Free The Magic Broom by Teegan Loy

The Magic Broom
“W ELL
,
I can see you had a fabulous day,” Kira said when
    Cody slammed the door.
“Why are you here?” Cody asked. He wasn’t trying to be
rude, but he’d had what could qualify as the worst day in
history and he wanted to be alone. Kira was his best friend,
but she could be annoying as hell. She’d try to cheer him up,
and he sort of wanted to stay crabby and sulk for the rest of
the evening.
Kira frowned and threw her beanie at him. Her dark
hair tumbled down onto her shoulders.
“You have new neighbors,” Kira said. “I saw people
hauling boxes.”
Cody tossed his jacket to the chair and kicked his shoes
off, then flopped onto the couch next to her. “Big deal. We
get new neighbors all the time. This building has a revolving
door.”
“Have you seen them yet?”
“No,” he sneered. “Unlike you, I’m not a nosy neighbor.” “Jeesh, you’re a crab tonight. You really need to get
back in the game and get laid or something,” she said. “I suck at the game,” he said.
Kira put her arm around his shoulders and played with
his dark hair. He waited for her to scold him for letting it get
so shaggy. She didn’t like it when it fell over his eyes. “I know he hurt you, but it’s time to move on.” “Said the girl who wouldn’t leave her apartment for a
month after she caught Tr—”
“Don’t say his name,” she snapped and placed her hand
over Cody’s mouth. She sighed. “We are a sorry pair. Why
can’t you be straight?”
“Why can’t you be a boy?” Cody shot back.
“Touché,” Kira said. She fiddled with the TV remote and
shook her head. “Maybe we should go out tonight.” Cody frowned. He wasn’t going anywhere, except maybe
to answer the door when the pizza guy showed up with his
dinner. Kira must have read his mind, because she was
already on her phone ordering the pizza. Tonight was for
moping and complaining about their dismal love lives,
mourning loves lost, and eating lots of greasy food. “What’s going on tomorrow?” she asked as she flipped
through the channels again. “I have the next couple weeks
off work.”
“Lucky you. I have to work,” he said. “Special torture
assignment.”
“What now?”
“I told you about it last week. With the Olympics coming
up, the boss is making me do a bunch of stories about
athletes in the area who have aspirations of winning gold
medals. I get to try out some of the sports.” Cody gave a
weak cheer and shook Kira’s beanie like a pom-pom. “I thought you were kidding,” she said. “Why do they
always make you write the sports stories? You know
absolutely nothing about sports.”
Cody stuck his tongue out at her, but he was wondering
the same thing. The only thing interesting about sports was
how the athlete looked in his uniform. The swim team had
lovely uniforms. So did cyclists, and track and field guys, but
this was the winter Olympics, and everyone was going to be
wearing big puffy jackets and hats to stay warm.
He had tried to plead his case with his boss, saying he
hadn’t had time to properly research the sports. Truth was,
he hadn’t done any research. There were so many other
reporters drooling over the assignment that he had assumed
if he didn’t show any interest, his boss would pass the
assignment off to someone else.
Cody’s idea backfired in his face. His boss actually
thought it was a great idea to go into these interviews cold.
He thought it would bring a fresh perspective to the story.
That’s when his boss had the brilliant idea that Cody should
try all the sports. His boss was on the phone before Cody
could shake his head. He wanted to use his pen as a javelin
to stab his boss, but he didn’t want to go to jail, and the
javelin throw wasn’t even an event in the winter Olympics.
Perhaps he could use a skate blade.
“What story are you doing tomorrow?” Kira asked. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a
crumpled list, slowly smoothing it out.
“I’m going cross-country