Phantom [h.s]

Twenty three

I sit quietly on the couch, my hands folded in my lap. My father stands in front of me, looking toward the kitchen where we can hear my mother setting her things down.

"I'm home," she calls, her heeled shoes clicking on the kitchen tile.

"In here, Caroline," my father says.

She walks into the living room and stops abruptly, confusion overcoming her features. "What's going on?" She asks slowly.

"I picked up Jane from the police station earlier today," my father says. "She stole the necklace of one of her classmates."

"No, I didn't," I say.

My father ignores me. "She's charged with a misdemeanor, and a court date is set for later in the month."

"Jane?" My mother asks, mortified.

"This is all a lie!" I say, sick of being shit on today. "I didn't steal the necklace! Mom, I didn't. I swear."

She purses her lips. "I'm trying to understand this," she says, shaking her head. "Tell me exactly what happened."

My father opens his mouth to tell her, but she puts her hand up. "I want to hear it from Jane," she says.

I sit up in my seat and relay the entire story to her, as I did to Harry a few minutes earlier in the clearing. I just hope she doesn't get as angry as he did at first.

"It was the skull necklace," I finish. "The one I wore on my first day of school, you saw it, Mom. I didn't steal it; I didn't even know Ava then!" The events of the day are catching up to me, and my eyes fill with exhausted tears.

My mother sits beside me on the couch, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I take a few deep breaths as my mother pulls my hair out of my face, tying it in a ponytail.

"Tomorrow we'll go back to the station, and I'll tell the detective that I saw you wearing the necklace," she says calmly. "We'll fix all of this."

"Wait, so you believe me?" I ask in shock. She's the first one that has taken my side all day.

"Of course I believe you," she says, stroking my cheek gently, soothingly. "You're my daughter, and I know you had that necklace before today."

It's times like this that I'm glad my mother is a first grade teacher. She has that placid tone she uses, and she knows exactly how to calm someone down. She makes everything sound alright, and that everything will be okay in the end.