John Harper didn't know for how long he and Ginger O'Toole stood there in front of Moon Lake High, with the teenage weretigress (still in her human form) hugging him.
All he knew for sure was that the hug felt really good.
It was stirring feelings within him John wasn't even sure he was capable of feeling.
The closest he had to anything akin to a romantic relationship back in Alabama was wondering how he and a boy his age named Stephen (who already knew his own sexuality and had feelings for John) might actually feel about each other. With his father a looming threat to any potential happiness, no matter what the source or reason, all John and Stephen had ever done was to talk (a lot) and shared one very brief but romantic kiss.
Considering how strict, religious, and domineering the Harper family patriarch was, Stephen was about the only real friend John had before his family came to Moon Lake on his father's desire to stop the wedding of his oldest sister to another man when James Harper Senior had promised her to someone else.
It certainly didn't help matters that Harper Senior's selection, Wilhelm Dieter, tried to have Jenny Harper-Jenkins' fiance killed, and that man had shot the wrong Jenkins...*
Considering the average angst of a teenager, coupled with everything he's had to deal with so far, it was no wonder that John Harper was uncertain about a lot of things, especially whether he was straight, bi, or gay.
Yet his parents were now back in Alabama, with Jenny obtaining guardianship of both John and his younger sister Janice.
So John could now be whoever he wanted to be.
Once he finally figured out what that was.
Ginger O'Toole relished the hug.
She had felt an attraction to John Harper from practically the moment she first met him.
There was just something special about this normal human.
Part of her wondered how he would look as a weretiger.
Especially if he became HER weretiger.
However she also knew about his troubled past. At first from the rumors and stories circling around the were community in Moon Lake, and then from John himself.
She did feel sorry for John and some internal instinct wanted to protect him at all costs.
But thoughts of John Harper also got her heart racing in other ways.
Being a responsible weretigress, Ginger knew all the whys and wherefores about taking it slow with a normal human.
She also knew that regardless of what John decided about his future, let alone his own identity, they could (hopefully) always be friends.
Yet Ginger couldn't help wanting more from their budding relationship.
Especially when she felt something pressing against her leg.
Even without her acute were senses, Ginger realized John was starting to get aroused.
Maybe... she thought happily, then decided to be mature about the situation until they were at an appropriate place where both could decide what they wanted clearly.
"Sorry," said Ginger, taking a step back from John while breaking the hug.
"What?" said John, lost within his own thoughts until reality returned.
"I shouldn't have been so forward, hugging you like that," Ginger said demurely, apologizing to her friend.
"It's okay. I didn't mind," John replied, trying to reassure her everything was all right between them.
"Are you sure?" Ginger asked, her green eyes staring at him intently.
"Yes. Actually, I enjoyed it," admitted John.
I'm sure you did, thought Ginger happily, noticing that the bulge within his trousers hadn't fully receded yet.
"Truthfully, I can't remember the last time I was ever hugged. Even by my own mother."
"What?" said Ginger. I hope that isn't all it meant to you.
"I mean, I'm sure she must have when I was a baby, but all I can remember growing up is dad telling her not to mollycoddle any of us kids."
"Oh. Well, I'm not really the mollycoddling type." Unless you want me to be, Ginger silently added. "It's just that, with what you said and all..." (*2)
"I understand," John said, hoping that downplaying how he really felt about the hug was the right thing to do in this situation. "It's just that, with everything that's happened to me, let alone the rest of my family recently, and having all those unanswered questions of my own..."
"I see. Can I ask how that's going?"
"Well..." began John, staring at her, "even without everyone's concern about the Town Council voting to eventually come up with a plan to reveal were existence to the world(*3), I'm still not sure whether or not I will be joining were society, let alone as what. Not that I have anything against weres. After all, besides Jenny and her husband being werefoxes, my best friend is a weretigress," he said, smiling at her.
That made Ginger O'Toole smile, and it was all she could do to keep from expressing tears of joy, let alone hugging him or undertaking any more serious physical action.
"Are you still having those dreams?" she wondered.
"I don't know whether or not they're prophecy dreams about the future like you think they might be, but yeah," admitted John.
"Any new ones?" Ginger asked.
"Nope. Just different variations on the same theme. An uncertain future," was all John would tell her, thinking about how he was always on the verge of becoming a weretiger, but not knowing whether it was Ginger or an as yet unidentified boy who did the honor, let alone not knowing what kind of a relationship John had with who afterwards.
"It's just that with everything else going on... The wedding, dad's heart. The legal action to officially name Jenny and her husband to be Janice and my guardians. My big brother trying to take care of things back on his end while finishing college. Trying to get enrolled in school," he added, pointing at the high school behind him.
"They still saying sometime in December at the earliest?" wondered Ginger.
"That's the last estimate I heard on the subject. I just hope being out for so long doesn't affect my grades, let alone the possibility that the school district might have me retake the eighth grade again instead of coming in as the Freshman I was back in Alabama."
"I don't think they can do that. Can they?" asked Ginger.
"Truthfully, I'd think you know more about how the Moon Lake schools work better than I do right now," John pointed out.
Ginger thought about it for a moment before saying, "I could see it happening if you were maybe out for a couple of months, or if something about Alabama's educational requirements doesn't agree with the town's, let alone Washington State. Yet you're smart. The only thing I would tell you is not to make any out of town vacation plans during winter break at the end of the year, because you'll probably have a lot of homework to catch up on," she advised.
"Can I count on your help?"
"What are best friends for?" Ginger asked in return. "Now then, the convenience store across the street is where I got your chess set from. What say we go get a couple of drinks and then continue our walking tour of Moon Lake."
"I'd like that, but I'm afraid I don't have any money," confessed John.
"My treat," said Ginger, as she led the way to the corner where they could cross the street legally and safely.
___________________________________________
*During a major chunk of the recent past of this series.
*2.) At the end of our past episode "The Walk".
*3.) In recent events between here and our Moon Lake, Tad series.—tmw.