Because isn’t it always?
28Mariella
“Ta-da,” Anna says, pushing me in front of the full-length mirror in her living room.
She’s spent the last hour tweezing, curling and styling, all to prepare me for tonight’s psychology ball. A transformed girl stands before me. My beautiful navy dress plunges indecently low on my chest, loose curls falling around my face, makeup contoured to perfection. My blue-brown eyes are enhanced with smoky eyeshadow, my lips a creamy pink. Anna’s even managed to hide the bags under my eyes.
“Well, what do you think?” Anna asks.
“I love it. Thanks Anna.”
“No problem, babe. I’m going to put my dress on,” she says, ducking into her bedroom.
Laughter in the corridor draws my attention to our front door, my mind jumping to Parker and Rose’s door opposite. During the first two weeks of their absence, I occasionally knocked on their door in the hope they’d returned. Now, resigned to disappointment, I don’t bother. It’s been months since I’ve seen either of them. Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went. Why didn’t Parker say goodbye?
I’m desperate to talk to him about my conversation withSilas. I knew Rose and Parker were in trouble, but I never found outwhothey were running from.
I yawn while I wait for Anna to dress. She’s stopped asking about my nightmares, even though my screaming wakes her every other night. My vivid dreams have intensified in Parker and Rose’s absence, playing on repeat during my sleeping hours. My mother by the ocean, Parker kissing me, followed by my nightmare—the violent booming and suffocating darkness before an unsettling silence descends. I wake with my heart pounding in my chest and electricity racing through my body. That smooth, deep voice ringing in my head, “I love you, Mariella.” Those emotion-laced words echo through my mind as Anna returns in her dress.
“Anna, you look stunning.”
“I know,” she says, beaming. “Hey, it’s not a big deal, but did you go through the closet in my room?”
“No, why?”
“A few things were in the wrong place.” She waves her hand. “It was probably me last night. I was pretty drunk.” She eyes me up and down with a knowing smile. “You ready?”
“Drink,” Anna screams, pointing a black fingernail at Emma’s date, a tall, red-haired guy in a velvet suit. We’re on the third round of a drinking game in our apartment common area, waiting for our limo to collect us for the ball. The group is borderline drunk, and almost no one notices the tall, temperamental woman dressed in black who storms past. She disappears down the corridor, leaving a trail of white, apple-scented mist in her wake.
“I’ll be back,” I tell Anna, springing up to follow Rose. I step out into the corridor and scan the empty space for Parker. Rose stands alone outside my apartment, her long, dark brown hair tied back in a messy low ponytail.
“Can we talk inside?” she asks.
“Sure.” I let her in and shut the door.
Her tired, onyx gaze slides over me. “You look… nice. Or whatever.”
My hands wrap around my bare arms. “Thanks. There’s a ball on tonight.”
Rose nods and checks her watch. We stand in awkward silence, avoiding each other’s direct line of sight. I have so many questions I want to ask her. “Where is he?” I blurt.
Rose tucks her hands into her hoodie and turns toward the sofa, taking in the colorful items of clothing draped around Anna’s living area. “Parker isn’t with me anymore.”
The energy within my stomach dissipates. “I don’t understand. Did he get his powers back?”
“That doesn’t concern you,” she says coolly.
“Yes, it does,” I fire back. “He promised to take me to see my mother. To find out if she was a time traveler.”
Rose whips around and strides toward me, the tendons in her neck taut. “Time travel isn’t genetic. Leave the past alone and accept you won’t see Parker until you’re recruited to Neurovida.”
I study her butchered nails and the dark rings under her eyes. Is she trying not to shake? “Is that his decision or yours?” Rose scoffs, and I step toward her. “What else aren’t you telling me?”
“There’s a difference between lying to you, and not tellingyou things you don’t need to know,” she growls, straightening her spine.
“Well, now I need to know. Because you and Parker disappeared without saying goodbye, and I’ve had police interrogating me.”
“What?” she blurts.
