Enchantment by Pati Nagle

on,” said a voice from the doorway. “How good a cook is she?”
    Holly looked up at Sheila, who was lounging against the door frame. She flashed her a shy smile.
    â€œI like to cook.”
    â€œShe’s OK,” Mad said. “But I figured it might be hard to get everyone together at once.”
    â€œFor a home-cooked meal? I think we can manage.” Sheila smiled at Holly. “None of us are great cooks. We should have made that a requirement the last time we advertised for a roommate.”
    â€œHey!”
    Mad whip-snapped a kitchen towel in Sheila’s direction. Sheila ducked behind the wall, then leaned in to stick out her tongue. Holly grinned in spite of herself.
    â€œGuys!” Sheila called to the others in the living room. “Holly’s going to cook us a feast tomorrow night!”
    â€œI don’t know about ’feast’,” Holly said, but Pam’s whoop of approval drowned her out.
    She looked up apprehensively at Madison. “I won’t if you’d rather I didn’t.”
    Mad looked annoyed, but she shrugged and went back to loading the dishwasher. “Who am I to rock the boat?”
    Figuring she’d dodged a bullet, Holly slipped out and joined Sheila on the couch for the rest of the news. When the weather was over, Pam stood up, yawned, and waved a goodnight as she headed for the stairs. Carla stayed through the sports, then got a glass of water from the kitchen and went down the hall toward what must be the master bedroom.
    Holly realized she’d been hearing the hum of the dishwasher for a while. She hadn’t seen Mad go upstairs, but when she went in the kitchen it was empty. She got herself a glass of water, then noticed through the glass panel in the front door that the porch light was on.
    She walked up to it and peered through the beveled glass. Mad was out there, leaning against the house and staring out at the night. Holly opened the door and Madison jumped, looking at her like a startled deer. In her hand was a lit cigarette.
    â€œYou don’t smoke!” Holly blurted, then realized how stupid it sounded.
    â€œNot at home.” Madison took a puff, then dropped the cig and smushed it out with her shoe. “Only once in a while here, and not in the house. The others don’t, except for Pam but she only smokes grass.”
    Holly gaped at her sister, still unable to believe it. Mad’s mouth twisted into a smile.
    â€œI’ve been smoking since tenth grade. Didn’t know that, did you?”
    Tenth grade? That was three years ago!
    Holly shook her head. She felt like an idiot. A sad idiot.
    â€œThere’s all kinds of things you might learn if you took your nose out of a book once in a while.”
    Madison bent down to pick up the crushed cigarette and brushed past Holly on her way into the townhouse, leaving a smudge of tobacco on the sidewalk. Holly stared at it, wondering if Mad had changed that much, or if she had never really known her.

~ 5 ~

    Mad didn’t mention the cigarette the next day. She put up a wall of cheerfulness that set Holly at a distance, and kept them moving so there wasn’t much opportunity to chat. Errands, both off and on campus, took up the whole morning. For lunch Madison chose the Student Union cafeteria, which was OK but not fabulous.
    â€œThis place is great if you’re in a hurry, or out of other choices,” Mad said.
    Holly glanced at some of the other choices—kiosks out in the hallway of the building that offered more interesting food than her grilled cheese sandwich and potato chips. She ate the pickle garnish and picked at the sandwich. She wasn’t really hungry. Part of her wanted to plead with Madison to quit smoking, another part wanted to avoid the whole issue and couldn’t wait to get away.
    In the afternoon they visited the science department. Madison took her to the office of one of the professors, a geologist. He was younger