New Horizon [Morganville]

Chapter Twenty-Six

“I am many things Claire. But a snoop, I am not.”

Claire let out a short laugh. “Yeah. That’s easy to believe.” Her words dripped with sarcasm, but Claire wondered if Myrnin thought she was being serious. Claire dug into the front pocket of the bag, reached for her mobile and swung her bag so it sat on her back again. Oh God. She’d gotten tonnes of messages and phone calls, all from her three housemates.

“I blame this on you,” Claire sighed as she began texting her friends back, telling them that she was safe and was on her way home now.

“How is this my doing?” Myrnin sounded genuinely shocked as he raised his hands over his heart.

“You just had to stop for cookies.” Even though Claire wasn’t upset that Granma had given her a whole container filled with chocolaty goodness. Maybe she could share them out with her housemates, and save some to bribe Shane with later. She could see the Glass House now, and she stopped at the white picket fence that surrounded the Glass House. She let out a deep breath and smiled. “Well, thank you for walking me home,” Claire paused and glanced towards the house. All the lights were switched on, and she swore she could hear yelling or arguing from inside. “Now it’s time for me to return to the madhouse.” 

“You’ll be okay?” Myrnin asked, which caused him to get a puzzled look from Claire. She furrowed her eyebrows.

“I know that we haven’t weeded the garden for a while, but it doesn’t look that bad?” Myrnin rolled his eyes and saluted her, returning to his usual, crazy self. Then like a breath of air, he was gone. Claire blinked and then she turned and hurried towards the house.

Claire tried closing and locking the front door as quietly as she could. It was obvious that if anyone were to hear her, they would tackle her to the ground in seconds and demand answers. She tiptoed down the hallway, and peeked a look at the lounge room before leaving her bag slumped against one of the couches.

“Ahem,” Claire yelped and spun around to face Eve. She raised her eyebrows and gave Claire one of her signature; You-Are-Dead looks as she placed her hands on her hips. “And where were you, exactly?”

“I got caught up at the lab,” Well, that wasn’t entirely right, so Claire tried for the truth. “Actually, we were with Granma Day. She baked cookies?”

“And you never thought about calling?” Eve paused. “Wait, did you say cookies?”

Claire grinned and opened up her bag to pull out the contained filled with chocolate chip cookies. She held it out to Eve. “Does this mean I’m forgiven?” Eve took the container and furrowed her eyebrows as she thought hard.

“It means that I’ll consider forgiving you,” She grinned. Eve’s theme this week had been blue and green. Her lipstick was neon green, and the rest of her makeup was dark. Her black hair had a few blue streaks in it, and she wore a dark poofy skirt with blue and green skulls printed on them. Eve grabbed Claire’s hand and started pulling her towards the kitchen.

“Where’s Michael?” Claire asked as the two girls stepped into the empty kitchen. She glanced around, half expecting Michael to pop out from anywhere. “And Shane?”

“Michael bailed as soon as it was time to make dinner,” Eve rolled her hands and released Claire’s hand. She made her way over to the stove where something was boiling inside a pot. “And Shane’s on his way home from work now.”

“Oh,” Claire raised her eyebrows. “So, when I’m late home from work it’s the end of the world. But when Shane’s late, everything’s fine, right?”

“Oh come on CB,” Eve reached for what Claire guessed was salt and sprinkled some into the pot. “Besides, Shane called and actually told us he was going to be late home. You really ought to call, Claire, or even text.”