Now, I was able to see details about the oh-so-famous magician. He had wispy and seemingly spiky blonde hair which was sticking out in different directions. It gave him the tousled ‘I just got out of bed’ look. The hairstyle definitely worked for him; he didn’t look greasy, grubby, or un-hygienic. In fact, he looked well-kempt. He towered a couple inches over me, and when I looked up, his dark cobalt blue eyes were narrowed down into a glare.
“Done gawking?” He questioned.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” I quipped, my face heating up plenty of degrees.
“Whatever. Get out,” he snapped.
“I um – I can’t. It’s locked, as I just said…” I said, pushing the door as proof that it wouldn’t open.
“How did you even get in here? What, do you want an autograph? Snap some pictures? Go ahead. Should’ve guessed. Do it and get the hell out of my face,” He crossed his arms.
“Look, I don’t know you, but you’re putting me in a really bad mood. You need to relax a little and then we can talk rationally,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“You’re being a brat. Stop it,” I said, narrowing my eyes down into slits at him.
“And what makes you think I’ll listen to you?” He demanded.
“Hmm, good question. Do you ever listen to anybody at all?” I asked.
He froze for a minute and then muttered something unintelligible. “What did you say?” I asked.
“I said no. I do not listen or answer to anybody, nor do I have to-”
“William Alex Larkin, get your ass over here this instant!” A woman’s voice boomed, sounding beyond livid. Yet again, I cringed at her language.
“Oh no – the full name. Somebody’s in trouble…” I teased in a sing-song voice.
“Come with me. If you’re there too, she won’t yell as much,” he said, grabbing my arm. A small gasp escaped my mouth when his skin came in contact with mine. His hands were smooth as marble, but freezing cold. Where we touched, my skin rippled with tiny goose bumps. He was like ice. At the same time, it was like magnetism. I didn’t want him to remove his hand.
A surprised expression flitted on his face, but the second I identified it, it disappeared. The cold contact disappeared as well, and when I looked down at his hands black gloves covered them.
“Where’d the gloves come from?” I asked. I swear, they had just appeared out of thin air.
“My pocket,” he snapped. I blushed slightly, feeling a little stupid for asking such a dumb question.
“William? Where are you? Why is there broken glass everywhere? Where’d Jasmine go? I swear when I see you I’ll strangle you with my bare hands!” The angry woman shouted.
William sent me a pleading look. Sighing, I trailed behind him into the other room where the burly woman stood, red faced.
“William! What is this? What did you do now?” The woman put her hands on her face, slowly rubbing her temples. Once seeing me, she took a deep breath.
“Jasmine quit,” William said simply.
“Jasmine what?” The woman’s face, if possible, turned an angrier shade of red.
“You heard me,” said William, his face completely expressionless.
“You need an assistant. What did you do to her? I swear William, you’ll be the death of me!” The woman shouted, infuriated.
“I can do a one man show. I do anyways. She’s just there to look pretty. And she got mad because I apparently don’t respect her. Oh, and I’m a ‘pretentious bastard’,” William said, plopping himself down in a chair.
“Well sometimes you do act like one–“the woman started, but was interrupted by William.
“Shut up.”
“Hey!” I finally decided to intervene. “Don’t talk to her like that.” The woman’s head perked up at my words, finally taking an interest in me.
“Excuse me?” William said, looking at me disbelievingly.
“You heard me. Say sorry. To me, it seems that she’s only trying to help. I bet you don’t even know the meaning of respect,” I ordered him, immediately coming to the woman’s defense. That’s what he got for bringing me into this!
William snapped his mouth shut, entirely disregarding what I said. The woman stared at me, seemingly in a state of shock. “Do it. Now,” I almost growled, growing irritated. “You’re acting like a child.”
He muttered something under his breath. “Sorry, I can’t hear you,” I said, cupping a hand around my ear.
“I said ‘Sorry, Ruth’. Happy?” He almost yelled, and then looked shocked. What was the big deal with saying ‘sorry’?
The woman that I assumed was Ruth gaped at me, opening and closing her mouth like a fish. “It’s quite alright, William,” she finally managed to stutter out. She looked at me like I was a superhero. What was wrong with them?
“Who’s this, William?” Ruth asked, examining me head to toe. Admittedly, I was feeling a little self-conscious.
“Some fan that snuck in,” he muttered, avoiding eye contact with me.
“Actually, no, I’m not. The bouncer let me in here so I could go to the bathroom. Not everybody is after you, you know,” I said, crossing my arms. He was so full of himself!
“William, why don’t you load up the truck? I’ll meet you there in a second,” Ruth said, gesturing for him to leave the room.
He grumbled a response and swung up from his position in the chair. Once he left the room, Ruth turned to me with a grin.
“William has never listened to an order in his life. His usual catch phrase is ‘shove it’. Sometimes he’ll throw in the f-bomb. How on earth did you do it?” Ruth said, shaking her head.
“I – uh, I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I just – maybe I’m just that type of person. People tend to listen to me.”
“Well, whatever it is, I like it. As you might have picked up on, William needs a new assistant, are you interested?”
“What? No, of course not! He doesn’t seem like the type of person I’d like to work with…” I declined, hoping not to upset her. Ruth’s expression fell a little, but then brightened.
“I’ll pay you. More than I paid Jasmine. You’ll be perfect. You’re responsible and you don’t take crap from people. He actually listened to you…I still can’t believe it,” Ruth looked at me hopefully.
“I don’t think that I’m really a good choice for this. Maybe someone else that’s –“ I said hesitantly, but was interrupted.
“One hundred dollars a show? Fifty for rehearsal?” Ruth offered quickly, raising her eyebrows.
After she said that, I literally choked on my own spit. Embarrassing and unfortunate, I know. “You’d give me that much money even though I’m not experienced? I’m really not a performer…and I’m extremely shy...”
“If you keep your job for the rest of the year and keep William in line, I’d be willing to pay you with diamonds,” she laughed.
She made it sound like I was a babysitter. Maybe I was.
“What’s the catch?” I asked, eyeing her skeptically.
“William gets in a lot of trouble,” she said, scratching the back of her head awkwardly. “You know, hanging out with the wrong people. Comes home drunk a lot. Please, it would mean so much if you took this job. Just try and keep him out of trouble. Don’t tell him though. To him, you’ll just be his assistant. But we’ll arrange things so that you come along with him places.”
Did I really want to get mixed up with his bad habits? I knew that I wasn’t easily influenced, but still. Did I want to surround myself with trouble? And was it really a smart decision to risk a mental breakdown from working with him? At the same time, did I want that money?
After a moment of thinking it over, I slowly started smiling. I needed and wanted that money. “I think you’ve got yourself a deal,” I said slowly. I stuck out my hand and she shook it.
“Here’s my card,” Ruth said, pulling a thick piece of paper out of her back pocket. “It has my number on it. Call me tomorrow for details. We have a lot to cover.”
Taking the card from her, I nodded. “Alright.”
Ruth let out a long breath of air, delighted. “You’re pretty too. You’ll do great on stage,” she said.
“I hope so,” I muttered.
A few seconds later, Will walked back into the building. A gust of nighttime air blew my hair backwards, and I slightly closed my eyes with the relaxing feel.
“What do you look so happy about?” William asked suspiciously, glaring at Ruth’s large smile, which quickly vanished.
“Meet your new assistant, William,” Ruth said, trying to stop a smug expression from flitting across her face. She swept her hands in a dramatic motion, pointing towards me.
“Hi, there,” I said, smiling, while I raised a hand in a little wave.
William just stood there with an agape mouth, looking a bit like a fish. After a few seconds of acting like a complete idiot, he walked out of the room with a stone-hard glare on his face. He didn’t say one single word. Maybe I would enjoy this.
Abruptly snapping me out of my reverie, a figure appeared next to me. My startled expression quickly transformed into an ‘oh-no-I-forgot-about-Jess-on-the-dance-floor’ one. James gave me a jokingly disapproving glance, shunning me for forgetting all about them out there.
Ruth looked at me questioningly, obviously wondering why the heck I was staring at what she thought was thin air. “Hey, sorry but I have to get back to my friend out on the dance floor. I’ll definitely give you a call tomorrow, though,” I said, making my way over to the door where I was locked out. “Nice meeting you!” I shouted over my shoulder.
Once Ruth seemed to be out of earshot and around the corner, I turned towards James. “The door is locked. Can you unlock the door or something from the other side?” I asked quietly, hoping that nobody was nearby to overhear. It would be awkward to explain what I was doing talking to nothing. Sometimes it was inconvenient to have a ghost as a best friend.
“I have a better idea,” James replied, winking. He grabbed both of my hands, causing a little bit of a chill to envelop me. It was like a thick breeze was surrounding my skin. I could see his hands perfectly, but it didn’t feel like skin when he touched me.
“What are you –“
We disappeared.
For about four seconds, I felt like I was sucked into black nothingness; my body completely numb. The air was temporarily sucked out of my lungs. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, and couldn’t react in any way. I was paralyzed.
After those agonizing seconds, both James and I appeared on the other side of the door. I stood rooted to my spot, trying to gather coherent thoughts. “What did you just do?” I asked, almost breathless.
“Impressed?” James inquired, looking a little giddy. At the same time, he looked weary.
“Again: what did you do?”
“Well, I’m a ghost. I appear out of nowhere, as you’ve witnessed plenty of times. Let’s just say I added you to the journey…” he informed me, a smile slowly spreading on his face.
“Yeah? Well…next time I’ll do it the old fashioned way. Walking,” I quipped, taking a deep breath. That was definitely something I didn’t want to relive.
“Why? What happened? That was the first time I ever did that. Are you alright? Did you get hurt? Ugh, I’m so sorry!” A frown replaced his trademark smile. “I’ve been trying to learn how to do that recently and I wasn’t sure how it would work out-“
“James it’s okay. Just…it wasn’t pleasurable,” I laughed quietly, trying to lessen his unease. From his expression, I could tell it wasn’t working. “Honestly, don’t worry about it. I’m fine, see?” I lifted my arms up and twirled a little, trying to somehow prove my point.
“Okay…” he said, still looking conflicted, “I won’t do that again. It was stupid. I guess I was just showing off,” he scratched the back of his head, looking a little shameful. “I’m so sorry.”
Gently, I put my finger to his lips and silenced him. They felt so strange to me; like I was touching extremely thickened air. “James. Calm down. Breathe.”
“I can’t,” he replied, a smile tugging on the corner of one of his lips
“Ha ha, Casper,” I laughed sarcastically. I would occasionally call James ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost’ after the movie. “I need to get back to Jess before she ends up lost or kidnapped.”
“Hey, what are you doing over here, Rach? Who are you talking to?” Jess stumbled over her words and over to me.
Speak of the devil.
All of a sudden, Jess burst out into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. I looked down to see her holding a red cup. Somehow, she got her hands on alcohol. I knew for a fact that wasn’t the water she had earlier. ‘Looks like I’m going to have to be the responsible one. Again. Like always.’ I thought, sighing.