Chapter 3: 3. Surprises

=::= Danni's PoV =::=

"How did you do that?" I asked as I stared at my phone.

Me and Emily were still sitting in the booth across from Skye, and the mysterious brunette somehow just set up a new private Discord for the three of us, and sent both Emily and I friend requests and invites to the server. And she did all that after telling us she didn't have a phone.

I suggested the three of us should exchange phone numbers, so we could all keep in touch by calling or texting each other. Skye claimed she didn't have a phone and said she preferred using Discord, so me and Emily both gave her our contact info. Next thing I knew I got the two notifications that I was staring at now.

Skye replied quietly, "Text messages and phone calls are harder to arrange. Discord's easier since all it requires is internet access."

"So you have a phone?" I asked. "Or a tablet or something, and you're using the cafe's wifi?"

The brunette smirked slightly, "I'm using the cafe's wifi, but I don't need a phone to do that."

Emily grinned, "No way! Are you just connecting to it with magic or something? Like directly, with your thoughts?"

"Maybe a little," Skye admitted.

I could see another faint blush on the girl's cheeks, and I realized she was showing off for us. Or maybe she was showing off for Emily. The teen next to me certainly seemed to appreciate the tricks. Not that I didn't think it was cool, but I wasn't as openly enthusiastic about it.

Suddenly my mood dipped. Even if it was unusual for a woman my age to be friends with a couple teens, I was just starting to feel good about the prospect. Like actually having friends, even if they were eleven or twelve years younger than me.

Now I worried that the two of them might start getting all doe-eyed for each other. They looked a lot closer in age to each other than either of them did to me. And the few times I saw cracks in Skye's quiet mysterious demeanour, she seemed to be a lot closer to Emily in terms of personality and maturity.

I knew it was foolish and irrational, the three of us only just agreed to become friends. Now I was suddenly feeling worried that the two of them might become closer to each other and I'd end up on my own once again.

On top of that I had to admit there was also some envy, towards Emily and her situation. She didn't just get the body of her dreams, she got to start again as a teen back in high school. She got a do-over for almost her whole life, with the opportunity to make different choices and pick a different, better outcome for herself.

At the same time I kind of felt guilty for wanting that now too. I got my miracle back when I was sixteen, I didn't have to go through a whole lifetime of dysphoria and depression the way she did. Except I still had the regret, and that kept growing every day.

I couldn't help wondering what I'd do if I got the same kind of do-over. If I was back in grade twelve again with Emily, what would I do differently this time around? What choices would I make that I didn't do before? Those were the sort of questions I'd probably daydream about later at work.

My focus returned to the present as Emily asked, "So what do we do next?"

Skye frowned, "I think I need to spend some time thinking about the problem. I'm going to go and do that now."

She added, "I'll be offline for a little while. I'm going to go somewhere quiet so I can think without interruptions."

Emily gave her a sly look and asked, "No internet on Io huh?"

"What's Io?" I asked with a frown.

It felt like it was already happening, the two of them were talking and acting like there was stuff they were both familiar with while I was left in the dark.

"I could get internet there if I wanted," Skye said, and I was pretty sure I detected some defensiveness in her tone. "That would defeat the purpose of going somewhere quiet though."

The enigmatic girl then looked at me and said, "I'll take you there sometime soon. Or perhaps all three of us? Maybe pack something to eat and make it a picnic. Anyways I'm going to go now. I'll message you both later."

And just like that she was gone. There were no swirling lights, no special effects. She was simply there one moment and not there the next.

Apart from how Selene's shop existed where it shouldn't fit, that was the first magic I'd seen with my own eyes since Selene gave me my miracle.

Both Emily and I were left sort of blinking as we stared at the empty booth across from us.

After a few moments of silence, Emily turned to me and explained softly "Io's one of the moons that orbits Jupiter. Skye told me she goes there when she needs to think or wants to be alone."

"Ok," I replied with a frown. "She went to Jupiter. That's... Huh."

Emily nodded, "Yeah. And actually uh, I should probably start heading home. My mom'll get worried if I'm late."

"Right," I sighed. "I should get back to the shop."

We both slid out of the booth, but before we left the cafe Emily surprised me with a very brief hug.

She looked as awkward as I felt as she said, "Thanks for listening Danni. I'm sorry if I messed up your afternoon, I'm sorry if all this is too weird or freaky. I just didn't know where else to turn, and I really needed someone to talk to."

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"It's ok," I told her. "I still don't think I'll be much help with this stuff, but I don't mind listening if you need to get it off your chest. And if there's anything else that comes up, I'll do what I can to help."

She gave me a warm, grateful smile. "Thank you. And if there's ever anything I can do for you, just ask ok? I mean it."

I smiled back, "I'll keep that in mind."

Finally the two of us headed out the door. We bid each other goodbye, and she set off south on Main Street while I crossed the road and made my way back to the shop.

I was surprised to find the door already unlocked when I got there, then I saw my dad sitting behind the counter. I muttered a quiet curse as I realized it was already after four. I'd spent more time at the cafe than I thought, now dad would probably give me a hard time about leaving the place closed in the middle of the day.

"Hi Danni," dad said as I entered the shop. "Where've you been? I was surprised to see the place closed when I got here."

He didn't sound angry, at least not yet.

I came around the counter and pulled up the other chair, then as I sat down I replied "Things were quiet so I went over to the cafe across the street with some friends."

Dad's eyebrows inched up as he had a sip of coffee. He looked surprised, and I honestly wasn't sure what surprised him more. That I closed up shop, or that I had friends.

He finally asked, "So who was it you had coffee with? Anyone I know?"

"You might know one of them," I replied. "Probably not the other. I was with Skye and Emily. Apparently Skye works part-time for Selene, though I've never actually seen her in there before. And Emily's a recent customer, I did her ears at the start of the month?"

After a moment I added in a half-whisper, "Emily's another one of Selene's customers, if you know what I mean."

Dad knew exactly what I meant, but he didn't comment on that. Instead he had another sip of his coffee as he looked thoughtful. Finally he said, "I've only met Skye once, about seven or eight years back. Be careful, ok hon? I'm not saying either Selene or her girl are dangerous, but... Well, you know what I mean."

He gave me a little smile as he basically used the same line I just did on him.

I smiled back, but I never really got the feeling Selene or Skye were dangerous. They were certainly different. So far my biggest impression of Skye was that she was awkward around people. And Selene always acted almost motherly, I thought.

That led me to frown, "Wait, Skye is her girl? As in, Selene's daughter?"

Dad grimaced, "I don't actually know if they're blood, Danni? But the way Selene talked and acted towards the girl, sure made me think she thought of Skye as her daughter."

"Huh," I wasn't sure what more to say about that. I don't know why it surprised me, but in retrospect it made sense.

That seemed to be the end of the conversation for now. Eventually dad started playing solitaire on the computer, and I pulled out my phone and looked on discord. Neither Emily or Skye had posted anything on the private server yet, but it hadn't been that long since the three of us left the cafe.

I had no idea how long Skye would want to hang out on Jupiter, or Io or whatever it was she said. And for that matter I had a really hard time even getting my head around that. It was even harder to imagine going there myself, and she suggested taking me and Emily there for a picnic. The idea was equal parts unbelievable, frightening, and maybe a little bit exciting.

As for Emily's problem, I still wasn't really sure how either of them thought I could help. Apart from just being a good listener.

As usual the rest of the day was fairly slow and quiet. We had a couple guys come in looking for tattoos but dad took care of them. And I had one more customer, a local woman in her twenties wanted a navel piercing.

Apart from that I spent the rest of the day just thinking about Skye and Emily and the conversations we had this afternoon. I didn't even know Skye existed till today, it was a real surprise finding out there was someone else like Selene here all along.

And while she never came out and said it, she definitely implied that she was Selene's little black cat. Next time I was over at Selene's shop I'd have to take a closer look at the cat. I wondered how many other people knew about that, but I figured probably not many.

As for Emily, when she came in to get her ears pierced I assumed she'd received one of Selene's miracles same as me. It was a bit of a shock finding out today that it was Skye who helped her, and from the sound of it whatever Skye did was completely different from Selene's spells. And thinking back, I realized there was no full moon between when that cop came into the store and when Emily came back a couple days later.

Eventually I checked discord again, but there still weren't any messages in our new private server. I decided to post something to get it started, since I didn't have anything else to do.

I tapped out a little 'hello - introduction' kind of message. At first I meant it to be just sort of light-hearted and relaxed, but I ended up oversharing. And maybe I ranted a little bit. I mentioned my thoughts and worries about the future of dad's shop, about my career, and even my concerns and regrets about my personal life. And how much I didn't want to disappoint my dad, which was why I was so torn up on the subject in the first place.

It might have been too much considering we'd all only just agreed to be friends a few hours earlier. But I sort of justified it to myself that if the three of us were friends then it was ok to share this stuff with them.

I also felt a bit uneasy for dumping that stuff on a couple of teenagers. Or at least, they looked like teens on the surface. But then again, Skye claimed to be twenty-five and Emily was in her forties less than two weeks ago, so I knew neither of them were quite what they seemed.

For a few minutes I went back and forth whether or not I should delete everything I just posted, but in the end I left it there. I figured if nothing else it was good to get it off my chest, like Emily said earlier.

When six o'clock finally rolled around I bid dad a good evening and headed for home. He'd mind the shop for another two hours before it was time for him to close up.