Page 24 of As The Shifter World Turns

24

FRIDAY FUNDAY

Micah

Friday nights on the rooftop were sacred, except the weeks when Archer was gone, and everything fell apart for me. Both Daire and Ryder had had so much going on, we didn’t meet as we should on the roof. We agreed to never let that happen again.

It wasn’t a rule or anything that we had to be on the roof on a Friday night, but at the same time it kind of was. I learned that the first week I arrived. And it was nice. It made this place not just an apartment building, but so much more.

That didn’t mean it didn’t take all I had to rally and get my ass up there. I was exhausted from work and would rather stay snuggled up on the couch with Archer than to be all social.

No. That was a lie. I’d rather be bending him over the couch and pounding into him until he called out my name. I’d so much as told him that when he got up here. He thought I was teasing. I. Was. Not.

But same difference either which way. My desires included a couch and not being here drinking tepid beer and watching everyone tiptoe around all the big issues slapping us in the face.

Growing up, I thought you became an adult and all the hard stuff like making friends and getting along would somehow mysteriously be easy. I even thought breaking up was ridiculous. Why would you not want to have the same person for always? How very wrong I got it. Nothing about this was easy. Not with Archer. Not with my friends. Not with anything.

“We’re having pizza tonight,” Ivor announced .

“No grilling?” And there went the one thing I was looking forward to. Or maybe I was just in a shit mood because Archer wasn’t excited about my offer to live with me.

I got it. I really did. Moving in because you had to wasn’t the romantic dream everyone aspired to, but heck—sometimes you didn’t need the fairytale. Sometimes you just needed what life throws at you.

“We’re grilling.” Ivor bounced on his heels. “The freezer was busted at the corner store when I went to grab instant ramen for lunch, and the owner asked if I wanted the pizza dough because he was going to have to throw it out.” Had I not known him as well as I did, had it been the first night I sat on this roof, I’d have thought he was just animated with excitement.

But that wasn’t what this was. Sure he had a cool story to share, but this was his nerves shining through… nerves about Ryder. He should’ve known better than to get involved with anything Kellan adjacent. Kellan was toxic as fuck. I still hadn’t pieced together how he’d ever been accepted into Sunshine Manor.

“When I worked at the restaurant, the cook sometimes had grilled pizza as a special. It’s so good.” Ivor was still babbling. Someone needed to save him from himself.

“Are we having a make-your-own-pizza station?” Might as well be me.

“Yes. I need to get everything else from downstairs but I wanted to tell you guys in case you had toppings at your place.” I doubted any of us did and really, even if I had bacon down in my apartment, I knew me well enough to know I’d not come back up. It was best to stay there.

Ivor raced off to get the rest of the supplies. My guess was that he asked Daire to help with that. Daire wasn’t as flush as he once was, but he liked to take care of Friday night food and pizza would be a good way to do so without the money steaks or chicken would cost him.

“Think it will work?” Archer asked and it took me a few seconds too long to figure out he meant grilling pizza and not us living together.

“It’s cheaper,” I snapped, referring to Archer’s belief that living with Daire and Ivor was a cheaper and therefore better option.

I needed to stop drinking.

At least I caught myself, even if a bit too late. “Because the crust is free,” I added on. Neil gave me a look telling me everything I needed to know—no one was buying it. Oh well. It was my story and I was sticking to it.

“It’ll fall through the grill.” Neil scratched his chin. “Like sink in and then when it cooks get stuck.”

“I bet it will work.” Ryder stuck up for Ivor. They needed to work their shit out.

Daire came up on the roof with some guy. What was he thinking? This was our weekly thing. This wasn’t a date thing. Or was it the hedgehog? Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen hide nor prickle of him yet. Either way I was grumpy about him being here .

Snap out of your funk already.

“Hey guys, this is Martin.” Daire announced.

This was the Martin who’d scared Neil. “The new guy in Archer’s old place?” I asked. Daire started shaking his head back and forth. “Not the new guy?”

“No. The new guy found a different place,” Daire explained.

“Keep his deposit,” Archer said adamantly.

“He never gave one and he probably doesn’t have any money in… jail.” And there I thought for half a second that Daire's parents were actually trying to be nice. Nope. Of course they weren’t, they were setting their son up for failure. What jerks. “Just drug dealing. Not like murder or anything,” he quickly added. Because “just drug dealing” wouldn’t pose any danger here at Sunshine Manor.

“This is my friend. We were supposed to hang out tomorrow, but his late wife’s parents needed to switch the sleepover with Toby, his son, so I invited him to join us.”

Martin was just a father doing the best he could. He was a widower and single father. My heart broke for him. Here I was having a pity party for one because Archer wasn’t moving quickly enough for me and I felt rejected when this man had lost so much.

And none of that negated how Neil felt. I didn’t know, nor was it my business, all the trauma Neil had faced before I met him. But it had impacted his life something fierce.

“We’re having pizza on the grill.” Ivor was back with two large bags. Good. We needed the distraction from the awkward silence that had settled over the area.

“I’ll help you set up.” Archer got up and left.

No. Not left, but he wasn’t by my side anymore which left room for Martin. I indicated the spot. Archer wouldn’t mind. He was better about making people feel welcome than I was. It was part of the reason he was so good at what he did.

“Hello Coach.” That was Martin addressing Neil. I tried not to eavesdrop. But the whole train wreck in slow motion had me unable to stop myself.

Daire must’ve felt the same, taking a seat and just watching the two.

“Neil. My name’s Neil,” he corrected, his eyes to the ground.

“Hello, Neil.” Martin started to put out his hand and snapped it back, probably reading the room. “I saw you here the day I came to talk to Daire about an apartment. I don’t think you saw me.”

From the way Neil told the story, he very much did. Martin was giving him a way out.

“I had to get back to work,” Neil shrugged.

“Oh, what else do you do for work besides coaching?” This wasn’t the time to point out the coaching was volunteer work .

“I’m an independent contractor online.” Neil stood up. “I gotta cook.”

Neil never cooked on the roof though he was good at it based on what Archer told me, but off he went to do whatever it was.

“I better help with that,” Ryder added. And suddenly it was Daire, the new guy and me.

“The pizza thing might not work out, but we have beer. Can I get you one?” There. That was me being nice and pleasant.

“Thanks?” He didn’t sound so sure but I took it as an excuse to get out of there. I was going where the pizza was. That would be happy and less awkward.

“Maybe if you hadn’t called out Kellan in your sleep.” And that was the sentence I had to walk into. Because of course it was.

“It was a nightmare.” Ryder’s voice lowered with each word. “A nightmare.”

Everyone went silent, including Ivor.

I grabbed a beer from the cooler, not sure what else to say or do and brought it back to Martin.

“It’s not fancy.” I handed it to him.

“I’m not either.” He tried to twist off the top and gave up, getting out his keys and using the bottle opener slash screw driver slash something with a hole keychain.

“That’s pretty fancy.” Daire jumped in to save the day. “What all does it do?”

Martin explained a thousand little things about the tool and by the time he was done, they were calling us over one at a time to make our pizzas. The night only got better from there.

Not only did the pizza work, it was delicious and with none of us hangry, things started to lighten up. Was it perfect? No. But how could it be?

At the end of the night Archer was still living with people not me, Neil was still sort of afraid of Martin, Ivor and Ryder still had Kellan between them, and Daire’s parents still sucked and this time their sucking lost him even more money.

Poor Martin. There was no way he was going to want to move into Archer’s old place after this stellar evening of dysfunction. I was surprised he hadn’t run in the opposite direction already.

Run.

That’s what I needed was a run. It was days like this being something small that could blend in sounded pretty amazing. If I shifted into a house cat I could just wander around and no one would think anything of it.

The same could not be said for a unicorn.

As people started to head back to their apartments or in Martin’s case a rideshare, I pulled Archer aside.

“Want to come to my place?” Gah, I hated that. I wanted it to be our place. “I was thinking maybe you might want to ride a unicorn? ”

“So the bending me over the couch thing is off the table? Because I’d been kind of waiting for that one.”

“Why not all three?”

“Three?”

“Ride a unicorn, over the couch, and on the table.”