As if I couldn’t make it more obvious, I sat on the sidelines with a bench between David and me. David sat as stiff as a statue with his arms crossed so tight, they may never loosen. Despite Gretchen lecturing him with the passion of a coach from a melodramatic sports movie, David only stared blankly into the abyss. Usually he only looked like that before exam season. 

“You have to participate in practice a little. We know you’re perfect and the best, but you should at least pretend for your teammates that there’s still something you could learn.”

Usually, that would make David roll his eyes. 

Or at least quip something back.

But David didn’t move at all. His jaw just tightened. 

Gretchen’s big amber eyes flickered at me, but I just meekly shrugged. She didn’t buy it. My blush gave me away. The distance between David and I only highlighted reason for concern. 

A mousy thing, Gretchen dressed herself, styled her white-blonde hair and make-up to show how perfect she was while wearing wire rimmed glasses to prove she was still human like the rest of us. People always mistook her for a high schooler, not an Alchemy major and the Captain of our school’s dueling team. I relished in watching people blanch at the idea of this fragile baby powder girl knocked men twice her size on their asses with one spell. 

Her Familiar, a crow named Norbert, sat perched on her shoulder staring at me.

That little bird knew it was my fault. I could tell. 

Leaning closer to Gretchen, I whispered, but knew David was listening. My whole body reacted to David’s presence, overtly aware of his dark eyes watching me like two burning spotlights. Ignoring the way my baby hairs stood up, I whispered, “He’s always been like this. Once in middle school, he gave his own cousin the silent treatment for a month. David is the king of the cold shoulder—”

For whatever reason that inspired David to talk. “Cal! I don’t how many times I have to tell you that we’re not in middle school anymore. I’m twenty-four years old.” 

“But you’re still you,” I said, baffled by this intensity. 

“I’m different now.” 

“I don’t know what you want me to say.”

Just then a lightbulb on the court shattered and brilliant spindles of electricity spider crawled to the witch’s component. The other witch took out a bag, shaking it out to grow larger and larger until it was large enough to swallow the electricity whole. 

Nothing can be made from nothing. Magic gave us a lot of help and a lot of short cuts in life, but something real has to be at the center. 

David threw his hands up before crossing his arms and returned to his pouting position. My stomach twisted as I tried mustering up something to say, something to keep him from being angry with me. But my idiot mouth was what got me in this trouble, so I kept my lips shut to avoid further damages. 

Why did it matter that I could still see the angsty teen from middle school? That David was precious to me and I couldn’t exactly part from it. It was my memories after all. I took pride in knowing everything about David from his fear of thunderstorms to his love of stealing coffee mugs from diners. 

With a sigh, Gretchen rested her hands on her hips. “You two can have your domestic dispute later. What matters now is me—I mean, the team getting to Nationals.” She still talked at David, the same way one might talk to a brick wall. “I’m not letting you sit out during the next match like usual. I want to win.”

“Cal!” Someone called and David finally perked up, turning his glare at Steven.

Steven stumbled, as if knocked back by David’s look. David and I shared a couple of firsts with Steven. Steven was David’s first college roommate, and he was my first college boyfriend. 

Steven had that plucky good boy look, slightly mischievous with his messy brown hair, untucked dress shirt, and loose tie all while being gorgeous. He looked like he should star in a coffee commercial because waking up to a face like that was the best way to start the morning. And the way I remembered it, sometimes it was. 

“Whoa! What’s eating David?” Steven asked me and like clockwork, took his Familiar, a miniature grey rabbit out of his pocket to give to me. I could feel the rabbit, Zipper’s heartbeat flutter in my palm and I wanted to cry he was so cute. The little creature nuzzled my hand back and I debated if stealing him would be worth a misdemeanor. 

Steven shook his head. “I really thought he’d stop being so grumpy when you got here.” 

Grumbling, David shot up to his feet. Even though he didn’t need to go that way, David stomped past me and plowed through Steven’s shoulder to walk to the far side of the dueling ring. Steven rubbed his offended shoulder, muttering to himself. “When is that moody bastard ever going to forgive me?” 

“You haven’t done anything wrong,” I said, petting Zipper into a puddle of cute. “He’s upset with me.”

“Try telling that to him. If I knew dating you for a couple of months was going to earn me endless torture, I would’ve stayed away.” 

This time I smacked him.