Ring of Light (12 page)

She heard laughter coming up the stairs from the kitchen. Her aunt and her little sister were doing something there. Annie smiled at the sounds of their voices. They sounded so happy. Meg's high-pitched shrieks were followed by her aunt's rolling laughter, as if they were chasing one another around the room. Despite her concern for Kate, Annie couldn't help but be glad that she had people she loved around her.

“Hey,” she called, jumping off the bed and heading for the door. “Stop having so much fun without me.”

CHAPTER  9

“Hello?” Cooper said, picking up the phone next to her bed. She wondered who would be calling her at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning.

“Hi,” said Kate. “It's Kate.”

There was an awkward silence as Cooper hesitated. She didn't know what to say next.

“I've been meaning to call you,” she said finally. “Sasha told me about your aunt.”

“That's sort of why I'm calling,” Kate said. “I was wondering if you could help me out.”

“Sure,” Cooper said instantly, relieved that Kate didn't seem to be angry with her. “What do you need?”

“Annie and I are doing a ritual,” she said. She stopped, letting the words sink in.

“A ritual?” Cooper said doubtfully.

“Yeah,” Kate continued. “At her house tonight. It's to help my aunt. Well, I hope it will help her. I don't really know. But at this point it can't hurt.”

“Is she that bad?” Cooper asked, avoiding Kate's question.

“It's not good,” answered Kate. “The cancer is in her bones.”

Cooper closed her eyes and pressed her hand to her forehead. She could tell Kate wasn't doing well herself. Her friend's normally cheerful voice sounded almost drugged, as if she hadn't been sleeping much.

“So what do you think?” Kate said. “Will you come?”

Cooper let out a long breath. “I don't know, Kate,” she said. “You know I'm done with all of that.”

“I know,” Kate said, “but this isn't really like doing something with a lot of people. It's just me and Annie.”

“I just don't think I'd be any use,” Cooper said. “You know you have to be in the right frame of mind for this stuff to work right. I don't want to bring any negative energy to it.”

There was more silence as Kate didn't respond. Then she said, “The three of us have done some really great work together. Your energy was part of that. In fact, if it weren't for you we would probably never have gotten together.”

“That was different,” Cooper protested. “I was really into all of it then. I'm not now. I know you and Annie don't understand what happened to me, but it wasn't a lot of fun. I don't want to get involved with that kind of thing again.”

“I think you're blaming everything to do with Wicca for what one group of people did to you,” Kate said.

“Maybe I am,” Cooper told her. “But that's not the whole thing. It's about magic, Kate, and about what happens when it gets out of control. Remember what happened with you and Scott?”

“But I didn't know what I was doing!” countered Kate. “Now I do. And so does Annie. And so do you. It's not going to get out of control, I promise.”

“Things were supposed to be in control during the Litha ritual, too,” Cooper said. “But something went wrong. Those people invited the faerie magic into the woods and somehow it took over.”

Talking about what had happened to her was making Cooper upset. She wanted to help Kate, but she knew she wouldn't be any good in a ritual with her and Annie. Her heart just wasn't in it anymore.

“I'm sorry, Kate,” she said. “I really am. I know how much you love your aunt. And I think your doing a ritual with Annie is a good idea. But not with me involved in it.”

“I guess if that's really how you feel there's nothing I can say that will change your mind,” Kate said softly. “You never listen to anyone else anyway.”

Those words stung, and for a second Cooper almost shot back with something equally cutting. But then she remembered who she was talking to, and she kept quiet.

“Good luck, Kate,” she said. “Even though you probably don't believe it, I'll be thinking about you tonight. I hope it all works out.”

She hung up before Kate could say anything else. Leaning back against her pillows, she closed her eyes.
Well,
she thought,
I guess that's it.
She was sure that she had just ruined any chance of keeping Kate as her friend. Maybe Annie, too. Why would they want to remain friends with her when she couldn't even help them out? But she knew that she couldn't.

The phone rang again and she picked it up, thinking it might be Kate calling back.

“Hey,” said T.J. “I hope I didn't wake you up or anything.”

“No,” Cooper replied. “I've been up for a while.”

She hadn't spoken to T.J. since the night of the Blink-182 concert.
The night you kissed him,
she reminded herself. She still couldn't believe that she'd done it.

“I guess I should apologize about the other night,” she said quickly.

“Why?” T.J. said. “Your singing wasn't that bad.”

“I meant about the other thing,” Cooper said. “You know, when I sort of kissed you.”

“Oh, that,” said T.J. “Apology accepted.”

“I don't know what happened,” continued Cooper. “I was having such a great time, and I just sort of did it.”

“Yeah, I was kind of surprised,” T.J. said. “I thought I would be the one to do it first.”

“I'm just glad you're not ang— What did you say?” Cooper asked, shocked.

“I said I was surprised,” T.J. repeated. “I'd been trying to think of a way I could do it first. But you beat me to it.”

“Oh,” Cooper said, dumbfounded. “You mean you
wanted
me to do it?”

“The thought had crossed my mind,” T.J. said. “Is that okay?”

“Yeah,” answered Cooper. “I mean, sure. If that's what you want.”

“Then I guess it's okay with you if we do it again sometime,” said T.J.

Cooper was speechless. Was T.J. telling her that he wanted to go out with her?
Of course he is, you idiot,
she berated herself. She had to think about that for a minute. Her and T.J. A couple. The idea was strange, but it made her excited as well.

“You still there?” she heard him ask.

“Yeah,” Cooper said. “I just spaced for a minute there. So let me get this straight—are we going out here?”

“I don't know,” T.J. replied. “I mean, we've only had one date, and you pulled a Cinderella at the end of it. I think we need to have another one and see how it goes.”

“Thursday night was a date?” said Cooper.

T.J. sighed. “Well, I guess not since you didn't seem to know it was.”

Cooper laughed, feeling like an idiot. “I'm sorry,” she said. “It's just that it didn't occur to me. I'm not really all that good at this kind of thing.”

“Well, you seem to have the kissing thing down okay,” T.J. told her. “At least that's how it seems from the little bit of it I've experienced.”

Cooper knew she was blushing, something she never did. What was it about T.J. that disarmed her so much? She'd never known a guy like him before. Usually, she could cut guys down with one comment. But he was the one putting her on the defensive. Not in a bad way, but in a way that made her feel like she was finally talking to someone who could keep up with her.

“Maybe we should try this whole first date thing again,” Cooper suggested. “What are you up to today?”

“I was going to suggest we go for a sail,” T.J. told her.

“A sail?” said Cooper. “As in on a boat?”

“That's it,” T.J. said. “Are you up for it?”

“You have a boat?” Cooper asked.

“Wait until you see it,” answered T.J. “You'll love it. Meet me at the wharf at eleven, okay?”

“Okay,” Cooper said. “I'll see you then.”

She hung up and sat in her bed, thinking. She had a boyfriend. Well, a sort-of boyfriend. She'd never had one before. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel now that she and T.J. were apparently an item. What did girls with boyfriends do? She thought about Kate and Tyler, holding hands during class and making eyes at one another. Would she have to do that?
I can't,
she told herself.
It would be too much.

Suddenly, she missed Annie and Kate. If they were around she could talk to them about all of this. As much as she teased Kate about being too into boys, Cooper had always secretly admired the fact that Kate could handle the whole dating thing with relative ease. She would know just what to do.
But you basically just told her you couldn't be friends with her,
she reminded herself.
So it looks like you're on your own.

She got up and went to the bathroom to shower. When she was done she dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen, where her mother was just finishing her second cup of coffee and starting to look at least partially coherent.

“Morning, honey,” her mother said sleepily.

“Good morning,” Cooper answered. She poured herself a big glass of grapefruit juice and sat down across from her mother.

“Um, can I ask you something?” she began nervously.

“As long as it doesn't involve me having to think or do math, then yes,” said Mrs. Rivers.

“Why does anyone date?” said Cooper.

Her mother sighed. “Is this a trick question?” she asked.

Cooper shook her head. “No,” she said. “I'm serious. What's the point of dating people, at least when you're in high school? It's not like you're really going to marry that person, right? You're both going to go on to college and change and then probably break up. So if it's doomed from the beginning, what's the point?”

“Did your father put you up to this?” asked her mother. “It's the sort of thing he would ask.”

“I'm serious,” said Cooper. “Why date anyone when you know it isn't going to go anywhere?”

“For the practice, I guess,” answered Mrs. Rivers. When she saw her daughter giving her a stern look, she continued. “I'm serious. You date when you're young because it teaches you how to be in a relationship. I agree with you that it isn't easy. But it's what we do. If everyone waited until the last second and just got married, we'd make a mess of it.”

“Most people seem to anyway,” suggested Cooper.

“Well, yes,” agreed her mother. “A lot of them do. But my point is that if you date when you're, well, your age, then you get a lot of those mistakes out of the way early on.”

Suddenly, she stopped talking and eyed her daughter in a different way. “Why are you asking me this?”

Cooper took a long drink of juice. “No reason,” she said innocently. “I was just thinking about it.”

“Give me a break,” said Mrs. Rivers. “I haven't been married to one of the best lawyers in Beecher Falls for twenty years for nothing. I know when someone's trying to pull one over on me, Cooper Rivers, and that's what
you're
trying to do. Spill it.”

Cooper groaned. She and her mother had never been the kind to have heart-to-heart talks like other mothers and daughters seemed to. In fact, they seemed to disagree about almost everything. But her mother had her, and Cooper knew she couldn't bluff her way out of it this time.

“There's just this guy,” she said.

“Not that tall redheaded boy with the thing in his nose?” her mother said.

Cooper rolled her eyes. “His name is T.J.”

“T.J.,” her mother said, as if trying out how it sounded. “So it is him?”

“Yes,” Cooper said. “I guess we're kind of dating. I mean, we're going to. We apparently had a date the other night when we went to the concert, but I didn't know it.”

Her mother smiled. “You're so like your father it isn't funny. He didn't know we were on a date the first time either.”

“Really?” said Cooper. “You mean I'm not the only one who's dating challenged?”

Mrs. Rivers shook her head. “It wasn't until our third date that he realized what was going on,” she said. “He thought the first two were just study sessions for our sophomore philosophy class. I had to tell him that I wasn't even in the same class that he was and that I'd borrowed the books from my roommate.”

“Even I'm not that bad,” Cooper remarked.

“So, tell me more about this guy,” her mother said. “What's he like?”

“Can we talk about it later?” Cooper asked. “I'm supposed to meet him soon for our first official date.”

“Fine,” said Mrs. Rivers. “But I want all the details when you get back.”

“I'll keep notes,” Cooper joked, getting up and putting her glass in the sink.

Half an hour later she got off the bus at the wharf. T.J. was standing there, waiting for her.