Chapter 4 - Recovering

The next morning, we took grandma out of the hospital. My mother and I hadn’t spoken since the day before, and the awkwardness hung in the air between us. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to talk to her. It was my job to take care of grandma, and I fed her and helped bathe her for three days. She was back on her frail feet Friday afternoon.

 

I sat on the couch staring at the empty Vodka bottle on the coffee table, thinking about school, for some reason. I’d taken the week off to care for my grandma and would no doubt pay for that on Monday, but I’d catch up easily. It’s not like I ever had anything better to do at home anyways. Skye and Chase used to go to my school, but they had to start shape-shifter/witch training this year. They do their training until mid-January, then come back to school to catch up with mortal affairs. Then next year is the same case. I wished I was with them, off learning new techniques on how to ward off ghombies instead of sitting here bored as hell.

 

The phone rang, and I jolted out of my trance-like state. I answered the phone.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Drey! This is Skye. We’re still on for Blaker’s tomorrow, right?”

 

Blaker’s . . .? Oh, right. Skye, Chase and I were going to the Haunted Corn Maze tomorrow.

 

“Duh,” I said after a moments pause.

 

“Okay, cool. See you then!” She hung up without so much as a goodbye. I clicked off the phone and chucked it onto the other side of the couch.

 

I picked myself up and trudged up the stairs to my grandmother’s room, careful to not look into my mother’s room. She always left her door wide open, even when drinking, as if she wanted me to see her getting wasted. I didn’t. I continued on down the hall to my grandmother’s room and knocked on the old oak door.

 

“Come in,” she called quietly. I entered.

 

My grandmother loved frill. She had every space in her room frilled. Frilly curtains, frilly carpets, frilly bedspreads. She even had a frilly nightgown, complete with a frilly nightcap. She was looking out of her gorgeous grand window that overlooked the vast country behind our house. She leaned against it and her breath became fog on the glass.

 

“Oh, hello, Andrea.” Her voice was watery, as if she’d been crying.

 

“Hi, grandma. Is it okay if I go out with Skye and Chase tomorrow?”

 

“Of course. You have fun.” She didn’t say anything else, so I crept closer and hugged her.

 

“Thanks, grandma.”

 

“Just keep your mother out of the house.”

 

I swallowed hard. It was utterly devastating to me that a woman didn’t trust her own daughter alone with her.

 

“Okay, grandma.” I left her frilly room before she could see my tears.

 

 

 

I tried to hide my scowl as Skye approached the entrance to the Corn Maze, glued to a beefy boy’s arm.

 

“Hey, Andrea,” she greeted coolly. “This is Doug. He’s a wizard. Cool, eh?”

 

“Hi.” Doug didn’t look like the stereotypical wizard. I’d always imagined wizards as scrawny geeks who needed magic to survive, but that was not Doug. His muscular, tanned arms were proof of that.

 

“Hello.” Doug’s voice was incredibly deep. Was Skye sure she was with a teenager and not a forty-year-old body builder?

 

“Is Chase here yet?” Skye asked, feigning innocence.

 

I sighed. So Doug was just a toy, someone to make Chase jealous. I saw right through her and she knew it.

 

“Why do you care, Skye?” I asked and raised an eyebrow.

 

She shrugged nervously. “Just curious.”

 

“Yeah, sure.”

 

She shot me daggers, but I ignored them. After a few minutes of awkward silence, I piped up again.

 

“Hey, Skye, can I talk to you for a sec? Alone?”

 

She looked away, but nodded. She detached herself from Doug and followed me to the barn, where hot chocolate and cookies were served. We sat on a bale of hay near the back.

 

“Skye, be honest. Do you even like Doug?”

 

She pretended to look hurt. “Of course! He’s a great guy.”

 

“What’s his last name?”

 

She blanked.

 

“Exactly.”

 

She collapsed onto me. “Andrea, it’s so hard! Chase seems to be perfectly happy with Annabelle, and I’m still in love with him!”

 

I stroked her wild, blonde hair. “Skye, you can’t lead on poor suckers like Doug just to get Chase jealous. It’s not right, and now you’re hurting an innocent guy.”

She sobbed into my shoulder. “I can’t help it. I love him.”

 

I held her and said nothing. What could I say? Sorry? That wouldn’t fix anything. So I just silently comforted her with actions instead of words.

 

When she was done crying, we fixed up her makeup and headed back to the Maze. Chase and Annabelle were there, giggling. Where Skye was beautiful, Annabelle was gorgeous. Her blonde curls were always perfect, she wore no makeup and her blue eyes still stuck out, and her freckles looked cute rather than childish. She even had the big clunky dork glasses, but they looked adorable on her. It was like God had tried to make her look like a dork, but it just wasn’t possible.

 

But even though Skye hated Annabelle, I liked her. She had a quirky sense of humour and understood my sarcasm, and so she was automatically okay with me. Plus she was just generally a nice person.

 

“Are we ready?” Chase asked when he noticed Skye and I.

 

“Yep,” I said cheerfully. Skye wandered back to Doug, mumbling something like “no, but whatever.”

 

“Great.” He gave Skye and Doug a once over. “You two know each other?”

 

“This is Doug. My. Date.” She was no longer the sad, broken girl she had been in the barn. She was my Skye again.

 

“Cool. Let’s go.”

 

With that, the five of us entered the Haunted Corn Maze. 

Author's Note

sorry it's so short...next chapter should be longer. i'll try and get it up soon, because i'm really excited to write it. all feedback is greatly appreciated!

Reviews

[selkietales]

Hehe, poor Skye. I wonder, does Annabelle know that Andrea and Chase sometimes hold hands?

[Jasmine Thousand]

Yeah, the girl really needs friends.
*reads the next chapter*
~jasmine~

[TheKaylaPup]

At least she has a couple great friends, even if they are in a serious love-hate relationship. I'd leave longer reviews, but i want to keep reading...

[BloodyMary]

So. Intense. Doug reminds me of Beef... if Doug were as dumb as a sack of hammers

[Death Girl]

I love it

[Ness of Love]

I'm starting to really like Skye, she seems like a good character :)

[TWISTED NIGHTMARE]

again i love this book and it just keeps getting better and better... can't wait for the next chapter