Excerpt: The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret

50K. 50K 50K. I made it and my characters had an impromptu freaking party.

Her phone rang.
The device was still somewhere in the bottom of her purse. Shannon upended her purse over her couch to find the cell phone faster.
“Yeah?” she answered. It was Red and she was sure that her werewolf friend was going to badger her about going out to eat. She would be firm though, she wouldn’t mention the fact that she was mixing up potions but she would polite and irrefutably decline the invitation.
Red screamed, “GREEN BAR. RIGHT NOW.”
Shannon’s eyes widened and she screamed in return, “No way!” she laughed, “Don’t move! I’ll be right there!” Excitement filled her body. She grabbed her ID and credit card and raced out of her apartment, leaving all her spell ingredients scattered on the table. She didn’t even care that she was dressed like a nerd in all white. She didn’t care that she could no longer wear her outfit for spell casting and that she’d have to waste time buying a new outfit and she didn’t even know from where, was there a 24 hour store where she would be able to find clothes made from completely natural materials?
The party at the Green Bar was already in full swing. Shannon was way late.
As soon as she walked in the door, more then a dozen people crowded around her for hugs and congratulations.
“Congrats, Shannon!” Capri yelled in her ear. Jerome pounded her on the back.
Not to be outdone, Santos also pounded her on the back and ruffled her hair; he even refrained from telling an outlandish story about his family.
Shannon hugged Tanya, Bruce, and even Susan of all people (event though Susan was still batshit crazy and would never change).
Red grabbed her hands when she reached her friend and they hopped up and down screaming. Nate was nearby and shook her hand proudly as soon as Red had let go of her hands. “You did it!” he said, smiling widely, not a hint of sadness in his dark brown eyes.
Vera and Tom nodded to her from the bar. Tom grinned like a fool and Vera raised her glass of water in cheers. Their showdown was tomorrow – tonight was for celebrating.
“Thank you. Thank you!” Shannon said, breathless with laughter, wonder and exhilaration.
Someone tapped her on the shoulder and even as she turned to see who it was, Scott picked her up and spun her around. He kissed her on the mouth before setting her down. “Hey, beautiful!” he shouted over the noise.
She couldn’t control her smile, her heart filled with love at the sight of her ginger-haired ex-boyfriend, “Hey to you too!”
Her parents beamed at her. Her mother held a martini and her father kissed her on the forehead, “Congratulations daughter of mine! We knew you would make it!”
Her cousins swept her away, “Good job, cuz!” Dominik caught her in a headlock until Paulina punched him on the arm.
“Nicely done,” Paulina said, briefly trying to smooth her cousin’s mussed hair.
Shannon’s cheeks were flushed and she all but floated as she continued through the crush of people.
Jenna gave her a quick hug before Terrance caught her in a rib-crushing bear hug. “Way to go!” they both yelled. Her music professor stood with the orchestra and gave the nod to play. They struck up a rousing, big band tune and Ben winked at her as he played more extravagantly then usual.
Mr. Ian Woon and the Non-Human bartender from Tequila Joe’s began clapping.
“Speech!” yelled Professor Norman Iwo and soon everyone was taking up the cry.
Shannon laughed and tried to wave them off but three members of the Council of Seven dumped the Water Elemental of the Hidden Veil out of her chair and brought the chair to Shannon. The Water Elemental took this slight with patient grace, gliding to a better spot to hear Shannon speak.
Wobbling a little (her feet were still bare, she hadn’t remembered to throw on shoes before running out of her apartment), Shannon stood on the chair.
“Thank you, everyone!” her laugh bubbled up again, infectious and joyous. Her eyes sparkled as everyone roared their approval “I really couldn’t have done this without you! I know, we all got a little tired and I know for a while it was all ‘parents are disappointed’ and ‘Secret Keeper’ and ‘relationships are full of dumb people who don’t know they’re in love’ but we rode it out. We made the word count!”
She had to pause while everyone shouted in joy and hollered; not to be outdone, the orchestra played as loud as they could.
Scott pressed a glass of wine into her hands as the crowd reached riot-levels of noise and excitement.
Shannon was able to drink half of the glass before the crowd settled down enough for her to continue.
“We rambled! Stupid things happened! I repeated plot points ad nauseum-”
“What plot!” yelled her history class TA and everyone jokingly shouted him down.
“Never mind the plot!” Shannon snapped back with a grin to show she too was just kidding, “Cause we’re here right? Green Bar!” She held up the rest of her glass of champagne.
“Plot hole!” Irwain Moon pointed out.
“Continuity error!” a member of the Bike Club, in a familiar grey sweater, said at the same time.
Some clever person had found an entire case champagne and glasses were passed out lightning fast. “Cheers!” she yelled.
“Cheers!” roared the jubilant crowd and the party really began.