“I don’t care where she lives but she’s not living here! Get out now, all of you, or I’m calling the cops!” Mr. Groperson growled. Fumbling for the door of his apartment, he slapped it shut in our faces. The last thing I heard from him was an emphatic, Get out!”
And that was that.
55
“I…I guess I better go talk to my mom,” I said in a low, stricken voice.
“We’ll come with you,” Lachlan and Bran both said.
“Us too!” Megan chimed in, nodding at Kaitlyn and Avery, who nodded back, showing their support.
“Actually, I think Emma’s mother might be overwhelmed if we all descend on her at once,” Griffin said, frowning. “Maybe Ari and I should stay and make certain Groperson doesn’t come out and try anything.”
Ari nodded. “Good idea. Dios—he’s a fucking mess!”
“Thanks, guys,” I said to all of them. “I appreciate your support, but I think maybe I should talk to my mom alone to start with. She…” I took a deep breath. “She’s going to be pretty upset when I tell her she has to pack up everything and move out right now.”
“Then we’ll stay out here and wait for you,” Avery said comfortingly.
“I’ll call and see if there’s an opening at Shady Pines,” Kaitlyn said practically, talking about the only other apartment complex in town. “Maybe they won’t notice if your mom smokes.”
“Thanks, but I really kind of doubt it,” I said dolefully. “Considering she smokes like a chimney.”
“I’ll call my Aunt Deli and see if she’ll budge on the no-smoking thing at all,” Megan said. “Maybe if your mom promises to stay right by an open window or something…” She didn’t sound too hopeful, but it was nice to know my friends were trying to help.
“Bran and I will be here if you need us,” Lachlan told me. “We need to talk about a way to focus your magic, little one.”
“I’m afraid Lachlan is right—it’s out of control right now—not that I blame you,” Bran said fiercely, glancing at Groperson’s shut door. “He got exactly what he deserved—the bastard.”
“Thanks guys.” I took a deep breath and lifted my chin. “I better go tell my mom what’s going on now.”
Then, feeling like the weight of the world was on my shoulders, I went to my mom’s apartment—correction, ex-apartment—to tell her she had to move out.
Immediately.
56
Mom was already at the door when I went to knock. She must have heard all the shouting because she had a worried look on her face.
“Emma, honey—what’s going on out there?” she asked, enfolding me in a hug.
I tilted my head away by force of habit—I didn’t want my hair to catch on fire from the lit cigarette she always had in one hand. But then I realized something strange—for once, she wasn’t smoking.
Well, she’ll want to light up for sure when I tell her the news, I thought sadly.
Any kind of stress always made my mom want to smoke even more than she usually did. Which meant she’d probably be smoking two or three cigarettes at a time when I explained how I’d gotten her kicked out of her apartment and she was about to be homeless.
“Mom,” I started, pulling away from her. “I’m so sorry, but I did something really awful with my new magic.”
“What?” She looked at me, full of concern. “Oh honey, you didn’t hurt anybody, did you?”
I thought of Mr. Groperson and how his “boy parts” were now apparently permanently plastered to his face and his nose was between his legs. Considering how dirty he always looked, I was betting that he wasn’t exactly experiencing very nice smells right now—though that was probably the least of his worries.
“Well, kind of,” I said slowly. “But not how you think. The point is, what I did made Mr. Groperson really angry and now he says we have to move out of the complex right away.”
I said all this in a rush, feeling like I had to get it out.
“I’m so sorry, Mom,” I went on, tears filling my eyes. “I know you can’t go to Shady Pines because of your smoking so I don’t know what we’re going to do! And I just feel so horrible because it’s all my fault!”
“Oh, honey…” She shook her head, looking down at her hands, as though trying to digest the information. Then she looked up at me and—to my surprise—she smiled. “Good,” she said firmly. “I need to get out of here.”
“What?” I asked, not sure that I’d heard her. “But Mom, where will you go?”
“Maybe I will go to Shady Pines,” she said lightly. “Emma, I have news for you—I quit smoking!”
“What?” I frowned at her skeptically. “That’s really nice, Mom, but for how long?”
In the past when she had “quit” her nasty habit, she’d been back, puffing away, before the day was out.