Hannah
I knew it was going to be bad when Jimmy found out about what I was, if he ever did, and he did, in the worst way possible. Although I was almost completely out of it after Erin had fixed me up, I could still see the expression on his face and I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was going through, the look on his face was a mix between his confusion, sadness, hurt that I’d hidden something so big about myself from him, and wanting to know more.

That was two days ago, and he hasn’t spoken to me since. I’ve sent him a couple of text messages, explaining to him that I completely understand if he never wants to speak to me again, but if he would just give me the chance to explain… then maybe I could tell him how scared I am of myself. I also brought up the music assignment, because I needed to know if we were still partners. But I hadn’t gotten anything close to a reply from him.

Dad was at work for the day and I decided to have a relaxing Sunday, ignore everyone and do whatever the fuck I wanted.
I decided to take a bath, no, not a luxurious bubble bath, I just decided to fill the tub with hot water and get in.

My hands were still pretty sensitive, but I was amazed at how soft they were, they were like baby’s hands, hands that had never done anything to cause damage… my cousin sure knew what she was doing with her magic and potions.

Once in the tub, I laid back, ignored the burning of the slashes across my back and shut my eyes, trying to bring myself as much peace as possible, but before I could stop myself, I started to drift away.

The water pouring out of the showers and swirling down the drain started to become hot, so hot that it let off steam, enough stem to burn anyone’s lungs if they got close enough, and I couldn’t stop, it got hotter and hotter, burning the skin on her skinny body.

“You’re not so perfect anymore,” I growled in an almost demonic voice before everything stopped and I dropped to the ground, everything went black.

My right foot pushed against the tap end of the tub, pushing my head out of the water, followed by the rest of the upper half of my body as I took a huge breath of air, my eyes wide and my mouth hanging open as I coughed and spluttered, bringing back up some water I’d swallowed.

“Fuck,” I whispered to myself.

‘Good one, bright spark, descend into Hell while you’re taking a bath’ I thought, that was a horrible idea; I really need to get a hold on that.

I closed my eyes, took a deep calming breath and pushed my hair back over my head and away from my face, removing drips of water from my nose and eyelashes as I did so, then, my phone started to ring on the edge of the tub.

My wet hand reached out and grabbed my phone, sliding my thumb across the ‘Answer’ tab and pressing it to my ear. Fuck. I should have checked the caller I.D. and what happened to ignoring everyone today?

“Hey, Hannah,” The voice on the other line answered “It’s Matt,”

“Oh, hey, Matt. What’s up?” I asked, submerging myself in the water again until it came up to my chin, feeling slightly self-conscious being on the phone and in the bath, not that he could see me.

“I was wondering if you were going to be busy tonight,” He said awkwardly, almost like he was scared, before he cleared his throat and spoke again “After what happened the other night, I know Jimmy hasn’t spoken to you and none of us have tried to get any answers from you or
Erin, so I was hoping that if you weren’t busy that you might meet me in the park and we could talk about whatever the Hell that was,”

“Aren’t you scared of me, Matt?” I asked without even thinking. Of course he was going to be scared of me.

“I’m a little freaked out by you, yeah,” Okay, I asked for that one “But not enough to need an army when faced with you,”

“Matt…” I sighed “I don’t think it’s a very good idea, I haven’t even heard a word from Jimmy after the party, and I don’t exactly know you enough to confide in you and tell you my deepest darkest secrets, but all I can tell you is that, trust me, I’m a lot more scared of what I can do than you are, and I’m not going to be able to meet with you tonight, I’m sorry Matt.”

“Hannah, please-“

“No,” I said firmly “My answer is no, Matthew. I’m not going to meet with you to talk about anything, goodbye,”

“Fine,” He sighed “I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” The beep alerted me that the call was over and I sighed with relief and dropped my phone out of the tub and onto my pile of discarded clothes on the floor.

I decided that it was probably a good idea to end this ‘relaxing’ bath as soon as possible, so I quickly washed my hair and climbed out, wrapping a towel around my body and one around my hair before walking back out into my bedroom.

I dried my body and my hair, tying it up in a loose ponytail and dressed in a black tank top and dark grey sweat pants, slipped some fluffy socks on my feet and headed down the stairs with my phone my earphones and my sketchbook in my hand. But, halfway down the staircase, I could hear a small ruckus coming from the kitchen and someone muttering to themselves.

Funny, dad wasn’t due home for hours yet and it sounded like a woman.

I crept down the rest of the stairs and into the hallway. Why the fuck wasn’t the dog barking?
Where was he?!

I stood outside of the kitchen, my back pressed against the wall as I held my breath and listened as closely as I could, but I couldn’t make out who the Hell was raiding my kitchen.

“HEY!” I yelled, jumping into the kitchen, ready to fight whatever asshole it was, but when my grandmother jumped up and squealed, making me scream with fright, I relaxed instantly and sighed, clutching my chest, mimicking her action as we both breathe heavily “Jesus Grandma Jo, what are you doing here?” I asked.

“Making my granddaughter some lunch,” She said as though it was nothing, turning to what she had been doing before, which was peeling some kind of fruit and spreading peanut butter onto two slices of bread.

“Healthy,” I commented, leaning down and picking up the dog’s water bowl and moving to the sink to fill it “Fucker,” I shot at the dog “You’re a terrible guard dog, just letting this old woman break into our house,”

Grandma Jo was my dad’s mom, she was still pretty young considering she was a grandmother, but she had my dad at a young age, that’s all I knew about it.

“Here,” She shoved the plate in front of me and handed me the weird looking fruit “Let’s go and eat in the living room,”

“What are you doing back so soon? Aren’t you meant to be gone until…” I tailed off and counted on my fingers “Christmas?”

“I decided to come home early,” She shrugged, leading me into the living room “I got bored all the way out there with only other oldies to keep me company,”

“Where were you again?” I asked.

“Indonesia, that’s where that fruit is from, eat it, you’ll love it,”

I looked at the fruit in my hand, the juice was leaking onto my hand, so I licked it off my skin and then looked back to the fruit that I was now holding between my long thumb and even longer index finger. It was like, a ball but there were slices in it, it was white and slimy with juice. I pulled a slice off of it and put it in my mouth. The sweet taste of it hit me instantly, causing me to close my eyes and moan slightly at the taste.

“This is amazing,” I said, opening my eyes and eating more of it “What is it?”

“Mangosteen,” She said “I lived off of them out there, and I just knew you would love them too, so I brought you a shit load,”

“Thanks grandma,” I said with a mouthful of the stuff, tilting my head back to stop any of the
juice pouring out when I spoke. She only laughed at me.

“I swear you were supposed to be a boy, because you are the farthest thing from ladylike,” I laughed at her.

“You can’t say anything,” I told her, pointing at her, swallowing my food “You’re not exactly ladylike yourself, you swear, burp, fart, drink and all the rest of it, as well as trying to act like a lady,” I laughed.

“Hey,” She exclaimed, holding her hands up in defence “I’ve always been like this, plus, after your father was born I had to be, he needed both parents in one, and I’m pretty sure I gave him that,”

“Yeah,” I smiled “Can I ask you something?” I asked.

“You just did,” I shot her a look “But okay, shoot,”

“Why were you on your own when you had my dad?” I asked “Like, where was his dad?”

“Let me start from the beginning, I’ll tell you everything,”

She started by telling me about her childhood, how her and her mother were abused by her alcoholic father until he killed her mother and did a runner on them, leaving her to be put into the system, where she was bullied by all of the other kids in the homes and at school, but when she went to high school she started sleeping around, looking for some sort of love that she wasn’t getting anywhere else, but she got herself a reputation for it. Once she was adopted by a nice family with a couple of younger kids, making her the oldest child in the house, at the ripe age of seventeen years old, she decided to change her ways and she prayed, she got on her knees at the side of her bed every night and prayed for something to change her life, and something did, she stopped sleeping around, finished school and started to work, her reputation vanished and she stopped drinking alcohol, she refused to turn out like either of her parents. But after almost two years of that, she got into a bar by sneaking in when she decided that one drink couldn’t hurt her, especially if her adoptive parents never found out, and then, she wound up going home with some guy to a dirty old apartment and woke up the next morning, he had gone to work and left her there, but she saw pictures of him with a pretty lady and a kid, realised that he was married and figured that the apartment was his hideout for cheating on his wife, and she left, she never contacted the guy again, not that she could, she didn’t have a number or even a name to put to her one night. Nine months later, my dad was born and she was scared and she felt alone, her adoptive parents were disappointed, but they helped her get onto her feet, they bought her a house and left her to her own devices to raise her son alone. He became everything she ever needed, her pride and joy, and she didn’t need a man to make her happy, because she already had one.

“And let me tell you something,” She said, holding back her tears “There is a God out there, He heard me and He sent me your father, so, if you’re ever alone and scared, you go to Him, He’ll be there,”

The whole time she spoke, painting me a picture of her life before today, I sat, glancing from her to my sketchbook and captured the perfect picture of her while she spoke, only with longer hair and a younger face.

I said nothing when I turned the finished pencil drawing around to show her.

“Oh my God…” She gasped, one hand covering her mouth and the other reaching out for the book, which I let her take for a closer look “Hannah, how did you do that?” She asked, glancing over to me and then back down at the drawing “That is exactly what I looked like when your father was a little boy,” I couldn’t stop smiling “You have some talent there girl, and I know you’re going to do great things with it,” She said, handing the book back to me. And then it hit me. The inspiration I needed, once again, for music class.
~~~~
Jimmy
I felt horrible, for the past two days I’ve ignored Hannah, any text she sent me I deleted it because I couldn’t stand to see her name on my phone, but I had been doing a lot of thinking, and I wanted to go and see her, but I challenged all of that into a simple melody on the piano, that maybe she could play along to and sing with, we had to have this completed by Friday, and
I’m sure Hannah and I, when we finally got together to work, could have something amazing in a matter of hours.

“Fuck this,” I said to myself, rolling off of my bed, grabbing my phone, keys and smokes and shoving them into the pockets of my leather jacket as I slipped it on and headed out of my room.

“Where are you going?” My mom asked as I walked past the kitchen.

“To see a friend,” I said to her.

“Well, if this friend is a pretty girl, for the love of Christ, be safe?” She made a face at me and I made one right back, but walked out of the door laughing, hearing the sound of my mother laughing behind me.

When I walked onto Hannah’s street, I could see that her dad was home, but so was she. I hurried my pace and reached her front lawn, I contemplated walking up to the door and ringing the doorbell, but I figured that if her father saw me over here at this time of night he wouldn’t let me speak to her, much less come in and spend time with her. So I opted to make my way around the back of their house and hoist myself into the large tree outside Hannah’s bedroom window.

The light was on and she was right at the window, sitting at her desk, alternating between typing quickly on her computer to writing down in a notebook and… she looked as though she was singing to herself. I shuffled myself along the thickest branch until I was right outside of her window, leaned forward and tapped on the glass, she jumped, but didn’t scream. Thank God.

“Jimmy?” She asked, a smile spreading across her face as she opened the window and let me climb in “What are you doing here?” She asked as I landed safely in her bedroom.

“I wanted to talk to you, clear up a few things and I… I wanted to apologize for ignoring you, it can’t have been easy, not knowing where things were sitting with us,” I said, she looked at the ground and nodded along.

“I hate not knowing things, but you have every right to be mad at me, I didn’t tell you the biggest thing about me and you found out the worst way possible, so, wherever you want things to be with us is fine with me, whether that’s nothing or… everything,” She exhaled deeply “And you can ask any question you want,”

I thought about it carefully. I didn’t want to ask her anything that might hurt her, but I did have a lot to ask, and I didn’t want it to come across the wrong way.

“What… what are you, exactly?” I asked. She took my hand and lead me over to her double bed against the other wall and sat us both on the end of it before letting go of my hand again and clasping her surprisingly soft hands in her lap.

“I’m a witch,” She said quickly “Erin is too, we got it from our mothers who were sisters, they passed their… gift onto us, all witches have ten powers, seven of which every witch shares, and another one that runs in their family and will be passed through each generation, and two of her own that she alone will have,”

“And what are the three that you have?” I asked.

“Resurgence,” She said “Erin and I both share that one too, it runs in the family,” I nodded along with her “Clairvoyance and Injury Transference,”

“Dumb it down for me?” I asked.

“We can bring people back to life, I can read minds and I’m a human voodoo doll,” My eyes widened at her words, she could do all of that, and yet the whole time I’ve known her I thought she was just an ordinary girl.

“Have you ever… uh… read my mind before?” I asked.

“Yes,” She said honestly “I didn’t mean to, I never mean to use any of my powers, after my mom died, I became scared of everything I could do, and I stopped using it after I got out of control, and I was never taught, but Erin taught herself and she loves herself and every power she holds… but I’m terrified, I’m terrified of what I can do, to myself and to others… I’m a danger to everyone,” Her eyes were filling with tears and I could hear the tightening of her throat “It’s all my fault she’s in there,” She whispered, I’m sure she was talking to herself and didn’t actually mean for me to hear her, but I did. Who did she hurt?

Then, I remembered, sophomore year, a senior girl attacked Hannah in the girls changing rooms, the girl hurt herself so badly in front of poor Hannah, scalded herself in the showers and got hospitalised, then she was convinced that she didn’t do it to herself, that Hannah was possessed and did it to her.

“You did it?” I whispered, turning to face her fully, that’s when I saw the tears streaming down her face and her shoulder shaking as she sobbed silently to herself “That senior girl? It was you?” She nodded.

“I was so scared, I knew what I could do, and it was at an all-time high,” She took a deep, shaky breath to calm herself before continuing “I told her that she would end up getting hurt, but she wouldn’t stop kicking me, hitting me, standing on me… she was going to kill me, and before I could stop myself I used telekinesis to send her into the showers and pyrokeinesis to heat up the water and burn her, I couldn’t stop until I passed out,”

She broke into uncontrollable sobs, holding her head in her hands and crying into her palms. I couldn’t help myself, as much as it scared me that she was what she was, I had to grab her and pull her to me so that she could cry against me, I couldn’t just watch her cry, watch her hurt. I had to make her pain go away.

“If you’re too scared of me,” She sniffed, pulling away from me and wiping her eyes with her sleeves “I understand if you never want to see me again, but if you do, I promise, I’ll try harder than I’ve ever tried before, to make sure I don’t hurt you,” Her voice broke at the end and she cried again.

“I can’t go another day of my life without seeing you,” I told her with a big grin “You’re stuck with me now, Hannah. And no matter what you are, or what you can do, you’re never getting rid of me,”

She looked down at her lap and smiled shyly, a giant blush creeping up her neck and onto her cheeks. I placed a long finger under her chin and tilted her head up so that she was looking at me. She furrowed her eyebrows in slight confusion, but her eyes widened when I started to lean into her, and when my lips gently pressed against hers she didn’t pull away, but she didn’t react either, not for a few seconds, and then she relaxed and started to kiss back. My hand moved to cup the back of her head and deepen the kiss, she gasped, and I took my chance to slip my tongue into her mouth and dance with hers.

Eventually, we had to come up for air.

“Whoa…” She whispered “That was my… my first kiss… ever,”

"Really?" I asked "Well then, I'm honoured," That earned me a firm punch to the arm.

"Don't ruin the moment," She warned "But hey, I've been working on something for music class, wanna hear it?"

Notes

So, they had their first kiss! Jimmy knows everything and is being pretty accepting for the time being!
More to come from the amazing E :D <3

- LMV x