Glass Flower

chapter three

Everything that happened on the bus freaked Aurora out, but so had the last couple days. As it got closer to her birthday her nightmares got worse. Now they were full of her dad screaming somewhere in the distance, as if he was being tortured. She also swore that was seeing the woman with the dark hair in her dreams everywhere. It was always out of the corner of her eye, for a brief moment and then she was gone. Aurora felt like she was going crazy, ever since she saw Mrs. Dodds turn into that thing. Then there were the ladies on the side of the road, everytime Aurora thought of them her stomach churned. Percy made her feel safer, even when Grover was completely freaking them both out. When he was finally at her window, she was quick to open it for him.

"Hey, pack a bag," Percy demanded as he climbed through her window. Aurora raised an eyebrow, "I don't know what's going on, but I don't think you should be alone right now, Jimmy told my mom it was fine so you're coming to the cabin with us."

"The cabin? W-what?" Aurora looked at Percy nervously and he nodded his head.

"Look, I know you don't like me, but we don't know what's going on, I don't know what's going on, but something tells me you have to come." Percy looked at Aurora, she had never seen him look so serious before.

"Okay, um, just a second?"

She threw stuff together in a bag, rushing a little. Aurora followed Percy out the window and used the fire escape to get to his room. Sally was waiting for them when they climbed in. She gave Aurora a kind smile, and a quick hug. Jimmy told her to have fun and not be a problem. Aurora followed the Jacksons and got into Gabe's Camaro. Aurora watched as Percy did the same hand gesture that Grover did on the bus earlier, and they both shared a wide eyed look after the screen door smacked Gabe as it closed.

Aurora watched out the window as they drove along. The scenery grew prettier as they went, and Sally seemed to be getting visibly younger. Aurora noticed that it was as if she was remembering something the closer they got to the cabin. Percy was lightening up too, making his mom roll the windows down. Aurora relaxed a little, watching Percy jokingly stick his head out of the window, his shaggy black hair getting tousled in the wind. Aurora smiled at him, laughing at how crazy he looked right then. He looked back at her and smiled a little. They reached the cabin by sunset, and started to walk the beach together. Aurora eased up a little more and started telling them stories about her year at school. Sally smiled at the two of them when Percy started to chase Aurora who had just splashed him with some water. Sally excused herself when they got closer to the cabin, and told them to stay and hang out on the beach while she went and got the fire ready for hotdogs and marshmallows.

Aurora was still in her capris and pink long sleeve tee, she rubbed her arms a little as the sun disappearing created more of a chill in the air. Percy offered to go grab her a jacket, but she shook her head. Percy ignored her though and jogged back up to the house. Aurora walked a little closer to the waves, taking a deep breath as the salty air surrounded her entirely. Percy came back with a jacket, but instead of just getting her own he had a flannel jacket in his hands. Aurora slid it on over her shoulders, the sleeves covering her hands a little. They both looked out at the water before finally talking about what was on both of their minds.

"Did you tell your mom?" Aurora whispered, and Percy shook his head.

"No, it was pretty hard explaining why I wanted to bring you along because of that though, Jimmy and Gabe think we're dating, but my mom told them we were only twelve," Percy grumbled, "I might've told her we became really close friends this school year, and that I wanted to show my best friend this place."

Aurora looked at him for a second before smiling, "I wouldn't say you're my best friend but I definitely agree that we became friends."

Percy perked up, "Really? You don't hate me anymore?"