Free Goddess Sacrifice by M.W. Muse

I’ve thought a lot about it. I miss him, but I don’t want to get caught up in seeing him again. I think I still need a little time before I’m ready for that.”
    “Calli, if you think you need time, then you should tell him that.”
    “I probably will.” She shrugged. “How are things with you and Adin?”
    “Really good. I told you about our fight and the things we talked about the next day. It has really helped.”
    “I’m not talking about the serious talk stuff.” Calli chuckled. “Have you two…you know…” She trailed off suggestively.
    “Umm…no.”
    “Have you gotten close?”
    She felt herself blushing. Though she usually talked to Calli about everything, she hadn’t really talked to her about any of the specifics of her intimate relationship with Adin. But she didn’t see a reason not to indulge her BFF a little. “Yeah,” she breathed, “the other night, but then Lissa came home.”
    “Wow.”
    She shrugged, but smiled.
    “So how did it, er, happen?”
    Legacy proceeded to tell Calli about the zipper incident, and she understood her initial embarrassment. As the story progressed, Calli’s eyes grew.
    “Oh, Legacy. You weren’t kidding when you said you two have come close to doing it.”
    “Yeah.” She shrugged again. “I think it’ll happen soon, but I need to figure out a way to keep my cool. I mean, I don’t feel nervous, but it seems like every time things get… you know …there’s a heat wave.”
    “I haven’t felt any heat waves this fall. Maybe it’s just right around you.”
    She had a point. She could always try to figure out how far the heat wave extended, but in that particular moment, she doubted she’d care enough to want to put on the brakes to find out.
    “You could ask River what he thinks about it.”
    “Are you insane? No way. Besides, now that I know more about my change than he’s supposed to know, I’m worried he’ll figure it out. His mom already wants him to figure out how I was able to shock him when he fought with Adin. If he figures out how , he’ll figure out why .”
    “I guess that’s true.”
    She and Calli hung out the rest of the afternoon, and she continued to vent about everything. It felt as if they hadn’t had any alone time in ages, so it was fun being by themselves.
    The next day at school, however, River was right there with them as they talked freely, so of course he heard Legacy and Calli talking about the Halloween party.
    “How are you doing your hair tonight?” Calli asked her at lunch.
    “Umm, I’m thinking about leaving it down and naturally curly. I think it’d look cute with the leafy vine that I’m going to wrap around my head,” she said, glancing at Calli, but seeing River’s eyes angled in her direction.
    “Oh, Legacy, that’d be too cute!”
    “What’s going on tonight?” River asked nonchalantly.
    “Adin is taking me to a Halloween party. I’m going as a Grecian goddess.”
    River sighed through his crooked smile, and she could sense he was envisioning her in her costume. “You’ll look beautiful,” he whispered.
    She shrugged. “It’s just a costume. I had a hard time coming up with something. It was Calli’s idea.”
    “Are you going as any particular goddess?” River asked, leaning closer to her.
    “Myself.” She smiled.
    He grinned and nodded.
    By the end of the day, she was eager to get home and get ready. She had only seen Adin briefly throughout the week, so she was really looking forward to spending the evening with him.
    She put on her white, flowing gown, gold sandals and accessories, and fixed her hair just like she’d told Calli she was going to. She also wore earth tone makeup to play up the Mother Nature aspect of her costume.
    When Adin knocked on her door, she slowly opened it. As soon as he saw her, he laughed, stepping up to her. “You look perfect!” he threw his arms around her and held her tightly.
    “So do you,” she said, laughing.
    And he did look perfect.