Charming by Haig Moses (1st Draft)

Chapter Twenty-One

THE DAY

Her voice rings in my ears like the distant echoes inside of a cave. Haunting and chilling she calls to me constantly. "Ettie... Ettie." Against the pavement my feet pound and my lungs burn as I try to out run her.

In the days since Auntie's confession of Carolyn Wright, I had been doing everything I could to distract myself from thinking about my mother. That included, but was not limited to, hiding her diary (out of sight out of mind, right?), spending all my time studying for my midterms, or with Tatiana, working at The Maroon, or spending time with Alexander as we worked on our final project for Shakespearean English.

"It baffles me that someone as smart as you doesn't understand Shakespearean English," Alex laughed. "Did you not read any of his plays in school, perform Romeo and Juliet."

I rolled my eyes. "I moved around a lot when I was a kid, so my education from Elementary through junior high was kind of spotty. I did actually have the unfortunate experience of being casted as Juliet in my freshman year in high school which was a hour story."

His green eyes widened at my confession and pushing his computer away from him I realized I now had all his attention. "Now, I need to hear this story."

"No you don't."

"Come on," he whined. "I'll tell you something embarrassing about me."

I laughed. "I don't want to hear anything embarrassing about you," I confessed. "What I want to do is finish this project. Have you finished your slides, yet? Send them to me so I can make sure everything looks cohesive."

"I'll send you my slides after you tell me your story."

"Alexander."

"Siobhan."

Watching him look at me as if he were a child enamored in the tale spin of the most interesting story in the world, I took a breath and started. "I have terrible stage fright," I said. "So when it came time for me to perform I forgot my lines."

"And..."

"Threw up on stage, ran into one of the sets which knocked the entire thing down and kind of fractured Romeo's leg." I sat in my shame as Alex burst into a fit of raging laughter garnering the attention of everyone in the library. "Would you be quiet," I said trying to fight the smile attempting to rupture to annoyance.

He looked good when he laughed. Careless and free. Unhinged.

Picking his head up he wiped away a tear. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry," he said waning off his laughter. "It's just... classic. I would've never expected you... I mean you of all people to make a total mess of something."

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why would you never expect that from me?"

"Because."

"Because?"

"Because you're just so..." Alex stopped for a moment thinking over his next words carefully. "Posh."

"What!"

Alexander burst into a laughter again. "No, I just mean. You're just the last person I would expect to mess anything up. You look like you've planned the next five years of your life out already."

"Ten actually," I corrected.

"See!" he smiled. "Thinking of you making a mistake is like the time I saw the Queen of England doing the Macarena."