I roll my eyes. “You don't even believe it.”

 “But why not?”

 “Well if you don't believe it it won't come true.”

 That's not true. Fate doesn't need humans to believe him or in him.

 “That's bullshit. If you're right, then your readings on that festival were all just fake shit.”

 Since he doesn't know the truth, I exclaim: “They were!”

 “I knoooow, but still. Why won't you?”

 The real reason why I don't want to give him a reading is that I don't like giving them to people I'm close to. Because what if? What if Fate's cruelty affected them too? It's better not knowing than knowing. No matter what, Fate is never wrong. He can't be pushed away. He always sneaks his way through.

 I shrug. “Why do you want one when you don't believe it?”

 “Because I'm boreeeeed.” He spreads out his arms and falls back on his bed.

 I can't help but smile. “Jesus christ, okay. I'll give you the reading.”

 I take out my tarot cards and start shuffling them.

 For the first time in forever I decide to trust Fate. It may be the wrong choice, but there's no way of turning back now.

 He excitedly sits up with a grin. “How do you even shuffle like that? How do they not end up scattered all over the place?”

 “Years of training.” He raises his eyebrows, which he can't do really well, so it looks more like a weird grimace. I laugh and explain. “My mom was a witch and she taught me a lot of stuff.”

 “Your mom had to be so cool. A witch, herbalist, aroace…”

 I smile and spread out the cards. “Yeah, she…was.” I stretch out my fingers. “So what reading do you want?”

 “Erm…the classic?”

 “Okay, so Past-Present-Future. Do you want to choose the cards or shall I?”

 He bows down and spreads his arms towards me, acting. “You shall choose my fate.”

 I scoff. “Okay, but don't blame me if you get The Hangman for the future.”

 He blinks, his act immediately gone. “What…what is The Hangman?”

 “Exactly what it sounds like. Okay, should we start?”

 “Of course, of course…Just try not to draw The Hangman, please.”

 “It's all in the hands of Fate.”

 I close my eyes and wave my hand above the cards, my fingers sliding across them, seeking the feeling I should feel when I feel the card. If that makes sense.

 I end up drawing three cards, laying them out in front of me. I take all the other cards and put them aside. “Are you ready?”

 He doesn't answer, just nods. 

 I tease him for a bit longer. “Are you sure?”

 “Yes, I'm sure,” he replies, annoyed.

 I move my hand and almost flip the card, but I can't help myself to add: “Really?”

 He tilts his head back, laughing. “Yes, I'm totally, one hundred percent, fully and really and synonyms sure.”

 

Without further ado, I flip the card that represents the past. “Huh.”

 He takes it in hand, examining it thoroughly. “Why are you huhing. What does it mean?”

 “It's called The Eight of Cups. It means walking away from something dull and empty forward to something fulfilling. Or at least we think it's fulfilling, but it could be as blank and hollow as the previous situation.”

 

“How do you know it's not the opposite?”

 “You mean that you're walking away from something positive into something negative?”

 He nods.

 I lean to him and take the card, pointing to the cups. “Do you see these cups? On some cards they're full, sometimes overflowing, and somewhere empty. This shows us that what the person is walking away from isn't the best and that they're seeking for something better. Something full.”

 “Ooh. But what is the dull thing? What did I walk away from?”

 I shrug. “How should I know? You're the one who knows best. Listen to the whispers, to the inner voice telling you what it is. Even if you don't want it to be the correct answer, it probably is. Now. The present card will tell us if you ran away successfully or not.”

 I leave him in deep thinking and flip the middle card. “Oh.”

 “Can you stop making noises? I have no idea what they mean. Is it good?”

 “Hmm…This one is The Fool. The Fool is a card of innocence. The Fool is walking, a dog beside him, holding a white rose. This means you did walk away from the hollowness and found new innocence and happiness. But it's also a warning for you to keep looking under your legs or you might fall into a deep pit only a trusted one can help you out of.”

 “Huh.” 

 “Now who's starting to huh,” I mumble. “Okay, let's see the future.”

 I flip the last card, only for it to reveal The Wheel of Fortune. I sigh.

 Eef furrows his eyebrows. “Is that…a wheel of fortune?”

 I shake my head. “Not just a wheel of fortune, The Wheel of Fortune. But it's tricky in this spread, especially for the future. It can mean a situation where you have to choose a path to take that will turn your life around or something similar. It's a neutral card and it doesn't give you a lot of answers, it doesn't even tell you which path to take. But then, Fate would be too nice.”

 Eef lies back and stares at the ceiling. “So to summarize it. In the past, I've run away from emptiness. In the present I'm pretty happy and in the future I'll have to make a big decision.”

 “Eh, basically.”

 He sticks out his bottom lip and nods approvingly. “That's not that bad. It could've been worse.”

 I nod too. I was scared that he would get one of the bad big arcanas, but he got the neutral ones. “Yeah, could've.”

 He smiles. “I can now rest in peace without worrying I'm going to hang myself.”

 “Well…The Wheel of Fortune can mean any decision, so…But it isn't very probable. Fate would give you The Hangman. It's going to be something else.”

 He snorts. “I fucking hope so.”

 I take the three cards and put them back in the deck. “Are you happy now?”

 He shakes his head. “Well, yeah, partially.”

 I sigh. “Do you want another reading?”

 “No,” he purses his lips, “could you maybe teach me how to do that sickass shuffle?”

 I snort. “Okay. So. You have the tarot deck, right? And you split it down the middle.”

 I take the deck and do the things I say. “Then you hold them like this, your index finger pressing down onto them. Then you slowly let the cards with the thumb until you got them inside each other like this. Don't laugh. After you get that, you press your thumb against the top and then let off the fingers on the bottom.”

 

The cards shuffle and I hand them to him. He easily gets through the first part, but in the second, the cards fly out of his hands and spread across the bed.

 I laugh. “You can't let down too soon, or too late. Wait, let me guide you.”

 I take his hands into mine and guide him through the parts. 

 I don't notice two things. 

 The first one is how awfully he blushes while I hold his hands.

 The second is that one card fell under the bed and isn't in the deck.