Bewitching by Alex Flinn Page B

texting my friends from home.”
    I nodded, still not wanting to leave. Why had she turned on me so quickly? “So, we’ll do it later?”
    “I already told you I was finished.”
    Finally, I had to leave.
    Back in my room, I went through every drawer, every closet, rummaged under the bed. The iPod was nowhere to be found.

8

    Friday night, I went to the mall with “the girls,” and Saturday to a different mall. Saturday night, they all came over to watch movies, while Mother hovered over us, offering popcorn and fresh-squeezed lemonade.
    It was fun being part of the group, but I could barely understand a word they said. I hoped Mother couldn’t understand at all.
    “Wagwan, Midori,” Courtney said, looking at her phone. “I see you friended Jacy Davis. She’s a total skank.”
    “I did it for the lulz,” Midori said. “Did you see the stuff she posts? Last week, she took selfies of her getting blazed at Crispin’s party.”
    “I know!” Courtney said. “And she’s literally hooked up with a thousand guys.”
    Mother, who had been handing out Rice Krispies squares, now tried to look invisible. She’d seen every episode of Dr. Phil and read Dear Abby daily. Plus, she’d been forwarded a million cautionary emails by her friends, outlining the evils of posting photos on the internet, much less getting high. Please don’t let her say anything . I tried to telepath to her: Don’t speak. After all, you want me to be friends with these girls .
    She must have heard me, because she kept her mouth shut.
    The weird thing was, after two solid days with Courtney and Company, I was starting to… I don’t know, long to go upstairs and read a book. Yes, I’d been friends with Courtney in the past, but now I realized we’d grown apart. We were nothing alike. In fact, she was kind of annoying. It was Lisette I wanted to be with now. I admitted to myself that I’d had this fantasy that she wouldn’t need any friends besides me. Then we’d read by the fireplace while toasting s’mores every Saturday night until it was time to be college roommates, then marry identical twins. Okay, probably not.
    So when Midori said, “We should make this a sleepover party,” I said, “Oh, no.”
    “No?” Midori obviously wasn’t used to the word.
    I looked at Lisette. “We have plans tomorrow morning, early. Right, Lisette?”
    “Oh, yeah. Yeah, right?”
    “Remember? Dad’s boat? We told him we’d go.” Dad had already turned in, but Lisette had said she was up for it.
    “Oh, yeah.” She nodded. “Some other time then.”
    They left a little while later. Before I went to bed, I asked Lisette, “What time are we going?”
    “Oh, I told Dad since we were going to be up late, maybe nine.”
    It was after one, but I said, “Great. I’ll set my alarm for eight.”
    The next morning, my alarm didn’t ring. When I woke up at eight-thirty, Lisette was already gone. I didn’t have to ask to know where she was—out with Daddy on his sailboat.
    Why? Had she misunderstood that I’d wanted to go? Or had Daddy not wanted me? It must have been some kind of misunderstanding. They couldn’t have just ditched me.
    I tried to tell myself I hadn’t really wanted to go. It was true. I’d much rather spend the day at home with a good book than fighting sails and frying my skin. I just didn’t want Lisette to go, didn’t want to be left out.
    But that was selfish, right? I’d had Dad my whole life. Lisette was just getting to know him.
    When Mother came down an hour later, I was eating a muffin and reading. She said, “I thought you were going with them.”
    I shrugged. “I don’t really like sailing.” It wasn’t a lie.
    “You should have gone. Don’t let her worm her way into your spot.”
    “She’s not doing that.” I turned a page of my book, even though I wasn’t finished with it.
    “Emma, pay attention. That’s just what she’s doing. She’s a pretty girl, and she knows how to get what she wants, whether