What! I most assuredly have never done this. “I haven’t touched your potions before. Give me that rag, I know how to wipe stuff up—”
“No,” she interrupts. “You don’t give these men a chance. Before you moved home, you had a different boyfriend every time I spoke to you.”
Ohhh no. Not this. We are not going there.
Morgan steps in with a warning expression. “So what? Zelda can date whomever she wants.”
“If you didn’t want to go out with Brent,” Luna addresses me, “you should’ve just said no.”
An uncomfortable tension smokes the room. Leaning against the countertop, still wearing the apron she wears for candle making, Luna suddenly looks much older than her age. I am a gremlin for creating chaos magic in our shared kitchen, and she is an angel I don’t deserve. This woman cooks me breakfast. She reminds me to get the oil in my car changed, pick up my medicine from the pharmacy. She set up an appointment with the dentist for the persistent toothache that I’d decided to ignore. She drives me nuts sometimes, telling me what and when and how to do everything, but where would I be without her?
I fold my sister into a hug. Luna stiffens at first, out ofsurprise: I am notoriously not a hugger. “I didn’t mean to be late. I’m sorry, and I’m going to call your friend and apologize. But I should tell you…” I am keenly aware of Morgan’s gaze on me, so I keep my own eyes pinned to the table. “You and Romina are under the impression that I keep breaking off all my relationships because I get bored in them, or I’m some sort of ravenous maneater. Which I guess isn’t a totally unfair assumption, since I never corrected you. Um. Because the truth was more embarrassing.” I scratch my head. “But, yeah. I’m the one who usually gets dumped.”
I grimace in the beats of silence that follow. This is mortifying. Mortifying. Mortifying.
R T Y I O
F G
N M
“Oh.” Luna squeezes me. “I’m so sorry.”
“No, it’s all right. Truly! It’s my own fault it keeps happening—I’ll get so focused on a task that everything else disappears, and before I know it, I’m trying to explain to someone that I haven’t responded to his texts in two days because I was trying to figure out Claymation.” I shrug, backing away. “Not always Claymation. Sometimes it’s translating a handwritten book of Finnish love letters, or speed-reading an entire book series just because I heard the author had a new one dropping the next week and I needed to catch up.”
“Oh,Zelda,” Luna says softly.
“And Ihavebroken off a couple of relationships myself, forimpulsive reasons,” I admit, “but that was usually more to do with where I wanted to live rather than not liking the guy. I kept jumping around from city to city, you know. Restless.”
“I’m sorry I’ve made jokes about you being a heartbreaker.” Her face scrunches as if she might start to cry.
“You didn’t know.” I wave her off. Pity is worse! And being accurately perceived! I would rather exfoliate with broken glass than engage in a vulnerable heart-to-heart.
“Wait a second.” Luna advances on me like a bird of prey. “Why were you using potions in the first place? You don’t even believe in magic.”
“Well.” I look to Morgan for help, but he bites his lip. My hesitation is promptly pounced upon.
“You don’t believe in magic, right?” Luna presses.
“Um.” I pull my hair over one shoulder and start finger-combing it nervously. “Well, you see…”
“AHHHH!!!”
“Oh no.” I shield my face as Luna wraps her arms around me and lifts me an inch off the ground. “Curses, misery, bother, blast. Put me down!”
Luna is squeezing so tight that I can’t breathe. “You’re a witch!” she cries. “You’re a witch!”
“Luna, you’re breaking my ribs.”
“Say it,” she sings, refusing to put me down. “Say you’re a witch.”
“You’re a witch.”
She harrumphs. “Say ‘I’m a witch.’ ”
“Luna’s a witch,” I tell her, which makes Morgan laugh. I flash him a smug smile.
My sister is glowing. “You prideful, pigheaded asshole, you’ve made me so happy! I was beginning to worry this day would never come! You have so much to learn about potions and which cleaning rags to use! We can finally do all those tri-witch spells I’ve been dying to try. I thought I’d have to wait till Ash was grown.” She snaps her fingers. “Oh! And all our rituals! I call them ‘witchuals.’ You’re Cancer, which is a water sign, which means you need to start taking bubble baths at least once a week.”
