My Soul to Keep - By Sean Hayden Page 0,32
turned around. Slowly. Of all the things I'd been expecting to come flying out of her mouth, an apology wasn’t one of them. “What did you say?”
“I said I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” A billion other things flashed through my head to say. The realization I might actually be the first person Clarisse had apologized to in the last thousand years told me to keep my mouth shut.
“No, it’s not, but one apology is all you get. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, Clarisse.”
“Oh, I won’t. Ever,” she finished without batting an eyelash. “Are you ready?”
“For what?”
“Training.”
I sighed and held up a finger. It was just my index finger and not the one I wanted to give her. She cocked an eyebrow and I opened the door leading into our small kitchen. Mom sat at the Formica kitchen counter drinking coffee and reading the Cedar Hills Tribune. “Hey, Mom?”
She stopped mid sip and turned to look at me over her shoulder. She could see Clarisse standing on the back stoop behind me and looked pleased. “Yes, honey?”
“I’m gonna head to the mall with Claire. Is that okay?”
“Are you going to introduce me first?” I could tell by her voice, it wasn’t a request.
I looked behind me and saw Clarisse looking quite amused and pleased with herself. “Want to meet my mom?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” she whispered and pushed past me through the narrow outer door. “Hi, Mrs. Sullivan, I’m Claire.” She crossed the distance and held out her hand for Mom to shake.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, dear.” I groaned at the “dear”. Mom called everybody “dear”.
“Well, we gotta get going, Mom. We’ll be back later. Soon. Very soon.”
“Take your time, kiddo. Do you need any money?”
“I’m good,” I replied wanting to get out of there more than anything else I’ve ever wanted in my life. I turned to leave but Clarisse half grabbed my arm.
“Did you tell your mom?” I saw the wicked gleam in her eye and groaned.
“Tell my mom what?” I really didn’t want to know. I really, really, really didn’t want to know.
“That you’re taking me to the Halloween dance at school, silly.”
“I am?” My heart sank somewhere below my bellybutton. Jessie’s face crumpled into tears in my head. She would never forgive me, especially after my endless assurances yesterday that I had absolutely no feelings for Claire whatsoever.
“Don’t tell me you forgot already!” The laughter in her eyes made me want to throw her halfway across town.
“How could I possibly forget you, Claire? You’re my reason for living,” I said with as much venom as I could muster.
“Connor, what’s the matter with your eyes?” Mom sounded concerned. I looked at her wondering what she was talking about.
“What?”
She stood up and walked over to me. In a classic "mom" move, she took my head in her hands and turned it from side to side. She looked very confused. “That is weird. I could have sworn your eyes were red.”
Realization hit and I knew we needed to get out of there. I didn’t have my orb anymore and if Clarisse insisted on pissing me off, it better be several miles away from my mom and dad. “Must have been the light from the ceiling fan, Mom. You ready to go, Claire?”
“Sure, wo…Connor.”
“Well, you two kids have fun,” Mom said and smiled, letting go of my face.
“Thanks, Mom.” I turned and motioned for Clarisse to lead the way. It’s childish I admit, but as soon as she turned around I stuck my tongue out at her. As soon as we were outside and away from the back door, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. “What the hell were you thinking, Clarisse?”
“Whatcha mean, worm?” I wanted to wipe the smile off her face with a belt sander or maybe even one of those commercial metal grinders that could cut through bank vaults. That might be better.
“Telling my mom I’m taking you to the Halloween dance! I’m not going,” I said slowly.
“With me?”
“At all! I can’t dance, I don’t dance, and I won’t dance! You had no right.”
“And here I thought I might be doing you a favor. I’m sorry, worm. Here, I’ll go tell your mother you don’t want to go with me…” She turned and started walking back toward the house. I knew she was bluffing, so I called it. I let her walk up the steps, put her hand on the handle, push it down, open the door, start to walk inside…maybe she wasn’t bluffing.