Jocelyn. That was her name. Alex wasn’t even sure why it mattered, but she was the girl at the party with the immense amounts of unharnessed power. So much power, imagine what he could do if he ever got his hands on all of it. But there was a problem with magic that wasn’t properly channeled; it was harder to control. If he frightened her, she might lash out, and since he didn’t exactly what kind of power she possessed that could be deadly. But that power would also be easier to exploit, since she probably didn’t even know it existed.
She was overpowering his thoughts, and he didn’t like that, not one bit. She was so overwhelming he swore he could smell her at this very moment. But it couldn’t be possible. He shouldn’t even remember what she smelled like. He’d smelled her once, in a room filled with sweating bodies, but he did. It was in the air surrounding him. He would not let this affect him so.
The slight rattling of the front door snapped him out of his thoughts. Turning around, he saw Gabe, whose blond mane was disarrayed and in need of something to hold the unruly curls from his line of sight. And the smell, it accompanied him, Alex wasn’t crazy and he wasn’t obsessed. It did smell of her. Gabe did smell of her.
“Where are you coming from,” Alex asked unable to help himself. Maybe if he felt her power again, he could convince himself it was no big deal, letting it slip through his fingers. He could let go of it. He didn’t need to possess every power.
“Dude, there’s this party like two blocks down. It’s so awesome. Like you have to go back with me,” Gabe said. If there was one thing Alex didn’t understand, it was without a doubt Gabe. He held a name one of great power, Gabriel, and he had repeatedly refused to be called by it, instead he took the name Gabe. He had no interest in power. He was more than happy just living a mundane life, and he had this insane obsession with keeping up with the younger crowd, even though, he was older than Alex by many years.
“How many did you have,” Alex asked referring to girls. The one thing Gabe couldn’t go two hours without. He needed to have a new girl around him so often Alex couldn’t be bothered to remember their names. For as long as Alex had known Gabe, he had never had a steady girlfriend, six yes, but one no.
“None yet, that’s why we’re going back.” Gabe’s words shocked Alex. He hadn’t had anyone, then why did he smell so heavily of Jocelyn. If there was one thing Gabe never did it was lie. Not ever, not for anyone.
“Then why do you smell like that,” Alex said trying to sound disgusted. He did not want his friend to know of his interest in Jocelyn.
Gabe looked down at his white Bullet for My Valentine shirt, which on it had two mutilated arms wrapped in thorns holding a rose in its palm, and smelled it. “Oh. I was just dancing with this girl. She was a total shrew. Not my type at all.” Alex knew from experience that Gabe’s type only consisted of girls who didn’t take much or any work at all.
“Well, we going or not,” Alex said satisfied with the fact that Jocelyn hadn’t fallen victim to Gabe.
“Yea, just gimme a minute to fix this problem,” he said pushing back some loose golden curls. When Gabe had finally settled his hair, he spoke, “You bringing Dakota?”
Alex had hoped Gabe wouldn’t choose now to remember her existence. He looked at her bedroom door with false longing, then turned back to Gabe and said, “Not tonight.”
“Good,” Gabe said with a huge smile, “I like you better single anyways.”
They walked the two blocks in complete silence, listening to the music in the distance. Alex wasn’t sure how he hadn’t heard it before.
Outside of the white two story house with the blue shutters, from which the party took place, there were drunken girls dancing on the lawn, and a group of approximately fifteen guys off to the side smoking. Alex turned to the left to analyze the massive grin on his friend’s face. He was in foreign territory, Gabe’s territory. The things he did for power.
