That Witch!

by Zoe Lynne

  “Tell me who you were talking to.”

  Under normal circumstances, Brynn would’ve told Laura anything she wanted to know. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have hidden anything from Laura in the first place. But these weren’t normal circumstances, and frankly, it wasn’t Laura’s business.

  “No. Now give me my phone.”

  Smirking, Laura pressed the little round button, and the screen lit up. Brynn knew the string of messages would be right there waiting and Laura would see the way Cassidy talked about her and how Brynn hadn’t taken up for her. Those messages had the potential to end their friendship… what was left of it, anyway.

  Brynn dove forward, reaching out to clamp her hand around her phone. They both tumbled to the ground. The phone tumbled across the room, smacking the wall before landing on the floor. Laura pushed Brynn off her and made Brynn hit the desk. The thuds and booms were getting ridiculous, and Brynn knew if she didn’t get a handle on things, her mom and dad would soon come pounding up the stairs.

  “Get out of my house!” Brynn growled as she rose to her feet. “You had no right to do that.”

  “What are you hiding from me?”

  “Obviously, it’s none of your business.”

  “If that’s how you feel….”

  “It is.”

  “Fine!”

  “Fine!”

  Laura grabbed her backpack from the floor where she’d dropped it, stormed out of the bedroom, and down the stairs. Brynn immediately went after her phone, but when she found it, it wouldn’t turn back on, and she couldn’t respond to Cassidy’s text. Brynn’s heart sank. Laura had just killed her lifeline to the only person who truly made Brynn happy these days.

  Chapter 15

  THE game was over, with Majestic Hills beating Westwood High by a landslide. Cassidy made her way back to the girls’ locker room, where she went to the duffle bag she kept inside the red locker reserved for the captain of the cheer squad. Fishing her phone out from the side pocket, her lips tightened into a frown when she saw Brynn still hadn’t responded to her last text. After sending it, she’d waited for a reply for as long as she could before heading back out for the third quarter. When Brynn didn’t reply right away, Cassidy chalked it up to her being busy with Laura and maybe not having had a chance to get back to her. But more than enough time had passed by now, and Brynn wasn’t the type to keep her waiting.

  Maybe my text offended her…. It was, after all, Brynn’s best friend Cassidy had been talking about. But by now, she thought Brynn had grown used to her casual joking. She did take a jab at Laura whenever possible, but come on, it was so hard not to. The girl was a basket case.

  She slid her finger across the touch screen to unlock her phone, then sent Brynn another message before heading out to her car.

  Hey, I’m sorry if I offended you with my last comment. It was only a joke. Holla back, ’kay? <3

  All the way home, down the winding, curvy roads of the San Fernando Valley, all through the suburban streets and into the neighborhood of Majestic Hills, Cassidy kept glancing at her phone in anticipation of Brynn’s reply. When she pulled up to the house and cut the engine, there were still no notifications on the screen.

  She seriously thought about heading over to Brynn’s house to find out if she was okay. It didn’t sit well with her that she might have offended Brynn so much she hadn’t responded. Or worse, something could have happened. Something terrible, like Laura having seen their texting banter and really sacrificed Brynn to Satan. Really, that wasn’t a probability… but it remained a slight possibility. The chick was downright creeptastic.

  A glance back down at the phone told her it was a little past eleven o’clock. It was way too late to knock on Brynn’s door now, even if she did brave going over to the Michaelses’ household.

  Maybe she fell asleep.

  Maybe she’s having fun with her friend.

  Maybe her friend butchered her to pieces.

  Gah! She had to get out of the car and into the house before she scared herself silly and ended up at Brynn’s doorstep, time be damned. Besides, she was really, really sweaty and needed a shower, like, yesterday.

  One would think a good hour and a half later, after Cassidy showered, shaved her legs, washed her hair and blow dried it, moisturized her skin, and exfoliated her face, Brynn would have replied. But when Cassidy checked her phone, there were still no new messages, save for a mass text from their cheer coach commending all the girls for such a great job at the game earlier.

  Did Cassidy want to look like an obsessed freak and risk texting Brynn one last time? God, it would be pretty embarrassing if she had just fallen asleep early and woke up tomorrow to a gajillion texts from Cassidy acting like an overprotective lover. Oprah, call Dr. Phil.

  Screw it. Despite her better judgment, she sent one more text message.

  Brynnie, please holla back when you get this message. I really am sorry. Have a good night and I’ll see you tomorrow. Hopefully. <3 <3

  She added an extra heart and tapped her finger over the “send” button just as there was a soft rap on her door. “Cassidy? Are you still awake, honey?” her mom asked, voice gentle, tone sleepy.

  “Yeah, Mom. Come in.”

  Cassidy’s mother padded into the room, white satin robe flowing around her body like an ethereal angel. Cassidy never did understand why her dad left her mom—a vision of beauty—for the cheap trick he now called his wife. Her mom was everything that lady wasn’t. Where the skeeze was short and pudgy in all the wrong places, her mother was tall, elegant, and had curves as sleek as a Porsche, even though she had slightly higher mileage. The skeeze had stringy hair, which she dyed blonde, and dark eyebrows that gave away her real hair color. Miranda’s hair was long, thick, and naturally straight, with a hue that resembled wheat fields in the sunshine. She had a vibrant laugh, and when she smiled, the whole room seemed to light up. The other lady sounded like Fran Drescher in a paper bag.

  Really, what was her dad thinking?

  “How’d the game go?” Her mom sat down at the foot of her bed, smoothing a hand over the white down comforter spread across the queen-size mattress.

  “It was good. Majestic won forty-two to twelve.”

  “Oh, great. I take it you had fun as always?”

  Was her mother really in her room past midnight to talk about high school football? “Yeah, it was fun. What’s up, Mom?” Might as well cut to the chase and spare her mom the small talk. Not that Cassidy didn’t appreciate it. Her mom always came in to check on her after the games, but Cassidy had other things on her mind that night. Namely, why Brynn still hadn’t replied to her.

  “Sweetie, with Nana in town for a while and you just having turned eighteen, we think it might be best for you to start setting aside some time so we can begin to help you control your powers.”

  Ugh, this again.

  Every time Cassidy started to forget she came from a ridiculously long and prominent line of witches, the women in her family reminded her all over again of not only her lineage, but of the fact that she had powers she frankly didn’t want or need.

  The look on her face must have been one her mom had seen more often than not lately, because she gave Cassidy a sympathetic smile and said, “I know it’s not on the top of your to-do list, but you really have to start learning the basics at the very least. It’s for your own safety, Cassidy.”

  Cassidy opened her mouth to speak, but her mom just kept talking. She had the habit of doing that every now and then when it came to this particular subject, which was why Cassidy normally drowned her out or simply appeased her by agreeing to do it but never getting around to it.

  “With your grandmother in town, there’s so much you can learn. More than I can teach you, because her book of shadows is by far more complex than mine since I stopped practicing magic for your father.” A momentary, wistful expression crossed her mother’s delicate features, but it was gone by the start of her next sentence. “If you don
’t start getting a handle on the things you can do now, you’re going to have a really hard time channeling your energies. Your power is at its peak right now, and it’s only going to get stronger as the weeks go by. You can’t risk having something happen in public that you’re not prepared to handle….”

  Yada, yada, freakin’ yada. The Charmed talk kept going on, and Cassidy kept her eyes glued to the phone sitting on her nightstand, waiting, hoping, for the darn thing to light up with the message she’d been waiting for. If she could use a Vulcan mind meld on it, it would have reached Brynn by now.

  “…so how about we get a start on it tomorrow?”

  “Huh, what?” Definitely not tomorrow. She’d promised Brynn they’d hang out, and she wasn’t about to ditch her Pinky for Witchcraft 101. “No, I can’t do it tomorrow, I have a study sesh with Brynn for our big English project. Um, maybe Sunday, ’kay?” There. Her mom sighed and gave her a disapproving look, but she took what she could get and reluctantly nodded.

  “Okay, sweetheart. We’ll start on Sunday. It’ll be fun, I promise,” she said, rising from the bed to kiss Cassidy’s temple.

  “Yeah, fun. Can’t wait.”

  “Listen, don’t judge it until you’ve given it a chance. There’s a lot your grandmother can show you.” Miranda smiled again, and this time it was that radiant smile that could get her anything she wanted. “Have a good night, Cassidy. I love you.”

  “G’night, Mom. I love you too. Sweet dreams.”

  Her mother exited as gracefully as she’d entered, with the satiny fabric of her robe flowing behind her, top covered by waves of waist-length, honey-colored hair. When she closed the door behind her and Cassidy was left alone in her room again, she got ready for bed by removing all the extra pillows used only for decoration and turning off the lamp at her bedside.

  With the room bathed in darkness, she nestled into her sheets, feeling the exhaustion of her day finally wear down on her. And still, she fought sleep until she could no longer, by keeping her gaze focused on the phone that never lit up with a message.

  Chapter 16

  AS SOON as the dawning sun cracked the barrier of Brynn’s thick, purple curtains, she leapt from her bed and hurried down the stairs. The smell of cooked bacon, eggs, and homemade biscuits wafted out from the kitchen. She heard her father rustling the newspaper even before she darkened the door. He looked up, but not long enough to get much more than a glimpse.

  “Morning, kiddo,” he said.

  “Morning, Daddy,” she said, walking right by him and over to the fridge for a soda. “My phone won’t turn on. I think I need a new one.”

  “Brynn Michaels!” her mother said in that you’re-in-big-trouble tone of voice all mothers seemed to have. “That was a four-hundred-dollar phone. What happened?”

  “Laura got mad at me and threw it across my bedroom last night… right before she stormed out of the house and slammed the front door.”

  The spatula in her mother’s hand clanked against the pan. The newspaper her father had been reading folded. Both her parents looked at Brynn as if she’d grown a third eye in the center of her forehead, which truthfully, was a completely legitimate response to the news Brynn had just spilled. She and Laura almost never fought, not like that, anyway. They never got to the point of violence.

  “What happened?” her father asked.

  “I’ve told that girl about slamming doors,” her mother said as she went back to cooking the eggs.

  Brynn sank down in the chair across from her father. Really, all she’d wanted to do was tell them about the phone, then run as fast as she could to Cassidy’s house, just in case Cassidy had tried to call or text or something. She didn’t want to give the impression she was upset with her or anything, because nothing could be further from the truth.

  “Brynn?” her father said, leaning his elbows against the table as he scrutinized her. “What happened?”

  “She got mad at me because I was texting during the movie. I had the phone on silent. She just got mad.”

  “Who were you texting?”

  Sighing, Brynn cut her eyes over to the door, wishing she could make a break for it before the interrogation got too bad. As many times as she’d come home in the past, complaining about Cassidy and her merry band of… um, witches or whatever, to ignore time with Laura simply to text Cassidy would surely stir up a few questions, questions she would have to answer or look guilty for doing something she had yet to do.

  “Cassidy Rivers,” she mumbled softly.

  “Cassidy Rivers?” her parents asked in perfect harmony, surprise filling their voices.

  “Yes.” Brynn spun her can of soda between her thumb and forefinger. “Mrs. Miller is making us work together on a project.” She shrugged. “Cass is actually being kinda cool now. I mean, she’s not as mean as I thought. She’s actually kinda nice.”

  “Nice enough to ignore your best friend?” her mother asked as she piled a tall helping of golden-yellow scrambled eggs onto Brynn’s plate.

  “I dunno,” Brynn said, picking up her fork.

  She aimlessly pushed the pile of eggs around as she stared at her plate. Truthfully, she felt bad for fighting with Laura, but the things she was going through, the feelings she had for Cassidy, weren’t something she felt comfortable sharing with anyone right now, including her best friend.

  “Are you going to eat or play with your food?” her father asked.

  “I’m really not that hungry.”

  “Breakfast is important, kiddo. Eat half, okay?”

  Swallowing, Brynn scooped up a forkful of fluffy scrambled eggs. She ate them, even though she really didn’t want to, but she knew if she didn’t, her parents would keep her at that table forever. Right now, she didn’t think she could deal with that kind of torture. She wanted to see Cassidy… like yesterday.

  Her plate was a little more than half clean, nothing left but a slice of bacon and half a biscuit, but that was enough to satisfy her mom and dad. They didn’t tell her to stay there when she stood from the table and didn’t ask her to wait for her little sister—the all-day sleeper—before being allowed to make her escape, which was a good thing, because as it stood, she was willing to forego a shower just to see Cassidy.

  Immediately, Brynn went to the bathroom, took some minty fresh toothpaste to her breakfast breath, and scrubbed and scrubbed until her mouth felt clean. Then she brushed her hair back and finished it off with a black ribbon fashioned into a headband. She didn’t bother with makeup, because makeup took way too long. Then she tore down the hall and into her bedroom.

  As she dressed in her jeans and black, girlie T-shirt, she wondered if Cassidy was even awake yet or if all this rushing would be a complete waste of time. Most kids her age wouldn’t dare to open their eyes at such an ungodly hour, but Brynn was on a mission.

  She slipped her tiny feet into a pair of ratty black Converse, grabbed her hoodie, and then ripped down the stairs and out the front door before anyone could stop her.

  It wasn’t until she felt the cool morning air against her face and saw the golden sunlight rising on the horizon that Brynn actually slowed down to her normal pace. There was still dew on the grass. A few houses even had their porch lights on. Most of the neighbors still slept soundly, but Brynn didn’t care, and she sure hoped Cassidy wasn’t the type to sleep in on a Saturday either.

  She rounded the corner, and the moment Cassidy’s house came into view, a smile curled the corner of her lips. Brynn picked up the pace again, running full force for the Riverses’ house. Her Converse flapped against the asphalt, all the way up the concrete walkway and straight to Cassidy’s front door. When she lifted her arm to knock, her hand was trembling, and she realized she could barely breathe.

  The door opened, and an incredibly beautiful woman with hair nearly as gold as the sun stood in the doorway. Her eyes were soft and kind. Her lips formed a sincere smile. The woman almost glowed, and with beauty like that, Brynn knew she had to be Cassidy’s mom.
<
br />   “I’m here to see Cassidy,” Brynn said breathlessly.

  “Oh, sweetie, she’s still in—”

  “I’m awake,” Brynn heard Cassidy saying from somewhere far away, maybe even from the top of the stairs.

  Cassidy’s mom stepped out of the doorway and nodded for Brynn to come in. Brynn stepped in the foyer and saw the girl she couldn’t stop thinking about, standing at the top of the stairs, still in a white camisole and a pair of silky-looking pink pajama bottoms. Her blonde hair was a bit tousled, and her eyes still had that hooded, sleepy look to them, but all Brynn saw was the most beautiful girl she’d ever met.

  Brynn started up the stairs, holding the rail so she didn’t fall on her face. “My phone is broken,” she said at about the halfway point. “Laura broke it. It wouldn’t turn on. I’m sorry if I missed any texts. My stupid phone…,” she rambled on.

  Cassidy’s mom said something about fresh orange juice and waffles in the kitchen if the girls were hungry, to which Cassidy smiled and offered a “Thanks, Mom” before fixing her cerulean gaze on Brynn as she cleared the top step.

  “I was worried that I offended you with my last text about Laura,” she said, voice soft and still filled with sleep.

  “No. You didn’t. Laura wanted to know who I was texting, and when I refused to show her, she got mad. Anyway, my phone got bounced off the wall. I need to take it to the Apple store.”

  “That chick’s a bi—” Cassidy caught herself, no doubt for Brynn’s sake. “She’s a… witch.”

  “She’s just afraid of losing me, I think.” Brynn stepped up to the landing, meeting Cassidy face-to-face, with nothing but a few inches of air between them. Her eyes hooded when she smiled and said a soft, “Hey there.”

  “Hey there, Pinky,” Cassidy said before leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to Brynn’s cheek. Her minty-fresh breath brushed over Brynn’s skin when she said, “Wanna come sit in my room while I get ready for the day? I just have to do my hair and get dressed.”