Gabriella looked up in surprise, hesitating for a second, before slowly standing and moving closer. Her shoulders were slumped in shame. She was alrea...dy a couple of inches shorter than Serenity, but her posture made her look even smaller.Once she was close enough, Serenity grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.“Hey, it’s alright,” Serenity said softly. “I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”Gabriella’s vibrant emerald eyes began filling with tears again. “I’m so sorry,” she repeated in a. My wife was still sleeping, I got a shower and dressed myself. I had to do some shopping. I went to the mall and bought some sandwiches for breakfast. When I came out the bakery, I saw the redhead going into the pharmacy. I wanted to say hello to her and went inside. I found her doing shopping. I walked up behind her and grabbed her at the waist. She turned around, looking surprised and gave me a quick kiss. I looked in her shopping basket and said to her she had to get some lube... She smiled. She leant back into the tree, holding her breath. A deep, chilling yet commanding voice spoke, ‘Ava…?’ She breathed out with little relief, it was Mendoza. He walked around to the side of the tree where she was shivering uncontrollably. Mendoza gazed at her detachedly, in the dim light, ‘Here,’ he said powerfully, taking his coat off and arrogantly offering, ‘put this around yourself.’ ‘No thankyou,’ she stubbornly replied and began to stomp away from him. Ava yelped as Mendoza grabbed her. But on my seventeenth birthday, I went to the machine. The machine is in atower just outside town, and joining me there was every girl born in thesame month as I was. We spent several days in a large dorm together,revelling in our freedom from adult supervision and trying hard to thinkabout the process itself. But then we all went to the center of thetower, entered the sacred water, and listened while the machine assignedus.And I came out knowing I was going to become a man.And for a while, I.