Page 10 of Charmed, I'm Sure
“Yes,” I hissed.
He leans a little closer, knowing I can’t lean any further back without falling out of the chair.
“Why? Does it bother you that I already have a nickname for you?”
I shove my chair back, standing up and brushing off my dress. His smirk only deepens as his eyes move up my body. Lifting until they lock with mine.
“If you must know, it’s weird. Why nickname someone you don’t even know?”
“I’ll tell you my secret if you tell me yours.”
Scoffing, I turn to walk out of the room.
Just as I was about to shut the door, I tossed over my shoulder that I didn’t have a secret, and he replied, "Oh but you do."
The audacity of this man to think that he knows me already. This is one of the worst days of my life. It startedoff with a bang, and now it’s going swimmingly with this dog, who thinks he is going to be my new pet.Ugh.
I’m storming down the street, determined to make it back to my house in one piece without another incident, when I hear the stupid crows caw above me.
“It’s a shame that she can’t be nicer,” the one on the right says.
Squawk.
“Yeah, the new wolf sure seems like a nice guy, and she’ll probably scare him off before the ink can dry on his acceptance letter,” the one on the left says where they are perched along a stone wall lining the sidewalk towards my home.
I stop in front of them, my fist coming to rest on my hip as I listen to them gossip about me, in front of me.
“You done?”
They both jump and ruffle their feathers with their beaks open. As if they didn’t know I was standing right here theentiretime.
“Bellamy!” they both exclaim. Literally like someone who’s been caught doing something. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that they are birds. They mimic human behavior so well that often you forget that these are still birds.
“How nice to see you out so early on a Saturday of all things,” the one on the right says as it hops closer to me. I’m sure they have names, but they are all black with nothing to really distinguish them. Plus, there’s at least fifty birds here.
“I’m sure it is,” I say with all the mock enthusiasm I can muster.
“What brings you out this early? Surely it’s not a boy is it?” If birds had eyebrows I imagine it would be lifting one right now.
“Let’s not pretend you weren’t spying on the committee meeting and that you aren’t fully aware that I didn’t volunteer to be part of this.”
The one on the right fluffs out his feathers. He tried to make himself look bigger by lifting them, eventhough I was the one who caught them gossiping about me.
“We would never stoop so low as to sit outside important city meetings to find out what is happening in this town. That’s something the rats would do, not us crows.” It even throws in a snooty high beak hold as if it really is trying to convince me they are so far above that. It’s cute; don’t tell them I think so, though. I’ll never get a break from them then.
I lean in closer to them, holding my hands behind my back. They don’t see the purple magic sparking against my skin.
“Sure,” I say before I pop them with a chicken hex. The words spill from me faster than they can track. See how much they like it when they can’t fly around for the day.
The two crows let out sharp squawks of protest right before puffing into flustered, feathered hens.
“Buh-BAWWK!” one of them shrieked, as if personally offended by the transformation.
The other followed it up with a panicked, “Bok bok bok-BAWK!” that echoed off the stone wall.
Nyx shimmers into existence beside me. The smell of cheap cologne and microwave burritos fills the air. He snorts when he sees the chickens panicking as they squawk and run in circles. “Very dignified.”
I can’t help but plug my nose to avoid the distinct smell wafting off of Nyx.