Pumpkins, mice, an old mule and a tattered dress. Tiffany wasn't working with the typical ingredients for an enchanted evening with a prince, but she also wasn't sparing any effort. A smart phone with access to restaurant menus, city maps and movie showtimes served as her fairy wand, and her fingers swiped and clicked to conjure up a final night of magic for her friends.

Jessie the love fairy was a coach, after all, and eventually every athlete had progress towards making her own plays. Tiffany had been preparing for this night all along. Each date had begun with a dose of pheromones: orange romance for Audrey since she desperately needed the sweetness, and a rainbow cocktail for Nikki because the poor thing needed all the help she could get. With each progressive date she'd sprayed less and less, weaning each off of their drugs and making the girls rely on the charms and tips she taught them.

Tonight, they would enter the dating game without any pheromone handicaps. Tonight, they'd be playing for keeps.

"I'm meeting Anton downtown tonight," Nikki recited. She sat in a pretty grey dress Tiffany had picked out (the only one in Nikki's closet), accompanied by a thin black jacket and open-toed flats. At the half-fairy's insistence, Niki repeated tonight's itinerary while she combed her friend's tangled hair. "Anton's going to take me to the Italian restaurant with the outdoor lounge I've been telling him about." She paused. "Italian… they'll have mac 'n cheese, right? OW!"

"Sorry," Tiffany lied. "Had to yank through a rough patch there." She hoped her smile would cover up the twitch in her eye.

Nikki continued. "After dinner we go see that big romantic Nicolas Sparks movie. After, I ask if we can go to the boardwalk on the beach. … Y'know, there's this really sweet arcade there…"

"Half an hour," Tiffany relented. Nikki pumped a fist, yes! "but after that –"

"After that I make him go walk on the beach with me and watch the stars, and I tell him how much I like hanging out and …"

"And?" This part was crucial; there could be no shying away.

Nikki dropped to a mumble. "I let him kiss me."

The perfect climax to their date, the perfect opening to a lifetime together. "Remember not to let the conversation stall. Focus on asking him questions, focus on real world topics."

"I got it. We can talk about some games but not fan works."

That deserved a reward. Nikki's eyes lit up at the handful of quarters for the arcade games.

"Sweet! Oh, and I'll be sure to get him to kiss me, okay? I won't let you down, Jessie."

Don't let yourself down, she thought.


Tiffany had prepared a similar strategy for Audrey, only with different venues: a candlelight dinner at Vinnie's romantic French restaurant, then an arm-in-arm stroll through the lanterns of Chinatown until they came to the scenic overlook on Balmoral Hill. Lock eyes, whisper true feelings and let Marco deliver a true love's kiss.

"Marco goes on four trial dates before he makes up his mind about a girl," she reiterated to Audrey, "so tonight has to be perfect."

"Right, no pressure there." For this special night, Tiffany had prodded Audrey into a tasteful black dress: knee length, high collar and little shoulder sleeves with a pattern of red roses on wavy green vines. Simple black heels and purse to match.

"He's looking for that sweet Audrey Belrose who's into kittens and studying so be nice and don't argue."

"All right, all right." Out of irritation, Audrey kept scratching at her black hairband, a foreign accessory but a necessary one given that her bangs still hadn't grown back from her self-inflicted weed whacking. Itchy and looking for relief, Audrey reached for the bottle on her makeup vanity but Tiffany seized it first.

"And no drinking! If he orders wine, tell him you prefer water, or get a Shirley Temple. You can't screw this up by getting drunk and -"

"-and letting out the real Audrey?" A wry smirk danced over her friend's face. How little you think of me, it scolded.

"You know what I mean," Tiffany sighed.

"I get it. It's all about reputation."

They took a taxi downtown and shared a quiet walk to the restaurant, Tiffany caught up in thoughts about last week's fight and how this would be her last night on speaking terms with Audrey. When the redhead spoke it put her completely off-balance. "You okay? You keep starring into space like you're all bummed out."

Had those regrets appeared on her face? "I'm a little down," she confessed. "I had a fight with one of my fairy friends and I'm not really sure what to do. She says I'm spending too much time at work instead of with her, and she's upset because she thinks we only hang out so I can look smarter or more popular next to her, but that's not it at all."

"Your friend sounds like a whiny bitch."

That got her smiling, if just for a second. "She can be a little crazy, but she's also really cool and confident. I've never met anyone with her attitude - she doesn't let anyone push her around. It means so much that she wants to be my friend; that she thinks someone like me's cool enough to hang out with."

Audrey nodded along. "I had a friend like that once." They'd arrived at the restaurant and Audrey turned around at the door, noticing she'd been walking these last step alone. "Aren't you coming in?"

Tiffany bowed her head.

"You're just leaving me here?" Her date was only beginning but Audrey sounded as though she'd suddenly been stood up.

"This is your date, Audrey. I've shown you all I can, but it's up to you to make it work."

"Yeah, okay. I guess it is creepy how you follow us everywhere. But we'll catch up later, right? So I can fill you in on the date?"

Tiffany smiled. "I'd like that a lot, Audrey." It sounded enough like a commitment to reassure Audrey but gave her a loophole to wiggle through. She would never see her friend again - not as Jessie, the unneeded half, and never as Tiffany, the unwanted half.

"Go on," she continued. "I can see Marco waiting inside." The football star looked mightily handsome in his polo shirt and jacket. You're a lucky girl, Audrey Belrose. He'll treat you right.

Tiffany watched Audrey go in and greet her date, watched them link arms and be escorted out of view. Tiffany didn't need to see any more to know how this story concluded. And they lived happily ever after.

Audrey and Marco would be dating steady after tonight. With an upstanding guy to temper her impulses, Audrey would smarten up, live more carefully. She'd put aside her drugs, settle on a university degree and eventually they'd move into a nice house with Marco's pro football money and become the talk of the town. Nikki and Anton wouldn't gain the same notoriety but with Anton's support her blue friend would grow confident and assertive, learning to enjoy life beyond her shallow games and drawings. Both couples would blossom in their love and their future possibilities.

There would be no room in their lives for undependable ex-friends, but that was all for the better. She had her own career, her own future to concern herself with. She'd naively assumed that she, Audrey and Nikki would be fellow passengers on the train of life, when it was time for her to change stops and board a separate route.

She went home to her slovenly roommate, studied diligently to become the best nurse in the city and she never saw her best friends, ever again.

But stories, like subway trains, had a penchant for becoming derailed.


Tiffany phased back into her flat, resigned to another night in Kyu's trash heap, but the room sparkled like new. The desks were polished, the rug had been vacuumed and from her bed Kyu was magically floating the last stray pop cans and candy wrappers into a black garbage bag, which she tied shut and poofed from existence in a spray of rainbow glitter.

"Whaddya think, roomie? Lookin' just the way I found it?"

Tiffany's voice stalled trying to conjure up a response. "You cleaned up? Thank you," she added, immediately swelling with pride. Seeing Kyu tidy after herself was like seeing her five year old swimming students discovering how to blow bubbles or stick their heads underwater – it was a first step towards maturity, and she lived for these moments. Go figure, I can even teach fairies how to live better lives.

Kyu waved off the thanks. "Every good-time girl knows she's gotta pick up after a wild party, and by my boss' balloon tits, do I have a lot of shit to clean up tonight…"

Odd, Tiffany thought. Kyu's smile had dropped during that last part.

"Okay boys, time to pack!"

Before Tiffany could ask, Kyu grinned and blew a stream of fairy dust from her good left palm that wove around the room in tendrils, reaching into drawers and the closet and bewitching all of Kyu's possessions to life. Her dirty magazines fluttered their pages like a flock of birds, the porn DVDs popped up and marched like parade of toy soldiers, and a menagerie of pastel-coloured lingerie frog-hopped on their elastics, each group converging on Kyu's bed and her opened pink knapsack. Judging by the pack's non-reaction to being stuffed with a shopping mall worth of adult merchandise, it had obviously been enchanted into a bottomless pit. Tiffany felt a similar pit widening in her stomach.

"You're leaving."

Kyu fanned her butterfly wings, nearly whole once more. "Yep. These flappy birds are just about ready to dodge pipes again, so now that I'm able to work, I figure it's time to cash in some vacation days. I hear Bermuda's nice this time of year."

Tiffany smiled. "Fairy Bermuda?"

"Hells yeah! Soda pop oceans, marshmallow palm trees, and plenty of buff mermen looking to swim upstream, if you catch my drift. Oh baby, break out the lobster bibs and butter me up, because I am gonna stuff my mouth so full of seam-"

"Man, that sounds … right up your alley," Tiffany coughed. The news hit her like a punch to the gut. Saying she'd enjoyed Kyu's sugar-guzzling, porn-binging presence was crossing a bridge too far but she'd come to appreciate the company in her home, especially as she and her friends had drifted to the point of no return. Well, I've always been better off on my own, right? Faking her best supportive smile, Tiffany congratulated her roommate while unclipping her fairy belt and pendant.

"I guess you'll want your sprays and phone back?"

Kyu considered the offering but pushed them back with a mad grin. "Keep 'em. I'll tell HR I lost 'em and put in a request for new inventory. That, and I think you're gonna need them for a last job..."

Why was Kyu ending all their conversations with those cryptic mutterings? No matter, it was time to focus on the positives. "Well, you'll be pleased to know that I knocked two of your red list clients out of the park. Audrey and Nikki are out on the dates that will clinch their relationships. Not bad for a substitute, if I do say so myself."

"I guess, if that sappy, romantic 'true love' is what you're after."

Tiffany laughed. "Like there's anything better?"

"Hey, there's a lot of different types of love out there. Some people want that romantic jazz, but then you've got folks who're all about love for family, or best buddies who need a friend to count on before they jump after a partner. Sometimes a love fairy has to figure out what kind of love a client needs most. Me, I'm all about Eros!"

Of course you are. "Well, looks like my friends lucked out when I smashed your wings." Tiffany laughed at her joke and waited for Kyu to laugh with her but the fairy only offered a thin smile, preferring to sit back and observe with a quiet thoughtfulness that reminded Tiffany of the coaches who had sized her up for cheer squad.

"Uh huh," Coach Kyu nodded. "Hey, you still set on being a nurse, Cheerleader?"

The question only took her aback for a second. "Absolutely! Why?"

"No reason. I just thought you'd have a knack for taxidermy. You know, scooping out somebody's insides, stuffing them full of fluff and posing them with these big stupid grins on their empty faces? You've already done such a super job on your friends."

Now it all made sense, Kyu and her ominous little mutterings. The little pixie stick was jealous! Jealous of how a complete amateur had done her job so effectively and now she was looking to pick a fight. Tiffany folded her arms and stood her ground. "I got them boyfriends."

"No, you got them your boyfriends. A brainy public speaker? A football jock with a heart of gold? You picked out studs you were raring to date and then you started re-programming your clients so they'd be more like you! Did you ever once ask what kind of person your friends are into?"

"I saw who they were into, and between dance club scumbags and imaginary videogame guys I don't think it's hard to see the improvement!"

Kyu shook her head in a slow, sad motion. "You don't know your friends at all."

"I spent time with them. I followed them around for weeks!"

"You did, but you only saw what you wanted. Confirmation bias, Little Miss Smarty-Pants." Kyu's unbandaged left hand puffed out another tendril of fairy dust that summoned Tiffany's observation notepad from across the room. "Let's see here … Ah, here's a good one: Thursday Night. Nikki. Playing video games again. Doesn't she ever get tired of these games? It's so boring. Moving on. Friday Night. Audrey. Dancing at Lusties Nightclub. Omg, how can she just go from grinding on one guy to another? That's so disgusting!"

Kyu gave her a piercing look. "Did you ever notice how much fun Nikki was having playing her games? How she does that happy little squeal every time she gets a new high score? And Audrey. Ever stop and wonder why your friend never went home with any of those dance club cockroaches?"

Words, words, words. "You think my friends are better off as they were? Before I started helping them?"

"Helping. Right, because telling somebody all their hobbies and interests are shit, and that they should keep their mouth shut is gonna do wonders for their self-esteem."

Tiffany wouldn't have any of this! "You told me that love fairies are supposed to make the hard decisions! That we put together people who are best for each other!"

"Um, yeah, but you gotta work with the clay you've been given. Stripping somebody's personality down to the girders? Slapping on a fake persona like it's a fresh coat of paint? Not gonna work long term, Cheerleader."

"I wasn't tearing down anything! All I did was ... sand off a few rough edges!"

Now it was Kyu's turn to laugh. "A few? By my various virile gods, is that what you call the lobotomy you gave that poor Belrose girl? And Nikki – thank my Boss you accidentally stuck her with another gamer! Can you imagine how miserable she'd be if you really forced her to stop talking about her games or her freaky fan art?"

Tiffany snorted and paced up her side of the room.

"I'll bet you were a picky eater," Kyu continued. "You were one of those kids that ordered a deluxe pizza and then scraped off all the gross olives and green peppers. Well, now that girl's all grown up and she's stingy as all get-out. Friend's doing something weird? Toss them out."

"Shut up, Kyu."

"Friend's doing something you don't like? Toss them out."

"Kyu, I mean it!" Sparks twitched from her wings.

"Hell, you even tossed out your own mom."

"That lying whore deserved it!"

Tiffany blinked. Somehow, she'd lunged to Kyu's side of the room, her face glaring daggers at the fairy, her fist glowing and planted in the drywall next to Kyu's head. Flakes of ash fizzled around her knuckles and the taste of hot coals stuck in her mouth.

Kyu glanced sideways at the rigid fist, impressed by Tiffany's spunk but far from intimidated.

"You know it's all acting, right?" Her words came in a soft and melancholy murmur. "You think your mom likes working with every one of her co-stars, or that she can bang out a perfect orgasm for each and every video? You think she isn't exhausted by all the creepy requests she gets on her cam sessions, or scared that one day some guy's gonna cheat on his STD test so he can make a quick buck in the skin flicks? She didn't pick an easy life, kid, and she didn't pick it without a good reason."

"I think it's time you left, Kyu." Tiffany stormed over to her bed, nursing her sore knuckles. Kyu snorted at her retreat but zipped up her knapsack anyhow.

"Yeah, that's your motto, isn't it? If it's weird or uncomfortable, let's ignore it. Ever read your friends' Huniebee profiles?"

She hadn't, and now she looked at her fairy phone and wondered exactly what she had missed.

"Well, it's been an interesting experiment, kiddo." Backpack slung over her good left shoulder, Kyu fluttered to her feet. "Here's hoping you prove me wrong." Tiffany, however, missed the farewell in favor of a more crucial detail.

"Kyu, when you fell off the roof you broke your left arm. How did your cast get onto your right arm?"

For once, the pink fairy had no witty retorts. "Um…"

Another burst of sparks propelled Tiffany across the room. She seized Kyu's wrists and squeezed. The bare left arm felt solid. The plaster mold on the right squeezed like Styrofoam. The fairy scrambled for an excuse but Tiffany shut her down.

"Back at the hospital I asked you why a love fairy was living with a college student. That was the wrong question, wasn't it? The rent here isn't the cheapest, and there's way fancier places to crash. So why is a love fairy so interested in living with me?"

Kyu flashed the unrepentant smile of a criminal caught in the act. "Little slow on the details but you catch on quickly, Cheerleader. Why you? I wonder…?"

Before the interrogation could continue, Tiffany's Huniebee vibrated from her belt. An alert.

"Interesting news, kiddo?"

She had to release one wrist to answer the phone but the other held firm as a handcuff. Tiffany scanned the message and did her best to keep her face neutral. "It's Nikki. I set up the Huniebee to notify me whenever the girls moved to their next date location." Nikki and Anton, however, were going off course, their blue map icon hovering over a residential neighbourhood instead of the beach. Tiffany zoomed in on the address and had to fight very hard not to swear in front of Kyu.

"I have to go," she monotoned, shoving Kyu away and marching for the window. Tiffany paused. "We won't be seeing each other again, will we?"

Stupid question. A vortex of fairy dust was already claiming Kyu from her sight. "I've done all I can here, kiddo. The rest's up to you." Now only a disembodied voice echoed. "Better get your bacon shakin'. Looks like your Little Red Riding Hood wandered off the path with a big bad wolf."

Tiffany growled. "More like a detour at a witch's house."

More specifically, Nikki was at her mother's house.


Panic was not an emotion you associated with a charming prince questing for love or a brave knight off to rescue a princess, but now Tiffany understood that terror ruled every minute the brave hero galloped across the dark woods, over the black mountains and onward to the witch's castle. She couldn't fathom how Nikki had been lured into that woman's den of sin but until she saved her friend, panic would be her motto. Panic forced her wings across the city, terror pushed her into the old suburb where the houses bunched too close for comfort and chain-link fences surrounded the dull, yellow yards. Dread made her land in front of the house she'd swore to banish from all memory.

Like the woman who still lived inside it, Tiffany's childhood home hadn't changed much. The bungalow walls were now painted a robin egg blue and the storm drains had been replaced but she recognized it in a heartbeat. Same sagging palm tree in the front yard, same backyard swimming pool gathering idle leaves, and the same tacky pink flamingos perched in the flowerbeds.

Probably still hides the spare key under the mat, Tiffany snorted, grinding her boots on the pink doormat with its grinning cat face and stupid "Welcome Ho-meow" greeting. Her fairy powers let her barge through the front door and into the squalor of kicked-off boots and sandals strewn down the hallway. Still can't tidy up after herself, I see.

The Huniebee was pinging like an up-tempo metronome but she didn't need it anymore. The sound of deep, ruinous sobbing carried even to the front door. Nikki, what'd she do to make you cry? She ignored Jessica's backside rummaging through the kitchen fridge – for now – marched past the rumbling washing machine and strode before a half-ajar door with a crooked chalkboard nameplate.

Tiffany's Room.

Her cheekbones twitched at the sight of her mother's childish bubble writing and the presumptuousness of that sign. Years before, while dragging her suitcases out the front door she'd spared a moment to swipe her hand across the green slate and banish her name from its surface. Was her mother retreating to the 'good ol' days' like an Alzheimer's patient, or just stupidly optimistic that her 'baby' would return?

This isn't my house, this isn't my room, and you're not my mother. I'm here to get Nikki and leave. She repeated the mantra in her head but after phasing through the doorway, the sight within froze her on the spot.

The room was still stripped bare, that much she'd expected – empty closet, empty floor, plain white sheets over the bed – but the walls, their egg-white surfaces had been transformed into a life-sized scrapbook of polaroid pictures. Pictures of her. Baby pictures of her first steps, toddler pictures of her smiling in a high-chair and showing off her loose tooth. School pictures: waving to the camera on her first day of kindergarten, dangling a third-place medal from the track and field competition, beaming beside a straight A-plus report card.

Nausea made Tiffany's knees tremble. It was like she'd barged into the secret lair of a serial killer who'd been documenting her entire life. And the killer smiled shamelessly in the photographs with her. Jessica and little Tiffany flashing matching peace signs in front of the water park slides; Jessica steadying her five year-old shoulders while she first balanced on a two-wheel bike; Jessica pressing their cheeks together in front of the Christmas tree, modeling the newly unwrapped cooking apron that read World's Best Mom. Long-forgotten memories dripped into Tiffany's head with the steady rhythm of a faucet and, somewhere, a new thought fell with them.

Those were good times.

Growing up with Jessica, she hadn't been neglected or unloved. Yes, her mother had thought potato chips and pop tarts made for a wholesome school lunch, and she'd been utterly helpless with homework beyond story books and simple addition, but in her own clumsy way, maybe that woman had tried her best for her daughter.

The thought droplet floated in her head like oil atop a pool of water, refusing to mingle with the sea of bitter memories but also refusing to disperse.

She truly, deeply loved me.

Then Tiffany scowled, shaking her head and banishing the oily droplet to the depths. If she loved me, she'd never get into such degenerate work. I'm not here to get all weepy-eyed over baby pictures, I'm here for –

"Nikki!" Her friend sat on the bed, head cradled in her hands, cheeks raw with tears, and sporting an oversized Hooters t-shirt instead of her nice gray dress. Anton was nowhere to be found. "Nikki, are you okay? What're you doing here?"

The bluenette startled from her introverted trance. "Jessie?" she croaked, eyes blazing with relief. "Jessie, where were you? I was running through the streets; I kept calling but you wouldn't show up."

The pieces were slotting into place. Nikki, sobbing, screaming and flapping her heels through the streets, howling for a 'Jessie' until she ran across someone with that shared name.

A tap at the door and a husky voice. "Hon, I'm putting your dress in the dryer now. Sure you don't want anything to drink? Hot chocolate?"

"I'm, I'm good," Nikki croaked back. To her fairy, she explained, "Her name's Jessie too. She kinda, grabbed me while I was running around and said I should come home with her, get my clothes cleaned."

"Wonderful choice," Tiffany snarked, but first things first. "Nikki, what were you doing running through downtown on your own? Where's Anton?"

Just the mention of that name sucked the joy from Nikki's face. Her shoulders shrugged under the baggy white shirt. "I … dunno. Probably at home, getting cleaned up." Her eyes trailed to the floor. "I kinda threw up over him."

"You what?"

Nikki hid her face; she'd been fearing this reaction. "It was an accident," she whimpered. "I did everything you said – restaurant, movie, the beach; it was all going like you planned." She hiccupped. "Then he tried to kiss me and I, I just … you know," she waved her hand like some sign-language substitute for 'projectile vomited over my love interest'.

Tiffany knelt and touched Nikki's forehead, ignoring the frightened gasp her touch produced. "No fever. Do you think it's food poisoning?"

"It's not that," Nikki protested, scooting down the bed for space. "I just, well… when he tried to kiss me I just felt really gross."

"Gross?" Tiffany repeated. In the hallway, the carpet groaned under the weight of footsteps but Tiffany ignored the eavesdropper. "What do you mean, gross?"

Nikki slapped her knees in frustration. "I don't know, okay! I can't explain it, but every time Anton gets near me I freak out. My palms get sweaty and my skin gets all itchy. When it first started I thought I was just being nervous – 'cause I never dated a guy before – but it kept getting worse. And whenever Anton tried to hold hands or put his arm around me, all I could think of is how he's all big and hairy and he smells all musky and it creeps me out!"

"And all this happened tonight?"

Nikki fidgeted. "It's been going on for a while," she confessed. "But I tried to make it work because you said I should date him, so whenever Anton got near me I just pretended he was someone else. That someone else was touching and holding me, and that made it easier. But when he kissed me tonight I just couldn't keep it up and I …"

Puked, Tiffany thought to herself. Why had Nikki suffered silently so long? You always want to talk with me; why wouldn't you talk about this? The setbacks made her head throb, but the student part of her brain knew how to proceed, calmly assessing the situation like it was a failed science project. This was bad, but not unsalvageable. Anton had been a mistake; too much like Nikki with his gaming habits to rescue her from her introverted rut, but if Nikki truly didn't care for him it was just a matter of hitting 'restart'.

"Who was it?" she asked. She needed information about this other boy Nikki had been fantasizing about if they were going to start fresh. "Who were you thinking about, Nikki?" The colour drained from Nikki's face and she clamped her jaw shut. Tiffany took a step closer.

"You have to tell me, Nikki."

"I can't," she whimpered.

"Yes you can! Come on, Nikki; Anton wasn't the one for you, so let's figure this out! Who were you thinking about kissing?"

Cornered, Nikki curled her fists in little balls, looked her dead in the eyes and spat, "I was thinking of you!"

The bungalow went silent. The rattle of the washing machine, the angry rising and falling of Nikki's chest and the shuffling at the door all played over Tiffany's dumbfounded stare.

"I don't get it," Nikki confessed. "I'm supposed to like guys but I … I like you. Your skin's all soft and your hair smells nice, an', and when you smile at me I feel all warm inside. I thought, maybe I was just getting excited because you're an alien or whatever, but … that night you let me put my head on your shoulder, I felt like I was gonna float away if you let go. I felt so right being with you."

Tiffany continued to stare, so Nikki wiped her nose on her sleeve and steeled herself with a deep, bracing intake of air.

"Jessie, I always thought dating was stupid and that guys were gross, but … when I think of dating you, it all makes sense. I know you're a girl but … I wanna be with you."

Tiffany needed to collect her thoughts. Silently, she stood up, pacing to the opposite end of the room. For Nikki, the walk must have seemed like a total rejection.

"I'm sorry," she gasped. "I'm so sorry. Please don't hate me. I'll … I'll go find Anton again and say sorry. No, I … I'll find another guy and start dating him! I can change, Jessie! I can change; I'll do whatever you want, just don't leave me!"

Tiffany spun on her heel – just gimmie a minute! – but before she could snap, the bedroom door nudged open and Jessie, the human Jessie, toddled into the room.

"Whoops! Knock, knock. Sorry for barging in, hon. I know you said you weren't hungry, but - silly me - I went and made all this hot cocoa and I've got no one else to share it with."

Accidental my ass, Tiffany scowled. The serving tray in Jessie's arms held exactly two steaming mugs with marshmallows, two ice cream sundaes and a bowl of party mix chips big enough for two. Nosey little gossip.

Jessie unfolded the trays legs and set it in front of the bed, sitting down to join Nikki. Not only did she force the ice cream into Nikki's hands, she had the gall to drape a blanket over the poor girl's shoulders. "Eat up, hon. It's not doing you any good sitting in this room and screaming at yourself like that."

She heard everything. The humiliation was clear in Nikki's pale face. She started bolting down the sundae, if only to distract herself from the embarrassment.

"It's good," she panted, eyeing Jessie's dish. The older woman smiled and offered up her portion, letting Nikki go to town on the bowl.

"There y'go, hon. Mm, isn't this fun? I always wanted to throw a coming out party for my friends but … well, let's just say if they came out any more it'd be public indecency."

Coming out. With brain-freeze slowing her thoughts, Nikki needed a second to interpret that expression. "You think I'm ga-?" The thought was to terrifying to finish. "I can't be. I can't. Jessie, I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Whoa, stop right there, honey. You're sorry? Baby, you have nothing to be sorry about."

"But it's, I mean, being like that, it's …" she hunted for a word, "weird."

Jessie let out a rip-snorting laugh. "Oh, baby, baby I could write a book about all the weird kink I've seen and you wouldn't even make the chapter notes. This one guy? Fan of my cam show who kept paying for special requests. The poor guy just could not get it off unless I put on this horse mask and called him 'Twilight'."

Nikki arched her back as far as she could.

"Sorry, I know – TMI. My daughter was always after me about that. Point is, there is nothing weird or wrong about being gay, hon. You're the new vanilla."

"But, my friend, she's gonna be so mad at me!" She hadn't gone invisible but Nikki had already shut her out of the conversation.

Her mother hummed. "Tell me about this friend, hon. Is she pretty?"

"Yes!" Nikki's answer didn't skip a beat. "But, it's like, she's been giving me dating advice and trying to get me together with this guy and whenever I finish a date she's really, really happy with me."

Jessie nodded along. "It sounds like you really like this friend."

"I … really want her to like me. I want to make her happy."

"I'm sure you do." Jessie reached an arm around Nikki and pulled her close. "Honey, I hate to break it to you, but your friend's as straight as the highway to hell, and she doesn't have a clue about how you feel. She isn't going to love you back." Jessie pressed ahead before Nikki could shed a tear. "Now, you can keep following her advice, keep dating boys so she'll give you a pat on the back…" Jessie squeezed her tight. "Or you can do what's right by you. I think it's about time you tell this friend what you really need."

"Her name's Jessie."

A nod. "Should've known. Little secret, hon: we Jessie's aren't the greatest decision-makers. Now, practice with me, baby. What're you going to tell your friend?"

To her mother, Nikki must have looked like she was turning to the wall to collect her thoughts, but Tiffany knew who her friend was really looking at, and knew that what came next was no rehearsal.

"Jessie," she began, slow and shaky. "Jessie, I … I don't like boys. I don't think I ever did but maybe I just didn't hang out with enough people to know for sure."

"I was only trying to help," Tiffany whispered back. She wanted to comfort Nikki, but her excuses just fed her resolve.

"You weren't! You weren't helping me! I don't wanna be with Anton or any other guy. You showed up all of a sudden and, and you never even asked what kinda …" she swallowed, "…person I was interested in. It's just 'get up, get out, do this, do that'. You never listened to me! You say you're trying to help but then you try and change everything about me and I don't want that. Cause if I keep doing what you want I'm gonna be sick."

Jessie squeezed her shoulder and Nikki felt strong enough to stand. "I don't want your help, Jessie. So just... go away!"

"Nikki, please don't-"

"Go away! I don't wanna see you ever again. I … I hate you!"

Nikki tore off her glasses and wiped her sleeve across her eyes. Tiffany thought she had an opening, thought she could reach up and touch her shoulder in comfort, but Nikki swatted her hand away like a bug. "Just go," she hissed.

And Tiffany knew she had truly, utterly failed. She dropped her hand, stepped away and turned to the wall. But maybe …

She spun, a begging look in her eyes. Nikki clenched her fists and shook her head 'no'.

So Tiffany bowed her head and let her body evaporate from sight. Before stepping through the bedroom wall she took a final look at Nikki, sniffling to herself as Jessica threw her arms around the girl in a warm and motherly hug. Nikki returned the embrace.

"Thanks, Miss Jessie."

"Just Jessie," she smiled. "You did good there, hon. Real good."


Tiffany picked a random direction and flew. With eyes clenched and body intangible there was nothing to stop her, nothing to guide her. Her wings burned her out past the city limits and down the ribbon of highway following the coast until she came to the old lighthouse that illuminated the bay. She slumped over the rail encircling the rotating beacon and let her legs dangle over the rock and surf.

So Nikki was gay.

Tiffany peeled the butterfly mask from her face and stared at it for a long time. The searchlight at her back would illuminate her disguise in sweeping waves. Visible, dark, visible, dark. She tried to think back and search for hints she should have picked up – as a fairy, and as a friend. Maybe she wasn't just being shy all those times I tried to set her up with guys. She tortured herself trying to suss out a smoking gun, but in the end Nikki's own words damned her.

You never listened to me.

She dropped the mask, let it tumble into the dark waters. How laughable her fantasy seemed now. She'd meant to be a hero to her friends – a super-mom – but in one hour, Jessica had done Nikki more good than all her weeks of fairy coaching. "Did I do anything right?" she asked the sweeping beacon. Its lamplight glinted against her belt buckle and the attached Huniebee. Tiffany pulled out the phone and toggled through the menus until she brought up Kyu's red list.

AUDREY BELROSE

NICOLE ANN-MARIE

JESSICA MAYE

She'd never read past this entry but now she slid down the menu, not too surprised by what awaited.

TIFFANY MAYE

She thumbed open her file.

NAME: TIFFANY ISABELLA MAYE

STATUS: VIRGIN. SUBJECT HAS ATTEMPTED SEVERAL RELATIONSHIPS DURING HIGH SCHOOL BUT ALL HAVE BEEN BRIEF AND SELF-TERMINATED, TYPICALLY AFTER LEARNING THE SEXUAL HISTORY OR FANTASIES OF HER PARTNERS.

DUE TO INSECURITIES CENTERING ON A FAILED RELATIONSHIP WITH HER MOTHER, TIFFANY IS QUICK TO JUDGE AND KEEPS FRIENDS AND PARTNERS AT ARM'S LENGTH. BY AVOIDING DEEP COMMITMENT SHE HOPES TO AVOID BEING HURT BY A BETRAYAL OF CHARACTER.

Enough. She didn't like the fairy report but she couldn't disagree with it. She really didn't know her friends. Never really pushed them to share anything more than skin deep. The party girl, the gamer geek. It was simpler that way, wasn't it?

Reading the Huniebee was like staring into the engraving on her tombstone: HERE LIES TIFFANY MAYE. NEVER TRUSTED ANYONE, NOBODY TRUSTED HER. Anton, Nikki, Kyu – she thought she'd been so clever, knowing what everyone needed, and in the end she'd made everyone miserable. "Some hero I turned out to be." She couldn't even be a proper friend.

A timely buzz from the Huniebee roused her. An update on Audrey – she'd changed locations to … the university campus? Bringing up the GPS map allowed her to zoom in on the specific building, a residential property just off campus. The Zeta Alpha Epsilon fraternity. What on earth is she doing?

It didn't matter. She had to get over there immediately. She'd failed Nikki, she wasn't about to fail her best friend.

UOG campus, however, rested on the north end of town. In her self-loathing Tiffany had flown south far beyond Glenberry's outskirts. Her wings could drive her a solid 30 mph but that wouldn't take her nearly fast enough. I need to get stronger.

Tiffany considered her hourglass pendant. She'd only ever taken one pill at a time, gulping down a fresh one as her timer neared the end of another hour. Kyu called them pep pills for magic but how did they work? Could the body absorb only so much at time, like vitamins, or did the effects accumulate in your system like alcohol?

Tiffany popped the cap and chugged down an entire mouthful.

Like a fire doused with gasoline, her body exploded. Light blasted from her skin and her pink hair overheated to a raw white. The worst came from her shoulders, screaming with pain as four new wings split from her skin, climbing for the stars until four gargantuan limbs like bony trees swayed from her back, their finger-like branches webbed with a golden film.

Then her muscles twitched and the wings were lost in a vibrating blur.

University, Tiffany thought, and in her mind's eye she could see the campus buildings as though she was already there. How simple would be to reach out and touch -

From the streets of Glenberry, a white comet lanced across the starry sky, trailed by a deafening sonic boom. In the skies above, a sole thought drove the fiery light forward.

Wait for me, Audrey. I've got your back.