Forgotten Love

12. Love Potion

I had been thinking.

Body snatching was more than enough to get Seth expelled. So no one was really owing him anything to make him leave.

That day I was gonna tell him just that – calling off the deal with him.

He wasn't gonna get Lillith back.

So I called up Ethan to tell him about my plan.

It took a while before I had him on the phone. "Ethan?"

"Y-yeah?" I heard him ask somewhat anxious on the other line.

My eyebrows furrowed. "Are you alright, man?"

"Where are you?" He asked instead.

"In our room," I told him. "Why? What's going on?"

"Okay, I'm gonna be there in five," Ethan told me, trying to sound calm. He did not though. "I can't tell you on the phone."

"How bad is it?" I pressed.

What could have possibly gone wrong now?

A few shivers suddenly ran down my spine. "It has nothing to do with Ruth, right?"

"She's fine, it's just that uh – look, I'm almost there."

"What do you mean it's just that? Just that what?"

That's when he hung up, but before I could redial his number, he had already bolted through the door.

"What happened?" I demanded alarmed, hoping it had nothing to do with Ruth.

Ethan cautiously closed the door behind him and walked over to me with a sheepish look on his face.

"I uh," He chuckled nervously. "Might have made a love potion, because I thought, well, um, I mean it's a love potion that brings out the purest form of love. So I thought maybe I could speed up the love process with Ruth since she's not quite there yet with you."

I gave him an unimpressed eyebrow raise.

He was a stammering mess, talking about manipulating Ruth into loving me.

I already hated where this was going.

"Did you do it?" I asked slowly with a look that told him that I was hoping he didn't.

"I also thought that we could use it on either Seth or Lillith, so that we'd get him off our backs, but..." He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. "I decided on giving it to Seth since he was standing there with Lillith, fighting like usual. The love potion would bring out genuine love instead of his weird toxic obsession with her you know? Anyways, his water bottle was standing unattended on the door steps, you know the black one that reads coldest water bottle –"

"Can you... Get to the point?" I asked, scratching my head.

"I don't like getting to the point," He replied quickly. "Getting to the point will probably earn me a black eye from you."

I rolled my eyes at my best friend's antics. Like we had ever gotten physical with each other.

"Ethan, spit it out already," I pleaded with a sigh.

"Basically I put a tiny drop into the bottle and he grabbed it after a while and right at that moment..." He trailed off, looking up at me cautiously. "Commercial break. Gimme a moment, it–"

"He fell in love with you?" I speculated, bursting out in laughter.

"No!" He protested, shaking his head. "Right at that moment Ruth walked up... You fall in love with the very first person that you look at a bit more attentively – I was sure it would have been Lillith, but... Well it just so happened to be Ruth, while Lillith was still sulking in a corner over the argument she had with Seth."

My grin died off instantly.

This had to be a joke.

"You're... meaning... to tell me..." I was all choked up.

Ethan looked at me with woeful confirmation.

"Seth fell in love with Ruth."