Truth be told, I made the huge mistake of making out with her last summer but it was a beer-fueled mistake and I had no idea that Jessica would cling to me to the point of stalking.
In reality, I’ve always had a crush on another girl: Lena.
She’s in the same grade as me and to be honest, I think that she doesn’t really like me.
I mean I’m one of the most popular guys at Draiochta.
And at the risk of sounding arrogant, I know I’m good looking. I come from a very powerful coven and I’m the captain of the football team.
Every girl at the academy wants to date me, except Lena.
She keeps to herself most of the time, barely speaking to anyone and she’s one of the few students who actually attends classes at the academy and doesn’t board here.
So when the last period bell rings, she immediately bolts out of campus and I’ve never even had a chance to get close.
All I know about her is that she’s a local: she grew up here in Star Cove and she goes home every day at the end of classes.
I tried to hang around the restaurants and shops of the marina on the weekends, trying to run into her but I never saw her around.
Or I should say that ‘we’ tried to run into her because Colin and Finn have a thing for her too.
The funny thing is that the fact that my two best friends like the same girl doesn’t bother me how it should.
We’ve talked about it a few times and we agreed that if she ever gave any of us the time of day, we’d all ask her out and may the best man win.
But neither of them has had any better luck than I had and the most we’ve ever spoken to her has been just a few words if it was required during class projects.
“Hey, do you wanna throw a ball? Let’s take advantage of the fact that it’s still fairly warm outside and avoid the cafeteria.”
I nod at Finn’s proposal and I know exactly why he and Colin want to avoid the cafeteria: if Jessica is a pain in my ass, her besties Mandy and Sandy have made no secret of their interest in Colin and Finn.
“Are you trying to avoid the twins?”
Finn’s reply is a pained groan.
“Dude, those two are clingier than Saran wrap! They’re trying to get
us to ask them to the ball. And I’d rather be blasted with magic paintball orbs than endure a whole party with them.”
“I hear you, bro. It doesn’t matter how slutty those two are, they’re just so annoying to be around that even the promise of a blowjob doesn’t make me wanna take them out.”
I feel exactly like Colin, so I ask if we’re going stag.
“Yeah. You know there’s only one girl I’d like to ask and she’s never
attended any ball or any other academy event since freshman year.”
Of course, he’s referring to Lena and I nod in solidarity: up until last year, we’d date around and go through a few casual hookups during the academic year, but we’ve all got bored with that kind of shit lately.
We find a relatively secluded spot in Draiochta’s extensive gardens and begin throwing the ball among us.
Or should I say magic throwing? This is the thing: being a magic academy, all our sports are of the magic variety.
So we use our minds and a flick of our wrists to throw the ball, catching it by making it stop suspended in mid-air.
Don’t get me wrong, we still need to train as hard as human football players because the fitness of one’s body and their general health directly affects the quality of one’s magic.
The ancient Romans said ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ (translation: a healthy mind in a healthy body) and this is true for magic too: if you’re in excellent physical condition, your magic will benefit from it and that’s especially true when it comes to football because manipulating the laws of gravity and motion does take a lot of physical strength.
So even if we look as if we were playing on a Wii, we’re actually expending a lot of energy right now, which is all good because having lost interest in causal hookups translates in to a lot of pent-up sexual frustration.
“Hey, dude, where the fuck are you? You’re supposed to catch!” Finn yells as a really fast throw comes past my head like a missile
whooshing with a high-pitch hiss and flying past the range of my magic, so I have no other choice but to run after it, trying to catch it.
I run past the thicket of bushes enclosing the area where we’re playing and I hear the ‘thud’ before I see where the ball has landed.
I stop by a stone bench with a skid and that’s when I see her: the ball
hit Lena and she’s lying on the grass looking disoriented.
I rush to her side and take her in before hauling her up in my arms: her long black hair fans around the perfect oval of her face and
her lips have a perfect shape, they look so soft and naturally pink against the pale alabaster tone of her skin.
Her eyes are closed and adorned by the longest eyelashes I’ve ever seen but what’s missing right now is the intense green of her eyes that always makes my heart beat faster.
She looks like a modern-day Sleeping Beauty and I’m tempted to lower my lips on hers, I almost do it but the arrival of Colin and Finn makes me desist from possibly the only chance I’ll ever get to kiss the girl I’ve been crushing on for four years.
A Date
Lena
I open my eyes and for a second I think I’m dreaming: Max’s face is the first thing that comes into focus and it must be a dream because despite having gone to school together since middle school, I don’t think we’ve ever said more than a few words to each other.
Our relationship consists of furtive glances that I steal when I think that he isn’t looking my way.
I’ve had a crush on him since the first time I saw him: Max is the most perfect looking boy I’ve ever seen, with golden blonde hair and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen.
He’s tall and athletic and he looks like a modern-day fairy tale prince but he’s the most popular guy at Draiochta Academy and he certainly would never even notice a nobody like me.
Also, I’ve embarrassingly got a crush on his two besties, Colin and Finn who are just as handsome.
Colin has the darkest hair I’ve ever seen and eyes as green as deep forest and Finn has flame red hair and there most enchanting silver eyes I’ve ever seen.
They’re football players on our magic varsity team and their bodies reflect the constant training they need to be playing at the highest levels in the twelve academies tournament that’s one of the most prestigious competitions at high school level.
“Are you all right?”
Max’s hand cradles the back of my head as he sets his incredible blue
eyes on me: I’ve never been so close to him and I see that he has silver-white flecks in the dark blue of his irises and another thing I notice is how amazing he smells.
His scent is similar to the beach on a sunny summer morning: clean and bright with a hint of saltiness from the ocean and the bright notes of sunscreen and sand.
I open my mouth to speak but his touch is doing things to my body that I can’t even mention. My heart is beating faster than after a run, my nipples harden as a deep, tingling shiver spreads all the way down from where he’s touching at the base of my neck to my lower belly and to a sensitive spot between my thighs that begins throbbing in sync with my heartbeat.
“Oh, shit! I’m so sorry, Lena. Let me take you to the nurse, we better get you checked out.”
He hauls me up in his arms, lifting me into his arms as if I weighed nothing and while I’m not fat or very heavy, I’m certainly no size zero.
“Hey dude, where are you going? Oh shit!”
Colin and Finn arrive running and as they see me in Max’s arms they
both curse, immediately worried.
“Lena, are you ok?”
They both touch me, one putting a warm hand on my arm and one
on my ankles and when his friends put their hands
on me, I feel Max tightening his hold on me.
“She isn’t speaking. I’m taking her to the nurse.”
I open my mouth again but being touched by these boys has a
powerful effect on me: I feel drunk with the magic I can feel exude from them and I find it hard to breathe as if I were at a very high altitude.
Finn’s worried silver eyes meet mine as he speaks to his friends. “We’ve fucking broken her. Let’s go get her checked out.”
“Pelle Integra!”
The academy’s nurse, Miss Hayes snaps her fingers and I feel a warm
tickling heat pervade the back of my arms where I have some scrapes from my fall and a slightly more intense feeling on my back, where the football hit me.
I also feel the effect of the healing spell where I hit my head.
The pain instantly goes away but I still feel a little foggy and definitely flustered by the intense gazes of my three saviors who are standing in the room, observing Miss Hayes’ every move.
“Ok, so I’ve healed all your scrapes and you shouldn’t get any bruises but as you know, I can’t do anything for the pain resulting from hitting your head. We can’t heal head injuries with magic. The good news is that it doesn’t look like you have a concussion but to be on the safe side, I’ll write you a permission slip and excuse you from the rest of your classes for today. Just go to your room and rest. Can I trust you guys to deliver the slip to the headmistress? And maybe it would be nice if you made sure that Miss Marin makes it safely to her room?”
“Sure, Miss Hayes. Thank you. We’re on it.”
Max rushes to my side and offers me one of his hands to help me off
the examination bed, and once again, the contact with his skin makes me dizzy with excitement and my knees literally refuse to support me, which causes Max to wrap a supportive arm around my waist.
“Miss Hayes said to take you to your room. I thought you lived in town?”
“I ...”
I explain that I had lived with my grandma, my only living relative and that she died at the end of the summer. So I decided to board at the academy rather than live alone in that old, big, empty house.
Nana had been sick for the last few years and this was why I didn’t live at the academy, because I was the only family she had and her only caregiver.
After Max, Colin, and Finn all murmur some sympathy words, we all start walking towards the girls’ dorms.
Max’s arm is still around my waist and Finn flanks me on the other side, while I feel Colin’s gaze burning holes in my back.
“Uhm, guys we don’t all need to go with Lena. It’d be better if one of you went to bring the permission slip to the headmistress and the other could go back for Lena’s books. They were scattered all over the place when she fell.”
The other two boys don’t seem too happy to follow Max’s directions. “But we feel responsible too for what happened to Lena. After all, I
threw that ball.”
Colin’s protest falls on deaf ears and both boys leave when Max insists but they both throw lingering glances at me.
If I didn’t know that they all feel guilty, I’d think they’re all trying to
flirt but that’s impossible because in three years of high school and during middle school, none of them has really paid me much attention. When we climb the last flight of stairs, up into the loft, Max looks
surprised when I unlock the door of the furthest room to our left.
“Are you sleeping in the tower?”
The Academy’s ancient building is flanked by two towers adorned by
gargoyles.
“Yeah, I asked to transfer as a boarding student only last week and
this was all they had left. I don’t mind it, they refurbished the room really nicely and I have a private bathroom. It is a little cold though, that window doesn’t lock properly.”
Max
I whisper a spell, trying to fix the lock for Lena. Fenestra Sepi (Translation: Window, close yourself).
But the window doesn’t budge and I blush with embarrassment when
Lena looks at me from her bed where she just sat down.
“I don’t know why it won’t even move. This is such an easy spell.” Lena nods.
“Yeah, there’s something definitely wrong with it, I tried too.”
I don’t want her to think that I’m useless, I’m actually one of the most powerful witches at this academy and I want her to think I’m cool and that I’m dating material.
I reach her in two short strides and lean towards her adjusting her pillows and pushing her gently down on them.
I should probably go and let her rest but I don’t really want to, I’ve never really had the opportunity to talk to her in private.
“Do you want any of your books? We could do our homework ...”
Do our homework? What the fuck is wrong with me? I suddenly feel tongue-tied, awkward, and nervous.
I’ve never had a serious girlfriend but plenty of flings and I’ve always been confident in myself, so why am I suddenly turning into a dork when I’m alone with the only girl whose opinion actually matters to me?
“Thank you but I’m actually a little ahead with homework. I know I sound like a loser but up until last week, I spent most of my time at home with my gran. I couldn’t really leave her alone much, so I had nothing better to do than study. Our teachers have always given me the homework one week ahead.”
I take her hand into mine, marveling at how small and soft it is, and I smile at her.
“No, you aren’t a dork. It takes a lot of courage and maturity to do what you did. Sacrificing your social life to take care of someone you love. And I’m sorry your gran is gone but at the same time, it’s nice to have you here.”
Her green eyes are intense and I realize that I’m saying too much, too soon. She has no idea that I’ve always liked her and I don’t want her to think that I’m a weirdo or a creep.
So I propose to watch a movie instead of studying.
Lena seems hesitant.
“That’d be nice. But I don’t want you to feel obligated to stay with
me if you don’t want to. You heard the nurse, I don’t have a concussion.”
The words roll out of my mouth before I think them through.
“No, I wanna stay. I like you, Lena. I think you’re cool and so pretty.
I’ve always wanted to ask you out but I never found the right opportunity.”
She narrows her eyes and asks if I hit her with that football on purpose but I don’t miss the teasing tone in her words and I instantly relax: if she didn’t like me at all, she wouldn’t be joking now.
“No, I swear I didn’t. But I can’t deny that I came up here because the accident gave me the opportunity to talk to you.”
She looks perplexed.
“Why didn’t you talk to me before?”
I ask.
“You always looked so serious and distant and I felt intimidated. You
looked like you weren’t interested in making friends.”
I spy her reaction, suddenly worried that my words could offend her
but she looks sad rather than angry.
“It’s not that I wasn’t interested in making friends, Max. It’s that with taking care of grandma and the house, I didn’t have time for anything other than school and my responsibilities.”
Now I feel like a complete jerk for telling her how I felt, but she smiles and points towards the huge cherry wood desk pushed against the furthest wall, near the unlatched window.
“Let’s watch a movie then. It sounds fun. Can you get my laptop? But I get to choose the movie and I warn you that I love chick flicks.”
I chuckle as I grab her laptop.
“Right, but if you get to pick the movie, I get to take you to the
Samhain ball this weekend as my date.”
I don’t turn to look at her, giving her the chance to turn me down
without being too embarrassed
but she giggles and accepts my invitation. “Ok. But I warn you, I’m a bad dancer.”
“That’s a skill that can be taught. And I’m not afraid of a little
challenge.”
I turn to walk back to the bed and this is when I feel it: the little hairs
on the back of my neck stand at attention and I look outside the window, feeling suddenly observed.
But the only thing outside is the weathered, chubby gargoyle. “Those gargoyles are extra creepy.”
She shudders.
“Yeah, I try not to look outside too much. Sometimes it feels like
they’re looking at me.”
The afternoon passes quickly: Lena is fun to hang with and I love her quirky comments and the soft smile on her face during the most romantic parts of the movies.
But the thing that’s most intoxicating is her subtle scent of jasmine and the warmth that radiates from her soft body.
I discreetly inch closer with every passing minute and I know it’s as cliché as the rom-coms we’re watching, but I want to hold her in my arms and the best thing I can think of is to stretch and then wrap my arm around her shoulders.
Of course, I have the worst fucking time in the history of attempts to get close to a girl, because I do it right when the protagonists of the movie engage in a raunchy sex scene.
Lena lifts her eyes to mine and as I see the adorable redness spreading on her cheeks, I decide fuck it, I’ll own this up and pretend that the sex scene on the screen doesn’t affect me.
I turn to face her on the bed and when she won’t meet my gaze, I lift her chin by putting two fingers under it.
“Lena, you’re so beautiful ...”
She doesn’t say anything, keeping those huge green eyes fixed into
mine and I can’t help myself anymore and I lower my face towards her, anticipating the softness of her lips.
I do it slowly, to give her the opportunity to stop me but she doesn’t and I’m so close to kissing her and so focused on her that the loud knock on the door makes me jolt backward and I land on the hardwood floor with a loud ‘thud’.
Draiochta Academy: All Genres Academy Anthology Page 20