The Trouble with Spells

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

    I forced myself to stay away from Vance for one evening so I could have a girl's night out with Shelly. I noticed she was beginning to feel sorely neglected. It wasn't like I could break out and tell her all the things happening in my life. She wouldn't even come close to understanding. I wanted to tell her, though. I missed having her as a confidant. It was hard keeping secrets from her.

    Even now, Vance was out there, lurking somewhere on the grounds of The Fountains at Fontane. I couldn't stand to be too physically separated from him still. It was hard enough to drag my thoughts away from him, let alone my body.

    I plopped in the middle of Shelly's four-poster, queen-sized bed, crossing my legs underneath me so I could look at pictures of her and Brad from their homecoming date. Shelly had been upset with me when Vance and I had declined to go on the group date to the dance. Actually, the two of us avoided homecoming completely. They'd held it during the early days of our binding spell, and there was no way we could've attended the party without drawing attention to ourselves. We probably would have clawed the clothes right off each other in front of everyone.

    Of course, there was no way to explain this to Shelly. She took it as a personal insult since she'd been in charge of the decorations for the event. And, to make things worse, in the weeks following, I'd only seen her at school and ditched her at every available opportunity to be with Vance. I had a lot of making up to do.

    I turned my full attention to Shelly as she explained each picture in a tired, sort of dejected tone.

    "It would've been way more fun if you'd actually been there," she said with a sigh, casting me a sideways glance. She gathered the photos and went to place them on her dresser.

    "I don't know how else to apologize," I said softly. "I'm sorry I wasn't feeling well."

    That at least was the truth. I just couldn't tell her I'd been going crazy with desire.

    "I know," Shelly replied. "I'm trying to be understanding and adjust my way of thinking. I had all these ideas of how we were going to spend this year together, and then Vance came along, and well . . ."

    I intensely studied my fingernails, not knowing what to say.

    "You really like him a lot, don't you?"

    "No, I don't like him a lot," I said with a short laugh, looking her straight in the eyes. "I'm in love with him. I can't imagine my life without him."

    Shelly paused for second, then laughed and waved her hand to the side.

    "You don't really mean that. Girls our age always think they're in love with someone. Then a week later they're mooning over someone else."

    "That may be," I replied, feeling a bit hurt by her dismissal of my feelings. "But it isn't true in my case."

    She looked at me with skepticism.

    "I love him to the center of my being. No, he is the center of my being." I let my stare bore into hers, even adding a little magical push to it for emphasis.

    Shelly shrank back, as if nervous from the intensity of it.

    "Oh, sorry." She turned away from me. "You know, I don't really feel up to the movie tonight after all. I kind of feel like I have a headache coming on. Besides, Angie Wilhelm told me it was dumb."

    I nodded in complete understanding. I didn't need to remind her she'd been looking forward to seeing this movie for weeks, and nothing Angie said to her would've stopped her from going. She was trying to get rid of me politely.