“What is it?” I ask. “Struggling with an insult for my outfit?”
He’s as still as a statue and then suddenly he’s not. He leans down to kiss me. I could pull away; there’s enough space between my back and the door, and he isn’t holding my face. Or I could kiss him back, melding our soft lips and tasting him on my tongue. But I like what he’s doing, holding my bottom lip between his, our noses pressed together.
He finally releases my lips, and I flutter my eyelashes, waiting for him to say something. I’m met with silence. Rosier’s hand leaves the door and reaches for me, holding my chin and brushing my lips with his thumb. He shuts his gold eyes and moves in to kiss me again…
But I turn and open the door, no resistance this time, and practically run down the hall.
I don’t stop rushing till I’m sitting on the bus. I touch my lips, still warm and tingling even though it’s been at least five minutes since we kissed.
Our first kiss…
* * *
“I love you,but you’re a mess,” Amber says about a half hour into doing my hair.
It’s our usual set up: a few bags of snacks open on the floor where we sit facing her laptop playing a shonen anime. Since Amber’s better at hair, I always let her pick what we watch, even if I’d prefer a magical girl show. She hasn’t ask why I need to be so dolled up, perhaps her last act of kindness.
“Have you considered a wig? Or I could grab the clippers.”
“You really want me bald?” I snort.
“You’d look cute as a cue-ball.” She ruffles the top of my head.
“That’s all? Not revenge for…” My voice trails.
Despite everything, Amber agreed to do this for me. I asked for her support, for her to be my friend, and she’s doing that.
She sighs and continues to section my hair. Over-the-top shouting and punching sounds fill the room while we sit in silence. I try to think of the right thing to say, the magic words that will fix things between us, put us right back to where we were a week ago, sitting in these exact spots, giggling over a magic circle.
In the end, it’s Amber that breaks the silence. “You know I still care about you a lot.” She takes a clip and pushes aside my combed out curls. “You’ve made some shit decisions this past week, but that doesn’t change anything.”
“Of course, it changes things. We can be at odds and still care about each other.”
Amber wraps her arms around my shoulders, holding me like a little kid. In her eyes that must be what I am, a petulant child who keeps insisting she knows best.
“Amber–”
“Why aren’t we enough, Minnie? The coven, my mom and I–”
“Youareenough,” I assure her. “You’re just not what I need anymore.”
Shetsksand releases me from the hug, getting back to the task of my hair. I keep expecting her tug at the strands. It wouldn't be difficult to make me yelp in pain; I’ve always been tender-headed. But she keeps up her gentle touch like she always does.
“Maybe we’re on different paths,” I offer.
“We’re not even in the same forest,” she points out. “And it sucks.”
“Being without you does suck. But Rosier…”
She bops me on my head with the flat side of her brush. “This is a boy-free zone.”
“He’s not what you think.”
She hits me again with the brush, a little harder this time, a little more deserved. I think we’re really done talking about boys, but she makes one last comment. “If you want to date a literal devil, don’t come to me for approval. That’s on you.”
A new episode begins. The content might not be to my taste, but the opening is catchy.
Amber, once again, starts a much needed conversation. “You know, no matter what happens tomorrow or next week or next year, I’m always going to think about the days we would chase each other around the shop. I’ll remember Mom finding us passed out on this floor with a dubious looking plant between us and laughing. At this point, I just hope you can do the same.”
