Tell Me What You Hate About Me

15: An Unexpected Party

"Jack, you would not believe the day I'm having," I said when Jack arrived at my dorm before his band rehearsal. They didn't have any gigs set up since Trailfest, and that was probably a little my fault.

I didn't mention that to him, though. Out of all my concerns, that one was pretty low on my priority list.

"What happened?" he asked.

I took a seat on my bed. "Well, to start, it's so freaking hot outside, and it's probably not a coincidence that I asked the talisman for warm weather. And then I also asked the talisman to get me out of a presentation with Dominic, and then my professor had a heart attack. And then-"

Jack interrupted me. "Wait, what? Is he okay?"

I nodded. "He's gonna be fine probably. And then I might have accidentally on purpose told Dominic about the talisman, and now we have to meet with Dr. Reed tomorrow."

Jack didn't respond right away.

I broke the silence with a laugh. "I mean, how crazy is that? That has to be some kind of record for most magical mishaps in one hour."

"Lindsay, we have to figure something out fast before anyone else gets hurt. I'm not sure the talisman is in the world's most stable hands," he said.

"Definitely not, but don't bite the hand that digs you out of the ground and shines you up until you glitter in the sunlight. It's a common idiom."

"Very good point. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to reason with a talisman."

I bit my cheek. Not with that attitude, it wasn't.

"We need to find a way for you to get whatever this magic is under control. And until then, you shouldn't carry it with you when you're going to class or skipping or whatever. We can't risk anything else bad happening," Jack said.

I nodded. "You're right, but what am I supposed to do until we discover how to control it?"

"Practice, I guess."

Practice? I scrunched my nose. I would rather just deal with the unwanted consequences of the things I wished for.

"Don't make that face. I know you've never had to work for anything in your life, so why not start with something you actually care about?" Jack said.

Sometimes I worked hard, like trying to keep the talisman a secret, and it sure as hell wasn't paying off.

"But anyway, I found this cool piece of petrified wood a couple of days ago, and I think it would look good on the window sill," Jack said.

"Is that your way of trying to cheer me up?" I asked.

He nodded. "Is it working?"

I smiled. How couldn't I? "Of course it is. As long as it's not cursed too, I-"

Before I could finish my sentence, Sierra walked into the room. I wasn't sure how much she heard, but if it was only about the petrified wood, we were probably going to be okay.

"So it's true, then. I'm not crazy," Sierra said.

Apparently, she heard a lot.

I didn't have the chance to bring up one more concern of mine with Jack before she jumped onto her bed and gave me a smile. "I knew I wasn't crazy. I knew something was up with the coin."

"Talisman. We're calling it a talisman now," I said. "And how much did you hear?"

"Oh, I was eavesdropping as soon as you started talking about how bad your day was. I thought you were just being dramatic, but giving your professor a heart attack really is a tough way to spend a class."