Like Lovers Do

9

The Spellman family is seated around the dining table; everyone but Ambrose. He is at always at the Academy, doing Lord knows what. If Zelda is honest, she doesn't even want to know what her nephew is up to, too worried it might disturb her even more than being left in the unknown.

The silence lays heavy upon the dining table and Sabrina wishes she didn't pick up on the tension between her aunts when she heard the conversation in the hallway.

Her aunt can be stubborn and everybody knows that but even she is only a normal witch. She does have her moments of weakness too and Sabrina learned very early on that her auntie Zee doesn't like dealing with those emotions that bubble up from time to time.

Sabrina can't stand the silence. She always needs to be talking about something, the bubbly person that she is. She doesn't want to spike anyone's anger so she stays away from death, spells and family related topics, settling on her meeting with Ms. Wardwell. After all her aunts like to know what she's up to these days and she hasn't given them anything to complain about in a while.

"Auntie Hilda? Do you know any spell or potion to find out why somebody's mad at you?" She asks innocently and Hilda just shoots a look across the table.

"No dear. Why?" In her head she ads If I had I would have used it on Zelda centuries ago. She just sighs at the cold expression of her sister... maybe a potion to ease someone's worries would do her some good as well.

"You should just straight up ask the person Sabrina. Be brave and don't hide like a coward. That's what Spellmans do," Zelda says in her usual composed way and Hilda can practically see how Sabrina's head tries to work against Zelda's comment and just prays that Sabrina will let it for once go and not push her aunt to expand on her sour mood.

"Given our relationship I think it would be rude to just straight up ask her auntie Z. I'm polite. That's what Spellmans are," she dares her aunt and the two stubborn witches just stare at each other, waiting for one to give in first.

If Sabrina had inherited one of her aunt's character traits then it would definitely be her stubbornness.

Eventually it's Sabrina who can't hold the icy glare of the ginger and any longer, feeling as if those green orbs just bore right through her soul. She avoids looking in the direction of her aunt, feeling defeated and quite intimidated by her aunt's stone hard stare.

"Ms. Wardwell was in such a bad mood today. I kind of worry about her. She hasn't been herself lately."

Zelda, who was elegantly leading her fork towards her mouth, drops said cutlery at the mention of that one person's name and feels the lump in her throat expand to an unbearable size. She lowers her head, knowing all too well that tears are about to follow soon. She won't let her family see those.

Hilda has seen too much already and Sabrina mustn't know what's going between her aunt and her favorite teacher.

"I don't understand why you're still 'hanging out' with her as you young people would say," Zelda hisses after a moment of silence and Hilda can practically cut the tension in the room with a knife, not daring to interfere with the moment of sheer bitterness her sister is having, so she just shoots her niece a warning glance.

Not a single person in that room would be blind enough to miss the venom flying everywhere and all of a sudden Zelda has this unusual dangerous and threatening edge to her tone and posture. Not even Hilda sees this side of her very often, even after having been killed too many times to keep count, and she never saw her use it against their niece.

"I like her. She's nice and helps me unlike you," Sabrina spits back and Hilda just sighs, hating that their niece has the talent to always say the wrong things at the wrong time. She knows this is about to go downhill if she doesn't interfere even though she'd gladly stay out of it. After all Zelda is unpredictable at moments like this and while she doesn't worry about the safety of the teenager, it is her own safety that has her worried.

"Why don't we go to church together. Tomorrow. With Ambrose. We haven't done that in a while and I think it would be quite nice to do something as a family again," she suggests and can see Zelda's thankful look. Zelda knows that she would have lost it any moment and the fog of sheer fury lifts from her mind and she swallows back some tears.

How could she be so careless?

Zelda feels the heat in her cheeks, the nervous trembling of her knee and knows that she needs to solve this problem as soon as possible. She must talk to Mary before things escalated past a point of return. No, she can't let that happen.

Mary holds a certain power over her that can ruin her peaceful, sometimes not so peaceful, family life and Zelda doesn't like that at all. She needs to solve the issues and either end the relationship or continue experiencing utter bliss.

No matter what of those she'd settle on, she has to act. Now. Before she does something she'll regret later on and with that she put her cutlery down and folds her napkin neatly on the table.

"Excuse me. I have to attend some business," she says and elegantly strides out of the room, her head held high. She doesn't need anyone to tell her what Spellmans are. She is a born Spellman, the fiercest of them all. She can handle herself.