Four Best Friends Forgot I Exist for the New Girl, Bless Their Hearts, I Forgot Them While I Glow Up novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Steps
Devon waits on the packhouse steps from 4 a.m. for the dawn run; at seven Brianna brings coffee and a smooth excuse, the group chat shows four friends at the Point and a message saying Devon is sick, and Devon leaves the chat and stands up, while the old dog growls at Brianna for the first time.
At 4 a.m. I sat down on the packhouse steps in my running clothes and waited for my four best friends.
We had planned it in March.
One last pack run before graduation.
All five of us would shift at dawn, race up to Highridge Point, and watch the sun come over the ridge together.
I had set two alarms and woke before both.
The porch light buzzed over my head.
The old guard dog came out of his shed, stiff in the cold, and lay down across my shoes.
He growls at every wolf in this pack, the Alpha included.
He has slept on my feet since I was twelve, and nobody has ever touched him but me.
At ten past four I texted the group chat. "On the steps. Ready when you are."
The message said Delivered.
Nobody answered.
By five the railing was wet with dew and my fingers had gone numb.
Dane Overton had been my best friend since the week I was brought to this house at six years old, so I told myself he was just late.
At quarter to six the baker's wife came up the steps with a sack of flour.
"Early, hon," she said.
"I'm waiting for the others," I said.
She looked up at the ridge, then at me, and went inside.
By six the kitchen lights were on.
Wolves I had known my whole life walked past me with their coffee, and not one asked who I was waiting for.
By seven the sun was fully up.
I watched the Point turn gold from the steps, alone, with a dog on my shoes and a phone that was fully charged and silent.
At ten past seven Brianna Lanning came up the road carrying two coffees.
Brianna had come to the pack in March, and by April she knew everyone's coffee order.
"Dev! Oh no. You're still here."
She sat down beside me and took off her fleece and put it around my shoulders.
Then she put a cup in my hands.
Oat milk, one sugar. Mine.
Her boots were muddy to the knee, and the coffee was still hot.
"They tried you," she said. "Dane said your phone was off. Emmett said you looked so peaceful out here that nobody wanted to wake you."
"I was awake," I said. "I've been awake since four."
"Then it was a mix-up." She squeezed my arm. "It's nobody's fault. They'd feel terrible if they knew you sat out here all this time."
"You were up there."
"Dane begged me to come. I felt so guilty I ran straight back down to check on you." She smiled, and it was a good smile. "Come up now. They saved you a spot."
I opened my phone instead.
The group chat was called The Five.
At 3:02 a.m. Dane had written: "Dev's sick. She's out. Let's go."
I had not said I was sick.
I had not said anything.
Under it were four photos from 5:31.
Dane, Emmett and Dane's two cousins stood in a ring of grey stones with their arms over each other's shoulders.
Brianna stood in the fifth gap between Emmett and Dane.
It was the place I had saved for myself in my head since March.
The caption said: "Last run. Best dawn ever."
Nobody had tagged me, and nobody had asked where I was.
My hands didn't shake, and that surprised me.
I thought about Dane saying I was sick, and about forty wolves who had watched me wait.
Brianna's hand was still on my arm.
"Dev? It's a joke thread. It doesn't mean anything."
I tapped Leave group.
The phone asked if I was sure.
I was.
So I stood up.
The fleece slid off my shoulders and I handed it back to her.
"I'm not going up there," I said. "Tell them I'm feeling better."
"They'll be so relieved you're fine." Her smile stayed exactly where it was. "Dane wants everyone at brunch at ten. Vernon said so."
Behind me, the old dog stood up off my shoes.
He looked at Brianna, and he growled.
In ten years he had never growled at anyone who sat down next to me.
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