Magic's Mark

Chapter 19

I was about to argue back but he continued, "Don't start complaining about distractions. If you want to do it, you can."

"I find it so hard. It's so easy to get wrapped up in everything else that's going on." Like magic, like Lucas, like Brownlow, like Josh. I felt an iceyness form in my stomach.

"Find a way to get rid of your distractions," James countered.

I stared out into the air for a moment, trying to wrap my head around his advice.

"Hey," he nudged my arm, bringing my focus back to him, "I have to go back and force those two fools to rehearse now. But email me and we'll set up a shoot."

"Sure," I agreed and gave him a quick hug.

His words rung in my ears as I walked down the street. Find a way to get rid of your distractions. I flipped open my phone and spotted a text from Tanya, checking if I wanted to go for lunch. I quickly typed out "Sure. On my way." And pressed send. How was I going to get rid of my distractions? I turned the corner and headed towards the Royal Star.

I ran across the busy street, in the narrow space between two slow moving cars. Start with the none-magical one. Just give Josh his things back and talk to him. Eliminate any reason for him to be so hostile to you. As the thought entered my mind it seemed to make sense. I settled on starting with the distraction that didn't have magical powers. I smiled to myself, I never thought I would see the day when Josh was the least complicated thing to handle.

"What are you smiling about?" Tanya shouted at me.

I ran the few steps up to her and gave her a hug, "Nothing."

"Sure, nothing," she raised and eyebrow and linked her arm in mine.

I sipped my coffee and looked out of the roof terrace. Tanya was reapplying her lipstick.

"You'll just end up getting it on your coffee cup," I teased.

She rolled her eyes and demonstratively took a sip for her cup.

"So how's things with you and Taylor?" she wiggled her eyebrows.

"You know we're just friends," I replied.

"That's what he keeps telling me too," she admitted.

"But the two of you hang out awfully a lot for friends," she smiled, her eyes trying to pinpoint if there way anything in my facial expression confirming her statement.

"He's a nice guy, but it's not like that," I admitted. It was the closest I could come to the truth without revealing anything that could put her at risk.

Her face told me she was gearing up to try to coax more information out of me, under normal circumstances if it was just a guy I liked I would have gone along with it. But she knew me too well and I didn't want to tell her anything about the magical world. Of course she wouldn't believe me but I wasn't willing to place her in danger. My shoulders shuddered as the memory of what had played out in the magical court when they assumed I was human.

"I think I might call Josh," I blurted out. Not my most well thought of strategy of distraction.

"Josh?" Her wide-eyed expression was telling me she had not seen that one coming.

"I found some of his things in the flat the other day," I admit.

"Why don't you just post it to him? It's not worth it. He'll just make you upset again."

"We've been broken up for ages and I keep bumping into him. I think it would just be better if I saw him and had a rational conversation about it."