Fool Me Once by Abigail Livinghouse (book recommendations for teens TXT) 📕

guy saw her shift appearances in a bar, and now she wants us to fix it for her.” I explained.

 

“Why doesn’t she just erase his memory herself?” Luca asked, and I could hear the confusion in his voice. I shrugged.

 

“She probably lost him, finding him is going to be the tricky part, and Rebekah’s too goddamn lazy to go looking.” I said angrily. The soothing motion of Luca’s hand stroking my hair began to slow, as his anger rang through clear in his voice.

 

“I knew this was going to happen.” He said in a steely tone.

 

“Yeah, sorry I didn’t listen.” I agreed, feeling my anger begin to boil at the thought of my sister thinking I’d clean up her mess for her when she’s fucking eighteen years old.

 

“What should we do?” Luca asked before I could. I shook my head again.

 

“I have no damn clue. Why don’t we just leave it alone? Let’s see how she handles things for once.” I muttered. Luca suddenly stopped smoothing my hair and pulled back to face me, I opened my eyes, staring into his dark blue ones.

 

“That might just fuck us over completely. The secret of magic could get out to mortals if we let Rebekah handle this on her own. Do you really want to take that chance?” He asked seriously.

 

I considered my options. Well, if I let my sister alone she might very well fuck everyone over like Luca said by exposing magic. But if I help her then she won’t learn her lesson and she’ll continue to put the magic world at risk. Hmm, tough choice . . . Damn, seriously why do I always have to be the savior? Do people think I like that job? Really, anyone coming along who wants to be a hero you can do it because I sure as hell don’t want to. But for some reason I’m always stuck saving people’s asses. Well, I had made my decision.

 

Taking a deep breath, I looked right at Luca and said, “I’m letting her go. There’s no reason I have to help her. Fuck blood is thicker than water, this time, she’s on her own.”

 

“Alexandria”, Luca said sternly, reverting back to calling me by my full name. “Are you sure you want to do that?"

 

I grimaced, leaning back against Luca’s shoulder. Did I? You know, some people might say I’m prone to danger. But actually, that’s not the case. Danger just seems to find me wherever I go and refuse to leave me alone. But, I might just be encouraging the danger if I let Rebekah take care of this on her own. I shook my head.

 

“I don’t know. What do you think?” I asked, and by the determined look on his face, I could tell that I wasn’t going to like his answer any more than I had liked hearing from Rebekah.

 

“Damn.” I muttered, getting up off the floor with Luca’s help. “Well”, I said, brushing off my shorts. “Let’s go clean up my sister’s mess.”

 

          When we arrived at the club Well Under–classy huh? We began searching for my idiot sister.

 

          I had no idea what I was going to say or do when we found her. Although, I did know that it wasn’t going to be PG rated, so children, you might want to cover up your ears for a little.

 

          The club itself was packed to the gills with shimmying bodies and angry music, spewing out profanities and electronic beats. Luca and I made our way through the squished together crowd hand in hand, not taking any chances in this bizarre La setting.

 

          As I scanned the sea of people, I worried it would be hard to find my sister. As opposed to me, Rebekah enjoyed the overrated, Hollister, Barbie doll look, whereas I prefer the more outlandish, colorful ensemble. And since we were in La and the beach Barb look was the only option here to look like, you could imagine that it would be hard to find one blonde out of a whole dance floor of them.

 

          “God dammit.” I cursed under my breath, keeping hold of Luca’s hand as we continued to move forward.

 

          “Can you see her anywhere?” He asked.

 

          I shook my head, “No, you?”

 

          “No.”

 

          Fuck. Fuck Rebekah, fuck this club, fuck everything! God, for once I just wished I didn’t have to take responsibility for everything fucking thing.

 

          My eyes were beginning to hurt from the strobe lights and I was not enjoying the loud pounding of insulting music in my ears. I turned to Luca and saw the grimace on his face and knew that he felt the same way.

 

          Just as I was about to tell him to forget it and for us to leave, I saw her.

 

          Despite the fact that her normal style is bleached blonde All American Girl, she was actually sporting one of my popular looks, and in this case, made her stick out like a sore thumb. She had rainbow hair swooping to one side, bright purple eyes, heavy makeup, and a tight leather dress with fishnet stockings. She also had a piercing in her lip, nose, and eyebrow.

 

          I swatted Luca and he turned to see Rebekah.

 

          His eyes practically popped out of his head and his jaw fell to the floor.

 

          “Holy shit . . .” He muttered. “Is that . . ?”

 

          I nodded at his unspoken question and his mouth seemed to fall open even wider.

 

          “What the fucking fuck?”

 

          I couldn’t help but laugh at his statement.

 

          “C’mon”, I grabbed his arm and began dragging his half paralyzed ass over to my sister, who was currently chatting with some random guy. Of course.

 

          “Hey Dumbass.” I acknowledged her when we got over there, and the sad thing was, she actually turned her head.

 

“You called?”

 

At the sight of us her entire posture relaxed, and she waved away the boy she was speaking to so that she could focus on us.

 

“Thank God you guys are here. I’m glad you could come.” She said, sounding genuinely grateful. I just shook my head at her.

 

“We’re not here by choice. Now, who’s this guy who saw you?” My eyes wandered around the place, searching for someone who Rebekah could’ve potentially talked to. The bad thing was though that, that didn’t exactly narrow it down much.

 

“I already told you that I didn’t know where he went, that’s where you guys come in.” She said, rolling her eyes as if we should’ve obviously known this.

 

“We said we’d come to help you, not do everything for you. You made this mess, now you can clean it up.” Luca chimed in, which I was glad for.

 

But Rebekah didn’t seem too happy about it. “So you guys came down here just so that you could tell me to handle it on my own?”

 

I sighed. “No, just that we can’t keep helping you like this. It’s ridiculous. You’re eighteen fucking years old, why should your sixteen year old sister be saving your ass?”

 

I was getting aggravated now, my face heating up and my fists clenched. Luca’s hand found my balled up one, and he calmly smoothed my fingers out.

 

Rebekah cocked her head and put her hands on her hips. “Hmm, you know something? I think the guy left anyway, so we’re all good here.”

 

She smiled goofily and began to move away from us when I clutched her sleeve, pulling her back. “Whoa there. Tell me something, do you know anything about this guy? Anything at all? You know, before we blow this whole thing off and relax?”

 

At my question, her lip screwed up and her brow puckered. She hesitated for a few seconds, and that’s when I knew for sure that this was all over.

 

“Well, I know he works for People magazine and was doing a survey for the Best Beach Bodies in La. He saw me on the beach and wanted to talk to me for a while here.” She stopped, catching a glimpse of my probably green face. “Are you okay?”

 

 Luca wrapped his arms around my waist, waiting for my collapse. Although, I wasn’t going to fall over again, no, I was going to hurl this time.

 

I tore away from Luca’s grasp and made a beeline for the nearest exit, not even waiting until I got an appropriate distance away from the long line to the entrance before depositing my lunch onto the asphalt.

 

Let’s see how long it takes before Salem’s Witch Hunting begins to trend again. 

Last Time

It didn't take Luca long to find me in the lot. I was sitting on one of the concrete rectangles marking parking spots, my chin in my hand and my elbows on my knees. He knelt down next to me, slipping his arm around my shoulders. 

 

"She really isn't your responsibility you know." He murmured softly in my ear.

 

I shrugged, dismissing the subject. I knew she wasn’t technically my responsibility, but I still felt obligated to look after her. There were times when I hated my sister with every fiber of my being, and then there were times when I couldn’t help but to come to the rescue because I couldn’t stand to see her in trouble.

 

“Do you want to go back to the hotel?” Luca asked, rubbing my shoulder in a soothing gesture. It really was doing no good.

 

          I felt awful for dragging Luca into my messes, for always dragging him into my messes. Sometimes I wondered why he even stuck around with me, since I brought so much trouble along with me. Inspiration suddenly hit, and my heart dropped into my stomach at my plan. I shifted so that I was looking at Luca, forcing a smile despite feeling tears pricking my eyes.

 

          “You stay here and keep an eye on Rebekah. I’ll get our stuff at the hotel.” I said with as much sincerity as I possibly could. He smiled softly at me.

 

          “Okay Alex.” He leaned forward and gently kissed me on the forehead, and I had to close my eyes and bite my lip to keep the sob from escaping.

 

          Without another word he stood up and headed back into the club. I let out a pent up gasp, shut my eyes even tighter, and snapped my fingers. When I opened them again, I was back at our hotel.

 

          With our bags already packed, I slung my single backpack over my shoulder and headed to the little desk near the kitchen. I searched the drawer until I came up with a notepad and a pen. I had to leave him something. I wasn’t so cruel as to just leave without saying goodbye.

 

 Luca,

          I’m sorry that it has to be this way, but you wouldn’t have let me go if I had talked to you about it first. If it isn’t already apparent, I’m leaving. I just can’t travel with you anymore, I can’t bear to see you frustrated and hurt because of me. If there’s one thing you can do for me now, please, PLEASE do not come after me. I need to be alone for a while, without someone who is always there for me, because it seems as though I can’t always be there for you.

 

          Don’t take this out on my sister, she’s