Chapter 25 - "I love him but no."

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Courtney lifted her head, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness around her. Once they did, she found herself surrounded by a labyrinth of worms. Okay, it was a bunch of girls in sleeping bags but in the darkness it looked the same.

Though they probably wouldn't appreciate being compared to worms. Fine, Courtney was surrounded by cocooned butterflies. Why was she even awake?

Right, water.

She looked to the hallway beyond Lynn's family room and the amount of cocooned butterflies she would have to get by to get there. It wasn't too many but enough she'd probably end up impaling someone in the neck with her crutches if she tried it. Crawling it was then.

Slipping from her sleeping bag, Courtney began a game of Don't Crush The Butterfly, who knew how many tsunamis she'd start if she did. She didn't know if the size of the butterfly dictated the effect in the Butterfly Effect theory. Was it even stepping on a butterfly or was it a butterfly flapping its wings?

This, this was why she avoided waking up in the middle of the night, her thoughts were more bizarre than normal.

Eventually, she made it beyond the outer reaches of the butterfly landscape. Since her crutches were still behind her, she crawled toward the kitchen. The carpeted floor at least saved her knees from being badly bruised.

Halfway there, Courtney heard a shuffle behind her and looked back as Lynn approached, crawling as well.

"Where are we going?" she asked, not bothering to stand up.

"Water."

"Okay."

Lynn took off and Courtney went with her.

"Why are we crawling?" Lynn asked.

"Couldn't get my crutches and hopping would wake up the house."

"You know, I could be your crutch if you want."

"That sounds logical enough."

Lynn pushed herself up and held out her hands to Courtney. She took them and hopped closer to Lynn, slinging one arm over her friend's shoulders. As they headed to the kitchen, Courtney had to admit it was a much faster form of transportation. Of course nowhere near teleportation or By Map. But those were the luxury forms of travel, only for the elite.

"Do you just want water?" Lynn asked, leaving Courtney at the kitchen's counter and walking to the cupboard. "Or do you want to turn this into a middle-of-the-night party?"

"Is it really a sleepover if there is not a middle-of-the-night party?"

"True. Okay, we have dairy-free ice cream, sugar-free cookies, or gluten-free crackers."

"Your mom have a new client?"

"Yup and dad and I are guinea pigs."

"How's the ice cream?"

"Not as bad as you'd think. It's made with coconut milk and heavily sweetened with syrup. Sound good?"

"It's ice cream."

Lynn grabbed spoons and two small containers of ice cream. Together the pair left the house, stepping out into Lynn's backyard. They crossed the patio and moved to the lawn beside the pool. They might not be werewolves but moonlight was key to a middle-of-the-night party. Any veteran would agree to this. They plopped onto the grass. Gracefully, even though the term plopped implied otherwise, it was graceful. Just like a swoon was graceful.

"Was it a good birthday?" Courtney asked, opening her ice cream.

Lynn smiled with a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth and nodded. "Though I can't believe Aiden makes us do that stupid dance every year."

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