Is Magic a Superpower?

Chapter 5

* updated

The restaurant had brick walls, wooden tables, and flat chandeliers. They were seated at a corner booth. Gabriel and Ian's friend sat at the corners. Estefani sat next to Gabriel while the other girls sat in the middle next to her. They ordered French fries as they waited for Eleanor.

"Sorry, I'm late. Had..." Eleanor looked at the bunch of ladies sitting next to Ian. She opened her mouth to say something but decided not to, taking a seat at the corner and grabbed some French fries.

"I'm going to order a big pizza for everyone to eat off of," said Eleanor.

"Is it alright if we have a vegetarian pizza? I'm vegetarian," said one of the girls who was sitting at the other corner. She had dark brown hair and thick eyebrows and wore a black leather jacket.

Eleanor looked at Estefani and sighed. "If it's okay with everyone else, then why not?"

Everyone ordered their drinks, ate their pizza and had a long chat.

"Estefani, how long have you been living in the Wine Country?" A tall blue-eyed girl sitting near Ian asked. Estefani looked at her, she had an intimidating aura around her.

Estefani twitched and Liam who lay next to her feet nuzzled against her, calming her down almost instantly. 'I umm... don't really remember' she answered better than she would have, had it not been for Liam

"That long. Where were you from originally?"

"Rohnert Park," said Estefani as her voice started to get quiet.

Everyone went silent until the waitress came with the bill. Eleanor handed the waitress her credit card, and she swiped it through the card reader attached to the tablet she was holding, and then gave Eleanor the receipt. Ian and his friends separated from Eleanor, Gabriel, and Estefani. They then started heading to the company. Eleanor and Gabriel still had some work to finish. Estefani said goodbye to them and headed to the light rail.

A week later, Estefani was well adjusted to the company and getting along with everyone.

"Hey, you take the light rail back home right?" said a familiar voice. Estefani in her office turned to the door. It was the girl who went to drink with her on her first day. She sat in the corner in front of Eleanor.

"Hey, Violetta. Yea—why?"

"You know, there's a concert at the civic center. The light rail's going to be crowded." Violetta put her head on the door frame.

Estefani turned back to what she was doing. "Okay, thanks for telling me."

Violetta went into Estefani's office and put her hand on her desk. "Hey, you know I'm saying this 'cause you're new. It gets really crowded."

"Okay. Good to know. I'll leave a little bit early." Estefani kept drawing, not even glancing at Violetta. Violetta just stared at her motionlessly, waiting until she turned to look at her.

Gabriel passed by, noticed, and went into Estefani's office. "Hey, is everything good?"

Estefani looked up, "Yea, why do you ask?" She then noticed Violetta's hand on her desk. "Hey, Violetta, how long have you been there?"

Violetta rolled her eyes.

"What?" said Estefani surprised.

Violetta stormed off.

"Did I do something wrong?" Estefani asked.

Gabriel looked at Estefani's sketch, "Were you drawing while she was talking?"

"Yeah, why?"

"People tend to not like it if they're talking and the other person isn't paying attention to what they're saying."

She flinched. "I made her angry then. Should I go apologize? I mean, when I'm drawing, it's like I'm in a different world, so I tend to not really look at people when they talk."

"Yea, that would be a good idea."

Estefani's palms started to sweat as she went to look for Violetta, her heart thumped so loud she could have sworn that everyone else could hear. Not knowing what to say if she found her. Going through the company but there was no sign of Violetta, Estefani sighed in relief when she couldn't find her. It took Estefani a long time going around the company looking for Violetta only to find out later from somebody that she had already left. Since it took her quite some time to look for Violetta she didn't get any work done so she stayed late to finish her work.

The light rail station was crowded making it so that she could barely even move. Violetta had a point in advising her to leave early. Everyone was shoving one another as the light rail taking people to Mountain View was getting closer. Estefani was close; she already passed the yellow line. They were nearly stepping on Liam's paws. She tried to shove people to be able to get in. As people shoved and shoved, Estefani lost balance and started falling onto the tracks. In the corner of her eyes, she could see the light rail's beaming light. Falling onto the tracks she could hear people scream in horror, she closed her eyes, knowing that light rail wouldn't stop in time. Nothing happened. She slowly opened her eyes—the light rail stopped. Everyone up on the platform was quiet and not moving. She could see some people near the yellow line that wanted to help frozen in their action. Liam was staring at her, and light started emerging from his fur until he was engulfed in it. The light dimmed, leaving a pale man with combed-over platinum blond hair.

"Liam?"

The young man extended his arm and helped her up onto the platform.

"Who are you?" she asked him.

"Like you said. I'm Liam," he replied.

"Liam is a dog."-

He chuckled, "Yeah, yeah, he is, but what if Liam was never really a dog?"

"I don't understand." Estefani looked around; everything was still quiet, and no one was moving. She looked at the light rail. The light still beamed yet it didn't move. "What's going on? Nothing is moving."

"So you noticed—time stopped."

Estefani got closer to the young man and whispered, "Is this a joke?"

The young man tilted his head "Joke? No, why would it be a joke? That would be of poor taste."

"How else could this be explained?"

The young man smiled. "Magic, of course."

Estefani looked at him in disbelief. "You're saying that magic is real. So you did this?"

"Yes, magic is real—just not real in this world, and no, I didn't do this. You did."

"Me? I did this. How would I be able to do that?"

"That's because you are not from this world." Liam looked around. "Maybe this isn't the best place to talk."

The young man grabbed her shoulder. "We're going to go back home, and time will be back to normal. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Everything will be fine."

For some odd reason Estefani blindly trusted him, she closed her eyes and inhaled. When she opened her eyes, they were back home.