Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(16)

“You never skip church,” I told her. “Or make breakfast. Or get up this early. So I thought maybe something was up.”

Mom dumped the eggs in the trash and put the pan in the sink. “It just seems like I never see you.” She crossed her arms, the delicate gold bracelet around her wrist flashing. It had belonged to my sister, and Mom had worn it ever since Leigh-Anne had died two years ago.

When I didn’t answer, Mom gave a rueful smile. “I guess missing you is to be expected with as busy as you are, but . . .” She trailed off, her eyes moving over my face. “I worry about you, sweetie.”

I crossed in front of the island in the center of the kitchen. “There’s nothing to worry about,” I said. I thought I sounded pretty convincing, given that I was lying through my teeth. I’d gotten good at lying over the past few months. It wasn’t something I was particularly proud of, but I didn’t see a way around it. The fewer people I loved who knew about Paladins and Oracles and Ephors and all the other crazy stuff that had taken over my life, the safer they’d all be.

“You’ve gone through so many changes recently,” Mom said, the corners of her mouth turning down.

You have no idea, I thought. What I said was, “Nothing major, though.”

Mom’s frown deepened. “‘Nothing major’? Harper, you broke up with the boy you’d been in love with for years, you started dating a boy we all thought you’d hated for years, and you hardly ever spend any time with Bee.” For a second, her eyes got slightly hazy, confusion wrinkling her brow. “Where is Bee, anyway? Didn’t she go somewhere?”

“She’s back,” I told her, not having to fake the brightness in my voice. “Remember, she was at cheerleading camp? She got back last night, actually.”

Some of the wrinkles around Mom’s brow eased. “Oh. Well, that’s nice. But Bee aside, I’m still concerned about you and Ryan. You seem happy, but—”

I squeezed her fingers. “I am happy. And Ryan and I still hang out; we’re friends. We just don’t date anymore.”

After a moment, Mom squeezed back. “Okay. But you promise everything is all right?” Smiling, she brushed my hair back from my forehead with her free hand. “You’re not going to suddenly dye your hair blue or start piercing things, are you?”

I shook my head with a little shudder. “Okay, the very thought of that makes me want to vomit. No.”

Mom laughed a little at that before wrapping me in a hug. “Well, there’s the Harper Jane I know.”

? ? ?

On Monday morning, I was heading out to my car when Bee’s white Acura came roaring up to the curb. She sat behind the wheel, her curly blond hair a cloud around her bright, smiling face, music blaring on the radio.

I smiled back, but something about her grin bothered me. It seemed . . . fake. Still, I made my way out to the car. “You offering me a ride?”

“A ride and coffee!” Triumphantly, she held a Starbucks cup out the window, and I took it, still feeling uneasy. I barely slid into the passenger seat before she was pulling back into the street, her fingers drumming on the steering wheel.

“So did everything go okay with your parents?” I asked, holding the coffee tight to keep it from sloshing through the little hole in the lid as Bee took a corner a little too fast. I almost had to yell to be heard over the music.

“It was fine!” Bee said, and I wished she would take off her sunglasses so I could see her face. “I mean, weird. At first it was like they didn’t even recognize me, or it was like they had just woken up or something.” She gave a little shrug. “But then it was fine. Like you said, they think I’ve been at cheerleading camp this whole time.”

We were almost to the school now—it wasn’t very far from my house—and I put my coffee in the cup holder before reaching out to touch her arm gently. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“Are you?” she asked, glancing over at me. I could see her brows rising over the tops of her aviators. “I’m not the one who could have super-dangerous challenges thrown at me at any moment. Although”—the corners of her mouth turned down—“I guess I will be if something happens to you.”

“Nothing is going to happen to me,” I said with a confidence I definitely did not feel. “I’ll get through this, you can go back to being normal, and everything will be like it was before. Well, mostly.”

Bee pulled into a parking spot and shut off the engine, turning to face me. She slid her glasses onto the top of her head and studied my face. “Nothing is ever going to be normal again, is it?” Then she frowned. “But it hasn’t been normal for you in a long time.”

Look, I definitely wasn’t thrilled my best friend had been all magicked up, and was now my backup in case I got horribly killed during some supernatural trials. But I had to admit that Bee actually knowing what was going on, being able to talk to her about it and have her understand, felt good. One fewer person to lie to was always a nice thing as far as I was concerned.

“Don’t worry about me,” I said. “I’ve had months to get used to this kind of thing.”

“That’s what all the hanging out with Saylor was about, huh?” she asked, opening her car door. “The karate stuff?”