Page 114 of Fractured Fates
“You didn’t put them straight.”
Andrew looks me in the eye. “Not with enough force, no. I’m sorry, Rhi. I should have shut it down straight away. I should have–”
“You totally disrespected her, dude,” Winnie says. “You trashed her out. All because she doesn’t feel the same way you feel about her.”
“No,” he says, “it wasn’t like that. I respect you and your decision about … well … you don’t know what those guys can be like!”
I sigh. “I do. I do know what they can be like.”
“Then you understand.”
“Not really,” I say sternly, “I’d never do that to a friend.”
“You’re right. I screwed up. But I care about you, Rhi, and I’d like us to still be friends.”
“You also said some pretty mean stuff to me.”
“I know. I was a jerk and I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?”
I examine his face, searching for signs of sincerity as I chew on my thumb. His face is hard to read.
“I’ll think about it,” I say finally.
“That’s probably as much as I deserve,” he says and I nod.
“I’ll see you in class,” I add, closing the door, wanting to end the conversation.
Before the door slams shut, Winnie ducks her arms through the crack, grabs the flowers and pulls them inside.
The door shuts.
“You’re not really going to forgive him?” she asks, carrying the flowers over to my desk.
“Like I said, I’m going to think about it.”
I think about it all through my next few classes. At least it gives me something other than my identity to mull over.
By dinner time, I’m wondering if I could.
“Really?” Winnie says, shaking her head as she dips her fork into something that is meant to be mashed potatoes but looks more like a gray lump of slime.
“Remind me why we can’t conjure up real, decent food?”
Winnie peers up at me and quirks an eyebrow. “It’s the fundamentals of magic, Rhi. There are some things that just aren’t possible. Creating food and precious metals, making someone fall in love–”
“Yet, you can kill someone with your magic.” I lower my voice. “You can torture them until they go insane.”
“There are some things we do not have the power to do. Changing water to wine, stone to bread, straw to gold – not possible.”
I grimace and lift the slime into my mouth. It tastes like cardboard.
“Stone conjured coffee from thin air.”
“Stone is special,” Winnie says with a tease.
“Humph.”
Winnie brings the slime to her mouth, then changes her mind and lowers her fork.
