Crescent Moon Nights and The Gemini Curse

CHAPTER IV - JOSIE

Time seemed to be frozen, the class seemed to be dragging out for days. I spent the whole class bouncing my legs and furiously tapping on the table. I found myself groaning every time I looked at the wall behind me and saw that only a couple of minutes had passed. Hope was in the back of the class with Rafael, I could tell she was as restless as I was.

"Miss Saltzman, is my class bothering you?" I looked at Miss Tig and felt my heartbeat race.

"I'm so sorry, Miss Tig. I just really have to go to the bathroom, was just checking the time," I said and immediately heard laughter from several people in the class.

"Class will be done in five minutes, so you may leave promptly," she said with a smile.

I immediately put all my belongings inside my bag and ran to my bedroom. In a matter of seconds, I felt a pair of arms around me and a kiss on my neck.

"Happy anniversary, Jo," Hope whispered in my ear passing me a small red box.

She rested her head on the back of my shoulder, I felt her smile as I undid the lace on top of the box and took the lid off. There was a silver bracelet inside the box, I put the box on top of my bed and took it out – taking time to examine it. The bracelet had a crescent moon and an aquamarine stone filled it to form a full moon. I pulled it closer to my face, examining it, the stone was beautiful – the way the silver was complemented by the aquamarine stone warmed my heart.

I turned around, now facing Hope. My hand travelled to the necklace around her neck, the necklace that belonged to her mother – it looked just like mine, but the stone on hers was green. My forehead rested on hers, I felt tears forming in the corner of my eyes but refused to let them fall.

"I love it, so much. Thank you, Hope!" I leaned in, we let our noses brush against each other for a few seconds before closing the distance between us. "Okay, my turn now."

I ran to my desk, siphoned the spell locking my drawer and took a wood box out of it. Afterwards, went to my wardrobe a pulled a wood case – fairly heavy, which made me groan. Hope moved to help, but I waved her away muttering an I got it, I got it. She laughed it off, waiting patiently.

"This is for you," I handed her the wood case from the wardrobe and ran towards the desk to retrieve the wood box. "And so is this. Oh, I nearly forgot! Wait wait wait wait," I dove under the bed and retrieved an envelope I had been hiding inside a shoebox. "And this is before everything else."

"So... I start with the letter, then the box and the case at the end?" she asks with a genuine smile on her face.

"Exactly, now I will turn around because the letter is very cheesy and I will be pretending not to be here," I said turning around.

My eyes ran through the desk and outside the window. On the grounds I could see Lizzie with MG, they were laughing with a book between them. I smiled at the sight of the two of them, she seemed so happy with MG, so unaware of the world around her. Hope was taking longer than I expected, so I turned around, she was holding the letter between her hands – her gaze fixated on it, completely absorbed by the words I wrote months ago.

Her eyes moved from the paper straight into mine. They were red, but she wasn't crying – there was a smile on her lips. She moved from the bed, walking towards me. Her arms rested around my neck, "I love you so much, Jo. So much, I can't even put into words how much I love you," we stayed like that for a while until she turned around and headed towards the rest of the gifts.

"May I open the rest of the presents now?"

I nodded. Hope kneeled in front of the box, lifted the lid, and gasped at the inside of the box. She started to take things out of it when it was empty, she looked at me – she was tearing up. When she was about to turn to the big case Lizzie entered the room, when she noticed Hope was in the room, she stopped walking.

"What is she doing here?" Lizzie asked through her teeth, clearly annoyed with Hope's presence.

Hope didn't say anything, she looked at me while putting everything inside the box. I could tell she was waiting for a reaction from me, but I couldn't react. I didn't know what to say or do. We should have done this in her bedroom, we wouldn't have been interrupted there.

"I borrowed a book from Josie, just came to bring it back. When I got here, she was arranging things and needed help lifting these," she said pointing at the case and the box. Discreetly putting the letter in her pocket. She turned to me and smiled as if nothing were happening. "Where should I put these?" she asked.

"Do you mind taking them to the attic? I haven't used anything in there since I was like seven," I said unwilling to meet her eyes. She shook her head, grabbed everything, and walked away. I saw the pain in her eyes, and, at that moment, everything stopped. I hurt her.

"Bye-bye," Lizzie said shutting the door behind her. "What was inside those things she took?"

"Old supplies."