"I'll get it!" Nicki made to get up from her chair, but Megan froze her with a look.
"You stay there, I'll get the door," Megan said sternly. It was a testament to how much the balance of power in their relationship had changed that Nicki glared at Megan, but wordlessly complied. In many ways Megan had become a second mother to her. Over the last six years, and especially over the three years since her brief reaccquaintance with being male, Megan had been her friend and guide on the often embarassing, and sometimes terrifying, journey from twelve year old girl to full grown woman.
Megan briefly composed herself, made sure she was halfway presentable in the hallway mirror, and then opened the front door. A tall young man, about eighteen, with pop star good looks stood on the front step. He was dressed in baggy jeans and a t-shirt promoting some band Megan had never heard of and, since Nicki had entered her doom and gloom phase, she had heard plenty of weird music. Megan didn't recognize him, but wasn't bothered. In spite of Nicki loathing the attentions of teenage boys plenty of them came to call on her only to be brutally shot down in flames. Megan thought she might save him the trouble and a bruised ego by sending him away. They had more important things to deal with just now.
"Hello," the young man said after an awkward moment, "Is, uh, Nicki home?"
"I'm sorry, she's not feeling well today. Who should I say came to see her?"
"Tell her," he hesitated, seeming unsure what to say, "I mean, I'm Keith. Hasn't she mentioned me?"
"No, Keith, I'm sorry, but I'll be sure to tellher you came by," Megan smiled with sympathy before gently, but decisively shutting the door, ending the conversation. Rubbing at the headache settling in behind her right eye Megan made her way back to the living room and wondered if it was too early for her to have a drink. It was the weekend after all.
"Who was it?" Nicki had pulled her feet up into the chair and was hugging her knees, a classic sulking posture of hers that Megan was all too familiar with from the last several years.
"I don't know," Megan sighed, "Some boy named Keith."
"KEITH?!" Nicki leapt from the chair, suddenly frantic, "That was her! Keith is Katie!"
Fast and graceful as a young gazelle, Nicki leapt the coffee table and raced down the hall to the front door. Before Megan could even turn around she was already out in the front yard, yelling for him. By the time she made it to the front steps Nicki and Keith were already engaged in a terse, but whsipered conversation by the mailbox where Keith had apparently been about to pull away in a new car. Both of them turned to look at Megan and the hushed conversation died on their lips. The young man turned off the ignition and got out of the vehicle as Megan approached. Nicki figited as if she would have rather gotten in the car and sped away before her "aunt" had a chance to close the short distance between them. Megan barely noticed. Her angry green eyes bored into the young man with an almost pshycial force. Keith took a step back. At least he had the good grace to look ashamed now that Megan knew who he was.
"You're him, I mean, her? Katie?" Megan said in a venomous whisper.
Keith cleared his throat and nodded nervously, words briefly failing him.
A resounding slap cracked the still morning air and left a red palmprint across the side of Keith's face.
"Aunt Megan!" Nicki protested, afraid that her well meaning guardian might drive away her only hope to assume a new face and form of her own choosing.
"You hush," Megan said over her shoulder, "Not another word."
"It's- - okay," Keith swallowed hard, "I deserved that."
"Yes, you did," Megan jerked her head back toward the front door, "Now both of you get in the house. Now."
Meekly and without protest both of the teens slouched back into the two story home. Megan hoped no one had seen the brief confrontation in the front yard, but didn't really care if they had. She had been lying for so long in an attempt to make a place in the world for Nicki Andrews, who did not truly exist at all, that one more lie wouldn't mean much in the big scheme of things. What mattered now was figuring a way out of this ungodly mess. It still might be possible to salvage some kind of normal life for NIck/Nicki, but she didn't trust Katie/Keith, not after that fateful morning three years ago. She wanted to hear what he had to say for himself and if Nicki were afraid to ask the hard questions then she would just have to ask them for her.
