Twisted Magic

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Ink 2- Twisted Magic
© 2012 Holly J. Hood

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For my Meatloaf

Other books by Holly Hood

Ink Series

Ink

Wingless Series

Wingless

Polar

Scattered and Broken

Prison of Paradise

Letters to you

Back to Life

Heart of Gypsies

Love hurts
Series

The killing of Rose

Perfectly Hopeless

S
ummer had begun. I came to a stop in front of the beach
house, glad
to be home and done with school for the summer. A lot changed
since the summer.
I enrolled in
Ashwilder’s
big sister school,
Asu
. I had Nona to thank for that. If
it wasn't for Nona I
would have never afforded such a place. College proved hard, but I loved every second of it. Although I had to admit I loved being home even better.

Dad hurried down the porch steps. “There’s my girl. Welcome home, Hope.” He wrapped his arms around me tightly, not letting me get a breath
in,
I kissed his cheek before
I pried
his arms off of me.

“Missed you guys too, where
are
Elliot and Easton?” I searched the beach, the house
,
anywhere they could possibly be. I knew the answer before Dad even said it.

“Well you know how teenage boys are when they discover girls,” Dad told me. He took my duffel bag. “I barely see anyone anymore. It’s nice that your back.”

I followed on his heels up the steps. Noticing the new
paint job,
Dad had a lot of time on his hands now. I wasn’t there to keep him busy and help him out anymore. It took a
couple of
months to accept that I couldn’t be superman. That he had to learn to survive without me, but I did, and looking at him now I knew that everything worked out just fine.

Dad touched my hair.
“
N
ew
hairdo
?”
He
smirked.

I ran a hand through my longer style. “
It’s
trendy. All the girls on campus do
chic
.”

Dad nodded
,
totally out of the loop and not caring in the least, as long as I was happy he was. “So
what are the plans
?”

I opened the refrigerator, scrunching my nose at the lack of food. “Getting you some
groceries,” I said.
Dad shook his head, refusing to give in and admit he would be lost without me. When he
disappeared into the living
room,
I raised a single finger at my palm, concentrating hard.

“What’s that?” Dad asked, returning with a pile of mail. He handed it over.

“Pudding cup,” I said
,
shaking the chocolate pudding at him. He gave me an odd expression.

“That’s odd. I didn’t even know we had pudding.” He opened the refrigerator taking another look inside. I smirked.

I finished unpacking my old room. My bed and dresser
were
still the same as when I left it. I looked around, remembering the fond memories and some bad ones. This was my house, my home.

I
did a
lot of growing up
in the beach house
. I smiled at some of the moments. Winced at some of the bad ones, finally I dropped the last of my clothes in the drawer and headed out. Dad was in the shower, the boys still gone. This was my chance.

I pushed open the front door, heading down the stairs and across the sands of the beach, knowing exactly where I was heading and who I wanted to see.
Slade.

I was sure Dad would understand my need to see the boy from the most incredible summer of my life. At
one time,
Crawford was my joy, my excitement when I came
home from just about anywhere.
However,
Crawford passed away while I was at
school,
and he no longer was a part of my life. It made me sad, so I usually blocked it out altogether.

The familiar scent from the ocean reminded m
y nose just exactly where I was, t
he memories of Slade and I together the summer before
waged war
in my
mind
.

I stared at the red door
of the
rv
.
Parts of me were nervous.
It
had been awhile since
Slade,
and I had seen each other. I smoothed my hair, looking down at my jean shorts and white
t-shirt
, w
iggling my t
oes in my strappy sandals.
I hoped I looked decent enough.

Finally,
I shoved the
anxiety
aside and knocked. But nothing happened. All was still. There was no
pleasant
greeting by Lucy or Oz or any of them.

I dropped down from the steps taking a seat.
Had
they all left?
And why hadn’t Slade told me if he was moving away? It had to be a mistake. Slade and I might have
missed
seeing each other when I went to college, but he wouldn’t have just up and left me.

I forced myself to believe I had it all wrong. The entire crew of Evil Kings of Ink wouldn’t have just abandoned their only home and took off.

I stood up, letting out
an
annoyed
sigh. I decided to head back to
Dads instead of
hanging around some deserted stomping ground.

Each footstep toward the house made the ball of stress in my stomach that more
obvious
. I had to know that he was
alright
.

Dad was toweling his damp hair as
I made it back into the kitchen, m
y miserable expression catching him off guard.

“You’re here for ten
minutes,
and
you’re
already sad and depressed?” He opened the cupboards
looking for something
.

I sighed. It wasn’t like me to share my
disheartening
woes with the world.
Nevertheless,
I had missed Slade
terribly
while I was away. We talked on the phone every day, but the idea he wasn’t waiting in Cherry
impatiently
for me to return made my
stomach
ache
.
Secretly,
he was the only thing that mattered. Sure Dad meant a lot to me and Karsen, but when you fell for that special
guy,
it was hard to see anyone else but them.

“I just thought he would be here when I got back.”

The instant exhale of air told me Dad was uncomfortable with the topic. He brought his hand up pretending to check the time.

“Have you seen much of Slade while I’ve been away, Dad?”

Dad gave me the
come-on-you-can’t-be-serious
expression.

“Dad
it’s
not like I asked you to spy on him. I just want to know if you
have seen
him.”

Dad shook his head, grabbing his keys from the counter. “No
,
I have not seen much of Slade. He’s not exactly the friendly type without you around. And I am not fond of death metal
,
so we haven’t hung out much.
”

I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm. And then realized he was leaving. I raised an eyebrow.

“I promised to meet Lynette for lunch.” He kissed my cheek. Searching my eyes for disgust or something
,
I wasn’t sure what. “You can visit Nona while I’m gone.”

I couldn’t believe Dad was still dating Lynette after everything I had been through with Tucker. I
swallowed
the resentment.

“
It's
fine. I have to pick up Karsen at the airport in a
couple of
hours. I’ll stop at the grocery store.” I
smiled
faintly
,
heading to my room before I burst into tears. Not only had I been abandoned by Slade
,
now Dad was
leaving me for his girlfriend.

I climbed into bed curling into a ball and buried my face into my pillow.

Before I knew it I drifted off into a comfortable
catnap
,
oblivious to the time. It wasn’t until my phone was ringing that I was pulled from my sleep.

I blindly searched for
it
on the
end table
. “Hello?”

“You're a
dirty
bitch,”
Karsen shouted in my ear. “I ask you to do one
thing,
and you fail.”