"I mean, have fun getting home," Claire finished.
Victoria laughed. "You too."
Claire turned and jogged back through the woods, heading for home and praying that her mother would believe she had just been for a really, really long run.
*
Friday night, Claire sat in her room, staring at herself in the mirror and trying to decide if big silver hoops were too fancy for the party. As she got dressed for Yolanda's, she grew more and more excited. She was ready for the new moon gathering, and without that stress, she was dying to see Matthew and Emily.
There was a knock at the bedroom door and Lisbeth poked her head into the room and glanced around.
"Your mother's not in here, is she?"
Claire shook her head. "I have no idea where Mom is."
"Huh. She was looking for you—I figured I'd find you together. Anyway, I'm leaving for the weekend. Mark actually cooked eggplant curry from scratch, and I sort of have to be there to eat with him." She sighed.
"You don't sound all that excited about the eggplant curry." Claire wrinkled her nose.
"'Vegetable' is not a bad word, Claire. Mark just likes to spend a lot of time together. I'm not used to it, I guess. I miss hanging out with you." Lisbeth looked at her, the rejected clothes splayed on the carpet, the tube of opened-but-unapplied lip gloss in Claire's hand. "But it doesn't exactly look as though you're going to be sitting home pining for me."
Claire rolled her eyes, ignoring the nostalgia that was inching its way over her. "Just because I'm not 'pining' for you doesn't mean that I forget you exist the second you walk out the door or anything."
"Especially not when I leave you with these as a reminder." Lisbeth opened the door a little wider and revealed a plate full of chocolate heaven. "Triple fudge nut brownies. Can I come in?"
Claire nodded and sat up. She really wanted to finish her makeup in peace, but Lisbeth's brownies were impossible to turn down. Besides, she needed to get ready to go, and Lisbeth was likely to leave her alone a lot sooner if she said yes.
"Is anything special happening at the party tonight?" Lisbeth slid the brownies onto Claire's vanity and pulled one off the stack.
"Just too many people gossiping too much with too many camera phones involved. You know, the usual," Claire said, picking up a brownie and taking a bite of the dense, still-warm chocolate.
"Well," Lisbeth said around the food in her mouth, "if there's ever anything going on—or going to go on—or that you're . . . thinking about, you can come talk to me if you want to. I promise not to freak out."
Claire choked on her brownie. She didn't know whether Lisbeth was talking about drinking or sex or what, but she didn't want to find out.
"Well, I'd better go. Apparently, Dr. Engle's taking some new fancy researcher on a tour of the woods tonight, so I've gotta drive home the long way to get around the news vans."
The words closed around Claire like a cage. Penning her in. Trapping her. The burned-out fires she'd left in the woods blared in her mind like a warning siren.
Lisbeth gave Claire a quick hug. "Mark's probably already wondering where I am. I'll see you on Monday, okay?"
Claire's phone chirped at her, and she picked it up. There was a text message from Emily.
Claire waved, focused on Emily's text, while Lisbeth closed the door. The message started off with OH MY GOD!!!!!!!
Emily liked to text in all caps. She said it gave her messages more excitement.
Claire glanced at the clock. It was a little after seven thirty, which meant the party had probably just started picking up. This should be good.
She opened the message. It said, simply, THE STREET IS ALREADY FULL! WHEN ARE YOU GETTING HERE???
"Is everything okay?" Her mother appeared in the doorway.
"Just Emily. About the party." Caught off guard, Claire put the phone down.
"Ah. You look . . . stressed. Is everything all right?"
Claire hesitated. The two choices hovered in front of her, waiting. She could either tell her mother and deal with the fallout of Marie knowing how much trouble she was having with the fire lighting, or she could sneak off into the woods alone and hope that she didn't get caught by some eager reporter or research-happy lycanthropist.
If researchers are in the woods, I'll hear them coming . . . I should be able to outrun them.
"Um, yeah. It's fine. Just—Emily's wondering when I'm getting there is all."
Marie nodded, spinning her tea mug thoughtfully in her hands. "Well, I have some work to do. Enjoy your party." She ghosted away from the door, and Claire let out a long, thin breath.
She wasn't at all sure she'd made the right choice.
On the bed behind her, Claire's phone beeped.
Oh, crap. What am I going to tell Emily?
Claire snatched her phone off the bed, ignoring the texts, and dialed Matthew.
"Hey, babe. I was just leaving to come get you. What's up?" He sounded so upbeat and relaxed that it just highlighted how tense Claire was.