Fated Truth (The True Witch Saga) (4 page)

“Uh, yeah. Riding home with your mommy
, while she tries in vain to plan you and Ella’s wedding? No thanks,” Jessa said.

I turn
ed and gave Devon a sympathetic look. “I thought she would have set her sight on something or at least someone else when you busted out of the closet this summer.”

Devon’s face twisted
into a scowl. “She and my dad are still in denial. They keep whining about never having grandchildren, like I even want to worry about that stuff yet. I’m still in high school. Ugh!”

“No shit,” Jessa replied while she tried
to shimmy under her car.

Sabrina a
nd her group of clones saunters by and laughed. “Don’t worry Jessa. I wouldn’t touch that death trap with your severed arm.” They cackled as they stroll away.

By the time Jessa started
to head toward my house, I knew I was going to be in for a fight as soon as I walked through the front door. If I was not promptly home from school by three thirty PM my mother flipped her shit. So I asked her if she wanted to go to Candies, which was local ice cream parlor in our town. The longer I put off that confrontation the better.

We arrive
d at Candies at the speed of light. Jessa really needed to enroll in Driver’s Ed stat. The place was pretty deserted, but it was still a good way to kill time before I had to be subjected to the parentals.

Jessa and I
had been going there for years. We pushed through the door and the bell attached to the top jingled, marking our arrival. The girl at the counter looked up and smiled at us, thinking, correctly, that we were potential customers. The smile quickly fell from her face when she saw who we were.

Devon
had gotten us kicked out a couple of weeks earlier when he pulled a drunk and dragged us in there, after we had left a party one of the priss squad had been throwing. He puked all over a booth after consuming massive amounts of chocolate crunch ice cream. It looked like the girl still held a grudge.
Hell, I would to,
I thought.

We
saunter to the counter and ordered our usual fare. Vanilla and chocolate swirl in a waffle cone for me and a plain one scoop of strawberry in a cup for Jessa. The girl continued to glare while she fixed our order.

“Damn
, she could freeze hell with the look she’s shooting us,” Jessa whispered to me.

“Yeah
, well, you would scowl too if you had to clean up some stranger’s puke right before closing,” I laughed.

“I would so
do more than scowl. I would ban our asses. She’s obviously a lot nicer than me.”

We sat at our usual booth, which
was thankfully clean. Jessa regaled me with all the gossip she had heard throughout the day. By the time we had finished with our treats, the sun had begun to set and I knew way too much about other people’s business. We decided to leave before it got too much later. There was no way I wanted to piss my mother off any more than she was already going to be. Her wrath was legendary within our group. Jessa and Devon had been on the wrong end of her evil eye more than once.

When Jessa and I pulled up in my drive
, she offered to come in with me to face my parents or even to let me stay at her house for the night. I knew that I had to get it over with sooner rather than later though. I told Jessa goodnight and opened the door to get out.

“Ella, you have my number
. If you need anything at all, call me. I mean that, girly. I can be here in ten minutes tops.”

“Thanks
, sweets, but I’m sure it will be fine. You never know maybe they’ll finally kick me out and I can be free of them. Here’s hoping,” I said sarcastically. They will never let me go. With a wave, I headed for the front door.

When I opened the door
, the first thing I noticed was my mother was sitting in the front room, in the dark with all the lights off.

“Where’s dad?” I asked her as I hu
ng up my messenger bag on the hook by the door. She just continued to stare off into space like I wasn’t even there. “Mom? Is everything okay?”

Then she snapped.
“Okay?! Okay?! You call fornicating with that new boy in the cafeteria where everyone can see, okay?”

“Mother what are you talking about? I didn’t
do anything with anyone at lunch today!”

“Mrs. Gardener’s
daughter called this afternoon-”

That’s how much she got out before I spaced. Her voice was drowned out by the thoughts screaming in my head.
What had Sabrina told my mom? Why was she out to get me? What did I do to draw her wrath?

SLAP!
I felt the sting of my mother’s hand on my cheek. “Are you high as well as a harlot now? Didn’t you hear anything that I have said?”

“Momma I don’t know what’s going on
, but I didn’t do anything. Sabrina has it in for me. She has singled me out, but I swear on
everything
that I didn’t do anything wrong!”

She kept
ranting like I hadn’t even spoken. “I don’t know why I let your father talk me into taking you in. I told him you were the spawn of Satan. The glowing eyes and making things move when you’re upset! You were just a baby and you were already damned!”

“What are you saying? You’re my parents!
What do you mean you
had
to take me in? That dad
made
you?” I exclaimed.

“You are no child of
mine
! You never have been and I want you gone! I can’t stand to even look at you! You are an ugly soul, a terrible, terrible mistake!
Leave
!
Now
!” she screamed the last two words at me. She grabbed my messenger bag off of the coat rack opened the front door and tossed it to the front walk.

I left
the only mother I had ever known with tears streaming down my red cheeks. The tears sting the visible hand mark on my right cheek. When I got out the front door, I grabbed my bag, slung it over my shoulder, and started to walk. It was much worse than the normal walk of shame. This was something else altogether. I fished my phone out of my bag and dialed Jessa, but she didn’t pick up so I left a message. She was probably in the shower or something. I tried Devon, but no luck on that front either. His mom must have taken his phone, since it was turned off. Devon had a really strict family life since he outted himself. I wasn’t close to anyone else and I barely had any family, since my parents alienated everyone.

I decide
d to try my Uncle Dan. He was my mother’s brother and the total opposite of everything my family was. He was what most people would call a hippy, or as I like to call him, a free spirit. I rang him and he picked up on the third ring.

“Hey Ella girl. Why are you calling so late? How are your parents?”

Just the sound of his voice made me want to bawl like a toddler. I was not a big weepy person. Outward emotions weren’t popular in my home growing up. “Uncle Dan, I don’t want to bother you, but can you please come and pick me up?” I cried. “Mom, I mean Barbra kicked me out. She said she wasn’t my mom and that she hasn’t ever wanted me.” I started to sob over the line.

“Wait, wait! What?
Don’t cry, sweetie. I’ll be right there, I promise! Just sit tight! Don’t move and keep your phone on you at all times. Find somewhere on your street that’s lit up.” With that he hung up the phone.

I
strolled about a half a mile down my road and found a spot to sit on in the grass under a street lamp. If only my mother could see me now, she would probably accuse me of hooking it. Little did she know, I respected her wishes when it came to sex before marriage. I had never even been out on a real date! So it was no surprise that I still had my V card. The boys at school had taken to calling me the Ice Princess, as frigid as they come, because I didn’t get passed around like half the girls at my school. I basically wore a chastity belt and my mother still called me a whore! Go figure.

I idly start
ed pulling my fingers through the overly long grass to keep busy, trying to keep my mind off of this night, trying to forget, just for a blessed second. My hand caught on something cool to the touch. I pulled it out of the grass and it appeared to be some sort of necklace. I dusted it off and held it up to the light. It was brilliant. Large pieces of jade stones were woven together with silver in a chandelier pattern. In between the over-large, jade stones there were moonstones woven in. I turned it in the light and touched one of the pieces of jade. A green light illuminated from my hand to the necklace. It seemed to sparkle all on its own.

I glanced up and noticed a
sleek black car coming quickly down the road. It seemed to be slowing to a stop right in front of me. I stowed the necklace in my bag and braced for whatever the stranger wanted. The tinted black driver’s side window rolled down slowly.
They probably think I’m sitting here waiting for a John. Wouldn’t mommy be proud now?
I thought with a silent laugh.

“Hello
, little raven,” Jaxx called out as he stepped out of the car. “What are you doing out all alone this late at night?”

I’m sure he could tell
I had been crying. I flushed even more than I probably already was out of embarrassment. “Nothing,
Thor
. I mean, Jaxx.”
Could this get anymore mortifying?
I thought.

“
Thor
?” he asked quirking a brow.

“It’s nothing. Just something the girls at school were calling you before they knew your name. With you look
ing like a Nordic god and all, it seemed to fit.”
SHIT! Did I just spew that?

Jaxx chuckled
. “You still haven’t answered my question. Why are you out here so late?”

“It’s really none of your c
oncern. So you can get back in your car and drive on.”

I thought
I heard him mutter. “It’s more my business than you know.” Jaxx cleared his throat, trying to hide that he had just been muttering to himself. “Do you mind if I sit with you for a while then? Or at least until you decide to go home? This really isn’t safe.”

“Sure. You can
do what you want, but my uncle is on his way to get me, so I won’t be here long. You really don’t have to wait.”

Jaxx sat beside me and we we
re silent for a while, not really doing anything, just enjoying the company. I was just starting to relax when he had to go and ask something that I would rather have ignored.

“Who drew that vile shit on your locker this afternoon?”

“I’ll give you two guesses. Besides it doesn’t really matter. We can’t do anything about it anyhow. She has the whole school wrapped around her little finger.”

“Sabrina
?”

“You are one for one. Good job.” I smile
d at him to lessen my sarcasm.

“I still don’t understand why she
was targeting you. I mean yeah, you’re beautiful-”

“Wait! Hold up. You think
I’m beautiful?” I was really blushing now.
Ugh.

“You own a mirror, pretty eyes. You have to know that you are exquisite
, but that still doesn’t explain why you.”

I was thinking to myself that it was
all about him. That if he hadn’t sat my table I wouldn’t even be on Sabrina’s radar, but I kept mute. It wasn’t his fault and I didn’t want him thinking that I blamed him or worse him blaming himself.

Jaxx
reached for my hand and we linked our fingers at the same moment Uncle Dan pulled alongside Jaxx’s car. I jumped like I had been shocked by a live wire.

“Ells
, honey, is that you?” he asked, getting out of his car.

“Yeah, Dan it’s me. My friend Jaxx was driving by and was worried about me
, so he stopped to keep me company.”

Jaxx rose to his full height and towered
over my uncle. My uncle was on the short side with a shaved head and a face full of facial hair. He definitely got the looks out of my mother’s family. He might not be much taller than me, but he was striking all the same. He was still in shape, even though he was in his late thirties.

Jaxx extended his hand and introduced
himself to my uncle. “Nice to meet you, I’m Jaxx.”

Dan frowned,
but was polite and shook his hand. “Only a friend?” he asked looking at me.

I could see
him smiling to himself even in the gloom.
Ugh! Was everyone one a mission to make me blush today? Myself included it seemed.

“Well kiddo, let’s get you loaded up. We have a lot of things to discuss it
seems.” Understatement of the year.

I turn
ed to Jaxx to thank him for keeping me company, but he was already striding quickly to his car. Tires squealed as he hauled ass down the road. I wondered what crawled up his ass. I stood and stretched the kinks out of my joints. I was stiff from sitting on the cool ground for so long. I walked with Dan to his old, cherry red BMW and got into the passenger seat.