Chapter 13: Hospital

When I came to, I was in a hospital room. I could hear the doctor talking to my parents, “He has a concussion. It would have been worse if the car had hit him directly, but he fell into the side of the car.”

“How could that happen?” my mom asked.

“He must have been distracted by something,” the doctor said, “Maybe he was on his phone.”

My mom saw that I was awake, “Are you okay?” she asked. I nodded, but it hurt.

The doctor asked me a few questions about who I was and what year it was. She seemed satisfied with my responses.

Then someone else burst in. Madison.

“I’m so sorry!” she said.

“This really wasn’t your fault. I walked into a car,” I said.

She got closer. “We both know it was,” she said, so softly that only I could hear. “Do you want me to break the curse?”

I’d waited so long for this moment. If this was a movie, I would have thought about everything that I’d learned and decided that actually, the curse had made me a better person and I’d like to keep it. But I had more sense than that.

“Yes, please,” I said.

She whispered some things I couldn’t hear, but I could definitely feel the atmosphere shifting. An invisible weight lifted and sunlight shone through the open window.

“Thank you,” I said. I couldn’t believe that after all this time, the curse was actually broken.

She left shortly after that, and I was discharged from the hospital. That evening, I decided to press my luck. I put my usual glass of water back on the nightstand and deleted all but one alarm off my phone. Even my sleep felt more peaceful.

The next day, a Saturday, absolutely nothing happened. It was the best day ever.

Chapter 14: Uncursed

At school, I tested my luck further. I put a glass bottle in my backpack. If I could make it through the entire school day without it breaking, the curse was gone for good.

I looked up at the ceiling. It was so refreshing not to have to worry about lightbulbs or pine cones falling on my head. Even the air tasted better somehow.

I didn’t get a single paper cut or lock myself out of anything.

I didn’t trip or fall or sit in any puddles.

I had spent so much of my mental energy trying to please Madison into uncursing me that I wasn’t sure what to do with myself now that I was no longer cursed. I could go back to my friends, but that wasn’t very appealing since they had ditched me so easily. What I ended up doing was watching Madison. She was watching me back. Neither of us was sure how to interact with the other now that our reason for that connection was gone.

I weighed my options. She was right that Terrell wasn’t interested. But I had a fun idea.

Now that I wasn’t so clumsy, I snuck up behind Madison without her noticing.

“Hey,” I said, right next to her, and she jumped.

“Um, hi,” she said, clearly not sure why I was talking to her.

“The curse breaking didn’t work,” I lied, “I think you did it wrong.”

“I didn’t do it wrong!” she said, “ I know it worked. You haven’t had any bad luck all day.”

I pretended to slip, knocking her down with me. “You only pretended to break the curse,” I said, not knowing why I was still doing this, “You need to break it for real. I accidentally spilled orange juice all over the floor this morning and a random cat bit me on my way to school.”

“I already broke the curse!” she said, getting up and brushing herself off, “If you’re clumsy now, it’s the real you.”

“I need to get your notebook to find out the truth,” I reached for her backpack, and this time, I got it easily. I found her notebook too. My luck really had changed.

Madison paled. “Please don’t read it.”

“Why, because it’s got so many details about you and Terrell?”

Madison looked pained, “It’s not about Terrell.”