Heart of Glass

Chapter 12

Ariel's phone pinged and she rolled over, eyes closed as she searched blindly for it beneath her pillow. She half expected it to be her daily message from Lainie.

For the last three days Lainie had messaged her every morning to see how she was and to try and pry information out of her. Ariel had promised to tell her what had happened, but she didn't want to text it. It sounded ridiculous enough in person, saying it through a text message would make it sound even more insane.

Her fingers finally found it, tangled in her pillowcase and she pressed a button, squinting as the screen lit up – Paige.

Nope. She shoved it back into her pillowcase. That was the third message from Paige in two days. The girl could seriously not take a hint. She started to snuggle back in, hoping to get a few more hours sleep –

Thump.

Shooting up, she blearily looked over her shoulder. The top half of Emily's body was in a heap on the floor, tears streaming silently down her face as her tail was slowly starting to slide off the bed.

"Bugger it." Ariel quickly climbed off her bed, getting tangled in the covers and dropping heavily onto the floor, jarring her knee. Cursing loudly, she fought the blankets off and grabbed Emily, heaving her a little roughly back onto the bed. "What happened?"

She sniffed loudly. "It's stupid. I was thinking about stuff at home and then I started crying and poof! Hello tail."

"Well then you need to stop crying," she reasoned.

"I know!" She snapped and Ariel's eyes widened. "It's not exactly like I can turn it off you know."

"Geez, you get an attitude when you cry," Ariel muttered. She patted her shoulder awkwardly. "You want to talk about it?" When Emily hesitated, Ariel understood. "Do you want me to get Autumn?"

They had made up three days ago, but Ariel could tell that she was still being reserved around her. Probably waiting for 'bitch Ariel' to make another appearance. Ariel had been doing her best to watch how she acted and what she said around them but every now and then something sharp would slip out and she would watch the wariness flash in their eyes.

Fortunately she had developed a foolproof strategy to minimize those outbursts. Every time Kestral or Lucas would enter the room, she simply left it. Yesterday she had been playing cards with Samson, Michael, Emily and Autumn. In the middle of a promising hand, Lucas had walked in to join them. Ariel had quietly excused herself, faking a phone call and promising to come back once it was finished. Instead, she had grabbed the book she was reading and slipped outside, heading to the bluebell field to read.

As Emily opened her mouth to reply, a short knock sounded at the door. Her eyes widened as the Doc's voice filtered through. "Ariel? Emily? Are you girls okay? We heard some commotion –"

Ariel had seen the panic building in Emily's expression. It intensified as the door handle twisted and before Ariel could even process what she was doing, she found herself flying off the bed and shoving the door closed, leaning her body into it.

"Girls?" His voice came through louder, more concerned. "What's going on?"

Quickly roughing up her hair, Ariel spun around and opened the door a fraction. "Morning, Doc."

"Good morning, Ariel," he replied impatiently. "Would you mind telling me what all the crashing is about at seven thirty in the morning?"

"Nothing," she sighed. "I tripped getting out of bed, that's all."