“My first day at Heller, when I was a freshman, some guys were giving me a hard time and April stepped in. She helped me out. I’ll never forget that.” Haley dropped the guarded expression I’d come to expect. She looked so genuinely sorry. Was it an act or, for once, was I seeing her truth?
She looked away and I moved us to safer ground. “Why is none of your art on display? Don’t you want to set up your own showcase?”
“It’s all in my room. Food’s ready.”
Haley plated rollatini, salad, and crusty pieces of garlic bread and set them out for us on the counter. I settled on a stool and inhaled deeply.
“This looks amazing. Thank you.” I took my first bite and flashed her a cheesy thumbs-up.
Haley looked at me like she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“You’re supposed to say ‘you’re welcome,’” I whispered.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“Good effort.”
From what I could gather, Haley’s whole life seemed to be art and the Red Court. Basic kindness shouldn’t have been anything major. Haley didn’t seem to have many people she could count as friends.
We had just finished eating when headlights flashed through the windows.
“My mom and stepdad are home early.” Haley’s stricken voice told me that this was not good news. I steeled myself for whatever was about to walk in, but still startled at the bang of the door flying open.
A man, late forties by the look of his receding hairline and paunch, teetered in. “Who are you?” he asked when he caught me in his gaze. The sneer he directed at me felt foreign. Parents usually liked me.
I did a double take at the wild-haired woman who came in next. She had to be Haley’s mom, though she could pass for an older sister. The only feature she carried that Haley didn’t was a deep parenthesis around her mouth from the frown she wore.
I cleared my throat awkwardly to respond. “I’m Ember Williams. I go to school with Haley.”
Without clear direction from Haley, I didn’t know if it was better or worse to identify myself as a friend. My being at their house might go over better if we were study partners working on a French project.
“Is that right?” the man asked with yet another sneer. Did the sneer come out on its own as he talked? It seemed involuntary. Maybe it was some incurable condition. Or maybe he was just a jerk.
I rubbed my palms against the rough fabric of my jeans. I wanted to bolt. Something about the way he looked at Haley unsettled me—like she was a kid about to lose her lunch money to the school’s biggest bully.
“Hot date tonight, huh?”
I glanced at Haley, uncertain where this was going. Did she have a date to go to? Then his words clicked. He was asking if I was Haley’s date.
Haley looked ready to burn down the world but held her tongue as she stared at her mom, who was shaking her head and pleading with her eyes for Haley not to respond.
There were layers to this dynamic I didn’t understand, but my presence didn’t seem to be helping. I needed a way out.
I cleared my throat again. “Actually, I’m doing a feature on Haley’s art for the school paper. She said most of her work is here, and I asked if I could come see it.”
Haley’s mom eased forward and took her husband by the arm. “Dave, why don’t you go sit down and I’ll grab you a glass of water?”
He reluctantly allowed Haley’s mom to lead him into the living room.
I looked back to Haley. “Do you mind if I go check out the pieces in your room you mentioned? I don’t want to inconvenience you further.”
Skating away, I waved to Haley’s parents. “So...nice to meet you.” As I passed her, I gave Haley’s mom a tight smile, although part of me wanted to shake her and tell her to GTFO.
After peeking in a few rooms, I found Haley’s and settled myself on a stool next to an easel. The room was tiny but had two giant windows that must light the space like a Hollywood soundstage during the day. Haley wasn’t kidding about her room having all her work in it. Every square inch of wall was covered by canvases and artistic black-and-white prints of the landscape that I recognized from my drive here.
When Haley came in, I shot to my feet, ready to apologize for the lie and ask if I should climb out the window. She held a hand up to silence me and quietly shut the door.
“It’s fine. I’m sorry he was such a dick.”
“What happened?”
“My mom said he had too much to drink at dinner again and they couldn’t make it to the movie. He passed out on the way home but woke up when they got here. I wish he would have just stayed asleep in the car.”
“Should I leave?”
Haley was irritatingly imperious about most things, but this was one area where I wanted to take her direction. There was a lot I didn’t know about alcohol and addiction, but it was a sickness that could implode and bring down everything around it. Regardless of her place in the Red Court, I didn’t want to make this situation worse for her. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—add fuel to that fire.
“He won’t remember, anyway. He’ll be out in fifteen minutes.” Her eyes were distant as she spoke. She was locked away in a place inside herself where no one could reach her. I’d seen April do the same just after her accident; she disappeared, and I had to find a way to get a message to her through the walls she constructed to keep herself safe. It took some time, but she found her way out.
“Can you show me what you’re working on?” I asked Haley.
She seemed to jolt out of a trance and looked around. “Yeah, this is my piece for the Winter Showcase in December.”
Haley walked over to a large canvas with a drop cloth draped over it.
“Yeah? Gideon’s entering a photo. Why is it covered?”
Haley considered me for a moment before pulling the cloth away. I could tell this was a part of herself she guarded closely. “Because it was mocking me. There’s something missing, but I haven’t been able to decide what that is.”
The piece was unresolved smears of black and white paint. I knew nothing about art, not really, but I could almost see what Haley meant. The painting seemed like it was reaching for something, but not quite able to grasp it.
“Your muse abandon you?”
“No, it’s just sometimes I start a piece thinking it’s going to go one way, and then I find out that it’s taking me in a different direction. It develops into something unexpected.”
I nodded.
Haley paused and looked at me with a puzzled expression. “You paint?”