Quia in Aeternum - DEH/BMC

Valentine's Day

"Evan?" He looked up from his math homework to see his stepbrother, blushing and chewing on his lip.

    "Yeah?"

    "So, um... Valentine's Day is like, tomorrow."

    "Yeah..." Evan hadn't paid much attention to it. He was probably going to go out for lunch with Connor, but they did that just about every day anyway. This holiday had never been all that special to either of them.

    "Do, do you think that, um, maybe, you might be able to like, help me with something?" Evan set his pencil down and nodded. Jeremy slid into the chair across from him at the kitchen table. His face was half-hidden behind a bouquet of roses that his dad had bought for Evan's mom. They were still in full bloom, despite having been sitting in the same vase for two weeks. Hey, magic didn't always need to be extravagant.

    "Like what?"

    "Well..." What Evan could see of his brother's face was bright red. "Mostly, it's stupid, but... M-Michael?" Evan couldn't help his giggle.

    "Is this about your crush?"

    "Maybe?"

    "Just tell him."

    "No!" Jeremy jumped. His leg hit the table, rattling the vase. "I can't just tell him anything! How would he react? If I tell my best friend I have a hugeass crush on him, he'll kill me. He'll basically disown me. I can't do that!" Evan bit his lip. He had promised Michael he wouldn't tell.

    "He probably likes you back, you know." Jeremy laughed, disbelief in his breath.

    "Yeah, right. There's no way. I'm too much of a loser."

    "I don't think he'd care." Jeremy put his head down on the table. Evan picked at the corner of his homework paper. "If you don't want to tell him, what do you need my help for?"

    "You're magic. I don't know. Zap me with something to make me not look like an idiot? Make my crush disappear? Turn me into a fly because it's easier than being a human being with these shitty feelings?" Jeremy spoke to the floor, which was good. It meant he couldn't see Evan's discomfort. Evan held his breath. He wasn't used to his brother knowing. Obviously, everything was fine. Both he and Connor had been perfectly okay with it, if a little jealous, of all things. They'd come to comfort him after he'd fled during the sleepover. They promised him everything was fine, and the rest of the night was mostly him showing them magic tricks. No one thought he was a freak. Still, it was a reminder that they now knew Evan was different.

    "The last time I was doing transmogrification, I thought I gave Michael amnesia, so... no, not that last one." Evan's hands were cold and shaking, but his voice managed not to tremble too much. Jeremy lifted his face to the ceiling with a groan and stared at the overhead kitchen light.

    "Can't you at least look through one of your books or something?" Evan sighed and went to fetch one from his room. Love spells were not his forte. More specifically, he'd never tried one.

    When he came back downstairs, a heavy tome in his arms, Jeremy was staring at his phone, texting furiously. He looked up as Evan sat back down.

    "He's skipping school tomorrow because he has a shit ton of homework to catch up on, but he'll be coming over here after dinner. I really don't want to fuck this up. What have you got?"

    "Um..." Evan leafed through weathered pages. Stupid spellbooks never had a table of contents. "This one sounds like it might work?" He had no clue what Aphrodisiac meant, but Aphrodite was the goddess of love, so it was probably right. It was written in curly red ink, with little hearts doodled about the title. If this wasn't a love spell, he didn't know what was.