2|| Whispers in the Wind

25|| a second chance

Aria

A laugh echoed from the master bedroom as Aria walked past. She gripped her mug tighter- it was her mom. In fact, it was more a giggle than a laugh. Kalyani was with her, based on the low-pitched mumbling. 

Their mom only giggled when she was gossiping about something. That rarely happened, and it was killing Aria not to join in on their discussion. Still, she probably wasn't welcome. Some part of her knew, deep down, that her mom loved her. But if she chose not to show it, Aria wouldn't keep trailing after her like a lost cat. Besides, Aria had spent the better part of her teenage years pulling insane stunts to get her attention to no avail. It wasn't worth it.

She waited in the hall, hoping to talk to Kalyani. Last night, Aria dozed off listening to Wilder play the guitar, but she was desperate to know if any... further developments had occurred between him and Kalyani.

But once her sister showed up, Aria just smiled and pretended to be on her phone. Kalyani had an intricately woven fishtail braid in her hair, something neither of them had mastered yet.

Mom's work.

Which meant that once again, her perfect sister was spending time with her perfect mom who was acting like a perfect mom. Nothing new there, nothing at all. Whatever. Fuck that.

Aria's heart was beating out of control, but not just out of resentment. She was excited, ever since Jacob had revealed that she had abilities of her own. 

Sensing the energy around her was basically what he said. Kind of like an empath from her favorite fantasy books. Right now, though, everything was silent. Nothing out of the ordinary like she felt with Wilder, and nothing menacing and soul-sucking like she felt with Roxanne. The only part that didn't sit right with her, was that she'd heard Roxanne speak. Back when Kalyani was talking to her at the lake.

Weirdly enough, Jacob had skimmed over that part. Wilder was the one whose strength was hearing ghosts. If Aria could read the energy around her, why could she make out the words Roxanne spoke? The kid had said that people directly connected to spirits were likelier to be able to communicate with them, but her family didn't have any relation to Roxanne's. 

She walked into her room, trying to shake her lightheadedness away. She hated having to move away, and she texted her friends every day, but she had to admit that her new room was far prettier than the old one. The sun shone at just the right angle, and she'd finally been able to install a canopy above the bed. 

There was a knock at the door, and it cracked open. Extremely high strung, Aria snapped, "What do you want, Ka- oh shoot. Mom. Sorry. Hi."

Her mom cut to the chase immediately. "Aria. I think we need to talk some things through."

Fantastic. "Yes, mother, what do you want to talk about?"

Mrs. Chopra waved a hand. "Just, I think we could maybe fix a few things."

"Like what?"

"I was thinking about how I haven't been the best mother to you, and I want to know how you feel about it."

Outrage coursed through Aria. This woman couldn't even start an empathetic conversation without acting all high and mighty. "You know how I feel about it. For most of my life, I felt as though I couldn't talk to you about anything, I felt like you were picking favorites just because I couldn't be a straight A student who never gets in trouble and who's council president wherever we move to. The fact that I was more interested in sports and fashion and drawing than everything you want me to be. It's kind of late to fix it, don't you think?"