Entangled (9 page)

There was no trace of snow by the time school got out. Graylee 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 Graylee’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 Graylee’s eye in all the mess were the smoothly molded chocolate hearts set on parchment.

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

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

“Charlene and chocolate.” Graylee 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 Graylee had stopped looking at the chocolates since entering the kitchen. Each heart was smooth, dark, and beckoning to melt on the tip of the 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.” Graylee zeroed in on one of the chocolate hearts, only to freeze mid-reach when her mother yelped, “No! Charlene said not to touch anything.”

Graylee 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.”

Graylee 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. Graylee 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, Graylee snatched a handful of hearts and ran up to her room. She popped a chocolate in 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. Graylee 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 Graylee 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.

Graylee 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?” Graylee 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 Graylee set it down.

Graylee 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 Graylee came down for dinner, Charlene’s chocolate factory was closed down and packed away. Graylee 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 start without me. I just applied my face mask.”

“Why don’t you eat with us while you’re waiting?” Mom called back.

“I’m not hungry, anyway.”

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

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

“Did you get into the chocolate?”

Graylee 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 Graylee’s plate.

“Thanks, Mom.” Graylee 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.”

Graylee 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.”

Graylee 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.

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 dyeing her hair and giving herself a facial for god’s sake—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. Thank god!

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 maybe that 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 cell phone was missing. She rifled through the main pouch, but it wasn’t there either.

When twelve minutes had passed, Gray headed back up her driveway. She leaned over and picked up the rolled newspaper and tossed it on the kitchen counter right before checking the answering machine.

No messages.

Gray dialed Thea’s house. The Johnstons’ answering machine picked up as Gray hung up. She dialed her mom’s cell phone next. It went directly to her answering machine. “Hey, it’s me,” Gray said. “Just wondering where the heck you are. Give me a call.”

Gray set the phone in its cradle and looked around the kitchen. There were a couple of glasses and a bowl and spoon inside the sink. Gray circled the kitchen, pausing in front of the trash bin. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for. She stepped on the lever that lifted the bin’s lid. Inside were several empty cans of soup and Slim Fast diet shakes.

Great on the recycling effort, Char.

Gray removed her foot from the lever and the lid snapped shut.

She sighed. Loudly. It was comforting to hear sound of any kind in the deserted house.

Gray grabbed the keys to the Beetle from the key peg by the door. Charlene obviously wasn’t using them and who knew what the heck had happened to Thea. The world had gone mad.

The rain was holding back for the moment, but it didn’t make the parking lot look any less gloomy. Her windshield faced McKinley. Gray studied the building for any activity going in or out. She chuckled softly. It felt like she was on a stakeout. Gray waited an extra twenty-five minutes. It was too late to go to first period. No more disappearing acts, especially not halfway through the period.

When the bell rang, Gray stepped out of the car. Was it her imagination, or were people staring at her in the hallway? She looked down at her blouse and jeans. Everything looked fine. Gray patted her hair. She’d put it up in a high ponytail then braided it Lara Croft Tomb Raider style, but blond and let’s face it—not as badass when you considered the embroidered jeans and blouse. Still, everything had looked good before she left the house and she’d checked twice: once before waiting for Thea, the next before nabbing the Beetle.

Gray paused in front of her locker. The pink paper was gone. Had Charlene taken it down? She couldn’t see any reason why she would—she was after Gray’s forgiveness after all. Someone else must have. That was just rude.

Gray began turning the combo on her locker. She could feel a pair of eyes on her so she glanced to the left. Curtis Read gaped at her fifteen lockers down. She really needed to check her face in her locker mirror. Gray finished the combination and pulled down on the latch. It didn’t budge. She yanked harder.

Curtis had thrown her off. If she had something on her face someone really ought to say something.

She spun the combo again with the same results. A groaning sound worked its way through her lips.

Fine. Magic it was, then. She lifted a finger and the lock unlatched. Gray pulled on the latch and gasped.

Her locker was completely bare.

She blinked several times. No, her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. There was
nothing
inside her locker. Her pictures and mirror had been removed as well.