Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 143(@300wpm)
Shaking her head, she looked up at me. “You do things without even noticing you do them.”
Frowning, I asked, “What kinds of things?”
Looking up from the journal, she said, “Answer questions before they are even asked.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “I do not.”
“Yes, you do. I can’t tell you how many times you’ve done it with me, your parents, other people… At first, I thought it was just a coincidence. Then it kept happening, and one time, I was thinking of asking you if I could wear that royal blue dress of yours, and you just said, ‘Of course, you can wear it.’”
Shaking my head, I replied, “You asked me if you could wear it.”
“No, I asked in my head, and you answered.”
I blinked a few times at her before I folded my arms over my chest. “You probably didn’t realize you asked it out loud.”
She rolled her eyes and looked back down at the journal. “Today is another example. You said you felt Lucas at the shop before you even saw him. What about the time I cut my hand, and I couldn’t get to the phone, and you showed up at my place right before I passed out? I asked what you were doing there, and you said you had a feeling something bad had happened.”
I chewed on my thumbnail. It was true. I had a weird intuition on some things. All I could do was shrug.
Kristin shook her head and kept reading until finally coming to a stop and turning the book so I could see it.
“I think this is the spell we wrote to make Johnny Harris like me. Remember?”
I laughed. “We were, like, twelve.”
“Come on, let’s just try it. If you truly don’t believe in it, then no harm. All you want is for Lucas to just show you a bit of interest. Then you can do it from there. I do suggest you wear some shirts that show a bit more cleavage.”
Shaking my head, I stood. “No.”
“Oh, come on, Hollie! Why not?”
Turning to face her, I pointed to the book. “For one, most of those are made-up spells written by two twelve-year-old girls. Second, I’m not a witch. And if my memory serves me, I think we copied that spell from one of Lucy’s books.”
“Then let’s ask Sarah to cast a spell.”
“No! Besides, you cannot alter someone’s free will. I know that much.”
“You’re not. It’s a simple spell to get him to notice you.” She looked down at the spell. “You know what? We did copy some of these out of that black spell book your aunt told you not to ever touch.”
Sighing, I headed into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of wine. “All the more reason I’m not doing it, Kristin.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and asked, “Are you afraid?”
I stopped and slowly turned to face her. “Excuse me?”
She gasped. “You are. You’re totally afraid it will work. You’re afraid that Lucas will notice you.”
Narrowing my eyes at her, I clenched my jaw tightly as I slowly replied, “I am not afraid. I am, however, not going to put a spell on a guy to like me if he can’t like me on his own. I want to know that the feelings between us are true.”
“So, you do believe in witchcraft!”
With a frustrated growl, I started toward the kitchen.
“That’s it, isn’t it? All those years you were teased for your family’s witchcraft history has made you afraid to admit that you just might have the gift.”
Turning to face my best friend, I drew in a slow breath and then lied, “I’m not afraid.”
With one of her perfectly arched brows raised, she said, “Prove it.”
Three hours later
Three bottles of wine and two shots of tequila between the two of us later, I found myself sitting in the middle of my living room, faux spell book in hand with an altar set up on the floor.
Kristin sat down next to me. “Okay, we’ve got his picture. Put it in the middle.”
I placed a picture of Lucas in the middle of the salt circle I’d made on the floor. We had cut the picture out of my yearbook, which I would regret in the morning when I was sober.
“I think we have to use a certain color candle,” I said, impressed that I wasn’t slurring and that I could somewhat remember how all this worked.
Kristin held up two candles. “All you have is red and black.”
Tapping my finger on my chin, I pointed to the black one. “That one.”
Frowning, Kristin said, “I think we should use red.”
“No!” I shouted. “Red is for passion. Love! Desire. I just want him to notice me, not fall in love with me.”
“But you said you can’t alter free will.”
I shrugged and hiccupped before I said, “Better to play it safe.”