Some Kind of Magic

The tires of the blue Chevrolet cobalt slowly came to a halt in front of a small cottage looking house on a side street of some town in New Jersey. A series of clicks rang through the crisp winter air. A click for the turning off of headlights, a click for the engine turning off, and a click as the brunette took off her seatbelt. Now free to get out of the car, the girl sat there, her blue eyes steadied onto the crisp white snow and cozy looking household.

Something inside of her, a supernatural force, kept her seated in the drivers seat of her car. The pain of going to face her friends after so long was, at the moment, unbearable. After a few years, she was returning to the one state where she never wanted to set foot in again. It held too much pain, to much annoyance for her. May it be an old boyfriend, an enemy from school, or the old house her parents lived in, it was all too much for her to deal with now. Especially after the recent break-up.

Minutes ticked by and the girl stayed seated. The heat was now completely gone from the car. A new cold air started to replace the heat, and Vanessa started to shiver. “I can’t do it”, she jerked her head back roughly hitting it against the headrest of her seat. Her arms, wrapped in her black sweatshirt sleeves lined with fake fur, rose and her hands, exposed to the cold, clasped onto the wheel tightly. As her knuckles hit white, she shook her body a few times, then pressed her back into the seat as hard as she could.

“Vanessa!”, the high pitched girls scream seeped in from the windows and hit the brunette hard. Her eyes squeezed shut for a moment. But they were soon opened as her door was quickly opened and the blonde girl’s arms were pulling her out of the car without any mercy. “I can’t believe it’s you!”, the voice was starting to irritate Vanessa now, but she tried to tell herself it was just because Alicia was so excited. When they got back inside her normal, calm voice would be placed back into her throat.

Once the two girls were walking toward the house, the blonde girl with dull brown eyes turned to Vanessa and wrapped her arms around her, pulling her in for a huge hug. She rambled off a few things into the space behind the brunette causing her to smile. Alicia’s voice was back to normal, making the pound in Vanessa’s head stay at a steady beat.

As the two walked into the house, Alicia started rambling on and on about all of the changes that had went on while Vanessa was off ‘living a better life then anyone could ever have in Jersey’, or at least that’s what Alicia said it was. Within ten minutes of Vanessa arriving at the house, she already knew what old friends were doing what, who, and where they lived. To Vanessa, this was all useless information. She didn’t like any of her old friends besides Alicia and an old friend of the opposite species who decided to make something out of himself and go to Michigan State on a full Academic Scholarship. Although she didn’t care, she sat on the couch with a smile and listened intently to whatever Alicia had to say. She was staying here for god knows how long, and starting it off by confiding herself in her room was not going to be a good first step to becoming good friends again.

“So!”, Alicia started off after a moment of silence. She flashed Vanessa a bright white smile before continuing on about what she had to say. “I’m going out with this boy, Travis. He’s a hockey player”, Vanessa held the urge to roll her eyes. Instead of showing annoyance at how Alicia, probably the prettiest girl in Jersey, was able to snag any human of the male sex with a swing of her hips, the brunette moved closer to the edge of the couch cushion, put on a fake interested smile, and nodded for her to go on into detail. “He’s an NHL player”, Vanessa applied a sufficient amount of pressure onto her teeth, “He plays for the New Jersey Devils and he’s a really nice guy”, there was a loud ring and Alicia excused herself from the already dead conversation.

Once the blonde was out of the room, Vanessa grinded her teeth and pressed her fingernails into the tops of her thighs. This was typical Alicia, she thought to herself, snag a rich boy with a great career who rakes in a lot of money so she doesn’t have to lift a finger for the rest of her life. Alicia was always like that, she wanted to be pampered and didn’t want to make any of the money she was pampered with. To Vanessa it was pathetic, but to some men, she was ideal. Some men had that characteristic to them, they wanted a hot wife that didn’t have to work so she could spend all day working out keeping herself in great shape, then when he’d get home, they’d either go out for eat, or order in, then they’d fuck each other and make believe they loved each other besides the daily between the sheets routine.

There was a long period of time that probably lasted until this day where Vanessa believed that love did not exist in Alicia’s eyes. She believed that her good friend since grade school’s only definition of love was sex, and it has been ever since they were fifteen. Some people that is their definition, but Vanessa thought of herself as old fashioned. She wanted the love where they were just border obsessed with each other, puppy love, bliss.

As the blonde glided back into the room, every thought in Vanessa’s head was placed on hold as the anger ran through her forehead making her head start to pound again. Alicia was going on about how that was her boyfriend and how he and some guys were going to come over after their practice. It was evident Vanessa was not thrilled by the future event, but she just nodded and diverted her eyes to her bags.

It was easy to see that this would be the perfect time for her to get into that anti-social I need to pack state. “Where’s the room?”, Vanessa’s voice broke the constant clicking of Alicia’s text spree and silenced the room for a few solid seconds.

“The room down the hall from ours”, she said as Vanessa’s heart rate sped up.

The word ours was now one of those words that would strike the wrong nerve in her now. Ours reminded her of a boyfriend which she now lacked. It reminded her of a full bed, it reminded her of a commitment to another person, something her passed boyfriend could not uphold. To think a small word like that would twist a human’s heart worse than a verbal insult.

As the door cracked open, Vanessa quickly walked in and set her bags down on the floor. Turning back to the blonde she thanked her for everything, asked for a few minutes alone, then shut the door, sat down against it and pressed her face into her knees.

She had a lot to think about, and not a lot of time before she was thrown into the ‘social’ scene. Where she would get mercilessly picked at by a new group of boys that probably all wanted girls like Alicia. To their disappointment, Vanessa was nothing like Alicia. She was tall thin but healthy looking, brunette, blue eyed, fair skinned, and more romantic than a quickie on the side of the road.

Eyebrows to the center of her head, she let out a heavy sigh and picked her head back up. Softly resting it against the door, she cracked open her eyes and looked up at the dim light hanging overhead. Mental images of the pink tank top and random clothes strewn across her house put her stomach in knots and filled her veins to the brim with pure anger.

Love was something that did not exist., she thought in her one moment of extreme rage.

Love is fake, love is nothing. Love is a four letter lie and it would take some kind of magic to make her ever believe in it again.