Harper threw up her hands. “It’s not a live auction! This is from yesterday evening.”
Morgan turned to her in disgust. “What is the point in watching an auction that’s already over? You can’t bid on anything? This is like watching someone else’s wedding on YouTube.”
She laughed in outrage, snatching the ice cream back from her sister. “You know what, get out. I don’t have to take this kind of abuse in my own home.”
Morgan pushed to her feet, using Harper’s forehead for leverage, making her yelp in laughter.
“Fine, but you have to come with me. That’s why I came over in the first place. Mom wants you to get ready and come up to the house so that we are all ready. She probably wants to prep us on acceptable conversation topics.”
Harper groaned, dropping her head back against the sofa. “Why? Her little party isn’t for another three hours.”
“Probably because she’s worried you’re going to fall asleep and come staggering over in your pajamas.” Morgan shrugged.
“Come on, I did that like, one time!”
“It’s been more like three times, actually,” her sister shot back, shaking her head. “One of them being my birthday dinner, now that you mention it.”
Harper averted her eyes. When she was asleep, she was free from the picking little voice in her head, and it was easier to sleep than it was to face her uncertain future and well-documented imperfection.
“Harper . . . will you please do me a favor?”
She glanced up at her sister’s more serious tone.Please don’t ask me to be better. Please don’t ask me to snap out of it. If I could do that, don’t you think I would have already?Morgan sucked in a breath between her teeth before continuing.
“Look, I’m not any happier about moving than you. Do you really think I wanted to leave all my friends junior year? It sucks, and it’s just one more thing that has sucked in the past two years. But it is what it is, Harper. Promise me you’re going to try here? I’m not going to be here in two years to bang on the door and make you get out of bed. It’s bad enough that we lost Dad, but now I feel like I’m losing my sister too.”
A lump of shame had formed in her throat, blocking her airway and making it impossible to breathe. Her sister was right, of course. She was failing Morgan just like she had failed at everything else.
“Like, it’s bad enough that the independent study program starts in fuckingJuly. I shouldn’t be in school this early. That should be illegal. But there’s this guy on the lacrosse team in my independent study. I think he’s a werewolf. Or maybe a shifter? Whatever, but like, every time he walks in the room, I can hear the voice from that one meme. ‘Iknowhis dick is big, I know it is.’”
She almost choked. The lump of shame was shoved aside, her strangled laughter escaping in its place as Morgan continued.
“And I hate that I don’t have you to talk to about that. Because, like, I think about it all the time.Allthe time. So I’m just saying, please don’t make me lose you too. Promise me you’re going to get up and leave the house every day, even if it’s just to take a walk. The Vitamin D will do you good. You need to get out of your head, and getting up is the first step, I’m pretty sure. Maybe you should get a cat or something. Oh, I know! You can have Ilea!”
“Out,” Harper ordered, pointing at the door. “I was with you until that point. Give me, like, fifteen minutes to get dressed, and I’ll be over. I promise . . . About everything,” she added, averting her eyes once more.
It was, Harper knew from previous promises to herself that she was going to magically get better, a tall order her sister was asking.Still, she thought, pushing to her feet,you don’t need Mom to have one more thing to bitch about. And Ilea doesn’t need any more ammunition. She would be on time to her mother’s tea, she decided, pulling out one of her favorite dresses.The patent Mary Janes. The velvet choker. You can do this. Do it for Morgan, at least for today. Then you can go back to bed.
Her sister, she decided a few hours later, trying to be as invisible as possible amidst the assembled gossiping witches, was right. She needed to start getting up every single day and getting out of the house. Otherwise, she was going to be pressed into service, studying alongside her mother and Ilea, and Harper would rather chew glass.
“You haven’t yet chosen a designation, dear?”
She realized belatedly that the question was directed at her, the speaker a middle-aged woman with a sleek blonde bob, as neat and prim as the other four women who sat around the table. Several of them had their own daughters in tow, mirror images of their mothers, and she noticed, perhaps clearly for the very first time, just how much she stuck out, even in her own family.
She and her sister had both favored their father in looks — pale complexions and dark hair, and she had never grown out of her goth phase, much to her mother’s chagrin. The three young women around the table varied in age, between her and Morgan, and they all looked as if they had stepped from the pages of an advertisement for a week-long summer concert festival. Floral dresses, elegant jewel tones, trendy if not conservative cuts. Harper glanced surreptitiously down at her own dress — a frothy chiffon confection with puffed sleeves and a crystal pleated skirt — all in jet black, matching her jet black hair, her jet black nails, her winged eyeliner and mascara. She was just as appropriately dressed as anyone else at the table, she rationalized. She had simply chosen a more basic color palette.And what’s wrong with that?
“N-no, I haven’t. Still, um, weighing my options.”
The question was asked as if she had not yet started her practical study at the Collegium, as if she were still in her gap year. She wondered if that was the story her mother had told them, deciding that the answer was likely yes. Her mother had been eager to reconnect with her old coven friends, witches she had known since she was a teenager.She probably told them you haven’t gone back to school yet. She doesn’t want them to know about Harper, the failure.
After all, no one knew her in Cambric Creek other than her family and Ilea. No one knew about the missed classes and subsequent expulsion from the program, no one here had been present to bear witness to her mini-mart breakdown. Her sister was right. She could start fresh air. Become an entirely new person, if she wanted.
“I am so thrilled to have such a spacious work area that doesn’t have to pull double duty as the family kitchen,” her mother trilled. “I’ve already told Ilea that Harper and I are going to be like two little star pupils starting next week. We’re going to go through every discipline for refresher work, it’ll be good for both of us. And it will help you make your decision, darling.” A beatific smile, one Harper met with a grimace.Glass. We’re gonna chew it.
“Tara, we can’t wait for you and the girls to meet Evelyn. She’s so dynamic! The coven has changed so much. Nothing at all like what you remember.”
“The one thing Iwillsay, though,“ another witch piped up, her eyes casting about as if to ensure there were no sudden eavesdroppers in the room, “Authricia placed such emphasis on the younger girls, and I do miss that. Our Kennedy is taking her junior placements right now, and I don’t feel she has the same foundation we all benefited from.”
There was a hum of agreement from two of the other women, her mother raising an eyebrow as Harper took it all in.
