Shannon O'Reilly was bullied and everything his older sister wasn't. When his sister Sarah gives him a chance to change things through a single wish things don't go as planned.     I Wish: Book 4 Chapter 13 Obsession By Amethyst

I watched Lisa carefully for a moment. What in the hell was she doing waiting by my car in the school parking lot? My experiences with Lisa, both before and after my transformation into a girl, made me anticipate trouble, but she didn’t make a move and she looked as nervous as I was. My magick sense didn’t pick up anything and I couldn’t sense the presence of Khinara, or any other Demons for that matter. I had Beth and Ellie with me so things seemed safe enough, and yet still I hesitated.

“Umm… hi,” Lisa said uncertainly, breaking the tense silence as she gave an awkward little finger wave.

Beth was as uncertain as I was and I could feel a surge of protectiveness from our link as she stepped between me and my stalker. “What do you want, Lisa?”

Lisa let out a deep breath, swallowed a lump in her throat, and then her cheeks flushed from more than just the cold as she said, “I… I’m here to apologize.”

Beth, Ellie, and I all stared at her for a long moment in stunned disbelief. Those were the last words that I would have ever expected to come from Lisa White. I still wasn’t sure that I trusted or believed her so after quickly casting a truth spell under my breath I cautiously asked, “Why?”

“I… uh… get that you probably don’t trust me, and I totally deserve that given the following you around and other stupid shit that I’ve done to you,” she began, looking down at her feet. Then she took another deep breath and looked me straight in the eyes. “I’m sorry, I’ve been a total bitch, and I guess that I’ve kinda always been that way. I’ve always had to be the best at everything; the best athlete, the smartest student, the prettiest, have the best boyfriend, and I was like that with everything I did. Everything in my life had to be perfect. I got totally OCD about it and if I wasn’t the best at something or something didn’t go according to my plans it ate me up inside and I lashed out at others.”

I could only keep staring, words just didn’t want to come to me and, since Ellie and Beth seemed similarly shocked and confused, Lisa kept talking. “When I met you I was jealous of your looks and when you didn’t take my abuse and beat me at my own game I realized that you were smart and confident too. Then you had to prove yourself to be a better athlete as well. I had a meltdown over it and I had to try and prove myself superior so I started the gay-bashing and the rumors. When I confronted you at the mall you kind of turned my world inside out. I realized two things. The first was that I was attracted to you, very attracted. The second was that I’m not attracted to guys, I’ve been going through the motions but there’s nothing there, nothing like what I felt for you.”

“So you decided to stalk me?” I sputtered in disbelief.

“Realizing that I was attracted to girls was a blow to my massive ego, okay?” she replied sheepishly as she looked at the ground. “I knew that it was stupid when I was doing it, but if I was going to be a lesbian then I needed to have the absolute best girlfriend, and you were it. I got fixated on the idea and when I get all OCD like that I don’t think about consequences, I get totally focused on the goal and I’ll do anything to get there, so I started watching you to wait for my opportunity.”

“You know, trying to slander her and make her look bad was a pretty shitty idea if that was what you were going for,” Beth contributed acidly.

“I… I was already all-in on that and I kinda hated you both for making me realize that I’m gay. I know, I’m messed up for hating Shannon and wanting her at the same time. Besides, I thought that maybe you’d break up with her if things got too hot,” Lisa admitted awkwardly. “I don’t think clearly when I get focused on something like that. And then Blondie there had to announce your engagement to the world and that cop came after me so I panicked and ran. I… I don’t remember anything from the time I left the mall until I woke up in the hospital yesterday.”

“Yeah, something weird happened. We were walking to my car when all the lights and stuff in the parking lot died. We thought we heard something and we found Sgt. Williams and her partner out cold. We didn’t see you anywhere,” I said with a shrug, giving her the non-magic version of our story from that night. Then as an afterthought, I added, “We heard you were missing, so you’re pretty much the last person we expected to see waiting by my car.”

“There’s like a whole day missing from my memory, but when I woke up the cops were there to ask if I could remember anything that happened on Sunday night. They found me unconscious just outside the emergency entrance of the hospital at like four in the morning yesterday. I’ve been thinking about you since I woke up, both of you,” she said, giving both Beth and me a long look that actually looked genuinely distraught.

“Thinking about them?” Ellie asked with a raised eyebrow. “I think they’ve both made it clear that they’re not interested in you.”

Lisa quickly looked away. “No, not like that. I’ve felt different since I woke up yesterday. I don’t have that obsessive drive to be the best at everything. I haven’t had a single OCD thought and usually, even the littlest things like how things are arranged on a table or food tray can set me off. I’ve been thinking about what a bitch I’ve been, how messed up I was to do what I did. I’m very sorry about what I’ve done, neither of you deserved that. I… I’ve deleted all my social media posts about you, posted an apology… and I came out of the closet.”

Beth pulled out her phone and quickly opened Lisa’s social media accounts. She had been keeping an eye on them to see what she was posting about me. Her eyes went wide as she looked at each in turn. “Holy shit, you really did!”

“Yeah, you could have been bitches to me when I first cornered you in the mall, I certainly deserved it, but you actually gave me some pretty good advice. I’ve been thinking about that and a few other things since I woke up yesterday. I decided to quit sports for now and just focus on school and making some real friends. The only person to come see me in the hospital was my mom and I guess that says a lot about the kind of person I am.”

“The person you were,” I corrected gently as I looked over the posts that Beth was showing me on her phone. “That person wouldn’t have come to apologize in person, admitted that she was wrong, or done that whole thing on social media.” I wondered if this had anything to do with the chemical imbalance that Sarah had detected and fixed in Lisa’s brain.

“Yeah, I guess. Congratulations on the engagement. Anyway, I did what I came to do so I’ll leave the three of you alone now and I’ll try not to bother you again. I’ve got to go catch the bus since my car needs to be repaired.” She turned and started walking toward the street and I felt kind of bad for her. What she just did couldn’t have been easy and it took both guts and class to do it.

I was kind of concerned about Khinara coming after her too. If she came to collect her promised meal and Lisa didn’t have it, or even know who she was. things could go bad for her. Sarah had tagged Lisa with a spell to let her know if any Demons got too close to her and I quickly cast a similar spell as she started to walk away, but I still felt bad leaving her like that. She had just come out of the closet and was probably going to have it pretty rough in school between that and quitting the volleyball and basketball teams. If she was really trying to change and be a better person, then I couldn’t let her go through all of that alone.

I looked toward Beth and Ellie and they both took one look at the expression on my face before smiling and shaking their heads. “You want to help her, don’t you?” Beth asked.

“Yeah, that can’t have been easy for her and she’s going to be out of the closet and you saw how the girls on her volleyball team latched onto the nasty lesbian gossip. She won’t have any friends to help her through this and everyone who she thought was a friend will probably be doing the same thing to her that she had them doing to me,” I said uncertainly.

“Some might call that justice served,” Ellie pointed out. “I don’t think I would be one of them though. She didn’t do anything to me directly so it’s really up to you and Beth.”

Beth leaned over to kiss me tenderly. “If you can put the past behind us then so can I, sweetheart. We’ll be careful just in case it’s not on the up and up, but we’ll give her a chance if you want to. You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t feel responsible for her and want to help her, it’s who you are. You’d help your worst enemy if you thought it was the right thing to do and you’ve shown me that the path of most resistance can be pretty rewarding. You’d better call her before she gets too far.”

“Lisa!” I shouted as I ran toward her, and once I caught up I tried to sound friendly. “Look, there’s room in my car for one more. You don’t need to freeze waiting for a bus, we could give you a ride. I live near your school so it’s not really out of our way.”

“Yeah, I know. Why are you being so nice? I don’t deserve it, I was such a bitch to you and your girlfriend.” The look of guilt and surprise on her face when she turned around decided me. This wasn’t an act on her part, she felt genuinely bad for what she had done and she didn’t expect forgiveness.

I shrugged and took her gloved hand in mine. “Because I can be, and I’m told that I’d probably help my worst enemy if it was the right thing to do. Yeah, we kinda got off on the wrong foot, but we don’t need to let that define our relationship. C’mon, let’s get in the car and warm up, you look like you’re freezing.”

“But your…”

I quickly cut off her argument. “My girlfriend and my cousin are used to me doing things like this and they’re both cool with it. They’re willing to give you a chance too. I think that you could use some good friends, Lisa.”

“You’re sure about this?” Lisa asked one more time.

“Totally,” I assured her. “Even if we don’t become friends, we can at least try to put the past behind us. Now, c’mon, let’s go.”

I walked her back to the car where Ellie and Beth introduced themselves and tried their best to be friendly and not scare Lisa off. Soon we were in the car with the heater going and Lisa was giving us her address so we could drop her off at home. It turned out that she only lived a few streets over from our house so it wouldn’t be too hard for us to find our way there. As she waited for the car to warm up, Beth looked in her purse and came up with a pad of paper and a pen, which she quickly used to write down some information before tearing the page off and offering it to Lisa.

“What’s this?” Lisa asked uncertainly.

“That’s the place and time for the Rainbow Group meetings, and I put my phone number down in case you have any questions,” my Familiar/girlfriend explained. “Coming out of the closet can kind of turn your life upside down and it’s hard enough just realizing that you’re gay and coping with that without the way that some of your classmates and other people will treat you when they find out. I’ve been through that, I had a lot of problems when I came out last year, and having a support group has been a big help. I thought that maybe you could use a safe place where you could go to talk to people who will understand what you’re going through.”

“Well, besides us of course,” Ellie contributed as Beth put the car in gear and made for the snowy streets. “I’m still trying to figure out what my orientation is but I kinda figured out the other night that I’m probably bisexual, though it’s not as hard for me to deal with as it might be for some people. I mean, we have lots of rainbow members in our family, right cuz?”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a laugh, “My sister is a lesbian and both your Mom and I are bi, and let’s not even go into all of the extended family that we visited recently.” Knowing that most of the Faery in our troupe were at the very least bisexual had made it easier for Ellie to adjust to the idea once she had put some emotional distance between her and the trauma that had made her figure that out.

“We’re all pretty busy outside of school between volleyball and our jobs, but if you need someone to talk to or hang out with give me a call. Part of my job is taking Shannon’s calls and managing her schedule so if we can free up the time we’ll do our best to be there for you,” Beth said before asking somewhat uncertainly, “How did your parents take the news?”

“It’s just me and my mom,” Lisa corrected matter-of-factly. “My dad died when I was really young, I barely remember him. Mom… well I think she’s in shock, but she’ll probably be okay with it. I told her while I was in the hospital and she was already freaked out that I disappeared for a whole day and don’t remember anything, and I kinda laid everything on her at once, being gay and what I did to you.”

“You told her about that too?” Ellie asked staring at her in shock. “Was she the one who convinced you to apologize?”

“No, I decided to do that on my own, but when I told her that I planned to do it she said, ‘You damned well better after everything that you did.’ I didn’t want to wait and chicken out and I thought that you had volleyball practice today so I got her to drop me off at your school before she headed to her shift at the hospital.”

“She works at the hospital? What does she do there?” I asked. It was interesting learning more about her home life. All I’d ever seen was the miss perfect act she put on at school, but the things that I was learning explained a few things about her.

“She’s a trauma surgeon in the ER,” Lisa replied to my questions. “She usually works nights so we don’t see much of one another except for whatever evenings or weekends she gets off. She was working the other night when I was dropped off. She was totally freaked out when I woke up and I’m, like grounded forever, but I guess that I deserve that.”

Beth pulled the car up in front of a large house with darkened windows and I felt a sudden stab of guilt at the thought of leaving her in that house alone. I knew all too well what it was like being a latchkey kid since before my birthday Sarah was often gone for modeling gigs for days at a time, leaving me to fend for myself. I turned to look at her in the back seat and offered, “Lisa, we haven’t had dinner yet. Maybe you could come over to our place for something to eat. Beth has to go home for some family stuff, but I’m sure that my sister, her girlfriend, or Ellie’s mom wouldn’t mind giving you a ride home afterward.”

Lisa smiled, and it was still kind of weird seeing a genuine smile on her face, but she shook her head. “Thanks, Shannon, I appreciate the thought but I’m grounded and I should take my punishment and catch up on the schoolwork I’ve missed. Maybe some other time. If you still want to do it some other night then maybe we can talk to my mom about it. I think that she’s going to want to talk to you anyway.”

“Okay, if you need us for anything you can call Beth and she can give you my number, or we’re only a few blocks away,” I told her as I stepped out of the car to let her out of the back seat.

“Thanks, I appreciate it, but I’ll be fine. I should probably give you some space for a few days anyway so you can think about whether hanging out with me is really a good idea. I’m used to fending for myself and no offense, but it’s nice to not be thinking about you constantly. You’re really cute, but I am so over obsessing about you,” she said with a wry smile as she got out of the car. “Good night and drive safely.”

She headed up the walkway to the house and I waited until she was inside, the lights were on, and the door was closed before getting into the car. As we pulled out of the driveway and headed for home Beth said, “Sometimes you’re too nice for your own good Shannon, but for what it’s worth, I think that trying to be there for her is the right thing to do.”

“Me too,” Ellie added from the back seat. “I’m kinda worried about Khinara showing up while she’s alone too, and it seems like that will be a lot of the time, especially if she really quit sports.”

“I’m worried too,” I admitted, “but Sarah tagged her with an alert spell in case that happens and I did earlier as well. If any Demons come after her we’ll be there for her as soon as we can. And I know that she wasn’t lying about anything that she said because the truth spell I cast on her won’t wear off until we’re at least a block away.”

Beth dropped Ellie and me off at home and after a long and tender kiss goodbye, she headed home so she and her mother could break the news about her mom’s new Faery-ness to her dad and Jason. Ellie and I spent the rest of the evening doing homework, getting in some magick practice, and just hanging out with Annie, Talisha, and Sarah. We told them about the update to the Lisa situation and, while they all advised us to be cautious, they were happy with how we had handled it.