Black Mirror

Interlude 3 - You're The Most Beautiful Broom

Across the street, the new family was busy unloading the moving van and carrying crap in and out of their new home. Alex, standing by the hedge separating his front lawn from the sidewalk, watched them. They were a biracial family - the dad was Asian, and the mom looked Mediterranean, with olive skin like his and Gabe's mom. Like Alex himself. They had one kid, a boy in his early teens who ran back and forth carrying more boxes than he should've been able to hold. Super strength wasn't a typical warlock power, but there could always be an exception to every rule.

Then he saw her.

Another kid in this family, one more his age. Just like Mom had said.

He couldn't see her face, but he could see her hair. Shoulder-length, with a pink stripe on one side. Sure, it looked a little "manic pixie dream girl," but it made him think of cupcakes too.

Knowing full well how foolish he looked, he jumped over the hedge. When he landed on the sidewalk, she stiffened at the sound, then turned around to see him. Even at this distance, he saw that she was just as cute as he expected, with an oval face and big brown eyes.

He was such a sucker for naturally doe-eyed girls.

He waved awkwardly, wishing he could find his voice. Maybe he just needed to get closer to her first. So he did, crossing the street and holding out his hand. "Hey there," he said, wishing his voice could stop cracking. "Uh...well, I'm, uh, I'm Alex. Alex Emery. I'm your-"

"New neighbor?"

Alex's eyes boggled at the sound of her voice. Her tone wasn't particularly welcoming, but he was more interested in how husky it sounded. He wanted to hear her talk more - better that than hearing the sound of his own stupid, inferior voice.

"Could you, uh, maybe un-slack your jaw?" She dismounted clumsily from the moving van's ramp on which she was standing, almost dropping a box full of what sounded like glass. The ensuing vibration was enough, however, to knock over a pair of brooms leaning against the stack of boxes still inside the cargo space. "I'd kinda like to know I'm talking to a human, Alex Emery."

"I'm a warlock. Does that count?"

She blinked. "Yeah."

He wished he could come up with something more intelligent and worthwhile to say, so he settled on a simple, standard question. "What's your name?"

"Fiona. Lee." She let go of the box long enough to shake his hand. "Listen, I know you're not gonna want to hear this, but I'm not interested in, uh, dating."

"What are you-"

"I just moved here. I'm not happy about it, even if you see me smiling. Inside, I'm an emotional wreck."

Alex gazed at her, nonplussed. "What? What, did you have a bad breakup or something?"

Fiona scoffed. "Almost wish I knew what that felt like. A breakup. I've never had one, 'cause I've never had a boyfriend." She hefted the box full of glass in both hands. "But I know the look I'm seeing on you. You've got some kind of insta-crush on me, so I'm just gonna tell you up front - save it."

His eye twitched. She was right; he didn't want to hear this. But somewhere, in the back of his brain, he understood. He made her feel uncomfortable, being as open-hearted as he was. "Well," he said carefully, "I mean, if you just wanna be friends-"

"You don't look like a 'just friends' kind of guy."

Now it was his turn to scoff. "I could be."

"No, but then you'd be radiating all that unfulfilled lust, and that'd poison the atmosphere wherever we'd go."

It was like she knew all his weaknesses. Or, more likely, that God calculated all his weaknesses and put them together in one girl. The doe eyes, the smoky voice. A smartass with a great ass - he couldn't lie to himself and say he hadn't appreciated the curves under her jeans when he saw her come out onto that ramp. Not that he would tell her, though. She wouldn't even want to be in the same ZIP code as friendship with him.

"Hey, bro! Getting to know the new neighbors?" Gabe sidled on up to them - Alex hadn't seen him coming. "I'm Gabe, and this cheeky bastard is Alex. Don't mind the vacant look - he's got better grades than I do. And you are?" He shook hands with Fiona as she gave him her name. "Cool. Fiona with one 'N' or two?"

"Two. Haha, nobody ever guesses that." In his head, Alex immediately revised what he knew about Fionna in his very limited dossier. How he wanted to fatten that file up...

"I can imagine. Although I knew a guy once, his sister spelled it that way too." Gabe edged past Alex and held out his arms. "Hey, you want me to take that box?"

Fionna shook her head. "No thanks. Gotta keep up my strength."

"Good for you," Gabe said. "So should I. I think Alex can beat me at arm-wrestling now, can't you, dude?" He tried to pull Alex's sleeve up to expose his biceps, but Alex retreated from Gabe's grasp. "Aww, now I've gone and put him in antisocial mode," he laughed. "Sorry, but I gotta plug this guy in back in the house. He must've forgotten to charge up this morning."

"Yeah, why don't you try espresso?" Fionna chuckled. "Nice meeting you guys!" She waved at them, almost dropping the box again, before turning on her inch-high heel and going into the house.

Gabe steered Alex across the street by the shoulders. "I've got no problem using my gift of gab with people I'm attracted to," he said. "What's your excuse?"

Alex shrugged. "Insta-crush?"

"Oh. One of those." Gabe's knuckles rubbed gently against the back of Alex's head. "Hey, don't worry. I'll be her best friend so you don't have to."

"Fuck that. You're gonna try and get into her pants."

"No, I think I learned my lesson on that one." Gabe opened the front door and darted through it. "Seriously, Alex, I don't know why, but I got a feeling she'd be good for you."

"Funny. So do I."

"Yeah, but I'm in more of a position to talk you up something good." The boys edged aside as Mom came out of the kitchen bearing a freshly-baked cookie-butter pie. One of her specialties. "You know I'll always be there for you."

"You don't have to be-"

"But I do. And I know you'd do the same for me." Gabe reached up to his own upper left arm, where his scars lay hidden under his hoodie sleeve. "For life, right?"

Already Alex wished it could be their birthday so they could do their ritual again. It was their little secret, sharing a knife and sharing some blood too. Cementing an already unbreakable bond. "For life."