Laurel Love was at a standstill in her life. It was like she was stuck doing things that didn't matter. Nothing had meaning in her life anymore. Laurel wanted her luck to change. What she didn't know was that something was going to change her life i...
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"Laurel?"
The voice spills into my room from the open window across from my closet that I'm currently buried in. Hearing Charlotte behind me makes me even more panicked. Throwing the red shirt that was in my hands onto the hardwood floor, I rush over to the window. Charlotte is standing beneath it, looking up at me with confusion written all over her face.
"Are you leaving?" I ask her. Frantically checking the time on my phone, my heartrate picks up even more. I can't believe I'm running this late on such an important day. "Because I'm not ready if you are leaving now."
"I don't want to be late to Henry's birthday party," she says, crossing her arms over her chest. There's a look on her face that tells me she's definitely judging me for looking this frantic. I hope that she isn't annoyed or angry with me since I'm still in my pajamas. "You're running late."
"Obviously. My alarm didn't go off, so I woke up late." I sigh, scrubbing a hand across my face. Pushing my glasses on the top of my head, I close my eyes for a second. Panic crashes through my body. This wasn't supposed to happen today, not on a day like this. "You can go on without me, Char. Just tell Henry that I'll be late." She's silent, and that makes me nervous. My eyes flash open to see her staring at me, her eyes dark. I despise the look on her face. "What?"
"Henry told me about how your sisters made fun of you and listened in on your conversation. Are you okay?"
Okay, I did not expect that to come out of her mouth. I'm a little hurt that Henry told Charlotte about what happened between my sisters and me. That wasn't for him to tell anyone about. It's my secret, my pain, not his. Sure, I was planning on telling her anyway, but Henry beat me to it. I'll have to talk to him about that because I don't like it at all.
I clear my throat, fidgeting with the seam of my pajama shirt, pulling on a loose string around and around my finger. She's staring at me expectantly, so I say, "Um, yeah, I'll be fine. The three of us are always fighting, so . . . yeah."
"Okay." She doesn't look like she believes me, but she doesn't question me any further. I'm glad she doesn't because I don't want to delve any deeper into my complicated feelings. I don't even want to delve deeper into my complicated feelings because they are just that -- too complicated for me to understand how I actually feel. "Well, I'll see you later, then. I'll make sure to tell Henry that you're going to be late, but you should probably call him and tell him, too."
"Good plan," I say, nodding once. Charlotte gives me a thumbs up and then spins on her heel, starting to walk through the grass to the cracked sidewalk. An idea strikes my brain, so I yell out, "Can you also convince Ray to check out Dr. Guinevere? I think this lady is breaking up couples in the town, and I want to get to the bottom of it."
I can see Charlotte's mouth move, but I don't quite hear whatever she says to me. I'm hoping she agreed to it because there's something about this woman that doesn't sit right with me. Lately, I realized that I've seen many more couples break up around town, not just the couple at Steak Out and whatever is going on with Henry's parents. I want to see if there's any dirt on this lady and then take her down before it's too late.
