Ophelia

Chapter 19

"-lia?.... OPHELIA!" Elliot shouted in my face, bringing me back to reality. "Bitch, you were in space for like thirty minutes!"

I shook my head, gathering my thoughts. "Sorry, I'm a bit distracted."

He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I bet!" He gestured towards my neck where Benjamin had left a small bruise. I gasped and covered it more with my hair. "I'll come back to that. But first, the blood from the rabid. There's definitely magic involved. I tried doing some science-y stuff with your uncle but there's some type of ward or unknown magic! We thought it'd be best if you looked at it."

I nodded, "Yeah, of course I can." He handed me a folder of pictures and hand written notes of both him and my uncle's observations. I flipped through the pages. I got to a page with a spot of blood taped to the paper. I could immediately sense the dark magic surrounding it. Reaching for the spot, the blood sizzled under my finger tips burning through the tape and setting the paper on fire. "Someone really doesn't want us knowing..."

"No surprise there. Maybe you could work some of your goddess juju later?" Elliot smiled, giving me puppy dog eyes. I rolled my eyes and nodded, his smile brightened. "Now," he clapped, "where'd you get those?"

"No." I said sternly and got up from the table. I touched the spot on my neck, healing myself. "I'm not saying anything." Suddenly, Elliot poofed away right in front of my eyes.

"Tell me or I'm going to set every ugly piece of clothing in your closet on fire!" I could hear my hangers clicking together from the other room. "Ophelia?" He was bluffing. He wouldn't. "Oops!" The smell of smoke hit my nostrils and I ran into my bedroom.

Piled and flaming in my little trash bin, sitting in the center on my room, were my clothes. Elliot began to come out of my closet with more clothes in hands, heading towards the fire.

"Elliot! Are you insane!?" I shrunk the fire back until it was out and marched to my friend, snatching the clothes away.

"Honey, they needed to go anyways. Your mom's tattered old high school sweatshirts aren't as vintage as you think they are. Their time has come." I stared at him in shock, mouth wide open. "You have such nice clothes just sitting there wasting away! Some are legit still in gift boxes! Why haven't you touched them?" I was suddenly flustered, not prepared to answer. He noticed my hesitation and grabbed my hand, leading me to the closet, grabbing the first gift box he saw and threw it at me. "Put this on and I'll be back." Then he left me there.

The first thing I pulled out of the box was a simple, white, cropped t-shirt. Nothing special. But that didn't make me any less insecure. I put it on to please Elliot but I didn't even have to look in the mirror to know I didn't like the way I looked.

When I tried the skin-tight mess Elizabeth gave me for the club, I was feeling reckless and it wasn't like I had choices. It was a little too tight because of my body proportions, but later on it made me feel like I was appealing. This shirt was just a shirt. It wasn't meant to be tight fitting but -

"Girl, your boobs look huge!" Elliot walked into the closet with a wand of mascara in hand.

I sighed. "That's why I don't wear half the stuff in here. This shirt wasn't meant to look like this. But my boobs are too big and it makes the shirt ride up."

Elliot gave me a sad, lopsided smile. "Babe, I know you aren't going to believe me out of fear and insecurity. And I'm not invalidating your feelings, but you genuinely don't look bad. At all. I know girls that go through years of plastic surgery to achieve your boobage." He walked over to the box and pulled out the remaining piece. "Look! You didn't even finish yet." He faced the wall and signaled me to change into the jeans from the box.

I cleared my throat. "Elliot, it helped but I still feel a bit exposed."

He eyed me up and ripped something from behind me off a hanger. A gray knit button-up sweater, a bit oversized.  "There! A casual outfit!" I slipped it on and felt a lot better than I did. "Ophelia, I have decided as your best friend that I am going to become your live-in stylist and confidence booster."

I chuckled , "Oh yeah? Live in?"

Elliot grinned sheepishly, "Did that offer still stand?"

"Of course!" I playfully slapped his arm. "You're always welcome here!"

"Good," he sighed in relief, "I think it'll be a lot safer with both of us here anyways. Plus we wouldn't have to transport any important materials for our research and study on the rabids."

I nodded my head in agreement. Things were getting a lot more dangerous and I can feel something coming, I just wasn't sure what yet.