Save Me

Some Words

“Um…”

She caught sight of Peter first since I’d followed him in. The smile on her face could’ve blinded anyone.

“Peter! I’m so glad you finally…” I stepped out from behind him and her face literally soured. I swear it was like she was sucking on a lemon. “I see she finally showed up. Hello, Cassandra, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Same,” I said, keeping the death grip on Peter’s hand.

She must’ve caught the movement of me squeezing it tighter because her eyes ticked down and darkened like rain clouds. Oh this must be where the strong language would come in. Before she could say anything though, my father stepped in behind us.

“Krista,” he said in greeting. “Guys, go in, would you? There’s no reason to be gathered around the door.”

Peter and I stepped further into the kitchen and my father put his bags down next to where Bren dropped everything he’d been carrying.

“Fitz. I see you finally located your wayward daughter. Where was she?”

I released a breath, not really wanting to let her get to me. She wasn’t worth it and I knew if I said something off hand, I would more than likely be spending the night in a hotel. Or possibly the tree house…

The tree house…

That gave me an idea.

“Mother. That’s enough,” Peter said.

“What? It’s a fair question.”

“Subtlety was never your strong suit, Krista…”

I’d been trying to distract myself from the conversation by looking over the familiar kitchen but my remark slipped out before I knew what I was saying. “He’s known where I was the whole time. Don’t make it sound like I ran away.”

“But that’s what he led everyone believe for the most part, my dear. He covered it up by saying he moved you to the city.”

I looked at her, noticing for the second time how wrong she looked standing in the kitchen with an apron on. Her blonde hair was in one of those hair-dos that reminded me of conch shells and a string of pearls were wrapped around her neck. “I think it’s better than telling everyone that a psycho Russian sent me away to an upstate sanitarium. Especially when he couldn’t explain why said Russian did it. It’s not like we can go around telling everyone about magic. They’d all think we were crazy.”

An evil smile spread across her face. “And how was that, dear? I knew there was something wrong with you; I just never knew you were insane.”

“She’s not crazy, Mother,” Gwen said, coming back into the room with Bren on her heels. “She’s never been crazy.”

“Needless to say, I don’t want you around my children, Cassandra. Someone with your history was just a ticking time bomb anyways and it was a good thing Drake committed you when he did. Or else you might’ve exploded and taken my son down with you. Its bad enough he was in a fight because of you and suspended in result. You’re lucky his future’s been set since he was a boy or I would say you ruined it.”

I bit my tongue, not even wanting to snap back at her. My mood was pretty good at the moment and I wasn’t about to let her ruin it.

So instead I just glanced up at Peter, saw that he was fuming, and thought the best way to ease the tension in the room would be to leave it. He loved his mother, deep, deep down and if he really hurt her I knew he would regret it. Since I was the only one able to soothe his temper, I decided removing him from the situation was best.