Granting a Thief's Wishes

"I know you've always been the naive one out of all of us," Laila started as she locked the door behind her. I hated it when people do that. It gave me a sense that something bad was going to happen and that my little sister would take out a knife and slash me up into pieces of meat. Probably produce me into patties and have my mom BBQ-ed me.

Or maybe I have been watching too much horror movies lately.

"Really? I thought it was always Kylie."

"But this is as careless and stupid as you can get, Suze!"

"Oh god!" I shrieked, my voice oozing with sarcasm. "So you didn't brought me all the way up here to help you with your Math homework!"

"Please," she said, rolling her eyes. "I taught you Math in your senior year. Two entire chapters!"

Sometimes, I really wanted to ignore the fact that I probably had a lower IQ compared to my little sister.

I knew this was coming to me, ever since she eyed Nicholas up and down with a disapproving face. Even in dinner, she kept a close eye on Nicholas as if expecting him to be a terrorist or something. Occasionally, she shot me a 'what-the-fuck-were-you-thinking' glance.

Like the one she was doing to me right that second.

"Suze, you don't tell people - ordinary people - you're a wish-granting fairy. It's dangerous! Especially to that man. I don't get a good vibe from him, Suze."

"Kylie does," I interjected, and we caught each others' eyes and despite ourselves, burst into a giggling fit. "I know he's not the type that you see me hanging out with," I said, "and first of all I just want to clear out that the prospect of even being with him isn't comforting. I mean just look at Nicholas. He's...like...he's..."

Oh come on, wasn't there any word to describe him?

"Shaggy?" Laila asked for a while. Eh, close enough.

"Like a puppy."

"Like a murderous puppy."

"Laila, there's no such thing as a murderous puppy. Nicholas can be nice!"

Sometimes...

Occasionally.

"He's just playful most of the times, that's all. The kind of man who takes risks and chances...and stuff."

"Like a puppy," she repeated.

"No. More like a carefree, happy-go-lucky kind of person. Not an animal."

"How can you be so sure?" She sighed. "How can you be so darn sure that he won't betray you and use you for your magic? You're not exactly an ordinary fairy. You can grant wishes."

"Sometimes!" I said exasperatedly. "I just don't know anymore. Stop confusing me!"

"Suze, I'm just worried," she said - this time, more gently. "I don't want you to get hurt. There are plenty of bastards out there and if they know what you are, god only knows what could happen to you."

"I'm almost 19, I think I can take care of myself."

I wasn't convincing this soon-to-be-18-year-old smartass, was I?

"Give him a chance, Laila. That's all I'm asking," I pleaded. "It's no good crying over spilt milk. What's done...is done. And it's nice to have someone to know about this alright," I admitted. "Someone outside, someone who is not mom, Kylie or you!"

Finally, a few moments later she sighed defeatedly.

"Okay. Okay, but if something happen to you, Suze, don't blame me."

"Hello, puppy."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing," I said hurriedly. "What'chu doing over there?"

"Just reading back through some old notes. Bernoulli Equations and all that jazz."

"Interesting," I said, plopping down next to him to look over this BlackBerry. You know what, Maddie has been talking about BlackBerry this, BlackBerry that. Suddenly the damn thing was in-trend. Some sort of a must-have. "Can I see?"

He moved his arm a bit towards me and I started reading...hopelessly.

I didn't understand physics or whatever in high school, I was not going to understand some more complicated-looking-numbers displayed on the screen. What the heck was barotropic fluid anyway?

"Very interesting," I nodded intelligently. Then, out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Nicholas' amused grin. "I understand these!" I said.

No, no I really didn't. But I wasn't going to admit that to him. Hmph.

Oh god, just looking through the old notes was making me me exhausted. Thankfully, he pulled his arm away and scrolled through the what-nots. He actually looked pretty decent this way. His brows were furrowed, and occasionally he looked distant as if he had another theory or something...or he was memorizing some equations or something.

I dunno. Science guys were always hard to understand for me.

"Why did you take up chem engineering anyway?"

"It's fascinating. I like solving things. Tough challenges. It's my driving force, in one way or another."

"It's mind-numbingly frustrating," I muttered and he chuckled. He stuffed the phone back in his back pocket and turned to look at me. We were lounging on the sofa in the living room. The TV was switched on but neither of us were really paying attention to it.

"This just in, a park ranger got mauled by a 500 pounds grizzly bear 5 hours ago..." the anchor lady was reporting.

"It's like...stealing. You plan out a way in just a few seconds at times, to get the goods out of someone's pocket or purse or wallet without them noticing. It's satisfying really."

"You have weird hobbies. Physics and stealing. We don't see that every day."

He snorted in laughter and I laughed too.

"Let me tell you something, Susannah," he said. "You didn't realize it, did you?"

"Realized what?"

"When I was leaning close to you to show you what I was reading?"

He then held up a powder blue wallet with a butterfly embroidery. I gape as I reached into my front pocket. "That's...actually pretty amazing."

And scary.

"I used to steal. Like really steal when I was around 15."

"Fifteen," I repeated, shocked.

"Yeah, there are moments in my life that I'm not really proud of. Been stealing for a year. Until I turned 16, I stopped."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "My uncle worked as a cop. Gave me a full lecture about it. That those things may be priceless to other people and shit like that. It didn't convince me at first, but I didn't want to get into trouble too. Especially with my uncle."

"So you just stopped? Like that?"

"What? Alright, I know it's not the earth-shattering story you were expecting to hear," he said, the corner of his lips twitched into a teasing smile and I stuck out my tongue out at him childishly.

"It's interesting, really."

"How about you? All this fairy stuff. Aren't you freaked out by that?"

"I am," I said. "But I'm more freaked out by the fact that I'm not exactly your ordinary fairy. My siblings have wings, alright. Freaking wings!" I said. He laughed. He had a great big laugh, I noticed.

"You're jealous," he pointed out and I shook my head.

"Just disappointed."

A pregnant pause later and he was starting to talk bullshit again.

"Sooo," he said, shrugging. "You grant wishes."

"Don't even think about it."

"But Susannah," he said.

"I am not granting any of your damn wishes," I said firmly. "You're a thief for god's sake!"

"Not technically," he protested. "And you're a fairy! And I have your bracelet. So what are ya' gonna do huh? Beat me to death with your sparkly glitters?"

"No. But I do have these things called stilettos."

"So scared."

I slapped him.

"What the hell was that for?!" He exclaimed angrily, a red imprint of my palm was starting to appear on the side of his face. I got up, threw my shoulders back and smiled smugly. "For kissing me. And for being a cocky bastard."