“Tiff, what’s going on with you?” Isabella asked as we pushed a squeaky cart down a grocery aisle later that night. “You’re like…glowing.”
“Oh, nothing,” I said in sing-song voice. She was staring at me. She didn’t need to know anything. Tonight we were out getting stuff for tomorrow’s dinner. “Do you think we should go with a roast?”

“Think we should make Audrey make whatever it is we have,” Isabella huffed.

“Does Audrey even know how to cook?” I was genuinely curious. I really had no idea.

“Yes.”

“What? Really? She never even eats.”

I peered down into a freezer gondola and picked up a huge roast. It might have been overkill but it had to feed at least five people, so why not?

“I follow her on Facebook, she took a picture of some dinner she made for Chastity,”

“Ugh, she takes pictures of her food? She’s one of those?”

“Yeah, but not too many selfies, though.”

“Well thank god for that,” I said. Maybe I should start following her on Facebook.

“So you really want to do roast?

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “It’s easy, it feeds a lot of people, why not?”

“Oh, yeah, you’re right. We’ll need to get something to go with it though,” Isabella was biting her lip and looking around the store. It wasn’t very busy in here; it was a Thursday night, so all of the ‘regular’ people were still waiting on their paychecks. Money wasn’t something that I typically had to worry about. My family wasn’t loaded, I mean, not like Shawn’s, but we did pretty well.

“Mashed potatoes,” I said. “You can never go wrong with mashed potatoes.”

“Like, the instant kind?”

“Nah,” I said. “We can just make them from scratch.”

“We going to have Audrey mash them?”

I laughed.

“Audrey is probably freaking out right now. Maybe we should give her a break, for once.”

“That’s weird coming from you,” Isabella said as we made our way toward the produce section. “You’re not one to give her a break, usually.”
I shrugged.

“Feeling generous today I guess.”

“Well don’t let it become a regular thing,” Isabella laughed, stopping by the potatoes. “We like our Tiff bitch.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Me too.”

We walked in silence for a bit, occasionally stopping to grab something from a shelf, or to look at something. A few moments later Isabella tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the deli section across the store. Audrey. Audrey was there at the cheese case with Chastity. Who were they talking to?”

“That’s Kari,” She whispered. I don’t know why she was whispering, it’s not like we could be heard from across the store.

“Kari?” I asked. “Whose Kari?”

“She’s the trans girl from Omega, remember?”

“I really try not to think about Omega,” I growled. “Bunch of nerds.”

“Okay, whatever, but Chastity has a trans friend?”

“Oh,” I said, nodding. “I guess that’s a good thing but she…she looks really good, can they even tell she’s trans?”

“It’s kind of common knowledge,” Isabella said. “I mean you’d have to be living under a rock…or...whatever.”

I watched the redhead girl, Kari, walk away from them smiling and waving. Audrey and Chastity returned their attention to the cheese case. I noticed for the first time that they worked so well together. Like, you could tell that they had chemistry, even from this far away. They’d been together for what, three years? That’s literally a lifetime.

“You know,” Isabella pointed out. “Once we tell her, we won’t have to deal with Audrey anymore. Chastity will take over.”

“Can’t happen soon enough,” I rolled my eyes. “The last few weeks have been…interesting but…I really want to go back to my life?”

“Did you really LEAVE your life?” Isabella smirked. “You’ve just been a complete bitch, like normal.”

“I am what god made me,” I shrugged as we watched Audrey and Chastity walk away and disappear into another part of the store.

“You know what?” Isabella said, grabbing the cart and walking past me. “I really need some setting powder.”

“What?” I said mockingly. “You’re going to buy makeup at a grocery store?”

“Not everyone can afford to shop at Ulta you bitch,” She replied, partially joking, partially not.

I walked alongside her, toward the makeup aisle and watched her sort through the setting powders. There were only like three to choose from but she was taking a lifetime. I wanted to yell at her to just go with the translucent one, but I just stood there, staring off into space. She was right, after tomorrow everything would go back to normal. Audrey wouldn’t be at our house as much, or at all, probably, and you know what? I was really, really happy with that. It would be good for her and better for me. Actually if we’re being honest, I wanted to walk across the store and tell Chastity to her face, right now so we could skip this stupid dinner. God it was going to be awkward. No, no, stick to the plan. I had to follow through. Aleah wanted to play her little game, and I was going to let her. She was the chapter president, after all.

“What do you think of this?” She asked as she held up a setting powder and pointed to it. “Do you think this will work for my complexion?”

“Honey,” I said. “That’s translucent, it’ll work for any complexion.”

“Oh,” She said. “I didn’t know that.”

“My god,” I said as I rolled my eyes at her. “You know, Aleah keeps wanting to make me her vice president. What she should really do is make me the house fashion coordinator.”

“Oh! I bet that would be a really good job for you!” She said excitedly, the joke going over her head as she dropped the powder in the cart.
“Uh…yeah,” I agreed. “A really…good…job.”

As we walked to the self checkout, we ran into someone I hadn’t seen out and about for a while: Olivia. She was sporting this black and white paid top and a pair of jeans, really cute I guess, but there was something different. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Hey movie star,” I joked. “What’s with the sunglasses?”

She smile at me slightly and tilted her head.

“Just trying something new!” She said cheerfully. “What’s with the roast?”

“Oh we’re…having a dinner tomorrow,” I explained. “You wanna come?”

“Oh!” She said. “Well—”

“She’s busy tomorrow,” Mike said as he walked up behind her and stared at me smugly, wrapping his arm around her.

My heart skipped a beat. I don’t know why; we were in a really public place. It’s not like there was anything he could do to me. I felt nervous all the same.

“Well,” I said, trying to keep an even tone of voice. “If you change your mind, it’s at-“

“She won’t change her mind,” Mike interrupted. “She has plans.”

“Excuse me,” I said. “I’m talking to Olivia.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” Olivia said quickly. “We have to get going anyway. I’ll see you later, Tiffany.”

“Yeah,” I said as they walked away. “See you later.”

“What are we going to do about that?” Isabella asked me quietly after a moment of silence.

“He’ll be lucky if I don’t take a can opener to his head,” I said. I wanted to sound tough, but honestly? I was afraid. Really, really afraid. What could I even do about it? He hadn’t even been locked up after he attacked Audrey. What could be done at all? Was he just going to keep walking around free? Would he keep terrorizing us? I had no idea, and I was afraid.