Page 17 of Persephone's Curse
“It’s clear what’s going on here,” she said.
I swallowed the apple and a piece of it lodged in my throat, despite my excellent chewing. I gagged for a moment and when I finallygot it loose, I didn’t really feel like eating the apple anymore. Bernadette plucked it from my hand and took a bite.
“It is?” I asked.
“Yes. And frankly, it’s so unfair.”
“It is?”
“Stop acting like you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about,” she demanded.
I was trying to figure out how Bernadette had discovered the secret love affair between Evie and Henry when she set the apple down on the counter and crossed her arms over her chest.
“You think I’m going to snap again,” she said.
“Ohhh,” I said. That made much more sense. “No, I don’t.”
“You do. Of course you do. You won’t even look at me!”
“I do not think you are going to snap again. Look, you even put the apple down instead of throwing it at my head.”
I smiled. She snarled.
“Well thenwhyhave you been avoiding me?”
I wasn’t a good liar. In the few seconds after she asked me that question, I came up with absolutely nothing that she might believe. So I decided to lean into the excuse she’d already hand-delivered to me.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ve been a little worried, yes. Not that you’ll snap, Bernie. But just worried about you, okay? I don’t know how to say the right thing or do the right thing, so I guess I was subconsciously avoiding you to avoid saying something wrong.”
Finally, after what seemed like an endless amount of time, she nodded. Hook, line, and sinker. “I wish you had just told me that,” she said, softening. She picked up the apple again and took a bite. “You always make everything more complicated than it needs to be.”
“I do not,” I said.
“I’mfine,” she continued. “It would have been nice if you had asked me that at any point during this week.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“But Iamfine. It’s not like last time. This isn’tThe Bell Jar.”
“I’ve never readThe Bell Jar.”
“Then my perfect reference is lost on you.” She sighed and set the apple down again. I could tell she was gearing up for some truth speaking. She rubbed at her eyes. “It’s not like last time,” she repeated. “I just knew. If I spent one more night there… I just knew.”
“You knew what?” I asked, when she didn’t elaborate.
“I just knew itwouldend up likeThe Bell Jar.”
“I’ll look up the SparkNotes later,” I said.
She laughed. “It’s really, really nice to be home. It feels like the right place for me. I think we underestimate, sometimes, or we don’t stop to pause and really think… Is this where I’m supposed to be?”
“And this is where you’re supposed to be?” I asked.
“For now, yes,” she said, her voice confident and sure.
“But did something happen? It feels like maybe something happened.”
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” she said, and picked up the apple and her journal and left me alone in the room.
