That Witch! (23 page)

“And I’m not?” Brynn blurted, raising her head to meet her mother’s stare again. “You have no idea how scary this is for me. It feels right to be with Cassidy, to see her the way I do. And yet, I can’t help feeling like I’m doing wrong because of everything I was taught. Mom, I can’t help how I feel about her. I really can’t.”

Her mother didn’t say a word, and maybe that was strictly for the sake of not arguing.

The hug loosened, and Brynn sat back on the couch. Things felt… awkward, to say the least. She didn’t know what to say to her mom and how to act. She wanted everything to be normal again, but it appeared “normal” wouldn’t happen anytime soon. Well, at least her mother had taken the first step, and that alone was better than anything Brynn expected to happen. That alone showed potential.

“I’m going to head back home,” her mother said before kissing Brynn’s forehead. “Get some rest, and I’ll see you Thursday night.” Brynn nodded. “I love you, honey.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

Brynn watched as her mother left the room. She hugged herself tightly. Even though she knew better, it felt like her mother was walking away from her for good. It made that tiny flutter of pain in her chest grow stronger. What she wouldn’t give to be going back to her own home. Not that she didn’t love spending time with Cassidy and her family. It just wasn’t the same.

At the foot of the couch, on the floor, sat her backpack and another bag probably packed with clothes. Seeing them there hurt, but Brynn tried to make herself not read into it too much. Things
would
go back to normal. Eventually, she would be welcomed into her home again. As long as she kept telling herself that, she didn’t feel so lost and hopeless.

She grabbed the bags from the floor, then headed into the kitchen. She found Cassidy and her matriarchs sitting around the table with a single blue candle lit in the center. She smelled some sort of incense, though she couldn’t put a name to the scent.

“What are you guys doing?” she asked.

“The blue candle is for healing,” Cassidy’s mom said.

“And the eucalyptus is as well,” Nana added.

“I don’t normally do this crap, but they thought it would be a good idea…,” Cassidy said with a shrug.

“Thank you—” Brynn smiled. “—for everything.”

W
AKING
up with Pinky was something Cassidy could get used to. It wasn’t even so much the feeling of waking up with her girlfriend or her mom being so cool about it all, but it was like having her best friend living with her. What girl wouldn’t totally love that? Plus, she was elated to have her car back. The rental was okay, but she loved her car. She loved being able to drive Brynn to school even more.

“Green light,” Brynn said from the passenger seat, stirring Cassidy from her reverie. She smiled over at her and punched the gas pedal.

“What’s got you smiling like that?” Brynn asked.

“Just thinking of how awesome it is to have you at my house. I mean, it sucks about your dad and everything, but it could be worse, ya know?”
Ugh. Another red light.
It was a conspiracy to keep her from zooming into her usual parking spot at school and showing off her shiny car to that cow, Laura, sans her hideous artwork.

“It’s pretty bad, right? What could
possibly
be worse?”

Cassidy frowned slightly. “Um, well it could be a whole lot worse. My mom could’ve freaked and kicked us both out. Nana could not be in town to help guide your mom. Your mom could totally not have even bothered to try and understand. Don’t you think all that’s worse?”

“Yeah. You’re right. I wasn’t thinking about all that.”

“You gotta look at the cup half full, my little emo queen,” Cassidy said with another playful grin.

Finally, a steady stream of green lights had her zipping through town on a direct path to the school. By the time she cleared the gates of the Majestic Hills High parking lot, she was practically bouncing in her seat.

She cut the engine, reached back for her large Burberry handbag and folder, and sprang the seatbelt free. “School time!” she declared happily, eliciting a curious quirked brow from Brynn.

Pinky didn’t say anything, just leaned back, grabbed her own backpack, and slowly exited the car. Her pink head bobbed up just as Cassidy looked over to see her friend Tara’s Escalade pulling up beside them. She thought about going over to say hi, and that’s when she realized the extent of her weird joy.

Cassidy didn’t ever approach anyone just to say hi. Matter of fact, Cassidy never approached anyone, period. People were always coming up to her with greetings and salutations, presents and gossip. Somewhere along the line, something changed. And while it momentarily confused her, she decided some changes simply needed to be made.

She walked around the back of her car, smiling at Brynn, who stood at the passenger side, between both vehicles. Tara stood with the hatch of her SUV open, digging through books and piles of clothes.

“Hi, Tara,” Cassidy said, coming to stand beside the brunette.

Tara’s hazel eyes widened slightly, sculpted brows shooting up for just a second before she must have realized she looked like a deer in headlights and wiped the expression clean, replacing it with a smile.

“Hi, Cassidy. Are you okay? You were absent yesterday.”

“Oh yeah, I was fine. Just had some family stuff to deal with.”

“Oh, okay. Um, glad you’re okay,” Tara said, glancing over at Brynn before looking back at Cassidy. “Have… have you heard the, uh….” Those doe eyes looked down at the Mary Jane shoes adorning her feet, and Tara sighed. “Do you know what’s being said about you?”

Cassidy almost snorted. She’d been waiting for Laura to start rumors, knew it would happen eventually. While she was prepared for ways to handle Laura, she wasn’t so sure Brynn had it in her to deal with even more disappointment and embarrassment.

Cassidy looked at Brynn. She stood there, white-knuckling the straps of her backpack and intently peering back at her through the ever-present part in her pink bangs. Obviously, she was listening to the conversation, so Cassidy decided to approach it in the most aloof manner she knew how.

“Don’t tell me. Let me guess….” She looked up at the blue sky, pretending to be lost in thought for a moment, tapping the tip of her slender finger at her chin. “I’m a lesbian.”

It wasn’t a question.

Tara nodded shyly, glancing away for a moment before turning back to Cassidy with a small smile. “It’s cool with me if you are, you know? I mean, it’s none of my business… or anyone’s really, but if you are, it doesn’t mean anything.”

While Cassidy wasn’t really looking for approval, she quickly realized she much preferred Tara’s reaction over some judgmental sneer or a sideways, disapproving stare. Hell, she was even smiling—genuinely, at that—back at Tara.

“Thanks, Tara. That’s really cool of you.”

“You’re welcome,” she promptly replied, perking up a bit. “The whole cheer squad is cool with it too, so don’t worry, ’kay? I hafta get to class, but I’ll see you at practice later.”

Whoa. The whole cheer squad knows?

Wednesday had just proven to be a little more challenging than Cassidy originally prepared for. Tara was cool, but were the other cheerleaders
really
all okay with changing in a locker room with a lesbian?

Probably not.

“Um, okay. Thanks again, Tara. See you later.”

“You bet,” Tara said. She closed the hatch and turned to walk away but stopped for a moment in between cars and smiled at Pinky. “Hi, Brynn. I didn’t see you there. Love your outfit.”

Would wonders never cease?

If Tara were dressed in a Klingon costume and had just spoken in some far-out language, Brynn couldn’t have looked more surprised. “I… uh… hi, Tara… and thanks….”

“Sure thing. See you guys around.”

Tara bounced off toward the school building, leaving Cassidy and Brynn standing there, exchanging
WTF
faces. Brynn closed the gap between them, stalking over to the rear end of Tara’s massive SUV.

Thumbing over her shoulder in the general direction Tara had just bounced off to, Brynn asked, “Okay, seriously, did that just happen?”

“Erm, yeah, it did. Did you hear what she said about the cheer squad being okay with it? I dunno. I find that hard to believe,” Cassidy said as she took Tara’s lead and turned around to head toward school, all prior thoughts of rubbing her car in Laura’s face temporarily forgotten.

“Cassidy,” Brynn huffed. “You’re missing the point. What if the whole school knows?”

“What if they do? Is it really all that bad, Brynn?”

She understood why Brynn wanted to keep it a secret. She knew her girlfriend wasn’t comfortable with attention, that she preferred to just blend in the crowd or disappear right into it. But on the other hand, this was all new to her, too, and she didn’t think hiding it was the best way to approach their new relationship. Especially since their parents already knew.

“I don’t care if anyone knows anymore,” Cassidy admitted. “According to you, things can’t possibly get any worse, right?” She offered Pinky an encouraging grin, hoping to make her understand the hardest part was behind them and anything that happened at school could only pale in comparison to Mr. Michaels’s reaction.

“But are you okay with….” Brynn looked down at her feet, knuckles paling even more as she clenched the straps of her backpack. “It’s me, Cassidy. I’m a ‘loser’, remember? Are you okay with them knowing you’re with me?”

“Okay, first off, you’re not a loser, so stop it. Secondly, you’re just different. It’s not like you’re a leper or anything. You’re just… unique. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m certainly not ash—” Cassidy’s words were cut short by the sight of two senior girls walking by, holding hands and making googly eyes at one another.

Brynn’s head turned, her gaze following the same girls as they passed by. For the second time that morning, they exchanged
WTF
faces. “Is it just me, or did they look like…?” Brynn queried.

“Like a couple? Yeah, totally.”

“Did our school just turn into the freakin’
Twilight Zone
?”

“Who knows? Maybe we’re not the only ones here—we’ve just been too caught up in our own stuff to realize it.”

“Does that mean—” Brynn quickly looked around then leaned in. “—that we can hold hands?”

Cassidy giggled. “Do you want to hold hands? ’Cause I’m cool with any type of PDA.”

“If everyone already knows….” Brynn shrugged. “And it looks like they’re okay with it.”

Without another word, Cassidy reached down and took Brynn’s hand in hers. She smiled proudly at her girlfriend, happy that she was finally coming out of her shell. “Exactly. The worst already happened. What else could go wrong, right?”

“Oh look, now they’re open about it. Someone gag me.” Laura’s voice came from the left of the hallway.

“I spoke too soon,” Cassidy mumbled, tightening her grip on Brynn’s hand and trying to control the urge to magically send Laura flying across the hall, face-first into a metal locker.

The grip Brynn had on Cassidy’s hand loosened. Her sweet, innocent, shy Pinky was rocking one hell of a mean girl snarl. Her brows creased, nostrils flared. Her lips were pursed and her jaw tight. She stomped her way across the hall and stood nose to nose with the girl she’d once called a best friend.

“You listen right now, and you listen well,” Brynn said.

Cassidy’s eyes widened. She couldn’t make herself look away, like spotting a train wreck and waiting for the bodies to be pulled out of the carnage. Laura looked terrified. Her face paled as Brynn stabbed her finger at Laura’s sternum.

“You’re really starting to piss me off,” Brynn said. “We were best friends, and you got mad because someone else came into my life. Get. Over. It. If you would find yourself a boyfriend or… or girlfriend… or whatever, you wouldn’t be so jealous of me and Cassidy. Now, you can either deal with it or drop dead, but you’re
going
to leave us alone. Got it?”

Laura didn’t so much as open her mouth. She stared at Brynn. Everyone around them stared at the two of them. Cassidy smirked. Her little Pinky wasn’t so shy anymore. And Cassidy wanted to applaud her for it.

She felt magic crackle through every cell in her body. Sparks of energy begged to be released. Instead of making Laura slam into a locker, she channeled all that power into the source of her pride, Brynn. Walking to stand at her side, she held Brynn’s hand while a few people gathered around them applauded. Some cheered. Others snickered at the way Laura tucked tail and ducked down, slipping away from in front of Brynn before booking it down the hallway and disappearing into the mass of bodies.

“I’m proud of you,” Cassidy said lovingly.

“I have no idea where that came from, but it felt… a-freaking-mazing.”

“Because you finally took a stand against a witch.”

“I thought I was standing
with
a witch,” Brynn teased, giving Cassidy a playful wink.

“I’m like the good witch… only I dress better, and you can’t tell anyone about my pointy hat.”