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“You know how ridiculous this sounds, right?” Evie shook her head, looking incredulous.
“Do you really think I’d make this up?” Carlos sighed with frustration.
“No, I don’t think you would make this up, but I think you could have some kind of… behavioral confirmation effect.” Evie shrugged.
“What does that even mean?”
“It means you wanted something so you subconsciously make it happen. But it’s different from a self-fulfilling prophecy, because if that was it, it would be your own perception that was wrong. In your case, it’s confirmed by his actions. You modified his behavior. It’s not usually used in this context though; usually its used to show how other people affect–”
“That is not what’s going on. Just cause you’re smart doesn’t mean–”
“Don’t cut me off. You said that he told you it was a different cookie, how do you know he was lying?” Evie pointed her pencil at Carlos’ chest
“He took them from Mal to pick up girls. And after he ate it he got all weird.”
“You’re gonna need to be more specific if you want help. Because I’m gonna laugh about this for a long time and I want to get the details right.”
“He was giggling and wouldn’t leave me alone.” Carlos leaned in closer and lowered his voice to a whisper, “He wouldn’t stop talking until I let him sleep in my bed last night.”
Evie’s face brightened and she put her hand to her mouth, “You slept with him?!”
“You know what I mean, now help me!”
“Are you sure you want help? I mean, why don’t you just enjoy it for a few days, stop trying to be the good guy?”
“I’m not trying to be a hero, I’m just not going to take advantage of my friend. What if he remembers what happened under the spell? He won’t want me around anymore.”
“Maybe you’re afraid you’ll enjoy it too much.” She smirked, “In any case, I can’t help you. I don’t have the spell book. you need to ask Mal.”
“I can’t tell her, she’ll never let us live this down.”
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“Leave it to two boys to mess up a perfectly simple scheme.”
“It wasn’t that simple. And you’re the one that let him take them in the first place.”
“It was simple! Get Ben to take me to the coronation, steal the wand, go home. It was working perfectly up to this point. I don’t have time to clean up your mess. you’ll have to wait until I make the antidote for Ben.”
“Please, Mal. Do you want him pulling a stunt like Ben? That’ll keep us low profile for sure. Nobody will suspect anything.”
“Ugh, you have a point. You owe me big time for this, Carlos. I’ll try to have it in the morning, but I’m not promising anything. you deserve to deal with your own mess.”
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“What’s your favorite color?” Jay mused. He was staring at the ceiling, draped across Carlos’ bed. Carlos looked up from his book and over his drawn up knees,
“White, you?”
“Hm,” Jay had his hands outstretched above his head, twirling a lock of hair slowly. “Yellow. No, red.” Carlos nodded, trying to concentrate on his book. Jay had been asking questions for a good half hour. The sun was beginning to set and cast shadows around the dorm. “I really like spending time with you.”
“You too, buddy.” Carlos smiled. Suddenly, Jay was bent over, untying his boots, “What’s wrong?” Dude had stood up and was watching Jay carefully. Carlos took advantage of the space on the bed and stretched his legs out.
“I’m not going to put my shoes on your bed.”
“Oh, my bed… what?” Jay was suddenly all too close to Carlos, on his knees facing the smaller teen with their thighs touching. Dude hopped up on the bed and pushed himself into Carlos’ lap.
“I love you.” Jay confessed with a smile, and in that moment Carlos knew what was coming next. Next came the enjoying it too much, and then came the taking advantage of the situation, and tomorrow, probably, guilt. But even as he knew, the villainous part of him screamed to take what he wanted like it already belonged to him. So he did, because he was a villain.
Carlos leaned forward and kissed Jay so much softer than he wanted to. He wanted to grab and take but he wasn’t going to push his luck. When Carlos Pulled away, Jay followed like a magnet. “Wow.” He whispered, before grabbing Carlos’ shirt and kissing him again. Dude hopped off the bed and ran for the door. Jay’s had snuck its way beneath Carlos’ shirt just before the door opened.
“Carlos! I– wow.” Mal stopped mid step, chocolate cupcake in hand. Evie bumped into her back, having not been paying attention
“M, what– oh.” Evie gasped, Carlos looked around Jay at the girls, his face glowing red. Jay turned too, pulling his hand away.
“Oh hey.” Jay chirped, hopping off the bed. “Everything okay?” He offered, smiling in his usual way and leaning against the door frame. Mal raised her eyebrows
“Looks like it’s more than okay to me.” she chuckled.
“Yeah, Carlos. So much for not enjoying it too much.” Evie grinned.
“Get out!” Carlos finally yelped from across the room. At that, Mal couldn’t help but laugh earnestly.
“Oh! Jay, Carlos asked me to make this for you as a surprise. It’s double chocolate.” She offered up the small plate.
“You are a remarkable liar.” Said Carlos.
“Oh, thanks Mal. I’m sure it’s delicious, we’ll share it.” Jay smiled and took it from her before looking back at Carlos.
“Somehow, I don’t think Carlos will get the full effect, seeing as it was made for you and all.” Mal smiled dangerously before leaving and closing the door in her wake. Jay padded back across the room and sat down next to Carlos.
“Nice of you to ask her to do this. I always thought you were scared of her.” Jay shrugged and pulled off a bite of the cupcake before offering the rest to Carlos.
“Jay, don’t!” Carlos ate the bite right out of Jay’s hand and grabbed the plate with his other. He sat back up, surprised at himself. He locked eyes with Jay, who looked every bit of shocked at Carlos’ sudden movement. Jay lifted his hand to his mouth and licked off the last bit of icing and crumb.
“It’s pretty good.” Jay smiled with a slight nod and wiped his hand on his jeans. He reached for Carlos again with both hands and leaned forward for a kiss, but stopped part of the way there. His head dropped and both hands came up to hold it “Whoa. all dizzy.” He groaned. Carlos backed away. Jay shook his head and Carlos was standing, watching him. “Carlos, what’s going on?” Jay whined, blinking several times.
So Carlos ran out the door.
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“Oh my god, he looked like he was going to start crying! That was so awesome.” Mal giggled as they rounded the bend in the hall. They were walking slow back to their dorm, pleased as punch with their evening’s turn of events.
“And then Jay acts like nothing happened at all. He’s smooth, you have to hand him that.” Evie added, brushing some hair from her face.
“What do you think would have happened if we didn’t walk in there?”
“This afternoon Carlos practically lectured me about not taking advantage of his friends, too.” They were laughing so heartily that neither of them heard footsteps until they were right behind, and then when Carlos pummeled Mal to the floor.
“You ruined everything Mal! It’s all your fault! That was my one chance! The only one!” Carlos was red still, all tears and anger and forcefully pinning the purple-haired girl to the carpet. “Have fun telling your mother just how evil you are, you–”
“You asked me to do it Carlos!” Mal screamed back, digging her nails into Carlos’ wrist. and trying to shove him away. “And I’m not the one that let him eat the cookies in the first place! I’m not the one that tried to screw him!”
“Stop it, you guys! you’re supposed to be friends! Carlos you could get hurt!” Evie joined in, trying to pry them apart from the side. Other students were peeking out of their rooms, and the two continued to struggle, eventually resulting with Mal pinning Carlos down and her fist raised above her head.
“Carlos, Stop!” Echoed down the hall as Jay neared in their wake. Mal tried to strike but ended up punching the floor instead, falling to the side. Evie put herself between the two of them and inspected Carlos’s face for injury. That was the scene that Jay walked in on, bordered by other pajama-clad students. Jay looked around, startled by the other students watching him. “Carlos, come back.” He demanded with finality.
Carlos didn’t even look at him, but squeezed his eyes shut and pushed Evie away. “You can’t talk to me like my mom does.” he said quietly. This hit Jay hard; he visibly flinched.
“Carlos, buddy, please.” Jay straightened, “It’s late and we have a game tomorrow.” he cleared his throat. “Please come back.”
Carlos stood up took a deep breath. “I’m going home.” he decided with a nod, then turned and walked calmly away; a stunned Evie, Mal, and Jay in his wake and Dude at his heels.
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There was a soft knock at the door and Jay didn’t move. Anyone who was important wouldn’t knock. a few minutes later, it creaked open, revealing Evie. “It’s morning, Jay. We’re expected in class.” She said in a solemn tone.
“I’m not going.”
“If you don’t go to class, you can’t be in the game.” She moved to where he say on his bed, navigating her way around the knocked over table.
“Then I won’t be in the game.”
“You can’t just sit here all day.” She put her hand on Jay’s shoulder. He hadn’t yet changed into his clothes for the day.
“I won’t. Once everyone is in class I’m going to find him.”
“Jay… he could be anywhere.”
“He didn’t wear any shoes. he could get hurt.”
“You’re both gonna get in trouble for not showing up.” Evie went to get him a shirt out of his drawer. The chocolate cupcake sat on the bedside table still, just the one bite taken out of it. “Uh, do you know what all happened?” She attempted, in a lighthearted way.
“I do.” Jay replied, offering nothing more. He dressed in silence and packed a bag with shoes and a jacket for Carlos and some food and water, because he was unsure of how long it would be until he found him.
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It only took about an hour of walking to get to the shore that lay directly west of the Isle of the Lost. It wasn’t really even that far, but there wasn’t exactly a path and a thick forest bordered the kingdom. By the time the leaves thinned out, Jay was sweating and had a few scratches on his arms, but he could hear the waves of the sea. He thought about what he would do if Carlos wasn’t there, where would he look next? What if he couldn’t find Carlos at all? If Carlos made it back to the Isle, would his mother be terrorizing him? Was Jay so offensive that Carlos would rather suffer maternal abuse? Jay froze just inside the tree line, looking out towards his home. A bubble of fog consumed the island and left it visible only as silhouettes of buildings. H e was knocked out of his haze, though, when the distant sound of a dog barking came from further down the beach.
When Jay turned, he stepped onto the sand and the dog war running toward him, happily barking. Some distance behind him, Carlos followed, albeit slowly. Jay gathered up Dude and continued walking toward Carlos. As they neared, he saw Carlos was limping. Jay let Dude back down into the sand and quickened his pace,
“You’re hurt.” He spoke when there was less than twenty feet between them. Carlos squinted at Jay in the late morning sun.
“Why did you come after me?”
“… Someone had to.” Jay dropped his bag and squatted next to it, “Sit down.” Carlos plopped down on the soft white sand. He outstretched his feet toward Jay.
“I can’t swim.” Carlos mused, looking out toward the island. “I want to go home.”
“Because of me?” Carlos didn’t answer, “You find your mother’s company preferable?”
“That’s not fair, Jay.”
“You know what’s not fair? I made a mistake, and you decided to run away and make it worse.”
“I didn’t leave because you yelled at me.” Carlos sighed as Jay wrapped up his ankle.
“That’s not–”
“I left because I didn’t want to see you.” Jay drew back, looking hurt,
“What?”
“I couldn’t stay there and not be your friend anymore. IF I wasn’t your friend, Evie and Mal would have been the same and then–”
“Why wouldn’t I be your friend?” Jay tied off the bandage and kept his hand on Carlos’ calf.
“I took advantage of you.” Carlos admitted, “You were drugged and I–”
“I knew I was drugged.” Jay said firmly, “Well, I mean, I ate the cookies intentionally.”
“And I let it go too far because it was nice and I didn’t even care about the consequences at the time. Wait, you what?”
“I couldn’t talk to you.” Jay confirmed, seating himself. “I thought that the cookies would make me feel like Ben, confident and stuff.” Jay picked up a handful if sand and let it fall through his fingers. “The way I saw it, either you’d keep away until you got the anti potion, and I’d know you weren’t interested, or you’d let things happen, and we could talk after.” Jay let out a short breath, “ So much for my evil scheme.” For the first time since the night before, Jay smiled.
“We’re talking now.”
“Yeah, we are.”