✅1️⃣ | Hypnosis Doesn't Work Like That!

86: I Can Get Myself to Where I Need to Be

When Adi got out of her last class of the day, she looked down and saw that there was a message waiting on her phone.

"Are you staying with your friend?" she read out, pausing briefly to insert the missing letters where Mom had tried to pretend she understood the current trends in abbreviation. "I can't pick you up tonight, working late. Frozen... something... for dinner if you're home."

"Need a space to crash?" Britney appeared right on cue, as one of her goth friends headed to the bus. "But frozen something, that sounds intriguing."

"Can you make out what that's supposed to be?" Adi held up the phone.

"Could be lasagna? Don't know if I can beat that, but you can take the futon at my place if it's easier. See what Mom's cooking up for dinner."

Adi thought about it for a second, not wanting to impose on someone else's family. She'd known that Brit would probably want to help out, but she hadn't previously thought about Brit's family. And even now that she'd made her position clear, and Britney knew she didn't want to be triggered until they found a hypnosis file without the baby trappings... Britney had seemed so eager, saying it at every opportunity the day before. Adi knew she could trust her friends to respect her wishes and to do what was best for her, that was what friendship meant, but she was still just a little nervous.

Thankfully, she didn't need to say anything that would potentially offend Britney, because at that point Toni came out of the Arts Lab, and strode energetically towards her friends as soon as she saw them.

"Babe!"

"Wingman!"

"Babe!"

"Babe!"

"Wingman!"

"Sidekick!"

"Babe!"

Adi tried to suppress the giggles as the wave of greetings drew on a little longer than was strictly necessary. It was such a novelty to have a nickname that she couldn't resist saying it one extra time, and that seemed to have triggered Britney and Toni to get a little carried away too.

"Okay, enough," Britney giggled. "So, you want to brave my Mom's cooking and evade your brother?"

"He'll have a whole lasagna to himself," Adi answered, "I'm sure he'll love that."

"You could come to mine if it's easier," Toni answered with a sly wink, which Adi didn't quite know how to interpret. "Uncle Jürgen's here, and that means Harry too. Says he's been learning how to make a proper jambalaya, and I bet he'd love to have a few extra people to cook for."

"I wouldn't want to impose," Adi answered, probably the same thing she would have said to Britney a minute before.

"They won't mind. Harry loves to cook, it's like his big pride thing. Like, he's grinning ear-to-ear when a new person tries his cooking for the first time. You could both come round if you want. Uncle Jürgen's getting kind of worried about me, says he's never seen me bring a girl home."

"He wouldn't rather see you with guys?"

"I've got enough guy friends. They come to help me with the bikes, or I help my friends out, letting them use my workshop. It's like he's worried I'm going to turn into a guy or something, submerged in a pure-testosterone atmosphere. Being the only girl in the family, you know?"

"Will they be okay with me staying over?" Adi asked nervously. "I mean, will they be using the guest room?"

"Six-bedroom house. Uncle Jürgen has his own room, he stays over often enough, and they're used to shuffling people between different rooms. We got space. And don't worry too much about your little secret. Everybody who stays at our place needs a little privacy now and again."

"You're always so mysterious," Britney said with a smile. "Is your uncle hiding something?"

"If he is, I wouldn't know about it, would I?"

"More importantly, who are you inviting?" Adi said what had been on her mind for the last couple of minutes. "I mean, it sounds like you're inviting both of us round for dinner?"

"You want me all to yourself? I'm flattered, babe."

"No, I just... there's not room for three of us on the bike, is there? Sounds like we've got logistics to consider."

"Practical. You're taking after me now. But I brought my baby today. And I've been working on a restoration project."

"Ohh, you got it balanced properly?"

"I did. First time out this morning."

"That's why you're inviting me, isn't it? You'd love to spend some quality time with your girl-crush, but you want an excuse to –"

"Hey..." Adi interrupted, a little embarrassed by that question despite the playful tone, but she couldn't think of anything to say. She didn't have a clue what her friends were talking about, and she always felt like she was missing something obvious when a conversation went over her head like that.

"Yeah, I want to try it out. Can you blame me?" Toni carried on, still not explaining.

"Try what? Come on, you guys. I'm on the edge of my seat here. Or I would be if I was sitting down."

"She's got herself a sidekick," Britney grinned like it was some big revelation, but Adi was still in the dark.

"Seriously," Toni put her hands on her hips theatrically, "you're never going to let me forget that, are you? I stuttered like one time, and it becomes a nickname?"

"It's funny. And then you blush, which makes it even funnier."

"Yeah, but..."

"Please, can you let me in on the joke? If you can't tell me what a sidekick is in this context, you can show me at least?"

Adi looked from one of her friends to the other, still not understanding what she was missing, and starting to feel frustrated to the point it wasn't fun anymore. Then they laughed, and it wasn't clear who'd started it. Without any further discussion, Toni led the others to where her favourite bike was parked, and Adi finally understood the running joke that had been threaded through all their conversations for the last few years. It felt like she was finally a real part of the group, in a way she'd never realised she was missing.

She saw where the nickname had come from, and felt so relieved that she didn't even protest a hand gently patting her ass through a layer of thick padding.