by ERIN BEDFORD
I hurried along the longer he stared. When I finally had my things together, I met his stare with one of my own. “I’m going now.”
He didn’t say anything but then, without warning, sat down at the table where my things used to be, completely ignoring me. My eyes trailed over his large muscular form once more. The way his t-shirt with some kind of game character on the front clung to his thick biceps and stretched across his chest. His jeans fitted tight to his legs and butt, and I had to force myself not to tilt my head to get a better look.
Finally noticing my staring, the mountain of a man shifted his eyes to my direction, and I was instantly drowned in cerulean blues. My mouth slowly hung open, and all I could do was stare with no regard for appropriateness. I had seen this guy before but only briefly. I hadn’t had the chance to take him fully in until just now. The beautiful mountain of a man was quite something to behold. Even more so when he opened his gorgeous mouth to speak once more.
“Are you alright?”
Licking my lips, my mouth suddenly dry, I shook my head. “Ah, no. I’m fine. Just lost in thought.” More like raging libido.
“I can call the healer.” His eyes bore into me intensely, not accepting my explanation.
I slung my bag over my shoulder and held my hands up, waving him off. “No, no. I’m really fine. No need to get the healer involved.” I knocked the side of my head and chuckled. “Just a bit of first day of school jitters.”
The man watched me quietly before nodding once and turning away from me.
With his intense gaze off of me, I walked two steps toward the door. Before I got to the door for some reason, I stopped and spun around. “By the way, I’m Max.”
Those crystalline blues locked onto me once more and that small hint of a smile tugged on the side of his lips. I thought he might not answer me and had already half turned away to bury my head in the sand when he said, “Aidan.”
My head twisted back to him, and I smiled. “Hello, Aidan.”
As I went through the rest of my day, I couldn’t stop thinking about the people I’d met since I had started Winchester Academy, more importantly, the men I’d met. Callie was going to be so jealous. If she thought the hotties at Brown were something to drool over, then she would go gaga when I told her about the ones here right in Georgia.
I ran my bag back up to my room just as my phone beeped.
Callie: I’m at the gates. Douche bag guard won’t let me pass without a pass.
Me: I’m sorry, I forgot. You have to get one from the headmaster.
Callie: You mean, I have to kiss some old dude’s ass to visit you? BS.
Laughing as I shook my head, I tucked my phone in my pocket and headed back toward the front of the school. As I walked down the hallway, my hands shook at my sides as I clenched and unclenched them. My nerves from before about Callie and lying about school came rushing back.
I caught sight of Callie’s bright cherry red ‘65 convertible, and my heart beat even faster in my chest. I remembered the summer she had spent rebuilding the rust bucket of a car with her dad. Well, more like I remembered her bitching and moaning about how long it was taking. However, the end result had far outweighed the man-hours.
Opening the door and sliding into the dark leather seat, I smiled weakly at Callie. “Hey.”
Callie turned her head my way, her large black sunglasses covering half of her face and tangled in her dark, windblown hair. “Well, look who it is. Our very own Samantha Stevenson. How are things in the magical community? Change anyone into a frog today?”
“Shh!” I jumped across the seat and slapped my hands over her mouth, my eyes wide as I searched around for witnesses. “You can’t just say that crap out loud.” A wet muscle touched the palm of my hand, and I jerked my hand back. “Did you just lick me?”
“Yes, I did, and you’re lucky that’s all I did.” Callie sniffed, putting her nose in the air. “And what’s going to happen? Some Death Eaters going to come silence me?” She threw her head back and laughed as if this was all a game and nothing serious would ever happen to her.
I pinched her arm and stared hard at her until she stopped laughing.
“You’re serious.” She pulled off her sunglasses, her brows knitting together as she searched my face.
“Like seventh-grade homeroom serious.” I leveled my gaze on her, reminding her of the one time that she had gotten her period in homeroom and was wearing pale pink pants at the time. To say the humiliation she would have felt had I not worn a sweater that day was unmeasurable. She’d have been scarred for life and sure as hell wouldn’t have gotten that date with Bobby Flinn.
“Seventh-grade serious, huh?” Callie sighed and put her sunglasses back on. “Alright then. Let’s get something to eat. I feel like I’m going to need a chocolate milkshake for this story.” She cranked the car, and as we pulled away from the curb, I had a sinking feeling in my gut. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it wasn’t something a chocolate milkshake would fix.
The next few minutes on our way to our favorite burger and shake joint, The Burger Shack, we acted as if there wasn’t this huge secret between us. We blared the music on the radio and sang at the top of our lungs. For a moment, it was just like any other time we hung out. Just for a moment. Then we pulled into the parking lot, and everything began to sink back in.
Climbing out of the car, my feet moved on their own accord, going through the motions of entering the front door and finding a seat in the red vinyl booth. I grabbed a menu from behind the salt and pepper shakers and hid my face as I pretended that I would get something other than my usual burger and fry combo with a chocolate milkshake. Fingers curled around the top half of my menu and pulled down, revealing Callie’s impatient face.
“Hello?” Callie asked, putting her sunglasses on top of her head. “Are you going to just ignore me the whole time?”
Sighing, I sat my menu down on the table. “No, I’m not. I’m just trying to get my thoughts together. It’s not every day you have to tell your best friend you’re a freak of nature.”
Callie snorted. “Too late for that. I’ve been thinking that since day one.”
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks a lot.”
“But seriously ...” Callie shifted forward in her seat. “Are we talking Harry Potter or Charmed? Finger wagging or swish and flick?” I’d have thought she was joking had there not been such an eagerness in her voice.
Before I could open my mouth to answer her, our waitress stopped at the table. “Hey girls, what can I get for you today?”
“Oh, Rosie.” Callie grinned. “You know, you don’t need to ask us that.”
Rosie, a late twenties strawberry blonde with a five-year-old son at home, always waited on our table. We both ordered the same thing every time, but still, she asked us without fail.
“And you know I have to ask, or my boss will get up my butt.” She winked, and we giggled in unison. “So, what will it be?”
Callie spouted off our usuals. Two cheeseburgers and fries with two chocolate shakes, extra onions on Callie’s cheeseburger. How she stood the taste of them, I’d never know.
“So ...” Callie clasped her hands in front of her and leaned forward in her seat. “Spill. Are the wizard hotties better than the Brown hotties you are leaving me alone with?”
I grinned and chuckled at her ridiculous question. I knew it was coming, and yet it surprised me. Immediately, my mind went to the most recent guy who had caught my eye. Aidan. Tall, mysterious with muscles I’d love to get wrapped up in.
“I knew it!” Callie shouted, pointing a finger at me drawing several patrons eyes toward us. “You are holding out on me.”
I shook my head and forced back a grin. “I’m not, I swear. There are surprisingly quite a few ‘hotties’ though none that have outright showed interest in me.” My mind immediately called me a liar, giving me a full-blown image of Ian, winking and smirking as he left the administrator’s office. Ian didn’t have to be in the office, and
yet he had hung around because I was there.
Callie peered at me curiously. “Wait a moment. There is someone! Who? Who? Tell me everything.”
“I thought you wanted to know about the school, not about my love life?” I cocked a brow at her and then turned my attention to Rosie, who sat our milkshakes down in front of us.
“Here you girls go, anything else I can get you at the moment?”
“No, we’re good,” I told Rosie, taking a long, cold, and sugary drink of my shake. When Rosie was gone, I started again, anxious to get it over with. “So, no wand-waving, and no finger-pointing. At least, not yet. I haven’t really gotten a chance to cast a spell or anything. It’s been a lot of book work. I did make a potion though it didn’t quite turn out right.” I made a face as I remembered the gunky mess I’d created during Potions 101.
“So, can you show me something?” Callie asked, sucking on her straw and staring at me. I was beginning to feel a bit like a circus freak.
I thought about it for a moment. None of the things I’d tried to do over the summer had worked. The only thing I’d managed to do was give myself a headache. Yesterday in the library had been my first and only real, on-purpose magic, and all I did was make Sabrina and her lackeys squawk like a bird. What could I possibly do here in the diner where anyone could see me without getting caught?
My mind whirled while I tried to think of something and then the bell of the diner door dinged. Automatically, my eyes went to the door, and they settled on a red-brown mop of hair.
“Dale!” I cried out without meaning to, causing him to look in our direction. Suddenly, I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. I didn’t mean to call his attention, I was just so shocked to see another magical person in somewhere so ordinary as The Burger Shack. Which was ridiculous since they were probably going here long before I ever went. Just because I now knew about them didn’t give me any claim to the human-world places. But still, it was strange to see my two lives mixing before my eyes.
“Hey, Max.” Dale stopped in front of our table his eyes going from me to Callie. “You like this place too, huh?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said lamely, smacking myself mentally.
“I’m Callie, Max’s best friend,” my best friend said, turning her eyes on Dale, obvious interest gleaming in them.
“Nice to meet you.” Dale nodded curtly but didn’t seem much interested in her otherwise.
Not to be ignored, Callie flicked a hand at Dale. “So, do you go to that special school like Max?”
All of a sudden, I realized the danger of this situation. Callie wasn’t supposed to know about me being a witch or anything about the school. Here I was, flaunting her in front of one of the school’s workers. Dale worked only a few feet away from the Headmaster after all. If he found out that I told Callie, then he could get me in serious trouble.
My heart beat rapidly in my chest as I tried to figure out how to get out of the precarious situation I’d gotten myself into. A loud pop caused me and everyone around me to startle, and then a warm red goop landed on Callie and me, coating the table until it looked like a murder scene. I froze in place, my eyes going from the plastic ketchup bottle that had exploded to Dale’s face. The expression of horror was exactly identical to my own, and I knew I was in for it.
“Oh, my.” Rosie hurried over and handed both Callie and me a wet rag while she started to wipe off the table. “Talk about a freak accident, huh?”
Callie and I exchanged a look and then promptly busted out laughing. Dale did not look as amused as we were and simply shook his head while watching.
“Well, I guess that’s one way to prove it.” Callie giggled as she dabbed at her face, the ketchup really giving her a Carrie kind of vibe.
“Sorry,” I muttered as Rosie rushed off to get another wash rag. “Those kinds of things keep happening to me. It’s really a pain.”
“I can imagine.” Callie nodded and grinned. “Can’t be good for you or the condiments.”
I met her grin with one of my own, but it fell as Dale came back in front of us.
“This really is no laughing matter.” Arms crossed over his button-up shirt, Dale’s lips pressed into a hard line and I swore if he glared any harder his eyes would pop out of his sockets.
“Oh, please. Chill out. It’s ketchup, not the White House.” Callie giggled and flipped her hair, grimacing as her hand came in contact with even more red goop.
Dale ignored Callie and turned his gaze to me. “Today might be ketchup, but tomorrow, it could very well be the whole city.”
I shrunk into my seat at his words, knowing in some ways that it was true. If I didn’t get a hold of my magic and emotions, I could very well end up hurting someone for real.
“Oh god, listen to this guy.” Callie rolled her eyes. “But he does have a point.” She tapped her chin in thought and then point it at me. “What happens the next time you get your period? You have a massive PMS attack, and you blow up the person you’re mad at?”
“Callie,” I warned and sighed, but it was no use.
“Or, or ...” Callie smacked the table repeatedly. “What if you’re having sex and right when you orgasm, you cause a massive earthquake?”
“Oh, God. Please stop!” I buried my face in my hand, my cheeks no doubt as red as the ketchup in my hair. I didn’t dare look up and see Dale’s expression though I was sure it was probably as horrified as mine.
“Just think about it,” Callie continued as if none of us had said anything. “You can officially claim that you had rocked his world.”
Merlin, shoot me now.
Chapter 11
I covered my mouth as I yawned for what felt like the millionth time. It wasn’t that the class I was sitting in was boring. On the contrary, Charmology was one of the classes I had most been looking forward too. Sure, it was a beginner’s course, something I would have taken in grade school but being a late bloomer, I needed all the help I could get.
“Charms can be very precocious. One mispronunciation and your love charm will turn into a hex,” my professor, Calliope no-last-name’s whimsical voice explained as she sort of floated around the room. She was much younger than the other professors I’d seen, her fair skin almost shimmered in the light, and her hair trailed after her like a separate piece of herself. While Calliope’s voice was very nice to listen to, it did nothing for my tired eyes.
I’d already had two lattes from the cafeteria by the time I had finished breakfast. Trina had tried to make small talk with me, but I hadn’t been coherent enough really to answer more than a yes or no, maybe a few hmms. I’d spent all night tossing and turning over what had happened at The Burger Shack.
After my little exploding ketchup trick, Dale hadn’t said much, not about my accident or about Callie and the fact that she obviously knew what we were. The only thing he had left me with was a despairing sigh and a head shake before he left the diner, leaving Callie and me alone to clean up the mess.
I kept expecting Dale to show up wanting an explanation or the headmaster telling me I was expelled not just from school but from life. But neither of those things ever came. While it was driving me crazy to find out what Dale was going to do with the information, I was hard-pressed to not rock that boat. If he wasn’t saying anything, I wasn’t saying anything.
Thankfully, Callie was the queen of secrets. I didn’t have to worry about her cracking, even under pain of torture or death. I trusted her with my life, and I knew she would keep my secret. If only I could do a better job at it.
Something cold pressed against the side of my arm, and then a hot jolt of electricity went through my entire body. My eyes, which I hadn’t even known I’d closed, flew open, and any sleepiness I might have felt went flying from me as the class stared at me with open amusement.
After a moment, the hot shock of energy that had ripped through me dissipated. I gasped and blinked rapidly as my chest moved up and down trying to catch my breath.
“And that, class, is an e
nergizer charm.”
My head turned, and my chin lifted to meet the eyes of Calliope, who held a metal coin with a strange swirl in the middle in between her fingers. A small smile covered her lips as she watched me watch her. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a hint of annoyance on her face, only simple amusement.
“Sorry,” I ducked my head in embarrassment and apology.
“No worries. We all have issues getting up and going in the morning. That’s why these charms are so important,” Calliope continued, speaking to the class as she floated around the room, her gown fluttering along her feet. “I will teach you how to create such a thing for yourselves and for others. Though, if you decide to become a merchant of such objects, you will need at least a master’s degree as well as quite a few legal documents, insurance and such.” She paused for a moment and smiled. “In every customer service position, there’s always that one person who cannot be satisfied no matter what you do. You need to cover yourself and your assets.”
It sounded way more business-like than something they would talk about it magic school. I expected everything here to be all fairy dust and finger twitching, but there weren’t that many occurrences of magic, even in the hallways. Dale had done more magic than any of the others I’d seen besides my accidentally-on-purpose mishaps with Sabrina and then Callie. It wasn’t that I wasn’t loving being there and learning as much as possible. I was just expecting ... more.
Someone raised their hand, drawing my attention out of my inner thoughts and back to class.
“Yes?” Calliope pointed to the blonde boy who had raised his hand.
“So, you can just make a charm for anything?” His eyes were full of hope and eagerness. It made his next words hardly surprising. “I can make myself taller? Luckier? More charming?” He shifted in his seat as the class giggled and laughed at his words. I could see how the lanky boy might want those things. He probably hadn’t been able to get a date and was dying to try out his newfound abilities on the local beauties.
