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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A HUSH-HUSH CLOSE
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ROUTINES HAD ALWAYS BEEN MORGAN'S STRONGSUIT. She got up in the morning at six-thirty, laid in bed for another fifteen, then got dressed in her uniform, did her hair, maybe her makeup if she was feeling up to it, then waited for Adeline to finish getting ready before walking to breakfast with her. They would eat for the next thirty to forty-five minutes with Dominic, it really depended on the day, and then they would go to classes.
She was fly through her first two, had a free period with Dominic where she would attempt to study but ultimately always be sidetracked by him and whatever nonsense he could talk forever about, and then back to classes. Back to work until the end of the day, where she would have dinner then join her friends in the library where she could actually get work done.
Then, they might stay in there until the library closed, close to each other and enjoying the company of one another, or Dominic would leave them. He had other friends, though not as close, and sometimes there was a party going on which he didn't want to miss. Sometimes Adeline went with him. Morgan had never been the life of the party herself, that much they could all agree on, so she would spend those evenings alone.
Now, though, routines didn't agree with her. She overslept, or couldn't sleep at all, imagining her aunt dying time and time again while she could do nothing but watch. And now she always did her makeup and straightened her hair with a simple spell, taking much more time than she thought it would. Every bone in her body wanted to defy Greer, to be unkempt and disgusting, unrefined and a mess, but then she would feel Alistair's grip on her shoulder. Tight, bruising, threatening.
She always straightened her hair in the end.
If Adeline noticed this new part of her routine, she didn't mention it. They never did anymore. Everything was still tense between the trio. Morgan tried to act like there was nothing happening, to laugh like she used to, to smile widely and not suspiciously, but sometimes they would say something, or she would start a complaint about Alistair before freezing up.
Adeline and Dominic would glance at each other and Morgan would clear her throat, changing the subject, and that was the end of that. There were eggshells everything, so none of them dared take too harsh of a step.
During meals, Morgan never relaxed. Her shoulders would always ache by the end of the day because of tense she would do, how tall she would sit, how refined she attempted to be. But she had to because when she closed her eyes, Helen's body always went limp.
Helen couldn't go limp.
But there wasn't one person Morgan interacted with where it wasn't tense and awkward. The worse, though, was Potions.
