Embers & Spells

2 – Do-Over

Strange.

That was the mood of the first day of September. It was strange not to see Erin and heard her pitchy tone to force breakfast on me. It was strange to wake up all alone in her house, the halls dark, empty and sad. Just like me.

I flicked my hand, parting the curtains drawn on the large glass windows, letting the sunshine through. I grabbed my bag, hurriedly put in my high-cut Converse and ran out the door. As soon as I walked toward the street, a black butterfly caught my attention. It fluttered here and there, as if intentionally wanting to be noticed.

I had never seen a black butterfly in this neighborhood before. Was it an omen? Some sort of a sign I should be aware of? Or was I making things up? I shook my head, pushing the idea out of my already chaotic mind.

Morning classes were a blur. I could not get anything in my head. My reality was starting to slip away, my mind kept on getting back on the underworld. With my soul trapped there, I felt like a hollow, as if a massive black hole swallowed me in.

“Hi, Tana.”

I knew that voice. I had been hearing it a few times more than I wanted to. Agatha Montes. Even in the far corner of the school’s cafeteria, she still managed to find me.

I turned to her, a small smile on my lips.

“Do you want me to go with you on iShop mall later after school?” she asked, batting her long eyelashes at me and placed her tray of food on the table.

“Why would I want to go at iShop?” I answered with a question.

Agatha shrugged her shoulder. “Dunno. Maybe we’ll have to have your phone repaired or something? ‘Cause you never seemed to return my messages or calls.”

My eyes narrowed at her. “Are you on something? Drugs or whatever? Why do you suddenly want to be my friend?”

“I just want to. Does that matter?”

I took a bite at my chicken burger, barely glancing at the loud giggles from the center of the cafeteria. “It does to me. We are from different ends of the spectrum, Agatha.”

“Then we meet in the middle,” she replied nonchalantly.

“You should go now before you embarrass yourself,” I said, my tone hard.

She looked at me. “Not all people will help me the way you helped me, Tana. Certainly not my friends.” She shook her head. “I know I’m mean. And a mess, maybe. But I’m more than that. How I wish I could have a do-over with everything that I did in the past. But I can’t. I just have to move forward and get my 2019 right. I just need a friend right now. And quite frankly, you need one, too.”

I felt my chest heaved for a moment.

A do-over. If I could, I wouldn’t have used my power and scared the guy harassing her that he almost died. Then I wouldn’t have to endanger Erin. I wouldn’t have to get my hands dirty by killing a beast under the devil’s deal. My soul would have been still intact.

Erin’s green striking eyes popped in my head, as if giving me a stern look. Bygones were something I shouldn’t dwell with too much. What happened already happened. Agatha was right. Moving forward was what we both needed.

“You’re not really mean,” I commented after a while. “You’re more annoying.”

Agatha smiled, flipping her perfectly curly brown hair over her shoulder.

“My phone’s not broken,” I said, glancing at her. “I just don’t know how to respond to you. Besides, I can’t get to type anything without your name popping up in the screen, calling every 5 seconds.”

She chuckled, biting her lips. “Oh, girls can be clingy. You’ll get used to me, for sure.” She waved her hand dismissively. “So, why here? Why sit here in this almost hidden part of the cafeteria?”

I shrugged my shoulder, brushing my long hair back. I loved this spot. “Uh, to avoid bullies?”

She laughed, drawing attention from the other students near us. “Yeah, I guess so. I like it here. Kinda like a blind spot.”

Looking around, the boys already had their eyes glued to our table.

“Not a blind spot anymore, Agatha. You just made my spot seen by the male population.”

She looked around, her eyes scanning the whole café. She then leaned forward at me, pointing to someone. “Not that guy, though.”

Following the trail to where she was pointing at, I saw the Math Wiz- Arawn Rhys, with his usual bucket hat and black shirt. He was sitting at the far corner of the room, to another blind spot.

“Well, he is not interested in anything but Math,” I muttered. My eyes caught the attention of the now loud giggling girls, as they entertained a guy unfamiliar to me. And the guy was now looking in our direction. “But he might.”

Agatha turned around, instantly spotting the new guy. She smiled confidently, raising an eyebrow. “He’s cute, huh?”

I did not bother to look at him again.

“His name’s Inigo Remora, the school’s new guy.” She took a bite on her macaroni salad, her voice dropped low. “I heard he’s connected to the school’s founder. And he’s here to spend time with his ill grandmother.”

I bit back my smile. “You surprisingly knew a lot about him already.”

Agatha scrunched her nose. “Well, the bees hovering him obviously chatter too much,” she mumbled, c*****g her head toward the giggling girls.

I peeked at the new guy again. He had a shy smile, but he looked relaxed, as if he knew how to handle the girls. Like Agatha, he was confident at his looks. He then met my eyes and it was too late to look away now without him thinking I was ogling too.

“I should go now,” I said.

“We should go now,” Agatha muttered, rephrasing my words.

I stood up, grabbing my bag. “I have Physics after lunch. What’s your next class?”

She smiled at me. “Same. We have the same classes, Tana.”

“For real?”

“Yup.” She grinned like a kid but stood up from her seat like model. “You’re stuck with me.”

In a short amount of time, I had seen sides of her that I didn’t know before. Maybe being friends with Agatha might not be a bad thing. Maybe I needed her to distract myself, to help me with my sanity.