Charcoal Tears by Jane Washington Page A

squeezing lightly. I relaxed, not realising that I had jumped into defensive mode, and stepped away as the woman released Cabe and pulled Noah into a hug. She didn’t seem to notice us until she released him, and then she did a double take. Her eyes widened, peering at me, moving from my hair to my skirt to my shoes and then back to my face. She repeated the examination, slowly pulling her mouth closed.
    “Who’s this?” She barely even glanced at Tariq, which I found strange, seeing as we were both equally as unfamiliar to her.
    Cabe cleared his throat, pressing a hand to the back of his neck, like he was suddenly wondering if this was a good idea. “Seraph.”
    “Seph,” I corrected lightly.
    The woman hurried to me and grasped my hands. “She’s gorgeous !”
    Noah coughed. “Enough, Tab,” he said under his breath, as I stumbled back a step, breaking her grip.
    I saw the resemblance as she tried to mask her frown. She had Noah’s electric blue eyes and sleek blond hair. She was their mother.
    “You don’t live with your parents?” The question slipped out before I could stop it, and I quickly grew red, turning away with embarrassment.
    The woman recaptured me quickly, flashed a brilliant smile, and placed a hand against Tariq’s arm. “You must be her brother? You look just like each other. I’m Tabby, their mother.”
    Tariq mustered a smile and Cabe materialised at my side, gently extracting me from his mother. She watched him slip an arm around me and draw me to Noah, and she seemed to forget about my brother again. Noah observed it all with amusement.
    Cabe whispered in my ear as he herded me away. “You either can’t get it out or can’t keep it in, right Seph?”
    I wrinkled my nose and Noah laughed.
    “Sorry,” I whispered.
    “Don’t worry about it.” Cabe gave me a little push beyond Noah, toward a hallway. “We’re going to play in the garage for a while, Tab. Come on, Tariq!”
    I was happy enough to escape the kitchen, but the house in general still made me uneasy. I waited for Noah once I was out of eyeshot of his mother, and he led me down to the garage with the other two trailing behind. There was a ping-pong table set up and a couch facing a gaming system. It looked like a typical teenage boy’s playroom. Tariq made a beeline for the ping-pong table and Noah stepped up to the challenge. I drifted off to the window, glancing out onto the street. Cabe eventually managed to draw me down to the couch and we started playing a video game where robots had to make their way through obstacle courses. It was pretty funny. After an hour or so, I was hanging off the side of the couch, laughing. Cabe groaned and threw his controller down, causing the other two to come over.
    “What happened?” Tariq looked at the screen.
    “She killed me again.” Cabe groused.
    “Aren’t you on the same team?” Noah squinted at the screen.
    “Yup,” I replied happily. “Wanna play?”
    “You’re on, pretty girl.”
    Noah fell onto the couch beside me, and I had to draw my legs up to make room for him. He picked them up and pulled them over his lap. Cabe passed him the controller and captured my feet. I tried to subtly pull my legs away, but Cabe held tight, the expression on his face casual. I didn’t dare look at Tariq; it was too awkward. I started playing mostly to distract myself from the scratchy feeling creeping along my skin, setting my teammate up for inevitable failure, but just before I pressed the button that would send Noah’s character falling to his death by collapsing the platform beneath his robot, Cabe started tickling my feet. I squealed, jerking one of my legs back. Noah pressed his torso forward, preventing the movement, and Cabe recaptured my foot.
    “Nice try.” Cabe flashed a beautiful smile at me, and I laughed.
    “You’re evil,” I said.
    “You’re sneaky,” he countered.
    A ringing sound cut through the room and Noah dug into his pocket, pulled out his phone and