Chapter 18
Present Day
It was with a steady rage that Juliet came into the Eco-Lodge at around noon that day, put her computer away, and went to the back porch to complain to her sisters about Theo.
Theo and his arrogance. Theo and his loneliness, which he wore like a crown.
The porch door screamed as she came out, drawing both Ivy and Celia around to look at her.
Behind them was a computer, and on its screen sat Wren, somewhere in the sunshine, video-chatting with them.
“Oh, Juliet! What happened to your nose?” Wren cried, breaking the spell of silence between them.
Juliet touched the tip of her nose, then winced. What if it was broken? What if Theo had broken her nose?
Ivy sprang up to get the first-aid kit, while Juliet begged her to sit down and stop making a fuss. The last thing she wanted, now that she was a failure at everything, was attention.
“Ice, at least!” Ivy cried, fleeing and returning a few seconds later with a washcloth filled with ice.
Celia ushered Juliet into the chair in front of the computer, while Ivy propped the ice onto Juliet’s nose.
Juliet hissed again, but she found she could put a little pressure on the nose with the ice, and it didn’t feel too bad.
Ivy was a very good mother, a very good carer. She knew what to do.
“Bar fight?” Wren teased when things settled a bit.
“Ha.” Juliet gazed at her beautiful sister, who’d frightened them so recently with her Graves’ disease. Now, she hadn’t been back to Bluebell in ages. Juliet hadn’t heard from her at all. “Where are you?”
“Hard to say,” Wren offered with a laugh. “I’ve been traveling so much that I’ve lost track of myself.”
“That’s not an answer,” Ivy said from behind Juliet, crossing her arms.
“Surely, you know where you are,” Celia insisted. “What did it say on the sign when you got off the train?”
“Maybe it wasn’t in English,” Ivy said quietly.
“I’ll tell you where I am if Juliet tells us what happened to her,” Wren said.
Juliet could no longer find a reason to keep this to herself. “It was Theo Maddox,” she said.
Celia and Ivy gaped. Wren gaped back at them. “Who’s that?” Wren asked.
Celia sat down again and took Juliet’s hand.
But before she could say anything, Juliet raised a finger and said, “It’s not like that.
It was an accident. He rammed me with that stupid kitchen door.
I’d come over to show him my marketing material, the stuff you said I should make for him.
And then, we got into some stupid argument, and… Yeah.”
“That’s a lot of blood,” Wren said meekly.
Celia pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. “Goodness,” she said. Juliet could see that she already regretted trying to bring the old best friends back together again.
Briefly, Ivy explained to Wren that Theo’s restaurant was on the brink of closing, that nobody in Bluebell Cove knew what to do, and that Juliet might be the only person who could convince Theo to listen to reason.
“I should have known it was too loaded,” Celia said.
Wren snapped her fingers. “Wait, I remember Theo. Theo from high school?”
Juliet felt her heart drop into her stomach. The last thing she wanted to talk about was high school, although it was all she’d been able to think about for weeks. Ghosts lived in Bluebell Cove. One of those ghosts was herself as a teenager. A teenager who’d wanted too much.
It was only about ten minutes later that Wren announced she had to go.
Apparently, she’d met some other travelers down by the harbor, and although she still skirted the question of which harbor that was, exactly, she wanted to meet up with them and talk about where they were traveling next.
“That’s how I get through these long journeys,” Wren said, raising her chin.
“I have to make connections. I have to, you know, build a sort of makeshift family?”
“We’re your family,” Ivy said with the slightest shade of darkness to her voice.
“It’s so cool you’re all there,” Wren offered. “Juliet, how long are you sticking around?”
“I’m leaving in September,” Juliet said. “Danica needs to get back to Manhattan for school. And I, well, I have a few fashion gigs this autumn.” It stank of terrible, stupid lies.
Disappointed in herself and her inability to face the truth, Juliet said goodbye to her sisters and went outside, where she traced the path from the cliffside directly behind the Eco-Lodge, all the way down, down, down to the cove.
A cold wind had kicked up, and it made the waves thrash and crash against the boulders that lined the beach.
It was too cold outside for swimming, and only a few people were on the beach, walking with their heads bent down.
Juliet dug her sweatshirt out of her bag and sat directly beside a boulder so the stone would block the wind.
She watched the water for a long time, trying to focus on her breathing.
Despite the progress she’d made with Danica last night and with her sisters, Juliet couldn’t believe how alone she still felt.
When her phone dinged with a notification, telling her that Danica had recently posted a blog, Juliet couldn’t resist. Her biggest hope was that Danica had written something about her birthday, about bonding with her mother.
Maybe she’d written something about how Juliet “wasn’t so bad after all. ”
Juliet wasn’t sure why she allowed herself to get her hopes up.
The blog post had nothing to do with Juliet, obviously.
Rather, the majority of the blog post discussed Danica’s friendship with Magnum X, whom Juliet remembered mentioned a few other times.
Specifically, Juliet remembered that her daughter had written that Magnum X had a mother who’d also “lost her mind,” and that they didn’t know one another’s real names but recognized one another’s souls, or something. It was teenage drivel.
Now, Danica wrote a fantasy in which she and Magnum X went traveling together—that they met up in Singapore, where Danica was now living (according to her online presence), and then traveled on to the islands of Thailand.
Magnum X rented a motorbike, and we went off to explore the island.
My arms around his strong stomach. The wind in my hair.
The sun on my face. After the past year I’ve had, it felt delicious.
It felt too good to be true! We stopped at a little restaurant, where we drank mango smoothies and watched little Thai boys do tricks with fiery sticks.
It looked dangerous! But Magnum X told me that the fire sticks go out in a flash if you don’t carry them right.
Sometimes I feel so naive, out in the world for the first time.
I’m only fifteen! But I’m ready to grow up.
I’m ready to learn. Magnum X says I’m ready, too. Cheers from Thailand. We love you!
Juliet groaned, blackened her phone, and let her head rest against the boulder.
She imagined her daughter alone in her bedroom, reading and rereading her own blog, smiling as the comments came in, asking questions about her “romance” with Magnum X, asking about Thailand.
Juliet knew her daughter lived in fantasy worlds, just as Juliet once had.
Juliet never wanted to demand that her daughter return to planet Earth. It wasn’t so nice here for a teenager with dreams. Juliet knew that better than most.