It’s about him and her.
So I take a deep breath and dial the number that I’ve memorized because we’re sisters. We should remember each other’s numbers by heart. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t think so but it’s okay.
I chew on my thumb – which Sarah completely hates – as I wait for her to pick up.
Pick up, pick up, pick up.
A few rings later, I hear a click and her smooth, sophisticated voice. “Hello?”
A breath whooshes out of me.
It’s my sister.
Mysister.
My flesh and blood. My best friend. Or at least, I wish.
“Hello?” Sarah goes again. “Hello? Who is it?”
“Sarah?” I say in a hoarse voice before clearing my throat. “Uh, it’s… it’s Salem.”
For a few seconds, she doesn’t say anything.
But I know we’re still connected; I can hear things in the background, white noise from wherever she is.
“Salem?”
Her voice is full of disbelief and I get that. I’m probably the last person, nodefinitelythe last, she was expecting to hear from.
“Yes,” I say into the phone. “It’s me. Uh, hi.”
I chew on my nail again after that lame greeting. Like things are normal. Like I call her every day and I live in the regular world instead of being at St. Mary’s where they have a hundred pages worth of rules about making a simple phone call.
“Hold on a second,” she says.
Then I hear her murmuring something to someone before I feel her walking. Her high heels click-clack on the floor that sounds tiled until the sounds around her fade and her voice comes out clearer. “How… Where are you calling from?”
“Uh, from a phone?” I say nervously, spitting out the cuticle that I’d accidentally chewed off my thumb.
Again, lame.
But God, she freaks me out. My sister freaks me out.
“Are you trying to be funny right now?” she snaps.
“No, I –”
“Oh God,” she breathes as if to herself.
“What?”
“You’re not at St. Mary’s, are you? You ran away. You finally ran away.”
That was a shock to her, what I did that night: trying to run away with one hundred and sixty-seven dollars.
“Do you have any idea what kind of position this puts me in? That woman is going to be my mother-in-law, Salem. I’mmarrying into that family and my sister is stealing from them. How can you be so selfish? So freaking thoughtless. And after everything that Leah has done for us. Everything. You know what, I don’t even care. I don’t care what you do. I’m washing my hands of you.”
I completely understood her anger. I did put her in a bad position, even though I was running away to keep her relationship safe from my witchy presence.
