Out Now

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Out Now Page 23

by Saundra Mitchell


  “Any preference for what it’s baked into?” she asked.

  “Could you do a whoopie pie?”

  “I think I can manage that.”

  He handed her a credit card. Once she’d rung him up, he shifted on his feet and raked his fingers through his hair again.

  “Hey, um, thanks,” he said. “I’ll be by to pick it up tomorrow?”

  “Yup! See you then!” She winced at the fake cheeriness of her voice.

  He smiled, waved, and walked out the door with a jingle of the bell. Anna slumped against the counter and groaned.

  A love spell and a confidence spell. She could do that—if she didn’t die of embarrassment before then.

  * * *

  Anna muttered to herself as she scoured the list of ingredients laid out on the counter before her.

  A love spell for Emma, and a confidence spell for Noah. A cupcake and a whoopie pie.

  “I can do this,” she muttered, opening the flour bin. “I can totally do this.”

  But the thought of handing Noah something she had baked—and beyond that, a spell—was making her stomach twist into knots. What if he hated how it tasted? What if it didn’t work? Or worse—what if it did work, and he asked out Caty Sutherland? Anna had seen him flirt with her more than once.

  Growling at herself, she patted her cheeks. Focus, Anna.

  She did the love potion first. She had to make some chocolate cupcakes for Carlin anyway, so she used her favorite recipe, adding in a cup of strong-brewed coffee to enhance the natural chocolate flavors. Then she scooped some of the batter into a smaller bowl.

  She grated a bit of nutmeg into the batter, and then crushed up a couple leaves of sweet basil, double and triple checking her ratios to be on the safe side.

  “Bleeding heart to bleeding heart will bind,” she whispered as she mixed, “let the sweetness of love overcome the bitterness of the mind.”

  Once those were in the oven, she turned to the whoopie pie. She’d decided on a pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese buttercream in the middle—which would nicely cover up the added ingredients of the spell. Into the pumpkin spice batter, she added some ground pink peppercorn, for heat and ambition, and finely chopped dill, for courage.

  “What once was out of reach is now yours for the taking, let thought become action become success in the making.”

  Once everything was baked, Anna put the cupcake and the whoopie pie in small carry-out boxes and tied them with ribbon. Then she switched places with Carlin, situating herself at the counter in front and trying not to bite off all her fingernails as she waited.

  Emma arrived first. She bounded up to Anna, eyes wide and pleading.

  “Did you make it?” she panted.

  “Yeah—wait, have you been running?”

  “Riley’s rehearsal ends in like twenty minutes!” she gasped, holding a stitch in her side. “I wanna be there to give it to him!”

  “All right, jeez.” Anna slid the box containing the cupcake across the counter. “You’re welcome.”

  “Aw, don’t be like that.” Emma leaned over the counter and kissed her messily on the cheek. “Thanks, babe! I’ll make it up to you.”

  “Mmhm,” Anna hummed as Emma grabbed the cupcake and ran back out. Sighing, she began to wipe down the counters and rearrange the display case, her nerves too frazzled for her to sit still.

  The bell chiming above the door made her start and bang her head against the display window.

  “Whoa, you okay?”

  She turned and rubbed her head, gaping at Noah. “Oh, hi! I—me? Yes!”

  He eyed her. There was a blue and silver scarf wrapped around his neck, his hair windswept.

  He’s a Ravenclaw, she thought with a pounding heart. Called it.

  “I...” She cleared her throat and shuffled to the counter. “I have your order.”

  “Great!” Noah smiled and walked over. Anna was distinctly aware that there was no counter between them right now. What was she supposed to do with her legs? How did people usually stand? Should she put a hand on her hip?

  Flushing, Anna handed him the box with the whoopie pie. Noah’s smile widened.

  “Thanks for this,” he said. Their fingertips brushed as he took it, and Anna thought this was surely, without a doubt, the day she was destined to die. “I really appreciate it.”

  “N-no problem,” she said. “Come back any time.”

  And then he was gone, taking her whoopie pie with him. Anna breathed out a sigh and held her head in her hands, wondering if she had just completely missed her one and only opening.

  She spent the rest of the day cleaning up and helping Carlin in the back to prep for tomorrow’s bakes. When she finally closed up the bakery and locked the door behind her, her phone began to buzz in her pocket. It was Emma.

  “Hey!” Anna said brightly. “Did it work? Did you ask him?”

  There was silence for a beat. Then Emma started screaming.

  “What the hell did you put in that love potion?”

  Anna held the phone away from her ear. “What the hell, Emma? It’s a love spell! I put in all the usual love spell things!”

  “Yeah, well, it didn’t work! Or rather, it didn’t work the way it was supposed to!”

  Anna’s heart sank to her stomach. “What do you mean?”

  “Before I could even ask him to Homecoming, he ran up to Vivian Huang and asked her to Homecoming!” Emma burst into tears. “So, what the hell, Anna?”

  She leaned against the door of Sorcerous Sweets, mind whirling. The love spell was supposed to make the eater of the spell fall momentarily in love with the person who had given it to them...so then why would Riley ask Vivian Huang to Homecoming before Emma could make her move? Did he like Vivian so much that the spell had bent to his desire? It was possible...

  “And you didn’t even make it into a cupcake!” Emma went on. “Who the hell eats whoopie pies anymore?”

  Anna’s eyes widened as her stomach sank. If Emma had taken the confidence spell...

  Then Noah had taken the love spell.

  And Anna had been the one to give it to him.

  Her phone slipped out of her hand, Emma still ranting on her end, as horror sank its claws into her gut.

  What have I done?

  * * *

  Anna raced her bike to Noah’s house. She remembered where it was, because he had hosted a cast party after last year’s musical, which she had worked sound for. She might have signed up because Noah had been the stage director at the time.

  She practically leapt off her bike and stumbled up the stairs to the front door, ringing the bell as she caught her breath. When the door whisked open, she was leaning on her knees and panting heavily.

  “Anna!” Noah stood there, looking stricken. He was dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and a loose white shirt that showed off his collarbones. “Are you all right?”

  She straightened and looked him in the eye. His worry was quickly being replaced with a dreamy expression, and the corners of his lips began to curl upward.

  “Do... Do you want to come in?” he asked, sounding shy.

  The spell’s already taking effect, she thought, panicked. “No! I mean, uh...thank you, but no. I was just, um...coming by to see if...if everything was okay?”

  His smile grew into a dopey grin. “Yeah...yeah, everything is perfect.”

  Her mind reeled. She wasn’t particularly experienced when it came to love spells, and had no idea what to do—and, for that matter, realized she had probably made everything worse by coming here.

  “I—I have to go!” she wailed, running back to her bike. “I’m sorry!”

  “Wait, what? Why are you sorry? Anna!”

  But she was already pedaling down the street, cursing at herself for being so foolish. When she got to her house minutes late
r, she stormed into the kitchen and rooted through her dad’s spellbooks and recipe cards.

  “Something the matter?” her dad asked, leaning against the kitchen doorway with a mug of tea in his hand.

  “Nope,” she squeaked. “Everything is fine.”

  “Beti, come here.”

  She sighed and closed her eyes, then turned to face him. He pushed up his glasses and raised an eyebrow. From the garage, she could hear the familiar whining of a saw as her metal witch mother crafted her latest sculpture.

  “I messed up,” she whispered. As she explained, her dad’s expression grew stony, but he didn’t reprimand her. Instead, he nodded and took a sip of tea.

  “Love spells are tricky,” he said. “But one that small shouldn’t last for too long. A couple days, at most.”

  “A couple days?” She groaned and rubbed her face. How was she supposed to avoid Noah until the spell wore off?

  “You should also apologize to Emma and that boy you spelled without his consent,” he continued with that patented Dad Voice. “And you need to tell Carlin what happened.”

  “What? I can’t do that! They’ll be so mad!”

  “You need to tell the truth, beti. It is the right thing to do.”

  Anna spent that night tossing and turning in her bed, occasionally texting Emma only to be left on Read. Finally, she sat up and dragged her laptop over.

  How to counteract a love spell, she typed into the search engine.

  * * *

  She didn’t tell Carlin what had happened, and her apologetic voicemails to Emma went unanswered.

  She had no choice but to go to school the next day. Her shoulders were tight throughout first period, and she could barely concentrate on the lesson that was sure to be on Friday’s quiz.

  There were two shortbread cookies in her pocket that she had to get to Noah and Riley. She had spent hours researching how to properly negate a spell, and then had gotten up early to make the cookies.

  When she spotted Emma in the hall between periods, she hurried over to her.

  “Look, I’m so, so sorry,” Anna said in a rush, fishing a wrapped cookie from her pocket. “Give this to Riley and the spell will wear off. You can ask him to homecoming after that.”

  Emma sighed and crossed her arms. She didn’t look angry, just...sad.

  “Don’t bother,” she said. “Vivian Huang turned him down anyway. He’s still making pathetic puppy dog eyes at her. What’s the point?”

  Anna winced. “Em...really, I’m so sorry. I messed up.”

  Her best friend stared at the ceiling, as if pleading with some higher being. “I know. I’m still kinda upset, so just... I dunno, can we hash things out later?”

  Anna wilted, nodding. “Yeah, okay...”

  She sat in her usual desk for second period, trying not to cry. Why hadn’t she just used different boxes for the orders? Or even written their names on the side of them? She was still kicking herself when Noah sat in the desk in front of her, making her start.

  “Hey,” he said breathlessly. He looked a bit stunned, as if surprised to see her. “Um, about yesterday—”

  “Sit in your own seat, Noah,” Mrs. Garcia said without bothering to look up from her desk.

  Anna took out a cookie and handed it to him. “Sorry for being weird before,” she whispered. “I made this for you, as an apology. Promise you’ll eat it?”

  Noah grinned, nodding. “Of course.”

  All throughout class she could feel him sneaking glances at her, making her flush and fidget.

  Finally, at lunch she spotted him eating the cookie. He smiled as he ate it, chatting with his friends and being the good-natured, carefree Noah she admired so much. She watched him like a hawk, picking at her sandwich, watching for any difference.

  He noticed her staring at him and grinned wide, blushing. He waved, and she swallowed a curse as she waved back.

  That love spell must have been stronger than she’d thought. She’d once thought she would do anything to have him look that way at her, but it just wasn’t the same. This was a lie. A forced crush.

  She would just have to continue avoiding him until it wore off.

  If it wore off.

  * * *

  A couple days passed, and still the spell had its clutches on Noah. He continued to give her dopey smiles, tried to talk to her in the halls of Preston, but she made up excuses and ran away as fast as she could.

  She also hadn’t been able to muster up the courage to admit what she’d done to Carlin. Anna worked a shift at Sorcerous Sweets and couldn’t even look at them, she was so full of shame and guilt. She could practically hear her dad tsking her in her mind.

  When Friday afternoon rolled around, Anna was on her way upstairs to play mindless video games—her favorite form of distraction—when there was a knock on the front door. She opened it to reveal Emma, dressed all in black and holding a small bakery box in her hands.

  “All right, let’s get this over this,” Emma said, shouldering her way inside. “You’re so sorry, I forgive you, of course we’re still best friends, blah blah blah.”

  Anna was so relieved that she hugged Emma tight, making her grunt.

  “Okay, enough of that,” Emma said, shoving the box at her. “I hate all that mushy stuff.”

  Anna took the box and frowned at the label on the side. “Sweet Cream? You do know this is our rival bakery, yes?”

  “You deserve it,” Emma said, plopping down on the couch. Anna couldn’t help but laugh and join her, opening the box and revealing a cupcake inside.

  “It’s not spelled, is it?”

  “You deserve that too, but no.”

  Still, Anna took a small bite, searching for extra flavors that would point out a spell. But it was just a simple chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting. And ultimately inferior to hers, of course.

  “So,” Emma said, crossing her legs, “tell me what happened.”

  Anna sighed and gave her the whole story. When she explained about Noah, Emma’s eyes widened.

  “What are you going to do?” Emma asked. “How does this get fixed?”

  “I don’t think it can get fixed,” Anna mumbled. She scooped up some frosting with her finger and shoved it in her mouth. “I just have to wait out the spell.”

  Emma hummed, then snapped her fingers. “Let’s go to the theater tonight. Take your mind off things. They have that new horror movie—have you seen the trailer? It looks wild.”

  So Anna let herself be dragged to the theater, even though she wasn’t the biggest fan of horror movies. It was busy, even for a Friday night, but Anna found that being around so many people actually helped to lift her mood.

  They were waiting in the popcorn line when Emma choked.

  “Great, Vivian Huang is here,” she muttered. “Thankfully, I don’t see Riley...”

  Vivian, hearing her name, turned and spotted Emma. She waved with a bright smile. Startled, Emma waved back.

  “Looks like there’s no hard feelings,” Anna said. She looked around to see if anyone else from Preston was here.

  There was. Specifically, the one person she didn’t want to see right now.

  “Crap!” Anna ducked down behind Emma. “Noah’s here!”

  He was buying tickets at the counter, two middle-school-age boys beside him. She recognized one as Noah’s brother; they had the same blond hair and sharp chin. He was holding the hand of another boy his age. When Noah handed them their tickets, they ran off without him.

  “Hey, not too far!” he called after them.

  Then, as if feeling Anna’s stare, he turned and saw her. Anna squeaked in Emma’s ear.

  “Oh my god, just go talk to him,” Emma hissed. “Explain what happened. Maybe that’ll break the spell.”

  “I can’t do that!” Anna whispered back, even as Noah s
tarted to make his way toward them.

  “Hey,” he said. “Didn’t expect to see you here, Anna.”

  “Oh...yeah, I love horror movies!” she said a little too loudly. Emma winced.

  “Same. My brother does too, unfortunately.” He jerked a thumb in the direction the two boys had run off. “He’s here on a date, can you believe that? I’m supervising them.” He looked at her with that dopey smile, and Anna’s chest heated.

  “So you have no one to sit with?” Emma ventured. “I’m sure Anna would like to sit with you.”

  Anna looked at her in horror, but Emma gave her a cutting glare that said, Tell him the truth!

  Noah blushed. “Oh! Yeah, I...that is, if you want to, Anna?”

  With a sinking feeling in her gut, Anna nodded, her mouth paper dry.

  Ten minutes later, she was somehow, impossibly, sitting next to Noah in the theater, sharing a medium sized popcorn. She was far too nervous to eat any of it, though—especially with the risk of their hands bumping into each other.

  “So,” she said before the movie started, “your brother is on a date? Isn’t he a bit young?”

  Noah shrugged. “He’ll be a freshman next year. As long as they don’t try anything, I’m fine with it.” At the reminder, he frowned and looked around for them. Anna saw the two boys huddled close, whispering and giggling. “They’re adorable, but if they start making out, I’m calling the cops.”

  Anna laughed as the theater went dark and the movie started. Then she was tense in a whole other manner, gripping the armrests of her seat and gasping at all the jump scares. One got her so bad that she screamed and clutched the nearest available thing—Noah’s arm. But Noah didn’t seem to mind, and actually laughed at her reaction.

  She turned to glare at him, then realized just how close their faces were. Heart pounding, she looked at Noah’s lips, wondering not for the first time if they were as soft as they looked.

  In a moment, she found out. Noah bridged the small gap between them, kissing her gently on the mouth as one of the serial killer’s victims screamed on screen. Everything turned hot and liquid as he kissed her, as his piano-callused fingers brushed her jaw and wove into her hair. She shivered at his touch, at the way his mouth brushed reverently against hers.

 

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