Little Red Gem (17 page)

As if school wasn’t
torturous enough, the afternoon lessons dragged and dragged and
then they dragged some more. How was a girl supposed to focus on
Algebra when her brain was saturated with joy that the boy she
loved had asked her over to his house? Inviting me to his house was
one solution I’d been looking for. Not only did I get to hang out
in his bedroom the way we used to, when I slipped him the love
potion I’d be in the most suitable location to hold him and kiss
his tears away while he mourned over the loss of his beloved
Ruby.

That morning I’d woken up
believing the day would get better. It had taken a while, but at
last things were looking up.

Chapter Eight

Later that day Leo and I
sat on the couch with two feet of empty space and beige upholstery
separating us. Leo’s mom placed milkshakes on the coffee table
before taking the chair opposite us. Leo’s younger sisters, who
were already sitting on the couch by the window when we’d walked
in, stared at me like I was a puzzle in need of putting back
together. None of this was the romantic setting I’d had in
mind.

Leo must have read my mind
because he said, “Can we have some privacy.”

Grumbles of disappointment
swept around the room, but his mom and sisters left us
alone.

Leo gave a gentle laugh.
“They can be annoying at times.”

I had a catalogue of
memories of visits to the Culver house, and every memory was
annoying-free. They were always happy, and they seemed to enjoy
doing things to make others feel the same. Their inclusiveness had
taken a bit to get used to, but once I had, I’d reveled in the
intimacy. Leo’s sisters were always sending me home with glossy
magazines to read – sometimes they weren’t even dog-eared and
missing all the fashion pages. If perfume samples were being handed
out at the mall, they grabbed a few for me. And Mrs. Culver often
invited me on her shopping sprees.

I loved being around the
Culvers. Just not today.

“
Your family is great. At
home there’s only me and my mom. It can get lonely at times, but at
least I don’t have to share a bathroom.”

I snorted out loud, but my
joke seemed to have given Leo a coronary. His face went grey and
stiff. “Ruby used to say that exact thing.”

“
She must have copied me,”
I blurted out.

My mind was already full
of things to do that to add ‘stop quoting myself’ and ‘act more
like Audrey’ would have clogged it. But it was apparent that I’d
need to make the effort. The trouble was acting like me came
naturally.

Leo stood up and I jumped
up to block his path. “I’m sorry if I keep reminding you of Ruby.
I…I won’t say anything.”

He looked at me curiously.
“I like that you remind me of her. Excuse me. I’ve got to go to the
bathroom.”

Finally, my chance to slip
the potion into his drink arrived so I hurriedly tipped the
contents into his glass. When I looked up, Leo’s youngest sister
clung to the doorframe and stared at me.

With a smile, I held up
the vial and gave it a little shake. “Vegetable juice. Want
some?”

She screwed up her nose
and ran from the room mere seconds before Leo returned. We spent
the next ten minutes on the couch in uncomfortable silence. I kept
staring at Leo’s milkshake, willing him to drink. I couldn’t
imagine his little sister blabbing to Leo, but the glass remained
untouched. Just when I’d reached the point where I was going to
hold his head back and force the milkshake down his throat, he
picked up the glass and downed the contents in a few noisy gulps.
Then he slammed the glass down onto the table.

“
Wanna see my guitars?” he
said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

“
Absolutely.”

He guided me to his room,
even though I knew it was up the stairs and to the right. I’d seen
his guitars a hundred times and had on occasion come to jealously
loathe the amount of affection these inanimate objects received.
But they were a part of who Leo was. I’d often sit on his bed and
watch him play. Sometimes I’d stare out the window and get so
enthralled with humming a tune that he’d pause in playing. I’d look
over in time to catch him looking at me. A shy smile would dance
across his lips, and then he’d blow me a kiss and resume
playing.

Leo’s room looked nothing
like when I was last there. He was usually meticulous about his
guitars, always insisting they be locked away in their protective
cases to retain their value. Cords which connected the guitars to
the amplifier were always kept in tight rolls to avoid anyone
tripping over them; not to prevent the person injury but to protect
his beloved toys. His song books were always stored upright on
shelves.

Today, his favorite Les
Paul Gibson guitar leaned fret-side down against the wall, and his
less favorite guitars were lying haphazardly on his bed. Coils of
cables snaked around the floor of the room resembling veins of
black hardened ooze. The amp was still on; the red light glowed
bright and angry. Sheets of notepaper covered with black scrawls
littered the floor.

I tried to find sense in
this chaos. Renovations? Hurricane? Evacuation?

When Leo looked at me
there was a mixed expression on his face, a cross between
sheepishness and shock. “I should have straightened up.”

I played it casual. “Looks
normal to me.”

Guilt or habit forced Leo
to do a quick rush around the room to tidy up while I hovered
nervously in the doorway. I jumped when his shoe kicked something
that made a resounding
clink
like glass, and relaxed when an empty Coke bottle
flew across the room. I’d once caught Leo with a bottle of bourbon
in his room, and he’d sworn he was hiding it on Simon’s behalf. My
eyes did a quick scan, nonetheless.

“
Ruby used to do the same
thing,” Leo said, stopping in the middle of his room with a length
of cable wrapped around his hand and elbow.

“
Do what?”

“
Fidget with her hands
whenever she was nervous.” He sat down on the bed and patted the
mattress beside him. “Come on in. I don’t bite.”

Hallelujah the love potion
was working faster than I’d expected. And I wouldn’t have cared at
all about the biting.

“
It’s just that, well, I
don’t have anyone else to talk to.” His voice caught and he turned
away. “I can’t talk to Thomas or Simon. My mom says I can talk to
her or my sisters, but I either freeze up or cry like a baby. Dad
does his best to get me to open up to him, but I just can’t.” His
eyes landed on mine. “When I’m with you, I feel as if I can talk to
you about anything.”

If only he’d been this
eager to talk a week ago.

“
What do you want to talk
about?” I said.

He got up and moved around
the room, kicking things along the way – cables, empty guitar
stands, more cables. “The night Ruby died we got into a fight. I
can’t get it out of my head. She wanted to talk about our future. I
told her it wasn’t a good time.’”

I was mortified that his
final memory of me was as an insecure girlfriend demanding
assurances. Could I not have felt the love in his kiss that night
on the wooden seat?

“
She pestered me for the
answer and I wouldn’t tell her,” he continued. “She ran off, got
into the car, and…” His voice stopped and I squeezed my eyes shut
to block out the sight of his strained face. “I held her in my arms
when she died. The coroner’s report said she died from massive head
trauma. That wasn’t what she died from.”

“
What do you mean? Was
there an autopsy?”

Leo looked away. “It’s my
fault she died.”

“
Don’t say
that.”

I reached out to him but
he stayed on the other side of the room. “I’m responsible for her
death. If I’d listened, paid more attention to the question, told
her what she wanted to hear…she’d be alive.”

I stiffened. “What do you
mean, ‘told her what she wanted to hear’?”

I’d
wanted
to hear the truth.

Leo’s mom surprised us
both by poking her head around the doorway. “Visitor for you,
Audrey.”

Worst timing in the world.
I clenched my hands into fists as I considered who the intruder
might be. If it was Hannah or another one of Audrey’s friends come
to drag me to a hair braiding session, I was mad enough to kill
them.

Mrs. Culver announced my
visitor from down the hall. “I ran into your dad when I was getting
the mail and I told him you were here.”

“
Dad? What does he
want?”

Leo’s face flushed red and
his eyes darkened. He moved over to stare out the window. “I can
guess,” he muttered.

“
Am I missing
something?”

Like, whatever had taken
place from the night I’d died to the morning I’d woken up as a
ghost and visited a fortune teller.

Leo pressed his forehead
against the glass and I was locked out of his view. With his
reflection hidden he might have been staring wistfully or mouthing
a satanic prayer. His refusal to meet my gaze led me to believe he
was holding out on me.

“
You obviously know
something I don’t,” I said. “Are you gonna let me walk into a
trap?”

Leo still wouldn’t indulge
me.

“
Fine. I’ll face the
firing squad on my own.”

I charged out of the room,
however, at the door I turned to give him one last chance to clue
me in on why my father would track me down to Leo’s house. My heart
sank when I saw Leo lying on the bed with his body pressed up
against the wall and his head under the pillow. Gentle whimpers
came from under the pillow. As much as I longed to stay and comfort
him, I detected heavy footsteps coming up the stairs.

I ran out into the hall.
“Dad? What are you doing here?”

His smile said he was
happy. His eyes glinted of something else – caution, concern,
terror.

“
Checking to make sure my
girl’s coming to dinner tonight. Mrs. Parker is busy making her
famous lasagna.”

My attention flicked down
the hall to where Leo was making a different kind of pillow talk to
the kind I’d hoped, and when I turned back to face my dad again, I
noticed his attention was also on the room down the hall. This time
I had no trouble understanding the message in his eyes –
loathing.

I grabbed Dad’s elbow and
dragged him toward the stairs. “Sure, I wouldn’t miss it for
anything.”

“
Let me drop you home.
You’ll need time to get ready I imagine.”

“
Thanks, but my pushbike
won’t fit in your car. I’ll be there at seven.”

He kissed me on the cheek
and placed an arm around my shoulder. More physical than the dad
I’d grown up with, yet I realized his motives were ulterior when I
tried to twist around to go back to Leo’s room and Dad gently
pulled me down the stairs with him. It was like he didn’t want to
me go back into Leo’s room, and I was like:
You’ve picked a lousy time to start acting the protective
father
.

At the front door, Dad
kissed my cheek once more. Without warning tears pushed at my
eyelids; it seemed I missed my dad more than I’d dared to ever
admit.

I took my time riding home
because my brain was a mess from these unexpected changes in my
second life.

Change number one. My
boyfriend was depressed. Understandable, but I wasn’t sure I was
pleased with Audrey’s ability to win his confidence. Strike that. I
was totally sure I hated the closeness my half-sister was
experiencing with my boyfriend.

Change number two. My new
mom was a witch, yet I couldn’t help but like her. Audrey was lucky
to have an interesting mom who would show her how to cast spells. A
mom this cool would be willing to help me do anything, and I stored
this nugget of insight into my already crammed head in case I
needed help later on, like, say if this all backfired and I
inadvertently released demons or something.

Change number three. My
real mom had hooked up again with my dad. While I was secretly glad
for them, after all it was what I’d wanted for a long time, yet now
that it had happened I was jealous from missing out on the
moment.

Change number four. My
half-sister was trapped in a hollow with no guarantee she’d be safe
from being eaten alive by the creatures I was worried about
unleashing with all this magic business. I cared about her welfare.
I hated myself for not caring
enough
to release her.

Amidst this change was one
constant, though. Whatever I was, it had temporary written all over
it. And I got the impression my time was running out.

***

As soon as I got home I
stashed the bicycle in the garden and, never one to make a
grand-less entrance, I stomped up the stairs to find Teri sitting
at the dining table reading a book.