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Even when I show Tina the pictures I took straight from my phone, she can’t see anything odd about them. I tell her about how I saw Sefira and she just glares at me and tells me not to move. She walks off to her room, and she returns with a felt jewellery box, too big to be a ring. She opens it up and pulls out the bracelet inside, telling me to hold out my wrist.

As she latches it around my wrist, she’s saying something in another language I’ve never heard before, but with my knowledge of languages it could just as easily be Spanish. Then I notice something odd. The charms on the bracelet light up. They’re all golden and in the shape of good luck charms. There’s a four leaf clover, a horse shoe, a ladybug and a rabbit’s foot, then, next to all of those is a Galloway sword and they all light up bright blue, glowing a radiant glow that fades out when Tina stops speaking.

We don’t say much else before Toby walks in, and he points to the Galloway sword on my bracelet, and then pulls out his necklace, comparing them side by side. I ask Tina if she has the sword anywhere, and she rolls up her sleeve to reveal the tattoo on her right shoulder which amazes Toby even more. I wonder now if I’ll ever be able to see Sefira again, so I look back at the picture of my phone and she’s still there, walking carelessly down Manson Road because she knows nobody will see her. I wonder if Rose has a sword anywhere.

Saturday is when I see Hunter at the library again, because his books need to be returned or renewed. He notices me and his smile sort of drops down, and then my face follows suit. It’s a lot colder outside than it is inside with all the heaters, so I have to take off my winter coat as soon as I walk inside. It’s not winter yet, but with the weather like this, you’d swear it already was. Hunter eyes me over as I walk over to him, lugging my puffy coat on my arm. “Hey,” I say, trying to break the ice, nervously clinging to the sword charm on my bracelet.

“You know, you already said no, and then you ignored me. You don’t have to keep rubbing salt in my cuts,” he spits back and it stings a little. I never wanted to hurt his feelings or his pride.

“I changed my mind.”

“What?”

“About that date,” I answer and I he raises his head a bit.

“That was three weeks ago.”

“I know.”

“I thought you didn’t allow yourself to date.”

“I’ve been thinking about it.”

“Well I uh…I’ll inbox you,” he begins, smiling a bit, “I’ve got to go.”

It’s weird, with Hunter. He’s an amazing athlete, he’s got plenty of girls who would be happy to date him, but he picked me. His smiley, flirty attitude sort of disappeared when I rejected him, and I can’t help but feel guilty for that. At least now I have some protection from the curse, I think. Tina wasn’t really specific on what the bracelet does, but I just hope that it is protection enough that I can finally spend time with Hunter without worrying that I’m going to get him killed.

I forgot to tell you about that, didn’t I? Those heart attacks aren’t actually heart attacks. The only death I wasn’t responsible for was Tyler Grant, the one who was hit by the drunk driver. Sefira can’t be seen by mortals, and so if she shoots people through the heart and their heart just stops working, humans need to explain it somehow. That’s where heart attacks came from. Throughout history she’s had a few different ways of working. Drowning, the plague, but now with humans controlling as much as they do, she has to make it look more natural, so she shoots them through the heart. There’s enough obesity now that she doesn’t even have to try and hide it.

Byron doesn’t show up this time, so Anna and I get our new books, I wrap myself back up in my winter coat and start rubbing my hands together for warmth as I get outside. We live in the middle of a valley between some mountains, and then on the other side is a huge bay of water, so when a cold front comes around, saying that it’s cold is an understatement. We stop in at this quaint little bakery and we pick up some meat pies which help warm us up a bit, but then as soon as we’re finished we run over to Anna’s car and turn the heaters up full blast. It’s probably burning us, but we don’t care. I get home, wrap myself up in blankets and spend all day reading because it’s too cold to do anything else.

It’s around Wednesday when the cold front disappears. Anna’s enjoyment at being able to wear long pants on all her dates with Byron has worn off and instead she’s putting on dresses with tights underneath because she’s still too lazy to shave her legs every day. Hunter and I made plans to go get dinner at this Italian restaurant on Saturday night even though I’ll probably be too full to eat after Anna’s birthday dinner on Friday. Anna’s actual birthday is tomorrow, but she’s busy working and she likes to convince herself that she can have one more day of being thirty-nine.

Anna’s birthday dinner goes off well, and she was actually pretty happy when Byron showed up by surprise. I ended up eating about one plate of actual meals, then probably three plates full of desserts and by the end of it I felt absolutely horrible, so I loosened the belt on my jeans. Anna was already mocking me with her smart decision to wear pants with an elastic waist, and Rose, Tina and Toby all enjoyed their meal, stayed for the cake and then had to get home because they were going away for the weekend. On Saturday, Anna seems almost as nervous as I am about my date with Hunter. She’s running through a list of emergency procedures if he starts having a heart attack, and we both laugh, even though we’re both paranoid it might actually happen. I’ve seen him a few times at school this week, and he even commented that the charm on my bracelet was the same thing he drew. I can’t tell him why I’m wearing it, but we both agree that it’s an awesome coincidence.

When we get to the restaurant, it’s less awkward than I thought it would be. He told me how he’d liked me for a while so he was glad that we could finally go out, and I admit to him that I may have had a crush on him for a while, too. He tells me about his cooking lessons, and how he’s getting better and can now cook spaghetti bolognaise without burning the pasta. If he was burning pasta before, it’s no wonder he’s taking lessons. Then we both tell each other how we got into detention. My story is sounding more and more stupid as he tells me about his class protest, where they all agreed to not show up to class until their teacher treated them better. Spoiler alert: the teacher doesn’t treat them better and now Hunter and his two friends have detention for the next three weeks for being ringleaders. With Miss Doyle as their teacher, it’s no wonder the whole class protested.

All this time of worrying about my curse and I hadn’t even realised that Hunter might have just been genuinely interested in me. I start to get butterflies in my stomach as he smiles at me, and I realise I’ve never felt this way with anyone before. Rhys Martin was my first kiss, but he was practically obsessed with me. Then there was James Billings, the one hit by the drunk driver. He was my first boyfriend, when we were both thirteen, but that was more of a puppy love than anything. I wonder if he ever felt this way with Claire, and I’ve never been on a first date before, but I know better than to ask about Claire Dunmore on one, regardless of whether she dated the guy or not.

We don’t realise how long we’ve been talking until the waiter comes around and asks us if we’ll vacate our table for another couple who have been waiting. I check my phone, and find out that it’s eight thirty, which means we’ve been here for two and a half hours, even though we finished our food ages ago. Hunter asks if he can drive me home, and I’m glad that he does, because Anna would be at work now and the only other person I can ask for a ride home is Byron. I direct him back to my house, and then when he parks the car, he walks me out to my door to say goodnight, and those nervous butterflies are fluttering more than ever. I know Anna would kill me for this, but I kiss him out on the veranda, but it’s not like with Rhys, because he kisses me back passionately, and for a brief moment it’s like the only people existing are him and me. He pulls away and with a smile says “Goodnight Lauren.” walking back to his car slowly, while I stand there speechless, watching as he drives off back to his house.

As soon as I’m sure he’s gone, I let myself into the house and I skip off to my bedroom, the same way I’ve seen Anna do after her dates with Byron, and I flop carelessly onto my bed, knocking the small pile of stuffed animals everywhere. I pick up my pink fuzzy teddy which I’ve had since I was an orphan and I hug it close to my chest, and I can’t feel anything but happiness while I drift off to sleep. This is how I wish I could spend every night.

I wake up before Anna as usual on Sunday morning, and I can’t stop smiling, and I smile so much that my cheeks hurt, but I don’t care. I cook up some bacon and eggs for Anna and I and when I take them in for her, she looks at me, smiles and playfully says “You kissed him, didn’t you?” I smile and nod and the two of us start squealing like a pack of morons, because she’s so happy for me. Sometimes even I forget if Anna is supposed to be a parent or a friend, because I don’t think she knows either. On Monday there’s plenty of people talking about Hunter and I, as well as other things that happened on the weekend, but the only thing annoying Rose is that I didn’t tell her about the kiss as soon as it happened. She tells me that she’s never taking a weekend away again if it means she has to miss out on every detail of my relationship. Is it a relationship yet? We’re going on another date this Friday, but I’d hardly say that counts as a relationship. It took one month for us to go out, but now I just know I can’t wait to spend more time with him.