Free Purity by Claire Farrell Page B

satisfy you? I wasn’t anywhere near his house.”
    “A likely story. Where were you, then?”
    “At Erin ’s! Trying to fix your mess!”
    He spluttered for a couple of seconds. I could see in his eyes that my visiting Erin was way worse than the idea of me hanging around at Nathan’s house. I hadn’t realised there was a higher bar of failure, and I gulped down a sudden regret.
    “How dare you? How dare you cross that line? Are you kidding me, Perdy? You know better than that. You’re never to go there again. Do you hear me? Never!”
    The regret quickly turned to irritation. “Enough! I won’t be going back because you’ve messed up for good. You’re an idiot! It’s bad enough you’re trying to ruin my life without spoiling the best thing that’s happened to you as well.”
    He shouted my name, but I ran up the stairs, getting a sadistic pleasure from the fact he would struggle to follow me. We couldn’t be in each other’s presence anymore without an argument breaking out. What was happening to us?
    When I finally stopped hiding in my room, Dad refused to look at me, and Gran kept glancing at me pointedly in an attempt to figure out what had happened.
    Dad ignored both of us, and Gran followed me upstairs to catch up on the gossip, but she seemed as horrified as Dad about what I did.
    “Oh, Perdy. You didn’t .”
    “Not helping, Gran.”
    “I’m sorry, but didn’t you think he might explode when he heard? Oh, you’re definitely my granddaughter.” She covered her smile with her hands.
    I giggled. “It wasn’t my smartest idea of all time. I’ll give you that.”
    “So how are you getting on at the library? Been tempted to kill that nagging old crank yet?”
    “Wait. You know her?”
    She sniffed primly. “Of course I do. I can’t stand the woman. I swear she sits at home desperately trying to figure out something new and ridiculous to complain about. Did you know she’s the one who tried to ban orange flowers in the park?”
    “Shut. Up.”
    She grinned. “Well, maybe that rumour isn’t the complete truth. But if she picks on you, tell me, and I’ll deal with her.”
    The reason Mrs. Reed didn’t seem to like me became clear. “Um, no, that’s okay. I’m doing fine there. No need to go granny commando on her.”
    She winked at me. “Good to see you in better form. Any other news?”
    I lowered my voice. “Amelia came to see me at the library. Think Dad will freak?”
    “Maybe today’s not the best time to let that one slip,” she advised.
    “I know. She’s different, Gran. She has a boyfriend, she cut her hair, and she seems… happier.”
    Gran cupped my cheek. “She must miss you if she visited you at that awful library.”
    I smiled. “Maybe.”

    ***

    The next morning, Dad was still ignoring me, and I was more than happy to get to work. The day dragged. I thought about Dad and Erin , about Amelia and how much she had changed, and I did my best not to think about other things.
    Amelia’s story about her ancestors played on my mind the most. Nathan had grown up believing his werewolf side was a curse, and I wondered how he was coping with the fact it would never go away, that it would always be a part of him, no matter what he did. Then I realised I was standing in the middle of the library, gripping a pile of books as if my life depended on it, while Mrs. Reed watched me suspiciously.
    “Sorry,” I said. “Spaced out for a minute.” I scurried away, feeling like a servant avoiding the eye of royalty.
    As long as I kept out of Mrs. Reed’s way, I did fine, but if she thought I wasn’t working, she began one of her lectures. I didn’t understand most of it, probably because I kept zoning out, but on that day, I kept remembering what Gran had said and spent most of the afternoon imagining a senior citizen war.
    Amelia hadn’t turned up again, and I began to think she had forgotten about me. I was strolling home, my head in another world, when I heard a whimper