Brie glared at me with the fire of a thousand suns. “I can’t believe you!” She disappeared from sight.
Even Jerry glared at me.
“What? You can’t be mad at me from stopping her from killing him!” I protested. “What would that have accomplished?”
“It’s what we’re supposed to do,” was all he said before slithering away.
Meanwhile, Desi rubbed Dave’s back gently. “Do you want some water?”
“No.” His voice shook as he spoke. “No, I’m going to go home.”
“I...okay. Please let me know how you’re feeling later.”
Dave didn’t offer any reassurance. He bolted out of the room, not once looking back. All Desi could do was stare down at her hands in hopeless confusion.
I don’t regret stopping Brie from killing Dave. That kind of thing didn’t fly anymore. Modern people had better ways to solve their problems and right the wrongs made against them. The question was how did we get our revenge?
Naturally concerned, Desi texted and called only to receive no response. After leaving her fifth voicemail, she gave up. While she bent over backwards to check on him, we debated how to proceed.
“Obviously, we have to end this. Now,” Jerry said.
“And how do we show her the truth?” Brie asked.
I sighed. “Dreams. We plant it in her head through dreams. From there, we can only hope she’ll discover the truth on her own.” They both only stared at me. “Unless you feel up to exposing our secret to her. I’m not sure how well that will go. We can’t be the ones to tell her. She needs to seek the truth herself, remember?”
“Dreams it is then,” Brie grumbled, defeat in her voice.
Every ounce of our magic went into plugging everything we’d seen into her dreams. Sometimes she remembered them upon waking, and sometimes she only had the vague sense of something being wrong. It took a week for the message to remain vivid enough for her to question Dave’s motives. He still hadn’t gotten back to her either, so he wasn’t exactly making himself look good.
Unlike most teenagers, Desi wasn’t hooked into her social media accounts. Reason number 157 for the other kids to label her the weirdo. She logged in to check on Dave, and sure enough, not only was he just fine, but he was dating four girls at once. That part took some sleuthing. Dave was an idiot, but he was a sneaky idiot!
Desi didn’t need our help to come up with a revenge plot. She had always been a resourceful girl.
With two of the other girls being played, Desi marched to the diner where he was having dinner with the fourth. They could all have a wonderful date together. Probably not for what Dave had in mind for a date with multiple ladies at once.
Through the window, Dave leaned in and touched a gorgeous blonde on the cheek. She blushed and brushed aside some stray curls from her face. Unlike the other two girls, Desi rounded up, this one was one of the popular girls from high school and a grade younger. Regardless of not being “legal age,” Dave had no issues showing her off to the rest of his friends. No, to the whole town. It seemed he made a big scene about being with her. Rather than a table in the back, he’d gotten one right in the center of the action. Desi and he always hid if they went out to eat. Usually, they got take-out.
Jerk.
She took in a deep breath and marched into the diner, the others right behind. If she could stay confident, they would too.
“Dave!” She smiled like they were the best of friends. “Wow! I was beginning to wonder if you’d died! You haven’t been returning my calls!”
He didn’t bother to look at her and rolled his eyes. “What do you want, Demona.”
She laughed, a mix of sarcasm and rage dripping in her tone. I knew for a fact Brie was on standby ready to unleash. The two of their tempers combined would be fierce.
Desi moved slightly, so the other two girls he was playing could be easily viewed. “We saw you were on a date with your girlfriend and thought we should all join in. Aren’t we all your girlfriends?”
“You wish.” He grunted.
The petite, curvy, redhead next to Desi thrust a phone into the blonde’s face. “We took so many cute pictures! Aren’t we just the cutest?”
I caught a glimpse of a picture of Dave kissing the red-head quite soundly.
The blonde’s eyes filled with tears. “You’ve...been cheating on me this whole time?” She gazed up at the other three girls. “With all of them?”
“We were only hanging out. If it seems like more, that’s not my fault or my problem.” He held his hands up in front of him. “Look at them. They’re all so...ugly!”
For a moment, the blonde did look at Desi and the other two young women who had been wronged by him. She frowned then stood up. “Why would they lie?”
“Because they’re desperate for attention!” He stood as well, his desperation to stop her growing.
Blondie wasn’t having it. When he grabbed her, she pushed him away. “Get away from me, you creep.” Her gaze met Desi’s and tears trailed down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t know! Please, believe me!”
“I do,” Desi said stiffly.
The blonde gazed at her with so much gratitude before wiping her eyes and fleeing the restaurant. Dave moved to chase her, but Desi stepped in the way.
“Get out of the way, freak!” he snapped.
“No.” Desi folded her arms in front of her chest. “Leave her alone. Leave all of us alone, or those pictures, and a whole lot more will go up online. You know what they say. Whatever gets on the internet never leaves.”
He growled. “You should be thanking me. No guy would ever give you the time of day otherwise! You’re hideous.”
Desi laughed, balled her hands into fists, and the next thing I knew she was throwing punches to his face. Brie, excited by the action, may have given our girl some extra power. One thing was for sure, Desi broke his nose in a few places and possibly his jaw.
The restaurant workers had to pull her off of him.
She spat, her glare never leaving him as he curled into a ball on the floor and hid behind his arms. “Welcome to the club, loser.”
After that night, she no longer trusted the pretty people of the world, and she definitely no longer trusted guys. I blame myself for not exercising more caution. I’ve always lived by “big rewards, take big risks.” so caution has never been my thing.
That being said, if both of these guys end up backfiring on us, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to turn Desi around to open up to another.
Chapter Six
Brie
I’ve always wondered what it would be like to fall in love. Part of what made helping Desi so wonderful was that it was like I got to live vicariously through her. Every feeling she had, I did. The joy, the sorrow, the anger, and everything in-between. The only difference between her and me was that the negative feelings motivated me to try even harder because the memories of the good emotions are that wonderful.
Someday when I become human, I would feel those things for myself.
Desi, always the skeptic, was hard to push toward any romantic gestures to lure in a potential match. While she settled into her desk at work, she took the book from the library that she and Toby had connected over. For a moment, she gazed at the cover. I am liking this one a lot. Maybe I should text Toby and let him know he’s got good taste after all. Reward him with a coffee. Her smile didn’t last long, however. And then he’ll think I’m interested in him and want to connect further. Something tells me Toby is looking for a relationship, not a quick fling. Then a surprising thought crossed her mind. And I could let myself fall into that trap. Then get hurt. It’ll be like Dave only a million times worse. Fool me once, shame on him. I want to keep it that way.