Cursed Waters

3

[edited 12/1/15]

Millie didn't go to the bonfire.

A very small part of her had wanted to go. She wanted to make Sam happy by showing up, and she wanted to see him smile at her.

So, she'd considered it. She'd gotten ready, curling her hair, putting on mascara, and pulling on a thin summer dress. She'd even caught herself standing in front of the backdoor, hand on the door knob.

Then she'd heard one of her sisters running down the stairs and had realized, all at once, what she was doing. She'd sprung away from the door, kicked off her shoes, and went to join Angel in the living room.

It was probably a good thing she changed her mind, she decided, lying on the couch next to Angel. Her older sister was playing with her hair, twisting it back into a complicated waterfall braid, cupping her phone between her ear and her shoulder. If she went, she was pretty much inviting someone to talk to her, and that could only lead to a dangerous place.

"Daphne said she was going to be here at six," Angel said to Millie and their uncle Drew, who was on the phone. "It's seven thirty two. I swear that girl is never on time."

Millie rolled her eyes. Daphne was flighty, kind of like a bird, and definitely flaky. She'd been born three weeks late, and had never been properly on time once since then. The one time that Millie remembered Daphne ever being moderately punctual was when Angel had informed Daphne that the dinner they were having was at four, so when Daphne showed up at six-oh-five, she was only five minutes late.

Angel heaved a heavy sigh, reaching over Millie's head to grab a bobby pin off the coffee table. After pinning the waterfall braid into place, she patted Millie's back, slid out from under her, and started into the kitchen. "Could you call her and see where she is? She stopped replying to my texts."

Millie put her arm over her head and listened to the low hum of the TV. She wasn't really sure what they were watching — some Lifetime movie about a stalker and a baby or something that cried a lot. Angel was a sucker for sob stories, and Millie just liked being around Angel, so they tended to watch a ton of forgettable movies together while Angel deftly did Millie's hair into some kind of intricate design and Millie took in her sisters' comforting presence.

"Hey, loser. What are you doing in here by yourself?"

Millie turned her head to look at Clea, who had snuck into the living room at some point. Clea was the only one of her sisters who didn't frown every time she saw Millie and was kind of prone to being abrupt and honest.

"First time I see you in almost four months and you call me a loser? You're the sweetest, Clea."

"I know." Clea smiled in a way that made Millie think she was barring her teeth. "Leni or Luce told me something interesting."

"Leni or Luce?"

"Angel told me that Luce is in the blue tonight, but turns out, they both ended up in blue."

"Typical," Millie said, pushing herself into an upright position so she could see the two girls in question, sitting at the dining room table on their laptops.

All of the Clearwater girls looked similar, with gold hair and sea foam eyes, but Leni and Luce looked particularly alike, thanks to their identical genes. On a good day, the twins were difficult to tell apart, but when they were both wearing the same blue flannel shirts and both had their hair up in messy ponytails, it was downright impossible to tell which one was which.

Millie had long ago stopped trying to figure out who was who, and just went with it. "What did they tell you that was so interesting, you had to come and find me?"