such a quiet little town

Smiling at Chelsea seemed to be Vanessa’s default, but when she actually said the word ‘ha’, Vanessa was sure she had a ridiculously bright smile on her face. She wasn’t sure what it was, but whatever Chelsea did just seemed like the most adorable thing in the world. She was sure Chelsea could spill an entire jug of coffee over her, and instead of getting mad, she’d just laugh it off .

“I think I’d go crazy too. I don’t think I’m anywhere near responsible to run somewhere by myself just now. I can barely remember to do my share of the chores at home. I can’t even keep track of what’s mine and what’s Tessa and Andi’s. Everything kind of blends into one, because none of us seem capable of keeping track of anything. Luckily I trust them enough not to take anything… But I’m sure you and Mason are the same way…. Except it’s probably easier to keep track of your clothes.”

Chelsea giggled, shaking her head. “No, I don’t think there’s much of a chance of Mason stealing my dresses ... not like I’d judge him for wearing dresses if he wanted to! But, like, he definitely doesn’t. Also he’s way taller than me, and, like, more broad-shouldered.” She gestured with her hands to demonstrate. “He’d, like, have to buy his own. And I wouldn’t steal them because they’d be to big on me.” She shook her head, face heating up a little. “Sorry, weird tangent.”

At the question about Gabe, a small smile appeared on Piper’s face. Technically her immediate family was only her mother, but Piper had always looked at her cousins more like siblings. They spent enough time together to be closer than normal cousins, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. She also just wouldn’t want to impose herself on them, just because she got a little lonely. “That was Gabe, my cousin.” She spoke, almost beaming. “I think he would spend time with me if I asked, he just… Has his own life and his own friends. I don’t want him to feel like he has to hit pause on his own life, just because of lil ol’ me.” She joked, before taking a sip from her drink. “I don’t mind it though. I was always good at entertaining myself, give me a puzzle and I could lose myself for hours trying to find the answer.”

When Evalyn mentioned not being used to people speaking to her for so long, a tiny frown appeared on Piper’s face. She assumed that Evalyn had similar problems to her own, where people took the slightest thing and teased you relentlessly with it. As much as she’d always tried her hardest to be as nice to everyone as she could, others apparently thought that was strange, which had resulted in her not exactly having too many friends. “It’s okay. Everyone’s minds drift sometimes.” She shrugged, her tone shifting to a softer one.

Smiling softly as she listened to Evalyn speak, her mind jumped to drawing up a little scene of some cosy attic filled with bookcases and armchairs. Not that she thought that’s what Evalyn actually had – but it was her picture perfect kind of attic. “That sounds nice. Somewhere that’s just your’s. And there’s always something… I don’t know special about attics? I don’t even know why, they just seem cooler than normal rooms.” And now she’d probably made herself sound crazy, but the words were out there now. “I think I have the opposite problem just now. Living myself seems so empty. I always spent my nights hanging out with my mom, now all I have is Netflix.” It was meant as a joke, even though it was true – and it was only after she said it, that she realized how pathetic it made her sound. After all, there wasn’t many people who actually spent time with their parents growing up – or at least not many people that she knew. They had other people to spend their time with.

Evalyn frowned thoughtfully at the other woman’s words, surprised by this. She expected that Piper made friends wherever she went. Why else would she be taking with Evalyn as though they had been friends for years? Or perhaps this was just how strangers normally talked to each other, and Evalyn Waters simply wasn’t a stranger to anyone else in Misty Valley by virtue of her name. Evalyn couldn’t be sure; she had never questioned it before. Which, come to think of it, was rather strange. Shouldn’t she have questioned it at some point? Wouldn’t any rational person?

Ducking her head slightly when Chelsea mentioned following her anywhere, Vanessa knew she probably didn’t mean anything by it – but that didn’t mean she couldn’t play pretend. Even if it was just as friends, she wanted to be around Chelsea. There was such a warmth about Chelsea that just dragged people in, or at least, that had been Vanessa’s experience. From the minute they had met, Vanessa knew she was going to like Chelsea. Which she had been right about, she just hadn’t predicted that she would end up liking Chelsea so much, and in that way.

“In that case, maybe I wouldn’t worry so much about opening my own place. I’d have the best staff around.” It might have been a far off dream, but when had dreaming ever hurt anyone? The idea of working in a cute little bed and breakfast with Chelsea did seem perfect. Plus she could rope Theresa in for ‘tourism’ purposes – which would really just give her twin time to tell people all about the supernatural. It seemed perfect for the three of them, which made it that little bit extra bittersweet, that she was sure it’d never happen. “At least for now we get to work together here, and enjoy our time without too many responsibilities. I don’t think I could handle actually running somewhere anytime soon. I have no idea how the owners around here manage sometimes.” She added on, though she wasn’t entirely sure why – mostly she was just trying to get out of her head, so she didn’t keep picturing everyone working together and having a ball. Something said if she kept doing that, she’d forget about her actual job and do something to land her in trouble.

Chelsea nodded, smiling a little at the thought. Honestly, thinking too far in the future made her chest feel tight. She was almost thirty, practically, but she still didn’t really feel like an adult. What if she never did? What if Mason decided to marry someone and moved out and she couldn’t pay the bills by herself, and had to move back in with her parents? Those things scared her, but the thought of a future with Vanessa in it were a little bit nicer. And she didn’t even mean that in a pining way (although yeah, she definitely still felt that). Whether she had Vanessa in her life as a friend or something more, she’d be happy. The other woman made her feel solid and confident in a way she rarely got to feel. Well, when she wasn’t getting all tangled up in her weird crush feelings.

“I’m sorry… Did you seriously just use ‘butthead’?” He scoffed, looking at her derisively. While it wasn’t exactly unheard of them to revert back to childish insults, that one seemed like it was going a little too far back. If he stopped to think about it, he’d realized that was probably one of the reasons everyone left them when they started bickering, because everyone else had grown out of that stage. For the most part he had as well, until it came to her. In which case bickering with her, even if they always argued about the same thing, just felt like something he had to do.

Theresa interrupting him didn’t take him by surprise, they’d always cut each other off – that was just part of what they did, and it was a script that he knew how to follow. What he didn’t know how to do, was react to her saying he’d made her life a living hell. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there simply staring blankly at her, trying to figure out what to say – considering snapping back the way he normally would, didn’t quite seem fighting. Somehow mocking her for believing in the supernatural seemed okay, but mocking her for being hurt was taking things too far. Part of him wanted to point out that it wasn’t just him, but that felt like trivialising things – so instead he simply gave a small shrug. “Didn’t think it was that serious.” He muttered, having no clue if she’d heard or not, though part of him hope she wouldn’t with how dumb it was.

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting. Him to huff and blow her off, maybe. Or maybe he’d just walk away. Instead, he told her that he didn’t think it was serious. Theresa couldn’t help herself. She started laughing, the sound hard and angry. When she laughed with Andi or Nessa, her chest felt light and giddy, but this didn’t feel like that at all. “Of course you didn’t think it was serious,” she said, clenching her fists at her sides. “You don’t take me seriously -- you never did. That’s why you -- you went out of your way to be rude to me for all of those years, to talk down to me like an idiot, to make sure everyone else thought that I was an idiot, too. To make sure that there were sides, and that everyone picked yours. Because you were so much smarter, and more logical, and more fun to be around. Did it ever occur to you that maybe my life would’ve been a little bit easier if you didn’t spend every second you were next to me telling me how stupid I was, loud enough for everyone to hear you?”

All of it, all of the lonely nights, every laugh heard in the hallways and every jeer taunted at her in the classrooms -- she should have been over it, she knew that. She was happy now, she had Andi and Nessa, her two best friends in the world. Why did she feel like she had to explain anything, to prove herself to this jerk who probably never had to worry about not having friends? “You just don’t get it,” she said. “Because you’re so stubborn and selfish and -- ugh! This is dumb. I’m so over this, Cameron. I don’t have to prove anything to you.” She spun on her heels, making for the door. She would take the long way to Old Will’s house. Maybe she could still salvage some of this good day.

Taking a long sip of her drink – mostly so that she didn’t end up trying to fill up the silence, Piper silently debated whether or not she should make an excuse to leave. She didn’t exactly want to leave, but she wasn’t sure if Evalyn wanted her too – or if she just wasn’t a chatty person. Normally she’d ask around to see whether Evalyn was just a quiet person by nature, but nobody seemed to know much about her. Which was one of the saddest things that Piper had heard, considering Evalyn seemed perfectly lovely – if a little strange, but who had any right to judge someone without getting to know them.

Whatever nerves she had seemed to fade away as soon as the word ‘niece’ was mentioned, which instantly made her soften up as a small ‘aww’ fell from her lips. Considering Evalyn’s age, she imagined any niece she’d have would be relatively young, and small children were the cutest things in Piper’s world. “That’s so cute! I don’t have any nieces… Well I mean obviously, I don’t have any siblings, so I can’t really have any nieces or nephews… Sorry, that was a little side-tracked. But it must be nice having someone young around, they just brighten everything up, and everyone needs that.” She gushed, knowing she could have sounded a little too much – but at least she hadn’t started crying because she saw a puppy, those times where harder to explain. “Does it ever get a little crowded for you with so many people in one place?”

Evalyn hadn’t really been expecting Piper’s reaction to her niece. The Waters saw children as a means to an end, more or less. You didn’t exclaim over the beauty of sprouts from the earth before they bloomed into flowers. Still, watching the warm expression that melted across Piper’s face ... she didn’t have it in her to disagree or argue. If young children made the other woman happy, she wasn’t about to try and take that away from her. Despite what the others in town thought, she was not cold or heartless. None of her family was, really. They took care of each other, even loved each other. But they did not give away love for free. Not like Piper seemed to.

She realized that Piper had asked her a question while she was lost in thought. “Forgive me,” she said, blinking slowly. “I’m ... not used to people speaking with me for so long. My mind drifted.” She wrapped her hands around her mug, pulling it closer. “It is not terribly crowded, no. Our house is very big. Even with as many people living in it as there are, there are still plenty of bedrooms that go unused. Plenty of space to go if you don’t want to be found. There’s even a small space, near the attic ...” She trailed off, surprised at herself. She didn’t much talk about these things, because she didn’t think that people would care. “It’s a small room. No one much goes there but me. So if I feel as though I’m being crowded, I can always go there.”

If there was one thing Vanessa would change about Chelsea, it was how often that she said sorry. Though she could understand why Chelsea constantly apologised, considering how many times she’d heard people complaining Chelsea rambled too much – and that was bound to make Chelsea self-conscious about it. For her part, Vanessa had always just found it endearing. “I think I got what you meant.” She finally nodded with a small smile, before scrunching up her nose up in the cutest expression she could make, just to make extra sure that Chelsea knew that she wasn’t bothered in the slightest over the slight rambling.

What she hadn’t expected was the compliments that Chelsea threw her way. It didn’t take too long for her cheeks to take on a rosier tone than she’d started off with, but she’d never been the best at taking compliments. She could give them out easily, but she’d always try to downplay it whenever anyone complimented her – but she didn’t want to do that around Chelsea. Who could dislike the idea of their crush thinking such nice things about them? Chelsea may have been nice to everyone, but Vanessa liked to think she was only saying the words because she believed in them. “Thank you.” She replied, before mentally kicking herself at how lame her reply was. She was just still a little in shock, which made saying anything else difficult. “If it ever does happen… Can I tempt away you away from here? I’m sure that I’d need a super adorable person to serve meals, and you seem like the perfect person.” It would probably never happen – but what was the harm in playing pretend for a little bit? With the general doom and gloom feeling in the town lately, they all needed something to look forward to – even if the chances of it actually happening were basically nothing.

God, Vanessa was so cute. The little thing she did with her nose all scrunched up was just adorable, and the way her cheeks got a little pink when Chelsea complimented her was almost too much to handle. She liked seeing Vanessa like this, and she liked knowing that she was the one who did it. Chelsea got crushes pretty often — on cute people in her classes, on patrons, on cute people on the streets, even. But she rarely got close enough to people for them to be real crushes. At least, that was the conclusion she drew, now that she had an actual, for-real crush on Vanessa. It just seemed to grow stronger every day, to the point where she actively daydreamed about actually having the guts to ask her out.

And then Vanessa went and dropped stuff like that -- calling her adorable. For a rare moment, Chelsea Hart was actually speechless. “Oh!” She pressed a hand to her mouth, trying to stifle the embarrassed giggle and failing. “I’d follow you anywhere.” Which sounded ridiculously romantic. She backpedaled furiously. “I mean! This place wouldn’t be very fun if I wasn’t able to work with you. So. You’d definitely be able to tempt me away, yeah. For sure.” She sipped at her drink in the hopes that it would cool down her face some. She wondered if that was too much backtracking. For someone who talked so much, she had a pretty hard time saying what she meant.

“It’s not my fault that there’s a very real possibility that you think walls could talk, considering all the other nonsense you think is true.” He was sure that no matter how much time passed, that he’d never be able to understand why she was so open about believing in the impossible. It was opening herself up for mocking, because people over the age of ten just shouldn’t believe in made-up stories. Could they like them? Sure. Believing in them was childish and stupid, especially when you for some reason decided to make it your livelihood by working somewhere dedicated to those dumb stories.

As she spoke, he wanted to roll his eyes again but held back – mostly because she had just rolled her eyes, and he didn’t want to be accused of simply following her lead, because that would be ridiculous. “It’s not about making people’s life miserable, it’s about not letting them be lied to. Or taken advantage of, by people selling the crap about the ‘curse’. Honestly, I get people just want to make money, but the least this place could do is be open about the fact they just like ripping people off, by telling them stupid old ghost stories.” He finished with a shrug. He was sure they’d both long since realized bickering was pointless, cause neither of them were ever going to change their way of thinking – but that never stopped them from getting into the same arguments time after time.

Theresa crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against the wall but being careful to do it where there wasn’t any art hanging or anything like that. Even when she was pissed (which, around Cameron, was about all the time), she wasn’t about to mess up Ben’s museum. Even if she didn’t genuinely care about the stuff there, that would be very rude. “I’m not the one taking metaphors literally for the sake of being a pedantic butthead,” she snapped. She realized that putting those words together probably sounded a little ridiculous, and butthead was especially childish, but she would have to call him a butthead if he didn’t act so ... buttheadish!

As he went off on some tangent, she couldn’t help but groan. She hated how he acted like his blatant antagonizing her served some greater purpose, like he was being a good guy for not letting people be “lied to” when really all he was doing was bullying her when she was trying to have fun. “Oh, my God! You don’t get to make my life a living hell for four years and then act like you’re doing it for the good of mankind, or whatever!” She shouted without thinking, and immediately regretted it. She hated letting him know just how much his bullying had hurt her back in high school. It made her feel like he had power over her, and she hated that.

When she heard Evalyn’s answer about dressing up, Piper just gave a small nod assuming the other girl was simply one of the people who didn’t like dressing up. Piper might have loved to get out as much sparkle as she could and go as something ‘cute’, but she could understand why others didn’t like it as much. Evalyn at least hadn’t said Piper was a little old to still partake in it, which was better than some of the reactions she got. “At least you can still have a fun night without dressing up, I mean nothing says you need a costume to have fun right?” She finished with a small shrug and a hopeful smile, praying that it was the right thing to say, and not something that would get her an eye roll.

Nodding when Evalyn said it was all she’d ever known, Piper had to admit it made sense. Why would you be scared of something that was always just a fact of your life? It wasn’t as if Evalyn had just moved in and had to get used to it, not like Piper who was still trying to get used to the stories centring on the town. “Everyone?” She parroted. “Do you have a big family? I do too… Well… Not immediate family, it’s just me and my mom, but I do have a few cousins. And family is family no matter how close the relation. “

Evalyn blinked, but other than that didn’t have much change in her expression as the other stated that a costume wasn’t the only way to have fun. “I suppose not,” she finally said, simply because she couldn’t think of anything else to say. It was just an odd response, so ... optimistic. This girl really was determined to look on the bright side, even in simple matters like this. It wasn’t the type of personality Evalyn usually found herself interacting with. Townspeople only came up to her if they had to, or if they had a chip on their shoulders. So Piper’s view on life simply wasn’t one that she had really had access to before. She was still figuring out how she felt about it, but ... she definitely didn’t dislike it.

She nodded as the other woman asked about her family. “I live in the house with my parents, and four sisters,” she explained. “And, more recently, my brother-in-law and niece.” She didn’t know if she agreed or disagreed with Piper’s assertion about family. Her grandparents hadn’t needed to have more than one child, so she didn’t have any aunts and uncles to bear cousins. But with the curse gaining strength, it was decided that the Waters family needed more witches, which was why her mother had five daughters. But Piper spoke so earnestly that she couldn’t help but nod along.

While Vanessa didn’t know Mason all that well, what she’d gathered from Chelsea was that he was a pretty nice person. Something that wasn’t all that surprising, considering Chelsea was the single nicest person that she’d ever met. “I don’t think I could have been an only child, life just wouldn’t be as fun.” She mused, figuring that given what Chelsea had said, that she could understand. Life would have been a lot duller without Theresa around, and no matter what she was offered, Vanessa would never trade her twin for anything.

“If it makes you feel any better, I happen to think you’re very good at what you do.” She replied, with a soft smile on her lips. Maybe it was a little cheesy, but what harm was there in giving a compliment to your cute co-worker? It wasn’t as if it was anything too out there, and maybe she was biased, but whenever Chelsea made something it always seemed a little nicer, than when anyone else made it. “I never really thought about it. I don’t think I’m anywhere near grown up enough to run somewhere myself, so if I ever did want to venture out on my own, it wouldn’t be anytime soon. But I did always think running a cute little bed and breakfast would be fun. There would be cooking, time to talk to guests… And I could make it as cozy as I wanted. That’s a little out there though, I don’t think it’d ever happen.”

Chelsea nodded. “Oh, totally, same. Things would’ve been so lonely without him, plus he always looks out for me. And I look out for him, too! Just in different ways. Sorry, am I making sense?” She definitely tried hard to be as helpful to Mason as Mason always was for her. He did so much for her -- listened to her and never made her feel like a burden, calmed her down and got her out of her head when she was in a panic spiral, and all sorts of things. Sometimes she worried that she wasn’t doing enough for him because he genuinely seemed to need less. But then she reminded herself that she always did her best to encourage him to have fun even when he thought he was inconveniencing people, and compliment him when she thought he needed it. And most of all, she did her best to always thank him, to let him know how much she appreciated him. Because at the end of the day, she was pretty sure that was the most important thing. Mason liked feeling needed.

When Vanessa started talking about a Bed & Breakfast, Chelsea had to resist the urge to coo or squeal. That would come across as really demeaning, even Chelsea’s lack of filter could catch on to that, but it just made Chelsea really excited to know that Vanessa wanted to share her dreams with her, no matter how “out there” she thought they were. “I don’t think it’s that out there! You’re really smart, so I’m pretty sure you could do anything you set your mind to. Plus you’re so good with people, super easy to talk to and ...” There were a million ways that she could have ended that, but she was suddenly aware that she was gushing about Vanessa ... to Vanessa. She quickly finished, “Well, you’re just great!”

Piper was sure there was something strange in the way Evalyn said ‘celebrate’, but she dismissed it instead of commenting on it. “I can’t say much about the town’s history, but I do love Halloween. It’s the one day of the year where you can wear as much colour and glitter as you want, and nobody can judge you for it.” As much as Piper liked to think she had her own style, the amount of people who told her she had ‘to dress more mature’ always hurt a little. If she was happy with how she looked, why did anyone else get to try and ruin it? It’s why instead of going for any scary Halloween costume, she always went for one that was fun and full of character. That, and scary things just weren’t her thing. “Do you know what you want to dress up as this year?” That at least, seemed to be a relatively safe conversation topic, since most people seemed to love talking about it.

Nodding at the question, she briefly thought it was strange to suggest going to a graveyard, until she reminded herself that the town was basically built on it’s history – and the graveyard must have tied in with that. “You live next to a cemetery? Doesn’t that… Scare you?” She asked, stopping halfway through to try and find the nicest way to say it. Piper always tried to avoid graveyards as much as she could, especially at night, so to live next to one would be basically accepting that she’d never sleep again. “Aww, it gets passed down through the family? That must be so nice to have something like that.”

It was a sweet way of looking at things, which Evalyn sort of appreciated. She had never spoken to someone who genuinely liked Halloween before. Then again, she had never really spoken for any extended period of time with people outside of her own family before. The other woman’s question caught her off-guard. “I ... cannot say I have considered it,” she admitted. She hadn’t ever actually dressed up before -- her mother called it a mockery of Samhain and would not allow her daughters to participate in any “trick or treating.” Instead they would stay home and cast spells, but that wasn’t the sort of thing she could admit to a stranger.

When Piper asked if living next to a cemetery scared her, her face shifted -- the Evalyn version of a smile. “It is all I have known,” she said. “No, it does not frighten me.” In truth, it was because she knew that her family and herself were far more frightening than a number of corpses buried beneath the earth. As the other mentioned that it got passed down through the family, she nodded. “Well, there is always plenty of room for everyone,” she said. “So it simply makes sense for us.”

Smiling when Chelsea’s eyes widened, Vanessa quickly shook her head. “Hey, it’s fine. I didn’t think you expected us to wear the same thing. Honestly, doesn’t bother me too much when people ask all the cliché twin questions, even if you had thought that. We might not be the same, but my world would be a much duller place without Tessa.” Maybe it had to do with coming into the world with someone else, but Vanessa couldn’t picture her life without Theresa. She certainly wouldn’t have made it through their mothers crazy diets, if she didn’t have Theresa to giggle about them with. It was one of the reasons Vanessa never considered leaving Misty Valley, Theresa loved it too much – and Vanessa loved her sister too much to move too far away from her. “Oh really? I never heard anything about what was going on behind the scenes, which would make it more difficult to watch… But if you’re not a big fan of scary movies, you might want to avoid my house at night during October – horror movie central. There’s nothing better than getting freaked out and eating so much junk food.”

Nodding as Chelsea spoke, Vanessa gave a half shrug. “I don’t think it’s lame, kind of nice in a way. If you run a business, you have to deal with… Well the business side. If you just work somewhere, you get to interact with the customers more. Chat about their days or their lives – maybe even cheer someone up who’s having a bad day. And you know, caring is never lame, right?” She asked, mostly rhetorically but she didn’t mind if Chelsea answered.

Chelsea was glad to hear that she hadn’t offended Vanessa. And when she explained, she could sort of understand where the other woman was coming from. “That makes sense. I mean, I wouldn’t trade Mason for the world.” She honestly didn’t know who she’d be without him. She’d probably just curl up in her parent’s basement and refuse to leave, as lame as that sounded. They were nice, but they had a tendency to go through cycles of either coddling her or getting angry at her for not being mature enough. Mason was somewhere in the middle -- he pushed her to be a better person, but never so far past her comfort zone that she got overwhelmed. He was such an important part of her life.

She smiled a little when Vanessa assured her that she wasn’t lame. “Exactly! I don’t want to have to worry about billing and all of that stuff. I’d rather just do what I’m good at.” She sipped at her milkshake, smiling. “What about you? Do you ever think about -- opening an ice cream shop, maybe? Since these milkshakes are seriously amazing.”

“What, think brick walls can talk now do you?” The comment was out of his mouth before he really thought about it, and even he had to admit he wasn’t even sure why he’d said it. It wasn’t exactly clever, and while he normally believed Theresa would believe anything, he was sure she at least knew that walls couldn’t talk. Or at least he hoped she did, otherwise he’d have to genuinely worry about her, opposed to just thinking she was much too naive and thought the town’s dumb stories about the supernatural. It wasn’t even give and take between them, and he was sure there people around town who heard the argue so much that they could have the argument for them – but that had never stopped them before. It was like a strange magnet, where they had to fight whenever they were around each other, no matter what.

“Because I have family here, and I care more about them than some dumb stories. Also have a pretty cool roommate, the only bad thing about the town, are the people who think it’s actually haunted.” He had considered moving away from the town before, but there was a strange amount of people who ended up returning for some reason. There was also the small fact that his bank account wouldn’t let him move, considering it was low enough without moving. Not that she had to know that. “And moving would make you too happy, there would be no-one around to help out those poor people who believe all the nonsense you sell them.”

Theresa raised an eyebrow. “Oh, my God, do you take everything literally? How do you even get through the day? Do you stay inside every time someone tells you it’s raining cats and dogs?” She knew, obviously, that he was just trying to get a rise out of her. But it was pretty satisfying to think of a remarkably stupid Cameron, getting confused when someone told him he was making a mountain out of a molehill or something similar. He was remarkably stupid, of course, but not quite on that level. He did manage to get decent grades, at least she thought he did. Which was more than she could say for most of his crowd. But where it really counted, he didn’t know anything.

She rolled her eyes at his explanation -- specifically, the part where he explained that he stuck around specifically to make her angry. “What a martyr you are, Cameron,” she said. “So, do you make all of your major life choices based on whether or not you can make someone’s life miserable?” Whether or not he made her miserable was beside the point. Sometimes, he did; sometimes, she enjoyed herself. That seemed less important than the simple fact that it seemed like he wanted to make her miserable.

Looking out of the cafe’s windows as Evalyn spoke, Piper tilted her head slightly in thought. Misty Valley was certainly different than the town where she’d grown up, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It was just different. And she at least had Gabe, who was a living part of home for her. It made going somewhere new, not as terrifying as it had been before he came to town. “It is different than anywhere else I lived, but people seem friendly, which is always the sign of a good town. Does it ever have any of those cute small town festivals? Because I’ve always want to go to one.” Logically, she thought that Chelsea was probably the better person to ask, because she loved talking more than Evalyn seemed to, but on the other hand, she didn’t want to stand up and leave. Spending time with Evalyn was fun, even if they did seem opposites in so many ways.

Taking a second to flick her hair over her shoulder as it was in her way, she took a sip of her drink before looking back out of the window. “You said you’ve always lived here, right? Does that mean you live in one of those old fashioned houses, instead of the apartments? Because it might sound a little silly, but I’ve always loved all buildings. They just have so much more character than new homes. Not that new homes can’t be nice! They’re just… Not the same.” Whenever she pictured her perfect home, it was a relatively old brick covered building, with a garden big enough for whatever children she had – and maybe a dog. Or a cat, or any kind of pet really, she wasn’t too picky.

Evalyn nodded. “We have festivals. There’s actually one coming up relatively soon -- the Autumn festival, at the end of October. Although my understanding is that it is mostly used to ‘celebrate’ Halloween, and the town’s history.” As though the murder of many innocents and a vengeful witch was something to be laughed about over caramel apples and candy corn. The Waters were never in attendance during those festivals. Her mother called it a disgrace. Evalyn didn’t think that it was meant in harm, although she could see why it would be in poor taste. The fact was, plenty of people saw the old story as just that -- a story. Not something that affected real people with real lives.

She was tugged from her thoughts as Piper spoke again. Evalyn nodded, silent for a moment, before deciding to respond verbally. “Have you passed by the cemetery? It’s on the other side of the trees from a lovely park -- if you have not been, I suggest it.” She took a sip of her drink before continuing. “The large white house that overlooks the cemetery is where my family lives.” Large house maybe didn’t do it justice. Mansion was more apt of a word, but it felt quite strange to use it, so Evalyn refrained. Anyways, she didn’t tell Piper to brag. It was simply stating a fact. “It is very old,” she said. “My family has lived there for generations.”

Shrugging at the identical outfit question, Vanessa pondered over the answer. “Not when we had the choice. Our mom used to dress us the same I think, and as we grew up, we just developed our own styles. Though sometimes, we’d accidentally pick up something that wasn’t ours and wear it out, and that confused some people.” As she finished, a small – almost devious – smile appeared on her face. “I have always wanted to do a twin Halloween costume though. Like those twins in the shining? I mean, Halloween is the perfect night to up the creep factor, right?” She joked, though it was true. If there was ever a night to be creepy, it was Halloween. And they could make the dresses themselves, which sure beat paying out a lot of money, for a costume they would only wear once.

Chuckling at the compliment, Vanessa waved her hand, before putting it on her chest and putting her best ‘fake modest’ look on her face. “Oh hush, you’re too kind.” She spoke, just about getting the words out before she descended into giggles. She at least ducked behind the counter, getting something from the bottom shelf, just so that the customers wouldn’t see. Once she’d composed herself, she stood back up and focused back on Chelsea. “I’m sure you’re cookies will be all kinds of amazing. Have you ever thought about doing that? Having your own bakery? The money might be a bit of a problem, but I think you’ve got the talent for it.”

Chelsea’s eyes widened. “Oh! I didn’t mean to make it sound like I expected you to wear the same things, or anything. Like, I know you two are totally different people -- that’s why you dye your hair different. Wait, do you dye your hair darker, or does Theresa dye her hair lighter? Oh! Sorry, got off topic.” She hoped that didn’t come out sounding insensitive, especially since their mom used to dress them the same. Was that bringing up any bad memories? Chelsea hoped not. Although it didn’t seem like she was upset by it, considering she immediately followed it up with talking about the twins from the Shining. “That would be awesome! I’d love to see you guys scare people! Although, I think The Shining is too scary for me, I haven’t been able to watch the whole thing. Mostly because I hear that the guy who was filming it was super creepy behind-the-scenes, so I can’t stop thinking about that poor actress when I watch it ...”

She realized that she was rambling again, and quickly took a sip of milkshake so that she could force herself to stop talking for half a second. “Well, I mean it. It’s delicious.” When the other said that she could run a bakery with her talent, she gave a nervous laugh. “Oh, gosh! If all of the cookies were as easy to make as these ones, probably,” she joked. “But really, I don’t think I’d like to own a business. That’s a lot of pressure, I like just sort of taking orders instead. Does that sound lame? I guess it’s a little lame.”

As much as Cameron was generally opposed to anything curse related, the need to proclaim it always seemed to increase whenever Theresa was around. To him, believing in the curse, was as ridiculous as people who thought the sky was green. “None of the sane people around town believe it.” He shrugged. The only people who seemed reasonable where those who owned the museum, and he was sure that was just because they profited off ‘the curse’, opposed to actually believe in it. They didn’t live in Harry Potter’s world, just regular old boring Misty Valley, where nothing interesting ever happened.

Scoffing at her words, he looked at her as if she’d somehow grown an extra head. “How is your theory of a dead person doing it, any more reasonable?” He wasn’t sure what he thought happened after you die, but he was sure you didn’t stay in the same old dull town where you died. And you certainly didn’t go around trying to get revenge, for something that happened before anyone in said town was even alive. The whole theory about ghosts, made no sense to him, and therefore he just refused to consider it – because he was sure that he was right, and that was all that he needed to know. Rolling his eyes as she started to theorise how her supposed curse was still going, he simply shook his head. “You know what? I did see someone with a pointy hat flying around on a broomstick, talking about a century old curse.” He drawled, hoping his voice portrayed how stupid the whole thing was. “I don’t think you’re in any position to accuse people of grasping at straws, when you come up with complete nonsense like that.” At this point, he was sure that if anyone came in, they’d see Cameron and Theresa arguing and walk right back out – but that wasn’t about to stop them. So far, nothing had managed to stop their bickering apart from someone basically dragging them away, or one of them got a phone call.

Theresa finally “gave up.” Of course, “giving up” in the ongoing saga of Lewis and Arcand didn’t mean walking away like a rational adult so that she could calm down and come to the rational adult decision that some people would just never see eye-to-eye, no matter how much they argued. No, it meant making an angry groan and attacking his personal credibility. “Aaaargh! It’s like talking to a brick wall!” There was no point in simply talking in circles, throwing out evidence after evidence, if all Cameron was going to do was to claim it wasn’t true. You could make anything sound stupid that way. You could say that you were thinking about dying your hair, and the other person could say it wasn’t true, and it would basically be the same conversation. It was pointless.

“Honestly, I don’t know why I even bother with you. Or why you bother with this town. If its history bugs you so much, then why don’t you move? Leave those of us who are actually interested to our fun instead of being such a killjoy.” Not that she really wanted him to move. Then, who would she have to prove wrong? It wasn’t exactly the healthiest dynamic, and she could recognize that, but she also didn’t really care. It was more entertaining then talking at someone even though you knew they weren’t listening, just smiling and nodding politely because they couldn’t be bothered to come up with anything to contribute to the conversation, even if it was overwhelmingly negative.

“It would, wouldn’t it?” She asked rhetorically in a dreamy voice, after all, not being judged for being somewhat awkward sometimes, or over enthused was a dream for her. She’d rather be left alone, that have people comment on the parts of her that she couldn’t change even if she tried. Piper being Piper, did panic a little at the fact Evalyn wasn’t talking as much, but the other had just told her that she didn’t talk much, so it was hopefully just Evalyn being Evalyn. She didn’t seem like she was looking for an excuse to leave, which Piper was taking as a good sign. “But on the other side, you can only be yourself. As long as you love yourself, why does anyone else matter?” Of course, what her family thought was always going to mean everything to her, but she was trying not to be as bothered, by a complete stranger’s opinion of her.

Nodding at the other’s answer, Piper smiled gently at her. “I never thought about it growing up, it was really only after college. It had always just been me and my mom, and I thought it always would be. Not that I can exactly say I’m doing everything alone, I still call her every day. Maybe more than once if I need to talk to her about something.” As far as she was concerned, her mother was the wisest person on the planet, which meant that Piper always asked her advice, whenever she had to make an important decision. Blinking at the mention of ghosts, Piper wasn’t sure what to say. Mostly because she’d never heard them talked about, as much as she did after moving to Misty Valley. Then again, she hadn’t grown up around a supposedly haunted town, and Evalyn had – so maybe it wasn’t as terrifying for the other woman. “I like old cities, there’s a… charm to them? And the building always look so much prettier than newer ones.” She added, before shaking her head. “I don’t want to tell you to stop talking, it’s a pretty interesting perspective you had – and who doesn’t want to have interesting conversations?”

Evalyn thought a little on that. You can only be yourself. It was sort of a new concept to her. She didn’t think anyone was really themselves, not really. They were all beholden to something -- some expectations, whether it was from their families, their jobs, or just their desires to have things make sense, for things to have a narrative structure of some kind. But she wasn’t going to tell Piper otherwise. If she truly believed in that -- and even though they had just met, Evalyn had every reason to believe that she did -- Evalyn wasn’t going to take that away from her. It was sort of endearing, actually. So she just nodded, sipping quietly at her tea, letting the other woman’s words shine brightly without attempting to dampen them with her admittedly more pessimistic viewpoints.

She nodded a bit as the other said that old cities were charming. “I suppose Misty Valley holds some of that charm, at least by American standards. The buildings are ... ‘quaint’ is the word I hear used most often in conversation. But this town is ...” She gave a vague hand gesture. “Different.” There was no need to get into specifics. She had already made her views clear. The ghosts here were restless, up to malevolent doings. Trapped by feelings of vengeance against people who were long since in their graves. Evalyn was a slave to those ghosts, as was the rest of her family. There was no fair or unfair -- it was just the way that it was. She tried not to think about it much.