Love Potion and Other Disastrous Things

00 | rejected... again

"I'M SORRY. I'm, er, I'm gay," The blonde-haired boy in front of Ixora smiled apologetically. He looked more like he was thinking of an excuse to reject her though- she was so used to seeing the same expression every time she confessed to someone and got rejected.

This is probably the nth time she got rejected (she lost count). She was probably the only girl in the entire world to have heard all types of words of rejection: "I'm taken", "I like someone and it's not you", "I'm not ready for a relationship yet (although they got into relationships once they found a girl they liked)", "I want to focus on my studies", "you're not my type"... She mentally added a new rejection sentence into her brain's dictionary: "I'm gay."

If there was a Guinness world record of getting rejected for a confession, Ixora would definitely have won.

She smiled and nodded, apologising for her confession, then walked away awkwardly. After a fair distance away from him where he couldn't see her, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her out of school, ignoring how many times her bag was bouncing against her back as she ran.

She sighed. Somehow, she couldn't cry at all. Was it because she was too used to this? She couldn't force the tears out, as much as she'd liked to.

She kicked a pole in front of her, and it rattled vigorously, but somehow she didn't feel the pain. "God!" She screamed to nobody in particular, "If I'm fated to never get a boyfriend, a bird will poop on me right now!"

She waited for a few seconds, then smiled gleefully. God was on her side, after all. She knew she couldn't be this unlucky. It wouldn't be fair.

Unfortunately, she felt something cold drip on her forehead. She wiped it off her forehead, then looked at it to see what it was. Her eyes widened in utter shock. She shrieked. The horror wasn't the fact that a bird just took a poop on her. It was the fact that that was a sign she would never get a boyfriend. Dang, this could be a horror story instead.

Now she had the energy to cry. Tears rolled down her chubby cheeks as she stared at the white liquid on her fingers. "Isn't there any way to make everyone fall for me?" She wailed, even though she already knew the answer.

"There is," a mysterious woman's voice came from the back, making Ixora's hair stand on its ends. She turned to face the woman.

The woman was wearing a humongous black hat and a black dress. She was wearing a silver necklace that had a weird shape, but it was glistening brightly under the sun. Ixora couldn't make out her face because she was covered by the large hat of hers. "What?" Ixora stopped crying as she looked at the woman hopefully.

The woman's voice was dark and sent chills down her spine, "There's a way to make everyone fall for you. That is my love potion."

Ixora's eyes stared at her in disbelief, "Love potion? Like, the magical thingy that makes people-"

"Yes," the woman interrupted impatiently, "And I'm giving it to you now." While saying so, she took out a small bottle filled with pink liquid. The glass bottle's pastel pink liquid looked really pretty although it seemed dubious. Ixora couldn't stop staring at it.

"What?" Ixora's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

The woman ignored her reaction, "The spell will only break if you get together with a boy. Until then, all the boys in your school will be in love with you."

"But... why? How'd you benefit?" Ixora asked curiously. She knew nothing in this world was free.

"Well... let's just say you're my experiment," now Ixora could see her face. The woman looked almost her age, surprisingly, and although her voice was deep, her teenage look gave her a cute face. She had a unique set of eyes: one of them was red, the other was green. Her curly blonde hair was smooth, and her lips had a pink lip tint applied on it. She looked like a total cool teenage girl, except a little more extraordinary and different from the typical types.

Before Ixora could react, the pretty woman snapped her fingers. She was gone.

Ixora's mind was in a mess. She stared at the potion suspiciously, not believing her luck. God did just hint to her she wasn't going to get anyone.

But now, suddenly a woman appeared and told her to use this to capture every man's heart?

Ixora stared at the blue sky, in a daze.

Well, what was there to lose? There wasn't anything problematic going to happen, was there? After all, the woman didn't warn her of any side effects of this love potion. The worst that could happen was that Ixora would die of cancer or whatever if the potion was hazardous, right? Even so, she didn't mind. It was worth a shot.

Ixora took a deep breath. Yes, it was time she got some boys in her yard.