four wishes - duncney | ✔️

Chapter 2

When Heather disappeared, Courtney immediately called up her friends Sierra and Gwen. The way Heather left the room in a rather negative tone made Courtney nervous and she didn't want to face whatever was in the bottle alone. She didn't even know it was real, because it wasn't an everyday world where the movie Aladdin suddenly came to life.

Since her friends lived right down the hall they were in the room quickly. They sat down on Courtney's bed and stared at Courtney in confusion as she examined the bottle Heather had given her.

"I don't really trust Heather..." Gwen started after Courtney told the story of what happened and why Heather handed it over. "She doesn't exactly seem like someone who is... nice."

"Well, when she left the room, she did note that the genie is a bitch." Courtney pointed out to them again. "I don't really know what that is supposed to mean."

"Heather must have learned from it." Sierra joked causing Gwen to laugh.

"Guys! This isn't funny!" Courtney protested, her voice high pitched.

Gwen sighed, calming down and staring at Courtney with a blank expression. "Courtney, come on. Do you actually think this is for real? A genie in a little bottle? This isn't wonderland, honey."

Sierra turned to Gwen with a smirk, and Gwen met her gaze with a raised brow. "Gwen, I bet you one-hundred dollars that the genie is a scam."

With no hesitation Gwen shook her hand. "I guess I'm losing a hundred dollars tonight..."

Courtney groaned, finally catching the attention of the other two girls. "Ugh! You guys are useless. Why did I even call you over here?"

Courtney sometimes had a hard time understanding how she, Sierra, and Gwen became friends. They were all so different from each other and all had differing personalities. But maybe that was why they clicked...

"Just open it already." Gwen said, bringing Courtney back to reality. Gwen rolled her eyes but now had an amused expression on her face.

Finally, Courtney grabbed the corkscrew from off of her desk. She'd been using it more recently to open wine bottles, well ever since she and Scott branched off. She stuck the screw into the cork on the top of the bottle and it popped off instantly, sounding like a gunshot. All three girls in the room jumped from the noise. Sierra nearly screamed.

Then, the bottle began to tremble. Courtney had to let go of it as it felt like it were shocking her. She scooted away on her desk chair, watching the bottle levitate in mid air. Sierra and Gwen's jaws were hitting the ground as they stared at it. It began to glow and fizz out mysterious purple clouds traced with glitter.

Sierra squeaked, grabbing a huge one-hundred dollar bill from out of her pocket. Who randomly had a one-hundred dollar bill in their pocket? Sierra apparently. Then she shoved it into Gwen's chest without taking her eyes off of the smoke and proceeded to run out of the room screaming. Gwen did the same a moment later, the door slamming behind them. So much for support.

Courtney was pleased that the genie proved them wrong. But she was equally shocked to see that this was actually happening. The bottle was actually emerging with a genie. She knew that because it popped out with another loud noise, and it came out so suddenly it hit its head against the ceiling. "Oh, fuck!"

The genie was wearing nothing but black boxer cover up around his waist. He was dark gray, and the tip of his wispy tail was turning black. When the genie turned to Courtney, she was taken aback by the sudden color that erupted from his eyes. A beautiful cerulean blue. The color was accompanied by many bold piercings. He also had green hair. How unusual. Courtney felt threatened and intimidated under his presence.

Finally the bottle fell to the floor and bounced under Courtney's feet. The tension in the room was high as they just stared at each other. Courtney was too scared to say the first word, but the genie was just waiting for her to introduce herself so he could get this over with.

He finally had enough and crossed his arms. "What is your wish?"

Courtney was instantly offended by his tone. "Excuse me. Is this a joke?"

The genie gave her a flat look and gestured to his body especially his ghastly tail. "Does this look like a joke to you?"

She stared at it for a moment before meeting the icy blue gaze again. It was hardened, as if he wasn't pleased to be there. "Mind if you introduce yourself, genie?"

Rolling his eyes, the genie scoffed. "Usually girls like you freak out a little more upon seeing a genie in real life."

"Well it's not every day that a genie just pops out of thin air."

"Whatever," the genie brushed her off. He secretly felt considerate for the girl to not be screaming in his face as soon as he appeared, trying to understand what was going on; but, he would never let it show. "I'm Duncan. Now please give me your first wish."

"I'm Courtney," she introduced herself. Sticking out her hand like the polite woman she was. For a moment Duncan just stared at it before meeting her friendly gesture, but when he went to shake back his hand floated right through it, causing her to laugh.

"So I don't like freak you out or anything?" Duncan had to ask. "You don't think I'm scary? Do you need to pinch yourself to wake up?"

"I'm pretty sure I would have already woken up from that dramatic entrance you bestowed upon me." Courtney pointed out causing Duncan to grimace

"Stop using big words!" Duncan said. "I have a very limited vocabulary. Genies don't go to school."

She laughed again and Duncan just watched her. He didn't understand what was so humorous in her mind. "So what is your wish?" he demanded for the third time as she calmed down.

"Well shouldn't we get to know each other a little better?" Courtney asked, standing up.

Duncan crossed his arms and scanned her body. "I guess I could make an exception..."

Courtney looked horrified. She opened her mouth to say something but then closed it, glaring up at him as he levitated close to the ceiling. She was just unsure of how to respond a literal genie checking her out...

"That's what I thought." Duncan declared.

She sighed. "I meant asking questions such as, hey, what's your favorite crime movie? Because it looks like you could be straight out of one." Courtney eyed his piercings.

Duncan smirked. "Well princess, you look like you belong in the highest room of the tallest tower."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," he replied as he floated down closer to her. "Now please just give me your wish because honestly I don't care about you or your life. And I am a genie that is required to help you and your selfish needs, so I'm not supposed to anyways."

"Well, I want to know more about you," Courtney argued, crossing her arms. "Because you're a genie and oh, I don't know, that's not normal?"

Duncan scoffed. "Yeah, well, there are thousands of us and it really sucks. You would understand if you were me."

"What do you mean?"

Duncan growled. He hated how pushy this girl was. But he explained anyway. No one ever asked him before. "What I mean is, I'm always doing things for other people and they never do anything back for me. Probably because they don't consider any of my feelings. They just use up my three wishes like the snap of a finger and then bam, I'm squished back in a bottle. So why should you be any different?"

Courtney still had her arms crossed. "Because I can tell that from your angry tone that it isn't what you want."

Duncan stayed quiet, his facial expression softening. This girl knew how to crease him...

She gestured to the door. "Come on, we can talk on the way to my ex boyfriend's place..."