Chapter Six: The Curse
757 Words
CHAPTER SIX: THE CURSE
Ember and Wade kept going out together.
Laughing. Skipping class sometimes just to be alone.
Desk mates since 11th grade.
After school, they’d go to their secret hideout.
One day, Wade stared at his book. Then at her.
“I… I’m going to like you,” he said quietly. “Is that okay by you?”
Ember froze.
“Not ‘I like you’. But ‘I’m going to like you’? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I want to be like you,” he said, moving closer.
“I want to be like you? What does that mean?”
“I have pretty much everything,” he said. “But there’s one thing I don’t have.”
“Don’t tell me… me?” She pointed at herself, joking.
“A dream.” He smiled at her. Soft. Real.
“You have one. That’s what makes you shine.”
Ember’s heart stopped.
Those words… to someone like me who had nothing but a dream…
They felt like a spell.
It was my first love.
Wade moved closer. He pulled out a necklace — a silver star — and fastened it around her neck.
Ember smiled at him.
But that spell…
Soon turned into a curse.
---
A few months later.
Wade came home late at night after being with Ember.
His father was waiting.
“In my house, not one flaw is allowed,” his father said, standing. “Objects. Plants. People. Same rule.”
He grabbed Wade’s face. “Do you understand?”
“Yes, father,” Wade said, head down.
His father shoved him to the ground in one move and grabbed his collar.
“All because of that? That’s why you bombed your CSAT? A man, because of some girl?” he growled.
“It’s not because of her!” Wade yelled, blood on his lip. “I never wanted to go to med school!”
His mother rushed in, crying. “Wade, apologize to him. Now.”
“Get out!” His father shoved her to the ground.
“Mom!” Wade jumped up and pushed his mother out of the room, slamming the door.
“Don’t, just don’t,” she sobbed outside.
His father grabbed Wade’s face.
“Hit me,” Wade said. “Until you’re satisfied.”
Punch.
He fell.
Stomp. Stomp.
His mother’s crying echoed through the door.
---
Punishment: US. Medical school.
He wasn’t allowed to leave the house until he agreed.
It only took ten days for him to break.
The door opened.
“I’ll go… to the US,” Wade said, kneeling, head down.
“I’ll live the life you want for me.”
His father knelt and hugged him.
“Good. That’s all you had to do.”
---
Dawn.
Wade stood at his window.
Ember was at his gate, waiting.
But you… how can you believe in me more than I believe in myself?
That big heart of yours…
It only makes me feel more ashamed.
He closed the curtain.
---
Ten days passed.
Ember came before and after school.
Calling his name. Waiting in the sun. Waiting in the rain.
“Wade!” she yelled, shaking the gate. “Wade!”
Then it started raining. She turned to leave.
Footsteps.
She turned back — and he was there.
She hugged him tight.
“Thank God. Why are you skipping school? Why won’t you answer my calls? Our exam is tomorrow.”
“I’m not going,” he said quietly.
Ember pulled back. “What?”
“I came out to tell you. I’m going to America. I have to become a doctor.”
“But you don’t want to be a doctor.”
“Does that matter?” He handed her an umbrella. “You should go.” He turned to leave.
Ember blocked him and dropped the umbrella.
“You can’t just leave! You wanted to be an instructor too! You said you found a dream!”
Wade looked at her. Empty. “It was just a passing dream. It was never going to happen.”
“Liar!” She hit his chest. “It’s not true! You don’t want to go to America! You promised! We’d be instructors together!”
Her fists stopped. She was crying now.
She pulled a book from her bag and pressed it to his chest.
“Then take this. You know what this means.”
Her voice broke.
“You choose.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
She turned and walked away.
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