Entangled

by Nikki Jefford

  Gray was able to lift herself to her elbows. Once she did, her eyes met Raj’s gaze. His eyes dropped to her blouse. Gray’s heart thundered, but there was nothing she could do to stop him. Her blouse burst open.

  Gray shot up in bed, gasping and hugging her hands to her chest. With the flick of her finger, the light flipped on. Gray made a quick scan of her room, but there was no sign of an intruder.

  Just a dream, Gray.

  Why, then, had she been wearing the exact same clothes she’d had on at school that day? Dreaming in detail—was that normal? Her outfit had been dead on, right down to her new red and black bra.

  Gray flung her pillow at the foot of her bed—just in case—but it didn’t hit any invisible figures lurking at her bedside. She retrieved the pillow off the floor, punched it into shape, and curled up on her side.

  * * *

  Snow drifted from a faint blue ceiling overhead in a mass of wet clumps. The particles seemed to hover in the air, in no hurry to touch the pavement, where each speck of white melted upon contact. The flurries blotted out the houses across the street as Gray waited for Thea the next morning.

  Her mom suggested she wait inside, but Gray wanted out of the house. Besides, there was something magical about the falling snow—a quietness that enveloped her and sealed out the rest of the world.

  “Early dismissal, you think?” Gray asked when she climbed inside Thea’s car.

  “Nah, it’s melting too fast. We’re just gonna have to brave another day at McKinley High. Maybe it’ll wait and dump down on Valentine’s Day. Then everyone will have to keep their chocolate and floral displays to themselves. Boohoo.”

  “I wish.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  Gray turned her head. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

  Thea shrugged and cranked the wheel at their turn onto the main road. “It seemed like you had a moment with that guy yesterday.”

  “Nolan?”

  “Um-hum.”

  “We’re just friends. Well, not really even friends. We know each other,” Gray clarified. Clearly it wasn’t working on Thea.

  “He seems nice. I do have a few questions for him before he can ask you out.”

  “Thea!” A moment later Gray laughed. Her cheeks were heating, but it felt good.

  “What kind of music does he like?”

  “No idea.”

  “You can tell a lot about a guy by the music he listens to.”

  Gray leaned forward. “Like what?”

  Thea straightened up behind the steering wheel. “Like if he’s a lame-o.”

  “Pray tell, what kind of music do lame-os listen to?”

  “Boy bands, Britney, Lady Gaga . . . pop.”

  “You’ve just described my sister’s favorites.”

  Thea raised a brow. “Point made. Speaking of, I imagine Charlene will be a no-show on Valentine’s Day.”

  Gray snorted. “Yeah, unless she plans to throw pig’s blood on Stacey Morehouse.”

  Thea chuckled. “Not that she wouldn’t deserve it. Stacey Morehouse is pretty heinous.”

  “So’s Charlene.” Gray sighed. “Why can’t I have a nice twin sister?”

  “Yin and yang, baby.” Thea shrugged. She flicked her blinker on and took a sharp turn into the student parking lot, coming to an abrupt stop that sent Gray lurching forward in her seat. Thea sighed. “Another day in paradise.”

  Gray’s head snapped toward her. “What did you just say?”

  “Another day in paradise,” Thea repeated.

  “Sorry,” Gray said. “It’s just I heard Raj McKenna say the exact same thing the other day.” When he didn’t realize she was there.

  Thea’s eyes lit up. “Oh, now he’s delish.”

  Gray could see Thea’s tongue peeking out as though she meant to lick her lips. “Gross,” she said.

  “Tall, dark, lean, muscled McKenna, gross? You’re in denial, babe, face it. And I can guarantee you he doesn’t listen to any offending music.”

  “It’s just everything else about him that’s offending.”

  Thea finger combed her bangs over one eye. “He’s got depth.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I can just tell.” She glanced sideways at Gray out of her visible eye. “And I think you like him.”

  “Do not!”

  Thea grinned mischievously. “Then what were you doing inside his car last week?”

  “I told you. He didn’t return the pen I lent him in class and I went to retrieve it.”

  “Right, you must have loved that pen to go to such great lengths.” Thea chuckled.

  “It was my favorite pen, Thea. And let me tell you something about Raj McKenna. He’s a delinquent. He burnt down his last house.” Gray could have sworn Thea looked even more impressed.

  “All right already. No reason to get your panties in a twist.”

  Gray pushed the car door open and got out. Thea was just as quick. Gray looked over the hood at her. “I hate that expression.”

  “You hate that I’m right.”

  * * *

  After fourth period, Gray went to her locker to retrieve her lunch bag and found that someone had decorated the outside with pink, shimmery wrapping paper. There was a balloon at the top with a Band-Aid stuck in the middle and some ribbon that curled downwards. When Gray opened her locker she found a white rose and card taped inside.

  The card had a picture of two bears seated on a green hill under a blue, sunny sky. The print on the card read, "I’m Sorry I Hurt You."

  Inside, Charlene had written:

  Dear Sister,

  What I did was wrong and I don’t blame you if you never want to speak to me again. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I have tried so hard to be a good friend and sister to you. I have tried to make you like me. When you started doing so well at Gathering I thought you’d get bored with me and leave me behind. I only wished you wouldn’t forget me. I wasn’t even aware of what I was doing and by the time I was, I didn’t know how to stop. My presence canceled your powers out without me wishing it and I was too ashamed to ask for your help or Mom’s.

  It is such a relief that the spell is lifted. It is a burden I have carried far too long and the guilt has eaten at me all these years. Be happy knowing that I have been my own worst punishment and that I hate myself for what I did.

  I am going to fix this, Lee. I’m going to fix everything.

  Your sister,

  Charlene

  Gray tucked the card between two textbooks and re-taped the rose to the inside of her locker door. She grabbed her sack lunch off the top shelf and smacked the locker door shut. For a moment she looked at the glossy paper covering her locker and thought about tearing it down, then decided there was no point. Anyway, it looked pretty. Maybe Nolan would notice and think she had a secret admirer.

  She turned around only to see that Shay Baxter had honed in on her as she was walking by, hand in hand with Max Curry. Of course—it had to be the coven’s star couple.

  Gray pasted a smile over her face. She didn’t know why. Shay wasn’t smiling at her. Her gaze flicked from Gray to the papered locker and then back to Gray. Max probably wouldn’t have noticed her if Shay hadn’t said hi and dragged him to a stop at the last minute.

  “Hi,” Gray returned.

  At least Max smiled.

  “That was an impressive comeback at Gathering Sunday,” Shay said.

  Why was she studying Gray as though she were a specimen under a microscope?

  Gray’s smile faded. “Not really.” What she really wanted to do was inform Her Magic Holiness that it wasn’t a comeback at all. Gray hadn’t lost her capabilities—they’d merely been blocked . . . by her sister. That was the part she wasn’t willing to admit. She might as well tell Shay that her sister had committed murder. She’d judge her just as harshly. As mad as Gray was at Charlene, it was for her to judge, not Shay Baxter.

  “Well, it’s good to have you back,” Max said just be
fore the couple continued down the hall.

  Suddenly his smile wasn’t as endearing. Back. Had Gray been away? Did her presence not count during the years she’d been hindered? Gray recalled the look on Shay’s face when the applause for Gray had drawn her attention from the next room. For a fleeting second, Gray had had the suspicion that Shay had done something to block her magic in the past. But that was ludicrous. Not the infallible Shay Baxter.

  Gray wished it had been Shay. She wished it’d been anyone but her sister.

  * * *

  There was no trace of snow by the time school got out. Gray was relieved Charlene’s car wasn’t parked out front when Thea dropped her home. If Charlene thought she could patch everything up with a bit of shiny paper, she was sorely mistaken.

  The kitchen was always Gray’s first stop when returning home. Today, parchment paper lined the countertops, with empty molds stacked in a pile. The sink was filled with pots smeared with dark chocolate. There was a stack of clear cellophane bags with little red hearts and a spool of red ribbon beside it. What caught Gray’s eye in all the mess were the smoothly molded chocolate hearts set on parchment.

  “What’s all this?” Gray asked her mom when she walked in.

  “Charlene’s become something of a chocolatier this week.”

  “Charlene and chocolate.” Gray turned toward her mother with raised brows. “I never thought I’d hear those two words in the same sentence.”

  “This is the first time I’ve seen her interested in anything besides Blake. Look how beautifully they turned out.”

  As if Gray had stopped looking at the chocolates since entering the kitchen. Each heart was smooth, dark, and beckoning to melt on the tip of her tongue.

  “They say sugar’s the best medicine,” Mom said.

  “Don’t you mean laughter?”

  “I think it’s a toss-up.”

  “I could use a bit of chocolate therapy myself.” Gray zeroed in on one of the chocolate hearts, only to freeze mid-reach when her mother yelped, “No! Charlene said not to touch anything.”

  Gray snorted. “What? Does she plan on eating them all herself?”

  “No, she’s giving them away. I think she wanted it to be a surprise for Valentine’s Day.”

  Gray fought the urge to snort again. It was a bit hard to miss a kitchen filled with chocolate. Well, at the very least, Charlene owed her a bag of handmade chocolates. Gray would take chocolates over flowers any day. And it wasn’t like she was expecting anyone else to gift her sweets. No, it would be another Valentine’s where she had to buy her own candy. This year she’d take the ones Charlene made. It wasn’t like she cared about having it packaged up or presented to her on Valentine’s Day.

  Once her mom had left the kitchen, Gray snatched a handful of hearts and ran up to her room. She popped a chocolate into her mouth and made a face. Okay, not the best candy she’d ever tasted, but not the worst. Charlene could cross catering off her list of potential careers. Gray sucked on a second piece then bit into it once it’d softened. It was still chocolate, after all.

  She spread her geometry book open on her desk. Might as well get her least favorite subject out of the way first. She pulled several sheets of lined paper out of her desk drawer and clicked her mechanical pencil twice. She leaned over the book. Trouble was, geometry problems looked like Chinese and if you didn’t speak Chinese how could you translate symbols or, in this case, solve problems?

  Maybe she should ease back into homework with something that came more naturally, like English. Now there was a language Gray understood.

  She pushed the math book aside and extracted an ink pen from her pen cup. She tapped it on top of the desk then stopped, stared into space, and traced a finger over her lips.

  Gray stood and grabbed the Magic 8 Ball off her bookshelf. There wasn’t anything magic about it—just a standard-issue toy from Mattel. Still, she liked to think the energy she put into the ball brought forth the truth and tonight she had a very important question to ask.

  “Does Nolan Knapp like me?” Gray shook the ball vigorously and turned it around.

  Ask again later.

  Later, like three seconds later?

  Gray shook it again.

  Ask again later.

  She began shaking the ball with more vigor. Does Raj McKenna like me? she asked in her head before she could stop herself.

  Yes.

  The Magic 8 clunked against the wood shelf when Gray set it down.

  Gray returned to her desk and polished off the rest of the chocolates as she did her reading assignment. When it came time to start the essay, she found herself unable to concentrate. For one thing, her stomach hurt.

  Good going. She’d given herself a tummy ache.

  By the time Gray came down for dinner, Charlene’s chocolate factory was closed down and packed away. Gray wasn’t sure she could sit at the same dinner table as her sister and just looking at the casserole placed in the center was making her feel ill.

  Charlene began to yell from upstairs as Mom walked into the dining room. “Go ahead and eat without me. I just applied my face mask.”

  Mom smiled at Gray. “Well then, I guess it’s just you and me.” Her expression changed. Now she was looking at Gray, frowning. “What’s the matter, sweetie?”

  Gray slouched in her chair. “Nothing. Just a slight tummy ache.”

  “Did you get into the chocolate?”

  Gray tried to flash Mom one of her cute “you caught me” looks, but it was hard to pull off when it felt as though her insides were eating her up.

  “Here, this will help.” She heaped green salad onto Gray’s plate.

  “Thanks, Mom.” Gray forced the lettuce into her mouth. Hopefully it’d counterbalance the sweets soon. She chewed slowly. “How was your day?” she asked halfheartedly.

  “They have me working on another Norwegian thriller.”

  “Good, at least it’s something interesting.”

  “All books are interesting.”

  Gray swallowed a mouthful of chewed lettuce then pushed her plate forward. “I think I’m gonna go to bed.”

  “That’s probably a good idea.”

  Gray felt bad leaving her plate on the table, but at the moment she just wanted to crawl under her covers and curl into a ball.

  Chapter Eight

  It wasn’t the beeping of her alarm, but the pounding of her head that woke Gray up the next morning. The pressure in her skull was debilitating. It felt like an anvil pressing her head into the pillow. She lay in bed a moment longer before slowly lifting up.

  “What the heck?” Gray’s mouth fell open.

  Why the hell was she in Charlene’s bedroom?

  Gray felt something scratchy against her bosom. She looked down. And what the freak was she doing sleeping in Charlene’s lace slip?

  The headache was momentarily forgotten. Gray swung her legs out of bed and stomped to her room. “Charlene!” If this was her sister’s idea of a joke . . .

  But Charlene wasn’t in Gray’s room. Obviously she hadn’t slept in Gray’s bed, either. It was neatly made. Someone had tidied up the objects on her armoire and dresser and picked up her discarded clothes.

  “Mom!” Gray called next, marching down the hall to her mother’s room.

  She pushed the door open. Empty.

  Again, what the freak?

  The hospital.

  Gray jolted to a stop. Oh, god, Charlene! She’d seemed okay the night before—she’d been giving herself a facial—but maybe she just wanted to look her best before offing herself.

  Was that why Gray had been sleeping in her sister’s bed? Had her mom rushed off to the hospital while Gray fell into Char’s pillows sobbing herself to sleep then somehow blocked out the whole traumatic event?

  And thrown on Charlene’s slip while she was at it?

  That was just weird.

  Gray hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen. There was a note on the countertop.

  Charlene
:

  Got the call.

  I’ll be back Friday afternoon.

  I love you.

  Mom

  Some Valentine’s week this was turning out to be. Even Gray’s own mother didn’t love her.

  Okay, so of course she knew her mom loved her, but not enough to leave her a note or at least include her in the address.

  Well, then, whatever.

  Gray stormed back up the stairs and pulled off the negligee. She didn’t even want to think about how creepy that was. As she stepped into a pair of underwear, Gray remembered she didn’t have to dress herself anymore. Good, ’cause Thea was going to be there to pick her up in less than fifteen minutes. Gray snapped into a pair of embroidered jeans and a blouse.

  She hurried down the stairs and poured herself a bowl of cereal. She rushed back up the stairs and began tearing her room apart looking for her backpack. Finally she located it in the far corner of her closet.

  She couldn’t imagine why her mom would tidy up her room all of a sudden. And what was “the call?” Her mom hadn’t mentioned anything. Maybe it had something to do with Charlene. Maybe she was getting her help. They had spent all that time talking in secret. Gray hoped that whatever kind of help it was involved a boarding school—preferably in a foreign country.

  She wasn’t ready to forgive her sister, especially now that she knew Charlene was okay. Kinda. Gray still wasn’t clear where her sister was at the moment.

  The sky was solid gray. So what else was new? Except that maybe it was much lighter than it should be, even for an overcast day. And warmer, too. The air didn’t have the same bite to it, especially considering it’d been cold enough to snow the day before. Their street was ominously quiet. For a moment Gray had a chilling thought. What if she was the last person alive in the world? She shook it aside and let relief wash over her when a car passed.

  Gray checked her watch. This was the latest Thea had ever run. Unzipping the front pouch on her pack, she reached in, but her phone was missing. She rifled through the main pouch, but it wasn’t there, either.