THE bell rang almost as soon as we sat down. I looked at him in alarm but he didn’t even seem to notice. He flicked his locks to one side and gave a little half shrug as if to say ‘meh.’ I smiled back shyly.
‘So, you brought me that rock I gave you for your Mom?’ he said, offhand.
‘I did! How’d you know?’
‘Oh, I’m a good guesser.’ He said mysteriously.
‘Oh! Err… cool!’ I said, a bit wobbly.
‘Well, hand it over then!’ he said, rubbing his hands together like I was going to give him something fun to play with.
I rummaged around in my bag, pushing last week’s kiwi fruit to one side and hoping he couldn’t smell it. The coal black stone was right down in the corner and I had to scrape at the bottom to get it out, and it reached the air with a few fingernails full of glitter and dirt.
I went to blow some of the remaining glitter off it when he put up his hand, calm as you please, like a cop directing traffic.
‘Hey, don’t,’ he warned. ‘Your breath has its own vibration, don’t wanna get it all juiced up on you. Just give it over, angel dust and all.’ He smiled.
Ohhhhh boy, that smile. Ok. Brain wonky. I handed it to him, and as I dropped it into the palm of his hand from a small height, I could feel the warmth of his hand on my fingertips. Even though we didn’t touch! It was strong. Felt good though, not sweaty hot, more like the warmth from a candle. I put that on my list of The Many Things To Ask Michael When And If My Brain Should Function Again In His Presence.
Almost immediately, he looked strange. Not himself. He looked a bit... sick. Like he was having trouble breathing or something. He reached for his throat and I panicked.
‘Are you ok??’ I said, moving my weight to my hands, getting ready to spring up and help him.
‘Oh yeah!’ he flashed a smile, and the unhealthy pallor disappeared instantly. ‘Yeah, I’m so good! Did I scare you? Oh, I’m sorry dude, I’m just picking up on your Mom’s energy from the crystal. She’s a smoker, yeah?’
I was a bit gobsmacked. I sat back down. ‘Errr, yeah. Yeah she is. Can you tell just from that? Does it smell or something?’
He giggled and I liked it. He held the rock to his nose and gave it a melodramatic sniff, like a real snort. I thought for a moment it might disappear up his nostril. He was so cute! He could be all man-mountain one minute, all silly the next. It was a bit weird but I liked it. A lot.
‘Winfield Blue, 25s?’ he enquired in a spooky, mystical voice.
I giggled. All the shame about my mother’s embarrassing habit had disappeared. I nodded. That was her brand. ‘How did you know?’ I asked quietly, with not a small amount of awe in my voice.
His wide smile became a little coy for a moment. ‘A’ight, confession time! When I was ‘round your place this morning, I saw a packet lyin’ under your hedge...’
I must’ve looked crestfallen because he quickly rejoindered ‘Hey hey, it’s okay! I can do some real stuff. Real magic. Seriously, some hella cool tricks, you’ll see!’
I don’t know why I felt so disappointed but it must’ve been written all over my face.
‘Hey… Jo? You’re in safe hands with me. Check this out… ‘
But I couldn’t look at him. I just stared at the ground. I guess I must’ve thought he was going to fix stuff for me. Stupid, really. Nothing ever really changed in my world.
