by Cecilia Tan
* * * *
“What do you mean, he’s not here?” Kyle realized it was a stupid question. Obviously Monica meant what she’d said, that Alex wasn’t around. But he supposed it was a human instinct to ask again, just in case the second time the answer might be different.
Monica was a short girl with black-and-red streaks in her hair. Kyle really couldn’t guess what the natural color was. She hefted her book bag. “I’ve got to get to the lab,” she said, clearly annoyed at him. “And I’m not Alex Kimble’s keeper. Jess ought to be back soon, if you two want to take advantage of the empty room. I won’t be back until around dawn.”
Kyle sat on the couch and dragged out his cards and books. He’d decided not to worry too much about his final paper for poetry analysis. He’d already written most of it, and it wasn’t due for another week anyway, and then they would have a final exam that he wasn’t worried about either. Either he’d have a flash of insight on the exam, or he wouldn’t. Even if he only barely passed the test, his final grade would be fine. And his poetry writing class was a piece of cake. There was no exam and no final paper. All each student had to do was write a poem a week. His poems lately had been horrible, he felt, but the teacher seemed to like them well enough, and he wasn’t being graded against Pulitzer Prize winners either.
Introduction to Alchemy wasn’t that difficult either, now that he’d started thinking of it like a science class. He found it a lot like chemistry, and most of the other students in the class had not had any experience at home with doing alchemical experiments or anything, so he felt he wasn’t as far behind them. The class was taught in this kind of interesting, folksy way where they recited the charts on the wall, which was interesting to Kyle because that made it almost like learning a strange, avant-garde poem.
But Soothsaying Practices of the Western World left him dizzy and wondering how he could even hope to have a grasp of—or even remember all of—the practices they’d covered. Tea leaves, coffee grounds, molten lead hardened in water, crystal balls, runes, Tarot, flame scrying, palmistry, psychometry, weathercasting—and to think they hadn’t even gone into astrology because that was a whole separate class he’d probably have to take later. Most of the class seemed to have grown up taking these things for granted. In particular, he wondered just how much of every day he went around oblivious to omens. He’d known that if you found a penny it was good luck, but he’d thought it was only the ones that were heads up. Apparently, it was all pennies, though. The bit about black cats and walking under ladders, false. But there were other ones his classmates insisted were true and Kyle was finding it harder and harder to keep track of them.
He opened his textbook on omens and tried to read, but was too distracted by worrying to actually absorb what he was looking at.
Thankfully, Jess came in not long after that. “Hello, sweetness,” she said, planting a kiss on his lips. “What are you doing just hanging around?”
“Oh, I thought maybe I’d catch Alex to help me with some studying, but apparently he’s at the library.”
Jess pursed her lips. “I’m starting to think he might really be. At the library, I mean. I’ve never seen him actually study like this before.”
“You don’t think he’s actually in danger of failing?”
Jess shrugged. “He never talks about it. But it is his junior year. He has to do a pretty major project…maybe he’s behind schedule.”
Kyle sighed.
Jess slipped onto the couch next to him. “Want me to help you with your studying instead?”
He put his arm around her and pulled her in for a kiss. “I can think of something I’d rather do. Monica said she’s gone to the lab all night.”
“Oh? On a Thursday? How funny.” Jess’s smile turned sly. “But convenient. Maybe you’re leading a charmed life, Kyle Wadsworth?”
“Oh, um...”
“I have to write five pages tonight, but come on.” She took him by the hand and pulled him into the room. “Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.”
She closed the door behind him. “Take off your clothes and lie down on the bed.”
“All right.” He put his books down and began getting undressed. “You’re not going to?”
Jess put her hands on her hips. “Are you going to argue with me, or do as I say? Trust me, Kyle, you’ll like my idea.”
“Okay.” He stripped down to his socks and lay back on her bed. She leaned over him and tied a strip of soft cloth over his eyes.
The next thing he felt was her lips brushing over his, just enough sensation to make him gasp with surprise before she pulled away. Then her mouth returned, full and wet. He groaned against her tongue, feeling the blood rushing to his groin already.
“So what are you having trouble with?” she asked, settling next to him on the bed. As far as he could feel, she was still fully clothed. She trailed her fingertips down his bare chest.
“Omens and the Tarot,” he answered. “Just can’t seem to get them fixed in my head.”
“All right, then.” He felt her breath warm in his ear and it sent more thrills down his skin. “What’s the meaning of...the Two of Swords?”
“Um, balance, but it’s a precarious balance usually? Like someone may have to choose between two things, but neither choice might be all that good.”
“Very good.” She pressed a kiss to his temple and he felt her fingertips graze his cock. “Let’s say you get five strokes for every one you get right.”
He sucked in a breath as her cool fingers took loose hold of his half-hard cock and tugged it gently five times. When she let go, he was nearly fully hard, and her fingers continuing to wander over his nipples and stomach were all it took to bring him to completely straining.
“How about The Moon?”
“Um, wildness. Someone’s animal side.”
“Rawr. Very good, tiger.” She rewarded him with five more soft strokes. “If you keep up like this, I’ll have to get the lube soon.”
Well, this was certainly a bit different from his previous review session. He tried to imagine doing this with Caitlyn and Nichols then, but found the image to be disturbingly arousing. His cock twitched.
“The Sun?”
“Joy and fulfillment.”
“Mm, maybe you get ten strokes for that one, though you’re far from fulfillment,” she teased. He heard the wet sound of her licking her hand, and had to struggle not to thrust into her strokes.
And so it went, the very gradual build-up of his arousal as she quizzed him on card after card. Eventually she used the lube from the little bottle by the side of her bed, which stayed slick no matter how slowly she went or how long a pause to think he had to take. Sometimes when she liked an answer he gave especially, she would swirl her thumb a few extra seconds around the head.
He was panting and damp from arousal and very close to coming, though not close enough to come on just five light strokes, when she began to quiz him on the omens. Once he’d named off the meanings of a half dozen, she closed her hand firmly around his shaft.
“Your turn to move,” she said. “As long as you are naming off omens and their meanings, I’ll keep a hold of you. If you falter or have to stop to think, I’ll let go.”
“Ah! You witch!” he cried, and they both giggled at that, Kyle a little breathlessly.
“I know. I’m a regular Jezebel, aren’t I?”
Something in the way she said that made him think he ought to ask her about it...but later. Right now she was loosening her grip. “Rainbows! Rainbow means good luck, and a rainbow over green trees means unconditional love. Acorns falling on you are good luck, too. A grasshopper in the house means...”
What did it mean? Something...
Jess lifted her hand and he made a whine of frustration. “You know it or you wouldn’t have said it,” she prompted.
“A grasshopper in the house means...a good friend will visit you.” She put her hand back, but now he had to keep talking. “Um, a...a cat sneezing i
s good luck for a bride.” He was so close now that as she held tight and he forced his cock up and down through the slick tunnel of her fingers, he was having trouble breathing and speaking at the same time. “Two crows at your window is good luck! Three means a wedding! A flat tire means an inheritance! Falling stars are...” But he cried out as he began to spill through her fingers. Her thumb milked the head as he came, intense colors swirling in the darkness of his vision behind the blindfold.
He was still panting when she kissed him as if eating the sweetness of his orgasm on his breath. “I...um...”
She giggled at his lack of coherence and pulled the blindfold free.
Her smile made him smile. “Hi,” he said, like he was seeing her for the first time that day.
“Hi,” she said back.
“I think I’m glad Alex was at the library,” he said. Jess kissed him and wiped his belly with the towel she kept by the bed just for such messes, carefully wiping her hand as well. He reached out with one hand to caress her cheek. “What about you?”
“Oh, I have all the things I need to work on my paper right here.”
“No, silly, I mean, it’s your turn.” He propped himself up on one elbow to look at her better.
She smiled, but it was her “you’re so cute” smile, which normally he liked since he’d usually done something silly to provoke it. But right now, when he earnestly wanted to reciprocate, it felt a little condescending. “How about you make me come an extra time this weekend?”
He sagged against her pillow.
She stood up. “You can stay if you want, if you don’t bug me while I’m working.”
“No, no, I’ll get out of your hair. Once I can move, that is. I think you turned my legs into jelly.”
She laughed. “I’ll get you a cola from the fridge.”
“Okay.”
By the time he was done drinking the can of soda, Jess was deep in her notes at her desk, typing away at her laptop. She got up to give him a kiss goodbye, then closed the door behind him.
He stood for a while in the suite, still basking in the afterglow of what had been one of the strongest orgasms of his life, but wondering why he felt so out of sorts about Jess. What was wrong with him? She’d just done something wonderful for him, not slammed the door on him.
“You okay?”
He looked up to see Lindy standing in her doorway, staring at him. “Jeez. How long have you been there?”
“Couple of minutes. You seem a little out of it.” She looked at him. “Do you need a protein bar or something?”
“I just drank something caffeinated.”
She shook her head at him sadly. “Jeanie and I just ordered a pizza if you want to share.”
“Oh, um, sure.”
“Great. Hey, Jean, let’s eat out here!”
“Tell me when it’s here. I’m going to try to finish reading this chapter first,” Jeanie called out.
“Okay.” Lindy took a seat on the couch and propped her stocking feet on the coffee table. She patted the seat next to her. Kyle set his book bag down and sat.
“It’s a lot to get used to,” she said, after the silence had stretched on for a bit.
“What is?” He tried to imagine if Lindy knew what sex with Jess was like.
“Discovering magic. And they used to say they found me late. I was thirteen at the time. I guess most prodigies get caught when they’re much younger. But eighteen? Jeez.”
Kyle had forgotten Lindy was a prodigy. “Thirteen? How did you find out?”
“Oh, I, um...it was kind of embarrassing, actually, but I started setting things on fire.”
He felt like he was missing something. “That’s embarrassing?”
“Well, when I masturbated.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
They both broke out into laughter after a second.
“A Veritas alumna named Maggie Shipton took me under her wing. It was a bit tricky at first because they had to figure out if my parents could be told the truth or if we had to come up with some kind of other explanation or what. In the end it was decided they’d be told everything, but they’re under the same rules we are. Break the silence and it’d mean the Geas. They don’t seem to mind, though. For them it’s really not that different from having a normal kid go off to Harvard.” Her hair was sandy brown and curled over her shoulders, and her bangs were in need of a trim. She folded her hands over her upraised knees. “Mrs. Shipton taught me how to keep the fires from happening, and a lot of other stuff, like the Geas, and make sure you eat after doing a spell...and lots of stuff.”
“Did you have a book or anything?” Kyle asked, with some longing in his voice.
“What, you mean like Young Person’s Guide to Magic? No. Haven’t you wondered why you don’t have an alchemy textbook? There are a lot of things they don’t trust to be written down. And making a book that can’t be read by anyone without the Sight? Well, you can make one, like the hand-illuminated tomes in the library, but it would be too much to try to extend the spell to hundreds of copies, and to expect the spell to last for potentially hundreds of years after the person who cast the spell died. So in some disciplines it’s oral transmission only, or only by recorded manuscripts in the library. No mass printing.”
“I guess Tarot’s okay because mundanes know about it already?”
“Yeah. It was already too widespread before magic went underground, and unlike a lot of magical practices that people knew about, it stayed in fashion and wasn’t forgotten.” She shrugged. “I still feel a little like I need a handbook sometimes, but let’s just say I sympathize.”
“Thanks.”
“It was especially weird right after Jeanie had her accident, but...oh!”
He watched as she jumped to her feet to get her vibrating cell phone out of the front pocket of her jeans.
“Oh yes, be right down! Jeanie, pizza’s here! Back in a sec, Kyle.” And then she was off down the stairs in her socks.
Jeanie emerged from their room with a stretch. She was wearing pink pajamas and had her hair pulled back in a pink headband. “Hey Kyle, nice to see you. You really need to straighten out what’s going on with you and Jess.”
“Huh?” He twisted in his seat to see her better. “I mean, I know I do, but...”
“She’s got a lot going on in her head and her heart. She can’t articulate it all herself, but that doesn’t mean it’s beyond your power to understand.” She sat down on the floor at the coffee table, her legs crossed. “Man, I’m starving. You guys are so lucky you have snacks in your dining hall. It’s the only drawback to being in Camella House.”
Lindy came back in then, and all three of them began devouring the pizza. Lindy ate two pieces, Kyle two, and Jeanie four. Then Jeanie sat back with a satisfied sigh. “Okay, back to work. You too, Lindykins.”
Lindy’s sigh was more resigned. “You’re right. I need it. See you later, Kyle.”
Kyle wondered just when his life would turn around so that he could get more questions answered in a day than he could think up new ones he didn’t know the answers to. Jeanie’s accident? What did she know about Jess that he didn’t? What else could Lindy tell him that maybe no one else could about being magical? What was up with Alex? And why couldn’t he live with what a great thing he had with Jess? Why did he want more?
These are the questions that kept him awake that night as he lay on his narrow bed under the eaves, listening to cold November rain hitting the roof above him.
* * * *
The Tuesday before Thanksgiving Kyle went over to Scipionis House for dinner. The crowd was lighter already, as some students who didn’t have Wednesday classes had already left for the holiday. He averted his eyes from Frost and Candlin, who were sort of eskimo-kissing in their seats at a table near the entrance. Normally public displays of affection, even from Frost, didn’t faze him, but this one was so sugary, Kyle felt like he needed insulin. They weren’t normally so...puppy-doggish.
; When he came back into the dining room with a tray laden with food, he saw Frost had gotten to his feet and was putting on his coat and had a suitcase at his side. Of course Frost was going away for the holiday. Almost everyone Kyle knew was, it seemed. Jess was going to an aunt and uncle’s house and she hadn’t wanted to bring Kyle with her—truthfully, he wasn’t sure he was up to meeting scrutinizing family members yet anyway—Lindy and Jeanie were going to Jeanie’s parents’ house, and Randall even had an invitation to go to some friends of his family’s on the Cape and was bringing his roommate, Yoshi, with him. Alex and Monica were the only two from Camella 3 West who would be around, and Gladius House as a whole seemed like it would be empty.
Kyle was just settling into a seat when he saw Alex come into the room. He brightened and was about to wave when he saw Alex say something to Frost, and Frost responding. It didn’t look like happy words were being exchanged, though Kyle couldn’t hear what they were arguing about.
Suddenly Candlin got to his feet and Kyle felt something like a wave of static electricity go through the air. Candlin spoke through gritted teeth, couldn’t have been louder than a whisper, and yet Kyle thought he heard, “Get away from him.”
Alex threw up his hands like he wanted nothing to do with them and then walked away, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets.
Kyle watched him disappear into the food service area. When he looked back, Frost and Candlin were both gone. Then Alex emerged, all smiles.
“Hey, Ace,” he said as he slid into the empty chair next to Kyle. “What’s shakin’?”
“Nothing much,” Kyle said, finally turning his attention to his food. “Had that exam yesterday.”
“Yeah? How’d you do?”
“I think I did okay. I didn’t walk out feeling like crap, anyway, although I think I got a few things mixed up.” He speared a small meatball on his fork and twirled spaghetti around it.
“But graded on a curve, you probably weren’t at the bottom,” Alex said with a shrug. “You’ll live. It’ll get easier.”
“Will it?” Kyle asked seriously, putting the meatball down untouched. “Like it has for you?”
