Excerpt: Mirrors in the Dark

Chapter Three:
In Which Black is Not a Happy Color

A slim redhead standing next to the baggage belt caught Anna's eye, and she blinked and looked again. She let out a half-laugh, half-gasping sob and hurried over to her best friend.

“Anna,” Hope said, pulling her into a tight hug. Anna ducked a little to bury her face in her friend’s shoulder. “Oh, Anna.” They stayed that way, Anna’s eyes burning, for a long moment.

The beeping of the conveyor belt broke them up, and Anna stepped back a little, wiping at her face. “Thanks for coming,” she said, keeping an eye on the belt to avoid looking at her friend.

“Where else would I be?” Hope asked. She slid an arm around Anna’s waist and squeezed. “Blue polka-dots?”

“Of course,” Anna said. She stepped up to the belt and grabbed her suitcase, slinging it over the edge of the railing.

“That it?” Hope’s blue eyes scanned the belt for a second, and then she turned to look back at Anna.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Anna said. “You driving?”

“Nah,” Hope said casually. “Callie’s waiting in the drop-off zone.” Anna felt a weight slip off of her shoulders, and she grabbed her suitcase and pulled it along behind her as she and Hope trekked out the door. A familiar green Toyota honked at them, and they ducked between people and cars to reach it. Anna slung her bag in the backseat and climbed in after it, suddenly exhausted.

“Hey, Anna,” Callie said. She turned to look back at the backseat, and Anna’s mouth dropped open.

“The hell did you do to your hair?” she demanded.

“What does it look like?” Callie said, running a hand through her ear-length, blue-highlighted hair, and continued before Anna could say anything. “I cut it. And dyed it.”

“So I see.” Anna raised her eyebrows. “How ballistic did your mom go?”

“She… actually hasn’t seen it yet,” Callie admitted. She turned to face the front again and waited for a break in traffic to pull out.

“So, what, you’ve been avoiding her?” Anna asked.

Callie shook her head. “She’s been out of town for most of the last month, and I’ve been staying at Hope’s apartment.” She paused, and then added. “And, yeah, I have been avoiding her a bit. I just don’t want to hear it.”

“You could always tell her that at least it isn’t a tattoo,” Hope said cheerfully. Apparently they’d had this conversation before.

On the other hand, Anna thought, and joined in. “Or more piercings. I thought she’d given birth to triplets the last time you came home with a new piercing.”

"So did I," Hope added helpfully from the front seat. "And so did Ian. He sent me a text message to find out what was going on because he was too scared to come downstairs!"

"I didn't know that about Ian - although it explains a lot - but no, Mom will have to just accept that I'm old enough now to make my own decisions. I'm not a teenager anymore."

"Heck, we're old enough to drink!" all three chorused together, and laughed.