Ari and Zac

Chapter 18: Magical Thinking

Chapter 18: Magical Thinking

Ari: So listen. I've been thinking.....

Ari stared down at the text message she'd just sent, awaiting a reply. She chewed at the corner of her lip. She'd reached a decision last night, after another late-night marathon with Zac, and now she couldn't keep it to herself. The nervous excitement in her belly wouldn't leave her alone. She needed Lucy's advice.

She'd meant to have this text-message exchange with her sister face-to-face, but Lucy was already gone for the day by the time Ari rolled out of bed this morning. She was just about to give up and go in search of her sister on the boardwalk, when the reply finally came back.

Lucy: Ari, I told you I'll talk to dad about giving you a second chance. Soon. You just need to give him a little more time to simmer down first.

Her sister must have thought they were talking about the mermaid job again. A week had passed since Ari last went to work at the aquarium, and she still hadn't come up with a new plan for summer employment. Under normal circumstances, she would have been obsessed with scheming some way to get her old job back. But these were not normal circumstances. She finally had something besides her mermaid fantasies to occupy her every waking thought.

Ari: Whatever. I wasn't talking about that. I honestly don't even care that much anymore.

Lucy: You don't? Since when?

Ari: You know...

Lucy: Zac? Are you seeing him again tonight?

Ari: I think I'm going to sleep with him.

Lucy: What?!

Ari: I decided last night, after you went to bed.

Ari sat on the edge of her mattress, gripping her phone in both hands. Her messages sounded far more casual about the whole thing than she actually felt. The truth was, she'd been thinking about this non-stop since her first date with Zac a week ago. She could hardly turn her mind to anything else. Before Zac, she'd pretty much convinced herself that she would die a virgin. But now, all that might be changing. All sorts of new possibilities might be opening up.

Lucy: WAIT WAIT WAIT. WHAT??? You mean "sleep" like take a nap?

Ari: You know what I mean.

Lucy: OMG ARI WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?????

Ari: I think it might help me. I mean, it's already helping me. I can feel it... Like it's changing me.

Lucy: What is? You slept with him already?

Ari: No. I mean, just being with him is changing me.

Lucy: Changing you how, exactly?

Ari: I pretty much accepted before that I was never going to change. I was always going to be like this... but now I feel like maybe it could get better.

Lucy: What could get better? You mean the not-talking thing?

Ari: Maybe

Ari knew how ridiculous it sounded, but she couldn't get the idea out of her mind. She felt like she was standing on the brink of a major breakthrough—a transformation of some kind. Wasn't that how it always worked in fairytales? Whatever dark spell the characters found themselves under, it could always be broken by the power of "true love."

Lucy: So let me get this straight. 14 years of therapy did nothing, but you think having sex with some guy you barely know will make you suddenly able to talk.