Happily Never After (13 page)

The problem was I’d always been the type of
person who fought her battles on her own.

“So, how’s it going with Mr. Hollywood?”

“It’s not,” I grumbled. “He’s texted me a few
times but we kind of had an argument.”

Abby’s eyes widened. “What did you argue
about?”

“He thinks I’m wounded and interesting, blah,
blah. He doesn’t know anything about me.”

“Are you blind? You think a guy like him
would waste his time if he wasn’t interested?”

She wasn’t exactly making it easy to ignore
my feelings. I wanted to hang out with him. All I had to do was to
convince myself to take that risk. A couple weeks with Jason were
better than none at all.

I shrugged halfheartedly. “You’re right. I’m
just facing the inevitable fact he’s only here for a couple months.
I don’t see it going anywhere but that doesn’t mean I can’t take it
one day at a time for now.”

Otherwise, we talked about less frightening
things, such as Marietta and how life would change once I had the
house to myself. Living alone in that huge house sounded
intimidating but I’d deal with it when that day came. Maybe if Abby
stayed in Savannah for college she could move in with me.

Walking out of the café I heard an all too
familiar voice to our left.

Sure enough, Anna and Suzie were coming
towards us. My stomach sunk in anticipation of what I knew was sure
to come.

“They really need to take better care of who
they allow in this part of town. We can’t have you two scaring off
the tourists.” Suzie greeted in an overly sweet way.

Abby stepped right up and got in Suzie’s
face. “Careful, sweetie, you wouldn’t want to make me mad.”

I saw Suzie’s eyes widen in fear. I suspected
that they'd put so much effort into spreading the lies about us
being witches or Satanists that they almost believed it themselves.
Of course, the strange events happening at home didn’t help our
cause.

Fully expecting Suzie and Anna to walk away,
I watched in shock as Suzie reached up and yanked on Abby’s hair.
Abby cried out in surprise.

“Did you really just pull my hair?” She
laughed in disbelief but I also heard how ticked off she was. “Just
because you got away with this stuff in high school doesn’t mean we
won’t stick up for ourselves now.”

Anna snorted. “And you think that’s going to
scare us? When are you going to understand you don’t belong
anywhere? All you had in school was each other and nothing has
changed.”

“Because you two are freaks.” Suzie was still
in Abby’s face. “That’s all anyone will ever see when they look at
you. Both of you are sad and pathetic little witches.”

“But Quinn is your sister, your family. Does
that not compute?”

“She is not family. She’s just someone we got
stuck with.”

Abby pushed her away hard and I looked over
at Anna, waiting for her to join in. A confrontation like this was
four years in the making but it wasn’t something I wanted to
happen.

Reluctantly I slipped between Abby and Suzie,
who were ready to rip into each other.

“Come on guys, this is stupid.” I frowned at
Abby. “And you of all people should realize it is so not worth
it.”

I watched as Abby took a deep breath and
slowly relaxed. She looked Suzie up and down. “Yeah, you’re right.
Let’s go.”

We walked away without a second glance. I
half expected them to come after us but a block later, I looked
back and saw that they hadn’t.

“Quinn, those girls are first class she-cats.
You should have let me pummel her.”

“While I agree it would have been satisfying,
if only for a few minutes, I would’ve paid for it when I got
home.”

“I know. I didn’t stop to think about that.
Maybe the day after your birthday, after you’ve given them the
papers kicking them out, I’ll let them have what they deserve.”

“Sure,” I laughed. “Or we could take pleasure
in knowing that they're homeless.”

She thought about that for awhile. “Okay,
you’re right. That’ll be enough for me.”

Later that night, I waited for the twins to
bring up the incident with Abby but to my surprise, they didn’t.
Anna watched me carefully. It wasn’t a threatening look, more as if
she was trying to really figure me out. Maybe my actions today,
stopping Abby from going off on her and her sister made her think
there was more to me than she thought.

I almost giggled at the thought. Thankfully,
I was distracted by a door slamming upstairs. The girls squealed
and Marietta stared at me with the same eerie concentration she
always did.

That night I knew something was going to
happen. It might have been the look from Marietta or the
confrontation with Anna and Suzie earlier, but I braced myself for
anything. I waited for hours, trying to keep my eyes open.

Eventually, I fell into a deep, peaceful
sleep.

I woke up to the sound of clomping steps
early the next morning.

In a haunted house, you hear footsteps all
the time and eventually it becomes just another sound. These were
different. They were heels and the steps didn’t sound very
graceful.

Curiosity won out over the normal need to
stay away from my family and as I walked down the stairs from the
attic, I found the source of the noise.

Anna was walking up and down the hardwood
floors of the hallway in high heels. I imagined she was practicing
for the pageant but I might have sworn someone dropped ants down
her pants. She kept one hand on her hip, which twitched back and
forth in a very uncomfortable way. It always surprised me how
someone tall, blonde and beautiful could be so clumsy. Anna was
always tripping over nothing but because she was popular, everyone
thought of it as ‘cute.’

I tried to sneak away without her seeing me.
Now that I knew who it was, I didn’t want her to catch me but she
saw me turning to leave.

“Oh, it’s just you Quinn,” she paused before
continuing quietly. “Did you see me walking? Do you think it looks
horrible? It feels horrible.”

“Why do you care what I think?” I couldn’t
help it. Any time Anna or her sister were nice to me, I got
wary.

She must have heard the suspicion in my
voice. “I’m only asking because Mom and Suzanna are gone and I have
a feeling you’ll tell me the honest truth.”

Well, Anna was right about that. I sighed and
walked back down the few stairs to stand in the doorway.

“It woke me up and I thought the house was
coming down. I don’t know anything about pageants, but I can’t
imagine they’d think you’re beautiful and graceful while you clomp
across the stage.”

She actually pouted, sticking her bottom lip
out. “I know. I just can’t do it.”

Unsure what came over me, I said, “Show me
again.”

Surprised, Anna gathered herself up and
walked towards me. I guess walking was a relative term because it
wasn’t what she was doing. I wasn’t sure if it was the heels that
made her body take on such an odd angle or what. Her head and
shoulders stuck out way ahead of the rest of her.

The floor and the walls vibrated from the
impact of her shoes. I fought against laughing. It was reassuring
that some people can’t have everything.

When she finished she looked at me
expectantly.

“I think you need to keep your shoulders back
and your spine straight. You’re ready to launch forward. And try
not to walk so heavy.”

She tried it again and I was surprised to see
her posture actually looked better. Still, she clomped like a
horse.

“Better. You’re still making too much noise
so try not putting your foot down so hard.”

Again, she couldn’t master it and stomped her
foot in anger childishly.

“I can’t get it. Here,” she bent over and
pulled off the heels, “you show me.”

Part of me thought it was a trick but the
other part, the part that hungered for family, reached out and took
the shoes.

I didn’t have much practice in heels myself
so it took me a couple of tries to get the feel of them. Finally, I
was able to walk with just a slight click-clack, the sound a high
heel normally gives off.

Anna looked impressed and shocked at the same
time. “How do you do that?”

“I guess when you try to be invisible you
learn to walk softly to draw less attention to yourself.” I
shrugged and handed the shoes back to her.

She studied me for a long while and I held my
breath, waiting for the apology about the way they'd treated me all
these years. Instead, she put the shoes back on and walked quietly
down the hall. Looking back at me, she smiled but that was it.

I was halfway back up to my room when I heard
a quiet ‘thank you’ follow me up the stairs. It didn’t make me feel
happy or satisfied. It made me feel sad. Years of subjection to
their abuse, spurred on by their mother, was too much. The reason
for their hatred was always right out of my grasp.

Was it because I was so close to Daddy before
he died? He’d been their fourth stepfather. Marietta had never
given them the opportunity to get close to a father figure. Or was
it because of my ability to shrug off caring what people thought? I
imagined the upkeep on their perfect, popular lives was exhausting.
I had a certain amount of freedom being the outcast. I felt
comfortable in my skin regardless of how I closed myself off.

It didn’t matter what their reason was, it
would have been nice to have a sister, or two.

Chapter Eighteen

Over the next few days, the only contact I
had with Jason remained via text and random phone calls. When I saw
his name on the screen of my phone, my heart wanted to leap. It
took a lot of work to keep it grounded.

Several times, he asked to see me but I just
couldn’t bring myself to do it. After admitting to Abby that I
would give it a chance, part of me held back. Plus, I was
embarrassed by how I reacted to him the other day. I needed to
concentrate on staying one step ahead of Marietta and Catherine.
Now was not the time to be worrying about boys.

But I couldn’t help it, especially when he
asked me again to go with him to the ball. Even thinking of saying
yes made me fear for my life. If I defied Marietta in that way, who
knew what would happen.

“What’s for dinner?”

Marietta brought me back to reality by coming
into the kitchen followed by Anna and Suzie. I snapped out of my
thoughts. Suddenly, my hands felt too big and I had to concentrate
on not dropping anything.

“I made spaghetti, the way you like it with
the meat sauce, and salad and garlic bread. You guys can go ahead
and have a seat. I’ll serve you.”

We made it through dinner and I was thankful
to escape upstairs with my food. I passed the soldier on the stairs
and had a sense of him stepping aside and nodding to me as I
passed. He was so different from George because he never made any
attempt to communicate with me. I got the feeling he was there for
a reason and hoped that one day he’d explain what it was.

The house felt alive tonight. The weight of
the entire place was pressing down on me. George was waiting in my
room and it was obvious something was bothering him.

“Hey, George.” I sat down and dug into my
food. “Something feels different tonight.”

He moved over beside me and I took another
look at him. He wasn’t as transparent as usual.

Danger.

The minute I heard the child’s voice, I knew
it came from George. It was the first time I had ever heard his
voice or had any sense of communication with him. This must be
important.

“What danger, George?”

His eyes grew big and I noted how they were
rimmed with long black eyelashes.

Danger, you must leave.

I felt the fear and sorrow throbbing off him.
A lump lodged in my throat. “I can’t leave. What would happen to
the house, to you, if I leave? I can’t turn my back on all of you
and my family’s legacy.”

You might die.

I wanted to pull him into my arms and offer
some kind of comfort. I knew my life was threatened but I truly
believed the outcome was worth the risk. It wasn’t only my life at
stake; Marietta’s was, too.

“I understand the risks and am okay with
them. Please don’t worry about it.” Talking about the danger scared
me more than I would ever admit aloud. The concern coming from this
sweet little ghost boy threatened my resolve. Then I thought of
something.

“What’s your name? I know it’s not
George.”

I don’t remember.

I leaned closer and looked into his beautiful
black eyes. “I promise when this is all over, we’ll find out
together.”

He didn’t believe me but I knew he wanted to
with as much longing as a spirit could possess. From what I’d
witnessed, longing seemed to be one of the strongest emotions
spirits were left with.

Right as I was about to curl up with a book,
my cell rang. It was Jason.

“I swear I had a perfectly good excuse for
calling but I forgot.” I heard voices and shouts behind him so I
knew he was on the set, taking time out of a movie to call me, of
all people. “How’ve you been?”

“Good. It’s been a pretty quiet day,
actually.” Considering that I was almost buried alive yesterday, I
added silently. “Sounds busy there.”

“It is. Tonight I get to test out my fighting
skills and get tossed around with superhuman strength all while
wearing a wire harness that’ll help me move like a vampire. Did I
mention the harness is very dangerous and uncomfortable to places I
am desperate to keep? Did I also mention I kind of miss you?”

The mixture of warmth and irritation that hit
me was confusing.

Jason cleared his throat. “I want to see you
again. Is it okay to say that?”

“Don’t say it any louder in case your adoring
fans hear it.” I sighed. “I don’t know. There’s so much going on
right now. But I’m sure I’ll have some time in the next day or
two.” The words surprised me because I hadn’t meant to say
them.