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Justin wasn’t sure why his sister was acting strangely, but it probably had to do with having recently become his girlfriend.
He sat with his siblings in their wizard lair as the day’s lesson was nearing its end. “You’ve had a week to practice.” Dad said. “Let’s see how you’ve mastered your elemental magic of choice. This should be simple if you’ve put in the work—and, thus, maybe not-so-simple if you’re Alex.”
Alex put a hand to her chest in mock offense. “Are you accusing me of laziness?” She was floating in an inflatable pool dressed in a one-piece to get in touch with the element of water. When Dad noted that wasn’t a real thing, she admitted it was because ‘sitting is too much effort’. “Besides, when would I need to move water any further away than the fridge is from the couch?”
“Well, you haven’t yet set the house on fire,” Justin teased, “but we both know it’s just a matter of time.” There was a pause. “Mhm,” Alex murmured. “I’ll go first, Dad.” No witty comeback, not even a splash in the face; something was up.
Alex stood up, waved her wand and made all the water fall off her body, drying herself instantly. She then levitated that water, molding it into an impressive imitation of her head. “I stand corrected,” Dad said. “You’re a natural, sweetie! Justin, go.”
Justin had picked the element of air, which included the ability to cool things. With a flash of his wand he froze the face solid, while leaving the liquid hair unaffected.
“Max, you’re up.”
Max got up, and as he got closer Justin felt the air get a bit warmer. Early spring days were often chilly, so Max has taken to using the element of fire to heat the air in his vicinity. Max raised his wand. “I present to you…” The statue’s nose melted clean off. “The Alex-Sphinx! Because she loves asking riddles.”
Alex chuckled. “‘What’s the matter with you?’ isn’t a riddle, Max, it’s more of a rhetorical question.”
“Excellent precision, Max!” Dad said. “And while I normally don’t condone the casual use of magic, the way you’ve made yourself into a space heater could save us a lot of money in the winter,” he said out the side of his mouth. “You must have practiced a lot!”
“Of course.” Max said with a broad smile. “Melting stuff is one of my hobbies.”
Dad frowned, looking concerned and confused. “I’m still proud of you… but your mother and I need to know what you’ve been melting. Come on.” He put an arm around Max’s shoulder and ushered him out of the lair.
Justin and Alex were alone. “So, uh,” Justin started, “want to talk about what’s bothering you?”
It was probably the fear of their relationship being found out getting to her, but there was no need to worry; Justin had taken every precaution. He’d created a detailed set of rules to avoid getting caught. Multiple sets, actually: one for how to act around family, one for close friends, one for strangers... Dating Alex was the biggest risk he’d ever taken — it had taken weeks of convincing from Alex before he’d worked up the nerve — and he did not take it lightly.
“Yeah…” Alex started. “About that date we have planned—”
“Don’t call it that!” Justin whispered, looking around them nervously. “It’s not a ‘date’, it’s an ‘outing’.” Justin had established a series of code words to use when talking about their relationship, and he wished she would be more diligent in using them; they couldn’t be sure that someone wouldn’t walk in on them.
He turned to look at Alex again, and her expression made him wince. For some reason, she looked like she might chew someone’s head off. His head seemed the likeliest candidate. “That’s what’s bothering me!” she hissed. “The codes, and rules, and paranoia. The only times you act like a proper boyfriend are when we poof away to some patch of nowhere so crummy no one we know would ever want to visit it. Like that magic beach with three suns.” She rolled up a sleeve to reveal faint patches of red skin. “I got sunburn in the shade! Would it kill you to relax a little?”
Justin’s mouth was agape. He had not practiced this argument. “You want us to be… less careful?” Sure, she’d complained before — frequently, now that he thought about it — but he’d assumed it’d been complaining of the ‘I hate Mondays’ variety, not the ‘you should do something about it’ one. Because, really, what could they do?
“Okay… I guess we could reexamine some rules.” And then he could explain why they were all absolutely necessary. Again.
“Can we at least hold hands in public?” Alex asked hopefully. “That’s not even a little bit explicit.”
“Siblings don’t do that!” Justin protested. “People would gossip.”
Alex sighed. “You know Riley from the baseball team?” Of course he did; Riley was one of the most popular kids in school. Justin could see why; he was friendly and cheerful, if not very bright. “He asked me to come to the party this afternoon. As his date. And I’m considering it.”
What? “Riley? The guy that thought El Paso is how you say ‘pass the ball’ in Spanish?” This had to be a joke. “Are you thinking of breaking up with me for that guy?”
“‘Breaking up’ would imply that we’ve been dating; we only went on ‘outings’,” she snarked.
Justin stood silent. He couldn’t believe how unreasonable she was being. He wanted to argue, but what would be the point? Clearly she wouldn’t listen to reason. “Alright. Go ahead.” If she expected him to plead and beg, that he’d throw all rules and caution to the wind to appease her, she had another thing coming. He forced a smile. “I wish you a most pleasant time on your date.”
Alex blinked. “Wow, I thought you’d put up more of a fight.” She sounded disappointed. With a playful smile, she nudged him and added: “You sure you don’t want to talk some smack about Riley, at least? Might help venting the ol’ feelings.”
Justin laughed a little too hard at that. “As if I’d be so petty and immature. You are free to see whomever you wish. I have no interest in sticking my nose in it.”
————————————
Justin kept his face hidden behind a newspaper, spying on his sister’s date through a pair of eye holes.
He was disguised as a typical cool dude by wearing a backwards baseball cap, sunglasses and a sleeveless shirt that said ‘Cool Dude’. He further made himself inconspicuous by sitting alone in a corner of the party and pretending to read ‘This Week in Finance’. He’d come to the party to assuage his anxieties about Alex seeing another guy, certain that within five minutes she’d realize the obvious, that this dullard could never match her sharp wit or make her laugh like Justin could.
I mean, honestly, Riley? The notion that such an airheaded jock could fill Justin’s shoes was downright insulting. He wouldn’t have been this upset if she’d at least replaced him with someone respectable, like... well, he was having a hard time picturing a guy he wouldn’t be upset to see Alex with, but whatever that guy might be like, he was definitely nothing like Riley.
He’d imagined her coming back to him miserable, admitting her mistake and agreeing to follow his entirely reasonable precautions. But he’d been there an hour already, searching keenly for any hint of things going south between the two, and found none. They were all smiles, giggling at banter Justin couldn’t hear, and all he accomplished by watching them was to make himself spiral into gloom. Maybe they were a good match.
Coming here was a mistake, he thought. There was no point in staying just to wallow in self-pity. He could wallow at home.
He got up to leave, when a partygoer walked up to him and said, “Hey, man, you done with that newspaper? I wanna make a big paper airplane.”
Justin yanked his brother behind the newspaper. “Max, what the heck are you doing here?”
“Oh, hey, Justin!” Max grinned. “Alex invited me! She knows I’m always the life of the party.“
Justin raised an eyebrow. “Really, now? You know, I’ve noticed it’s somehow warmer inside this completely open yard than it is outside of it.”
“That’s all me! It’s kinda chilly, so I’m heating the air with fire magic.”
Justin gave him a look. ”Dude, she brought you to be her space heater.”
Max scoffed. “Uh, no? She just wants me around ‘cause I’m cool and fun to be around. Oh…” Max put his hand on Justin’s shoulder with a look of pity. “Sorry, man, I forgot that might be a foreign concept to you.” The worst part was always the earnestness. Max didn’t say such things to embarrass him; he genuinely meant every hurtful word. “I’m so fun she asked me to hang around her all party long,” Max boasted. “Always within 80 feet of her, but not closer than 20 feet, so she has some privacy on her date.” He frowned. Justin gave him a moment to put two and two together. And another to double-check his math. “Wait a minute! She brought me to be her space heater!”
Suddenly, Justin was struck with an idea. Before his brain could catch up and tell him it was a terrible idea, he slung an arm over Max’s shoulder and said, “You know what would be a great way to get back at her? Messing up her date.”
Max’s face lit up. “Great idea! Getting back at Alex the way Alex would!”
In the context of nefarious scheming, being likened to Alex was definitely a red flag, but Justin was too excited to care. If their first date went horribly, there might not be a second, and he’d have another chance to make Alex see reason. The thought had already crossed his mind, but being a man of integrity, Justin wouldn’t stoop to thwarting a budding relationship out of jealousy.
Watching Max do it on the other hand, well, that would hardly count as stooping, would it? Slouching, at worst.
Justin poked an extra set of eye holes in the newspaper. Through them, they watched Alex feed Riley a spoonful of her ice cream. He seemed delighted. The fiend.
“Alright,” Max said, “one melted ice cream coming right up.”
“Melted ice cream? That’s barely a prank!” It was Riley’s turn to feed Alex. “Make the spoon really hot!”
“Oh.” Max was slightly taken aback. “A little intense, but okay.” Max concentrated and covertly waved his wand. Immediately, Riley winced away from the spoon’s heat, dropping it and spilling chocolate ice cream across a shocked Alex’s dress.
“Nice!” Max pumped his fist. “Revenge is sweet!” He high-fived an ecstatic Justin. “Get it? Because ice cream—”
“I got it, Max.” Justin cooled the spoon to hide Max’s involvement, which wasn’t meddling, it was just a cover-up. Of the meddling.
“You must be really mad at her,” Max noted. “What did she do this time?”
Broke my heart, Justin thought. Okay, that probably wasn’t fair. Her grievances were understandable, it was just that, well…
He wasn’t used to breaking rules like she was. The approval and praise of his parents, his peers, his teachers, it was everything to him. The very thought of being caught by any of them, no matter how unlikely, mortified him. He’d always disliked lying, too. He found that the best way to deal with uncomfortable questions was to not give people a reason to ask them. He couldn’t bring himself to be any less cautious, but he could understand why she would want more. She deserved more.
He began to feel a twinge of guilt over the prank, but it only lasted until he looked back at Alex’s table. The good news was that Alex clearly hadn’t realized she was being messed with, since she was laughing. The bad news was that she was laughing.
Rats! Of course Alex wouldn’t let such a small mishap sour her date. She was too confident and easygoing. She probably thought no one would even look at her stained dress because they’d be busy admiring her beautiful face. Like Riley was right now. But not for long. “Looks like we’ll need something more extreme to foil their evening. Max, you’re still hungry for revenge, right?”
Max shrugged. “Not really, no.”
Justin chose to ignore that. “And you’re pretty precise with fire magic, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
Justin thought about how to phrase the question without sounding deranged. “Can you safely — without causing injury — burn off Riley’s eyebrows?”
Max snapped his head towards him. “What? Justin, are you possessed or something?” He shook Justin by the shoulders. “Who are you and what have you done with my boring square of a brother?”
Justin sighed and brushed him away. “Sorry I asked.” Defeated, he held up the newspaper and walked away before Max could question him further. He should have suggested something more tame. Now that he’s scared Max off, that was that.
Or was it? He stopped to think, still awkwardly holding the newspaper in front of himself. Max being the one to do the deed was just a convenient excuse, anyway. There was nothing stopping Justin from doing it himself… except, of course, his dignity. He was torn. On one hand, Justin prided himself on being an upstanding character, and neither Alex nor Riley deserved Justin getting between them. On the other hand… Justin really, really wanted to.
He thought about leaving things be, and what might happen if their date went well. He imagined a future where he and Alex split apart, got married to other people, where she was no longer a constant presence in his life. He hated it. He hated it so much that his moral anxiety seemed a trifle in comparison. He had decided. If it meant keeping Alex to himself even just a little longer, he was, in fact, willing to stoop.
He looked over to Riley. Justin could tell Riley was seriously invested in this date; the suit he was wearing was classy and expensive-looking. It would be a shame if something… happened to it. A guest with a plateful of cake was about to pass them. The perfect setup.
Justin raised his wand behind the newspaper to conjure a gust of wind, when his concentration was shattered by a sharp flare of heat in his backside. He yelled in pain and grabbed his butt, dropping the newspaper, then spun around to find Max running up to him.
“Dude,” Max said in the tone of one trying to calm a wild animal, “I don’t know what you were about to pull, but using magic recklessly isn’t like you. Whatever beef you and Alex have going on this time, you need to chill out before you do something you might regret.”
Justin looked around, worried his yell might’ve drawn attention. It had. People were staring, and his face was uncovered.
Uh-oh.
He panicked and ran straight towards the exit. Wait, he thought, won’t running just make me more conspicuous?
His foot splashed into a mud puddle and he slipped, crashing face-first into the ground. He scrambled to get up, cursing himself for not looking where he was stepping… except he had; the puddle had appeared out of nowhere. He looked over to Alex’s table; she was staring right at him, her eyes daggers, wand stealthily raised in his direction.
Uh-oh.
She stormed over, leaving behind a confused Riley, and grabbed Justin by the collar. “Max!” she yelled, and Max followed her as she dragged Justin away. She took them behind the back of the house, where they were alone and out of sight. She let Justin go, placed her hands on her hips and asked, “Care to explain why you’re spying on me?” She turned to Max. “And why both of you were making a scene at my date?”
Calm down, Justin thought. All she knew was that he came to the party. “I just wanted to see how cute you and Riley look together!” he said with a big smile.
Alex smiled back. “Aww, that’s so sweet! Max, you get a pardon if you rat him out.”
“He tried to use magic to mess up your date!” Max said, pointing accusingly. “I stopped him. ‘Cause I’m the cool brother that’s fun at parties.”
That’s that, Justin thought, I’m dead. But terrified as he was, he also felt a sense of calm. Since he’d started this cockamamy plot he’d been anxious and guilt-ridden. He’d always disliked lying. At least now he wouldn’t need to. “Yeah. I tried to ruin your date. Because I was jealous of Riley.”
“Riley?” Max said, shocked. “I thought we were getting back at Alex!” Alex gave him a deadpan stare. “I mean, uh, you were getting back at Alex. I’d never-”
“You got your pardon,” said Alex, “beat it.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Max said and ran off.
Justin steeled his nerves, awaiting his sister’s wrath. “Jealous, huh?” Alex said. “Wanted to keep me all to yourself?” She sounded… amused? Thinking up creative punishments, maybe.
“Yeah.” He carefully said as little as possible, still gauging her mood.
“So you enacted a wicked scheme, using magic, in public no less.”
“I did.”
“Do you regret it?”
Justin thought about it. It was stupid, certainly. It could’ve backfired in countless ways, and did in several. It was unquestionably immoral. The appropriate answer was to say that he was sorry and that he hoped her new relationship would be a long and happy one.
But he’d always disliked lying.
“I regret that it failed. I don’t regret that I tried. A chance of getting you back, even a slim one, feels worth all the trouble.” He shrugged. “I guess I’m selfish like that.”
Alex only smiled wider. She inched closer to him. “Do you think you could display that daring attitude more often in our relationship?”
Our relationship? Oh.
That’s why she was smiling.
“You know what?” he said, smiling back. “I think I could.” He then added, “Within reason.”
Alex gave him a stare. It said don’t spoil the moment. She looked around cautiously, then asked hopefully, “Kiss me?”
Justin’s anxiety flared up. He double-checked that there was no one around, then triple-checked. They couldn’t be sure that someone wouldn’t walk in on them. It was unquestionably risky.
But sometimes the risk was worth it.