4152 Witchwood Lane by Katie Winters

Author:Katie Winters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: womens fiction, clean and wholesome fiction, sisters fiction, divorce fiction, family fiction
Publisher: Katie Winters
Published: 2021-05-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Isabelle wouldn’t look at her mother at the pizza place. It was one of those overly trendy college dive places, with graffiti on every space of the walls, different kinds of vintage lamps illuminating the tables, and rock music blaring on every stereo. It had been their plan to go there, to try out the garlic bread and drink cherry cokes and digest Isabelle’s day of orientation. But somehow, all of that had been ruined because Isabelle had walked up to Mila during her flirtation with her resident advisor. How desperately Mila wanted to grab her daughter and explain just how lonely she had gotten over the previous few years. How desperately she wanted to tell Isabelle that she hadn’t wanted to hurt her, that she’d only wanted to live for a few moments as someone else.

But words didn’t seem to be enough.

They ordered cherry cokes and garlic bread, along with a medium-sized vegetarian pizza. Isabelle twiddled her thumbs for a moment as silence fell over them.

“Will you tell me what classes you signed up for?” Mila finally asked.

Isabelle rolled her eyes — in the style of the eye-rolling Mila had previously done to Diana Ellis, back in the day.

“Come on, Isabelle. Please?”

Isabelle groaned and leafed out her booklet, where she had written out her schedule for the next semester. She presented it to her mother, saying, “I don’t have to wake up on Tuesdays and Thursdays until ten, which is crazy. But Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week, I have French at eight a.m.”

“Oh,” Mila said. “That’s early.”

“Yes. True. But I have my last class at noon, so it’s not so bad,” Isabelle said. “But everyone says that you have to study at least five hours a day, so it’s not like it’ll be easy.”

“Nobody said it would be easy,” Mila agreed. “It’s Tufts, for goodness sake.”

“Yep. Tufts is tough,” Isabelle said dryly.

The silence fell between them again. Mila’s heart pattered strangely.

“I really want to tell you that I didn’t mean to — erm — become friendly with your resident advisor,” Mila said finally. “I met him at a coffee shop, and he asked what I was reading, and, well, it—”

“Sounds like a classic meet-cute,” Isabelle said, with the slightest bit of sarcasm.

Mila’s heart shattered. “I was just a person in a coffee shop. So was he. We liked a lot of the same stories. And to be honest with you, I thought he was a little bit older.”

“And he probably thought you were a little bit younger. I get it,” Isabelle said with a sigh. “I just—ugh. I mean, Mom, come on. Think about it. It hasn’t been easy on Zane and me, you know. You trying out dating and all that.”

Mila dropped her eyes to the table. It was in moments like this that she fully realized how much her children had missed out on. They’d had to say goodbye to their father at age sixteen and the death had literally ripped them in half. All three of them had been in therapy for almost two years.

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