As you say

Chapter 32

"Zaili, want to join us for dinner?" Mum pokes me-gently-awake.

For a moment I am the most confused girl on the world and just try to form a word. I just glance around and I'm so confused. But the moment was only a moment and I realise I fell asleep on the grass. Next to Ashton. Who has a strange new attractiveness about him.

"Zaili, want to join us for dinner?" Mum repeats, starting to shake me a bit.

"Of course," I say, finally having collected some of my wits.

"Okay, just wake Ashton up and come inside," Mum smiles and walks off. I loce my mum.

"Ashton," I whisper and start tickling his nose. He just wrinkles his nose a few times before getting over it. I smile.

He looks like a different person in his sleep. It's like he has all these differnt masks that come out in differebt scenarios.

Oh, simply amazing. Now I sound so deep and intellectual. That's PMS for you. Well not really, it's only my different personalities shining through.

And now I sound mental.

I sigh and go back to lightly stroking Ashton's face. He doesn't wake. Giving up I try to shake him. Nothing. How does he do it?

As a last effort, I lick him on his left cheek. If that doesn't work then I've just gotten my DNA all over the face of a corpse.

It works.

"What the-" Ashton starts as he jumps upright.

"No, we do not swear!" I scold him teasingly before removing my finger from his lips and grapping his hand to lead him inside.

"A, gross. B, gross. C, where are we going? And D, gross," Ashton scowls at me.

"A, yes. B, no. C, to eat. And D, maybe," I smile at him dragging him up the steps and through the door.

"Why don't we say grace?" Dad says when Ashton finally sits down in his chair.

"Dear Lord, please bless this food and the hands who prepared it. Please go with the Pack on this night and ensure we stay safe. Thank you. Amen," Mum says as we all take hands. Ashton wasn't very willing to take Dad's.

"How can you eat? Aren't you nervous?" Ashton asks as I start respectfully shovelling noodles into my mouth.

"Oh, no, when Zaili gets upset, she eats. She has never been like obe of those book and/or movie characters who can't force a bite into their body. I swear, if she eats more, Marcel and I will have to change her gender on her birth certificate," Mum laughs. I wonder in how much trouble I would get if I maimed her. Too much trouble, most likely, so I simply glare at her. She smiles but backs off and Ashton is smart enough to know not to comment.

And we ate. I loved how at peace most of this day had been. I love how the world seems to be giving me one last day of normality.

Because this is the last day. As I take my plate to the dishwasher, the little digital clock on a bookcase catches my eye.

8 PM on the dot. Very coincidental.

I have four hours left. Four hours of still being able to be myself.

Four hours of discovering who I am.