The week went by fast, cold and eerily quiet. No word from Wyatt, and that silence even invaded my time with Ethan and Charlie.
And the cold was from the weather. A cold front had come in. Any inkling that summer was coming soon was long gone, and it was back to wearing sweaters in the morning.
There was also no word from Beatrice too.
The real noise came from my mother when she (finally) noticed the chrome racing stripe on Todd/Gabriel (she watched a Spanish soap and renamed her half of the car), and I spent half an hour listening to her yell about not telling her about it and how were we going to fix it. Cheshire had a mechanic, but Mom was used to being cooped up in the house with her laptop. She ordered me to take Todd/Gabriel to the mechanic and have it painted over or something.
He overcharged for the treatment cream thing. I could've found that in a Kmart. A Kmart.
Other than that… it wasn't calming, but it was still…, well, quiet whenever I was with Charlie and Ethan. And I was spending a lot of time with them… maybe even more than my old friends.
We would sit in my car in the mornings—silent. In the library—silent. In choir—not silent because we sang, but we didn't talk.
By Wednesday, we'd reasoned that if Catherine, Charlie, or I hadn't been called in during the entire week, then we could assume no other girls had been either. We'd had the week of peace, but it was Wednesday afternoon—the concert tomorrow—that we could already feel our nerves just about ready to crumble. Neither of us was saying it, but we were scared about what would happen tomorrow night. The calm before the storm and all that.
I'd spent most of Wednesday internally worrying, so I was glad to be walking with my friends to my car after school. Thankful that Charlie always went home with Ethan, I wanted to head straight home and take a much-needed nap.
"Hey, I'm going with Bella today," Charlie told Ethan, kissing his cheek.
I pretended to gag and proceeded to my car. We waved goodbye to Ethan as he drove off.
"So, why go home with me today?" I asked, turning Todd on and letting him warm up.
"We need to stop by your house for some money."
"…?"
"To go dress shopping! We've got the concert tomorrow. We need something good to wear. My mom and Celia gave me money so I can get a dress."
"Oh. Right." I pulled out of the parking lot. She could've mentioned this earlier. The highlight of my Wednesday was going to be that nap.
"You don't seem enthusiastic."
"A lot is supposed to happen tomorrow." I got a knot in my stomach every time I thought about it. "And Beatrice hasn't given me any clues at all." Not one disturbing dream or anything. If it wasn't for Mom, I probably would've felt lonely in that house.
"We can't escape the bad feelings of tomorrow, but let us at least enjoy some aspect of it. And maybe you don't need any other clues. Beatrice must think you've got everything you need. Besides… I'm still upset that you're not singing with me."
YOU ARE READING
Cheshire Girl
Paranormal"There were three things about which I was absolutely certain. First, I didn't have my cell phone. Second, my hands hurt from gripping the trunk lid closed. They would probably be useless to put up a fight. ...
