela asked. "Or would you like to buy it lunch, see what the two of you might have in common?"

"Sorry about that. Instinct kind of took hold," Demi said, unraveling their arms.

"It's okay. I appreciate not having to look pathetic in front of the ex. Though I suspect her gaydar is better than that. I know mine is."

"I'm not completely straight. I can appreciate how a woman looks. It's just kind of sexless."

"That's still like 90% straight." Mikaela turned, and started walking towards the downward slope of the hill, towards downtown. "You coming?" she asked. "I seem to remember you promising me lunch."