Page 13 of How (Not) to Conjure a Boyfriend
I nod. “And now he’s in a coma, and they want me to—”
“Whoa, wait, he’s in a what?” Kaity interrupts.
“—come to Thanksgiving.”Okay, slow down, Kenzie.“A coma, he’s asleep, like involuntarily.”
“I know what a coma is, bitch, I’ve just never known anyone in one,” she comes back.
“Yeah, it’s crazy. I feel so bad because it happened at the shop,” I tell her. “But then his whole family arrived.”
“Oh wow.” A smile creeps across her face with this knowing pleasure that I must have been horrified.
“Yeah, yeah, shut up. It was horrifying!” I tell her. “They didn’t have a clue who I was, and one of them…gods, I can’t remember who, I think it was one of the grand…no! It was some girl who’s younger than us. She asked who I was, and then everyone was looking at me.”
“Dayum,” Kaitlynn laughs. “All eyes on you, babe!”
I ignore her. “They were confused at first, but then it was like boom, hey, Hayden’s enbyfriend, you’re now part of the family.”
Hold on a second. I didn’t see Hayden’s brother there. Wonder where he was? It’s no matter. Whatever.
“Are you serious?” Kaitlynn sounds totally befuddled.
“I know, right?” I lean back on my pillow. “I still can’t believe it.”
“But wait.” Kaitlynn stops me and smacks her lips. “You two aren’t dating though, right? Like I didn’t miss something, did I? Did he ask you out before he hit his head?”
“That’s where things go off the tracks,” I tell her, looking away and letting a mouthful of air explode from between my lips. “Wearen’tdating. I mean not officially. He never asked—”
“And you never asked.” She just has to bring it up too.
“Yeah, but we are now…sort of.”
It’s a technicality, really. Everyone thinks we are. He just doesn’t know it yet. Oh gods. Am I a horrible person? I give my necklace a squeeze.
“Sort of? So you’renot.” She’s right. She’s one hundred percent right, but his family still thinks I am, and even worse, I’m supposed to have dinner with them tomorrow.
“Yeah, true,” I say as my shoulders deflate. “I know. But, like, they all think I am. And I actually got totalk-talk to him tonight. They say he can hear.”
“So he’s probably screaming for everyone not to listen to you,” Kaitlynn laughs. “Bad witch.”
I ignore it and instead try to think how I’d even go about telling his family the truth without sounding like a total and complete asshole. Nothing comes to mind.
“But, like, how do I break it to them? Now they think their son was a closeted gay, or bi, or something, pan maybe, I guess. I don’t know.” I start to ramble, and I know it, but oh well. “They think he was afraid to tell them. And they think I was his secret lover because I saved—”
“Whoa! Saved him might be a bit much.” Kaity knocks me down a notch. “You just called an ambu—”
“Andstayed with him at the hospital,” I stress.
“—lance.” She laughs again.
“Bitch,” I giggle. “Still. Now I’m supposed to have a late Thanksgiving dinner with them tomorrow.”
Before I got home, Hayden’s mom, Mary-Anne as I now know her, sent me a text inviting me to their Thanksgiving tomorrow night. I was not expecting that, and instead of thinking it over, I immediately texted back that I’d be there. “Oh! And you know the pretty New Orleans woman who works at The Good Hex, right?”
“Uh, not like personally, but yeah. What’s she got to do with this?” she asks.
“She’s Hayden’s aunt!” I squeal.
“Excuse me?” Kaitlynn yelps. “Did she recognize you? And Thanksgiving dinner? Withthem?Tomorrow night?Bitch, you were supposed to do that at my house tomorrow.”
