My mother was an OBGYN (and proud of that, as it was no easy career), but I never understood why she felt the need to make the house look like a hospital. With white paint on all the walls except in my bedroom, candles burning the negative energy away, and paintings and figurines where there should have been photographs we had taken over the years, there wasn't much that felt familiar about the place that was supposed to raise me.

When she opened the door for us all to enter, it was silent, even though I knew that my father should have been home. I hadn't spoken to him since the summer when he and my mother informed me that they weren't going to pay for me to throw my life away, as they so kindly put it.

Just a few short weeks ago, Jack tried to convince me that they would eventually send the money for tuition. Of course, they never did, but I was probably giving them what they wanted instead: a few A's on my transcript and an attempt to handle my education myself.

But I also had a boy filled with negative vibes and a talisman that I temporarily misplaced, so at least I had that going for me.

There wasn't enough sage in the world to burn to dissipate the awkward silence from the air around us, and I looked back at Dominic. He wasn't the type to seek out physical contact unless the talisman was somehow screwing with us, but a little reassurance would have been nice. Just a simple hand squeeze or a light touch on the back, but no. I got nothing from him.

I sure hoped Sierra was happy. I would have rather not eaten for three days than dealt with my family situation when I was already stressed enough without having the talisman in my back pocket.

Most of the people in the room knew about the talisman (except for my mother, obviously), and most of them knew why I no longer had it in my possession (except for Dr. Reed), but it still felt like I was the only one with no idea and every idea of what was going on. Where was the talisman, and how did I manage to lose it? And how did no one else pick up on the fact that my personal comfort was much more important than Sierra finally getting to eat something?

"So, Cora, Lindsay's in one of your classes?" my mother finally broke the ice-cold tension.

Was she really going to divide based on M.D. versus Ph.D.? This was why no one liked smart people.

Dr. Reed nodded despite the sour look on her face. "Yes, and she's actually the brightest student in the class. The only one with an A."

I smiled. Even though she promised me a free A if I let her help me investigate the talisman, I still kind of earned it myself. Not really, though.

My mother turned to Butterfly. "And she works for you on the weekends?"

"She's an honest hard worker," Butterfly said.

This time, my smile was more of a grimace. She definitely didn't know about the ring I stole, then.

"So she buys into the spiritual name Butterfly but not the literal Ph.D. of Dr. Reed?" Dominic whispered to me.

I fought a smile off my face. "Stop it. You're not as quiet as you think you are."

"No wonder Lindsay likes you. You're mouthy, aren't you?" Mom said to Dominic.

He most definitely was, and it was what drove me crazy before I really got to know him, but when he rested his hand on my shoulder, a sense of peace from it sank all the way down into my toes.

It was the exact touch I had been craving for hours. Maybe we wouldn't have to work on keeping his voice down if it led to this feeling.

"I think I've done enough damage here. Why don't you show me something that means something to you here? You know, if there even is anything," Dominic whispered, and this time, it was soft enough for only me to hear.

It wouldn't have surprised me one bit if my room was completely empty and the purple walls were painted over in a boring white after the rough summer in the Hughes household, but it was where I went when my parents were arguing about how to deal with my lack of a future when I was in high school with a ton of missing assignments that weren't interesting or worrisome enough to actually complete.

Maybe I had changed since the summer a little, at least. And maybe that would be enough.

I wasn't even sure why that thought crossed my mind, since I didn't have the time or energy to care about what was going on in Sherwood with my messed-up talisman situation.

I grabbed Dominic's hand before I headed upstairs, and as I passed by the living room by the stairs, the TV was on. That was probably my father, and I didn't have anything to say to him just as much as he didn't have anything to say to me.

Despite the sterile image I had in my head, my room was exactly the way I had left it in late August when I returned to Tillamook for a last-chance semester on my own. Unlike the rest of the house, there weren't any knickknacks that didn't actually mean anything or come from a good memory. In my room, it was clean since I took everything that meant anything with me to college, but it wasn't any different than how I remembered it to be except that the bed was made. Almost like they were expecting a phone call from the school that I had flunked out just like they thought I would.

"I don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it," Dominic said.

"I took everything with me. I don't know what else you could have expected," I said.

He nodded slowly like he accepted that point. "I mean, I guess, but—" He trailed off without completing his thought.

What was that supposed to mean?

"Is this my fault? I know we still don't know about my connection to the talisman, and I know it's probably in Harvey's hands right now, but do you think—"

I interrupted him. "Why would this awkward meeting have anything to do with you?"

"I mean, the sky did, the store incident did, the heart attack thing did, and it's like every time something bad happens, it has something to do with me." He paused for a moment. "I don't know. I'm used to always knowing what's going on, and this is just weird for me."

Even though it didn't usually cross my mind, I knew he was just as uncomfortable in our situation as I was, and maybe there was a little bit of comfort in that.

I looked up at him, and before I could assure him that it was weird for me too, even though I almost never had any idea of what was going on, his eyes lit up with a thought.

"You and me. That's all the talisman cares about, so don't you think we should be the ones who get it back?" he asked.

Where was this going to go? We weren't the only people involved here.

"Well, yeah, but Sierra's going to have a meltdown if someone doesn't give her food right now, and we're an hour and a half away from campus, where Jack actually cares about how he does in his classes, so I don't know what you're suggesting," I said.

"We get into a different kind of trouble than the kind they get us into," Dominic said.

"They? Who's included in they?"

"Everyone. Think about it, Lindsay—"

"What the hell am I supposed to be thinking about? Running away right now to deal with the problem we just ran away from?"

He nodded. "But this time, it's only our problem."

Only our problem? A lot of times, that was how it felt even when we were keeping everyone else involved, with Jack concerned about his music career, Dr. Reed about her family, and Sierra about whatever she deemed important that day.

I paused my train of thought for a moment. Was Dominic right? Unfortunately, that was becoming a common occurrence.

The talisman was always only our problem. And the problem was tragically worth it, too.

I crossed my arms even though we were probably about to agree. "I thought we had a good system where I make the wild suggestions, and you talk all rationally to convince me that I'm crazy, but we end up doing what I want anyway."

"Why's this any different than our usual system?"

"Because it'd be crazy to leave everyone else that we've been dragging along out as soon as things get difficult," I said.

"Things are just getting difficult right now?"

I paused for a moment. They had been difficult for a while, but I just ignored it like I always did. Or was I just thinking like this because things were also going to be difficult downstairs? The easy way out was always the best way out.

I never believed that I had anything figured out. I was the type to live in the moment, and whatever happened in the future would just happen. Maybe that made me the talisman's soulmate or whatever, but it sure made my life interesting as well.

"So you want to leave right now?" I asked.

He nodded. "Everyone else will be fine."

"But I'm kind of hungry now."

He didn't break eye contact with me as he let out a long, drawn-out sigh. "And then we'll go?"

I nodded. "And then we'll go fix everything. If we're right that the talisman only cares about us, it'll only be a little while before Harvey gets bored with it, assuming he has it in the first place."

And if we were wrong about it and it gave the user an immense amount of power regardless of who they were, then we would be much better off if we stopped to eat something.

"And no plan?" Dominic asked.

I shook my head. "What more of a plan do we need? I snuck out of this house so many times in high school, and I can assure you that I haven't lost that skill. We'll head back to Tillamook, we'll find Harvey, who probably hasn't taken over the local government yet. I mean, you have your knife, and this time, we're gonna use it. Well, only if we have to. I really don't want you to get arrested for murder or something. That would probably piss the talisman off."

He smiled. "It probably would. 

When we headed back down the stairs, the smell of dinner had already replaced the awkward silence and forced conversation about whether I was being a decent, respectable citizen or not. Of course, I knew that the answer was that I was a medium-respectable person, but most people didn't bother to read that much into any of my situation.

I looked back at Dominic. Like the overachiever he was, he read my situation like the assigned reading before class.

Sierra's laugh was louder than the TV as we passed by it, and I grabbed Dominic's hand as I wondered if she was actually laughing about me. But Dominic didn't brush or swat my hand away like I was afraid he would, though. Instead, he held my hand right back, and the sense of peace I had wanted for the past few hours rushed down my fingers and through the rest of my body.

What was I even afraid of at all?

"What did we miss?" I asked as we rejoined the party in the kitchen. With Sierra and Jack seated at the island, Dr. Reed at the table, and my mother and Butterfly at the stove, there wasn't any room for Dominic and me to have to ourselves. If we were really going to cut everyone else out and give the talisman what we thought it wanted, it would make it easier to start the new thought process immediately.

How much did anyone even help us in the first place? It was all Dominic and me from the start.

Dr. Reed promised us research and information, but she never told us anything we couldn't figure out. Jack was good for emotional support during crises that had nothing to do with the talisman, but he ended up bringing the wrong crowd into our situation. And Sierra was Sierra. No further explanation was needed.

"Oh, nothing much," my mother said with a laugh, and though I obviously didn't believe that for a moment, I let whatever embarrassing story she was telling about me go. What did it matter anyway? I wasn't that Lindsay anymore, and Dominic wasn't around to hear whatever she was saying.

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Hi everyone! Thank you so much for your patience and your support! I've been a little stressed out with work and the holidays, so I really appreciate your patience with my updating. I'm hoping to have Part 2 of this chapter out relatively quickly, but we'll see how that goes especially since I'm trying to manage another book right now as well. Silly past me, thinking she could handle it. Writing really is difficult, my friends.

It is almost time to turn the calendar to a new year, and since I always ask this for the new year, let's keep the party going. Do you have any resolutions for 2022?

I have decided not to be a better person in 2022. I am going to stay the exact same, and hopefully, that will be enough consistency in my life to keep myself from going crazy. Also, I am not going to have any hopes for what good things the new year will bring. If the last couple years have taught me anything, it's that it's better to be surprised without any expectations than to be disappointed with optimism. 

But on a more serious note, overall, 2021 was a good year for me personally. I really can't complain about everything that I've accomplished and the new friends I've made. You all know that I have no problem being my own worst critic, but for once, I feel like I'm allowed to feel proud of myself, and I hope that you feel the same way about yourself. It's been absolutely wild for a while, but we're all still hanging in there and doing our best. Good for us.

So if you're like me and are going into the new year with no hopes or dreams, then I'll ask another question. What is your guilty pleasure?

I don't believe that anything should be a guilty pleasure, whether it's a TV show or music or whatever, since if it makes you happy, it's a good thing (certainly not anything to feel ashamed about), and you should be able to be proud of it as vocally as you want. But if I have to pick, I would say my guilty pleasure song is Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. That was such a fun time to be a preteen girl, and it's always nice to revisit the memories associated with the song.