Page 21 of Hexes and Hiccups
Not waiting for an invitation, Tessa slipped inside the house immediately, her silk robe brushing by Daisy’s legs. Whipping around, Tessa revealed two bundles in her hands. They were both identical bottles of red wine – Daisy’s favorite. Candy bars poked out of Tessa’s deep pockets, a few already clattering to the floor. They wore similar pajamas, an entirely amusing coincidence.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Tessa asked.
Daisy shook her head. “You?”
“What does it look like?”
Tessa spun around towards the stairs, already running up to Daisy’s bedroom. Daisy eagerly followed, suddenly feeling like a child who wandered in on a surprise sleepover. The pair pelted into Daisy’s room and shut the door, already ripping open thewine bottles and not daring to bother with a glass. The unease that had once kept Daisy awake slipped out of her for an hour or two, the wine entering her mind and bringing her into a comfortable haze. Beside her, Tessa drank just as much and indulged in her candy bars, leaving wrappers on the floor. Daisy greedily ate a few chocolates alongside her, not caring about the heartburn or stomach ache that might plague her in the morning.
Daisy wanted to feel like a child again, free from the investigation that burdened them now.
“Remember sophomore year?” Tessa was in the middle of saying, already laughing before she had the chance to say the funny part. Her cheeks were sharply red, mimicking what Daisy probably looked like. The alcohol hit them rather quickly in their older age. “The first time we got drunk?”
“You call it drunk,” Daisy said, “Icall it the placebo effect.”
“You still believe that?”
Daisy laughed heartily. “We drank margaritamix,Tess.”
“But –”
“Whatever we thought happened was from our brilliant imaginations.”
The memories plagued them rather easily in their drunken haze. It was easy to drift back to an easier time, to remember when things weren't as difficult and were a bounty of fun. Though Daisy wouldn’t really want to go back to those years after living so long as an adult, she still missed the carefree nature of childhood. She missed not needing to handle things herself, having another adult to turn to when things became far too hard. Daisy only wished she’d relished the time more, remembered her mother’s guidance in a time during which she could hardly see in front of her.
With Daisy’s favorite Madonna album playing softly on her aged radio, they laid across her bed sleepily, too exhausted toclean the chocolate from their faces or brush the wine from their teeth. They merely laid beside each other, staring up at the empty ceiling and watching the ceiling fan swirl. Daisy felt tempted with sleep for a few moments, but was suddenly brought back to the matter at hand, her eyes glancing towards Tessa every now and then. The giddiness they once had no longer lingered over them. There was something solemn, something dark hovering over their hearts.
“My empath professor would tell me to remain positive,” Tessa suddenly whispered. “It strengthens the magic, apparently.”
Daisy’s head rolled over to the side to watch her. “Hm?”
“But how can I?” Tessa murmured, her brow furrowed. “How can I when the cards are all stacked up against me?”
“The Council believes what is easy,” Daisy replied. “That doesn’t mean it’s the actual truth, Tess.”
“What happens when there’s no other option to turn to?”
Daisy shook her head, the wine rendering her fuzzy. “I don’t understand.”
“We’ll go see Malric,” Tessa whispered. “And we’ll find that he isn’t guilty. We’ll keep searching, only to come up empty handed. All that will remain is me and that note, and Riven’s petrified state. They’ll pin it on me.”
Daisy rolled over to face her. “Why are you so hung up on this? You know as well as I do that you didn’t turn Riven to stone. You didn’t do it to Fern either – you’ve been by my side all this time! The Council –”
“The Council has the final say at the end of the day.” Tessa’s expression grew cold, her cheeks still a bright red. “And when they give their word, it is what will be. And you,” she turned over, her eyes glossy and sad, “you will be a Coven Inquisitor still. Won’t you have to follow their word? Enact their law?”
Daisy smiled sadly, reaching forward to push strands of Tessa’s short and spiky hair out of her eyes. “At the end of the day,” she whispered, “I follow my heart. I follow what’s right. And I know you didn’t do this, Tess.”
Tessa leaned against her hand, her eyes growing wide and fearful all of a sudden. She laid there in silence till the courage gathered in her throat, the next words tumbling out in a rush, the lingering effects of the wine still holding onto her tongue.
“I thought about cheating.”
“What?”
“On the empath tests,” Tessa whispered, her voice so quiet the words barely reached Daisy, who was only a few inches away from her. “I’ve thought about cheating.”
“Oh, Tess, that’s –”
“I-It’s just the pressure, you know?” Tessa quickly blurted, as if she needed to defend herself. “I’ve been training for years. My mother was the most skilled empath Willowbrook had seen in decades. All I ever wanted was to follow after her, but it seems I’ve only fallen more behind. I wouldn’t cheat on them, you know.” Tessa shook her head. “But…I thought about it. More than once.”
