Wicked Confessions (Excerpt Only)

chapter two (confessed by Misty)

Reluctantly, I answered the call. If Coral was calling at this hour, it could only mean one thing... Harley drama.

"Misty! Did I catch you in the middle of something?" she frantically demanded.

"Uh, yeah, Coral, actually you did," I admitted.

"Who is it?" Mikey mouthed to me.

"Coral." I rolled my eyes.

"Just hang up on her," he encouraged, jumping down from the log he was standing on and joining me beside the bonfire.

Apparently, Coral heard the onslaught of kissing. "Wait, are you busy?" she pressed.

"I already told you that," I reminded her.

"But Misty! I need to talk to you! My life is over!" she whined.

I covered the phone, promised Mikey, "I'll be right back," and took a little walk to hear her out. "Please don't tell me that you and Harley..."

"No! He didn't want to! Can you believe that?"

In short, no, I couldn't believe that, but I also couldn't believe that Coral had so brazenly breached the Girl Code! "Coral! What were you thinking? Harley is off-limits! He always has been, and he always will be!"

"How can you say that, Misty? I love him! And deep down, he loves me, too!" she defended.

"Uh, no, Coral. He loves Persephone. He has always loved Persephone. He will always love Persephone."

"Well, he needs to get over it. She's gone, and she's not coming back. The sooner he accepts it, the sooner he'll be happy."

I couldn't believe anyone could be that cold. "Coral, she was your best friend!"

"Well, she's not anymore."

I shook my head in disbelief, even though she couldn't see me through the phone, and then, I looked over to Mikey, sitting alone by the fire. Yeah, I was done talking to her. "Listen, Coral. I gotta go."

"No! Don't! What do I do about Harley?" she quickly uttered.

"Chock him up as a crush like the rest of us do. He's off-limits. It's never gonna happen."

"I could make it happen," she threatened.

The implication that she was willing to use witchcraft to make Harley hers would obliterate a fundamental rule and be a big insult to the Universe. You didn't wield witchcraft to influence or interfere with love. If you did, you received the Universe's threefold karmic comeuppance. "Don't do it, Coral. Just go back to Charles."

"How can you say that, Misty?" she yelled. "After what he did? I needed him when my best friend died, and he didn't even come to Vermont for me!"

Poor Coral. It must have been so hard to be her and have her precious Charles foolishly opt to focus on his final exams and graduation stuff back in June rather than drop everything and run to her side. I rolled my eyes. "Coral! Not only has he already apologized for that, but every day this summer, he sent you flowers! And how many times did he drive up from Salem to deliver them himself? Just forgive him already!"

"Misty! He can't buy me now! He wasn't there for me when I needed him!" She jabbered on, but I was done listening. I curled up in Mikey's lap, told Coral to have a good, first day of high school, and hung up on her.

"What did she want?" Mikey asked.

"The usual Harley drama," I summarized with a groan.

"And that's your problem, why?" he countered.

"Because we're best friends. And cuz she has my number."

"Well, I can fix one of those conditions," he announced as he grabbed my phone and tossed it into the bonfire!

"Mike Hill!" I gasped.

"Oops. Hope it was insured."

I could've killed him. I was irate in ways I didn't realize were possible! My phone! A melted garble of nothing in the roaring flames of a bonfire! How dare he?

I stormed off into the night, but moments later, he caught up to me in his car. "Misty, I'm sorry. Get in!" he suggested. Well, obviously, I did. I wasn't seriously going to walk all the way home from the lake. I wanted to get home by curfew. Besides, if I played it right, he'd buy me a new phone tomorrow.

Mmm. New phone. Sweet.