Typhoon & Tempest

Chapter Two

Lily winced as Jack cranked up the volume in the car. She could feel the bass in her toes as the witch started to jump and dance in her seat while driving, her croaky voice breaking as she tried to sing every line to one of Lily's favourite songs.

"Oh mamma mia, mamma mia!" Jack screeched and Lily burst into laughter as the words built up to the highest note. They both sang together through their joy, Lily touching her paralysed arm that was beginning to tingle.

"For me, for me, for me!" Jack's voice was nails on a chalkboard but Lily surprised herself by actually hitting the high note.

"Wait, hang on!" Jack stopped singing and turned the volume down. "We've been badly singing for hours and then you pull this on me? I thought we were vocal equals!"

"I don't know what happened," Lily laughed, clearing her throat. "I sang a little when I was younger but I haven't sung properly in a long time."

"Well, no more of that when I'm around. I'm the star of this car karaoke, okay?" Jack teased, her bright green eyes gleaming. She focused back on the road, pulling off the main highway and following the sign labeled Widderin.

"Almost there." Jack sighed, swallowing the lump in her still bruised and scratched throat. The damage her mother had done to her neck only yesterday was still healing, but even if she was meant to rest her voice Jack wasn't going to not sing Bohemian Rhapsody. "You have good taste in music."

"Thanks." Lily said, fiddling with her fingers. "My dad was a big music fan."

"My mum only likes the sound of the microwave when it's done cooking." Jack joked.

"Don't we all?" Lily smiled at her friend but noticed the swallow of her bruised throat. Jack wasn't wearing the choker she wore yesterday so Lily had a clear view of the marks on her neck. Neither of them had spoken about the day before, not yet.

"How's your neck?" Lily gently asked and her stomach sank seeing Jack stiffen.

"Oh this? It's nothing. I ate some crisps and they got stuck in my throat, you know when you don't chew them properly and it's spiky all the way down?" Jack waved aside her question. "It looks worse than it is."

"Your breaking voice says differently."

"I'm fine Lily, it's okay."

Lily hesitated. "If you ever want to talk about it, I'm here and I'll listen."

Jack didn't respond to that, pretending to focus on driving when she had a thousand words running through her head. How could she explain her feelings to her mother? Freida had given her those bruises - did Jack do something wrong?

"How was the formal, by the way?" Lily asked, trying to change the subject.

Jack scoffed. "There were so many sparkles it was like a unicorn's fart."

"Do you have pictures of you? Of Claire and Karen?" Lily smiled.

"Yeah I think there's one on my phone," Jack waved to the glove box, "have a look."

Lily grabbed Jack's phone from the compartment but frowned when she saw her notifications ablaze. "Andrew's been calling you."

"He can suck it."

"What if it's important?"

"He can importantly suck it."

Lily sighed, not going into that conversation and instead swiped to unlock the phone. "What's your password?"

Jack paled. "Oh."

"Oh as in zero?"

"...It's my middle name." Jack slowed when they came to a red light and slammed her head on the wheel. "Damn it."