"What's up, Mom?" Charlotte asked as she walked downstairs.
"Charlotte," her mother began, "I'm so sorry, but something is going on with the resturant, will you be okay for an hour or two?"
"Of course. What's wrong?"
Her mother slipped her shoes back on and grabbed her purse. "I'm not sure, but there's an emergency of some kind going on." Her mother's haggard voice worried Charlotte, but hopefully Willow was on her way, and although Annette knew about her, Charlotte desperately wanted to keep the two apart. She knew eventually she'd need to come clean, after all vampire killing might be a little harder to hide than growing a tail, but the longer she held off on that, the easier life might be.
Before she knew it, Charlotte was alone in her house again, and her mother's car was leaving the driveway. She sighed a little and went upstairs to start her homework while she waited for Willow to come back.
XOXOXO
Half an hour later, Charlotte was done with her homework and was now instead searching the internet of any mention of a Slayer. Surprisingly, she found very little, but it didn't matter, because there was a knocking at her front door.
"Coming!" Charlotte yelled down, closing the tab and shutting her computer down. To her relief it was Willow herself at the door. She opened it, asking, "Where were you, Willow?"
She didn't even bother answering. "Charlotte, be honest with me: When you asked about mermaids, was it because you knew some personally?"
Charlotte felt her heart stop. "Wh-what are you talking about? Mermaids aren't real, you said so yourself, that's ridiculous-"
"Really?" Willow asked angrily. "Because I was just at Mako Island and I saw your old friends with giant fins! Now, tell me: How is that possible?"
Charlotte shrunk back from the witch's intense stare. Her mind was racing with lies, explanations, the truth. Should she tell Willow about the magic of Mako? Should she go ahead and violate their trust when all she wanted was to mend their relationship?
"I... I can't tell you," Charlotte finally murmured.
"And why not?"
"Because I promised I wouldn't," she explained and Willow relaxed a little. "It's a long story, and I'm not really in the best of light." Charlotte looked away, a little ashamed. "Look, they're coming over tomorrow, they can explain it to you if they want." Charlotte rubbed the back of her neck, suddenly very tired. "Just do me a favor, and tell them that I had nothing to do with you finding out."
Willow nodded. "Okay, no problem."
Charlotte yawned, suddenly very exhausted. "It's been a crazy day, Willow. I'm gonna hit the hay. There's a guest room upstairs, if you wanna sleep there."
"Thank you, Charlotte."
She started for the stairs, but Willow stopped her. "Charlotte, what exactly did you do?"
Charlotte just looked back. "I was given the same gift as them, but I wasn't responsible with it, I didn't deserve my gift. So I lost it." She purposely stayed vague, and went up the stairs to her room before Willow had the chance to ask anymore.