Careful What You Wish For (12 page)

“Now did you want something?” Beleth asked. “Why did you summon us here?”

“Huh? Oh!” They thought I had called them.

“It
was
you, wasn't it?” she said.

“Of course it was her,” Vinea interrupted. “Who else in Goode would summon us?”

I decided not to tell them about Gabi. They might not be so understanding if they realized they were called by a mere human on a wish-making kick. And who knew, maybe Vale was a huge gossip. Then the whole underworld would know about Gabi in an instant—including Lou. And I had enough to deal with without adding him to the mix.

“You know what,” I said, staring at the cuff of my jeans. “I don't even remember why I called you here. You can just go. Sorry to bug you guys. But thanks for coming.” I gave a little wave.

“What?” Vinea asked.

“This whole demon thing made me forget why I called you here,” I lied because I didn't know what else to say.

“Whatever,” she said.

And poof, they were gone. But just as fast they were back.

“What now?” Vinea asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You just summoned us again.”

“No I di—” I didn't, but Gabi's wish did. The band would probably keep getting the call until the wish was granted. How was I supposed to get around that? There had to be a way. I racked my brain.

The wording of the wish! I could get around it that way. The same way D.L. didn't fawn all over Max because he was absent when Gabi wished everyone
in
school would adore him, and how Simmons gave us just
one
minute to talk. “Just hold on a second, okay?” I told the band.

I ran over to my locker and pulled out my Mara's Daughters CD. Max had given it to me on my birthday, back before he was mean. “Okay,” I said, racing back to them. “Just give me a minute and then you can leave again, and I won't call you back.”
Hopefully,
I said to myself.

“Why did you call us in the first place?” Beleth asked.

Oh right. I had to tell them something. “For this,” I said holding out the CD. “I was hoping you could all sign it for me.”

“You called us here, not knowing we were demons, risking your secret, for autographs?” Vinea questioned me.

It did sound stupid, but it wasn't like I had a lot of time to come up with a better explanation. I just needed them gone before they figured out what was really going on and told my father. “I'm a really big fan.”

“Obviously,” Vinea said, grabbing the CD from my hand. They all scrawled their signatures on it and handed it back.

“Count to sixty and then you can go,” I told them.

I didn't wait to hear what they said. I flung the drumstick out of the door and bolted back into class, straight to the computer station. I stuffed the CD into the drive closest to me and hit play. The first song on the disc filled the room.

“What's going on?” Elena asked.

“Nothing.” I made my way back to the door. I peered under the shade on the window just in time to watch Mara's Daughters disappear.

My whole body froze when I saw Beleth return. But she didn't stay long. She just came back to retrieve her belongings. She put out her hand and her drumstick flew into it. Then she was gone.

I had done it. I got around Gabi's wish. After all, she just said she wanted to hear Mara's Daughters. She never said she wanted to hear them
live
!

And I would keep doing it. Finding ways to make sure Gabi's wishes didn't come true. At least not the way she wanted. Until she finally agreed to give them up for good!

Gabi had been pretty busy while I had been out in the hall. She turned into a little wish-making machine. She now had on a brand-new outfit, straight out of the Juicy Couture catalog—a green shirred zip wrap dress and platform-heeled booties. And her hair was all loose and curled at the ends. And did I mention the makeup? She had smoky eyes, pink lips, and color on her cheeks. It looked like a professional did it. She was taking her rising star status seriously.

The cameraman was back to shooting me. Didn't this guy ever let up? “I have to go the bathroom. Don't you have to go to the bathroom, Gabi?”

“Not really,” she said.

“Gabi!”

“Fine.” Since Miss Simmons didn't seem to care what we were up to, we walked right out.

“No cameras in the ladies room,” I declared before they followed us in.

But they started to come in, anyway! I elbowed Gabi in the side.

“She's right,” Gabi said. “I wish there weren't cameras in the bathroom.”

When we
finally
had some privacy, I pleaded my case one more time. “I'm begging you. Please. Undo this. Don't make me have to come up with some other way to get rid of these wishes.”

She actually laughed. “You'd just cause a bigger mess. Again.”

“Would not.”

Gabi didn't even bother to respond. She just reached into her bag and pulled out a lip gloss and a copy of
OK!
magazine.

“Come on, Gabi. It's not funny anymore. Let's fix this. Give up the reality show, return the clothes, get Max back to normal.”

“He's not so bad now.”

“Maybe not to you, because he wants to be on your show. But he's still bossing everyone else around and they're just taking it. And he's not even the worst of it. There are cameras everywhere. The whole wish thing was supposed to be so I could help people, not turn them into celebutantes.”

“It's helping me,” she said.

I was getting the sinking feeling that Max wasn't the only monster I created with my powers.

Gabi studied her reflection in the mirror. “Elena is going to bring in Lance Gold for a photo shoot with me.” Lance was Gabi's favorite actor. “She says the two of us together will help my image.” Her image?! Since when did she care about that? “Can you believe it?” She sounded majorly excited. Like, well, like a girl who just found out she was going to be linked to Lance Gold.

“Pretty soon my face is going to be all over magazines like this.” As she spoke her face appeared on the cover. “And not because I wished it. But because I'm such a huge celebrity. It's going to be awesome, Angel. I'm finally going to get everything I always wanted.”

Gabi had a faraway look on her face.

“But that's not the way to get it.”

“Why not?” She held up the magazine. “Some of these people are only famous because they have famous relatives. How different is my situation?” As she shook the magazine at me, a note dropped out.

At first I thought it was just one of those postcards that tried to get you to order a full subscription, but it wasn't. It was another note with Gabi's name written on it from her secret admirer.

“This day just keeps getting better,” she said, snagging the paper from the ground. “Do you think it's from Marc? I can't stand the suspense any longer!”

And then there it was. The signature of Gabi's secret admirer.

Cole Daniels.

My Cole Daniels.

She wished for Cole to like her? I didn't even know what to say. I mean, the person I trusted more than anyone in the whole world, the one I confided in about my dad—the only one—basically took her platform-heeled booties and shoved them right into the small of my back.

“I didn't wish it,” Gabi said, dropping the note on the ground and running over to me.

“What? So he just decided he likes you better?”

“No, I don't know,” she said.

I backed away from her. “You don't know!?” My world was totally crumbling around me. “You had to have wished it. Cole wouldn't do that. He wouldn't send secret messages to my best friend.”

“Okay, maybe I wished it, but I didn't mean it.” She wrung her hands around her neck.

Ever get stuck in a huge gust of wind where dust, leaves, and other junk were flying at you, causing your eyes to tear, and walking against it took four times your normal amount of energy? Well, that's how I felt right now. Like I was caught in a storm, only it wasn't letting up, and I had another mile to go before I could rest.

“Yeah, right,” I said, my voice a hush. “Why would you wish it then? You knew what that would do to me.” I backed up against the wall and slid down onto the floor. It didn't matter that it was gross and nasty. I couldn't fight the current anymore.

She started to kneel next to me, but hesitated. The floor was dirty and the garbage had overflowed to the ground. She took a deep breath and did it anyway. “Honest. I would never wish that, not on purpose.”

We just sat there in silence.

“I think I know what happened,” she said quietly. “When I saw you with Cole, I may have wished I had a boyfriend like him. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for it to actually be him. I'm not like that. You know I would never steal someone's boyfriend. Especially not yours.”

“Then undo it, undo everything. Take it back, Gabi,” I said, trying to choke back my tears.

“I can't,” she said, standing back up.

“You have to.”

“I'll just wish for him not to like me.”

I shook my head. “It doesn't work that way. You
know
that. You couldn't undo Max's attitude, and you're not going to be able to undo this. Not unless you give back all the wishes you made. It's all or nothing.”

She turned away from me. “If I could just make Cole stop liking me I would. But I can't give up everything.”

I stood back up. “You mean you won't.”

She didn't answer.

“Gabi . . .” I could see her face in the mirror and we made eye contact through it. “If you cared about me at all, you'd undo this.”

“That's not fair,” she said.

“And you going out with my boyfriend is? Please.”

She shook her head no. “It's not that simple.”

But it was. Unless . . .

“You like him, don't you?”

“What?” she asked.

“Cole. You like him.”

“No,” she protested.

But I saw the look in her eyes, heard the lilt in her voice. “You do. You like him. That's why you won't reverse this.”

“That's not why.”

“Liar,” I shouted. “You like him, I know it. Just admit it.”

“I don't,” she said, but I just stared her down in the mirror until she turned to face me for real. “I mean I like him, but not . . .” Her face turned pink. “We've had Hebrew School together forever. And, yeah, I guess I've always had a little crush on him. But I always knew how much you liked him, so I never said anything. And I would NEVER go out with him. And I would never knowingly wish for him to be my boyfriend. I wouldn't do that to you.”

Except that she did.

My boyfriend likes my best friend. MY BOYFRIEND LIKES MY BEST FRIEND.
How could Gabi make this happen? How could Gabi have done this to me?

“Angel, say something,” she said.

I passed out in shock when I found out my dad was the devil. But that seemed like nothing in comparison to finding out my best friend who I had known for forever was actually a boyfriend-stealing leech monster. I felt catatonic.

“Angel?”

I was so upset it was hard to talk. My fists clenched and as they did all the lightbulbs in the bathroom shorted out. It was my powers. They were going off on their own again. I needed to calm down before I accidentally did something worse, like set Gabi's hair on fire or send her to a deserted island where there were no boys for her to trick into liking her. After a few deep breaths, I managed to find my voice. “Fix this,” I said in a hoarse whisper.

“I wish we had some lights that worked,” she said.

Lamps appeared around the room within a fraction of a second.

“That's not what I meant.” She was trying all of my patience. “Fix the Cole situation.”

“You know I can't,” Gabi answered. “Not without giving everything else up.”

“Then give it all up.”

“No,” she said in a voice so low I wasn't even sure I heard her correctly.

“What?”

“I don't want to give it up.”

“You mean you don't want to give
Cole
up,” I seethed.

“That's not true. I like Marc. I wish he would like me.”

And now with those few little words, he definitely would. She was going to have two guys dying to hang out with her, while I was miserable and alone. “Whatever, Gabi.” I was fuming. “If you wanted to make things right you would. But you don't. You saw your one chance to get Cole, and you took it.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” she asked, her hands on her hips. “You don't think I'm good enough for him?”

What? No way was she turning this around on me, making me the bad guy. “What it means is that he liked me, until you messed with his mind. He's not into you, Gabi, not without your hocus-pocus, so get over it.”

“Right. Because someone like Cole could never like someone like me. Is that it?”

I didn't even dignify her with an answer.

“Well?” she prodded.

So I told her the truth. “Yeah, actually. He wouldn't.”

“Well, you know what?” she half asked, half stated. “He was always flirting with me in Hebrew School before he started going out with you, but I ignored it. I gave up a chance with him because of you. Because I'm that good a friend.”