Charms and Contradictions

Chapter 3

After consulting a school map - which I was probably going to need for the whole school year, this place was utterly huge - I finally found my dorm room. It was in Tower M - M for Magic - on the 7th floor. I guessed that every tower had a particular type of mystical being in it. Magic probably includes witches and fairies. Vampires were probably in Tower A for annoying just because of Isaac. I got into my dorm room to discover that I had not one, but three roommates.

And they were all witches.

I immediately wanted to leave.

"Oh, it's tardy girl," said a blonde girl.

"Oh, it's a blonde," I said, mocking her tone.

"Discrimination," she shot.

"Judgmental," I shot back. I grabbed my bag and stormed into the only room that had a closed door. Thankfully it was mine and I slammed the door shut. I locked it and decided to enchant the door to make it soundproof in both directions. I also decided to leave a little gift for any unwelcome visitors in the enchantment. My suitcase was on my bed, so I unpacked it which didn't take much time. I truly had no desire to interact with my roommates more than I had to, so I resolved to going out my window and climbing the 7 floors down to the ground.

"Well, that's a new one." I spun around in surprise. It was Isaac. "You know, you could just levitate yourself down," he said.

"Maybe I like climbing more." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Oh, I'm not judging. I'm actually very impressed. Not a lot of witches like getting their hands dirty," he said, gently holding my hands in his and turning them, revealing all the dirt and muck that had gotten on them on the climb down. I pulled my hands away from him quickly. His touch felt like prickly fire on my skin - and not in a good way.

"Well, I'm not most witches," I said.

"Clearly," he said with a smirk. "What classes you got?" he asked.

"Don't know yet. Not exactly the first thing on my mind," I said. His eyes narrowed a bit at me.

"Hmm," he hummed.

"What?"

"Nothing. You're just very... interesting," he said.

"Nice line. Very original," I said sarcastically. He chuckled.

"Some of my friends and I are planning on going into town. Wanna come with?"

"Ooh, breaking the rules already? Really living up to the bad boy stereotype, aren't we?" I smirked.

"If you'd been alive for over 100 years, you'd hate being trapped too," he said with a shrug as he turned around and started walking away.

"Wait!" I called after him. He turned back with a smirk.

I was honestly dying to get out just because I knew it would only get harder to sneak out when classes started.

"What, are you gonna walk?" I asked.

"Well, actually we were gonna run. Think you can keep up?" I chuckled. I held my hands in front of me and muttered an incantation. I felt an invisible string reach up to my room through the open window. My car key appeared in my hands.

"I think you'll be the one struggling to keep up," I said with a smirk and strutted past him.

"Well, what do you know? A witch with a bad girl complex," he said, coming up next to me.

"I don't know about complex. Let's just say I don't like being cooped up either," I said.

"Used to getting your way with everything, I suppose?" I glared at him.

"Just the opposite," I muttered and sped up.

"Oh, don't tell me you have a tortured backstory! Do tell," he said, rubbing his hands together like a fly.

"Oh, yeah, didn't you know? My parents died in this tragic car accident and I only discovered I was a witch when I accidentally pushed a gross predator of a man in front of a bus with my mind," I said, sarcasm dripping off every word.

"Funny," he sneered.

"I know. I'm hilarious," I said.

"But seriously. You don't see a lot of Italian witches around here," he said. I turned to him with wide eyes. "Your last name is Vitaly, how dumb do you think I am?"

I forgot my last name had been exposed during the assembly.

"But speaking of names, I don't know your first," he said.

"Well, I don't know your last name so I think we're pretty even Isaac," I said.

"Fair," he said. "Price."

"Your last name, duh. Although, I'd take a hundred bucks if you got it," I said.

"No, my last name is Price," he said.

Oh.

"Christian parents I take it?"

"Yup. They tried to have me exorcised when I turned into a vampire. In hindsight, it was really funny," he said.

"And in the moment?" I asked. His expression darkened.

"The past remains the past when your immortal. No point torturing yourself over what was," he said. I nodded.

"Yeah, that makes sense," I said, now looking at the ground. Letting go was a concept I was never good at.

"What about you? Are your parents witches too?" he asked.

"My mom," I said.

"And your dad?"

I shrugged.

"Normally, I wouldn't give a witch this advice, but only because you're much more fun when you're not clearly thinking about past trauma, just let it go. I let it go because hanging onto pain for eternity is stupid. You don't have eternity. Don't waste your time on the past," he said. My hands curled into fists.

"You don't know anything," I hissed and stormed ahead of him again. I found my car exactly where I'd left it.

"Damn, that's an oldie," he said.

"Yeah, you got a problem with my car?" I demanded.

"No! Not at all, I actually owned a car like that when they came out," he said. "Got wreaked though."

"Drifting?"

"Hunters."

Oh.

"Sorry," I said.

"It's inevitable for my kind," he said with a shrug, though I could see the dark look in his eyes.

"Want a ride?" I asked.

"Can I drive?"

"Hell no."

"Fair. Sure," he smirked and got in the passenger's side.

"Where are your friends?"

"At the property line," he said.

"Let's see if I can run any of them over," I said with a smirk.

"What!?"

"I'm joking. Calm down," I said, turning over the engine and putting the car into drive. "But if they don't get out of my way, that's their fault." I smirked and floored it.