Phase Three of Crush: Stel somehow se, and through unseen and potentially evil circumstances, finds herself in the same room with me and the crush and proceeds to reveal as many embarrassing things about me as possible.She mao somehow aplish this with Jeans, Premitri, and Delih through various absurd means that I only guess is dark magic.

  Stel stopped me in the apartment’s parking garage as soon as I stepped out of her car.

  “OK, lemme see it.” Stel said, grabbing my tail.

  “Stel!” I said. “That actually kinda hurts.”

  “Uh huh,” Stel said. “I did get a stress tail ond I remember it being very annoying. I wrecked a few shirts cutting holes into the lower back part thinking that this is just what fashion was going to be for me then forever but then it fell off like, immediately after I finished mangling them.”

  Oka looked like she was buzzing from excitement about seeing my pce as we rode the elevator up. I assume Stel sehat her initial embarrassment tactic wasn’t enough and had to up the ante.

  “Did Zeta get her Octremberlies yet?” Stel asked.

  “Her…what now?” Kalei asked eagerly.

  “Don’t you dare,” I said. “It’s bad enough you have a name for it.”

  “Well, every year during the first few weeks of this month, Zeta gets a real bad case of—"

  I puel in the arm.

  “Ow, fine!” Stel said. “I got you a bottle of the stuff, it’s o ter.”

  “So where’s your kit ter?” Kalei asked. “Because I just have to know what this mysterious bottle is.”

  “You really, really don’t.” I said.

  Oka still wasn’t super affected as the elevator dinged on our floor. Stel seemed to take this as a challenge as Oka followed me to my apartment.

  “Hey, this kinda looks like the dorms!” Oka said.

  Oka gasped when as the door opened. Our apartment wasn’t anything special, but she looked like she was stepping into a fairytale world. Kalei, oher hand, zipped straight to my kit after we took our shoes off and started sing my kit ter. I gasped louder than Oka when she grabbed a bottle off of it.

  “Magnesium cit—" Kalei read.

  I swiped the bottle from her and tried to rip the bel off. When that didn’t work as it wouldn't peel ht, I took a marker and scribbled all over it.

  “Hey, don’t mess with that too much,” Stel said. “I don’t really want to drive down to Sky Cy to hand you another oher, so maybe drink it while you’re here? Otherwise, I’m sure you’ll fet it.”

  “I’ll drink it when we’re back at school,” I muttered.

  “So you did get the Octremberlies,” Stel said.

  “Shut up.” I said.

  “They’ll probably figure out what it is when you’re there.” Stel said. “It’s probably hard to be discreet about it.”

  “I’ll find a way.”

  “As will I,” Kalei said, smugly looking at me.

  We sat in the living room and devoured our burgers for a bit. It had been too long since I had fast food. But in the bliss of the junk food, I let my guard down, and Stel se.

  “Did Zeta tell you two about the skate petition?” Stel asked. I nearly choked just as I tasted a pickle.

  “Stel, stop, ugh!”

  “Hold o me get my notes app up,” Kalei said. “I must dot this.”

  I was too far away to smack Stel, and there was nothing good in my reach that I could chuck at her.

  “A few years ago there was a new Raina Starlight book that had her be into skateb,” Stel said. “So Zeta actually entered a skating petition.”

  “Shut up,” Kalei said, already doubled down on the floor. “How’d…how’d she…” she couldn’t even finish the sentence.

  “Yes, please shut up!” I said.

  “Wheurn , she did about three jumps around her board, not on it, just around it, then ran off into the forest scream-g after she couldn’t do a trick.”

  “I wasn’t screaming,” I said.

  “If not screaming then g very loudly.” Stel said. “Please don’t choke on your food from ughing so hard, Kalei.”

  It took Kalei a while to stop ugh-g.

  “I grew a tail, you know!” I said.

  “Yeah yeah,” Stel said. “So why are you here again? A game thing?”

  Kalei finally recovered, but my bruised ego had not. “We o go to Twin Wolves for the eGame 3 midnight unch!”

  “Twin Wolves? I did need an excuse to go. I’m not standing in lih you three, so you hahat on your own.”

  Oka tapped Stel on her shoulder. “Hey, so lemme see Zeta’s room.”

  The plus side at least was Stel’s embarrassment assault really had no effe Oka. I saw Stel’s witch at that. But I won, via my best friend/crush’s incredible eagero see my room despite Stel’s best embarrassment efforts. Stel got up to lead us there, and I jogged in front of her to stop any st-minute efforts to embarrass me even more.

  “Ahhh, so this is Zeta’s room!” Oka said as she took a big sniff.

  “Oka, why are you doing that?” I asked.

  “She’s just getting a whiff of the pce,” Kalei said. “It does have a funk to it.”

  “What do you mean funk?”

  “Well, the funk is your dirty—” Stel started.

  “Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” I said, not even able to look at Stel's smug expression anymore.

  “Well, anyways, if you wanna drop your stuff off, we get going?” Stel said.

  “That’s the thing, Miss Faleur,” Kalei said. “If it would be at all possible, would you mind taking multiple trips to drop us off at Twin Wolves? I’d like to get in line as soon as possible, and I know my fellow friends are a bit more on needing the depress time before the going out to wait in liime.”

  “…I ’t tell if you’re being polite. But I kinda dig that. I don’t want to drive there a bunch of times in one night, but I call you a Stuba?”

  “I’d be most gracious for that.” Kalei said. “Text me when you get to Twin Wolves, Zates.”

  “Hey, you know I could text you too,” Oka said.

  “You don’t even have a phone,” Kalei said.

  “Well,” Oka said. “Still. I could call you with my wristband thing, maybe.”

  "Calls and stuff on them don't work outside the school," Kalei said.

  "What, for real?" I said. "So what's this thing good for, anyways?"

  "Making sure you don't wreck this pymore with your thuorm powers, maybe?" Stel said.

  "Stel, just go away already!" I said.

  Kalei left with Stel to go wait for her taxi (I took it as a somewhat win if Stel just told Kalei embarrassing stories about me), leaving Oka and me alone. Alone in my room.

  Alone in my room with my crush.

  “Did you catch that? I said I’d text her. I’m catg up on the lingo.” Oka said.

  “Yeah,” I smiled.

  I gave Oka the tour of my room as she looked around inquisitively.

  “So this is my bed,” I said. “And I have that little table with the little TV on it. And…a bookshelf. My room is b.”

  “It’s not b,” Oka scoffed.

  To distract myself from that rea, I k down by my bed.

  “Lht here!” I said, sounding way too excited for what I was about to present. “See how the floor is like slightly ed? That’s where my powers came in, I made so much rain the floor was all messed up!”

  “Whoa,” Oka said.

  “Stel tried to fix it, but we’re just going to hope the ndlord never notices.”

  Somehow talking about floorboards calmed me down a bit. We chatted like normal for a while, and I didn’t even notiuch time had passed when Oka took a pose, standing in front of me as I sat on the bed.

  “Hey, so Zeta,” Oka said.

  “You’re doing the pose,” I said, causing Oka to undo the like supervilin style hand-finger cspy thingy she was doing. “And you started with a 'So, Zeta.' I’m guessing yoing to ask me about the Jeans thing again.”

  “Is there a good way to ask?” Oka asked.

  “Well, maybe just…” I said. A sudden zap of a thought somehow escaped through my void I immediately mentally screamed why was I even thinking it, let alone speaking it. “No, that’s a terrible idea.”

  “What is?” Oka asked.

  Something about Oka’s pure expression as she asked me something embarrassing broke some of my mental walls down.

  “I was gonna say just get it over with and like…ask what you think we,” I sighed. “…er…went the farthest with.”

  “Well, sex, but—”

  “AHHH OK, NO.” I said, rolling bad forth with my pillow c my face. “Oka?”

  “Yes?”

  I couldn't see her face with the pillow over mine, but her tone sounded like the pure look she was givihe mental wall breaking look.

  “You’re literally the only! Person! I’d tell this to!”

  “Yes yes, I know! You have my word that it will be secret!” Oka said. “And it might be good to let it out! I am your Jea source, after all.”

  “AAGH, FINE.”

  I got up and locked my door so Stel wouldn’t bust in whe back, because she so would at the worst possible time. Then I realized I just locked myself in my room with my best friend/crush. I paced bad forth in front of her a bit. Thinking about Jeans actually might help douse my crush-excitement and calm me down. I sighed and sat back down on the bed.

  “We didn’t like…do it. We…held hands. And we hugged. And we kissed. And that’s about it.”

  “No way,” Oka said. “That’s IT?”

  “Hey, kissing is pretty far!” I said.

  “Yeah, but she was like head over heels for you! And you were rather enamored with her as well.” Oka strummed her jaw like she was a famed detective solving an impossible murder mystery.

  “I guess, but…”

  “Were the kisses at least like…tongue?”

  “OKA.” I chucked my pillow at her. A direct headshot, but with no effect.

  “Sorry.” Oka said.

  “Once. Does that make you happy? We made out that muce. And the my ned my shoulder, and it hurt really bad and then she went home.”

  “Oof.”

  “Yeah. i fangs hurt, dude. I think I still have scars from it.”

  Oka shuffled in her seat just a bit and said just enough of a sound to show she was starting to say something.

  “Don’t say it,” I said. “Or…just let it out, yonna anyways.”

  “ I see the marks?”

  I rolled my eyes (a defensive mao hold back the symphony of internal screaming I was doing about this sario actually happening in real life and not an afternoon css daydream) and pulled my shirt over my shoulder a bit. Oka rushed over to look. She looked at the small spots on my shoulder.

  “Oh, it’s like a vampire bite. But on your shoulder. Did that feel…good…?”

  “It felt like my shoulder getting bitten.” I said.

  “That sucks,” Oka said. “And that’s not like a vampire joke.”

  Oka sat by me and huffed.

  “You sound like you’re mad that’s as far as we went.” I said.

  “I’m not like mad, I’m more disappointed for you, really.” Oka said.

  At this point I was firmly like full red on, a like house paint red color scale otle cards you get at hardware stores with colors. Like probably the reddest on those little sample cards.

  “Did you wao h-have…erm. Retions…? Further retions with her?” I asked.

  “No, and it’s genuinely probably for the best that she didn’t. If she had the trol over you that she did, having even more intimacy would have furthered her power imbahat she used to hurt you.”

  “Wow,” I said. “You keep catg me off guard here and I don’t know how to react.”

  "Sorry," Oka said. “I just feel bad that you didn’t eve really anything good out of that whole thing.”

  That kinda hit hard. There were happy times with Jeans, but looking back even the good times were tainted by the bad times.

  “You know what else?” I said. “She was an awful kisser.”

  Oka burst out ughing. “No way.”

  “Yuh huh," I said. "I mean, I guess I don’t really know what a good kisser is because Jeans is the only person I’ve kissed, but every time we kissed it was like kissing a ham sandwich. Like I felt nothing bay time, and I tried, but I never felt anything back, except for that oime, and that time she more just mushed her fato mine which. Isn’t a great kiss!”

  Oka couldn’t stop ughing once I said ham sandwich.

  “Was this before or after she bit you?” She wheezed.

  “After. And she bit me like, again, really hard and not in a fun way. But she was trying to be fun about it.”

  “Oh, is there a fun way to bite you?”

  “Oka.” I said, smag her with the pillow still on my bed.

  “I’m just teasing!”

  “Are you?”

  “I mean. Kinda? Also kinda curious?”

  “I need a squirt bottle for you, it’s like a cat that won’t listen when I tell it to get off a table.”

  We ughed together for a bit before we cooled off. Laughing holy helped ease the pain of everything Jeaed. Oher hand, it did not help my other crisis.

  In that brief moment, I suddenly became really really aware that Oka was still lying on my bed with me. For just a sed or two, I caught a gnce of Oka as she stared up at the ceiling, her face still red from ughing so hard. It was maybe the cutest thing I’d ever seen. Then I noticed shirt riding up oummy just slightly. For some reason that activated a side of my brain that had no basis in logianners or whatever, just pure crush activating with a heartrate increase as I stared at like 3 timeters max of skin.

  “Hey, you two ready?” Stel asked as she pounded on the door, smming me bato reality. “I want to get this over with.”

  “On our way!” Oka said, rolling up to her feet.

  I zoned out in a crush induced bliss as Stel drove us to the mall. It wasn’t too far from our pce, so I figured Stel wouldn’t have time to embarrass me too much with her stories to Oka on the way.