I didn't want to fall in love, not at all but at some point you smiled and holy sh*t I blew it.

-I found it somewhere on the internet.

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'This is ridiculous.' He declared. 'Why the hell did I let you talk me into this?'

'I have magical powers of persuasion.' I wiggled my eyebrows.

'I will kill you for this.'

'If Marge couldn't do it when I was still solid. You know, human. What makes you think you stand a chance now that I'm a ghost.'

'Death would be too good for you anyway.' He muttered grumpily.

'Ahhhh. So what do you deem fit as punishment for the Queen of hell?'

'I don't know about hell but you are definitely the Queen of getting me into tricky uncomfortable situations.'

'And I love it.' I smiled. 'Don't you?'

'You're unbearable.' He shook his head.

'And impossible.' I cheerfully added. 'And mean. And devious. And sneaky. And insanely smart but without being insane.'

'Get away from me.' He grumbled.

'No can do, Playboy.'

'Playboy? Seriously? That's the comeback you're going with?'

'You know I can still make this a whole lot worse so back  off bulldog.'

'Fine. Sorry. Jeez.' He swept back a few strands of hair that had fallen across his forehead.

'How's it going?' Asia asked, taking a large bowl of salad from the fridge.

'Its going.' Gavin replied with an uneasy smile.

As soon as her attention was somewhere else, he turned on me.

'I can't cook to save my life. I can't even make ramen. Why the hell did you make me volunteer to cook for twenty?'

'You can't make ramen? You're kidding!'

'Unless you're planning on give me magic cooking powers, we have nothing to hand out to the homeless.' He scowled.

I glanced around the large busy kitchen of FeedAll foundation. Everyone was so preoccupied with what they were doing; cooking, packaging, cleaning, none of them noticed Gavin talking to himself.

'Don't worry. I'll talk you through it.' I said.

'You'll talk me through cooking?' He asked skeptically.

'Yes. Now start chopping some onions.'

The kitchen door swung open and Kelsey marched in. She stopped a few feet away from Gavin.

'Gavin Connor have you lost your mind?!' She exclaimed.

He started to reply but she cut him off.

'You know, when I got to the front desk and they said you were here. I was surprised. No. I was beyond surprised. And then I remembered that Vasilisa is making you do all this and for a moment all was right with the world again.' She placed both hands on her waist.

Gavin began to formulate a reply but she cut him off before he could even get a word in.

'But that was until I heard that you were cooking. Cooking! For chrissakes! Gavin, you don't even know how to boil water much less prepare a meal.' She ranted.

'My opinion of your cooking skills just keeps falling lower and lower.' I shook my head, disdainfully. 'I mean, it was already in the gutter before but now its underground.'

'Thanks for the vote of confidence. It means so much.' He muttered sarcastically to Kelsey and then turned to glare at me. 'And you. I told I was hopeless in the kitchen and you forced me to volunteer anyway so you don't get to point fingers.'

'I've got ten fingers for a reason. Pointing and holding things. I'll point them wherever I want, whenever I want.' I cheeked.

'You make my life miserable.' He groaned.

'I take pleasure in it.' I smiled.

'Six months ago, I was happy. Without you on my back. Forcing me to do all this crazy things. Now you're just everywhere all the time. I can't wait for you to leave. To be out of my life forever.' He growled.

Ouch. I know we're not best friends but was that really necessary?

'Okay tone it down sassy pants.' I glared. 'And just so you know, neither can I.'

'Gavin, that was a little harsh.' Kelsey whispered, nervously pinching her elbow.

'I'll talk you through it, like I said.' I said, crispily.

'Starlight.'

'Gavin.' I made my voice as icy as possible.

'Fine! Have it your way.' He huffed.

'I always do.' I said in a clipped tone. His apologetic gaze met my Arctic glare. I didn't blink until he looked away.

'She's mad.' He whispered to Kelsey.

'Yeah, you were a little mean. Of course she's mad.' She replied.

'She's a lot mean. A lot of times. And I don't get mad.' He countered. My eyebrows shot up and I refrained from uttering one of the thousand scathing comebacks running through my mind.

'It doesn't matter, Gavin. You were... I mean, I felt it. What you said and the way you said it was. . . resentful.'

'And she's worse. All the time. But since she's a girl, she gets free pass. Of course. But I'm not allowed the same privilege.' He grunted.

'I'm standing right here.' I snapped. He glared at me. I glared right back.

'Tell Kelsey to chop the onions. You can get started on grating the cheese.' I dictated icily.

***

'Gavin, your risotto was a hit. You have to share your recipe.' The manager, Leslie beamed.

'Of course.' He smiled, shooting me an apologetic look. I met his look with a hard one of mine.

'I think I forgot my phone in the kitchen. I right back.' He excused himself.

'Of course. Hurry along.' Leslie shooed. I folded my arms and watched him till he disappeared into the kitchen to search for a phone that was in his pocket.

I wandered to the next group of conversing people. Three elderly women.

'Yeah, turns out twenty four is new code for thirty eight.' Susan, the woman who organizes clean up, snickered. She owns a dance studio in town.

'Yeah. Poor Sawyer. He divorced his wife for her and turns out she's older than the wife he dumped her for!' Pammy chipped in gleefully.

I rolled my eyes and wandered unto the next group. Two men who were discussing "the last game". What sport they were talking about, I have no idea. All I know is a ball or balls were involved.

I sighed deeply and wandered out to the verandah. I took in  the neatly groomed rose garden. They looked enchanting and more beautiful under the moonlight.

I sat on the porch steps and stared up the dazzling night sky.

'I know you're there.' I said.

'Do you have some special ghost extra sense?' Gavin asked, coming out of the shadows and settling down next to me.

'Don't be ridiculous.'

'Look I sort of snapped earlier and I'm s--'

'Gavin, don't. You yelled at me. Big deal. I yell at you all the time. In fact you said so yourself.'

'About the that. I didn't m--' I could feel his gaze on me but I refused to meet his eyes.

'You snapped. I snapped right back. End of story.'

'Okay.' He conceded.

'Good.'

'Are you sure?'

'Gavin!'

'Fine. Fine. I'm backing off.'

'Gavin, it's fine.'

'I said I was backing off.'

I finally met his eyes, giving him a pointed look.

'Okay. Fine.'

'Dinner was a success.' I commented.

'Thanks to you. And I'm sorry I snapped at you.'

'I thought we agreed to drop it.' I glanced at him.

'I just... I know. Okay. Dropped.' He nodded. I looked up at the sky.

'It's beautiful.'

'Uh... Yeah. Sure. Beautiful.' He echoed even though from his tone it was obvious he didn't see it.

'Two years after Edward died, Marge's mother left town. No one heard from her after that.' I began. He turned so quickly I was afraid he'd get whiplash.

'That's it? She just up and left?'

'My mother grew up. Got married. Had me. I grew up some.'

'But...?' He prompted.

'No buts. Not yet. Marge came into town. I had no idea who she was. Everyone was stigmatizing her. The entire town. Well not us the children but all the adults and everyone else. It was awful. I felt bad for her and then I found out she was a witch so I thought maybe that was why they were all treating her weirdly and it felt unjust to me because me and my mother were witches even though we weren't practicing but still we were witches and everyone loved my mom regardless so it felt hypocritical. So I offered to be her apprentice. I thought maybe it would take some of the heat off.'

'I thought you said you were a powerful witch? You weren't even practicing.'

'I might have exaggerated a little bit.'

'So did it work?'

'No. If anything they seemed to hate her more. Granted she wasn't the nicest person on the block but that didn't mean.... We shouldn't just cut her off because she's a little abrasive.' I sighed deeply and dragged my palm over my face.

'Anyway, not long after I became her apprentice, she started asking about all these magical artefacts which I didn't know anything about because like I said, my mother didn't practice. We didn't even used to talk about it. We barely even acknowledged that we're witches. We lived very mundane lives.'

'Any time she asked me, I'd go and ask my mother or anyone I thought would know something about it. I guess word got around.  I think they all felt she was going to lead me into something bad which considering my current situation was not as farfetched as I had thought.'

'Why did you even offer to be her sidekick in the first place? I mean she comes into town and everyone suddenly hates her on sight. That had of raise a few red flags.'

'Why do kids do anything?' I snickered. 'I thought I knew best. That I was helping. Making a difference. Doing something good. And then when I found out about what happened between our two families, I was even more convinced. My mother told me to drop it but I didn't. I thought I could end the feud. Reconcile our families. I mean the town was her home just as much as it was ours and she couldn't peacefully in a town she loved because of how the townspeople were reacting to something her mother did years ago. It didn't seem fair. It seemed wrong. I was sure I was doing the right thing. Everytime I helped her steal something, I'd go back and put money from where we had stolen. Twice what whatever we stole was worth. My great grandfather was a very rich man. My grandmother multiplied that wealth and so did my mother so money wasn't a problem.'

'I thought if I helped her long enough, she'd see that my mother and I weren't her enemies because she hated us.'

'Why did she hate you? I mean other than the obvious reasons.'

'Turns out her mother wasn't a good mother or much of a mother at all because after Edward died, she fell apart. Marge blamed us. I thought if I helped her long enough it would become water under the bridge. I didn't realize.... It didn't occur to me until after I was cursed that she was playing me. She never truly wanted the... She only wanted it because she knew we'd get cursed. She wanted to curse me. And she got her way. Because I was dumb enough to let her.' I added quietly.

'You weren't dumb. Y-you thought you were doing the right thing.' He tried to catch my eyes but I looked away.

'Yeah and fat lot of good that did me.' I muttered. 'The funny part is she was never nice to me. She never pretended to like me. I thought she was an abrasive person and I liked that she was honest enough to show her actual nature. I fell for it. I thought everyone hated her because of her personality and I was the only one who could see that there was someone under that cold hard exterior. Turns out everyone was right and I was wrong. I was so stupid. I ate it all up. The whole thing and she didn't even have to try to convince me. God, I was stupid. I let her into my life. Really let her in. I did this to me.'

'Starli---' Before he could finish saying his nickname for me, I vanished.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the late update. I've been busy with school work.

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