Charlie did the legwork. She told Mr. C she and I were going to do a duet, but she didn't find anything she liked in the box.
Once he'd made a list, Mr. C was going to figure out if everyone could fit in for the allotted time we were given the auditorium. There were more than seven songs from various groupings on the list, including some who didn't choose a song from the box and were currently songless.
I didn't really care about singing in front of people. I was mostly just surprised Charlie would want to do something like this. I thought she was more like me, but I always thought of her as a rebel. I bet she wanted to annoy Cynthia, who'd gone up to the box and had chosen a song after the seniors. Cynthia probably had a solo since I didn't see her as someone who liked to share the spotlight.
This was mostly Charlie's fight, so figured I'd sing backup to her. We were hanging out for murder-solving. Would we do singing breaks? Maybe I'd get around to seeing The Singing Detective.
*
Econ was boring for the first twenty minutes. I mindlessly took notes; they would make sense later.
What I mostly wondered about was what I could do to get Ethan to invite me over to his house. I was going to ask Charlie if I found her after class, but then I remembered Mom had actually talked to Mrs. Walker—they lived down the street from us! In what direction, I had no idea. Mom hadn't specified. Who else lived near us?
After the first twenty minutes… well, Nature called, so I excused myself to go to the restroom. I probably forgot to continuously mention that it was still pretty cold outside. Winter was being extended until March, which was… the idea of it was just great. Because I love cold weather! Thankfully, the restroom was somewhat warm. I was definitely going to take advantage of—
Soft sniffles echoed in the restroom. Someone was crying.
"Are you okay?" I asked quietly.
"Go away," the girl whined.
Rude much? I was trying to be helpful. "This is a free country. I can stay here if I want."
"… Bella?" Her voice was clearer.
I straightened up. "Cynthia?"
The middle stall door opened. Cynthia's nose and eyes were pink. "What're you doing here?"
"This is a restroom. What'd you think I was going to do?" I crossed my arms. "Why're you crying?"
She just looked at me skeptically. "What, you're concerned?"
I frowned. "Mostly weirded out. I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd find you crying in a bathroom stall."
"If you're just going to make fun of me, then forget it." Cynthia moved for the door.
I blocked her path. "Hey, hey, wait. I'm not making fun of you. Besides, your eyes are still puffy. Do you want people to see?"
Cynthia went back to the mirror and sighed. "I hate crying."
"Maybe that's one thing we have in common." She half-smiled at that. "So it must've been something pretty bad to make you cry despite your will to never ever cry."
I could see her eyes water up again. Cynthia looked at me in the mirror. "Promise you won't tell anyone?"
I frowned. "Do I have to?" What if it was something serious?
"I'd prefer if this stayed between us."
"Tell me what it is first, and then I'll see."
She looked wary… and then she hunched in on her self. She whispered, "My dad's been hitting my mom for the past week. She texted me and my sister not go home tonight."
"What?"
"He works in the city and was demoted last week, losing a lot of his pay. He's mad all the time and drinking now and he sometimes hits her arms and legs so the marks won't show and he told me he would hit me and my little sister too if we told anyone—so you can't tell anyone, Bella. Promise you won't."
She started crying and I somehow ended up hugging her and stroking her hair. "Cynthia," I said quietly, "I know he's your dad and everything… but what he's doing is wrong. You and your mom need to leave him immediately."
Cynthia moved away, appalled. "But people can't know!"
I wanted to slap her. "Goddamnit Cynthia, what the hell is wrong with you?! Who gives a shit about what other people think? Does that stop your dad from hitting your mom? No. You and your mom and your little sister are in freaking danger. You need to leave his ass now."
She crossed her arms. "And if he comes after us?"
"What're the police for?"
"Where will we go?"
"Doesn't your mom have friends?"
"She doesn't want them to know either."
I sighed, very disappointed by this small-town mindset she had. "For goodness sake, Cynthia, you're gonna have to choose between your pride and your safety—especially your mom. Your dad's bad for hitting you, but your mom is making it worse by staying there. If you have absolutely nowhere to go you can stay with me and my mom. I'm sure she won't mind."
Cynthia looked just as surprised as I was. "You'd do that for me?"
I rolled my eyes. "It's not about doing this for you. It's about getting you to realize that your pride isn't helping you here. Besides, you think I'm just going to just say 'sorry' and then leave you here to cry some more? I'll text my mom right now." I pulled out my phone.
"No, no, it's okay," Cynthia said suddenly, pulling out her phone. "I'll text my mom and tell her that we're leaving. We can go stay with Mrs. Bradford."
"Who's that?"
"She's Sheriff Bradford's wife. She kind of owes my mom a favor too, so…. We don't have to take up space in your house. No offense, but it's… small."
I narrowed my eyes. "Don't tell me you think it's haunted too." Is that why she didn't want to stay with me?
"So… you know a girl died there?"
I sighed. "Yeah, I know." No one knew better than me. I wasn't going to admit to Cynthia that she and the rest of the town had been right. Cynthia was still texting. "So you're really leaving?"
"Yes—you're completely right. I need to get my sister out of there. She's been stressed out lately, even before our dad started drinking…. At least she stays in her room all the time, out of harm's way." Cynthia stopped texting.
"Is your mom in?"
"My dad doesn't drink in Cheshire—he doesn't want people to know either. My mom's closing the store and going to pack up some things to stay to Mrs. Bradford's. Then she's going to pick me and my sister up in a little while." Cynthia suddenly hugged me. "Thanks for the wake-up call, Bella."
"Sure… it was nothing…." I hugged her back awkwardly. I was kind of glad when the hug was over. "If you need anything, just call. My mom and I can help with anything."
Cynthia smiled. Without the heavy make-up, she was actually pretty. "I really appreciate this." She checked her no-longer-pink face and then left the restroom.
After I did my thing, I went back to Econ, feeling like I'd stepped out of The Twilight Zone. It was probably a little naïve of me to not believe something like Cynthia's situation could happen in a small town like Cheshire. It brought me back to the idea of Cheshire and its secrets. I felt like I was going to learn a couple more secrets, and I feared they would be worse.
*
After Econ, I went to the library to wait for Ethan. I wasn't the only one there from biology, so there were no more free computers. Great.
I went and claimed a study table to wait. It was pretty quiet in the library, save for the turning pages and clicking keys of the keyboards. I thought about going to look at a few of the encyclopedias, but I figured if Ethan didn't see me, he would think that I bailed, so I just sat there.
I decided that, as long as Cynthia took care of herself, her sister, and her mother, then I didn't have to tell anyone. It was extra reassuring they were staying with the sheriff—of all places. Now I just had to hope that Mrs. Connor wasn't going to cave the second Mr. Connor says he changed his ways. While I believed I a lot of people can change, most of them change right back.
Ethan spotted me the second he walked through the door. He glanced at the occupied computers. "Sorry I'm late," he said, dumping his backpack next to mine on the table. "I have P.E. sixth period, so…."
"You still have P.E.?" I said.
He frowned. "I didn't have it freshmen year, Bella. My two years are sophomore and junior year."
"Sorry," I chuckled. "As you can see, the computers are all occupied. Want to try encyclopedias?"
"I'm not going back in time to study." He reached into his backpack. "I brought my laptop again today, just in case. Now we have to hope the teacher's Wi-Fi makes it all the way here."
"Wow. You're pretty smart."
"Don't sound surprised." He turned on his laptop.
"So, if it's the teacher's Wi-Fi, I'm assuming it has a password…?"
"Correct assumption."
"So how do you get to use it?"
"My cousin taught me a little hacking, nothing big. I also work at Radio Shack on the weekends. A few guys there teach me a few things."
Whoa—he works. "That's pretty cool," I said.
Ethan suddenly laughed.
"What?" Did he laugh at my lame response? Ugh, I shouldn't have said anything.
"I found today's password," he said. "It's jigglyfish." He turned the laptop so I could see.
I saw nothing but code. "I'll take your word for it. Does that mean we have internet?"
"The signal's fair, but we should be able to get a few things. To Google?"
"To Google."
*
We spent the hour looking up stuff on supervolcanoes—including the one I'd mentioned in the U.S. It wasn't fun reading all the different ways the supervolcano could kill us all. It also wasn't fun using up time searching for reliable sites, but at least we didn't use the Wikipedia page.
It seemed we were staying in the library as long as another student did. When it was just us and the librarian, Ethan said it was time to call it quits.
"I'll do more research at home," he said, shutting down his laptop. "I've got good internet."
"Lucky," I said. "Our internet's crap. And when it's good, my mom hogs it all."
"What does she do?"
"She writes books."
"Have I heard of her?"
I frowned. "What?"
"I asked if I heard of her."
Déjà vu much? "Oh. Sophia Grimes?"
His eyes widened. "Your mom wrote about that homeless superhero? Complex?"
"I take it you've read that one."
"Hell yeah! It's one of my favorites. You have to let me get her autograph."
"Come over anytime. She's home almost all day—what?"
It was the second time I'd seen that look on his face. "I would come over, but… well, your house—"
"Is haunted, yes, I've heard that about twice today now. What, are you scared?"
Ethan scoffed. "I'm not scared."
"I'm closing the library now."
The librarian was standing by the door, waiting.
We quickly gathered our things and ran past her.
"Crap," I said once we were far enough.
"What?"
"I was going to check out a few books, seeing as how I virtually have no internet at my house."
"You can come over to my house and use my computer if you want."
Yes! "I don't know…. I don't want to impose."
"It's no big deal. I have this weekend off. You can come to my house Saturday."
We were nearing the parking lot and I could see my car—and Ethan's truck next to it. "Cool—oh, wait. I won't have the car Saturday. My mom's going to be using it."
He rolled his eyes. "I can pick you up."
"Okay, then, cool." Now we walked to our cars in awkward silence. That didn't matter though. I scored an invite to Ethan's house!
"Are you even listening?"
He was waving his hands in my face again. "What?"
Ethan laughed. "I asked if you were doing anything for the Spring Concert." We stopped in between our vehicles, at Ethan's driver door and my passenger door.
"Charlie wants to do a duet or something. I really don't care. Are you going to do something?"
"Maybe. I thought about making something up."
"You write music?"
He shrugged. "None with lyrics, just the music. I just play whatever."
Was he serious? "You play the piano."
"Is that disappointing?"
"No, no… that's pretty cool. I tried to learn but my hands aren't fast enough. They don't reach all the keys for chords either." I glanced down at my hands. With my nails shortened, they looked tiny.
"Well, if you get me your mom's autograph, I can teach you the basics. I only play by ear. My cousin taught me how."
"Smart cousin… but, sure. I can get you an autograph. What're you doing?"
Ethan was going into his truck. It looked like he really took care of it. The seats looked new, and that New Car smell wafted out. "It's in here… somewhere…."
I laughed. "You actually have the book with you?"
"I said it was one of my fav—found it!" He came out with a battered paperback copy of Complex, one of my mom's earlier novels before Twilight became a thing.
I took it. "Wow—the first edition."
He shrugged, looking a little embarrassed.
"I'll get her to sign it, and I'll give it to you tomorrow. Do you still want to meet up after school?"
"I can't Wednesday's and Thursday's—lame house stuff. Let's just meet up Saturday. The presentation isn't for another month."
"More like three weeks, but okay." I started walking around my car. Don't act disappointed, Bella. I was going to his house Saturday, so I already accomplished something. Not only that, but he was probably going to play the piano, which was pretty—
"She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah! She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah! She loves you—!"
I turned around. Ethan was hitting his radio as the volume went down.
"Sorry," he said, turning a little red. "The stupid thing is always playing a weird station. Yesterday it was Elvis."
I laughed. "You can't go wrong with The Beatles."
"You listen to them?"
"I like a few of their songs, yeah."
"Good taste." He was about to turn on his truck.
"Are we friends?" I blurted out.
Ethan turned back. "What?"
I came back around and stood at his window. "We only hang out after school when no one's paying attention, or like this when everyone's gone. I think you're cool, but I also want to be able to hang out with you like a normal person."
"Bella—"
"What's the problem?" I already knew the problem, but I wanted to hear his version of it.
He sighed. "Do you believe in curses?"
I didn't really expect that version. "I can."
"Well, I think my family's cursed. Nothing good ever comes with us. I'm starting to think hanging out with you might not be a good idea either."
I crossed my arms, Complex in my hand. "What makes you say that?"
"You almost drowned yesterday waiting for me at the pool!"
I scoffed. "You think that was your fault? It totally wasn't."
He frowned. "It wasn't?" he asked skeptically.
"Saturday morning, you're picking me up and taking me to your house. I'll explain everything to you, and you'll see that there is nothing wrong with hanging out with me. We can be friends, and you can even hang out with me and Charlie."
"I don't know…. I haven't really talked to Charlie since we went out. Eesh, that was like… a little over a year ago…?"
…
"You dated Charlie."
He shrugged. "Yeah. Didn't she tell you?"
I waved a hand passively. "Of course she told me," I lied. "It's not going to be weird, is it?"
He hesitated before answering. "We'll meet Saturday, and you'll tell me whatever this everything is, then we'll see where we go from there. Is that cool?"
"It's perfectly acceptable, yes. See you tomorrow." I walked around my car and got in as Ethan started up his truck and left the parking lot.
**************
Happy Valentine's Day (again)!!! I wasn't going to post at all today, but I didn't get anyone anything for V-Day, so I figured I had to give something somewhere, so why not here?
Anyway, have you ever played The Walking Dead game? I haven't, but I've seen a gaming video by TobyGames. The main character, Lee, has options for responses. And, depending on the responses you choose for him, it works out in your favor. Like, if Lee answers a question in a good way, the other character becomes helpful later; a little thing pops up that says So-and-so will remember your loyalty or whatever.
That's kind of what I had happen with Cynthia and Bella. Cynthia will remember Bella's help, which should come in handy for Bella later.
I would like if you, dear reader, would answer this question: Is the stuff between Bella and Ethan sounding natural? Followed by this one: Is it too far-fetched? I'm trying to set something up—a lot of things, actually—but I don't want this to drag on for so long.
I also figured a little romantic drama would be entertaining (and somewhat appropriate for V-Day), even if all the drama is just in Bella's head. Great—now I'm worrying about Bella's character and how she's worrying too much about Ethan's dating history. I hope not going backwards with Bella. I don't want my Bella to be like Twilight Bella. Some comments about this or other things would be extremely helpful.