T*Witches: Don’t Think Twice (10 page)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

BRIANNA’S BREAKDOWN

They did not call in advance. Answering the door without makeup, Brianna looked frighteningly drawn, her face haggard and blemished. Even her hair seemed to be thinning.

“OMG, one wasn’t enough,” she cracked tiredly. “You’re into serial ambushing now?” She glanced past them and saw, at the curb, smoke curling from the tailpipe of Dave’s waiting car. “Wow, it’s a family affair.”

“Get dressed,” Cam said gently. “Let’s talk.”

Bree looked at them, cocking her head, trying to act like her old cheerfully untroubled self. “Which one of you is going to read me my rights?” It didn’t work. Finally, she sighed. “Okay, officers. I’ll be right back.”

“Dress warm,” Alex called after her. “We’re going to Mariner’s Park. Cam’s idea,” she added.

Bree glanced at Alex over her shoulder. “I don’t think so,” she said, then disappeared toward the bedroom.

“My idea?” Cam grumbled.

“To be someplace magical where witches have a history,” Alex reminded her. And, though it probably wasn’t the best time to challenge her clique-centric sister, she couldn’t help mentioning, “I heard through the mind-vine that Bree’s crib was off-limits to me. Thanks for the heads-up.”

Busted. “That was a tough one,” Cam conceded. “It’s just so important to her that everyone thinks she’s this pampered rich babe. We know the truth, but we’re her friends…. We keep her secrets. Don’t say it —” Cam warned.

Even if keeping those secrets is dangerous and destructive?
Alex didn’t say it. But she thought it, loudly.

“Besides,” Cam went on the defensive, “it’s not like you ever asked to go there. There’s a lot you didn’t want to know about Bree. It was easier for you to hang on to your prejudice. You made it easy for me to do what Bree wanted.”

“Now we’ve got to do what she doesn’t want,” Alex said.

“Thanks for the irresistible invite,” Brianna said, returning
to the front hall in sweats and sneakers. “But, you know, now that I’ve really thought about it? I’m gonna take a Pasadena on the field trip and hit the gym instead.”

“Wait.” Cam was calm but determined. “There’s a reason we’re asking you. It’s not some random field trip.”

“Oh?” Brianna arched her eyebrows. “Buried treasure hunt? Scavenger hunt? Cute-boy enclave? Somehow, I think not.”

“We have something for you,” Alex said, sticking with the plan. “And in a way, it is sort of like buried treasure.”

Bree shot a sharp glance at Cam.

“We do have something to give you. It’s kind of precious, too.” It felt as though Cam were seeing her sick friend for the first time. Her voice was thick with emotion.

And maybe that’s what did it. Brianna grimaced, glanced over Cam’s shoulder, waved at David Barnes waiting in the car, and caved. “Okay, I’ll play. How long will it take to bestow your gift? There’s not a treadmill or bike left at Gym World if you get there late.”

Cam’s dad dropped them off at the entrance to Mariner’s Park. The paths were already peopled by morning joggers and dog walkers, puffing smoky breath.

“Got your cell phone?” Dave asked Cam. Alex, and even Bree, cracked up. “I withdraw the question — on
the grounds of ‘way obvious,’” he admitted. “Call if there’s any problem. Promise?”

As the trio traipsed up the hill leading to Cam’s special place, Bree whined, “This better be extraordinary. Exemplary. Outstanding. In other words, twin-pains, this little excursion had better be worth it.”

Or what?
Alex was tempted to say.

Cam kicked her sister’s ankle. “Promise. You will so thank us for this.”

Eventually
, Alex thought and swung her foot away to avoid another boot nudge.

Cam had brought a blanket and set it out under the gnarled oak tree. Alex had brought the crystals.

Brianna grudgingly sat between Cam and Alex and held out her palm. “Deliver. What’s the gift? And why hide it here?”

Although she’d rehearsed it, Cam didn’t know if she could say it, now that she was face-to-face with her friend. How long had this been going on? Cam’s stomach turned as she noticed bony knees, pointy shoulder blades jutting from Bree’s sweatshirt. There was a lump in her throat, but she got it out. “The truth is a gift, Brianna.”

“Yeah, if you can’t afford diamonds.” Bree rolled her once-vibrant green eyes and started to get up. “Look, whatever new enlightenment you guys are into? Don’t
drag me all Dalai Lama with you. Just count me … out. I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”

Alex held Bree’s arm and said firmly, “It’s okay. We know.”

“What is it you think you know?” Bree challenged.

Cam blurted, “You’re starving yourself. You have an eating disorder. You need help.”

Bree’s reaction was a shocker. She burst out laughing. “I wish.”

“No!” Cam had to work to keep calm. “I mean, no one would wish that.”

Bree wrapped her arms around her knees, a look of disgust clouding her face. “Starving? As if. I’m blubber! I could live off my fat.”

“Oh, man, that is so warped!” Alex exclaimed.

Bree snickered, “This is what you dragged me here for? I am so gone. I’m calling a cab. She whipped out her cell phone and started to stand up.

“You can’t go, you can’t run away.” Cam knew she sounded desperate. “Not until you realize what you’re doing to yourself. And let us help you.”

Brianna had ceased to be amused. She was getting angry. “Ready, aim, misfire. I neither want nor need your misguided help, Goody Four-shoes. You can’t force me to stay here and listen to this bogus junk.”

The twins looked at each other and shrugged. Cam
reached inside her sweatshirt and pulled out her sun charm, which glinted in the early daylight.

Alex did the same with her moon charm, rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger.

“What is this, a QVC moment? Selling your jewelry? Do I look like I need to accessorize?” Brianna was nervous as Cam locked eyes with her.

The Truth Inducer. It was one of the first incantations they’d learned. It had to work.

If it didn’t, Cam thought, repulsed at the prospect, Brianna, whose first priority had always been “looking good,” could soon be hospitalized against her will. Then everyone would know. How devastating would that be for someone who needed to keep up appearances?

If she had some control over things, like if she decided to get help voluntarily, Bree could spin the situation to her advantage. But to control it, she needed to accept it.

Cam grasped one of Brianna’s bony hands, Alex the other. Bree pulled away. “What are you doing now? Contacting the dead?”

Just at that second, a warm breeze blew by — strange for the cold morning. It prickled the nape of Cam’s neck, producing goose bumps. Alex felt it, too. And caught the clean, herbal scent of their guardian. “Ileana?” she whispered.

Or Leila
, Cam guessed, remembering the regal spirit of their grandmother who had appeared to them once before.

Bree’s tugging snapped them back to reality. She wasn’t strong enough to slip out of their grip. “How can you do this to me?” she demanded as Alex and Cam began reciting the incantation. “You kidnapped me and now you’re doing — I don’t know what, but I don’t like it. You’re supposed to be my friends!”

“O sun that gives us light and cheer, shine through us now to banish fear…”

At once, Cam and Alex felt their amulets begin to heat and vibrate between their fingers. And then, as had happened before, the necklaces pulled toward each other as if magnetized, drawing Cam and Alex together. Clinging to Brianna’s hands, the girls now formed a circle as tight and complete as their sun and moon charms did when they linked.

Brianna’s green eyes glazed over. She stopped resisting the twins — her angry jaw relaxed. The charms separated, allowing the twins to sit back.

To Cam’s gentle query, the gaunt girl confessed that she liked dieting. The more weight she lost, the prettier she felt. “One day, I’ll look like the actresses my dad sees. Then he’ll see me.”

Cam’s eyes welled with tears. Brianna felt invisible
to her dad — duh! Only now, Cam thought, Bree was making herself invisible for real. It didn’t make sense.

Is it her way of getting back at him?
she silently ventured to Alex.

Alex shrugged.
Maybe her way of having some control over her messed-up family. Isn’t she all about control?

Irony alert: Bree had no control over what she was doing to herself. And no clue about how she really looked. Kristen had been right.

Cam tried again. “This isn’t the way. You’re only hurting yourself, Bree — and everybody who loves you. All your friends, your mom and your dad.” She added, “I’m sure,” though she wasn’t sure at all about Eric Waxman.

She was unprepared for Bree’s outburst, Bree’s truth: “You don’t understand! When I’m thinner, he’ll pay attention to me. He hates me because I’m so fat and ugly now.”

Frustrated, Cam turned to Alex. “She still doesn’t see it!”

“Then show her,” her twin suggested.

Cam caught her breath. Instantly, she knew what Alex meant — which didn’t make it doable. “But how? I’ve never tried that before — shared a vision, showed it to someone else.”

“Maybe it was never this important before,” Alex said.

Brianna was on ice, literally. The Truth Inducer had left her limp and perplexed for the moment. She sat quietly waiting now.

Cam closed her eyes and tried to recall her vision of the terrified girl in the snow, so thin, almost transparent.
Let this work
, she begged silently.

Concentrate
, Alex urged, seemingly from far away. And then, as the vision returned in vivid detail, down to the bare trees, the snow, the brick house — which Cam now realized was Bree’s home — and the girl begging for someone to understand her, Alex said excitedly, “That’s it. You’re doing it. I can hear it perfectly … and, Cami, I feel it, feel it out there, the coldness, the despair —”

Big glitch: Cam re-created the vision, Alex felt it, but Bree was the one who needed to see it.

Cam urged suddenly,
Use your mind, Alex. Move the sounds, the feelings, the whole vision if you can. Move it from us to Bree. Let her see what she looks like through other people’s eyes
.

I don’t know how
, Alex confessed.
I don’t know if I can move something … intangible … a thought, an image — from your mind to Bree’s
.

The moment she told the truth, she was able to picture the vision as Cam described it. She imagined herself holding on to it, as if it were a painting or a drawing and not a moving image. And then she pictured folding the
paper on which she’d transferred the vision. Folding it into a paper airplane that she struggled to grasp and sail toward Bree.

“Oh!” the subdued, skeletal girl exclaimed, moving suddenly. “Ouch, what’s that?” She ruffled her hair, rummaged through it as if she were searching for something. And then her eyes widened as whatever she’d been looking for seemed to unfold inside her head.

A horrified scream snapped Cam and Alex out of their deep concentration. It was followed by, “Oh, my God, that’s me. Oh, no. Is that what I look like?”

Brianna covered her face and wept. Cam — and Alex, for a while — wept with her.

Over the next few days, Brianna took her first steps toward getting well. It meant getting help — quickly — the kind that could only come from parents.

Brianna’s mom was shocked and so very ashamed she hadn’t seen it. She’d been so busy, working to stay independent, she had really thought her daughter was doing well. Mrs. Waxman came down hard on herself.

Emily stepped up to the emotional plate, assuring Bree’s mom that it wasn’t at all unusual for a parent not to realize what was happening. “If your daughter wants to hide something from you” — she paused to wink at Cam and Alex — “there’s not much you can do. They
know exactly how.” She quoted studies showing that even the most attentive parents don’t always notice. And that the important thing was getting Brianna help. Cam was proud of her mom. Alex was proud of her legal guardian.

Then Dave stepped up to the practical plate. Calling in one of the doctors his firm had worked with in the past, they double-teamed Eric Waxman until he understood just how serious, how dangerous his daughter’s condition was and exacted a promise that the neglectful Hollywood mogul would shell out whatever it took for Brianna’s well-being.

Shame, guilt, and the possibility that his child would land on the cover of
People
as the latest Hollywood eating disorder casualty soon had Bree’s dad securing a bed for her at a highly regarded rehab. The place was secluded, tucked away, expensive, and very private. And, after checking the stats, Dave announced that its success rate was top-notch.

Neither he nor Brianna’s dad would divulge the clinic’s name right now — at least not until Brianna’s recovery was well under way.

“Nothing but the best for my best girl,” Alex and Cam overheard Mr. Waxman bragging.

“Bree’s condition must be contagious,” Cam said, disgustedly. “’Cause I just so lost my appetite.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

SAYING GOOD-BYE

Saying good-bye to their friend was the hardest thing the Six Pack, as a group, ever had to do. But on a weekday afternoon at the end of March, they gathered to support her, reassure her, help her … and show her they loved her.

They made her a card and a gift basket. Kristen put in the teddy bear she slept with, so Brianna might feel more secure. Amanda made her a power bracelet, “for health and inner strength.” Beth gave Bree a journal; Sukari a good luck stone with the word
BELIEVE
carved into it. Cam had inserted a Discman into the basket, and Alex had burned a CD with meaningful songs. Mostly, they gave her hugs.

They promised, one by one, that e-mails would be flying and phone bills would mount. They’d be in touch every single day.

Later, at Pie in the Sky, the Six Pack, minus one, sat in their usual booth and, over pizza, tried to understand. How could their closest friend have an eating disorder — and they not know it? Were they all self-absorbed? Or was Bree just that good at hiding her problem?

Why hadn’t anyone realized the girl’s obsessive dieting had gotten out of hand, and she’d become an anorexic? No one except Kristen had figured it out, and she’d been sworn to secrecy. A secret she’d nearly choked on, so as not to “betray” a friend.

The definition of friendship was now something they were all choking on. Wouldn’t Kris have been a better friend if she’d just told someone, an adult?

Sukari insisted that’s what she would have done. “If it’s something that serious, where’s the decision? You do what’s best for the person, even against her will. That’s what makes a friend.”

Beth reminded Suke that unless she’d really been in Kris’s shoes, she couldn’t really know what she would have done. Then the curly-haired girl put her arm around Kristen. “You made a choice. You did what you could. I think you’re an incredible friend.”

The tears around the table flowed so freely that Dylan, at the next booth with his friends, jokingly sent a pail and mop over.

Alex was relieved that Brianna was getting help, but she couldn’t stop thinking that Bree’s good fortune was their rotten luck. The notes had not been about Miranda. So, as far as finding their mother was concerned, they were back where they started.

Or were they?

“Are we even sure now that our mother is in an asylum?” Cam backpedaled.

“There’s a reason Thantos wanted that picture destroyed, that he went ballistic when it was printed,” she told Cam on the way home. “He so didn’t want anyone to know where he was.”

“And Fredo did say, ‘She went mad. She had to be put away.’” Cam shuddered, remembering their uncle’s callous words.

“So let’s kick it up a notch,” Alex suggested. “We have, like, this massive amount of research to do. Molly McCracken said the pic was snapped in California. Boot up the search engine and type in ‘Loony Bins, CA.’ We start.”

Cam hesitated. “But what about Molly? Our uncle’s probably the one who sent that car careening around the
corner to mow down her husband. I keep feeling we should be able to help her.”

Alex agreed, and then she realized how they could do just that.

Thankfully, David Barnes didn’t ask too many questions. He just jumped in with two feet, becoming Mrs. McCracken’s pro bono lawyer and getting Molly the money she was owed from
Starstruck
, “the big score” the magazine had tried to send her husband. Interns at Dave’s law firm also helped, finding housing, child care, and even counseling for Elias’s widow.

“You’re the best, Dad!” Cam hugged her father hard when she found out what he’d done.

“Uh, yeah, what she said,” Alex agreed shyly. She took a pass on the hug. This time.