I yelled at Finn to link onto Pussy. “Come on, Muffin, we’re the Monkees. Remember that old show? Let’s do the walk. We’re so damn funny. Cats are a hoot.” Tom and Finn exchanged a look over my head and laughter filled the street. Arm in arm, the four of us flew on down the sidewalk, practically skipping on our way to the pub. “I hope they have a live band,” I mused. “I love dancing to live music.”
Tom grumbled, “I don’t care what’s there, so long as they have whiskey. Lots of whiskey.”
The pub was only a few blocks down the road, and we were there before I had a chance to even get cold. To my excitement, there was a live band in the back playing an assortment of chart-toppers and pub hits. I dragged the guys to the dance floor, bouncing between all the sweaty people in the pub, but Tom slithered out of my grip and headed toward the bar, shooting me a slow smile over his shoulder. I watched him go, butterflies dancing in my stomach. It was the whiskey—had to be the damn whiskey.
Strong hands caught me by the waist and spun me around. I twirled out of Pussy’s arm and Finn grabbed hold of me, lifting me off the ground as if I was a tiny ballerina instead of a lanky athlete. The sensation of freedom swelled inside me and burst out of my mouth in a song as I howled along with the band, twirling and wiggling to the music. The three of us let loose and danced like idiots to the loud music. If there was a better feeling in the world, I hadn’t felt it yet.
We danced for what seemed like hours, and all my worries melted away. The music slowed and the two men closed around me. Finn hooked his arm over my shoulder and Pussy’s hand slid around my waist. Eyes closed and arms raised, we swayed to the ballad, completely lost in the sounds of the lead singer’s accented vocals. He really did sound Irish as he crooned about his lost lover on the other side of the ocean. When the song ended, the feeling of warmth and security surrounding me melted away, and I opened my eyes with a start.
“Finn?” I screwed my eyes up, scanning the thick crowd. “Pussy?” A cute guy with a goatee gave me an appreciative once-over and reached for my body. I slapped his hand away. “Ew, no. That wasn’t an offer, I’m just looking for my friend Pussy.” The man made a face. I raised my arm over my head. “He’s about this tall, and he’s got this great blond hair, like somebody in a magazine.” I leaned forward as if I was sharing a secret, the liquor in my veins causing me to stumble slightly. “And he’s hot. So are his friends. Like, super-duper hot. Abs as hard as like steel, perfect butts, and big, huge—” I stopped short, my pulse suddenly racing as I caught sight of three full outfits of clothing scattered around the ground. “Oh shit.”
The stranger I’d been talking to reached for my hand and started to murmur about how I could check out how he measured up to my friends, but I pushed him away with a grimace. I shook my head as I turned away from him. Firstly, my friends had vanished; I had no time for a booty break. Secondly, I was pretty certain he wouldn’t measure up all that well to any of my three guys. “My harem.” I giggled to myself as I made my way unsteadily through the piles of clothing. “My reverse harem.”
I stared down at the discarded clothes and nudged them with my toes, reality suddenly piercing my drunken daze. Oh freak. Cats. The guys had turned into cats. In the middle of a pub. “Okay, this is why we can’t leave the damn house,” I muttered to myself as I frantically looked around the floor of the pub. People were jumping and dancing and acting just as big of idiots as we had been moments before. The poor three cats didn’t stand a chance under the feet of the dancing stampede.
Running to the far corner where it seemed quietest, I came upon the three of them huddled together. “Well, shit,” Tom snarled. “This is why we shouldn’t make stupid ass decisions when we drink.”
I shushed Tom loudly, standing in front of them to block their view as people started to notice the three cats in the pub. The few people around us stopped dancing and stared down at them, confused. I waved them away and said they’d escaped my house and I was coming to collect them. I reached for them, but Muffin hissed at me, claws outstretched.
“What the hell?” I demanded.
“Don’t touch us, we’ll turn back to human and we’ll be naked in the middle of the damn pub,” Pussy hissed. I glanced around and fortunately most of the people had turned their attention back to their own partying. I must’ve looked like a lunatic talking to three cats in the corner of a pub. But then again, I’d seen stranger things in bars.
“Okay, then, what the heck do you suggest we do?” I asked
“Meet us outside,” Tom said. “Lead the way and we’ll follow behind. We need to get back to the house.”
I groaned and nodded, pushing my arms out to nudge the crowd aside as I made my way out to the front of the pub. People grunted and moaned angrily at me as I shoved them to one side, but I sprang forward at a fast pace, glancing down constantly to make sure the three cats were close behind.
I barely made it to the front door, when someone caught my eye. I froze, my blood running cold. Standing at the far wall, leaning against the sidebar, was Officer Bert Fitzgerald. His face was pulled tight in an expression of annoyance and his lips curved down in a deep, disapproving frown. His eyes caught mine, and we stared at each other for a long moment. For a split second, I had the drunken urge to run up and smack him in that chubby little face of his for the stress he had caused me. But then I stopped and considered the ramifications that would cause me. I turned on my heels and bolted straight to the front door, hoping he wouldn’t follow me.
When we finally made it out of the pub, to the ever confused expressions of the patrons and bartender at the front bar, we ran a few blocks down the road and turned down an alley, stopping only when I was sure we were out of sight from anyone standing outside the pub. When I peeked around the corner and saw that Officer Bert hadn’t followed, I leaned against the rough brick wall of a commercial building, allowing my head to fall back against the rough cold surface as my heartbeat returned to its usual rhythm.
“What the hell? We didn’t need to run that far,” Pussy’s voice panted up to me. “Your legs are much longer than ours, remember.”
“Officer Bert,” I huffed, my breath coming in gasps.
Tom’s voice was filled with concern. “What?”
“Officer Bert. Inside the pub. He was there, he saw me.” Panic filled me again, and I began hyperventilating.
“Okay, it’s fine,” Finn said. “I mean, it’s a shame he saw you drunk, and weird that he saw you with three cats, but he didn’t follow us. We are good, don’t worry. It’s not as if he can arrest you for being a drunken mess.” Finn paused. “Well not in a pub while he’s off duty, anyways. Let’s just get home and put you to bed, how does that sound?”
I nodded my agreement, and we slowly made our way home, staggering intoxicated, laughing and nearly crying the whole way, using the back alleys and finally entering the house through the back door. I was drunk and exhausted and overwhelmed, and I could feel myself shivering. I wasn’t sure if it was from the cold, the liquor, the adrenaline, or the seed of fear seeing Officer Fitzgerald had sown in my gut.
“Well, well. Somebody looks like they had a fun time,” Agatha’s voice drawled from the hallway as we entered.
I loosed a breath and walked her past her. I was too damn tired to bicker. “It’s been a long day, Agatha. I’m going to bed.”
“Your hair looks pretty,” she said to me.
I paused and turned back to her, my expression shocked. Did she just pay me a compliment? Where did that come from? I stared at her for a long moment, frowning. “You look nice, too.” I awkwardly blurted out, unsure really how to respond. Not that her appearance changed at all, anyways, considering she seemed to be stuck in one form as a ghost.