Maybe it was a Morganville thing, but Claire was reasonably certain she'd never thought of someone being horribly murdered with quite so much enthusiasm. She'd seen too many examples of it in real life. That, she realised, was the real gap between her and Elizabeth now ... life experience. Elizabeth still lived in a world where the worst that could happen was a stolen wallet or a minor accident. She didn't know how fragile things were, or how hard you had to fight to hold them together when the world spun out of control.
Claire felt ancient, even though she was a full year younger. She said, 'Um, can I see your room now?'
'Creepy talk creeping you out?'
'Little bit, yeah.' Shane would have had a brilliant comeback, or Eve, but Claire couldn't come up with one, suddenly. It didn't matter. Elizabeth pulled her down the rest of the twisting flight of stairs to the second landing, and opened up the door and flicked on the lights.
'Ta da!' she sang, and did an extravagant sweep of her arm. The room was as orange as Claire's was blue. To be fair, only one wall was painted that colour, but it was the far one, and it practically glowed in the dark. So did the bedspread with its profusions of ruffles, and the piles of pillows. It was nice, though, even if it was unsettlingly bright ... Elizabeth had taped up band posters and some kind of fantasy art featuring winged, half-naked male angels. Her dresser was practically covered with make-up and piles of jewellery. It was the girliest room Claire had ever seen, actually, and that included Eve's. At least Eve's was dark.
'It's really ... cheerful,' Claire said. That was true. It also gave her a headache. Maybe that was the incense, which smelt like freshly peeled ... oranges. That seemed a little bit too much theme for sanity. On the plus side, she was suddenly grateful that Liz had chosen blue for her bedroom. 'Well, let me get unpacked, and you can show me the rest of the place, okay?'
'Not much else to see. There's a tiny little living area and a crappy kitchen. No TV; I figured we could stream something if we wanted to watch it, but I'm not really into that stuff anyway.'
'What stuff?'
'You know, TV, books, films, all that kind of stuff.' Liz dismissed it with a wave of her hand. 'I like the real world. Besides, only geeks go all nuts over made-up stories.'
That was a shock, because Claire clearly remembered squealing with Liz over the latest Harry Potter book, and excitedly chattering about what Snape would get up to next. This Elizabeth - this platinum blonde, carefully made-up, fashion-conscious young woman - this one was a stranger. 'I still like it,' Claire said. Not defensively, because she really didn't feel a need to defend it. She was just stating a fact.
But it seemed like Elizabeth took it as a personal attack. Her face turned pink around the cheeks and at the top of her forehead, and she glared and said, 'Well, I don't, so let's get some ground rules straight - you don't bring home any geeky weirdos who want to sit around and play games or talk about movies or that stuff. You'll never find a guy that way, and you'll ruin my chances, too!'
'A ... guy?' Claire felt suddenly at sea, because this conversation was getting weirder and weirder. 'Liz, I'm not looking for-'
'Fine, sit around and sulk about your stupid cowboy all day and night, but I'm finding someone worthwhile.'
'What's worthwhile for you?' It might have been goading, but Claire honestly wanted to know. Sort of an anthropological experiment.
Elizabeth looked puzzled for a second, then ticked off what she wanted. 'Money,' she said. 'A decent job, something medical or finance or something. And a good car. He's got to have a good car. Also, he should have short hair and wear ties most of the time. Nice silk ties, not those crappy Kmart special ones.'
She had remarkably specific rules, Claire thought. 'Found anybody yet?'
'Not yet, but I know what to do. I go to the places that those kind of men show up, like the upscale food stores, and the opera, and I wait for one to notice me and talk to me. I've gotten loads of conversations. Sooner or later one of them will date me.'
That was ... well, Claire didn't have any other word for it. Bizarre. 'Don't you want to, I don't know, meet somebody and fall in love because you're just ... right for each other?'
Liz shrugged. 'Don't really care about that,' she said. 'Romance is for idiots. I'm done with all that stuff.'
'Liz-' Claire didn't know how else to put it. 'What the hell happened to you? Because you're just not ... not the same.'
Elizabeth gave her a long, bitter look. 'You don't want to know,' she said. Claire remembered the flash of fear in Liz's eyes at the airport, and wondered even more. 'I'm just telling you, your boyfriend? He may pretend to be Prince Charming, but he'll show his true colours. They all do.' She stepped into her room and took hold of the door. 'Let me know when you're unpacked, we'll make some dinner.'
Then she shut the door, and Claire was left standing on the stairs, feeling very alone. Elizabeth had changed, all right - far more than Claire herself had, even with all the pressures of Morganville. She was trying so hard to be adult that she was going to break something - probably herself, Claire thought.
But Liz was right ... she did need to unpack. Though when she went back upstairs, and surveyed the depressing blue room again, the first thing she wanted to do was take her suitcases and run, run away, run back to ...
... To Shane.
Claire took out her phone and scrolled the address book. All the familiar, aching names. I can call him, she thought. I can call right now.
Instead, she put down the phone, took a deep, slow breath, and threw the first suitcase open on the low, creaking bed.
Maybe putting things in drawers and in the narrow closet would make her feel less ... lost.
An hour later, though, the suitcases were empty, and the drawers were full of underwear and T-shirts and clothes, what needed to be on hangers successfully on the closet rod, and her battered assortment of shoes neatly arranged ... and she put the small number of personal things she'd brought with her around the room. She hadn't bothered with posters, but she had framed photos of Shane, and an album of photos of Michael and Eve and Myrnin and Amelie and everybody else she knew in Morganville who'd stand still for it, or even those who wouldn't, like Oliver, taken on the stealth. A record of what she'd left behind, the good and the bad. Even Myrnin's pet Bob the Spider had his own close-up. He was surprisingly kind of cute.
And Claire still felt lost and alone. Having the familiar around only made all this seem more alien.
She kept arranging things until she realised it was verging on obsessive, and finally hooked up her computer, logged on to the house Wi-Fi (at least that was decent) and found e-mails had exploded like popcorn in the microwave of her inbox. One was from her dad, telling her to call to confirm she was safe in her new place. Ditto from Michael, and from Eve, and even an awkward, formal note from Myrnin that boiled down to the same thing (she was surprised he'd actually figured out how to manage it on his own). It was all really sweet, but she couldn't stand to talk to them right now; the despair of having made the decision loomed all over her, and she knew she'd break down and cry if she heard a familiar voice. So she sent out e-mails instead.