Love and Other Wicked Things

Two

The Knight of Wands was passion, movement, progress. He was fire, raw and reckless, filled with the same potential that she felt coursing through her own veins. The unbridled power packed into his frame was enough to make her fingertips tingle. 

Valerie pulled back her hand and pocketed her keys. She paused only once more to grab the flyers from her desk, studying them as she pulled her dorm room door shut. They were made of lilac paper with an illustration of a crystal ball at the top and some text in a whimsical font beneath it: Tarot readings — astrological forecasts — palmistry. Want to know what the future holds for you? Contact this number! 

She had designed them at home before she left in hopes that they would not only help her make some money on the side but also allow her to meet new people here. She didn't expect too much to come from them, but she tacked them to every bulletin board she encountered anyway. 

Self-advertisement completed, she left the building and strolled out onto the campus. Oakriver College was of the smaller variety, offering around four dozen courses with a focus on the arts. Like most of the town, it looked ancient; a handful of ivy-covered stone buildings strewn near the edge of the woods as if some clumsy hand had carelessly dropped them there, connected by narrow paths left in the tall meadow by generations of students. 

Valerie followed the makeshift trails at random, passing the art studios and the main building that housed the cafeteria along the way, until she was spat out at the edge of campus. From there, she wandered into the town.There weren't many people on the streets, which Valerie blamed on the weather. It was a gloomy day with an overcast sky, the cold biting enough to make her bury her hands deep in the pockets of her denim jacket. 

The few people that she did cross paths with tended to stare at her and then quickly avert their gaze when Valerie stared back. Valerie didn't care. From what she'd gathered from the town's website, it was rather liberal—it had to be, since so many of its businesses relied on the college students and their families. Still, it was a given that she would stand out with her bright-red hair, the slit in one of her eyebrows, the heavy combat boots, and the piercings in her ears.

As she drifted aimlessly past the residential houses, she tried to imagine her mother behind their windows, hurrying down the stairs, sitting on the porch. Would she live in that one, with the overgrown garden? Or that one, with the neatly trimmed rosebush? 

There was one house in particular that caught her eye. It looked older than most as ivy climbed its brick façade and green paint chipped from the window shutters. Mismatched flowerpots in bright colors stood in the windowsills, and a cat dozed on the porch while Stevie Nicks's voice drifted onto the street, begging her lover to stay with me, stay. 

However, what gave Valerie pause wasn't the house itself—it was the girl behind one of the windows on the second floor.She was tending to plants on the windowsill, a contented smile on her lips as she watered them. It was hard to tell from the street, but she looked to be a good deal shorter than Valerie, and significantly curvier. She wore a yellow knit sweater that was luminous against her dark-brown skin and a headband in the same color, which allowed only a few curls to bob around her face as she worked. Even from a distance, there was something warm about her, a strange charm that slowed Valerie's steps without her doing. 

She only realized she had stopped in her tracks when the girl turned around, disappearing out of sight. Valerie peered up at her window a few seconds longer before she started walking again.And her father had said nothing good could ever come out of this town. 

As she continued, the music fading in the distance, she found her way right into the heart of the town. The family homes soon made room for little shops and restaurants, each more picturesque than the last. There was a café called Sugar & Spice that Valerie stopped in front of long enough for a blond-haired boy to catch her gaze through the large window. He paused while wiping down the tables to offer her a toothy grin. Valerie returned it with a smile of her own and vowed to pay the café a visit over the next few days. The cakes she could see in the display case looked delectable—even more so when she saw the handwritten sign that proclaimed that all of them were vegan.