“I’m leaving now, Mom!” I almost trip and fall, putting on my shoes. It’s been way too long since I’ve seen my best friend.

“Don’t stay out too late, Kasey. Remember, we got church tomorrow.” I’m Kasey, and my mother is very hyper-religious. It can get tiring to listen to. She always expects me to act prim and proper.

I manage to get my shoes on and practically run out of the house. It’s my birthday today, and I am finally 18 years old. An adult, though this, has the downside of marriage. My parents are expecting me to get married this year. I can’t even choose my husband either and don’t even mention that they are super homophobic, or at least my mom is. Not sure about the rest of the family. Mom runs the household, so what she says goes. So my lesbian ass is still in the closet.

My best friend knows, however, who has decided that today we will celebrate my turning 18. She invited me to her house for a birthday party, and it will only be us two, however.

I felt itchy across my whole body, very subtle but noticeable. I took a long shower this morning, so it’s not because I’m dirty. As I thought about my weird itchiness, I made it to her house, clicked the doorbell, and heard chaos inside.

“Hold on. I’m coming. I’m coming.” My friend sounded like she was warring with kitchen appliances on the battlefield. Then it went quiet.

Thump thump thump thump

The door opens, and I see a distraught Lucina with bed hair inside. She is about as tall as me, at 1.7 meters, and she has brown hair that goes down to her shoulders versus my ginger hair that reaches the middle of my back.

“You look like hell. Did you forget what day it was?” I laughed at her guilty-looking eyes. She was sweating.

“My alarm didn’t ring, and I rushed to get everything ready.” She led me inside, and I could see stuff being moved. The living room was clean, with snacks, ciders, and the like. The Switch was set up on the big screen. We had planned to play some multiplayer games.

“I have a pizza in the oven and some pudding in the fridge. The pizza, by the way, is homemade.”

“Homemade pizza, snacks, and cider. You are going all out, huh?”

“Of course, anything for you, hon.” She winked at me. It made me blush, I quickly tried to look away so she wouldn’t see, but she knew me too well.

The itchiness came back, I had managed to ignore it until now, but now it’s worse, concentrated on my lower back, with some added pain to boot. “Everything okay, Kasey?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” I tried not to show anything to Lucina. We’ll have a good day, and I don’t want to ruin it with my complaining.

With the blankets already on the couch, I grabbed one, opened an apple cider, and got relaxed. I don’t get to drink anything alcoholic at home, so this was nice.

…

A bit later on, the pizza was on the table half eaten. I had like five ciders and felt bloated. The itch and pain in my lower back had disappeared earlier, and I felt relief like nothing else. Lucina had questioned me too, why I let out such a sigh, bordering on a moan.

Then it hit. The worst pain I could ever imagine, right above my butt. I screamed and fell to the floor, trying to reach for my back.

“KASEY” Lucina shouts at me very loudly. I couldn’t respond to her due to my unimaginable pain.

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“What’s wrong, Kasey? Speak to me.”

“B-Back, l-lower back.”

“It’s in your back?” She gently lifted me onto her couch. I barely felt anything that wasn’t the stabbing pain above my butt as if something attempted to break through my skin.

She pried my t-shirt off, not asking for consent because I could not care now. She very gently turned me onto my stomach, gasping as a result.

RIIIIP

“Æ@#$,” I scream louder. A ripping sound could be heard from my back. My best friend’s scream came directly afterward, with a warm trail of something from the source, then finally… Relief, the pain disappeared.

“WHAT THE FUCK? You… You.” Okay, I’m worried now. Am I dying?

“Wh-what is it? Am I dying? I don’t want to die yet.” I started to sob. I don’t want to die and haven’t escaped from my parents yet or confessed to my crush.

“No… No, you’re not dying, probably. You’ve grown a tail, Kasey. A FUCKING TAIL.”

“What? What the fuck are you talking about? This is no time for jokes, Lucina.” Honestly.

“No, no. I’m not lying. Just look.”

She helped me sit up, and I took a look behind me. What I saw made me gasp. She was telling the truth. That is a tail—an orange tail with a white tip. What the fuck? I reached to it to touch it.

“What the fuck? It’s real. Am I hallucinating? How is this possible?”

“You tell me, Kasey. We may have a bit too much to drink. The pain, though, I don’t think you could fake that.” She made a good point. But how is it possible for me to have a tail? A fox tail, by the looks of it. It was moving and twitching slightly as well. I could feel it so well. It felt bizarre if my brain didn’t know how to process these new feelings.

“Did you get cursed by any fox spirits lately?”

“Fox spirits? Lucina?”

“Well, you did just grow a tail. I feel like anything is possible at this point.”

“My parents are going to freak out over this.” They hate anything that is not related to being a stereotypical religious family.

…

My parents!

“Oh my god, I got church tomorrow. I can’t let my parents see this, and they will try to cut it off or something.” I’m freaked out by this point, hyperventilating.

Lucina hugged me.

“It’s going to be okay. We’ll uh… Hide it.” She says, and I’m feeling too freaked out to blush due to her hugging me.

“Hide it? How can we possibly hide a fucking fox tail right above my ass? It’s not as if it’s small. It’s freaking long.” I say, almost shouting at her. Like, it’s at least a meter long. How could I possibly hide that?

“Calm down. You have to wear a long skirt tomorrow, right? You could hide… Your tail under the skirt… Wow, that feels strange to say. Like, wrapped around your leg.”

My tail, I got a tail. So many furries and cartoon fans out there would love growing a tail. Why did I have to be the one to get one?

“I suppose that just gotta work. I do have some long skirts. We’re lucky that it’s the middle of winter, and I can also wear a coat on the outside.”

“I’ll save the rest of the food and the dessert so we can have it some other day. It would be best if you borrowed some of my clothes. Can’t let your mom see your tail when you make it back home.”

She headed off to her bedroom, probably to grab a skirt.

I stood up and immediately felt standing up was weird. My balance was all off, and I directly sat back down. Having a tail messed up my ability to stand up and walk.

I stood back up and tried to hold my balance. This time around, my tail started to move around. My brain still couldn’t comprehend it, so I let the tail do whatever it wanted, which helped. I tucked my tail around my left leg. It felt weird. First, I had to hold my arms out to avoid falling. I quickly got used to it, however. I could still feel the tail, but it didn’t interfere much with my center of gravity, so it was relatively easy to walk with it wrapped around my leg.

“Here’s a skirt you can borrow.” She hands me the skirt, and it’s relatively long and poofy.

“Thank you so much” I took the skirt, went to the bathroom, and changed into the skirt. It fits reasonably well, and I don’t have to worry about it slipping off.

As I made my way to the living room, Lucina checked me out. Her eyes went from my feet up to my eyes, then looked around my waist.

“It’s perfect and quite an innocent skirt so that you could wear it tomorrow. I know you don’t like skirts, but what can you do?” At least I won’t be killed when I get back home.

“Alright, you should head off, it’s getting relatively late, at least from your parent’s point of view, and you should probably sleep early. You’ll need that extra rest for all the stress you’ll experience tomorrow.” She made a good point.

“Are you going to be fine here?” This time, I put on my shoes with less excitement than this morning.

“Yes, yes. You get going already.”

“Can I come back after church tomorrow? I’m going to need help to figure this out.” I ask, blushing slightly. Hoping she missed that.

“Of course, you’re always welcome, darling.”

And with that, I went back home. I was dreading the days to come, especially tomorrow.