Cassie

  Cass was bored. She was also a bit anxious.

  When Lia had asked for some time to do something, she’d been confused at first. They’d spent more than enough time here already, and she was already starting to feel trapped by this little town again.

  Nonetheless, she was getting more and more worried about what exactly Lia could be doing. She had run through the conversations they had shared this morning, and she kept coming back to the same thing.

  She was getting her mother.

  She… understood, to an extent. She was clearly worried about the relationship between the two. She had been for a while, long before they had even left Vernal in the first place. Cass could understand her girlfriend’s desire to see the two reconcile.

  At the same time though, she kind of wished that Lia would stay out of it. She had her plan of attack, and she knew how her mother would respond. It would hurt, just as it had when she was fifteen, or sixteen, or seventeen. She would survive though, because she always had.

  Now, though, things were different. Lia could be… determined, at times. She wasn’t quite stubborn as much as she was certain, or at least she seemed that way. Cass was certain that if Lia had actually decided that she needed to step in, she was going to keep stepping in until she thought it was fixed or she was provided with a reason to stop.

  Still, even with this realisation, she felt strangely calm. Something about the way she and Lia had been talking made her more… secure, perhaps. Where before she would have been frustrated at Lia’s actions, she- well, she still was. Yet that frustration was underpinned by a degree of trust that, knowing Lia, her decision to step in would at least have been thought out. The methods probably less so, but that was just how she operated.

  That said, she would be having words with her after the fact. She couldn’t think of those words right now though, because she needed to prepare for the inevitable.

  “Are you going to talk about what has you and Julie all pent up, or were you planning to just brood it away?” Noren finally spoke up again.

  “I’m not brooding,” she defended. “I’m thinking.”

  “You are? Is that why you look like you’re in pain?”

  “Oh, because you’re the smartest guy around, is that it?” Cass shot back immediately.

  “Well, when you put it like that…”

  Cass glared at him for a moment, but she couldn’t hold it. She couldn’t help the laugh that burst from her either, brief as it was. “Thanks, Noren.”

  “For what?” He asked, which got another laugh from her.

  She was about to respond when Lia walked back in, soaking wet but alone. “Cass? Could I talk to you for a second?”

  Cass stood up quickly, deciding to play it cool. “Sure. What about?”

  Lia looked… nervous, to describe it in a word. Like she wasn’t sure if she was about to win the lottery or lose her house. “Well, I just wanted to ask you to do me a favour, actually.”

  Cass raised an eyebrow. “Really? Shoot.”

  “Um. Well, just… keep an open mind, okay?” Lia spun and leaned back out the door. “You can come in now. Noren, we’re giving them some space.”

  “Must I wait in the rain?” Noren lamented, but he seemed to pick up on the tension in the air when Cass’ mother walked in. “On second thoughts, the rain does seem rather refreshing.”

  The door remained open long enough for Noren to make his escape before Lia closed it behind her, leaving the two of them alone. Well, Jenna was still in the next room, but she had only stayed awake long enough for them to quickly bid her goodbye before promptly falling asleep again. Lia did come by her love of sleep honestly, after all.

  “Mother,” Cass broke the frosty atmosphere.

  “Cassandra. It has been some time,” her mother stated. “I was unsure you were coming back home.”

  “It was an unplanned visit.”

  “Yet here you are all the same. You didn’t even stop by,” her mother accused. “When was the last time we lived as a family, Cassandra?”

  “Who knows,” Cass wondered. “Perhaps it was when you refused to accept me, Mother.”

  Her mother scoffed. “When was that, Cassandra? Was it when I tried to prepare you for the real world, or when I diffused your childish fantasies?”

  Cass clenched her fists, but did nothing. Responding in anger would get her nowhere, she knew that. “Is that what you’re calling them, Mother? Remind me, which of these fantasies are you referring to?”

  “Take your pick,” her mother hissed. “You seem to have grown so full of them over the last few years. What happened to my dutiful daughter, the one who understood that a child should listen to her parents?”

  “Dad died, that’s what happened!” She exploded. “He died because he was living in agony, and you just moved on, like nothing had happened! You wouldn’t even tell people why! Did you even care? Well, did you?”

  Her mother was silent for a moment, her gaze burning a hole into Cass’ forehead. When she did speak, her voice was tightly controlled. “You will not question my love for your father, Cassandra. I understand that you feel you have been mistreated, but that does not mean you can go gallivanting around, violating propriety and besmirching our family name!”

  “Oh, of course. You don’t care for me, or yourself, or Dad. You care for the family name,” Cass spat. “When have you cared for anything else? What are you, some petty minor noble? No, this was a mistake. There’s no fixing this. No fixing you.”

  Her mother seemed to bite her tongue, almost visibly holding back her words. Silence stretched between them like a chasm separating two continents, seemingly impassable by both parties.

  Then, to Cass’ surprise, her mother seemed to collect herself. Not the way she usually did, bundling up everything that made her human and pretending to be someone else entirely, but actually calming down. When next she spoke, her voice was softer, sadder.

  “Where did I go so wrong, Cassandra?” She lamented. “I didn’t raise you to be stubborn, yet you are. I didn’t raise you to be sinful, yet you are. What did I do to drive you down this path.”

  “There it is again. Why must you be the cause of everything?” Cass hissed, before doing her best to reel herself in. She took a few moments to gather herself, to speak from her mind rather than her heart. “This is me, Mother. I am myself, and I am your child. You made me, yes, but you did not make me who I am.”

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  Her mother said nothing for some time, simply staring at the floor. “I… have missed you, Cassandra. Not just this past month. It has been years since we last spoke as we once did.”

  “Because of you, Mother. You didn’t accept me when I needed you the most. You chose your vision of the future over your own child.” Cass felt strangely calm, like the world had been brought into clarity. That said, she didn’t particularly like what she saw. “That is the choice you made, time and again.”

  “Julie asked me to keep an open mind,” Her mother admitted. “When she was convincing me to visit you. What did she mean?”

  Cass scoffed. “You can’t tell? Keep an open mind about me. About how I choose to spend my life, about who I choose to spend my life with. Which is her, by the way.”

  Her mother seemed confused. “Excuse me?”

  “Lia. I’m spending my life with her. You can save it with the talk, I get that you don’t agree, but I don’t care. You made your choice when I was fifteen, and you can’t take it back now. Goodbye, Mother. I hope you can figure out what you did wrong. If not, I don’t expect we’ll be speaking again.”

  Cass marched past her mother, slipping out the door and closing it behind her with her heart in her throat. The moment she was outside she sagged against the door, suddenly exhausted beyond reason. She turned her gaze outward to see Lia and Noren both standing there, watching. Lia had formed the words ‘Happy Reconciliation!’ with her illusions, which was cute. Not all that accurate, though.

  “Cass?” Lia called out in concern, dropping her magic and rushing over. “You seem… tired. Did it not go well?”

  Cass just sighed. “Not like I think you hoped.”

  Lia looked distraught. “I… sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten involved. It’s your problem, and I just forced it.”

  Cass gave her a weary smile. “It’s fine. I get why you did it, and I’m kind of glad you were willing to, even if I kind of wish you hadn’t.”

  “I shouldn’t ha-”

  “Enough. I already said it’s fine. You said earlier you thought I should get closure, right? Well, I think I just did. Maybe not the kind either of us would hope for, but it’s something.”

  The pair were silent for a while. Over the rain Cass almost thought she could hear voices inside the house, but she decided not to question it. She was done with that part of her life. Even if part of her hurt because of this, with luck it wouldn’t scar anymore than it already had.

  Eventually, Lia did what she did best and turned to something she could control. “Do you want a hug?” She asked. A simple solution, but Cass had to admit that she did.

  She nodded and was wrapped in five and a half feet of changeling in an instant. “I’m really sorry if I messed everything up,” Lia muttered.

  She just sighed. “...Don’t worry about it. It was time to move on anyway. Besides, maybe this will finally knock some sense into her. Just... promise me that you won’t ambush me with something like this again.”

  Lia just nodded into her shoulder, answering without hesitation. “I promise.”

  “Thank you.” Cass imagined she would be beating herself up because of this one for a while, so she decided to let it lie on her end. Any scorn she may have thought reasonable for Lia’s mistake would be outclassed by whatever guilt she was feeling now anyway. Besides, she couldn’t say for certain she wouldn’t have at least tried to do the same, were the situations reversed.

  “Ahem,” Noren intruded from behind them. “I get that this is all very emotional, but can we go now? It is still raining, and we’re burning daylight.”

  Cassie couldn’t help the tired grin that bloomed across her face at Noren’s complete refusal to bow to the reasonable, empathetic or socially aware response in any given situation. It was endearing, in a weird, not-really-a-good-thing kind of way.

  “Yeah, let’s go. For real, this time,” Cassie nodded. “I can’t wait to leave this place.”

  --------------------------------------

  Jenna

  Jenna stepped out of her room, still dressed in her nightclothes, to see a rather distressed looking Jolene standing stock-still in her living room. The girls were gone, as was their strange friend, so she wasn’t really sure why Jolene was here. It had been years since the two had really spoken, so she doubted it was for her sake.

  Nonetheless, Jolene seemed to be having some kind of crisis, so she did what she did best and steeled herself for a long conversation. No matter how distasteful she thought some of Jolene’s views to be, she was still going to help her out if she could. No one deserved to be in distress, not if she could help it.

  “Jolene?” She called out gently from the doorway. “Are you quite alright?”

  The other woman straightened up immediately. “J-Jenna! Ah, of course you’re here. Yes, I was just…” her words trailed off, as though she simply couldn’t find the will to keep saying them. “Oh, what’s the use? I’m a failure, Jenna. My own daughter hates me.”

  “I’m sure that’s not true,” Jenna hedged. She knew from Cassie the various ways that Jolene had… made mistakes. Nonetheless, it was Jenna’s firm view that nobody was beyond help.

  “It is, Jenna. She practically told me herself. I thought it was some phase, but she’s just… gone.” Jolene practically wilted as she said those words. “I haven’t spoken to her in so long, and the first time I do she says she doesn’t want to see to me again. What’s worse, I’m worried that… there’s a chance that she may have had a point.”

  “Now, now, Jolene,” Jenna gently reprimanded. “That’s no way to think about a difficult situation. What happened to the strong woman I used to have tea with?”

  Jolene met her gaze for the first time in the conversation. “That wasn’t strength, Jenna. That was well-hidden cowardice. Cassandra knew it, I knew it. Richard knew it, when he was still alive. No, there was no strength.”

  “Again, I’m sure that’s not true. Listen, why don’t I put a pot of tea to boil? We’ll sit down, talk it out, yeah? I’m sure we can work something out, just so long as you’re willing to listen.” Jenna bustled over to the pot, discovering that the pot was already full of water and the fireplace stocked with wood. How helpful those girls were.

  “You think so?” Jolene asked?

  “Of course I do! Have I ever been one to give you false hope, Jo?” Jenna used the nickname for the woman that had been her friend before the whole nasty business with Cassie, hoping to bring some life back to her.

  “No, Jen,” Jo admitted softly, pausing as though she was absorbing the situation. “No, you haven’t. Can… can you really help? Do you think I might be able to fix it?”

  Jenna smiled as she lit the fireplace. “Absolutely, Jo. Just you wait. After all, I know your girl almost as well as I know mine.”

  “I’m glad,” Jo said as she sat down at the table. “I’m starting to think I don’t know her at all.”

  “None of that talk, now,” Jenna reprimanded her gently. “You’ll only upset yourself. If you get caught up in despair, that’ll be all you see. Trust me.”

  “I… I think I do, Jen. More than myself right now,” Jo admitted softly. “I don’t know how I let it get this bad. How didn’t I see this coming?”

  “It’s easy to get caught up in things, Jo,” Jenna agreed. “That’s all that happened. I remember when Richard was still alive, back when your girl still adored you. Don’t you remember those times? Chamomile or Mint?”

  “Mint, if you please. I do remember, Jen. Of course I do. I just… I don’t know if I can do it anymore. I don’t have Richard to play the other side these days,” Jo lamented.

  “Who says you need him? I can do it,” Jenna asserted confidently as she shuffled around, collecting a pair of cups.

  Jo was silent for a while. “I… don’t think that’s appropriate, Jen. Nothing productive can come from an unequal partnership like that.”

  Jenna stilled. “What exactly did you think I was proposing, Jo?”

  “That you replace Richard. It makes sense. Your daughter seems to be… like that, much as mine believes that she is. They had to get it from somewhere. These things spread, you know. Before you know it, nothing gets done.”

  Jenna turned fully to face her. “Well. That was an awful lot of words. Who’s were they?”

  “Excuse me?” Jo declared, taken aback. There was no heat in it, though. She didn’t quite seem capable of that kind of passion at the moment.

  “Those words. They weren’t yours, so who’s were they? You forget, I know you, too, or at least I did. The Jo I knew would have laughed off that particular misunderstanding, or even played along. So, who changed your mind?”

  Jo said nothing, so Jenna decided to leave that conversation for later, when she had more sway. She could do this. It would be like a project, a long-term thing for her to sink her time into, with the reward of getting her old friend back and helping out her girls.

  “Never mind that for now,” she said, carrying over the two cups of tea and placing one in front of Jo before sitting opposite her. “I wasn’t proposing a relationship in any case. My daughter may have found joy in that area, but I can’t say I plan to follow her. Regardless, I was suggesting that I can help out with the girls. Hells, I practically raised Cassie for the last few years anyway, if you’ve forgotten.”

  “Of course,” Jo muttered darkly as she sipped her tea. “She spent so much time here that she forgot about her own mother.”

  “No she didn’t,” Jenna argued. “She simply didn’t find it appealing to spend time with you. We can work on that, along with everything else. Now, why don’t you tell me all about it, from your side? If you promise to keep an open mind, then I promise that the next time the girls stop by, we can really get to work on fixing this.”

  “An open mind,” Jo mused. “Your daughter asked something similar, not too long ago.”

  Jenna grinned. “Smart girl. I should know, I taught her everything she knows about conflict resolution, and I never even got to chapter two. So, let’s get started, eh? If we want to get this done, we have a lot of work to do.”

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