Rule 6: You must perform a ritual with the help of your girls to rid yourself of The Ex’s pictures and any gifts that he gave you.
Alexia was used to being home alone. Her older brother, Kyle, had been out of the house for four years now. He was finishing his senior year of college in Hartford. Her parents were always at some function. They owned a small practice in Birch Falls, but their self-help books made them famous. Now their lives were nonstop. Seminars here, book signings there, radio shows all over the nation. This weekend they were…where were they again? Illinois or something. Alexia couldn’t keep their schedules straight.
They lived in the same house, but Alexia hardly saw her parents. She’d gotten used to entertaining herself when they were gone and her friends were out with their boyfriends. She’d seen every season of America’s Next Top Model (Kahlen was still her favorite, why did that girl not win?). Veronica Mars seemed like her best friend, and she was a Best Week Ever aficionado.
She’d never been the type of person to need social interaction in order to have fun. She was often quite happy being alone in the house. When she was alone, she could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.
If she wanted to watch Zoolander for the fiftieth time while eating popcorn covered in pepper, then she could. But now she could hardly wait for some company as she set out lit candles and bowls of chips and salsa. Eventually, hanging out by yourself gets old, and everyone needs some company every now and then to stay sane. What better company than your best friends?
Last night, they’d all decided the ritual for laying The Ex to rest had to be performed right away. The sooner the better, Raven said. As always, she was ready to move on from the ex-boyfriend, but in her old style, she would have moved on to another boy. Now it was The Code. Alexia wasn’t so sure Raven could do it. She was the boy-crazy one out of the four of them.
For some reason, Raven thought being alone was a sign of lameness. Alexia suspected her neediness had something to do with her parents divorcing a few years ago. With her dad gone all the time, Ray kept looking to boys to fill that void. Hopefully, with The Code as her aid, she’d realize she didn’t need a guy to be happy.
The doorbell rang and Alexia grinned. She opened the front door and the night air slipped in, chilling her skin. Goose bumps popped on her forearms.
“Hey, guys!” she said, seeing Raven and Kelly on the porch.
Kelly, as usual, hid in her fur-trimmed hood. Even standing on the enclosed porch out of the chilled wind, she was moving constantly as if trying to get her blood pumping faster.
If you looked at Raven standing next to Kelly, you’d never guess both girls were from the same climate. Raven’s jacket was only a black hooded sweatshirt, a pink skull printed on the front. Her hands were bare, two plastic bags hanging from her wrists.
“Warmth!” Kelly shouted, barreling past Alexia.
Alexia looked over Raven’s shoulder and to the driveway. She saw only Raven’s red Nissan Sentra. “Sydney come with you guys?”
“Sydney,” Raven said, “is a no-show.” She walked in, and Alexia shut the door. They headed to the kitchen. Raven set her bags down on the kitchen island, shoving aside the bowl of fruit. “I called Syd and she said she wasn’t coming.”
“She hasn’t talked to Drew yet,” Kelly explained, pulling out one of the bar stools at the island. “And he’s been at my house half the night.” She slid out of her coat and set it on a stool next to her. “I think Syd’s hoping he’ll call and they’ll make up and everything will be okay.”
Alexia sighed. “Well, hopefully they will make up, but they’ve never broken up before. This seems serious.”
“I tried telling her that,” Raven said. “But she didn’t want to hear it.”
“You guys still want to do the ritual, then?” Alexia couldn’t keep the hint of disappointment out of her voice.
“Of course.” Kelly pushed her ponytail off her shoulder. “I want to lay Will to rest as soon as I can.”
“And I made us all Ex tombstones out of paper,” Raven said. “I figured we could burn them.” She pulled three tombstones out of an envelope and laid them on the table. One said Drew, one Caleb, one Will. They were made out of heavy black cardstock and the names were done in gothic lettering with silver glitter.
“These are so cute!” Kelly picked up Will’s and fingered his name. Some glitter came away, sprinkling onto the moss-colored countertop.
“They aren’t supposed to be cute!” Raven said.
Kelly shrugged. “Well, they are.”
“Leave it to Kelly,” Alexia said, “to find something cute in something that’s supposed to be slightly morbid.”
“She would think a demon was cute if he had good hair,” Raven added.
“Hello, I’m right here.” Kelly waved her hands in the air.
They all laughed.
“Come on, I figured we’d do this in the sunroom.” Alexia led them to the back of the house. The walls and ceiling in the sunroom were made entirely of glass, so the sky was overhead, stars shining brightly in the clear night. There were candles lit all over, the flames reflecting off the glass walls. Alexia had moved all the wicker furniture back to make a place for a roasting pan in the center of the room. She’d taken the big floral cushions off the wicker chairs and set them around the pot.
“For burning things,” Alexia explained, nodding at the roasting pan.
“Of course.” Kelly smiled.
Raven sat on one of the pillows. “Well, let’s get started.” She grabbed her two grocery bags and started unloading them. There was a whole gift box full of letters, a hair scrunchie, a T-shirt, an envelope full of photos, and a sock.
“What is all that stuff?” Kelly asked, grabbing the envelope of pictures.
“Everything that Caleb gave me. Or, if it reminded me of him, I threw it in the bag.”
Alexia poked the sock with her finger. “And this reminded you of him?”
Kelly snorted a laugh.
“He left it at my house,” Raven explained.
Alexia raised her eyebrows. “Oh, I see.”
“What did you bring?” Raven asked Kelly.
Kelly grabbed her purse and dug inside. She pulled out a brochure to the high school’s last art show and one picture of Will speaking at a school assembly that she had obviously taken herself.
“I know,” she said, looking at her pile, then Raven’s. “I had a pathetic relationship with Will.”
Alexia shook her head. “I think the boyfriend was more pathetic than the relationship.”
“Any guy would be lucky to have you, Kel,” Raven said.
Kelly gave an unconvinced smile and nodded. “Thanks, you guys.”
Alexia was pretty sure Kelly suffered from the I’m-not-good-enough syndrome, what Alexia’s parents called self-criticism. But no matter how many times Alexia or Raven or Sydney told her how pretty she was, she always thought she could be thinner or have better skin.
Of course, Alexia’s friends were constantly telling her how pretty she was, and she never seemed to have enough confidence to talk to guys. Maybe she was suffering from self-criticism, too.
Alexia shook a box of matches in her hand. “I’ll start the fire. I have the fire extinguisher close at hand, just in case something goes wrong.”
“I’m so flippin’ ready for this,” Raven said.
“Throw your letters in,” Alexia said to Raven. “That’ll get the fire going.”
Raven dumped the letters out of the box and into the roasting pan. Alexia struck a match, the sulfur filling her nose. She threw it in and the flame burned a hole into one of the letters. Soon they all were lit up. “Now, throw in everything else,” she said. “We’ll do the tombstones last.”
Raven didn’t hesitate. She chucked things in without looking and was done within a minute. Kelly threw in the brochure first but then dwelled on the picture of Will.
“Come on, Kel,” Raven said.
Kelly gave Will’s picture one more look and threw it in.
Sydney stared at her computer screen. She refreshed the window to see if she had any new emails.
You have 0 unread mail messages.
She let out a long sigh. Why hadn’t Drew called or emailed or something? Was he deliberately avoiding her? She picked up her cell phone and double-checked her messages. Still nothing. She called his cell and voice mail picked up right away.
“You reached Drew. Leave it after the beep.” Beep.
“Drew, call me!”
She flipped the phone closed and went out to the kitchen. Her mother was at the table, clicking away on her laptop. The laptop and her BlackBerry were permanent tools at her side now that she was an executive at SunBery Vitamins. It’d taken her ten years of hard work but she finally got to the top. Sydney was proud of her for reaching her goal, but it didn’t really feel like she had a mother anymore. Or any parental unit for that matter. Sydney wondered if her mom’s new position was putting a rift in her parents’ relationship.
She watched her father pull a pan of meat loaf out of the oven, floral oven mitts on his hands. He’d taken over the role of Mr. Mom in the last two years. He was getting better at it, but occasionally he forgot to buy toilet paper or misplaced the cable bill, which resulted in an hour’s worth of searching the house. That is, until Sydney logged into their account online and printed out a new bill.
His dinners were improving, too, but Sydney hated meat loaf. It was her mother’s favorite, though, so she couldn’t fault her dad for making it.
Sydney came up beside him. His silver-framed glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose. She noticed more gray hair on his head than black. A year ago, she might have poked fun at him for it, but now he wouldn’t laugh or make fun of himself. He’d just shrug and probably say, “I’m not going to stay young forever.” He was rarely in a good mood anymore.
“Need any help?” she asked. She didn’t really feel like helping, but it was something to get her mind off Drew’s flakiness.
“No,” he said as he set the pan on the stovetop and poked the meat with a knife. Sydney swore she saw it breathe. “Thanks for asking though.” He turned to his wife. “Honey, dinner is done.”
“All right.” She clicked in a few more things on her laptop. “I’m almost finished. Just five more minutes.”
Mr. Howard nodded and got plates out, then started slicing up the meat loaf. Sydney groaned, seeing the moist meat on her plate. She didn’t want to be here right now—certainly not eating that. Her house had become this silent, half-living thing. She could predict exactly what would happen over dinner.
Her dad would serve the food. He’d pour the drinks. He’d try to make small talk with his wife until her cell would ring, or her email alert would go off. Then she’d bury herself back in her work, ignoring Mr. Howard and Sydney.
“Dad, I think I’m skipping dinner tonight.”
He pushed his glasses back. “You have to eat.”
“But not meat loaf.” And not at the table, either. She’d take her food to her room. At least there she’d have the TV to keep her company instead of two bodies that moved and breathed but had somehow forgotten how to communicate.
“Well,” her dad said, “I haven’t gotten groceries yet, so there isn’t much else.”
Sydney opened the fridge. There was leftover spaghetti from three nights ago on the top shelf. Grapes and sour cream were on the second. She grabbed a carton of blueberry yogurt and read the expiration date in the fridge’s light. OCT 10. Way overdue for the trash can.
Throwing the yogurt away, she went on to the cupboards and found them in the same sad shape.
Correction: Her house had become this silent, half-living, empty thing.
The thought of spending her Saturday night like this made Sydney want to cry for another two hours. Or sleep for a month.
“I’m going to Alexia’s,” she announced. There was always food at Alexia’s. She got the groceries herself and her food tastes were the same as Sydney’s, which meant lots of junk food.
“All right, then,” Mr. Howard said. “Drive carefully. Love you.”
“Love you, too.” She glanced at her mother. “Bye, Mom.”
Mrs. Howard’s fingers tapped incessantly on the laptop keyboard. A deep frown etched her forehead into wrinkles. She didn’t look up as she said, “Bye, honey.”
Sydney rolled her eyes and left.
The first thing Sydney noticed when she walked in the front door of Alexia’s house was the smell of something burning, then the scent of cinnamon and apples. She ran through the house, checking every room until she got to the sunroom. There were candles all over the place and a fire burned in a big blue roasting pan that her friends sat around.
Sydney froze over the threshold and took it all in. “Are you guys practicing witchcraft or something?”
They all looked at her and laughed.
“Yes, we’re putting a hex on Drew,” Raven said.
“Don’t do that!” Sydney shouted, hurrying into the room. Not that she believed in witchcraft or magic or anything. She was all about science and facts, but with Raven, anything was possible.
A boy Raven really liked dumped her in middle school and, to retaliate, she bought a spell book from a used bookstore and cursed him. The next day at school, he fell in a mud puddle before lunch and then sprained his ankle in gym class. If she were being honest, Sydney found it a little suspicious.
“She was kidding,” Alexia said. “Raven.”
Raven was always goading Sydney. If anyone was a pain in her butt it was Raven, but she loved the girl. It was like having a love/hate relationship with the sister she never had but always wanted. Being an only child sucked. Sometimes.
Pulling her coat off, Sydney sat on one of the pillows in front of the roasting pan and peered inside. Pictures crinkled from the fire. There was a sock smoldering and a T-shirt burning in two places.
The burning smell was coming from the pot, and the apple and cinnamon must have been the red candles around the room.
“So what exactly are you doing?”
“Laying The Ex to rest.” Kelly licked her glossed lips. Sydney would bet the lip gloss was chocolate flavored. It was Kelly’s way of satisfying her sweet tooth without eating too many calories. “Did you come to lay Drew to rest?”
Sydney got that weak, tingling feeling in her throat as if she were about to cry. She swallowed hard and pulled a breath in through her nose. Why hadn’t he called her? He never went this long without returning her phone calls. She felt helpless and restless. She just wished she could fix it, like now.
Raven held up a tombstone-shaped piece of paper that had Drew’s name on it. “We wouldn’t leave you out of the fun. Here.”
Sydney took the paper. “This is dumb.” She stood up.
“Sit down,” Alexia said. “You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”
“We aren’t technically broken up yet, you know.” But the more she talked about it the more she doubted her own words. They’d never fought like this before. Or uttered the “we’re done” words. They weren’t the on-again/off-again kind of couple.
And the longer the silence between them stretched, the more she began to believe they were, in fact, broken up. It seemed wrong, though, to burn a tombstone with his name on it. Doing so might jinx them and they’d never get back together even if there was a chance.
Tears started beneath her lids and a few slid out. Darn it, crying again? And in front of her friends?
“Why don’t you keep it for now?” Alexia said. “If you get back together, throw it away. If…well, just keep it.”
Sydney nodded and slid the paper in her purse. She’d throw it away when she got home, after she finally talked to Drew. Because he had to call, didn’t he?