Addison rolled from her bed and quickly snatched some of her hair up into what could be mistaken for a ponytail. Even though the windows of her brand new 2nd floor apartment opened only to an alley, she grabbed a robe and put it on, doubting the need to do that before she bothered tying it closed.
She grabbed a K-cup and a mug. Two creamers in the bottom, and she was ready to brew.
The first gurgles of the coffeemaker let her thoughts drift. She grabbed her iPhone and checked the Snapchat group Jacob had made. Shay had sent another message.
“Good morning everyone. I sure hope you have a great day. And we should all hang out or something soon.”
Addison would be 2nd to snap for the 2nd day in a row. She made sure her girl parts weren’t showing—Addison half-believed Emma and Hannah thought she was sleazy and boy-crazy—then Snapped back her reply: “Good morning! I agree with Shay! We better act fast, before we get sent back to Memphis!”
Addison thought about Emma and Hannah. It was great to have them now living so close to her. Maybe she could get them to understand she wasn’t sleazy. Boy-crazy, she could live with…
And as for boys, she had suddenly found herself in close company with four hot guys. Two of them were, at that moment in time, available.
Addison hit the brew button a second time to fill her mug as her thoughts again settled on Hannah. Addison had no way of knowing for sure, but if she took a guess, she’d say Hannah had kissed more boys than she had—not counting any of the actors she’d kissed in a few plays.
Addison had ventured through high school as a “weird theater kid.” Her friends were weird theater kids, too. They had fun. Together. Only. Not all of the boys in theater were overly interested in girls. Some of the girls, however, were. Addison had navigated high school romances deftly, settling in for a nice 9-month relationship with a band guy she met in her junior English class.
Majoring in theater production in college had placed her in a similar setting. She made a few friends and, one time, found out a girl she had been hanging out with thought they were dating. Addison was disinclined, and things in the green room got a little awkward for a few weeks.
Over time, Addison had grown to fear she would forever be an adult version of that weird, red-headed theater kid she’d talked to in the mirror for two decades.
All that changed at the end of July when Emma had wandered into Tom’s theater looking for a job—any job—and had ended up taking the lead role on the post-reconstruction delta south stage. Emma was a gem, and her friend Merritt was a really nice, regular guy.
And since then, she had connected to more and more, really nice, guys—who seemed to be far from regular. Kent and Devon would have been a couple of the cool kids at her school. Merritt and Hannah would have been the popular AP kids. Jacob would have been that extra friendly jock guy. Shay seemed like a quiet kid everyone sort of missed out on. And Emma was just precious.
And Addison felt like she belonged with them. Even when they shifted back to 1880—or maybe especially then—she had felt great (aside from being a man and having to deal with totally unfamiliar anatomy [despite what Hannah might think]).
Addison, for the first time in her life felt free to not-act. She’d already scaled back on the flirty chatter she thought boys might find appealing. She’d already started thinking of them all as friends.
Addison finally felt like she actually was part of a normal, regular group; not a theater group, even though five of them lived over one.
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