Page 59

Penny

EVERY DAY THAT GOES BY FEELS LIKE A YEAR.

Penny’s phone becomes a weight in her hand. She tries to call Alonso. No answer. Then Corey. No answer. Finally, she tries Naomi, but the call goes straight to voice mail. It takes Penny two more tries before she realizes Naomi blocked her number, and Penny spends an hour sobbing. When she gets a notification that Naomi’s new tutorial is up on YouTube, Penny watches it and sobs some more, but hearing the voice of her best friend—or ex–best friend—is her only comfort right now, besides bear hugs from Ron. When he asks what happened at the gala, Penny tells him that she and Naomi have grown apart.

“You really expect me to believe that?” Ron asks, but he doesn’t press her too hard. They’re preoccupied, because the reality of Anita’s health is becoming impossible to avoid. Ron doesn’t know about the curse, but he’s growing more afraid of the non-answers from the doctors. One nurse even mentions hospice, and Ron is almost kicked out of the hospital for yelling at her. Penny begs security to give them time, promising Ron will calm down, which feels like a ridiculous thing to say. Why would either of them calm down? What is there to be calm about?

But that’s not the only thing making Penny’s panic attacks come back in a way they haven’t since she started taking medication.

I’m sorry , Alonso said. We tried.

He hasn’t contacted her since.

On the fourth day after the Barrions’ gala, the silence is louder than the crowd at the café. When Ron lets her know it’s break time, Penny runs out of the café and into the back parking lot, trying not to cry. Her anxiety wells up as she checks her phone—no new messages.

A sob breaks free from Penny’s throat. The heat beats down on the parking lot, and Penny has to alternate between wiping away tears from her cheeks and sweat from her brow. She’s positive that she’s never been this disgusting. She’s also positive that, if she doesn’t see Alonso in person, she will explode.

So she gets in her car and drives to Village Blues Records.

By some miracle, Alonso’s Shelby is in the parking lot, and he’s leaving the store as she parks. He doesn’t notice her car at first; his head is hanging like he’s exhausted, and car keys dangle weakly from his hand.

Penny opens the car door. “Hey.”

Alonso whips around. His face is haggard. The blue is back in the ends of his hair, but it’s less vibrant. He looks sun-bleached.

“What are you doing here?” he snaps.

Penny suddenly wishes she had changed out of her work uniform. She knows how she looks: hair wild, dark circles under her eyes, coffee stains on her white skirt (why do they even have white skirts?). But it’s too late for that now. “I’ve been calling you.”

Alonso glances at the phone in his hand. “I know.”

“I wanted to see if you were okay.”

“Is that a serious question?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know. I needed to see you.”

“Well, now you have.” He fumbles with his key, trying to get his car door unlocked.

“Why won’t you talk to me?” Penny whispers. “Were you going to give me this silent treatment until—”

“Until I left Idlewood?” Alonso says without turning around. “Pretty much.”

Penny’s stomach drops. “You’re leaving?”

“Yep. Moving to Bloomington.”

“Why?”

“Because it’ll be easier than staying here.”

Penny closes her eyes. His words make her feel as if she’s falling off a skyscraper: She’s terrified, and she’s alone, and nobody can stop her from hitting the ground.

“Please tell me the Council didn’t seal your magic,” Penny whispers.

Alonso’s face is red. He’s stopped trying to get into his car; he just stands there, arms limp at his sides.

That’s her answer.

This is Penny’s fault. Alonso will never have magic again, and it’s all because she came to the record store a month ago and asked for his help. She wants to say sorry, but it feels meaningless. What can she possibly do to make up for what he’s lost?

Eventually she says, “When are you leaving?”

“One week. On the first day of school.”

“But—” Penny tries to swallow her anxiety back down. Every nerve is going haywire, but she can’t run away without saying what she came to say, because what if this is her last chance?

Maybe it won’t be worth it. He could’ve been lying at the gala. Or maybe everything that happened since the gala has destroyed whatever feelings Alonso used to have for her.

Still. She has to know.

“I don’t want you to go,” Penny says, watching his face for any sign of emotion. Of love.

But he won’t look at her. And when he speaks, it’s so soft she barely hears it.

“You’ll get over it.”

And that’s what it takes, somehow. Penny grits her teeth together and marches up to him, grabbing his arm and forcing him to turn around.

“At least look at me when you’re rejecting me,” Penny says.

Alonso yanks his arm out of her grip. “I can’t look at you, okay? I can’t.”

But then he glances at her, and for a moment Penny can’t breathe. She wants to see his face every day. She feels more like herself around Alonso than she ever expected, and now he’s going away, and Penny’s heart can’t handle it. She’s already losing her mom.

Now, she’s losing the boy she loves.

Alonso presses the heels of his hands to his eyes. “I spent the whole summer trying to break this curse, and now my family is leaving the town we’ve lived in for a hundred years. None of them are even speaking to me right now. And without my magic, I don’t—I don’t know who I am anymore. It’s like they erased me, or part of me.” He laughs. “I can’t help anyone. Including myself.”

Alonso gets in the car, and the engine roars. Penny wants to follow him, but she’s shaking so badly. She realizes she hasn’t eaten since breakfast, and the world starts to go blurry, but she doesn’t go back to her car. She stands there, watching him drive away.

He doesn’t look back.