Mo' Money

We both flinch when we hear it. The front door opens, shuts, footsteps.

Panicked, Kaylee all but throws herself at the bundles of cash, grabbing them and stuffing them back into the bag. "Mom, dad?" she yells, sounding very much like someone caught with their pants around their ankles. "Did you forget something?"

There's no reply. For a couple of seconds, I'm motionless, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up as I hold my breath as if that might turn me invisible. Kaylee has tossed the bag onto the floor and is raking the remaining loose bills off the table with jerky, frantic movements, her wild eyes darting back and forth between her task and the doorway. 

One set of footsteps, I realize, not two.

"Mom?" Kaylee asks, her voice smaller, intimidated.

No response.

I turn slowly, the presence behind me palpable. My heart thrums wildly like a guitar string being plucked by someone in the throes of a seizure. My brain only has time to register that there's a man in the doorway, a tall, looming figure, before I am crushed against his chest.

"Skye," he sighs the very same moment Kaylee exclaims, "Derek? What the fuck?!"

I'm too stunned to react, plus, he's hugging me so tightly, his arms ensnaring me like steel cables, I can't get a word out.

"Skye," Derek murmurs into my hair, his voice thick with relief, like he's a soldier who's just returned from years of fighting in a war instead of, you know, barging uninvited into my best friend's house less than an hour after I texted him.

I struggle against his grip, but he only holds me tighter, his heartbeat a frantic, insistent rhythm beating against my cheek like bird wings against a cage. His hands are splayed on my back, clutching at me like I'm his raft in a storm.

Kaylee, bless her, is not having any of this.

"What the fuck, dude?" she spits, stepping forward. Arms crossed again, eyes fiery with fury. "Why are you here?"

Finally, Derek pulls back just enough to look me in the eyes. His expression is off—not the easy, lazy smirk I used to know, but wide-eyed with that post-spell feverish gleam that makes the pit in my stomach grow. His pupils are huge. His lips tremble.

"You weren't answering my texts," he tells me, a pleading note to his voice. "I was worried. You told me you'd come here, so I decided to check on you."

My stomach drops. I suddenly can't tell if I'm sweating from the warmth of his body or from fear. Either way my hands are getting clammy from the way he is fixated solely on me as if Kaylee isn't even in the room.

Kay advances, unfolding her arms and clenching her hands into fists. For a second, her gaze darts to the bag she's kicked under the table. There's some green peeking out. "You can't just waltz in here without ringing the doorbell, man. This isn't your house!"

"The door was unlocked," Derek says flatly.

Kaylee lets out a short, humorless laugh. "So what? You just open any door and walk in if it's unlocked? A normal fucking person would ring first or call out, anything!"

"I just—I needed to see Skye," Derek insists, looking at me like he expects me to speak up for him. "I felt like something was wrong—like you needed me."

I don't know how to respond to that. This entire situation is way too much for me. I'm caught between two people whose lives have been fucked up because of a stupid thing I did. Derek isn't who he used to be. Now he's apparently so obsessed with me, he'll come running wherever I am if I don't get back to him within five minutes. Now he looks hurt and befuddled, like a puppy I've just dropped off at the shelter.

*How come you don't want me?* his eyes seem to ask.

But these aren't his emotions, the spell made him feel that way. If he was still in control of himself, he wouldn't be here at all, he would probably be with Emily and the five years with me, our engagement, those would be things of the past. Maybe even regrets. It pains me to remember the last true moment between Derek and me, when he dumped me and wordlessly exited the wedding group chat.

But seeing him now, with his desperate expression, his hands holding on to me like he's dangling over a cliff, I can't say for sure that I prefer this version.

I pull myself free from his grip, forcing my voice to stay calm. "Derek, you cannot do this. You can't just show up like this."

His face crumples, a little boy denied a hug. "But why?" His hands find mine again, grip tight, his eyes beseeching me. "I love you."

Behind me, Kaylee makes a sound of pure disgust. "Oh, for fuck's sake," she mutters. "You know, we could fix this in, like, five seconds."

I shoot her a sharp look. "No."

She raises her hands, exasperated. "I'm just saying—"

"Yeah, I know what you're saying," I snap, voice shaking. "We are not doing *that*."

Derek blinks, confusion flickering across his face. "Doing what?"

Kaylee groans. "Oh, come on, you can't seriously tell me that you want him to stay like this forever!"

"Shut up," I hiss.

Derek's brows knit together, his fingers tightening around mine. "Skye," he says slowly, voice thick with hurt. "Are you keeping something from me?"

Panic surges through me and I bite down hard on my bottom lip, trying to keep everything inside. There is a part of me that wants to tell him, that needs to come clean, but I have no idea what the truth would do to him in his state. Would it make him wake up and be himself again? Or would he lose his mind completely?

So he can't know.

He won't know.

Because I'm going to find a way to fix this.

I swallow hard, pulling my hands away. "Derek, you need to go home."

His face drops, slackens with disbelief, then tightens with hurt. "What?"

"Go home," I say, firmer this time. "Now."

For a second, he just stares at me, his whole body trembling, his mouth opening and closing like he can't quite process what's happening. Whatever expectations he had when he came here, whatever rom-com the spell is projecting on to the insides of his eyelids, this doesn't fit.

But after a beat he nods. "Okay. I love you, Skye. I'll wait for you outside in the car."

I hesitate because I told him to go home, not hang around in front of the house like a creep. But then I decide it's better than nothing, that I'd rather get him out of here right away than having to discuss it even for another minute. I'll drive home with him later, it's probably the least I can do.

He leaves just like that, turns around and goes, his footsteps fading down the hallway.

The front door shuts behind him with a quiet, final click.

Kaylee exhales sharply, slumping as tension melts from her body. 

"Jesus. He's practically a robot." She glares at me, judging me for Derek's pitiful state. It feels so unfair, it's not like I planned any of this! I didn't know that the spell was real, that something like this could even happen. I was heartbroken and I wanted my fiancé back, that was all.

I don't say anything. It feels like guilt and sadness must be oozing from my pores by now. If I could take everything back, I would. But if I say that aloud, Kaylee will tell me that I can. That I just need to do the spell again. If only it was that easy.

*Maybe it is,* the evil little voice in my head suggest. *Maybe the spell can solve all of this. What if you just wish yourself back in time? You could ask to be taken all the way back to Derek proposing. Then you could say no and move on from there.*

It's not what I want. If anything, the thought makes me even sadder. Plus, who knows what the true effects of the spell really are? I have the sickening feeling that we haven't seen the full extent of the damage it can cause yet.

"No more magic," I tell her firmly.

Kaylee lets out a sharp, frustrated sound. "God, Skye, you're being so dramatic!" She throws her hands up, like I'm some kind of unhinged diva with insane demands. "You know we could fix this. We could fix everything. Like the whole world! Literally everything! No more wars, no more famine, sickness--"

I shake my head, my heart pounding a wild rhythm against my ribs as I cut off her rant. "No! No more magic!"

Kaylee scoffs. "That's real rich, coming from you. You got what you asked for."

I can feel my face twist into a grimace of hurt.

I know what I did. I know I'm the reason Derek is walking around in perpetual lovesick zombie-mode. That's exactly why I can't do any more spells. I wanted to get back what I had, not some twisted brainwashed obsessive shell of the man I was going to marry.

"You cannot be serious about this," she continues, pacing, her arms crossed tight over her chest. "You're really gonna go back to playing it safe now? Now that we know what's possible?"

I glance at the duffel bag still slumped against one leg of the kitchen table, at the stray bill peeking out where the zipper isn't fully closed. It gives me chills. How does Kaylee not see that whatever the spell gives us will end up being cursed? It's clear as day to me.

My gaze flicks to her, to the way her fingers drum against her biceps, fast, nervous. Her movements are quick, jerky. I've never seen anyone on cocaine in real life, but I get the feeling that this might come pretty close.

The thought sickens me. She's had the money for less than a day and she's already deteriorating.

"Kay," I say carefully. "Why the hell did you bring all this money out here instead of keeping it in your room?"

She stops pacing. Her chin lifts. "What?"

I gesture to the bag. "We snuck it past your parents to keep it out of sight. It was supposed to be secret. So why take it out of hiding? Why count it again out here and leave the front door unlocked?"

She blinks. The corner of her mouth twitches, like she's trying to suppress an irritated smirk. "The light's better in the kitchen."

I just stare, flabbergasted by the nonsensical reply.

She rolls her eyes. "I had to recount it, okay? I had to be sure it was all there."

Her voice is too defensive, too quick.

This only cements my horrible suspicion.

Kaylee has always been determined, ambitious, sharp. But now? She looks like someone running on adrenaline and paranoia. *Like an obsessed person, like someone who's been brainwashed, their personality slowly being eroded by something else. Like Derek.*

"Kaylee--" I stop myself, not sure what to say. Whatever comes out of my mouth will probably only make her mad.

She waves a dismissive hand anyway. "Don't start."

I don't. I just look at her standing there pretty much in her pajamas, tufts of her unkempt hair standing up in all directions, as she blinks at me through the smudged lenses of her glasses. She may not be aware of it, but she's already falling apart.

My stomach turns. I feel like I'm in the passenger seat of a car, watching helplessly as it veers into oncoming traffic. Is this how my mom felt?

"Kay, you need to sleep."

She huffs in exasperation. "I'm fine."

"You're clearly not."

She narrows her eyes. "I don't need a lecture. I need you to stop being a coward and use what we've been given."

"Given?" My voice pitches up, before I catch myself and tone it down a little. It's difficult to rein myself in when I feel like screaming at her. I want to grab her by the shoulders and give her a shake. "You think this is a gift?"

She gestures to the bag. "Look at it, Skye! This is more money than we'll ever have in our lives! And it was so easy."

"Exactly," I snap. "It literally fell out of the sky! That doesn't just happen! And it's not going to come without a price!" I suck in a breath, willing my heart rate to slow. I need to be rational about this. I need to make her see all the dangers we're facing now.

Her nostrils flare. She's about to go raging bull on me.

"You keep saying that, Skye, but life's not a story. Things don't happen for a reason. There's not going to be closure and a nice little moral at the end. Good people don't succeed and bad people aren't punished! It's all luck and randomness! So if you get a leg up in this world, you gotta use it because otherwise life is going to crush you!"

"And you don't think the spell is going to crush us? Messing with powers we don't understand? Or whoever is sending me threatening texts?"

"We have the spell, we can wish for all that bad stuff to go away! I don't get how you're not seeing that! Everything you're so concerned about could be fixed in a couple of minutes!"

She is one hundred percent convinced of this, I can see it in the manic glint in her eyes. The red light of sunset bleeds in through the window and the fight leaves me as I stare at her standing there. Kaylee isn't hearing me. The money, the spell, the sheer power of those things, has a hold on her.

I exhale shakily, pressing my fingers against my forehead. "I can't do this right now, Kay." My voice is quieter now, my anger burned out, leaving only exhaustion. "I don't want to fight with you anymore. Can you just sit tight until I've figured some stuff out? Please?"

She scoffs, wiping at her face and righting her glasses. "Whatever."

At least her response isn't as hostile as I'd feared. I push on. "I'm going to contact that kid from the library. Maybe he knows something. Maybe he can help."

Kaylee quirks an eyebrow. "Great," she mutters, "sure. You do that."

She's shutting down, shutting me out.

For a second, we just stare at each other.

She looks at me like she doesn't recognize me. Like I'm a stranger making a bad choice, rather than her best friend trying to fix the mess we made.

And it hurts.

I swallow past the lump in my throat and glance at my phone. My original plan was to call the number right here, with Kaylee next to me. To let her hear the conversation, be part of whatever happened next.

But now?

Now, I just want to leave.

I straighten, shoving my phone into my bag. "I'll do it later."

Kaylee watches me with narrowed eyes, but then she just shrugs.

"I'm going home."

Something flickers across her face—disappointment, maybe. Or frustration.

And maybe it's selfish, but I don't want to see either of those things right now.

I move toward the door, glancing outside through the window. Derek's car is still parked at the curb, his silhouette visible through the windshield, waiting.

I force down the nausea creeping up my throat.

"I'll call you tomorrow," I tell Kaylee as I pull the door open.

She doesn't answer and so I leave.