An Eye For An Eye

Cinquante-Deux

I stared at Tamika and then back to Deucalion. She was offering to take me shopping for my birthday and was going to buy me something with some money her and Charles had put together. But I had only told him.

“You told her, didn’t you?” I asked, crossing my arms in front of me.
He smiled a little. “Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know but you’re the only person I’ve told,” I said, trying not to smile. “It is a little bit suspicious.”
“I suppose it is,” he said and I sighed.
“Give me five minutes and then fine,” I said. Tamika meant well and it would be a little rude if I flat out refused.

We walked around the mall for a while, I’d been here many times before with Kara, maybe one or twice with Chris. But it felt different walking around with Tamika.
“He said to get you something kind of fancy,” she said as we headed into a store.
“Did he say anything else?” I asked out of curiosity,
“That you two were going somewhere nice,” she said with a grin. Her elbow nudged my side. “It sounds a little bit like a date.”

I wasn’t sure what to say in response and Tamika just laughed as we wandered around the aisles in the store. The bright lights were a little painful and the one in the corner flickered.
“It’s fine,” Tamika said. “But you can pick any dress you like, you just have to promise me you’ll wear it for your dinner or whatever it is.”
“I barely know you,” I said, shaking my head a little. “I feel bad accepting this.”
“Guess we’ll have to change that then,” said Tamika with a smile. “You could always come over one of the days, watch a movie or something.”
“Uh, sure,” I said, nodding. We both decided that the dresses in this shop were not too nice and moved on to search elsewhere.

As we headed into another shop, we were tapped on the head from behind and someone pushed between us. Spotting the swishing dress and the flowers in brown curls, I realised who it was.

“Briar?”
“Hello ladies,” they greeted with a small bow. “It’s nice running into you here, not literally though.”
“What are you doing here?” asked Tamika with a furrowed brow.
“Collecting things,” they said vaguely. They grinned. “What are you both doing here?”
“Buying Elizabeth a dress for her birthday,” said Tamika before I even had a chance to answer.

“A birthday? Oh, how special,” they said, nodding as if to confirm what they said. “And Elizabeth? So Liza is Wolf Boy’s nickname for you?” Briar was the only one who would ever be allowed to call Deuc ‘Wolf Boy’ and every time they did it, it was funny.
“I guess so?” I said, sounding rather unsure of myself.

“It’s cute, I’ve never seen him smile so much,” said Briar. They frowned for a moment but then their childish grin was back.
“Yes, thank you!” said Tamika as she did a mini fist pump. “I am glad I am not the only one noticing that.”
I stared at them both. “Seriously?”
“Oh, yeah,” said Briar. They put on an overly serious expression and nodded.

Briar bounced from one foot to the other and I just laughed a little at their antics.
“I should really get going, it’s nice to see both of you pretty ladies. Wait…” They trailed off and looked from me, to Tamika and then back to me. “Do I still get to call you pretty if you’re Wolf Boy’s girlfriend? I don’t want to… be rude or anything, especially at the moment.”

What did they mean by ‘at the moment’?

Briar stared at us for a moment and when neither of us said anything, they shrugged.
“I can, I think. You’re not his. So I guess I’ll see you two pretty ladies soon or… whenever, really. This sort of thing isn’t too predictable,” they said. Before turning, they winked at Tamika. Briar practically skipped out of view and Tamika immediately pulled me out of the store.

“Where are we going?” I asked her, confused on why I was getting dragged out of a shop we had been in for only a few minutes before meeting Briar.
“Just… somewhere,” they said quickly.
“Do you… like them?” I asked. She immediately stopped and turned to look at me properly. I was taking that reaction as a yes. “You do?”
“So what if I do?” they asked. “It’s not like it’s something that can work out, they live in a cottage that just appears and disappears in the woods. And I’m a werewolf, it’s not exactly common for someone magical to get with a werewolf.”

I remembered Deuc saying about how the magical community generally avoided werewolves and hunters to keep themselves safe.

“So? It’s not like they seem involved with the magical community for the two of you to be judged or anything,” I said, also remembering the antisocial hermit reputation they said they wanted to maintain. “And I don’t see any reason why the pack would care.” There were other things on their minds at the moment, most notably the wendigo murders.
Tamika shrugged. “It’s just… can we talk about this another time?”
Sensing her want to not talk about it, I nodded. “Yeah, sure. We still have to find a dress.”

Tamika smiled and nodded. “And something for your hair, you never change how it’s styled or anything.”
I scoffed. “You’ve had your cornrows in for like, a month,” I protested. It felt weird tying my hair up so I hadn’t done it, it was a lot shorter than it used to be.
“Yeah, cause you’re meant to,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Besides, I’m getting bored of them and I’m taking them out later.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, shaking my head. I wondered what she would be doing with her hair next, the cornrows were nice but I was curious. “What am I supposed to do with my hair though?”

Tamika shrugged and started walking, people were starting to get annoyed with us for standing in the middle of their paths. “Do you have hair curlers or something?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Let’s start by getting some and like, a headband or something,” she said. “That’ll be easier to find than a dress you like anyway.”
“I haven’t curled my hair since I was a teenager,” I said.
Tamika smiled. “Now that, I can help you with. Or, more accurately, Charles can. He used to do his sister’s hair growing up. I’ll ask him later and if he agrees, you can come round on your birthday.”

“In the morning?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at her.
She nodded. “I won’t be at work and I’m fairly sure Charles isn’t either, I’ll check.”
“Well, um, thank you,” I said, smiling. “Even if you can’t manage it, thank you for the offers, and for buying me things, even if you haven’t bought them for me yet.”
Tamika laughed and shook her head. “It’s fine, you’re like family now. A sort of dysfunctional family, at the moment, but still family. Besides, I haven’t actually bought you anything yet and we need to fix that.”

I laughed and followed her into a store. It reminded me of when I had gone shopping with Kara, no one caring about taste or judging sizes like Dad had done the one time I had been shopping with him in the last decade. I smiled, this was fun.