Our Forbidden Love 2

36: Alexander

Weedy and I are mid-battle when we both become aware of three other energy-active people in the room. I look to the space where they came from. It's Peter, Weedy and Starley.
"I told you to stick with the plan!" I yell throwing my hands up in-front of me, creating a purple force-field, protecting myself from Weedy's dark magic that kept coming from the palms of her hands. Binah hopelessly gestures to Weedy and Starley and attempts to explain the situation without using complete sentences, which only confuses and angers me more. Weedy abandons the battle we had only just started to go and join Starley, Peter and Binah.
"You fed her?" Weedy asks Peter and he nods in response. I beckon to Binah, hopefully she'll be able to explain this.
"Starley, isn't it?" Weedy asks. Starley nods slowly in what looks like admiration. "I'm Weedy."
Why is Weedy introducing herself? Starley knows who she is... doesn't she? A memory spell...? Perhaps?
Finally, Binah sees my beckoning and she leaves that group to join me. Together we tune out the trio she'd just left.
"I don't know, okay? So don't ask me what's happening," Binah says as she approaches.
"This can't be right. She's acting... weird. She hasn't looked at me since she got here. Like umm... hello? I'm your boyfriend; soon-to-be-husband."
"And like, her eyes, they're shiny almost and constantly smiling. Random, but they're a beautiful violet colour, no wonder you love looking into her eyes so much."
"Violet?" I ask, confused and Binah nods. "Starley has blue eyes."
"Then she has to have been spelled," Binah concludes.
Piper! I telepathically call into the empty space of Telepaths. Surely she'll hear me. What can you tell me about love potions? I think Starley might've had one.
Her reply is almost instant.
Love potions make one fall in love with the first person they see. The potion adds red, the colour of love to the eyes.
I respond, thanks.
"She's taken a love potion," I recite back to Binah. "It adds the colour red to their eyes. It's turned her blue eyes purple and that's how we can tell."
"The cube..." Binah mumbles.
"The what?" I ask, but my voice trails off as I see Weedy and Starley joined at their lips, kissing each other.

"Starley!" I call out, and Starley finally looks at me. "You don't want this. Not really. You want me."
"What is with everyone thinking I should be obsessed with you?" she asks, sounding slightly annoyed.
"Starley, you're under the influence of a love potion," I state, sounding pained. I'm sort of glad my pain is being reflected in my speech. I am pained. First Peter, then Lilliana, now Weedy, they're all stealing my girl!
"A what? A love potion? What? Are you insane? No. I love Weedy. And besides, love potions don't exist," she says before leaning in to kiss Weedy again. I flinch. This hurts and I know Binah can tell I'm hurting at the moment.
"I'll watch them," she says. "Get your mum, sorry, Piper to make you a love potion antidote."
I nod, grateful for the distraction and name change Binah had used. I turn around and show the trio my back.
Piper, I need an antidote for a love potion. What do you know about it?
It feels weird hearing you call me Piper, she says.
Well, it feels weird for me to call you mum.
That's fair, she replies. Last time I checked, love potion antidotes were made with apple juice and cinnamon.
F**k! I curse. She's allergic to apples. What happens then?
Suddenly, Piper energetically leaves the conversation and I can't feel her in the space of Telepaths either. She's just gone. I turn back around, but I regret it as soon as I do it. Weedy and Starley are making out, like how she and I used to before everyone else was obsessed with her. She's kissing Weedy back. Peter looks over at me. I never thought it would be us two sympathising with each other. He wants Starley and so do I. We're both feeling jealous; we both want Starley. Just like old times when we were best friends and he thought the same girl as me was cute; we both wanted her, we hoped the other wouldn't get her. But unlike old times, Starley was mine. I planning to put a ring on her finger, she just didn't know yet, and I also hadn't asked her dad, but I didn't think he'd object.

Weedy and Starley are still going at it, making out. How could they not be out of breath? Starley had never gone that long with me. I try not to feel hurt. It's probably the love potion, I keep telling myself. But then the voice in my head that won't shut up says, what if it isn't the potion and she could've always gone longer with me and just didn't?
Alex, your future. There's a different path there now that wasn't there before.
What? I ask, confused.
Your mum might have to move your red-inked file to the same box as your sister's was moved to all those years ago.
Instantly, I got the connection. Was this the same voice that talked to Starley?
What do I need to do to prevent that future, Fate?
You need an antidote, Fate says in response and then disappears from the conversation, leaving a bunch of energy behind in my mind. I distribute the energy, evenly, through my body.
Yeah, well, one problem with that, Fate. She's allergic to apples!