Free Wish by Janet MacLeod

pushed back a stray curl. “Hey,” he answered. “Sorry. Just
thinking.”
    “Come on, let’s get out of here.” I got up and waved my hand
to motion him out of my mom’s room. Keith went towards the door and I waited
until his back was turned before returning the book to the bed. Magic hurried
to it and climbed on top.
       Keith glanced back. His eyes looked older, wiser somehow.
I walked up beside him.
       “You have powers,” he said.
    It sounded like a statement more than a question but I
answered anyhow. “I’m like Sabrina the teenage witch. Only not as wholesome or
pretty.”
          His laugh exploded from him like a mini firecracker.
“You’re prettier. In a grungier kind of way.” His laugh faded. “So? What can
you do?” he asked.
          I shrugged, faking nonchalance. “Well. I made a whole
day fast forward when I wished it could be over. And sometimes when I wish for
things they come true. But not money. I can’t wish for money. Cody told me.”
          “Cody?”
          “Long story.”
          “Do it. Make a wish,” he said.
          I hesitated and dropped my gaze, not wanting to make
eye contact with him.    
          “I wish I had my own smart phone. Hot pink. With a cool
ring tone.”
          I held my breath. Nothing. I glanced up. Keith’s eyes
were wide, his expression expectant.
          “It doesn’t always work.” I explained and my face
warmed. “No one said I was good at doing the magic stuff. Wait. I wished you
here, right before you came I said, I wish someone would help me figure it
out.”
          “I’m not much of a help.”
          “No. That’s not true. I mean. I can talk to you about
this. And you’re not running away or having me committed.”
          He tried to smile again but the corners of his mouth
failed to turn upright. “Why doesn’t this freak me out more than it does?”
          I lifted my shoulders and dropped them with a sigh.
“Turning sixteen totally sucks. Nothing surprises me anymore.”
          As if to prove me wrong one of Nana’s favorite old
songs from the seventies suddenly began playing. My eyes opened wide and my
head felt frozen. It was Witchy Woman by the Eagles. The pocket in my Skeleton
Jams vibrated. I reached inside and pulled out a Pink covered phone. The ring
tone was Nana’s favorite song. I flipped it open.
          “Hello?” There was no answer on the other end.
          I dropped the phone on the floor and Keith and I raced
out of Mom’s room.
                   
         

CHAPTER
SEVEN
    Keith followed me into my bedroom, tracing my steps to the
make-up table Nana gave me when I was ten. I picked up a brush to pull through
my tangles and he and plunked down on the bench. He’d been in my room a million
times, but somehow now it felt awkward, a boy in my private sanctuary. This
whole hormonal becoming a woman thing was much more complicated than I’d
thought.
    “You wished yourself a new phone,” he said. “So. That’s kind
of cool. Isn’t it?”
    “I am never using that thing,” I snapped. “It’s evil.”
    Nana would be proud.
          “Still. I mean. It just proves it more. You’re special,
Sydney. Somehow, I always suspected. Like the dream. And now this. Magic.” He
puckered his mouth and wiggled his lips back and forth. “I fit into this
somehow. I mean, I bought you that necklace.”
          I reached for elastic as he rose, raking through his
own hair. My fingers brushed against his. As soon as our skin touched, my eyes
closed in pain, as if he’d reached into my insides and twisted them around.
And, so not in a good way.
    Instinctively with my other hand I reached for my necklace. I
rubbed it and the cold metal against my fingers rescued me, and my ability to breathe
returned. I gasped, as if I’d been drowning.
          “Sydney?” Keith raised his hand as if to touch me, but
I raised mine