Total Eclipse

Chapter 7

Luz fought with herself for nights upon nights.

Amity wouldn't want her there, right? After what she saw, she'd probably get all flustered, even worse than how she normally is. When she gets so red from the blush that it shows some of her freckles and creeps up to her ears, making her glow...

Focus.

Willow and Gus wanted to see her. She had tried to stop by and see them before, but they were busy. They had all moved on. It hurt a little, knowing that everyone was completely fine without her.

Well, not completely fine. There already seemed to be a few new... struggles in the Boiling Isles.

She knew that Amity wouldn't hurt her. Or at least try to. So worst-case scenario is that she gives her the earrings, gets kicked out, Amity is touched by the gesture, they forgive each other, and they all live happily ever after.

Luz normally hated that phrase, "happily ever after". There was always going to be more ever after, and it wouldn't be all sunshine on rainbows. You lose the people you love, you lose yourself, and then you have to find it all over again. But a happily ever after would be perfect right now.

She wrestled with herself forever, always deciding whether or not to go and immediately changing her mind. Eda had stopped trying to give her advice since it seemed like Luz would never figure it out. She just kept ironing the suit, just in case, even though there didn't seem to be a single wrinkle in the fabric.

She had to press all of her clothes before her success. She didn't have enough money for a dry cleaner and barely scraped by for the iron she used. And she needed to be well dressed for meetings with publishers and agents and just about everything else she needed for her books to have a chance. By the time she could afford it, Luz started to enjoy the ironing, making it perfect when she couldn't seem to fix anything else.

She was sipping her coffee as she did every day, rattling off the pros and cons of going, Eda and King and even Hooty just ignoring her by now.

"Okay, I've had enough, kid. Heads you go, tails you stay." Eda said firmly as she grabbed a snail from her pocket. She threw it up in the air and Luz looked up in wonder as it spun, beaming light. It floated down to Eda's palm, her hand closing over it tightly.

"Heads," Eda said with finality, glad that Luz's moral dilemma was put to an end.

Luz bit her nails and tucked a loose, frizzy curl behind her ear, toying with her triangle earrings.

"...okay. I'm going," she said, desperately trying not to change her mind this time. Eda put her hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. She looked like she was plotting something, but she didn't know what.

"Be ready in an hour, sound good? Mama is gonna break out her old clothes," Eda said with a laugh. She still had the heart of an angsty teen who had recently discovered eyeliner, even after all these years.

Luz took a deep breath and gulped, finally digesting the choice she had made when staring at the suit.

"Luz, you fool!" she exclaimed with an ungodly amount of enthusiastic torment. She collapsed on her sleeping bag, dragging her now sweaty palms down her face.

She desperately tried to wipe them off, but thinking about it only made it worse.

She groaned, slapping her face and recollecting herself. She stared at the suit, it almost mocking her.

She slowly picked it up, smoothing it out and taking apart the pieces, laying them softly down. She knew doing her makeup and taming her curls would take forever, so she decided to get changed now. She got changed into the black collared shirt and pants but kept the tie and purple jacket laid out, starting her makeup and hair.