Read Zoe Letting Go for Free Online Page B

Darkness notwithstanding, it was seventy-five degrees out.
    The room contained tall cabinets, tall bookshelves, spindly wall mirrors, and a grandfather clock. Victoria was the first person to gravitate toward a cabinet and open it, retrieving from within an armload of white afghan blankets. She passed them out to the other girls, each an eager recipient.
Should I take one?
I wondered. It was awfully hot for a blanket. Why afghans? And why white?
    Victoria took the seat nearest to the fire—a fact which I filed away in my mind with a mental asterisk. The seat closest to the fire was the warmest and lightest seat, as well as the only chair outfitted with a matching ottoman. It was the best seat in the room, by far, and Victoria had assumed it confidently, without hesitating to see if anyone else wanted to sit there. Interesting—and decidedly not the action of a person who was insecure about her status in the household. I had a few more things to add to my notes.
    Victoria
    Southern accent, curly hair. Appears to be an alpha type/dominantpersonality. Gravitates toward the position of highest power in any given setting.
    Watch out for her.
    Anyhow, as the fire crackled and grew, a smell of woodsmoke began to mingle with the faint lavender scent of the blankets. The clock struck nine, and when the chime ceased, I noticed, once more, the strange noise I’d first perceived over pilaf and butternut squash. Crab claws roaming over loose stones. For a second I wondered if I was hallucinating, but when each of the girls had finally gotten her blanket and curled up on a chair or sofa, I saw what I’d failed to perceive for the last hour.
    It was not the sound of crabs.
    With fire licking the ceiling of the hearth, each girl around me had swaddled herself tightly in an afghan and adopted a hunched position. There were five egg-shaped mounds in total, and from each mound came the sound of chattering teeth.
    Despite the heat of summer, each patient at Twin Birch was chilled to the bone.
    Caroline sat numbly across from Victoria, thumb hovering near her mouth as she stared into the fire. The collar of her shirt cast knifelike shadows across her collarbones, slicing them into geometric shapes. A pair of thick, grungy rope bracelets encircled her left wrist, and my first anxious thought was that the bracelets performed a concealing function. Was I being paranoid? Maybe so. Chances were I’d find out soon enough.
    Next to Caroline were Jane and Brooke, though their positions made it nearly impossible to tell them apart. Each hadpulled her legs up tight and was resting her head, face downward, on her knees, revealing only a circle of dark hair to the rest of the group. The only difference was textural: Brooke’s hair was fuzzy, and Jane’s was slick.
    My eye continued clockwise, coming to rest upon the girl who had selected the seat next to me. Haley. I observed her for a moment, taking in the snub nose and brittle, rust-colored hair. Her shins were speckled with bruises.
    When she finished laying the fire, Devon came over and sat down next to me.
    “Not cold?” she asked.
    “No,” I said. “It’s the middle of June.”
    A skeptical look crossed her face, as though she suspected me of lying. I saw it, even if it only lasted for a half-second before being replaced with manufactured cheer. I know what she was thinking about me.
    “It’s common to feel cold,” Devon said. “When your body isn’t used to digesting that much food.”
    I stared at her, uncomprehending. I’d eaten large amounts of food before—Thanksgiving, for instance—without needing to wrap myself in thick blankets and roast next to a fire. She was making zero sense.
    “When you finally get some nourishment in you,” Devon went on, “all of your body’s energy goes toward digesting it, and there’s nothing left for the rest of your body. Like I said, it’s very common, and not something to be afraid of.”
    I began to understand.
    “Zoe,” she