by Holly Bourne
CHAPTER TWELVE
I pull out one white candle and one red candle from where they’ve been hiding under my bed, and the cheap dying red rose that Mia brought.
“Isn’t it, like, unethical to cast a love spell on someone?” Alexis asks.
Her nose wrinkles as I also get out a photo of me and Aidan. I printed it this morning. It’s the only photo I have of us. One I took in McDonald’s. Both sipping from straws in the same milkshake. The only evidence that we’ve shared anything at all.
I get out the final ingredient – a long length of silk I’d bought in town. “I was googling it earlier to check and it’s fine,” I reply. “This isn’t going to interfere with Aidan’s free will or anything. It’s just putting energy out into the universe to remind him of his love for me.”
Mia shakes her head. “If he needs to be reminded of it, then it’s not love, babe.”
“Come on. I was serious about your spells. I’ve just helped a freakin’ dog cross over to the other side.”
Mia holds up her hands. “I’m just saying.”
I put the photo down, with Aidan’s gorgeous eyes staring up at me. “Look,” I say, “I admit that his behaviour has not been perfect. I’m not denying that. In my ideal world, no, I would not have to cast a spell to get my boyfriend to remember he likes me. But we are not living in an ideal world and I just want to put something out into the universe to help him along. I’m just trying to remind Aidan that he thinks I’m great. What. Is. Wrong. With. That?”
Alexis is smiling. “You’re so cute when you’re angry.”
“Stop it.”
“What?”
“Making fun of me.”
“I’m not!” Alexis complains. “We don’t see you like this very much, that’s all. All angry. It’s funny.”
“Can we just get on with the spell already?” I say.
I close my eyes and try to get myself into the magic zone – a bit like the trance I was in when I cast the spell on the Bunsen burner. Intention is the most important ingredient in magic. You have to believe your spell will work. You can’t have doubts or the universe will pick up on them and ruin things. I picture the grand reconciliation between Aidan and me. I see us kissing at the school gates again, but I want to add to the fantasy to feed it and let the universe know how seriously I’m taking this. So I picture Aidan introducing me to all his friends as his girlfriend, and reserving me a seat in the front row of the next school play, and coming to pick me up for the Year Eleven prom, where we win King and Queen, even though that’s two years away. I’m just picturing my prom dress – green with lace, maybe – when something hits my head.
I open my eyes. “Oww,” I say. Alexis has balled up the silk and thrown it at me.
“We needed to get your attention,” she says.
“Are you finished laughing at me?” I ask.
They both sigh. “We weren’t laughing at you,” Mia says. “We love you. You never need to cast a spell on us, for example.”
“Yes, yes, yes. I see your point. Can we just get started?”
I get us to link hands and try to get my brain back into a witchy place. I take some deep breaths and try to feel connected to the universe.
“Mother Nature,” I say, feeling very self‑conscious, “I call on you to help bring love back into my life. I ask that you help lost affection find its way again. First, I appoint this silk with flame.” I light the red and the white candles I’ve bought and hold the silk above the flames for a moment, but not so long that it burns. Then I take the picture of Aidan and me and rip it in half down the middle. I hand both pieces to Mia. “I’ve got to close my eyes for the next bit,” I tell her. “When I say so, can you pass me the photo of Aidan?”
Mia nods and takes the ripped photo, and I’m pleased neither of them are taking the piss any more. They’re letting me focus on the spell.
I close my eyes into darkness and lift up the warmed silk. “Mother Nature, here is silk, touched by the flame of love. I ask that you bind with it all the lost feelings of love, affection and acceptance.”
I hold out my hand. “Mia,” I whisper, “the photo.”
“Oh yeah, here it is.”
I fumble for Mia’s hand and pluck the Aidan photo from her. Then, with my eyes still closed, I fold the photo and wrap the silk around it till it’s fully covered. “And now, Mother Nature,” I say, “I will plant this and the rose at the bottom of a tree, so the love can take root and grow from a place of strength. Thank you, and thanks to all the spirits as well.”
“Thank you,” Mia repeats.
“Cheers, dudes,” Alexis says.
“And that’s it.” I open my eyes to find Alexis and Mia both grinning at me.
“Now what?” Alexis asks.
“We just need to bury his photo.”
“Outside?”
“Yes.”
“Ergh. But it’s so cold!” Alexis crosses her arms.
“Final hurdle, guys, come on,” I say.
I stand up, the silk and rose clutched in my hand. Mia gets up slowly, but Alexis has to be dragged up by both hands. We head downstairs, wrap ourselves in hats and gloves and step out into the cold blackness of my back garden.
“This level of coldness is ridiculous,” Alexis complains as I plod across the wet grass to our one and only tree. It’s a birch tree, glowing silver in the moonlight. Earlier I left a trowel out here and I crouch down to pick it up.
“Will you hold up the light from your phone while I dig?” I ask Mia as I squat down with the silk bundle and rose offering. I start attacking the cold ground. “Yikes. The soil is proper hard.”
The two of them protect me from the wind as I struggle to dig a suitable hole. The ground is frozen almost solid and I’ve never had good upper‑body strength. But I’m determined and I manage to dig a tiny hole. Then I drop Aidan’s silk‑wrapped photo and the rose into it and cover them with earth.
“A cat could dig it up,” Mia points out as I’m patting the soil down.
“Nah,” I reply. “My mum puts fox wee around the perimeter of our garden so we don’t get cats.”
Mia pulls a face. “Where the holy hell does she get fox wee from?”
I shrug. “In a bottle from the garden centre.”
I give one final pat and stand up. “It’s not like she runs after foxes collecting it with a pot or something. That would be weird. Right, that’s it. So maybe in a week or two the spell will—”
We all jump as my phone rings.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Oh my God, it’s him, it’s him,” Alexis squeals over the angry shrill of my ringing phone. “The spell worked!”
My heart floats up into my chest and my fingers start shaking, and not just because of the cold. No, it can’t have worked. Not that fast. No. No. No.
I look down at my phone.
No.
“Hi, Mum, what’s up?” I say, making a face at Mia and Alexis. They start laughing, their breath coming out in big puffs.
“Oh, hi, darling,” Mum says. “Sorry to bother you but I’m having an actual panic I left the straighteners on.”
I sigh and start trudging back to the house, beckoning for the girls to follow me inside. “Why didn’t you just message?”
“Because you wouldn’t reply and then I’d worry that you hadn’t seen the message and you would all burn to death as you slept.”
I roll my eyes. “We have a smoke alarm, Mum.” I open up the sliding door into the warm, central‑heated air.
“I’m hardly going to rely on that to keep you and your friends alive.”
I kick off my shoes so I don’t get mud on the carpet and pad upstairs to her room while Mia and Alexis help themselves to more hot squash. Mum’s bedroom is always messier than mine and tonight it’s particularly bad. She clearly couldn’t decide what to wear to her date, as there’s an assortment of clothes littering the bed in piles, and high heels kicked off everywhere. “Mum, you are so messy.”
“
I know, I know. Can you see the straighteners? Are they switched off?”
I scan the cluttered carpet and find them on the heatproof mat, not turned on. I roll my eyes again but then feel instantly guilty. Before Dad left, he was always going on at Mum for “being too stressed”. I mean, she is too stressed, but she was even more stressed when Dad was here, constantly telling her how stressed she was. “They’re off,” I tell Mum. “We will live through the night after all. You can relax.”
“Thanks, love,” she says. “Are they unplugged at the wall?”
“No.”
“Do you mind?”
I sigh again and yank the plug out. It clatters to the carpet.
“Cheers, darling. Sorry, I’ll leave you alone now. Have a good time.”
I’m about to ask Mum how her evening is going, but then I realise I’m not sure I want to know.
“You too,” I say, before hanging up.
I hear Mia and Alexis banging up the stairs and I emerge from Mum’s room to find them carrying up giant tubes of crisps alongside their steaming mugs.
“How?” I ask Alexis as we head back into my room.
“All that magic made me hungry,” she says. “Plus, you know, it’s the—”
“The grief,” I interrupt. “Yes, I know.”
Mia seems lifted by our magic circle already. She’s bouncing on her toes, brimming with energy. She’s never normally like this.
“I’ve downloaded loads of witch movies,” Mia says. “We can marathon the whole night. Stopping at midnight of course to go bless the Super Blood Wolf Moon.”
“Of course.” Alexis rips the lid off some salt and vinegar Pringles and folds two into her mouth.
“So we’ve got The Craft and one called Practical Magic and all of Sabrina. I’ve downloaded all of them, so we have a choice. And there’s this empowerment spell I found too—”
She’s cut off by my phone buzzing in my hand.
“Is it?” Alexis says.
“My mum again?” I answer. “Probably. She’ll want me to check I’ve not left the gas on or something.”
I unlock my screen, expecting to see “Mum” flashing up and further instructions about the house. But it isn’t her.
“Oh my GOD, guys,” I scream. My phone thuds to the carpet as I jump and start flapping my hands.
“What? What is it?” Mia asks.
“It’s worked, it’s worked, it’s worked,” I say. “We’re witches, we are actually goddamned witches. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.”
Alexis bends down and reads the message out, her voice high and questioning.
Aidan Chambers: Hey, how are things? I’m at Lucy’s party. You should come. It would be nice to see u X
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Alexis has my phone in her hand, her mouth hanging open, shaking her head. Mia leans over, reading the message to check it’s true, and her mouth drops open too. Meanwhile I’m running around my bedroom, jumping on the bed like a hyperactive child.
“We’re witches, we’re witches, we’re witches! Guys, WE ARE WITCHES.”
“I can’t believe it,” Mia says. “It could just be a coincidence.”
I shake my head as I bounce, bumping my head on the ceiling.
“No way!” I say. “Aidan hasn’t messaged me in WEEKS, and now, right after the spell, came the message. Oww!”
“But it can’t be …” Mia begins.
I grab her hands, pull her up onto the bed with me and force her to jump. “Come on, Alexis,” I call down.
She grins and climbs up to join us, letting the excitement of what we’ve just achieved sink in.
“I’m a witch, I’m a witch, I’m a … OWW,” I yelp as I jump too high again and my head collides with the ceiling. I drop to the bed in a lump. “Oww, oww, oww.”
The others carry on jumping around me.
“Seriously, guys, stop jumping, it really hurts.” I huddle in a ball, tears pricking my eyes at the pain. Alexis and Mia realise I’m not joking and squat down to check on me. Mia reaches out to where I’m cradling my head.
“Yikes, you’ve actually got a huge lump already,” she says.
“Oww.”
“Yes, oww,” Mia says sympathetically. “It looks oww.”
I feel my head and, yep, there’s a giant lump forming, like the ones in cartoons. I get a sudden memory of my dad and what he’d always say when I bumped my head as a kid. “Oh no, has somebody’s head laid an egg?” Dad’s rough hands would gently stroke my lump as I cried. “I didn’t know you were a chicken,” he’d say.
Then Dad would cluck and do a chicken impression, while I protested, “I’m not a chicken, Daddy!” I’d end up laughing so hard I forgot all about the egg on my head.
Dad could be nice sometimes, I guess …
Anyway, now is not the time to think about the past, or to have my head grow an egg. No. I have just cast another successful spell on Aidan Chambers. It turns out that, yes, I do have proper magical powers. Now I need to go find Aidan, follow this magic through, get back together and feel happy again.
I lurch to my feet and run to my wardrobe. “Right, what the hell should I wear to this party?” I yank out some clothes.
“Hang on, we’re going to a party?” Mia asks as she slides off the bed, watching me.
“OF COURSE we’re going to the party.” I pull out a white summer dress made of thin cotton and wonder if I’ll get frostbite if I wear it. “Aidan just invited me to the party, so I must go. He never used to invite me to anything! This is a breakthrough. A magical breakthrough!”
“But I thought tonight was a girl’s night?” Mia’s voice is sharp and I see her face turning sour as I glance at her in my mirror.
I twist my head back to look at Mia properly. “It was a witch night, to cast spells, and the spells have led us to the party. We have to follow the guidance of Mother Nature.”
Alexis looks much more excited. “Plus we NEVER get invited to parties,” she says. “This is brilliant.” Alexis starts rummaging in my make‑up bag. “Can I borrow your lipstick?” she asks, plucking one out. “I didn’t bring any. I need to get this eyeliner off too.”
“Sure, sure,” I reply, nodding while pulling out another unsuitable dress.
Mia crosses her arms and stares at us with a very stinky stink‑eye. “I can’t believe you’re making us go to a party! Tonight was supposed to be a night for just us. You’re doing it again. Dumping us the moment Aidan is interested.”
“What?” I say, and twist around holding a yellow sundress. “Where the hell did that come from? I never dumped you. And I’m not dumping you now. You can come too!”
“Oh, and watch you lose all your self‑respect,” Mia replies, “hanging off some guy who doesn’t even acknowledge you? Yay! Fun for me! What a way to spend my Saturday night!”
My mouth couldn’t be more open. “What the hell? Mia!”
“Yeah, come on, Mia,” Alexis says. “That’s not fair.”
Mia turns to Alexis, her eyes darting and angry. “So you think it’s a good idea for Sophia to get back together with Aidan? After what he did?”
Alexis shrugs. “I think it’s a good idea for Sophia to do what she wants to do.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Mia says. “You’re only saying this because you want to go to the stupid party. You’re a bad friend!”
“Are you being serious? Honestly?” Alexis replies, and takes a step forward, squaring up to Mia. “You’re being totally unreasonable, as always.”
“Me?!” Mia shouts. “Unreasonable? You’re the one crying over a dog you didn’t even like.”
I wave my hands in the air to try to stop them. “Guys,” I say. “Come on, GUYS.”
“I DID LIKE CASPER,” Alexis yells. “I LOVED HIM. HOW DARE YOU?”
Mia crosses her arms further, her jaw jutting out. “You hated that dog. You talked about how much you hated him all the time.”
“Guys!” I say.
“Well, you hate everyone and
everything!” screams Alexis. “You’re, like, INCAPABLE of being happy. It’s so boring.”
“GUYS!” I repeat, then step so I’m between them. Mia’s face is all pinched. She turns away and starts shoving all her sleepover stuff back into her rucksack.
“Well, if you’re going to be like that,” Mia says.
“Mia, come on,” I say. “Don’t go.”
I’m feeling too many emotions. I’m so elated about Aidan’s message. It’s as if my heart has sprung loose from its chest and is jittering all around my body with excitement and nerves and joy. But now I’m freaking out about Mia. What is going on with her tonight? Why is she being so mean? She can’t leave! What if she hurts herself? I watch Mia pack and feel a final emotion that I’m almost ashamed to admit … annoyance. Why does she always have to make everything about her? It’s not fair that I can’t enjoy myself without always worrying about her. “Come on, Mia,” I plead. “Let’s not all fight.”
“I’m not fighting. I just don’t want to go to this stupid party.”
Alexis has her arms crossed too and she’s staring sulkily at the Pringles. “If you don’t want to come, then don’t come.”
“Alexis!” I say.
“What?” she replies. “There’s no point dragging Mia there.”
I make mad eyes at Alexis. Has she not realised the danger here? Mia just admitted to us that she self‑harms – we can’t leave her alone after something like that! But Alexis just walks past me to my wardrobe. “Do you have any clothes I can borrow?” she asks me, opening the doors and rummaging inside. “Your black top? Or are you wearing it?”
I ignore her and step towards Mia.
“Come just for an hour, Mia,” I plead. “Please.”
“You don’t need me there anyway,” Mia says. She keeps shaking her head and won’t look at me. “You’ll just jump on Aidan the moment you arrive and we’ll have to watch you guys make out and pretend we don’t think he’s an arsehole.”
“Please come,” I repeat, “and stop calling him an arsehole.”
