His Second Chance

02 | his scent

My knees crumbled, and I less than gracefully rolled off the side of the bar. The faded, plush carpet absorbed my fall, and I looked at the popcorned ceilings.

Nothing.

Thankfully, my dramatic entrance had not riled Olivia's parents. They should have been fast asleep, but with Olivia's parents, it was always good to keep your ears peeled.

The room we congregated in was a small entertainment space, fitted with a bar, couch, and TV. The dull overhead lights mixed with the off-white wallpaper cast an unpleasant yellow hue around the room.

"It's an instinct."

"Yeah, a gross one," Olivia bent down and helped me to my feet. "Anyway, excuse Spencer—as always. Sorry about the window, Vi. At least Spencer cleared away all the spider webs when he tumbled through and nearly broke my mom's decorations."

"That was not my fault!" Spencer's frosty blue eyes bulged as he wailed his arms from side to side. "You could have moved them for fucks sake, Liv."

"I forgot," she shrugged her shoulders while I tipped my head back in laughter. "Plus, I swear my mom would notice if I moved them. She's attuned to vibrations and—okay, I'm not exactly sure what she's attuned to—but she'd know, and I'm sure as hell both of you would not like to deal with my mom."

Spencer stood up straight and shook his head. "Not even on a good day."

Olivia's parents were, for lack of a better term, eccentric. They marched to the beat of their own drum. Yet, they tended to lack the self-awareness of just how out of sync with the rest of the world they were.

Olivia chalked it up to her mom being part witch, but Spencer said Olivia's mom had a few screws loose regardless of the state of her DNA.

"I'd like to see Spencer try and put up a fight against her," I smirked.

"She's old," Spencer retorted. "She'd stand no chance."

"She'd burn you to a crisp," Olivia said.

"Wait," Spencer paused. "Not literally, right? Olivia, tell me she can't really do that? Olivia!" Spencer sighed. "I told you guys we should have done this at my house."

"You don't have the supplies," Olivia scoffed before muttering, "Dumbass."

"You could have brought them."

Olivia blinked. "I'm not a mail delivery service, Spencer."

Spencer's head bounced backward, his eyes slanted. "When did I say you were?"

"It was implied." Olivia turned toward me. "Wasn't it implied, Violet?"

Twisting my lips, I said, "It was kind of implied."

Spencer's mouth hung open before he jammed it shut. He reopened his mouth to say, "Is this really how we're going to spend the night before placements?"

"Do we normally spend it any other way?" I asked.

"I thought I was being quite tame," Olivia flicked her hair over her shoulder.

Spencer exhaled through his nostrils. "For fucks sake."

"Please," Olivia held out a hand in warning, a devious smile appearing on her plump lips. "Have some respect."

"Olivia."

"We're about to conduct a ritual," Olivia made sure to speak slowly. "We need a calm and inviting space, and I feel like you're not respecting that."

"I am calm," Spencer crossed his arms over his chest.

"You are so not calm," I scrutinized.

"Not you, too." Spencer hung his head. "I stand no chance when you two team up against me."