Tags:
United States,
Fiction,
General,
People & Places,
Juvenile Fiction,
Fantasy & Magic,
Social Issues,
Health & Fitness,
Love & Romance,
Fairy Tales & Folklore,
Adolescence,
Adaptations,
Personal,
Beauty,
Beauty & Grooming
out or… something? My dad’s on TV, so he won’t be home for a while.” She finally sat, and I put my shirt-covered arms around her, pulling her close.
“Oh, Kyle. I love having your arms around me.” Her own hands moved down the outside of my shirt and…
No. She was going for the crotch again. The fur would be a dead giveaway. All I needed was one fast kiss before she noticed it.
“Let’s just kiss a while.”
“Mmm, okay for a little while.”
And I kissed her right on the mouth. I expected to feel something, like when I’d changed the other night. But nothing.
“Ick, Kyle. You feel so hairy. You need to shave.”
I scrambled away from her, trying to stay between her and the window. “No, I didn’t shave today. I told you I’ve been sick.”
“Well, did you shower? Because you’re getting nowhere with me if you didn’t.”
“Of course I showered.”
“Let me turn on the light. I want to see.” She reached for the lamp.
The light blazed on.
Then I heard a scream.
“Who are you? What are you?” She started hitting me. I cowered, afraid of killing her with my claws. “Get away from me!”
“Sloane! It’s me, Kyle.”
She kept hitting. She’d taken karate, and it wasn’t for nothing. It hurt.
“Sloane, please! I know it’s crazy, but you have to believe me! That Goth chick – she was really a for-real witch.”
Sloane stopped hitting me and stared. “A witch? You think I’m stupid? You expect me to believe there was a witch?”
“Look at me! How else can you explain this?”
Sloane was reaching out, as if to touch my hairy face, then jerked her hand back. “I’ve got to get out of here.” She started toward the door.
“Sloane –” I went after her and blocked her way.
“Get away! I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but get away, freak boy!”
“Please, Sloane. You can fix this. She said I’d be this way until someone loved me and kissed me to prove it. We have to try again.”
“You want me to kiss you now?”
This wasn’t going well. But maybe it was better that she knew. Maybe she had to know she was kissing a beast. “Kiss me, and then I’ll be back to normal.” I felt myself shaking, the way you do when you’re about to cry. But that was pathetic. “You said you loved me.”
“That was when you were hot!” She tried to get past me, but I blocked her again. “What really happened to you?”
“I told you, it was a –”
“Don’t say it again! Like I believe in spells, you loser!”
“I’m the same, underneath, and if you kiss me, it will all be like it used to be. We’ll rule the school.
Please. Just one more kiss.”
She looked like she might do it. She leaned toward me. But when I bent to kiss her, she ducked under my arm and ran out of the room.
“Sloane! Come back!” I chased her out into the apartment, not even thinking of Magda or anything.
“Please! I love you, Sloane.”
“Get away from me!” She opened the door. “Let me know if you get over whatever this is.” She ran out into the hallway.
I ran to the door. “Sloane?”
“What?” She was jiggling the elevator button, trying to hurry it there.
“Don’t tell anyone, huh?”
“Oh, believe me, Kyle, I won’t tell a soul. They’d think I was nuts. I must be nuts.” She looked at me again and shuddered.
The elevator came, and she was gone. I went back to my room and lay on the bed. I could still smell the scent of her, and it didn’t smell good. I hadn’t loved Sloane, so it was no surprise she didn’t love me either. That must be why the kiss didn’t work. The witch had meant it – I had to be in love.
I’d never loved anyone, even when I was normal, never had anyone want to be with me, other than because of who I was, how much stuff I had, and how good I was at partying. I hadn’t cared much. I just wanted the same thing the girls wanted, a good time. There was time for the other stuff later.
But what were the chances I’d ever find someone to