Candy Man 2 [✓]

2. Witch Way

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Chapter 8 “Witch Way”

“Do you think that Kevin will ever be okay with me dating Chase?” Ariana asks.

“Honestly,” I begin, kicking a pebble that had found its way under my shoe. “I don’t think he’s going to give himself a choice.”

It was one-in the morning. Ariana could not sleep and so she called me to come over to help her out with her thoughts. In exchange, she will heat up a pizza that she ordered earlier for herself and Chase, before his Mom called him home.

We are outside on her front porch. Unlike my Victorian styled home in my quiet neighborhood, Ariana’s house lied on one floor and her neighborhood mirrored downtown Manhattan.

The streets were treated like a highway. Car after car would pass by. At one point, traffic started to form. And it is officially another day. I wonder how people in the neighborhood even sleep at night.

“Don’t you think it’s because these people treat your neighborhood like I-95 that you can’t sleep?” I ask.

She smirks, and then she rolls her pretty green eyes. She runs her hands through her dyed red hair, scattered and messy, before sighing. “I wish that were the reason, but It’s not, obviously.” She kicks a pebble of her own. “I wish these fuckers would honk and screech and drift and run lights,” she admits. “Then maybe I can get Kevin’s face out of my head for three fucking seconds.”

I bite the inner part of my cheek. I know what I’m about to say will ruffle feathers. “You know, I’ve heard that if you can’t get somebody out of your head, it’s a sign that you’re –”

“In love with him, I know,” she cuts, adds and finishes. “I don’t doubt that I have feelings for Kevin. But I like Chase too. Chase is a more comfortable choice.”

I nod. "I won’t try to sway you,” I say and sit next to her when a bitterly cold wind almost knocks me off of my feet. Her stoned stairs that lead to her doors are small and narrow, but we both somehow fit. Although, I could fall off and into her mom’s rose garden at a moment’s notice. “This is a choice that you’re going to have to make on your own, I guess.” I scoot over, so it’s her who is in danger of being covered in thorny bushes. She responds by pushing back and we giggle together. “But I will say,” I mutter, allowing a few moments for the giggling to stop, “we’re young; safe shouldn’t be an option for us right now.”

She goes quiet. A car races pass. “How’s Jessica?”

I snort, but it mimics a short laugh.

“That bad?” she asks, laughing, but with a strain of bitterness.

“She looks okay,” I say. “She’s just…ready.”

“Whatever that means,” she says.

“Whatever that means,” I say.

“What about you and Matt?”

“What about us?” I snort, and this time it comes out as one. “He’s chosen Laura.” I can’t quite figure out why. Laura is death and all that is evil in the form of a blonde female adolescent.  “I’ll never know why, but he chose her and that’s that.”

Ari nods. “But what about the talent show?”

“I think I’m going to drop out,” I admit and wait for her to hit me behind my head, but the impact (and subsequent headache) never arrives. “You’re not going to verbally abuse me for being a pussy?”

She rolls her eyes. “You’re not judging me, so I won’t judge you,” she says. “The least I can do is return that favor.”

“Honestly, thanks for that.” Another cool air hits us, and I can almost feel the skin on my face hardening and snapping off. “Tonight’s cold, man.”

She nods. “I don’t know,” she whispers, with her head to the ground right under her red ankle socks (Ari didn’t wear shoes when she was at home, even outside) “I think it fits everything right now. My problems, your problems…it’s just…fitting.”

“Don’t get all Hemmingway on me, Ari,” I snorted. “And besides, our problems are virtually unimportant to the weather. All that asshole cares about is making the tip of my fingers freeze and snap off.”

She chuckles and I laugh. Our troubles were gone for the moment.