Maybe It's Magic

Chapter 19

Jake let out a weak wheeze of laughter from underneath Molly, also staring around at their latest round of total destruction. "I figured we'd start with the lamps first, then take a sledgehammer to all the furniture."

"Good plan," Molly sighed, rather reluctantly moving off him, wincing a little as he slid out of her.

"Does it hurt?"

"Only a little," she had to admit, but not enough that she wasn't considering trying again as soon as humanly possible as she glanced at his sweat-kissed skin. "I'm okay."

They both laid back, staring at the ceiling and possibly both wondering: what now? At least, she was. She wasn't quite sure what Jake was thinking. Luckily, or not, he spoke first.

"So... when you said you were crazy about me since I was a chubby little—"

"I didn't say that," she cut in quickly. Or did she? She was pretty sure she only thought it, but who knows what she might have said in the middle of everything? Stupid, stupid... 

"Yes, you did. You said--"

"I think I said I was into you before. Very mildly into you. Possibly just hypothetically into you and not actually—"

"Fine. Hypothetically, you were into me then," he broke in, turning to face her. 

She glanced his way. 

"Are you more into me now?"

"What do you mean?" She couldn't help feeling a tiny bit scared, like he was setting her up for some kind of disappointment and just checking it wouldn't hurt too much before he dropped the hammer.

"I mean that I don't want this to be some summer thing. It was one thing to have that with Rachel, but with you..." He shook his head, his eyes as worried as hers must be. "You're too important for that. But if you don't feel the same—"

"Of course I do," she said on a relieved breath. She couldn't let him jump on that train. Not when she was just getting off it. She held in a smile. "Don't be an idiot."

He leaned over her and grinned. "Can't help it. You practically just said I wasn't done being an idiot."

It was infectious when he smiled, all toothy and sweet. She couldn't help smiling, too. "I only meant idiot in the sense that you're a magic-crystal-believing fool."

He leaned down, then stilled, hovering over her lips. "I technically don't believe in magic crystals."

"I'm glad you finally see it. That thing wasn't any more magic than these beads... which, by the way, I'm keeping." She pulled the necklace away from her chest. "Not that I think they're magic, but they are sparkly and cute, way more than that dumb magic bracelet."

"That wasn't magic, either."

"Yeah, obviously."

"Patience said that crystal power is all about science and nature."

She wondered if she would really have to explain how science and nature didn't allow for crystal power. "Oh, Jake..."

"I'm serious! Crystals are basically how watches and microphones work!"

"Huh?"

"Look, I don't know how to explain it," he growled, "but Patience had this whole thing about it. She said it wasn't magic. It was science or something. She said that everything that came to me with the crystals was basically mine if I just got out of my own way."

Molly stared up at him and his painfully earnest face. "You sure she wasn't hedging her bets?"

"She wasn't like that."