Timeless by Michelle Madow Page A

in different colors, along with a plain, white mug for my mom. That way I wouldn’t mix up who had which mug. I filled them up with water from the instant hot, and dropped in the teabags.
    Now for the hard part.
    I took out the vial and stared at the clear liquid. Drugging my mom felt so wrong. Could I go through with this? Just thinking about it made me feel like a terrible person.
    Then I reminded myself that as much as I hated it, using the potion was my best option. If my mom didn’t agree to the plan, then I either had to go to England behind her back, or be doomed to die by the next full moon.
    The idea that I could die was frightening. Hadn’t I faced enough imminent death by keeping Jeremy from getting us in a deadly car accident last weekend? I never thought that at sixteen I would be worrying about dying. Yet here I was, knowing that because of one selfish act from someone who I once considered my best friend, I might not live to see my seventeenth birthday. The whole situation made me feel helpless and out of control.
    I uncapped the vial, and dumped the potion into my mom’s drink. 
    As much as I told myself that I was doing what I had to, it didn’t make me feel any better.
    “What did you get at the mall?” my mom asked as she entered the kitchen.
    “I couldn’t find anything,” I said. “It was crowded, and the lines were so long for the dressing rooms and to purchase anything that I didn’t feel like waiting. I’m never going to the mall on Black Friday again.”
    “I guess that’s a lesson you have to learn the hard way,” my mom said with a laugh. “It’s why I do my Black Friday shopping online.”
    Apparently she was getting some shopping in while claiming to work.
    “Yeah,” I agreed. I took a sip of my tea, and then handed my mom her mug.
    “This is good,” she said. “What kind of tea did you use?”
    “It’s just cinnamon,” I said, feeling guilty about the lie. I hoped the strong flavor of cinnamon would cover up any possible taste of the potion, despite the fact that it was supposed to be tasteless.
    “I’m glad you and Chelsea are friends again,” my mom said, taking a seat at the table. “I had a feeling the two of you would work it out.”
    I joined her at the table. She’d taken a few sips of tea, so the potion was in her system.
    It was now or never.
    “When the three of us were at the mall, Drew invited us to spend Christmas with him,” I said nervously. My mom’s mind was supposed to be “relaxing and opening to new possibilities,” but I dreaded she would immediately say no when I brought up the trip.
    “Do you mean you, Drew, and Chelsea?” my mom asked suspiciously. I couldn’t blame her for thinking the offer was strange. It would make sense if he invited me, but she knew there was bad history between the three of us.
    “It’s a family thing, so he invited our families as well. He figured it would be nice to invite Chelsea and her dad since the two of you are dating.”
    “That was thoughtful of him,” my mom said. “Will it be at his house?”
    “That’s the thing.” I dreaded the next words that were going to come out of my mouth. “They’re spending Christmas with his grandparents in England.”
    My mom nearly choked on her tea. “So you’re saying he invited us to England?”
    “Yes.” I tried to remain calm and not worry about her minor freak out. Maybe she needed time to let it soak in. “His grandparents’ house is large enough to host all of us, so we won’t have to stay in a hotel. All we would need are the plane flights.”
    She took another sip of tea, and I could tell she was considering it. A spark of hope passed through my chest. She hadn’t said an immediate no, which was what I had feared.
    Maybe she would actually go for this plan.
    “I do have airline miles set aside that need to be used,” she said.
    “So we can go?”
    “I’ll check the flights, and if I’m able to use the miles to get free airfare, then we