Darkest Day (11 page)

“No.” Her extended answer, with a long ‘o’ sound gave her away.

“Liar.”

“Oh, come on, Winn.” She stamped her foot on the ground. “I’m trying to be Switzerland here, you know? Instead, I end up being the go-between for you and my sister. Both of you make me want to pull my hair all out.” She exaggerated doing just that.

I held up my hands. “I’m sorry. You’re right. That wasn’t fair.”

Zoe rolled her eyes just like I’d seen Mac do countless times.

I stepped back toward my door.

Zoe grabbed my arm. “Hey.” She bit at the side of her lip. “Do you think … well … when Mac’s birthday comes around and you’re, you know … back to not knowing about any of this. Well … are you going to forget me?”

I’d never thought of that.
Forget my own sister? Talk about cruel.
“I don’t know, honestly. I guess, maybe, they take my memories away that are of Mac and—” With a hand, I swished through the air. “—all about her, but you were in my life before. So maybe then it’s just up to you to keep the secret from that point.” That seemed logical.

“I hope so. You’ve been a good big brother.” A grin pulled up her lips. “Mostly.”

My own smile grew. “And you’ve been a bratty, annoying, but mostly awesome sister, too.”

“Thanks. So … you ready to get doughnuts?”

“Now?” I’d forgotten I promised to go with her. “It’s almost seven already, and I’m meeting Mac at eight.”

She banged a foot on the floor again. “You promised you’d take me before you went since Dad’s out of town again.”

I raised my hands. “Sorry. Yeah. Let’s go.”

“Cool. I’ve got a couple friends going with us.”

“You do?”

• • •

R
ather than spoil her evening, I climbed into my car with Zoe and her two friends. With one hour and only a ten minute drive to Caroline’s, I figured I had plenty of time to deal with my sister and get to Mac.

“So … Winn,” Clara said from the back seat. “You’re a Snior at West, right?”

“He is,” Zoe answered for me from the passenger’s seat.

Through the rear-view mirror, I watched as Clara rolled her eyes, making me realize just how overused the action had become for girls, and women, under the age of a hundred or a thousand—since Cleo and Robin, two of the Council members, did it, too, and who knew how old they were.

“You going to prom?” Clara asked.

“I hadn’t—”

“Yes, he is. With Mac Thorne. You know her,” Zoe said, interrupting for the second time.

I glared at her. Mac and I had not discussed it, and though I certainly would take her, I couldn’t see Mac in a prom dress or having flowers on her wrist. Then again, she had dressed well for the party she’d thrown.

“I know
of
Mac, yeah. Heard she dropped out,” Clara said.

“She was sick,” Zoe said.

Clara snorted a laugh. “Pregnant, maybe, but not sick for that long.”

Oh, god, is that what people think happened to Mac?
“Trust me, she wasn’t pregnant. She was sick, as Zoe told you,” I said.

“Right.” Clara gave me another rear-view mirror eye roll. It made me wonder why Zoe hung out with her if they obviously didn’t see Mac the same way. “I heard from Mark, who heard from Jessica, that she had an abortion, and Ridge was the father.”

Holy cow! How do people come up with this stuff?
The urge to stop the car and kick Zoe’s friend out burned through me. “They’re all wrong,” I said.

“So, you know what happened? Tell us, then. So we can set the record straight.” Her words dripped with indifference.

The grimace from Zoe collided with Clara’s smirk.

“Mac had the same virus I had, only hers lasted a lot longer. And, obviously, I can’t get pregnant. You can even call the CDC if you want.” Magwa said he’d make sure any requests for information on the ‘virus’ covered the entire time of Mac’s absence and mine.

“Yeah, okay, whatever.” Her tone turned dismissive. “I’m just sayin’ what I heard.”

Luckily, before we could start into yet another conversation, I pulled us up to the doughnut shop—where a massive yellow hummer sat in the parking lot with a plate that read DEMUN.

Mac

“You need a Coke, or something, Mac? You’re all jumpy,” Caroline said.

“No.” I needed the chocolate that came with the doughnuts Suze was going to pick up along with dinner. I could have done without the pizza, but craved the chocolate like some PMS’ing teenager, which I had neither become nor wanted to ever be.

“Then, sit, will ya? I’ve got one page—”

At the ring of the doorbell, I bolted. Down the hall steps and around the bend, I made it to the front door and opened it wide.

Maddie stood on the other side.

What the hell?

“Well, hi, Mac.” She slid in, two bags over her arms and a swing in her step.

With distinct effort, I closed the door without slamming it, and managed not to wrap my hands around Maddie’s neck when I turned. “Hi.”

“Caroline in her room?”

“She is. But … what are you doing here, Maddie?”

“Same as you, Mac. Same as you.”

“To study?”

She smiled. “Of course. Caroline’s my friend. We study together all the time.”

You did. Until a month ago.

Maddie smirked at me as she trotted down the hall on her way, I assumed, to Caroline’s room.

Her arrival completely screwed up my plan. Caroline’s, too, unless she’d known Maddie planned to join us.

I faced the front door like a sentinel army ready to do battle. Maybe I could run and try to catch Winn before he showed up. Or I could wait and find out just what Maddie planned.

Both were risks.

Dealing with her on an empty stomach, and with a head full of nothing but air and brains, didn’t bode well.

I need chocolate.

Spinning toward Caroline’s kitchen, I found not only the fridge, but Maddie placing something inside. She must not have heard me walk in as she closed the door and tiptoed her way out the back entrance.

Curiosity may have killed the cat but never me. As Maddie bounced her way around the corner and out of sight, I opened the fridge. Since I’d already scoured the contents when I’d first arrived—looking for chocolate—I knew she’d added the three small containers of purple liquid.

I lifted one of the large test-tube-y glasses and swirled the liquid around. In the one I held, a dizzying array of colors spun, dispersing to the deep purple once more a moment later. Like milk, the top separated from the bottom changing it into a smoky haze before settling again on the thicker liquid. The second did the same. The third did nothing.

I’d have sworn on my mother’s uncle’s dead cat’s grave I’d seen the concoction before but couldn’t place it.

“What in the freakin’ world is she planning?”

11

Mac

Maddie sat on Caroline’s bed in much the same position I’d been before—ankles crossed, head back, filing her nails, though with an opened Organic Chemistry book on her lap.

Caroline sat in her desk chair, facing Maddie, as I leaned into the frame of her door. The little shrug and rapid blinks suggested Caroline hadn’t known Maddie intended to drop in. In the past, I might have edged up onto the bed, but with Maddie’s attitude adjustment, I wanted to stay as far away as possible.

“So … Mac,” witch-girl said.

I should have corrected myself. Pure-bred goblins would never want to be called witches under any circumstance, and if Moira had spawned Maddie, she’d either come out halfling or flat—also known as plain ‘ole human. Given Maddie went to West, I’d deduced she’d been born flat—or, at least, I suspected that, given how dedicated to science and math and human stuff she’d been. Any self-respecting halfling would have focused on less mundane stuff.

She ran the file across her nails a few more times before making actual eye-contact with me. “I want to apologize to you.”

Caroline sat upright in her seat and glanced my way with big eyes before facing Maddie again.

“You do?” I asked, mostly in a mumble.

“Well, yeah.” The book in her lap closed, but I saw what I expected Caroline didn’t. Maddie hadn’t touched the book to close it.

Pretending I hadn’t noticed, I asked, “Why?”
My brow furrowed. That could cause a whole series of problems. Had Suze been right?
Is Maddie a halfling? And, seriously, what does she know about me?

“Because it wasn’t nice of me not to help you during your time of need.”

“My time of need?”
What the hell?

“Right. When you were …
ill
.” She winked at me.

An actual wink. What is she up to?
“S’okay,” I said. “I got better.” Another glance over to Caroline netted me a light shrug.

“And that’s all that counts, right?” Maddie flicked at her fingernail.

“Uh … yeah, sure.” I tried to process Maddie’s still-unexplainable apology. Dropping my hands to my waist, I said, “You know … actually, no. What gives with the Winn poaching?”

With a roll of eyes and spin of her chair, Caroline went in a three-sixty degree circle before she faced Maddie and I again. “Do we have to—”

“Yeah, we have to,” I said. “It’s time I got this question answered. If I recall, you invited me into your ‘group’.” I air-quoted since the group had sort of disbanded since that invitation. “You asked me to be your project partner. You helped me plan the party for Valentine’s Day. You knew I was sick, and still you decided it was a good time to make a move on Winn?”

She batted long blonde lashes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Like hel—”

“Hepatitis.” Caroline’s blurt out had me stopping.

I burst into laughter. “That’s all you could come up with?”

“I had to think quick. You’re not making this decision of mine easy.”

Sobering, I turned back to Maddie. “You know what I’m talking about. You made all those googly faces when I caught you kissing him—or trying to—in his room, the night he got back.”

“You did not!” Caroline’s hands slammed on her chair arms. “Mads! How could you kiss Winn? That’s beyond wrong.”

Maddie jumped up from her comfy spot, hands clenched into firsts, hair flying with the movement of her head. “Neither one of you would believe me if I tried, so just shove it. I’m leaving.” She grabbed her bag. “You can have the Kool-Aid I made and left in the fridge.”

Kool-Aid, my ass.

Caroline traipsed after Maddie. “Maddie stop! We’re all friends.” She glared at me when I followed.

Sure, like Cain and Abel were friends.

“Come on, Maddie. Mac’s right—”

Maddie stopped and spun, evil in her eye. “I didn’t poach! You were gone! He was hurting and you lef—were out of the—sick! He deserves better, Mackenzie. And as soon as I figured out he still loved you, I took off. So, oh … my … god … thank you for not believing me.”

“What did you do, Mads?” Caroline asked.

Maddie’s hands flew into the air and slammed against her thighs. “Nothing! I welcomed him home. That’s all.” As Caroline turned toward me, Maddie smiled, a giant, smirky grin meant to say, ‘see, I’ll get my best friend back in no time and leave you in the friendship grave’.

“Maybe you need to apologize, Mac,” Caroline said.

My eyes bugged. “Are you f—freaking fracking kidding me?” I pointed to myself. “What do
I
have to apologize for? Saying ‘yes’ when she invited me? For thinking she was my friend? What the demon do I have to do?”

Caroline tilted her head to the side. “You know, I quite like ‘demon’ for that ‘H’ ‘E’ double-hockey sticks word.”

I waved at her. “Use it, then. I’ll just get out of your way.” Three steps to the door and Maddie stopped me with a hand to my bicep.

“I really am sorry.” Her face said genuine while, in the back of my mind, everything screamed at me not to listen to her. “Come on. Let’s all go back and stop this middle-school child play. Though, I did bring Kool-Aid to go with the pizza, so we can pretend that’s an adult drink, if you want.”

The stuff in the fridge.
“How did you know we were getting pizza?” My hands moved instinctually to my hips.

Maddie’s mouth opened.

Caroline shoved past us and around to the kitchen. “Let’s let bygones be bygones,” she said, “and futures be futures with no boy in the way of any of them.”

I walked in with Maddie as Caroline lifted the cup and put it to her lips.

Before I could yell, ‘no!’ she drank.

Winn

Zoe leaned toward me. “That’s Suze’s Hummer, isn’t it?” as we exited the car.

I nodded. Only Suze would have a license plate that advertised himself in a way no one would believe.

The bell dinged as the four of us entered the doughnut shop. Suze turned from the counter, his bald head with double red-spots right where his horns should be a giveaway to anyone that knew him. Though the black jeans, black boots, black jacket and red driving scarf made him appear about as normal as Suze could.

He paid for his order and sauntered past us toward the door, the jerk of his chin indicating he wanted me to follow.

I tapped on Zoe’s shoulder as she reached the counter. “I’m going to talk with Suze, ‘Kay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Leaving the three giggly underclassmen hovering over the counter and pointing toward a variety of fatty circles Mac would love, I turned away, another group of late-night sugar eaters entering.

“Whoa, ho, ho! If it isn’t the one and only Winn Thomas.” Ridge stood in the middle of the doorway, blocking my way out.

“Not tonight, Ridge. I’m not even remotely interested.”

His head turned side-to-side. “What, no Mackenzie? She taking someone else out for a drive?”

“When did you lose your entire tact, man?” I stepped up to him, eye to eye, nose to nose. “This act you have going on is stupid and pointless. If Mac wants to date you, she will. If you want to fight me, I won’t. End of story. Now get out of my way.” Only once had I gotten physical with Ridge, and I didn’t intend to repeat myself.

Ridge’s finger dug into my chest. “Make me.”