Page 60 of Everything She Does Is Magic
“Hold on,” Kyle says. “I was just saying, you know, if you felt the need to pay me for my kindness, that amount would doit…”
“Kyle, I have no idea why you just barged into that tent and told your parents an elaborate lie on my behalf, but I do know that I feel no need to give you my apple bobbing contest earnings. You don’t know how tense the final was. You weren’t there. I was bobbing for my life.”
“Fine,” he says, having the audacity to sound annoyed aboutit.
Our walk has synced, and it jars me so much to notice it that I wonder if I should go find Grace and explain to her what happened. But somehow, I feel compelled to see this through, despite Kyle’s commitment to pestering me in the aftermath. He’s still annoying, but it’s the kind of annoying I’ve grown to appreciate.
I’m about to say as much when I hear her.
“Itwasyou,” she says.
Julia is here, because of course she is. All my good feelings fly out the window at the sight of her. “You used your magic in the haunted house,” she says. “We saw you.” Her boyfriend stands behind her with his arms crossed. “I thought you couldn’t use your magic for other people. Or was that just another one of your lies?”
“I never lied to you,” I say.
“She’s awitch,” she says to Kyle.
“Yeah,” he says. “I know.”
“But do youreallyknow? That she has the power to bring people back to life, and she just doesn’t use it?”
For the first time, I really see her. Beneath the anger and the accusations, there is hurt. She didn’t want to lose her grandfather, and she needed someone to blame for it. That someone was me. No matter what I do, I will never be able to change that.
“Julia, I’m sorry I couldn’t save your grandfather.” My apology isn’t about my powers. It’s about life itself. Sometimes it’s cruel. Sometimes it takes the things you love from you and you don’t have any say in the matter. That’s what I’m sorry about.
Her face flushes as red as her hair. “I don’t want your apology. I want everyone to know the truth about you.”
“They already know,” I tell her, for once feeling ready to meet this moment. “And they don’t care. So now what? You follow me everywhere I go? You move here and announce to every person who comes through town that I’m a witch? In Fableview? A town that celebrates Halloween for an entire month? Which is the whole reason you came here in the first place?”
“Kinda seems to me like you might be obsessed with her,” Kyle interjects.
I could hug him.
I really, really could.
“Nobody in our town will care what you have to say,” he continues. He’s on a real hot streak now, and he knows it, his voice getting louder and more confident with every word. “We will all choose Anya over you. So maybe get over it. Or just leave. You won’t be missed.”
The strangest thing happens. Tears spring to my eyes. OverKyle Holtzenberg. He’s defended me so well that Julia and her boyfriend actually walk away.
“Damn. She sucks. How do you even know her?” he asks once she’s gone. He looks down, realizes I’m crying, and gets startled. “Was I not supposed to do that? I was kinda just following your vibe.”
“No, no. That was amazing. I’m just…” I can’t believe I’m about to say this to Kyle Holtzenberg. “It means a lot that you stuck up for me.”
“Oh.” He smiles, proud of himself. “Yeah. I guess I did. That was nice of me.”
“It was.”
“I’m a pretty good dude.”
“You are.”
“Who totally deserves five hundred dollars.”
I roll my eyes. “Finish telling me about how your first rescue mission of the night happened.”
“Not before I get a funnel cake. All this hero stuff has made me work up an appetite.”
What a funny pair we must make—Kyle in a Fableview Basketball shirt, eating a funnel cake, and me in a blood-covered yellow gown beside him, patiently waiting for him to either wipe the sugar off his mouth or tell me the rest of what happened.
