The Boy in Love With a Witch

Chapter 12

Elise

It was 7:00 PM. I was still at work when Harry came in through the glass door. 

"You are 30 minutes early. I'm still working." I smiled.

"I'm not here for you. I'm here for my latte." He said.

 I gasped and stuck my tongue out at him and he did the same. Then  I got him his drink and started winding up. 

Just then a lady entered the shop. She was old, like, somewhere in her forties. Her wrists were covered in different types of bracelets- beaded, chained,metallic, etc. There were four rings on thumb, index, middle and pinky finger of both of her hands. One was gold plated with a ruby, two sapphire and an emerald ring while others were silver. She had a red with white polka dots bandana wrapped around her head and was wearing bright yellow bell bottom trousers paired with a pastel blue top which had clouds printed on it. Around her neck were several chains, pendents and necklaces. There were big loop earrings in her ear. On the left side of her nose was a big mole.  The strangest thing was that she was wearing sunglasses at this time of the day. She looked somewhere between a gypsy and a hippie. 

"Sorry, we are closing ma'am." I said to the lady. 

She looked around the shop  catching Harry's attention who was sitting there alone sipping his latte. Then she walked over to me and caught me by my shoulders.

"Excuse me? What are you doing?" I asked being confused and shocked at her strength.

She forcefully shook me and started babbling.

"You hold so many powers you don't know of. You are capable of doing so much. You were born this way. There is no stopping it. You cannot hide it for long. You have strength and abilities. They can sense you..." She was shaking me and I could see her eyes glow behind those sunglasses. I could not breath and my shoulders were aching. 

Just then Harry got up from his seat and came over to pull us apart.

"Stop it. Leave her alone." He shouted at the woman but she ignored him and kept babbling something about strength and powers. He tried to pull her away from me but it was of no use. 

I felt something burn inside me. Like a rocket was ready to take off. I felt it take off and I pushed the lady away from me. She went flying back and hit her head against the wall. Harry looked wide eyed at me while the lady  got up, straightened her cloudy top and walked out of the shop casually like nothing happened. 

Tears welled up in my eyes and my body started shivering. I was shaking and felt extremely weak. Tears started rolling down my cheeks. What had just happened?

Harry jumped over the counter and slid inside.

"Hey?" He held me by my shoulders and all the pain went away with his touch. 

The shoulders that were previously aching, were no longer in pain. Instead, I was not feeling weak anymore, I felt some type of energy pour into me. But I was still shaking. 

"What just happened?" I asked him, my voice choked.

"Nothing happened. She was probably a crackhead." He told me. 

He wiped away my tears with his thumb.

"Let's get you out of here." He said .

As we were walking home, I told Harry that I did not want to go stargazing and he totally understood me. We took a different route that night. A little longer one. None of us spoke. I was still too stunned to say something. 

As usual, we stopped at a little distance from my house.

"Hey?" Harry said and I looked up at him.

"It's okay, Elise. I'm telling you that woman was a crackhead. I mean, who wears sunglasses at night?" He was trying to make me laugh and I tried to smile in order to not let him down. 

But inside, it felt strange. Like there was something she was trying to say. Or maybe I was just over thinking about it.

I came out of my thoughts as soon as Harry's hand rested on the side of my cheek. His thumb caressing it softly. I focused only on him. His touch gave me energy. And for a moment, I forgot what incident just took place. He lightly touched my lower lip with his thumb. 

I caught him staring and biting his lip. 

"I want to kiss you." As soon as the words left his mouth I felt something inside me explode. I could not believe what he just said. Kiss me? Where? My cheek?

"W-what?" I asked looking perplexed and wide eyed at him.

"I-I want t-to kiss you." He repeated his sentence again but this time he hesitated. 

It felt like all the oxygen has escaped from my lungs and it was getting difficult for me to breath. My mind could not process anything. Suddenly, all the events came flashing back to me. That day when Taylor insulted me and the events from tonight, that lady and her babbling.

I closed my eyes shut and reopened them to see his beautiful, sparkly green eyes staring back at me waiting for me to respond.

"N-no." I said and immediately it felt like someone stabbed me in my heart. 

I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to kiss him so badly and tell him how much I liked him but I was scared. I was scared of something. Not him. Even though I did not know much about him but something inside me told me to trust him. I trusted him and I knew he would never hurt me.

"Why?" I heard his voice breaking and his eyes turning sad.

"Not now, Harry." I did not know what I was saying. Was I giving him hope that maybe someday I will. But not today? I did not know myself.

He smiled. Hope filling in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

I nodded my head in a yes.

"Don't think much about it. Just forget it. Next time you see her, report her to the police." He said. 

"We'll talk tomorrow." That's the only thing I could come up with at the moment.

"I really like you, Elise. But we'll talk about it tomorrow." The words leaving his mouth kept stunning me.

"What?" I asked. My hands started shaking madly. 

"You have to go now." He said and brought his face closer to me. He looked deep in my eyes and then softly pecked at my cheek. My insides turned to mush and my legs felt like Jell-O.

I stared at him for a moment. 

"Now go." He smiled warmly at me. "I'm standing here." He said.

I walked away without saying a word or looking back at him. I entered my house and went straight up to my room with shaky hands and wobbly legs, heart thumping in my chest.