Darkness by Joann I. Martin Sowles

that?”
     
    “Oh, um…the TV.” I smacked myself in the forehead. Great! Now I’m lying?
     
    With one last attempt to persuade me to come home, and losing, she said her good-bye and I love you, then hung up. I sighed with relief that she hadn’t questioned me anymore and that she’d let it go. Although, the taco night she tried to entice me with did sound really good right then. I had yet to eat and was afraid to pull anything out of its hiding place for fear that Julz would discover it or smell it or something.
     
    I ran my fingers through Lola’s fur and called Kiera with my free hand. She answered immediately.
     
    “Have you heard from Carter?” Before I could even answer she was on to the next question. “Do you think he’s mad at me?” Still no time for me to respond. “He hasn’t returned any of my calls or texts.” I waited a moment but she didn’t say anything else.
     
    “Yes, I’ve heard from him and no I don’t think he’s mad at you.” If he’s mad at anyone, it should probably be me. I felt I was kinda the reason for all of this.
     
    “What did he say? Did he tell you why he hasn’t called me back? I even called his house and his mom said she hasn’t heard from him. So why have you?”
     
    Okay…Gonna have to lie my way out of this one. Great. “Actually…he’s here with us.” Crap! I seriously couldn’t think of anything better. Plus I had no idea what Felix had told her or planted in her mind. “He’s had the flu or something so he just crashed here not wanting to contaminate his family.” Okay, not bad. She might buy that.
     
    “Can I talk to him?” Her tone had gone from frantic to pissy to soft and sweet.
     
    Crap! “Um…Let me see if he’s awake.” I covered the phone, waited a few seconds and then got back on the line. “He’s asleep. I’ll tell him to call you when he’s feeling up to it.”
     
    “Oh, okay,” she answered quietly.
     
    She didn’t say anything else so I took that opportunity to get off the phone so as to avoid any more lying or getting caught in my lies.
     
    I rested my head back against the wall. The voices had quieted and I couldn’t help but wonder what all the commotion had been. I figured it was the gothic princess’s inability to be nice. Suddenly Lola’s tail began to wag, thumping heavily against the mattress, then only seconds later Oliver entered the room. He locked the door behind him as he closed it.
     
    “I think it would be best for us to keep to ourselves in here tonight.” He smiled at me and sat on the edge of the bed. Not a lot of room left with a massive dog sprawled across it.
     
    “Julz not thrilled about visitors?”
     
    “You could say that.” He gave Lola a good rub and then said, “I imagine you’re hungry. Lucky Charms?”
     
    I half-smiled at him, “Like you needed to ask.”
     
    I was drinking the last of the cereal milk (thankful we’d thought to buy paper bowls and plastic utensils) when I remembered something.
     
    “What did you want me to talk to her about?”
     
    He looked up from his phone and cocked an eyebrow at me.
     
    I gave him a “duh” look, “Julz. You wanted me to talk to her.”
     
    “Oh, yeah. Tomorrow okay?” He took my bowl and spoon and stashed it in his secret closet garbage.
     
    There was a light knock on the bedroom door and he answered it. I expected Hayden, but to my surprise, there stood Julz. A fake smile plastered across her face. “I expect to see everyone at the dinner table tonight. Except the sick one, he can stay away.” I had an eyebrow raised at her. It wasn’t intentional but it wasn’t controllable either.
     
    “We will see you then.” And he closed the door in her face.
     
    It was obviously killing her to smile at me. She probably didn’t mind that he closed the door on her. I imagine her smile was gone before the door even latched. I also noticed that she didn’t even attempt to step into the room.
     
    Her voice startled me as I