At the entrance gate we hailed a cab. We sat in the back and chatted with the driver about the game. Cody held my hand in the dark. When we got to his place one of his roommates was in the kitchen. The house was a shared by a bunch of different guys, and the living room had slightly too much furniture in it. Like they had all moved in with a few pieces, and no one had wanted to throw anything away. The house was also painted haphazardly with colors stopping and starting mid-room. The dining room was empty except for a bunch of expensive looking bicycles, and the kitchen was a pink color usually reserved for the walls of little girl’s bedrooms. There were chores listed on a white board with names next to them. Cody was supposed to clean the bathrooms. I wondered if he ever did.

The roommate asked about the game, and we stood there making small talk while Cody grabbed some chips and beer. Cody told the roommate we were going up to his room to listen to records, and I felt slightly embarrassed that the roommate knew we were going up there to hook up. Maybe he didn’t. More than likely he didn’t care. I wondered if his roommates knew Cody liked to pick up women on Cinder to experiment on them sexually. Probably. Or they didn’t know he was a wizard. It was one or the other, I figured.

Cody didn’t have any chairs in his room. Just a couple of old band posters, two bookshelves that were too big for the space, one of which was mostly records and the record player, a mismatched dresser, and his bed was covered in a pilled blue comforter. There were a few socks lying around. It was clearly lived in and smelled faintly of incense. Nothing about it screamed sexual wizard. I found myself wondering if maybe Cory was younger than I thought.

I perched on the edge of his bed. Based on how uncomfortable it was I figured it was probably a futon. He flipped through his records while I watched him. He selected one, pulled it out, and placed it on the turntable. When the sounds of seventies folk music filled the air, he sat next to me, handing me an open beer and bag of chips.

“So, hey,” he said acknowledging the awkwardness.

“Hey, yourself. Come here often?”

“Yeah. Every night pretty much. How about you?” he asked playing along with my teasing.

“You’ll be surprised to learn this is my first time.”

“You’re good. Are you going to start punning again?”

Smiling and raising my eyebrows, I told him, “Puns? You can’t handle my puns.”

“I like big puns, and I cannot lie,” he started to rap.

“You’re too much,” I told him and laughed. I laid back on his uncomfortable bed and was pleased to notice the room wasn’t spinning. I’d sobered up on the ride over. Cody lay down next to me.

“Want to see something corny cool?” he asked.

“Sure,” I told him. He reached over and turned off the lights. The ceiling was entirely decorated in little glow in the dark stars like kids have in their rooms. “That is corny, but still pretty cool.”

He rolled over and kissed me. It was a good kiss. When we broke apart, I put down my beer and went in for another one. I threw my leg over him pulling him closer.

“Can I use some magic on you? No O spells or anything. Just a couple of sensory enhancers,” he asked, as he rubbed a little circle in the small of my back.

“Is it addictive?”

“No. I wouldn’t do anything like that. I promise.”

Of course, he already had, but the O spell earlier hadn’t felt addictive. After a few moments of listening to him chant in the dark, I started to feel something. His hands on my back abruptly became warmer, and his touch sent sparks under my skin. He rubbed his hands up and down my bare back, and I wriggled until I was entirely on top of him.

“Oh, that’s good. I don’t know what that is, but that’s real good,” I whispered as I pushed my pelvis against him. Everywhere our bodies touched was sensitized, I was hyper-aware of where our bodies touched, and even his thigh against mine was stimulating enough that I almost orgasmed. Kissing made every nerve ending on my tongue delight in the touch of his mouth to mine. Each touch of lips, of tongue, of skin to skin made me moan with sensation.

“Yeah, baby, you like that?” he asked.

“I do, I do. You’re a magic man,” I whispered in his ear, nipping at his lobe. For the first time, it seemed like touching his ear was as erotic for me as it was for him, which gave me an idea. I slide down lower and lower until I was kneeling between his knees on the floor.

“Hey, um, what are you doing down there?” he asked and tugged at my shoulders.

“I thought since everything I do to you feels amazing, I’d try going down on you to see if it felt as good for me as it does for you,” I explained, reaching for his zipper. The street lights were bright enough I could see him pretty well even with the lamp off. It was never really dark in the city, which was why the only stars I ever saw were the sticker ones above me now.

“That’s really nice of you,” he said and kept trying to pull me up. “You really don’t have to.”

“I want to. I think it’ll be fun and sexy.” I stopped trying to unzip his pants. I wasn’t sure if he had like some weird trauma issue I was wandering into. I didn’t want to freak him out too much.

He paused for a moment. I waited for him to explain and thought about getting back on the bed. He sighed and sat up. “It won’t work.”

“What won’t work?” Maybe the spell didn’t work on actual sex organs, or maybe the feedback from an erogenous zone would be too intense.

“My dick. The blow job. Whatever. Nothing’s going to happen. Don’t waste your time.”

It was just a little too dark for me to make out his exact expression, but he sounded embarrassed. “Oh, okay.” I thought for a moment. “Is that like a sex wizard thing or something?”

He patted the bed next to him, motioning me to come up and next to him, saying, “No, not really. The magic isn’t why it doesn’t work, but it is probably why I got interested in sex magic. Come up and let me get you off. Not with spells or anything. I just want to feel you climax in my arms.”

“Are you sure? Maybe you just haven’t had a good one yet?” Not that I thought I was hot shit at blow jobs, but I hadn’t had any complaints yet.

“No, seriously. I can’t even get myself off. It just doesn’t work.”

The feeling of sparks and heat between our bodies, too intense and somehow pitiful, were no longer erotic. “Have you been to see a doctor?” I asked. “You’re too young to have this kind of problem. It could be a sign of something serious.” Even in the dark, I could sense his tension through the feedback of the spell.

“Yeah, I have, not that’s it any of your business.” His voice sounded cold.

“Sorry. You’re right, it isn’t. I was just...” I paused losing my train of thought. “...could you turn the sensation spell off or whatever it is? It’s too much right now.”

“That’s how it is, huh?”

He passed his hand over my head, and my skin returned to normal. It was a relief.

“How what is? The spell was just too intense if we weren’t fooling around,” I explained to him, but the moment had passed. Things were rapidly turning cold and awkward. I could feel the edges of a hangover creeping into my brain.

“You don’t want me now that you know my shit doesn’t work. It was all fun and games when I could make you come your socks off in the stadium, but now in the bed when I can't get hard you don’t want me,” he said, and he sounded bitter.

“No, I do. We can still fool around. I just wasn’t expecting it, is all. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need your pity.”

I tried to explain. “It’s not pity! I’m saying I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.”

Corey told me, “You didn’t hurt my feelings. This has nothing to do with you.” Moving away from me, he sat on the bed with his arms and legs crossed.

“What the fuck? Look, I realize you got some hang ups about this, but you’re way over reacting. I thought we were having a really nice time? Weren’t you enjoying yourself? I’m not even talking about the whole orgasm spell thing. I’m talking about the sitting together talking and drinking beer. I liked that. Didn’t you?”

I was still kneeling on the floor with my hands folded in my lap, and it was oddly humbling. I felt like I was begging. Somehow it didn’t seem humiliating. Whatever had passed between us at the game had been real. I was sure of it.

“Maybe it was, but maybe it wasn’t? How would I know. You say you’re not addicted to magic and O spells, but maybe you are. You let a vampire bite you. Who knows what you're up to,” he said accusingly.

The glow in the dark stars on the ceiling were fading. Their pale green glow no longer looked cheerful and nostalgic, but rather artificial and sickly. “I’m not lying to you. I’d never done anything like that before, and I’m still not sure I would want to again.” I stood up, no longer feeling sexy to be on the floor. It felt powerless as if I was about to be taken advantage of.

“Like I said. You admit to hooking up with a vamp. Who knows what else you’ve done. Hell, for all I know you’ve fucked a dog,” he said using an offensive word for werewolves. “You’re just sexually slumming on the magic side of the tracks. If you’re not addicted to a vamps bite or O spells yet, you will be by the end of the year. You think it’s cute. You think it’s—I don’t know—daring, but it’s a sad, dangerous game. One you won’t win. You can’t. You’re not one of us. You’re prey.”

“Fuck you, too.” I looked for my coat, found it, and opened the door to the hallway. Cory didn’t say anything to me. I didn’t tell him goodbye. I just left, almost in tears of anger. I hated that strong, blinding emotion that my body seemed only able to cope with by weeping. When I shook with rage my eyes would tingle with tears waiting to escape. I waved, faking a smile at the roommate on my way out the door. I looked back up at Cory’s room. His light was still off.

I walked to the train station alone and rode back into the center of the city. The bright white light of the overhead lights and the graffiti kept me company on my lonely ride home.