Chapter 57
Now, I feel really horrible that Lucy and Emma are in the dark. I really want to remind them of everything that we’ve discovered, like that one of Cadence’s coworkers is almost a hundred and fifty years old, though he doesn’t look a day past twenty-five, and my new pal Elliott is seventy-five but looks twenty-seven. We had some solid proof that vampires are real, and I did manage to save a copy of that video from Montana Mama, but Elliott made me promise not to tell my girls, and I’m torn about it. I feel like I owe him since at least he didn’t erase my memory again. But how can I talk to Lucy and Emma and not let them know what’s up? It’s just an awful situation to be in, and I hate it.
I also hate that Jack’s dead—at least I assume he’s dead. My sister slipped up and mentioned that his body had been missing for a little while, and it made me wonder if he actually transformed into a vampire. But his parents spread his ashes on the pitcher’s mound where he used to play baseball at our school, so I’m pretty sure Jack’s really dead, which is devastating all by itself. Drew’s definitely passed on, and my sister is probably a bloodsucker. Really—life as a student at Shenandoah High School should not be this complicated.
My mom was hanging mistletoe over the doorway, humming a Christmas song along with the radio when my cell phone rang. I glanced down to see it was Lucy and thought about ignoring it. But I didn’t. “Hello?” I asked, hoping I could at least pretend to be normal. My voice sounded weak, and I figured she’d ask what was wrong.
“Hey, Cassidy,” she said, her tone as chipper as always. There wasn’t much that could deter Lucy Burk’s exuberance. “What are you doing?”
“Not much,” I admitted. “Just watching some Christmas movie about some girl who’s too dumb to realize her fiancé is a jerk and that she should really be with the handsome stranger she just bumped into a few days before Christmas.”
“OMG! I think I’ve seen that one. Is it on the Hallmark Channel?”
“Lucy, that’s the plot of every Christmas movie on the Hallmark Channel. The only difference is that sometimes the lady is in marketing, sometimes she owns an antique store, and once or twice she was a teacher.”
Apparently, Lucy could hear the frustration in my voice. “Why are you so mad at TV?” she asked. “Can’t you change the channel?”
I groaned, probably because I knew she was right. No one was forcing me to watch this. I flipped the TV off. “What are you doing?”
“My mom said she’d take us to the mall if you wanna go. Em said she’d rather skewer herself on a stake of holly, but I thought it might be fun.”
I was with Emma on this one. Going to the mall the day before Christmas Eve seemed like a bad idea to me, but I was so bored, I thought it would be better than nothing. Then I thought about the “stake” comment. It made me remember that I had thought my sister might be a vampire, one that could be staked through the heart…. Now, I wasn’t exactly sure what she was, and even though Elliott had pretty much convinced me they weren’t vampires, I had no idea where that left us.
“Cass?”
“Sorry.” I’d totally lost my train of thought again. “Let me ask my mom.”
“Kay.”
“I’ll call you back.” It was easier than trying to carry on a conversation with my mom while Lucy waited.
My mom was on the phone herself when I walked in. While she’d gone back into the kitchen to check on the cookies, her cell must’ve gone off. I waited in the doorway as she checked on the cookies she was baking and said, “Well, maybe you could come home as soon as your date is over.” I braced myself, realizing she had to be talking to my sister. “I understand that it’s important, honey, but so is Christmas. And your family. Or at least we used to be before all this.” She set the cookie sheet on top of the stove and slid off the oven mitt, pressing her hand to her forehead.
I felt like I needed to announce myself; I didn’t like eavesdropping, believe it or not, and I knew that she had to be talking to my sister. Something told me that Cadence wasn’t going out with anyone I’d want her to date anyhow. I cleared my throat, but my mom was so lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice.
“Okay, well call me back when you know for sure. I understand that you think you know for sure now, Cadence, but things around there can change on a dime, and I told you when you were here, I don’t exactly trust that boy.” I was across the room but could still hear my sister’s screech before my mom said, “Man. Right, man.” She had a tendency to refer to my sister’s new friends as if they were all her age when, as I knew, most of them were old enough to be my grandparents, or older. I didn’t know how old Aaron was, though, and I assumed that’s who my mom was talking about now.
“I know, sweetheart,” my mom continued. “I just thought, with all the changes, at least we’d get to have a normal Christmas. No, I do understand. I don’t think I am being unreasonable. Maybe he needs to think about someone else for a change and realize that your family comes first. At least I thought we did.”
My mom sure was putting the guilt trip on my sister. I needed to let her know I was there; listening to her make Cadence feel bad for not wanting to come home for Christmas, as much as I agreed with my mom, was torture. I backed out the swinging door that separated the dining room from the kitchen and entered again, louder this time. I let the door hit the wall hard enough that she had to know I was there.
Apparently, my mom’s hearing is almost as bad as my dad’s. She started to turn her head in my direction, but stopped. “Fine, Cadence. Don’t come home. Do whatever you want.” Her tone was less sad and more angry now. “I know everything is about you right now. I’m not being overly-dramatic. I’m just stating a fact. You do what you want, and the rest of us will adjust our lives to meet your needs.”
