Caitlin had bailed right after school to go into town. Today was the last day to really check and see if there was going to be a funeral service in town. The items she'd procured from Nazar were in her room, waiting to be mixed and blended for the spell she needed to acquire a soul. She still had the small bauble attached to her keychain from the last time. It was still good. Waste not, want not.
She walked toward the town, enjoying the solitude of her walk. Other students drove by in cars and she ignored any attempts to cajole her into their cars for a quick ride in town. Eventually she diverted from the main road into the woods, using a shorter route that afforded her the privacy she wanted. Music blasted in her ears, drowning out the sounds of the forest in spring time. Her worn sneakers followed a path she was familiar to, allowing her thoughts to drift.
The revenge against Sasha had gone off well. Teachers were trying to find out who was responsible but so far she was still undiscovered. Nobody except Sasha might think of a reason for her to do that, and even if she was caught, she didn't care at all. Isolating herself was something Caitlin was good at and blending into the background to be forgotten was a skill hard won. If other students hated her, she didn't care. Plenty of them did already, at least the ones that knew she existed. And if any tried to retaliate on Sasha's behalf, Caitlin would happily return it in kind.
Caitlin preferred to be on her own. She didn't need anyone.
And then mind wandered to Van. She could have gone after classes to help with the dance but she had made a point to spend less time with him. The rejection still stung and she wanted to know who he was taking to dance. Yet she didn't want to know. It would be yet another person she would question Van's relationship with. Did he just regard them as a friendly fuck or did he "like" them? Van had picked up on her jealousy already, and she had told him to forget about it.
She couldn't though. She'd been trying for a long time, ever since she found out that Van was fucking Gil. Caitlin thought she could get over it. She could push down those feelings and that it didn't matter. Van meant a lot to her. And maybe, just maybe, he was starting to mean too much to her. That was ultimately why she bailed on dance preparations. When with him she could joke around and make snide remarks and pretend that things were fine but as soon as they parted ways, she felt . . . sick. Anger and embarrassment that she didn't like feeling. She didn't want to feel jealous but she couldn't help it. Being out of control like that for someone else? She hated it.
Caitlin shook her head and then turned up her music. Drown out her thoughts and emotions. Deal with them another day when she was ready to make some choices about what she was going to do about them.
As she finally arrived in town, she started toward the funeral home. A number of kids were hanging around the town, gaggles of them shopping for clothing for the dance. She ignored them as her feet carried her toward a more important destination. She'd walked this path a number of times already and so she went into auto-pilot to find her way there.
She eventually stopped in front of the building. It looked the same as the last time she visited. Inconspicuous and fitting in with the New England small town aesthetic much of Camden shared. Her eyes found the board that had the schedule. She peered over it and then tucked her hands into her pockets, starting back toward the school. By the time she got back, it might be dinner. She'd grab whatever food she could carry in her hands and would head to her room. Caitlin wasn't in much of a mood for people, not even her friends.