Why Can't I Hate You?

CHAPTER 14

MICHELLE

I reached at the address which Arthur had texted me. It led me to a simple gray colored house with a small garden in front of it. The windows were painted white, making them pop because of the contrast with the gray house. A small two-seater wooden table placed on the front porch. Slowly, I rang the bell. Moments later, the door flung open, revealing a woman in her early forties. She wore a white apron on the top of her purple dress. Her eyes resembled to that of Arthur's. She smiled widely at me and said, "You must be Michelle." I nodded with a smile. She pulled the door wide and urged, "Come on in. Arthur will join you any minute, now." I walked in wondering whether she was aware of our wizarding secrets, because humans are to be oblivious to this side of the world. Hell, how will I even know if she is a normal human or one of us. My thoughts were interrupted when Arthur's mother pulled me into her arms. "Arthur told me everything about you. I am sorry for you had to deal with everything alone." So, she was aware of everything. Composing myself from her sudden gesture, I placed a hand on her lower back.

"Oh! You're already here." Arthur's voice filled in the hall. He stood at the end of the stairs. His mom pulled away from me and turned to look at her son. Arthur looked at her for a moment and said, "What were you doing to her?"

"Nothing, we were just talking." I replied on her behalf.

"Oh, I am so sorry. I'm Rebecca Whitmore." She pushed her arm forward for me to shake.

I smiled, taking her hand, "Michelle. Michelle Lockwood. Pleased to meet you."

"Okay, you kids get started with your training session. I'll prepare you some delicious pancakes in the meantime." She spoke, walking towards the kitchen right in the hall's corner. I approached Arthur, and we climbed the stairs. "Arthur, don't take her to your room, she might faint at the sight." Rebecca joked.

Arthur rolled his eyes. "She is a witch. I am sure she'll be able to take it." He said, narrowing his eyes at me as I giggled. We walked to his room, and like Rebecca mentioned, I actually thought I would faint. His bed was unorganized and all his clothes were practically thrown all around the floor. My mouth fell open as I slowly walked inside carefully, not to step on any clothing. He opened his wardrobe and searched for something in it.

I couldn't help but comment, "Oh! So, still there are clothes in your wardrobe." He turned to me and rolled his eyes before getting back to his scavenger hunt in a drawer in the closet. He held a key in his hand when he turned to face me again.

"Why are you standing over there? Come inside and sit." I realized I was still standing a few steps from the door.

"Oh, I was worried I would step on any of these dangerous mines." I joked, pointing at the crowded floor.

"Oh, my God. Mom was right. I shouldn't have brought you here. Not because you would faint, but for my own sanity." He groaned, and I laughed, taking a seat on a chair. "I'll be right back." Arthur said before walking out of the room. His room could look pretty decent if it would have been maintained properly. Cream-colored walls and a large window which threw bright sunlight, making the room so much brighter. A mahogany work desk rested in one corner of the room facing the window, with a computer and few college text books stacked on top of it. The chair I sat in is a part of the work desk set. However, I do not know what the chair was doing near the bed. He is so messy.

Arthur walked in with an enormous book in his hands and placed it in front of me. "The Basics of Wizardry Craft" read its title. The book was so huge that it could easily have some two thousand pages. My jaw hit the floor, and I looked at Arthur.

"Yes, everything you need to know is in here, and there are two more parts of this book. We will go through each of them step by step." Arthur said with an amused expression. He sat on the edge of the bed and continued, "Before we start anything, you need to free your mind from all the unnecessary thoughts. Close your eyes and empty your mind." I took a deep breath and meditated for a while to free my head from all the overwhelming thoughts. Arthur kept calm and waited for me to finish. I opened my eyes, getting ready to begin with the training.

"This book tells about the basic charms and spells that any creature in the wizarding world needs to know. However, there is a type of magic that you can perform with no charms or spells, such as moving the objects, weather changes and more." He placed an empty glass in front of me. "Your task is to move this glass. You need to concentrate your power and energy on this object. Before you do it yourself, let me show you how it's done." He looked at the glass for a moment and it slowly moved to its right. "The direction and speed of moving the objects depends on you. Go on, try it now. Remember to focus your power on the object."

Nodding, I exhaled through my mouth. I focused on the glass, but it did not move one bit. I looked at Arthur for help. "Visualize the movement." He suggested. I tried and after an endless number of tries, I could finally move the glass.

"You said we could affect the weather if we want to, but I always affected the surrounding weather all the time without wanting to do it." I asked Arthur.

"You seem to be an emotional being. The weather changed based on the emotion you immensely exhibited. For instance, if you were crying, it would rain heavily or if you were angry, you would see thunders. This happened because you have no control over your powers." He stated. Now that I think about it, that actually makes sense. Every weather change happened when I was angry, scared, or crying. Even when the kitchen incident happened, I was sad thinking about my mother's behavior and absent-mindedly stared at the spatula, thus making it move. The only thing I am happy about is that there is no ghost in the house, said the voice in my head. That's true. I can't believe that I even entertained the thought of a ghost in the house. I mean, how thick could you get.

We practiced moving the glass until I could move it exactly the way Arthur instructed me. Now, I could move things at the pace I pleased. After that, we turned to another object. Rebecca brought us the pancakes she had promised—which were absolutely delicious—when Arthur explained to me how the weather control was done.

As I was about to leave Arthur said, "Tell your friend she can join us for lunch, if she wants to."

I tried to act oblivious to who he was talking about. "What? Which friend?"

He looked embarrassed. "Um... the one I met today."

"You met my friend? Did she give her name?"

Arthur looked around, unable to look into my eyes. "Ashley... I think."

"Oh! Ashley! Sure, I will pass the message." I said, trying to suppress my laughter.

It was dark by the time I reached home. Judy sat on the living room couch holding the book "Sapiens" in her hand. An Oval shaped reading glass sat on her nose. Only thing that's odd about this arrangement was that she held the book upside down. Eying that, I asked, "Judy, what are you reading?"

She looked at me with a small smile and replied, "A novel."

"Which novel?"

"Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare." There was nothing left to say after that. Obviously, she wasn't paying attention to which book she held in her hands. Something was going on with her and she wasn't comfortable in sharing it with me. I do not know how I could help her.

Deciding it was best to leave Judy for a while, I went to my room for a shower. I need to cheer Judy up. She's been so lost lately. If she doesn't want to talk to me about what's bothering her, then I need to respect that and come up with a way where she can forget all her problems for a while. When I came out of my room, Judy was marinating chicken for the dinner.

"Judy, would you want to go out this Sunday with me, say some sightseeing?"

She looked at me blankly before flashing the brightest smile I've seen in a while. "Of course, I'd love that." Something about her reaction makes me worried. She was happy suddenly and all I can think about was if she knew about my secret. My paranoia hits me hard. "Where would you like to go? The Space needle? Or the glass museum?" She asked, clearly excited by the idea.

I nodded excessively. "Anything you like." She smiled, and I rushed to my room.

I had never thought about this before. I must make sure nobody knows about my secret or they will exploit me. After dad died, I trusted no one, but after this, there will be the constant fear of people using me for their own good. People use other normal humans and leave them when their purpose is finished. And I am everything but normal. I am a creature with magical powers, a witch. Hell, they will exploit me if they know about me. And, me being me, cannot even hurt anyone. Therefore, I need to be extremely careful with my secret.

Not everybody tries to use you. Why do you think Arthur is helping you? There is no way he is to benefit out of this, she said.

"Arthur is only trying to correct what's wrong. If I am not trained properly, I'll be a threat to his world. He is trying to protect his world and his secret. There are always something people are to benefit, if they are helping you out or just being nice to you. That is the ultimate truth of this world. The faster one understands this, the better." I replied to her.

I resolved not to cancel on Judy and see how things work out. I just need to be careful and make sure that Judy or anyone else knows nothing about my secret. Dinner was a silent affair with Judy watching some random shows on the television, and with me overthinking my situation.

Three weeks had passed by following the same routine. I went to Arthur's after college for my training—at which I was getting better—came home by dusk and had dinner with Judy. I worked on my college stuff during my free periods in the library and on Sundays. Whenever Judy asked where I went after college, my only reply was group studies. She asked nothing more than that. She never asked who I was studying with, whose house I am in or when will I be back, which made me even more paranoid about her awareness of my secret. Personally, Judy was not getting any better. There was something that was bothering her, and she was not ready to share it with anyone. As fas as I've noticed, it's some work-related problem. Maybe she was being bullied at work or something.

My first outing with Judy went great. We went to the famous Space Needle and had some delicious Chinese food on our way back home. The entire view of Seattle from the Space Needle was a must see. Everything looked so beautiful and tiny. That morning, there were signs of heavy rains. I kept the sky clear for us so that we could enjoy the sightseeing thoroughly. It was a much needed outing for both of us.

Dominic and Alex called in every week to check up on me. Dominic has had a work emergency, so their trip to Seattle was on hold, for a while at least. Alex got selected in a state-level football league. Therefore, he is going to be too busy with practice and those kinds of stuff. Alex was good with his game. The energy that he dons when he is so invested in the game is something else. The air around him feels so powerful and dominating. God knows how I longed to watch him play again. Mom, as usual, was being herself. She never called even once. I bet she has already forgotten that she has a daughter. Many a times, I itched to call her and see if things can change between us. But I knew better than that.

The dance event was in two weeks from now, and Rachel, Christina and Ashley are getting absolutely obsessive over it. Ashley called me every hour to tell about how far each of their preparations are going on. Jackson, Paul and John were absolutely cool about it.

"Could you believe it, Mish, the boys didn't even get their tuxes ready yet." Ashley complained on the phone.

I stuck the phone between my cheek and shoulder while combing my hair. "Ashley, relax. They are boys. They take things lightly. You don't have to worry about them. They will be presentable by the time."

"Oh, you are just like them. You need to get yourself a partner. You remember, right?" She ordered.

"Yes, I do. Chill!"

She exhaled. "I wish I could go with Arthur." Ashley and Arthur are on good terms. They are shy as ever around each other, but at least they don't need me as an excuse to meet and hang out together anymore.

"You are the one responsible for that. Who asked you to have your partners selected a month ago. Now, deal with it." I laughed.

"You are right. Sometimes, it's good to keep things last minute." She said, and I agreed.

After saying my goodbyes to her on the phone, I got ready to go meet her. Rachel and Christina will also be there. As it's Sunday, Rachel wanted to meet and decide what color of dress each one of us should wear and after which we will have lunch together.

I need to get a partner for the event. Going with Elijah was not even an option. I haven't spoken to him after the parking lot incident on the day I came to know about both of our truths. All we did in the past three weeks was to stare at each other. He looks at me and I forget about everything. I forget who he is and the fact that I am supposed to hate him, being a witch, a servant of the nature. The idea of hating him seems to be out of the question.

There were changes in Elijah. He looked paler than the first time I saw him. His eyes were of the same color but still looked fake. He sat alone in the classes and didn't speak with any of his friends anymore except the vampire group, of course. I wondered what's changed. Was I the reason? I wouldn't know.

I was changing, too. I no more had my usual nightmare with me running in my high school corridor with my family and friends abusing me. No more woke up breathing heavily, soaked with sweat every single day. My dreams were now consumed by Elijah; his deep blue eyes and his dimpled smile. I now started my days with a satisfied smile on my face, which would quickly get replaced with a frown when I realize that it's only a dream.