Strange Magic (9 page)

        I watched her disappear into the crowd of students.  “So, that’s her.  Your ex girlfriend.”

          Duncan looked defeated.  “You can’t talk to me anymore, Susannah.  Not ever.  Especially not in our special way.  Do you understand?”

          “Yes,” I said.  “You want her back, and you don’t want me in the way.”  I turned away from him and plunged blindly into the throng as I willed myself not to cry.

          “Let’s report her to the police.”  Caitlin took another spoonful of ice cream.

          I glumly licked some ice cream off my spoon.  “For what?”

          We were sitting in Caitlin’s kitchen.  I had been unable to tell her about Duncan and Anna until now.  Caitlin must have known that something was wrong when I didn’t return any of her text messages.  One look at my face after school had made her hold all of her questions.  She had driven in silence as I had finally given in to my tears in her car.  When we arrived at her house, I went into the bathroom to splash cold water on my puffy eyes.  Caitlin was waiting for me in the kitchen with two bowls and a carton of ice cream.

          “What’s it called?” Caitlin asked.  “Oh yeah, statutory rape.  Duncan’s under eighteen.”

          “So is Anna,” I answered.

          “Doesn’t seem like it,” Caitlin said.  “She sounds about thirty.”

          “No,” I said sadly.  “She’s our age.”

          “Doesn’t act like it,” she insisted.  “Who shakes hands?”

          “Whatever.  You’ll see her for yourself.  She’ll be going to school with us.”  I wished that the cold ice cream could numb my heart as well as my mouth.

          “Anyway,” she continued.  “It doesn’t mean they’re going to get back together.  From what you said, it doesn’t sound like Duncan was happy to see her again.”

          “Doesn’t matter.  He sure doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore.  He told me that we can’t even be friends.”  I shoved a big spoonful of ice cream into my mouth and gave myself brain freeze.

          “I can’t believe he said that,” Caitlin fumed.  “I feel like going over there to talk to him right now!”

          “Don’t,” I said.  “Just let him do what he wants.  I can’t deal with him anymore.”

          She gave me a sympathetic look, and we lapsed into silence as we finished our ice cream.  Caitlin insisted on driving me home despite my insistence to walk there.

          “You look really tired, Suzy.”  She gave me a hug.

          She offered to stay with me until my parents got home from work, but I lied that I was going to take a nap.  After she dropped me off, I immediately began cooking dinner so that I could keep busy.  My parents praised my efforts and told me that the meal was delicious, but it might as well have been cardboard for all the pleasure I took in eating it.  I did my homework, took a shower, and went to bed early.

          I woke up with a resigned attitude.  There was no use in trying to avoid the inevitable, so I might as well get it over with.  The previous day had been such a roller coaster of emotions for me, but today I felt amazingly calm.

          Caitlin eyed me warily when she picked me up for school.  “How you holding up?”

          “Don’t worry.  I’m done crying over Duncan,” I assured her.

          She didn’t look convinced.  “Just text me if you need to bail.  I’ll cut class with you.”

          “Thanks, but I’ll be fine.  Really.  Yesterday was just such a shock, you know?”  I found a smile for her.  “Besides, how much ice cream can one girl eat?”

          My glib comments didn’t fool her, and I couldn’t lie to myself.  I wasn’t fine, but there was nothing I could do about it.  Duncan had become important to me.  I had imagined a romantic future for us, and he had seemed on the verge of asking me out until Anna showed up.  He obviously still had strong feelings for her.

          I saw her in the hallway after my first class.  She was talking to none other than my ex boyfriend, Brad.  I tried to walk by undetected, but she recognized me.  “Hi, Susannah.”

          “Hi.”

          Brad tore his eyes away from her.  “Hey b—Suzy.”

          Now he knew my name.  “Hi babe.”  I took perverse pleasure in the uncomfortable look on his face.  “Later,” I said breezily and walked on without a second glance.  That lifted my spirits, however briefly.

          I wondered what Anna’s plans were.  It had to be more than a coincidence that she had moved to the exact same town as Duncan.  Valley View wasn’t a well-known city by any means.  How had she convinced her parents to move all the way across the country?  Now that I had seen her in person, I was even more curious about her.  Why had she broken up with Duncan?  Maybe, like Mandy, she had thought that she was too young to be tied down to one guy.  Had she now changed her mind and decided that she had made a mistake in letting him go?

          These things were no longer any of my business.  Duncan had made it clear that he wanted to distance himself from me.  He had told Anna that I was a stalker, which had hurt my feelings terribly after the close friendship that we had shared.  Despite everything, my eyes were immediately drawn to him as I entered English class.  I was shocked by his appearance.  He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept at all the night before.

          “Are you okay?”  I couldn’t help my concern.

          “Fine,” he muttered as he quickly looked away from me.

          I managed to mind my own business for awhile.  Then curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to try to sneak a quick peek at his thoughts.

          “No!”  Duncan’s voice was loud enough to interrupt the teacher and make everybody in class turn to stare at him as he shot up out of his chair.  “May I go to the restroom?”  He didn’t actually wait to hear the answer as he hurried out of the classroom.

          “When you gotta go, you gotta go,” somebody said.  Everyone except me laughed.

          I sat there blinking away my tears.  In case I had missed it the day before, Duncan had once again driven home the point that he didn’t want anything to do with me.  Even my concern was unwanted.  I had no intention of becoming the stalker that he had described me as being.  It was for this reason that I ignored the nagging feeling that something was very, very wrong.

          If he wanted distance, then I would give it to him.  When he came back to class, I resolutely ignored him.  The minute class was over, I stood up to beat Duncan out the door, but he stood in my way.

          “Don’t ever do that again,” he hissed.

          “Get out of my way,” I snapped.

          He remained where he was, his eyes locked on mine.  “Please, Susannah.  You have to understand how important this is.  Anna must never know about our connection.”

          “So much for being different,” I said bitterly.  “I’m not the one you have to worry about.  Last time I saw Anna, she seemed to be getting friendly with Brad.  You should hurry before he beats you to her bed.”

          The hurt look on Duncan’s face didn’t give me much satisfaction.  Wordlessly, he stepped back to let me pass.  My anger drained out of me as quickly as it had sprung up.  I felt sad that my friendship with him had to end this way, but it wasn’t my choice.

          At least I still had Caitlin, who was a true friend.  It was a relief to see her at lunch and know that she understood how I felt.  We sat down at our usual table, but we weren’t alone for long.

          “Hi, Susannah.  Do you mind if I sit with you?”  Anna was holding her lunch tray and looking at me expectantly.

          “Uh, sure.”  I felt like my face was going to crack from my forced smile.

          “Thanks.”  Anna took a seat next to me.  “Being new here, I don’t know many people yet.”

          “This is my friend, Caitlin,” I said.  “Caitlin, this is Anna.”

          “It’s so nice to meet you.”  Anna half-rose out of her seat and leaned toward Caitlin with her hand extended.

          A bewildered Caitlin shook her hand.  “Nice to meet you, too.”

          “Everyone’s been nice except Duncan.  I tried to sit by him, but he was cranky.”  Her green eyes looked to me for sympathy.  “Anyway, I’d like to get to know you.  I meant what I said yesterday.  I hope that we can all be friends.”

          She had caught me by surprise.  “Uh, yeah.”

          “Also,” Anna continued.  “Brad asked me to the Homecoming dance.  He told me that you used to be his girlfriend.  I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot with you, so if you’re not okay with it, I’ll tell him no.”

          “She’s fine with it,” Caitlin blurted out.

          Anna smiled at Caitlin and turned back to me.  “Are you sure?”

          “Absolutely,” I said with sincerity.

          “Okay.”  She waited a beat.  “So, has Duncan asked you to the dance?”

          My smile faltered.  “No.”

          She covered my hand with her own.  “It’ll be okay.  I can tell that he likes you.”

          “Really?” I asked before I could stop myself.

          Her smile was encouraging.  “I know him.  He definitely likes you.”

          “Are you okay with that?”  Caitlin asked the question that I didn’t dare.

          Anna turned her attention to Caitlin.  “You’re very direct.  I like that.  To answer your question, yes I’m very okay with that.  Duncan and I were over a long time ago.  I’ve moved on, and I hope that he can, too.”

          I wasn’t sure what to think now.  Anna seemed so sincere and friendly.  She was being a lot nicer to me than Duncan.  I decided that I wasn’t going to hold his behavior against her.  “Yes,” I said with conviction.  “We can be friends.”

          She beamed at me.  “I had a good feeling about you the moment I met you.”

          “What are you doing?”

          The three of us looked up at Duncan.  Anna spoke first.  “Duncan, why don’t you join us?”

          “Anna,” he seethed.  “I asked you what you’re doing.”

          “I’m getting to know Susannah and Caitlin.  They were kind enough to let me sit with them after you turned me away.”

          “I’ve changed my mind.  Come sit with me.”  Despite his words, Duncan couldn’t have sounded less inviting.

          “Why haven’t you asked Susannah to the dance?”

          Even Caitlin was shocked by this.  I heard her gasp as I held my breath.

          Duncan’s pale blue eyes flicked to me for the briefest instant then fixed on Anna.  “Are you coming or what?”

          Anna spoke to me.  “He does like to play hard to get, but we know better.”  She smiled at me and Caitlin.  “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try to talk some sense into him.  See you later.”

          As soon as they were out of earshot, Caitlin exclaimed, “Wow!”

          “I know,” I said.

          “She seems—“

          “Nice,” I finished for her.

         “But weird,” Caitlin added.

         My laugh was genuine.  “Caitlin!  You don’t have to do that.  It’s okay.”

         “No,” she said.  “I mean she did sometimes act like she’s way older.  Again with the shaking hands thing.”

          I shrugged.  “It’s a little different.”

          “Anyway,” Caitlin brightened.  “Your problem is solved.  She’s going out with Brad.”

          “That doesn’t change how Duncan’s acting toward me.”

          “That’s another thing that’s weird,” she mused.  “It doesn’t seem like he wants her back.  Why wouldn’t he let her sit with him if he did?”