Nine years later…

My mother had a theory to why I was so clumsy. 

She said I was too busy having five thoughts at once to focus on not dropping the glass of water in my hands, or to notice how many more steps I needed to take to get down the stairs safely. It was her idea to keep first aid kits on both levels of the house and in each family member’s car. 

But how was I expected to function when my entire life was hurtling down a rollercoaster on a broken track aimed straight at the Atlantic Ocean where a kraken waited with its drooling maw open and ready to swallow my dumb ass whole where I’d be destined to melt inside the stomach acids?

How? 

“Cal,” Jeremy said as if it wasn’t the first time. “You’re frozen.” 

I blinked back into reality, finding Jeremy’s face only a few inches away. Right. We had been making out. One of the world’s greatest wastes of space, Calvin Keys had been kissing his very attractive, very warm boyfriend for a little while now and he had forgotten. One day they will do studies on me for being the biggest freak on the planet. 

Plastering on a smile, I rested my hands on Jeremy’s neck. Jeremy was like a swimsuit model from a magazine, sun kissed skin, dirty blonde hair, and an airbrushed complexion. He even had one of those chin dimples I had always assumed people had to pay for. Now his crystal blue eyes were squinted at me, questioning my sanity. 

This look, I was accustomed to. 

“I’m not frozen. I’m good,” I lied. “I’m super good. Pucker up—” 

“Hold on. Hold on. You forget who you’re talking to. I’m your boyfriend. I’ve watched you stop eating a burger mid-chew because you couldn’t stop thinking about whether or not there were pixies hiding inside your walls or if it was just faulty piping.”

“Which was good! Those pixies didn’t come up with a proper escape plan and I had to bust a hole through my wall to get them out. They nearly starved in there.”

“Didn’t you also hit a pipe?”

“That’s the wrong detail to focus on. I’m regarded as a hero in the pixie community.”

“Cal, what’s wrong? Are you worried about your parents leaving?” 

“Absolutely!” I might have said a little too enthusiastically, clinging onto an excuse I didn’t even have to make up on my own. I glanced in the backseat where Jeremy’s Familiar, Sunny was snoring slightly. Usually, Sunny was a full-grown Lion plucked right from Africa, but it was more convenient to stay in his lion cub form. 

He was so cute, and squishing his little paw made me feel a smidge better. 

For the next three months, my parents would be working at a Unicorn Sanctuary, helping one of the rarer flying unicorns stay comfortable with her pregnancy. She had taken a nasty fall and broke one of her back hoofs. Usually, that was a death sentence to a horse. As the world’s most renowned Magical Veterinarians, the Key family were the first called to the scene. 

No one but I knew this, and I only found out from walking by their bedroom door, but my parents had already tried to set up a meeting with the unicorn. Apparently, the unicorn hadn’t heard of them, didn’t care, and refused to let them near her. I didn’t speak up. They’d never ask for my advice. Not that I was a well of knowledge. I was more like a knowledge kiddy pool or puddle. It still stung being I was studying the same field. 

Getting left behind on these trips wasn’t something new. It didn’t shock me that I received no invitation to join them… but that didn’t keep my heart from aching when I stepped into an empty house. From experience, I knew the deafening sound of quiet and that dinners tasted a little stale when eaten alone. 

Now the fiction felt closer to the truth. 

With a sigh, I had sunk into the seat cushion and played with the end of Jeremy’s tie. All duelers were required to wear suits even to practice. “They’re gonna be gone longer than usual and I told you, they always forget to call.” 

“Maybe next time, we can go with them.”

“Yeah, maybe.” 

The whole reason I started dating Jeremy was the lecture my mother did on the negative effects of displacing dragons for residential development. We sat in the same row and couldn’t stop making eyes at each other. I had already knew about Jeremy since he was on the same dueling team with David, but we had never spoken until then. Never pressed our knees together without wanting to move. The only question Jeremy had at the end of the discussion was how to secure my number.

I didn’t have the heart to tell Jeremy that if they never brought me on these journeys, then it was never going to happen for him either. The only people my parents liked were each other. Everyone came second to animals. 

My phone buzzed in my back pocket and I jumped.

It was a text from David:  

DAVID: [Where are you? If Gretchen breaks my kneecaps for missing practice, you’ll have to carry me everywhere.] 

CALVIN: [Would Gretchen really take out her best dueler?]

DAVID: [I can still cast with broken legs]

I cracked a smile and started to text him that I’d be there soon when another message from David appeared. 

DAVID: [Also, don’t let Jeremy hear you say that. I’d hate to chip the man’s ego before nationals.]

A lump of dread plummeted to the bottom of my stomach. My thumbs hovered over my phone screen as I tried to think of a response so casual, it would have the power to erase the building tension between me and my childhood best friend. And yet, thinking of David typing this made my toes curl.

“You’re frozen again,” Jeremy said. 

“Uh, yeah, sorry. I’ll uh be normal in time for the party tonight,” I told myself more than I promised Jeremy. 

“Let’s skip the party.” 

“What? But—”

“Come on,” Jeremy insisted and ran his hand through my hair. His hands were so big. They felt like they could encase every bad thought in my head and crush them into dust. “Let’s just stay home. I’ll probably be too tired to go out tonight and I can tell you need a breather too. Besides, the Spring Fling is in a couple of days and that’s impossible to skip. Let’s just chill tonight. Just us.” 

“Okay.” I smiled. “That actually sounds nice. I can cook.”

“Don’t threaten me.”