Tonya Hurley_Ghostgirl_03 by Lovesick Read Free Book Online Page A

even tighter focus.

“What do you want?” Wendy Anderson quizzed.

“Nothing,” Darcy answered. “I just figured you guys have been embarrassed enough for two lifetimes.”

“What do you mean?” Wendy Thomas asked.

“The whole coma thing, getting left back a year, and getting dumped by her boyfriend for her little sister,” Darcy added snidely. “Now this.”

She was making a blatant move against the Queen, a naked power play, and The Wendys were impressed. This was getting very political, and they were always up for a little intrigue. They still hadn’t quite made up their minds, however, about what to make of this news or the messenger who delivered it.

“Let’s just keep this confidential for now,” Wendy Anderson urged, as she and Wendy Thomas flanked Darcy and walked her down the hall, out of the earshot of any curious bystanders.

Darcy was unfazed by their attempt to intimidate her.

“Consider it a gift,” she said, strutting toward the exit and smiling as the third-period bell rang.

The drama of the day continued when Charlotte arrived home, or rather she continued with the drama.

“What do you mean, you’re going back?” Charlotte’s mom asked, fighting back tears that would never come. “Bill?”

Her mom’s outburst only served to feed the flame already burning in Charlotte’s head. It felt good to be cared about so deeply. From her father’s earnest countenance, she braced herself for the other side of the equation. He was a listener, rash neither in his words nor in his actions.

“It’s not right,” Charlotte complained out loud. “I have what I always wanted and now it’s being taken away from me.”

Charlotte was upset but also kind of excited. This was the first chance she’d ever had to vent to her parents. To be a child.

“Charlotte, we know how you’re feeling. All we ever wanted was to be with you again, and now to find that you’re leaving,” Bill Usher began sympathetically. “But, you just may be needed for bigger things.”

Charlotte was hoping for more than a feel-good speech. She wanted to be rescued from this predicament. She wanted to stay and he was being a… dad.

“Bill, this isn’t right and you know it,” Eileen said, the exasperation in her voice familiar to him.

“Eileen, look, what if your mother stopped you from moving to Hawthorne?” Bill offered rationally. “You never would have met me.”

“No, but I’d be alive,” Eileen said tersely.

Charlotte couldn’t believe what had just slipped out of her mother’s mouth, and neither could Eileen, from the expression on her face. It occurred to Charlotte that she wasn’t the only one in her family who had carried unresolved issues over.

“This is so unfair,” Charlotte said, echoing the sentiments of the zillions of whining teens before her, but more importantly, breaking the tension between her parents.

“It isn’t very fair, but you need to see the big picture,” Bill said, the backlog of fatherly advice now just pouring from him. “You have a responsibility to yourself and your classmates, and you can’t let them down.”

Right now, Charlotte couldn’t see the forest—only the trees. Especially the big giant one that looked like a totem pole with Markov’s face carved into it and was blocking her path to ultimate happiness.

“Your father has a point. Even if we can’t change the situation, we can change the way we look at it,” Eileen said, embracing Charlotte with all her might, and heart.

Charlotte noted the reversal in her mother’s tone and felt that Eileen had drawn some strength from her father’s steadfastness. They were being a parental team, getting on the same page, and even though she disagreed, there was comfort and strength in their togetherness.

Eileen and Bill smiled, signaling to Charlotte that they were okay with it and that she would be okay, too. They hugged her tightly, squeezing the life out of her, so to speak.

Satisfied that the