Now*
“Terry was the perfect storm, attractive, damaged, kind, mysterious, ruthless, strong, yet vulnerable. He was everything I should have stayed away from, but the second that I met him I was hooked, it was like he was a drug and I was addicted. The truth is, he had given his heart away to someone a long time before he met me, and he had never gotten it back.”
“Mom, I don’t understand… you aren’t making much sense.”
“I know Charlee, it’s just so hard to explain, I’ve locked down these feelings for years, and I’m trying my best to explain to you our history.”
I looked at her, and for once she looked her age, her lips turned down in a frown, I could see the wrinkles, there were bags under her eyes that I had never noticed before and a sadness around her that had never been there before, I wanted to tell her to stop, that I didn’t need to know, but that would have been a lie and now I needed to know more than ever.
She continued, “I was 18 when I met him, he was just 21, about to enter his last year of college, and he was in town for the Summer, he kept telling me that he could never be what I wanted him to be, and that he would one day leave in the middle of the night and I had to be okay with that. And I was, I figured anytime with him was better then none, he utterly captivated me. I figured if we spent enough time together, eventually he would feel the same way about me as I did about him, I was naive.”
“So, he lied to you Mom?”
“No Charlee, he never lied to me, he just couldn’t be what I wanted him to be."
Then*
“I just don’t understand why you won’t kiss me Terry? Am I that unattractive to you? That you can’t even kiss me during a game at a stupid party?” Tears streamed down my face, I knew I looked as bad as I must feel.
“Damnit Cheryl, don’t cry, please, you know I can’t stand it when you cry.” He whispered as he used his thumb to wipe away the tears.
I signed on the impact, just having him this close to me was making my head fuzzy.
He inwardly cursed, “Why can’t you just be okay with being just friends?” He looked at me with pain brewing behind his stormy blue eyes.
“Because I think that i'm in love with you.”
“Damnit Cheryl, I should be the better person, I should walk away from you, but I’m a selfish man, you make it easier to live.”
I fell back into the passengers’ seat with a sigh, he always talked in riddles that I didn’t understand, whenever I pushed him on it, he shut down and I wouldn’t hear from him for a few days. It wreaked havoc on my soul, so I stopped pushing, and he stopped shutting down.
Tonight, at a party on the beach, when the bottle landed on me, he stormed away instead of just kissing me, it was embarrassing and tore me apart. I didn’t want to push it anymore tonight, He was leaving back to go back to school in Louisiana in 8 days, just 8 days I had left with him.
Before I knew it, we were parked in front of my house, since the night was over I figured I didn’t have anything left to lose that night.
“Terry, is it me?”
“No Cheryl, it’s not you, but you’ll never be her.”
“Who was she? You could at least tell me that.” I looked over at him, his head hung low almost hitting the steering wheel.
“She was my soulmate.”
I sucked in a deep breath, the pain in my chest made it almost hard to breathe
“And? Where is she now?”
“She’s dead.”
I gasped, just as he looked over to me, a single tear rolled down his cheek,
“You look like her you know, your hair, your laugh, you could be sisters.”
Shock rolled through me, and I had to get out of the car. I ran towards my front door, afraid to look back because if I did, I’d see the broken man in the driver’s side, and I’d run to him and try and take away his pain.
So I did what I thought was best, I ran inside.
Now*“Mom, please help me understand. Did something bad happen?”“Gosh no Charlee, nothing like what you’re thinking. I’m just trying to help you understand, and tell you the story of the last night I saw your father. It had been weir
The next few days passed in a daze, I was trying to process the information my mother had given me, and she was trying to hover as much as she could while running the diner. I wish I could tell her that I was okay and nothing she told me was affecting me, but now more than ever I had a million questions, if he knew about me, did he really not care enough about my mother to even meet me? Did he just not care? What about his family, did they know? So many questions, and no one could give me the answers I wanted. Every single google search I had done over the last few days turned up empty not even an obituary, I was stuck, it seemed like this was all the information I was ever going to get. I sighed in frustration and looked over at my clock- it was 11:48 pm, in just twelve minutes I would be 18. Tomorrow night I would be at Tays house while the majority of our graduating class got drunk and got ready to kick off their last summers before al
We barely crossed the threshold of my new school before we were greeted by one of the most stunning people I think I’ve ever seen in my life. Long red hair fell down in the most spectacular spiral curls, perfectly winged eyeliner and red lips matched her skin tight red dress to perfection.“Hi there, I’m Maggie Henderson the head office administrator here, it’s my duty to accompany all new students around campus when they first arrive.” If I didn’t find her attractive before, I definitely did now, her voice sounded like whiskey, smooth and sweet with a bite at the end. I snuck a peak over at mom and could tell she was just as awestruck as I was.She cleared her throat and looked at me, “And you must be…” my cheeks burned with embarrassment, I realized I had been staring and had yet to utter a single word, luckily for me mom found her voice first.
“Survive it?” I whispered“Yeah you know, being the new girl, college courses… college parties. That kind of thing.”“Oh, right…yeah.” For some reason I’m almost positive that isn’t what she meant.“So dinner? I just have to freshen up a bit.” She looked over at me, “You should too, and showers are down the hall to the right.”I grimaced and realized I must look like death warmed over and everyone here so far was drop dead gorgeous, “yeah, that sounds great, I’ll be ready in twenty.”She nodded her head and headed back towards her room. I decided to dig through my stuff and find things to shower, I desperately needed to wash this drive off of me. Finding the showers was easy enough, although I wasn’t thrilled at the aspect of having t
I slammed the door to our dorm shut trying to catch my breath.“You alright girl? You look…flushed.”“I’m fine, just hungry.”Laura looked at me like she didn’t believe me, but this day was weird enough already. How was I going to explain to my roommate that I was pretty sure I was seeing everyone’s eyes change colors and not to mention hearing things? And the first guy that I saw here I was seconds away from climbing him like a tree and begging him to take my virginity? Jesus, I needed to get a grip. I walked into my room and sat on the bed trying to talk myself into getting dressed and going downstairs. Although… hiding out here seems like the better option.“Knock knock, let’s go lady- everyone is just dying to meet you.” Laura shimmed into my room, “Unless you plan on going in a towel
“Okay very funny Laura, let’s all pull pranks on the new girl is that it? That’s what is going on isn’t it? I knew I kept seeing peoples’ eyes change colors! You totally got me.” I laughed.“No Charlee, you don’t understand. I was supposed to mentor you these next few weeks, find out what you know, and what you don’t. Monitor you to make sure that you were one of us, but you just can’t go around telling people you’re Terry Jones’ daughter. You can’t go around telling people your last name period.” She was sitting now, at our small kitchen table. “I’m going to tell you somethings that are going to make you think I’m crazy, and after I’m done talking you can run to Olivia and get a new roommate if you want, but that still won’t make it not true. Okay?”“Okay… but Laura, you’re real
I just stared at her, waiting for her to tell me this was all a joke. I mean, it all had to be a joke right? Magic? There is just no way, no how. Also, whoever ran this school had to know who I was- I mean they sent me my letter of acceptance.“It doesn’t make sense Laura, they would have to know who I was in order for me to come here, and wouldn’t they have just “killed” me then if they knew who I was?”She shook her head. “We’ve all basically known who we are and our history since birth. Once every few hundred years a warlock will step out on his wife and have an illegitimate child but as soon as they are able they come to school here and learn. It’s always the talk of the town for a few decades.”“Laura, you aren’t answering my question.” I was becoming impatient, every fiber of my being wanting to say she was l
I laid in bed awake, tossing and turning and trying to make sense of everything in my head. As much as I wish it weren’t true, everything seemed to add up. Why else would I have been accepted here on a full ride? Why had my father run off without so much as a “see you later, thanks for the great lay!” It’s exactly as my roommate said, he didn’t want to take responsibility. My heart ached for my mother, there was no way she knew the truth, her relationship or whatever it was with my father had been a lie. I pulled out my cell phone and glanced at the time, 2:45 am. I groaned and decided to go out to the living area, maybe I could watch some TV and fall asleep on the sofa. I closed my bedroom door as quietly as I could behind me, but before I could make it to the TV the bookshelf caught my eye. Maybe I should do some research? I glanced at the titles, Early History, Legends, Potion making, Af