Chapter 21 #2
“I’ll see you two tomorrow.” Hurt tightens my throat as I push out into the stinging cold, the door slamming behind me with Kayden’s squeals. I don’t know how he did it, but in a matter of days, he didn’t just find a place to live, he found a home.
And I’m…I’m jealous.
Robin has this way with life. He looks at life as though it’s just one big adventure, the same way I tried to teach Lark.
He goes with the flow every day and takes each moment in stride.
Big or small, I tried to teach her to look at each little situation as though it was from another person’s perspective, and allow herself the moment to simmer in that emotion, that feeling of complete chaos.
Then accept it and move on.
All this time, I was giving her the best advice I could while telling her this trip was an adventure, a way to open up and free the soul and find our home—find where we belonged in this world and where the world wanted us.
All this time, I wasn’t once taking my own advice.
Seeing Robin so easily accept something that has become hard for me to accept… Well, it’s like he slapped me in the face with a brick, then kissed it and shoved me out the door to figure it all out on my own.
I know nothing. In fact, the only thing I’m even remotely aware of right now is that my car broke down in the middle of nowhere, far off the path I planned to take to Maine, and it sits in Arlo’s garage.
Maybe that’s why I pause there, just out front, staring at the closed sign as though it offends me. Maybe it does. Because I’m a creeper, I walk to the side of the building, looking both ways before darting around to a high wooden fence painted in all black.
Not that I didn’t notice the fence before, but I never previously saw it as an obstacle.
Why do I suddenly feel the absolute need to scale that fence? Well, I will never know. Everything else in my life is spinning out of control, and in this minute, my actions are all I can control. I’m feeling reckless in a way that I haven’t felt since I was a teenager.
That moment led to me peeing on a stick in the pharmacy bathroom, and then I fainted, waking to security pounding on the door.
What possesses me to scale that fence, I will never know. But I do.
I wedge my foot between the slats, and I climb.
This is far easier than I thought it would be. There’s nothing but a creek and a field on my right. Behind me is the school and the library, and both are closed this week for the holiday. No one walks by. No one sees me. So I climb. My wild curls reach the top of the fence first.
I scramble to the top and throw a leg over.
But this isn’t the story of some innocent woman who calls to parakeets in her spare time. This is my story, and I’m a little bit of a hot mess.
My jeans get caught in a rogue nail, and the sound of tears fills the air before a cool breeze drifts up my leg.
This would be perfectly fine if I had worn the heavy winter coat Arlo got me my first week here, but I’m not that lucky. No, I wore something pretty for Kayden’s birthday celebration—a red leather jacket that made me look like I stomp on my enemies.
Now I can feel the air tickling areas that should not feel air tickling them.
I hang there, my leg stuck, looking back toward the street where, thankfully, no one walks by as I remain tucked in this little corner of the town.
Until someone clears their throat behind me.
What are the odds?
“Do you want to tell me what you are doing up there?” Arlo questions as my sparkly unicorn panties shimmer down at him. I try to picture his face, but let’s be real here, I don’t want to.
Please, Earth, just swallow me up and prevent any further embarrassment. But this is not one of my favorite fantasy books, and I’m stuck here in the real world without a wand or a griffin to save me.
Why couldn’t I have been born in a fantasy book?
I swallow back the fear that led me to this point in my life. “I’m pretty sure I saw one of those witches fly right into your fenced-in area here, and I, ah, um came to check it out.” Totally believable.
“Huh.” He tsks under his breath, and I can almost feel the amusement wafting off of him.
“Wren?” Oh no. Oh no! I glance up, finding Deputy Davis staring at me from his cruiser that he parked on the side of the road. “What are you doing up there?”
“You called the po po?” I hiss at Arlo, who doesn’t reply, and I can’t see his face. “Rogue witch sighting!” I shout back at him, hoping we are close enough to Salem for that to be believable.
He does not believe me, and he gets out of his car with a phone pressed to his ear.
Behind me, Arlo’s phone rings, and I hang my head in shame. Why can’t I just process my feelings like a normal human? Instead, I choose chaos, always chaos.
“Yep,” I hear Arlo say. “Staring at a unicorn right now.” A few moments go by, and he continues, “I’ll let you know, thanks for looking out for me, man.”
I watch Davis climb into his cruiser, the lights sweeping once with a quick blare of his sirens.
Now I’m about to become the talk of the town.
“Why, Arlo? Why?”
“Most people use a front door, Birdie.”
“Front doors are overrated,” I grumble, trying to wiggle down, but my jeans just rip even more. I won’t win this moment, so I drop to the ground, hoping the damage won’t be that bad, but I’ve got the feeling the worst part is getting caught.
Here’s to hoping this won’t be as bad as the beating of my heart suggests.