Magic Madness™️

Chapter Six: Friends Fight, Too

Word Count: 2,596

    "You did it!" Joan shouted.
    "I did?!" Alex yelled, opening his eyes. He looked down at his hands, uncurling his fingers to find all twelve pebbles laying in his palms.
    Again with the white, pixelated font: +20 EXP
    "I did!" He repeated with a grin, throwing the pebbles to the ground as he jumped around in victory.
    "You're right! You were so right! I've got super reflexes or something! This is so amazing, just wait 'till I tell Eli, he's gonna freak out! I'm gonna freak out! I am freaking out. How did this happen? Did I always have powers or did the game give them to me? Wait, do powers just come with the game? Does Eli have powers? How many powers do you think I have?" Alejandro asked, nearly all in one breath.
"I'm not entirely sure what you just said, you talk quickly, but I told you I was right! I've given you every test I could think of regarding strength and reaction times, and you've passed every last one! You caught all twelve pebbles with your eyes closed! I'm telling you, Alejandro, you're going to make one hell of a fighter," Joan said encouragingly, well aware that Alex was too busy celebrating to really hear him.
"This is freaking awesome! Eli's gonna flip."

"I'm sorry, you what?" Elijah asked in disbelief, "There's no way."
"No, I'm telling you, I've got super-reflexes! I passed all of the tests, normal people don't just catch stuff with their eyes closed! I'm magical, I'm dead serious." Alex tried to convince him.
"So..." Eli began, pinching the bridge of his nose, "You leave this stupid Hobbit-hole-house this morning, thinking that magic is stupid and not a real thing, and you come back telling me that you have superpowers? Alex, you're insane. This-This-I can't-You can't just say stuff like that and expect me to be-...okay with it."
There was a pause as Elijah tried to figure out what else he could possibly say. The only thing he could think to say was just a dumbfounded repeat of "Superpowers?! Superpowers. Oh my God..."
"I thought...you'd be happy." Alex shrugged sheepishly. Elijah gave him a death stare, which had Alex more confused.
"What? Did I say something?" Alejandro asked, completely oblivious.
"Did you-" Elijah did one of those closed-mouthed screams that people only do when there's no pillow to scream into, "Alex, can you hear yourself? Superpowers. You're trying to tell me that you have superpowers."
"Yeah! Because I do! What do you think I've been saying since I got back? You're not even listening," Alejandro said, unintentionally raising his voice (Alex was a naturally loud person, so it happened pretty often).
"I'm not-Shut up! Just shut up, Alex! I don't wanna hear it! I'm starting to think that you don't want to leave. First you try to tell me that you won't try to find a way out and that you trust Joan and whatever, and then you try to stop me from running, you seem to be fine with everything, and now you want to tell me that you have superpowers? What's next, you actually want to help Joan fight some evil royal family that we have nothing to do with?" Elijah asked, fully expecting a 'no'. Instead, he got Alex's well-known guilty face and some awkward silence.
"You know what? I don't-I can't do this right now," Elijah said, nearly too frustrated to get out a full, coherent sentence. He leaned in like he might say something else, but instead, he just threw his hands up exasperatedly and speed-walked out. Alex knew better than to go after him. He just sighed defeatedly as he heard the entrance to Joan's house open and close.

Amber was writing something in a leather-bound book on one of the chairs that greatly resembled the black recliner chair that sat in Alex's living room, at home.
"Hey, Amber, can I ask you something?" Alex asked, already sitting down on the couch next to her chair.
"Depends. If you're going to ask a question about me, then no. If not, go ahead," Amber said, just then looking up as she snapped her book shut.
"It's about Elijah. Well...It's about Evalyn," Alex began, unsure of where, exactly, he was going with this. Amber's gaze suddenly hardened, and Alex shook his head.
"Relax. I'm not gonna ask if I can ask her out, or anything, I'm just kinda curious; what do you do when Evalyn gets mad at you? Or when people, in general, get mad at you?" Alex asked hopefully. Amber's expression didn't lighten up at all.
"That sounds kinda personal, to me," Amber muttered, putting her book dome to cross her arms.
"Well, I-" Alex waved his hands around awkwardly, "I don't know. You don't have to answer, if you don't want to, but Eli is kinda mad at me and I don't really know what to do. I never know what to do when people are mad at me, so I just kinda wait a little bit and then apologize."
"I mean...that sounds about right. I don't know what to tell you. I saw him storm out, he probably just needs to cool down. You can apologize when he comes back," Amber said half-heartedly, not even trying to make it seem like she cared.
"Thanks. That really helped." Alex murmured sarcastically, standing up and walking over to, what he remembered to be, Amber and Evalyn's room. Amber gave him a stern look, but picked her book back up and continued to write. Alex knocked on the door, which opened almost immediately.
"Hey! What's up?" Evalyn asked, looking up at Alex expectantly.
"Uh, can I ask you a question?" Alex asked.
"Of course! Come in," Evalyn stepped aside to let Alex walk in, and Alex was infinitely grateful that Evalyn was much kinder than Amber seemed to be. Evalyn sat down on the mint green bed, the one on the left side of the room, and patted the space beside her. Alex sat down.
"So what's wrong?" Evalyn asked, hands folded in her lap.
"Eli's mad at me. Which is weird, for me, because that pretty much never happens. We argue a little bit from time to time, but we never fight. And I didn't even think we were really fighting, but then he stormed off and I have no idea what to do. What do you do when people are mad at you?" Alex could only hope he'd get a better answer than last time.
"Well...people don't get very mad at me often, but when I'm mad at people, I just like to talk things out. I know I'm going to sound really cliché when I say this, but communication is key. If you can figure out what's going on, what you did wrong, then you know what to avoid doing and saying in the future," Evalyn advised, and Alex nodded slowly.
"Okay. Thanks," Alex said, having clearly made up his mind about something. He stood up and walked toward the door.
"Wait, where are you going?" Evalyn stood up as well.
"To find Elijah," Alex said shortly as he walked toward the door (if you could call the entrance to Joan's house a door). As he passed by Amber, she rolled her eyes. She didn't have to ask to know where he was going.