“This is how it should always be,” Ivy said. “The six of us together.” She raised her latte for a toast. “Forever.”

We all grabbed our hot coffees and raised them toward the moon.

“Forever?” Nash groaned. “That’s a long time.”

I wasn’t shaken by his remark. Rather, it stirred something I’d been feeling, too. Was Nash the kind of guy I wanted to be together with forever? Could I really see myself with someone who was usually more devoted to himself and to sports than others, when this is what caused us to be part-time now?

I gazed at my friends, who seemed so enamored with their dates. I couldn’t imagine anything breaking their bonds. I envied them.

“Wow — that full moon,” Abby said. “It’s haunting, isn’t it?”

“Speaking of full moons,” Nash said, hopping to his feet. “It’s my turn to tell a scary story, and this one is real.”

Nash, handsome with his boyishly beautiful features and muscular build, took center stage behind the fire as if the small flames were footlights. He began telling a story of a werewolf in Legend’s Run in the early 1900s.

I scooted next to Ivy, who linked her bony arm with mine as if it were a designer purse.

“Many years ago, as the full moon shown bright,” Nash said with an eerie tone, “the inhabitants of Legend’s Run heard a horrible howling. The cry of the beast wailed throughout the town. As the howling grew closer, children woke up from their sleep, travelers had to control their horses, and homeowners locked their doors. The few brave souls who did venture out to investigate say they witnessed a creature never seen before — a monster standing on two legs, thin as a man, hairy as a dog, with the fangs of a wolf and the eyes of a beast.”