Magnetic Attractions || The Sisters Grimm

Chapter Twelve: Sabrina

I eat my lunch in the toilet.

Granny Relda packed me a sandwich  with homemade BLT bread (it was purple). I think this might be the most normal thing I've eaten from this woman. Then I took a bite, the sweetness of rice pudding fills my senses. I pause.
Then, take another bite.

I had bigger problems than (surprisingly good), BLT sandwich with rice pudding.

Earlier I walked in to lunch after a long English class with the most boring teacher ever, to see Puck laughing and being surrounded by my friends.
The image threw me back to another recent time with another guy one more taller and his hair pitch dark its tips slightly curled, his eyes blue and empty like the sky. His slight smile whispered false, dangerous promise. He joked and laughed with them just as Puck does they gravitate towards like like he's the moon and they're stars.

I get sick. The vomit barely reaching the toilet as I turn hunched over.

_______

"Liebling. You're back early?" Granny Relda touches my arm, comfortingly. Before glancing behind me at the door I just shut.
"And where's Puck?"

"I left. I wasn't feeling well." I groan, tired as I walk into the kitchen. My arms felt like they weighed a ton. I let out in a relieved exhale as I threw down my backpack on the kitchen chair. At the table, my mother sat, a pile of papers in front of her. I greeting her by kissing her on the cheek. She smiles at me.

"Puck is with his friends. And by his friends, I mean mine."

"Im glad the boy is making friends."
Granny Relda calls out from the hall.

"MY friends." I reply as open the fridge.

She hums, amused. I hear her making her way upstairs

I know I can't gatekeep my friends. But I don't really care. I didn't want Puck in my life again. He doesn't know me.

Who even are you anymore?

It would be too hard for him to get to know me again.
My stomach twisted as I recall earlier morning.

I know I lied to you before I left. And I'm sorry.

I thought we were family.

Grabbing a bottle of water, I down it, parched.
"How was school?" Mom asks. Her tone flippant. Too casual. The sound of papers rustling fills the empty kitchen.

I pause, the bottle still in my hand and still facing the fridge.
"It was.. okay."

I knew what she was really asking me. Did anything happen? Did you see him again?

"Was Talia in today?"

"Yeah.."

There's a long pause before she continues.
"Were you able to talk to her? Does she.. still help?"

I grab a second bottle before I finally turn back. Mom has her hands clapsed in front of her, her papers abandoned as she stares at me with a now familiar look in her eyes.

I knew what was coming.

"Yeah, I saw her at 2nd period. She helped me with maths. You know how smart she is." I force a chuckle.

Mom forces a smile back. We decend into silence.

Talia was the only one of my friends that understood what fully happened last year. As much as how supportive Dani is (and Savy when she wants to be), no one could understand what I was going through. Talia being an Everafter did.
I found it hard the first few weeks of going back to school after the incident. With half the school being humans. And the others being fairytale characters, whom I dont think I'll fully ever be able to trust with all the run ins I've had with their kind, the Scarlet Hand. Must I go on. The humans also felt foreign. As much as I tried, I wasn't fully integrated in their world. No matter how many pop culture references I learn, how many friends I make. There would always be a part of me I could never share. In the midst of all this confusion, I met Talia, an Everafter, when I was 13. Yet she felt more human than I did. Although very different in personality and looks, she reminded me of Puck. She was quiet and a bit shy, but also loyal and brave. I had panic attacks the first few months, she was there for me. Since I met her she's always been there for me unconditionally. Maybe not physically like Puck would have been but mentally. Talking to her is like talking to a diary that talks back.