Chapter 6

-Canta's POV-

"Can't someone make them be quiet?" Loche groaned, resting his head back against the tree and closing his eyes. That was the fifth dog which passed us, barking madly at something in the middle of the field. I didn't care much to look, but Loche had dragged me out of my room. Well, he convinced me to get out of my house and then dragged me down the street and to the park.

"Sorry, I can't control dogs," I said with a shrug. Then a shiver went down my spine. I turned around, thinking there was somebody close to us.

My eyes immediately landed on a pair of familiar deep hazel eyes. I couldn't help but stare at her. It was one of the first times I had seen Juniper Berry outside of school. She was wearing a simple outfit, jeans, t-shirt and hoodie, but it was as though I was seeing a completely different person. She didn't look awkward or scared to move.

"Canta," Loche said with a small groan, punching my shoulder. "I was meant to be getting your mind off her." His lips were set in a deeper frown than usual. He stood up and brushed his pants off. "Come on."

I didn't know where we were going, I'd let Loche completely plan our day. It was something I enjoyed, stepping out of my comfort zone. It was common knowledge that I would pick the same things to do over and over again, and shopping wasn't Loche's thing.

I picked myself up and stumbled after him. "Hey, I'm not wearing the right shoes to run." I giggled a bit as he paused right in my way, causing me to bump into him. "You did that on purpose."

"Did I?" He raised an eyebrow and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. Another thing which wasn't fair was his height; he was nearly a full head taller than me.

He led me to a less grassy spot in the middle of the park. I preferred the other location, but I kept that thought to myself as Loche seemed more content. There were less loud noises, as most of the equipment were meant for teenagers, rather than children.

"Do you think they're following us?" Loche asked. I glanced where he was looking and turned away again, fearing that Juniper and I would lock eyes again.

My cheeks warmed. "No, why would they do that?" I asked hurriedly. "They have ice cream. They obviously went for ice cream."

Loche looked at me with a knowing glint in his eyes, the end of his lip twitching with amusement. "Okay miss defensive, they're just here for ice cream."

"There-" I was going to continue defensively, but then another bark caught my attention. There were two people walking a rather small dog, who was growling and snapping in the direction of the picnic benches. The only people who were sitting there were Kavi and Juniper.

"Do you think that's got something to do with it?" I asked, not sure how to word my thoughts.

Luckily, Loche was psychic and knew exactly what I meant. "Could do, but which one?" He narrowed his eyes and looked at the two sitting on a bench not far from us. "Which one is more dog-like?"

"I don't think that's how werewolves work," I said with a laugh.

"Berry's staring at you now. Maybe she can hear what we're saying?" He nudged my elbow.

"She stares at me all the time. She's probably wondering why you're staring at her." I began to fidget with my necklace. "Seriously stop, you look so freaky."

"Freaky?" Loche tore his eyes away from them and glared at me. "Freaky good or freaky bad?"

"Bad," I declared. "Especially now that you're staring at me instead." I playfully inched away from him.

"I'm not staring!" he defended loudly. '

I stood up and tried to hit the back of his head, because we were the ones being stared at now. He blocked my futile attempts easily, chuckling as he did so.

"Why are you staring?" A voice came from behind me.

I spun on my heels to see the one person I was going to spend my day avoiding, because that was generally easy on weekends. I froze with my hand raised in the air, ready to strike Loche again.

"I'm not staring," I said quickly, even though she wasn't really looking at me.

"I am," Loche said with a scoff and stood up. "I'm tired of her pining over you like a lovesick puppy. Talk, and either hate each other or start dating." He then began to walk away.

"Wait!" I told him as I struggled to get out of the awkward park bench. Why did they make these things so tricky to get in and out of?

Juniper snickered a little. "Is that why he was staring? You were talking about me?" Her nervous voice didn't match her amused body language.

"Are you a werewolf?" I sputtered out. I shouldn't have done it like that, but I didn't want to delve further into embarrassing myself. If she wasn't, then this would surely get her to stop doing whatever it was which annoyed me so much about her.

Her eyes widened and she stepped backwards. "Well, that was sudden." Her voice deepened, in a very attractive way. All sense of light-heartedness had left her. "Are you a love witch?"

So, she already knew, wonderful. That means that she probably already knew that I was the one to give her that love potion. Even worse, she probably knew that it was a love potion.

My eyes scanned the park, looking for any kind of help, Loche in particular, but he was too distracted staring at Juniper's friend, who was staring at us.

"I take it that's a yes?" Juniper whispered. "Not that it's not incredibly obvious."

My eyes snapped back to her and I crossed my arms. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She narrowed her eyes at me and shrugged. "Well, it's obvious. Everyone's in love with you, they drool all over you. You don't even do anything, and they'd do whatever you ask. It's always the same with love witches, with a smile or a wink people get attached and then you break their hearts."

I scoffed and shook my head. "Is that the only thing that you think about love witches? Is that the only thing which told you?" I was hopeful that it was, because then that would mean she didn't know about the potion.

"That's what told me that you're a love witch, yes. Along with the fact that you smell like roses and jasmine. It's a bit sickly, but it's very sweet and addicting."

I opened my mouth to argue, but then her thoughts actually sunk in, and my cheeks heated up. "Is it really?" I asked, almost sheepishly.

She nodded. Then silence settled.

The silence was thick and awkward. Neither of us wanted to break it. I didn't want to break it in fear that she would run away. I was able to consider the situation and concluded that this wouldn't end in any favourable situation.

"So, we know what each other are. What now?" Juniper asked after a good five minutes or so.

"What do you mean 'what now'?" I asked, using my hands to form quotation marks. "Does this change anything?"

She chewed on her lip. "Not really. I just thought that it would be different." Her words were slow, like she didn't want to finish her sentence. There was really no weight in her sentence.

"Why would it be different? Especially since you knew I was a love witch before. I don't care if you're a werewolf or not." Maybe that was why she was resistant to love potions? That would be annoying, but I would need to refer back to my books.

"What was that drink you put in my locker?" she asked. Her fingers interlocked together on the table.

I felt dizzy and the sun's rays set my skin on fire. "What drink?" I asked nervously. It was extremely clear that I knew something that I didn't want to tell her. I was never a good liar, particularly when people weren't charmed by me.

"The one which tasted like flowers," she said with more force. "I know that you're the only love witch in school, and that was definitely the product of a witch."

"How do you know it's a love witch?" I asked. "Other witches could do that; they could dabble in love magic if they wanted to."

"You did it," Juniper stated. There was a fire in her eyes which roared with determination. "Why?"

I sighed. There was no possible way I could convince her otherwise. Or maybe there was, but I didn't really care enough to try. I had already dug my grave and decided to lie in it.

"It was a love potion," I admitted. "I was trying to see why exactly you moved away from me. I wanted to know what you would do if you actually fell in love with me."

"It didn't work, clearly." She folded her arms and turned her body, so that she was sideways on the park bench. "Why is that?"

This was going a little better than I had expected. There wasn't any shouting, but Juniper was certainly upset. "You tell me," I muttered. "I don't know. I've been trying to figure that out. I just thought that it had something to do with you being a werewolf, which I just found out a second ago."

"That's inaccurate, but I don't know. I'm not versed in magic." She said the last word with a sneer, as though it disgusted her.

"What's wrong with magic?" I asked, feeling quite offended. My shoulders straightened and my hand curled into a fist on my lap.

"It's not normal, and you know it isn't." Her eyes sharpened, searching my eyes for any argument. "You tried to make me feel emotions that I didn't want to feel."

I stuttered a bit, not expecting her to be so blunt. "Yes," I admitted. My eyes found a curious stain in the table, probably from a cigarette. "I'm sorry about that."

She scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Go on a date with me," I said. I couldn't control my mouth or the tone which I used. All I had time to do was think of the words, then they flowed from my mouth like a fountain.

"Excuse me?" she asked, as though I had deeply offended her. "What did you just say?"

"Go on a date with me," I repeated. "I would like to go on a date with you, give me a chance."

Her mouth opened, closed, and then opened again. "What?"

I rolled my eyes. "What more could I do to get it through? Get on my knees?" I decided to do so anyway, because maybe that would shock her enough for her to listen to me. "Please go on a date with me?" My heart was beating erratically in my chest.

"A date?" She spoke like she was tasting the words. "You want to go on a date with me?"

I nodded my head. "This will give us all the answers that we need. It'll help us figure out why you resist my charms and why you can't be put under the influence of a love potion. It'll help me figure out whether or not I'm right."

"About?" She was quick to pick up on what I didn't want her to know.

"I'll tell you when I figure it out."