(Jaycee)

            I stalked up behind Hermes and when I came up beside him, I grabbed his right arm with both of mine, clingy next to him basically, “Hello!”, I said, smiling up at him. We were outside the school and we just got off school grounds.

            Hermes paused, sliding his arm out of mines, “Jaycee, no.”, he said.

            I grinned up at him, “Okay, okay! But I thought whatever you have to do today, I could just do it with you. Friends help friends.”, I told him.

            “You don’t get it.”, he said, confusing me. “I want you to stay away from this, I mean it this time.”.

            My grin disappeared from my face and I brush my hair out of my face as the wind blew a little. Something about his tone of his voice, the look on his face, and the way he just looked so stressed and annoyed, it bugged me and yes, hurt. “But…why? We had so much yesterday.”

            “Because I don’t want to be your friend.”, he said, his voice hard and cold.

            “Why? And what did you mean this morning until you take care of something? What is it?”, I asked him. “Hermes, please tell me.”.

            “I can’t,”, he stressed out then breathed out hard, calming himself down. “I just can’t, Jaycee. It’ll be much better if you didn’t know anything. I have to go.”, he said and was about to turn away until he saw my face.

            I was trying my best to put a mask on by forcing a small smile on my face, but my eyes began to water up. It took all my powers not to cry, I wasn’t going to cry. I wasn’t going to be one of those girls who cry at every single then, I’ll just stuck it up. I nodded once, “Okay…fine, I’ll see you later.”, I said, turning half way around, “Maybe.”, I whispered before putting my bag on my right shoulder and walked away.

            I took my sweet time going home, it gave me lots of time to think. I was hurt, but I wasn’t going to let this effect me, but every time I tried to think of something, a little thing would always remind of Hermes.

            I made it home though in thirty minutes and when I went in, the house was quiet. My mom was probably at her office with some client and my dad was at work. Jace was probably just got out of school and going over to his friend house to play video games. I went into the kitchen and opened the cabinet that had candy and grabbed a hand full of chocolate kisses.

            I dragged my ass up the stairs and changed out these stupid cloths I couldn’t I wore today, trying hard to impress Hermes when all it did was fail. I changed into some baggy sweat pants, a band t-shirt, and pulled my dark brown hair up in a pony tail. I walked over to the window and sat on the bench, looking out the window as I unwrapped the kisses, popping them in my mouth

            (Hermes)

            I walked into my house and my father was over at the computer, on some website for work. I hesitated, but walked over to his side and sat down on box of books he hadn’t unwrapped yet. “Hey dad?”.

            He didn’t look away, just push his glasses up the bridge of his nose, “Yeah, Hermes?”. I saw in his mind he was hoping I’ll be a little quick since he had to get this report done or he just made a bad impression on his third week of work.

            “What…what is that protection charm spelled again?”, I asked

            “A dragon charm with the Latin line proteget te a malo.”, he said, rubbing his chin before he realized what I was asking and turned to look at me, curious, “Why?”.

            I shrugged like it was nothing, “Just curious, thought I’ll make few charms.”.

            His right eyebrow arched up a little, “For?”, he asked.

            “No one, just want to see if my craft skill are still good.”, I said, getting up from the box and patted his back before going over to the kitchen and opened a draw my mom usually places her crafts in and I grabbed a leather wristband, strings, and opened the charm box that was mostly for protection and few other things. I grabbed a metal dragon charm, it was about the size of a nickel, so it wasn’t so big.

            I went up to my room and began make the wristband and hooked the dragon up in the middle. I placed the dragon in the middle of on my index fingers and my thumps covered the top. I closed my eyes and let my magic flow into the charm for a few second, “Proteget ta a malo.”, I whispered

            Small little zapping tickled my fingers as the magic went into the charm and I opened my eyes, the eyes of the dragon glowing an icy blue color like they were some gems. I rubbed over the dragon and sighed, “Gratis.”, I said—Latin for thankful to the magic—as I start to think of the past.

            I brought my hands up to wrapped around Lucinda neck as I kissed her and she walked backward and her back hit the bedroom door. She giggle, teasing the bottom of my lip by biting it, “So happy you could come over.”, she said.

            I pulled away, smiling down at her. Her sparkling bluish-green eyes looked up at me and I couldn’t believe someone could be so beautiful, it was so amazing. Maybe she put a spell on me, I know some girl who does that, but I don’t think she would need one. “I know, I don’t think I could take seeing your father evil death glare at me. Maybe you should just go on for some sixth generation.”, I told her, frowning as I spoke.

            She look determine now as her hands came up to my neck, looking serious, “No one can ever take me away from you, Hermes. Not my father, no even the spirit in the other world can. I love you.”.

            I kissed her, “I love you.”.

            She kissed me back and opened her door. We went in, kissing still and she walked backwards until she fell on her back. We both chuckled as we climbed on and my hands took hers. We just kissed, it felt like it was hours, but only minutes.

            I slid my right hand out of hers and trailed my fingers up her arm, under her sleeve. I felt something rough, it didn’t feel right. My eyebrows came together and I leaned my head up from her, “Luce, what is this?”, I asked, grabbing her hand and pulled her sleeve down.

            She gasp as she sat up, taking her hand out of mine, pulling her sleeve back down, but I saw it. It was some scab looking wound, like a cut wound. She smile at me, “It’s nothing, Hermes. I was klutz over a week ago while cooking and accidently cut myself.”.

            I reached to take her arm, to see how bad it was, “It looked like it was pretty bad—”,

            She snatched her arm back, “It was, but it’s nothing now.”.

            I looked at her, seeing how she looked just a little nervous as she smile at me. Something in my gut felt weird and I tried to ignore it, but it was very strange. How does your wrist get cut while cooking? Sure, your hand, but the cut was a strange to me. Maybe her hand just slip and it blade went up or something.

            “Hey now,”, she said, putting her hands on my face to make me look up at her, “it was just a little scratch, let just forget it. How about I go get something to drink and snack?”.

            I nodded, “Sure.”,

            When she left to go get a snack and drink, I sat on her bed and looked around her room. I looked around her room, I’ve been in here a plenty of times. Something in the corner of my eyes caught my attention and I turned my head to look at her dresser, seeing a strange looking book.

            I got up from the bed and walked over to her dress, picking up the leather book. It wasn’t big, maybe about the size of a journal. I didn’t like how their was a serpent on the book, I think I seen it before somewhere. Out of curiosity, I opened the book and saw Latin. My father spoke Latin fluent, so I know a few things in here.

            And I didn’t like what was in it.

            Power to control people, it was something we weren’t aloud to do. It was dangerous, since the person would black out and back in the days, if someone caught you doing it, we would be burned to death. Even, it takes some pretty large amount of energy to possess it.

            Another was to make some deathly ill or put a demon curse on someone, cursing them to hell. Another bunch of some was weather disasters and make someone hair fall out.

            Then I suddenly remember what the serpent meant, this book was a book of black magic spells. My blood went icy cold, What is Lucinda doing with this, I asked myself, closing the book. I bit my bottom lip, thinking, Is she practicing black magic? She has been acting strange these last few weeks, I thought. I thought about the cut on her wrist, with black magic, you need blood.

            “I hope your up for oreos and chocolate milk!”, Lucinda sang before she walked into the room. She had a smile on her face until she saw me holding the book and her smile lowered, “Hermes, what are you doing?”, she asked

            “More important, what are you doing with this?”, I asked her. “Luce, you know what black magic could do to you. It’ll make you crazy.”.

            “It’s not mine.”, she said, coming over and set the box and large glass of chocolate milk down. She snatch the book and throw it on her bed, “I swear.”.

            “Then why do you have it?”, I asked.

            She shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe Connie left it here one day when she visit. You know I would never use black magic, my family a family of healers.”

            I wanted to believe her, but something in my guts still felt wrong. I looked at her, she looked nervous and paranoid, but she tried to hide it all by smiling. It didn’t work on me, I saw something new in Lucinda and it wasn’t good.

            I cleared my throat, “I just remember, I have to help my mom with grocery.”, I said and she looked upset.

            “But—no, say you believe me.”, she said, grabbing my left arm roughly, her nails digging into my skin.

            I winced in pain and took my arm out of her grasp, “Okay, Lucinda, I do. But I do seriously have to go.”.

            “O-Okay.”, she said. “I love you.”, she said, looking up at as if she was begging almost for me to say it back. She gave me a small smile, “Don’t let that book change what we have, Hermes. It’s nothing, it’s not mine. I would never do black magic.”, she said, but sounded guilty

            I started to ignore her after that and she grow wicked over then. I never imagine how she would react after breaking up with her, but I had to. I couldn’t be with someone who was using black magic. Black magic is like a drug, like heroine. The same side effects and it’s hard to stop. The magic makes you feel good, strong, in control, like you can do anything you want, but then you can become control, violent, and crazy

            I sighed and let the charm bracelet down. I was so naive and stupid, I can’t believe I thought I loved Lucinda. I was blinded my first love.

            (Jaycee)

            I knocked on my dad door before opening the door and going in. He was sitting on his bed, a bunch of papers all around him. I walked over to him and sighed. He didn’t look up from his paper, I guess he just expect me to tell him what I wanted. It irked me a little, since I wanted him to ask my what’s wrong

            I sighed again, but a little louder.

            Nothing. Nada

            I did it again, but also with a little cough. His head lifted up and he looked up at me, giving me an amused smile, “Yes, Jaycee?”

            I pouted and moved some paper away so I could crawl up next to him and put his arm around my shoulders, “You’re always so busy now, you never hold me anymore.”

            “I know, I’m sorry.”, he said. “Now what’s the matter?”.

            “Nothing. Does something have to be the matter for you to hold me?”, I asked him. “You use to always let me do work with you when I was little.”

            He chuckled once, “Just like to your mom, always trying to avoid something that’s on your mind.”

            “Am not!”, I said. He looked down at me with his eyes raised and gave me a ‘yeah right’ look. I sighed then, “Dad, I really don’t want to talk about it right now. Everything is so…I just thought I’ll be happy when he came back. He doesn’t like me.”.

            He chuckled and I huffed up at him, “Jaycee, he does like you. Most of them are afraid of their feelings for us, it’s a normal reaction when both of them could be completely different. Just give it time.”.

            “But what if we’re really different though?”, I asked, trying hard to not give away the fact that he’s a warlock, pretty much an enemy to us.

            “Then it’s going to take so much longer. Just be patient, but that must be hard for to hear. You can never be patient.”, he said, patting my back and I groaned. He use to have much better advise.

….

            I walked over to my locker and put my combo code in, I opened my locker and was surprised to find a bracelet. My eyebrows came together and I picked the bracelet up. It was a leather made one and some dragon charm was on it.

            What is this and who put it in my locker?, I asked myself. It was defiantly something I would wear though, I have a whole bunch of bracelets on my wrist already.

            I felt something like someone was watching me and I turned my head around to see Hermes down at his locker, watching me. He nodded at me before looking at the bracelet. So he gave this to me?

            I considered keeping it.

            I closed my locker and I kept my eyes on his as I walked over to—the trash can. Pressing my lips angrily together and giving him an angry looking, threw the bracelet in the trash can and not thinking at all if a teacher could be watching, I brought my right hand up and give him the middle finger before going to my first class.