Love Struck (8 page)

Put Gabi back to normal. Put Gabi back to normal.
I thought it, I said it, I focused on it as hard as I could.

“Well?” I asked her. “Do you still love me?”

“Of course I do! You're my best friend.”

“Yeah, but sometimes you get annoyed with me, right?”

Gabi shook her head back and forth violently. “I don't understand how I ever could have been mad at you. You're too wonderful. I'll try to be worthy of you. I promise. You'll see. I'll be the best best friend ever. Someone who deserves to hang out with you.”

Why weren't my powers working?

“Are you girls all right in there?” the saleslady asked.

“
Are
we?” Gabi asked me. “You're not mad at me, are you? I hope not.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “We're fine,” I yelled to the woman. Only we weren't. Not as long as Gabi was under my spell.

“Thank goodness,” Gabi said. “I don't think I could live knowing you were upset with me.”

That was going too far. “Listen to me,” I said to Gabi, holding up my hands. I stopped myself before I grabbed her and shook her. “I'm not all that. Okay? I'm not even such a great friend a lot of the time. Got it?”

Gabi blinked a few times. Then she crossed her arms around her stomach. “No kidding, you aren't. Ughh. What am I doing in here with you?”

“What?” I asked.

“I said, ‘Why would I want to go shopping with someone disgusting like you?'”

Oh no! I hadn't undone the spell. I'd reversed it! Instead of having Gabi love me, I made her hate me.

“Gabi, you don't really think I'm disgusting. I'm your best friend. We've been best friends since nursery school. What you're feeling isn't real. We're friends. I can fix this.” I held onto her shoulders. “You like me. You don't hate me. You—”

“Help!” Gabi screamed and pushed me aside. She ran right out of the dressing room.

“What's wrong?” the saleslady asked, rushing over.

“Her,” Gabi said, pointing at me. “She's what's wrong. Don't let her anywhere near me. She's the devil.”

“Ha-ha!” I said, shooting Gabi a how-could-you-do-that-to-me look. “She's joking. I'm not the devil.”

“Just his daughter,” Gabi put in. Then she ducked down behind a display of shoes. “Watch it,” she warned the saleswoman. “She'll probably try to make you her own personal shopper servant.”

The saleswoman rubbed her temples.

“I'm not the devil or his daughter,” I told her.

“No kidding,” she said.

Oh right . . . I forgot that normal people wouldn't believe that the actual devil would be hanging out at the mall.

“Now if you'd both please leave the store. This isn't a playground,” the woman continued.

“You're kicking me out for trying to help you?” Gabi asked, peering up at her. “Fine. Don't blame me when you're cursed.”

Gabi gave me one last look and then she made a break for it.

I had no choice. I chased after her.

“Wait up,” I yelled. It was a good thing she was a horrible runner. I was able to catch right up.

“I'll scream,” she warned, “if you come any closer.”

“Fine,” I said. “I don't want to hurt you. I just want everything back to normal.”

“This
is
normal,” she said.

“No, it's not. We're friends, remember? Do you even know why you hate me?” I wanted to move toward her. But I was afraid she'd make a scene. So I stayed put.

Gabi ticked off reasons on her fingers. “You use your powers on me, you're dangerous, you ditched me for Courtney a couple of months ago, you're selfish, and you totally humiliated me in front of Marc and Lance Gold.”

It might have been the spell talking, but that didn't mean it wasn't true. Gabi was right. I had been awful. I owed her. I was going to see that she was happy if it was the last thing I ever did. “I'd never hurt you. Not on purpose. Never.”

“Well, you did.”

“I'm sorry. It won't happen again,” I promised. And it wouldn't. I was going to make everything up to her. Starting with Lance.

“Why should I believe you?”

“Because we're best friends.”

She snorted. “Not really.”

“Then because you know my secret. I can't risk you telling anyone else. Promise not to, and I'll leave you alone.”

Gabi bit her lip.

“Please,” I said.

“Okay. But I'm only doing it so I don't have to deal with you ever again.”

“You don't really mean that.”

I didn't even realize that I took a step forward until Gabi screamed my name.

“Angel Garrett, you're already breaking your promise.”

“I'm not, I'm sorry. It was an accident.” I backed up. “See, I'm moving away.”

But there wasn't really anywhere for me to go. Because Gabi's scream had attracted a crowd. A whole bunch of people were headed our way.

“Did you say Angel?” someone I didn't even recognize asked.

“Yes!” another cheered. “I love her.”

“Move,” Courtney elbowed them. “Don't you see I'm trying to get through?”

“Get away while you can,” Gabi said.

“What's your problem?” Courtney sneered. “Well, other than the obvious ones like that you're a complete loser. But I would have thought you'd be jumping up and down to see Angel.” Courtney may have had newfound feelings for me, but the ones she had for Gabi were the same as always. Pure contempt.

“Not quite,” Gabi said. “She's just like
you
. Evil.”

“You think I'm like Angel?” Courtney asked, standing even straighter. “I guess even losers know greatness when they see it.”

“Please,” Gabi said. “She's not great. She's awful.” She turned to Cole. “You were right to dump her before.”

Sometimes I truly hated my powers.

“She's not awful,” Cole said, squeezing his way through the fan club that formed around me. “She's Angel. She's . . .” He didn't finish. Instead he just leaned in and kissed me. In front of everyone.

“Not fair,” Reid said. “I want to kiss her.” The same Reid who was dating Lana Perkins.

Crazy.

I pulled away from him. Don't get me wrong. I liked when he kissed me. And when he stuck up for me. Only this time it didn't feel like I was kissing Cole. More like a pod person. Like I was in one of those body-snatcher movies. Where someone looked like Cole and sounded like Cole, but wasn't actually Cole.

Gabi squirmed her way out from the middle of the group, a look of disgust on her face. “If you ever come to your senses, Cole, and realize how gross she is, come find me.”

“Never going to happen,” he said.

“We'll see,” Gabi replied with an all-knowing, gloating lilt to her voice. Maybe she was in an altered state of mind, but it still was chilling to hear.

The space Gabi left was quickly filled. Everyone wanted to get as close to me as possible. And they all started talking to me at once. Cole, Courtney, other people I knew from school, strangers, everyone. They all had wonderful things to say. But the compliments weren't making me feel good. They were making me feel lousy—especially after what had just happened with Gabi. I just had to reverse that love spell.

Only I couldn't do it on my own. I needed someone who could actually control their powers at will. I needed Lance Gold. He could fix everything—the love spell, my best friend hating me, my teen parents. He was a major do-gooder. Maybe he would even re-reconsider going out with Gabi.

I had to get back to Lance. After all, weren't guardian angels supposed to help people?

And at that moment, nobody needed more help than me!

“Did Lance do his appearance yet?” I asked Cole.

“Who cares?” he said. “You're the only one worth seeing.”

“Totally,” Reid agreed. Several others echoed that sentiment.

“Cole, come on. I want to know,” I said. “Is Lance still here?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he answered, kicking his foot against the ground. “The crowd got a little crazy after you came out onstage. Lance's manager made him stay backstage, and security told us unless everyone simmered down, the event would be canceled. It seemed like they still planned to have it, but most of us didn't care about it anymore. We just wanted to find you.” He paused. “Why do you want to see Lance? Do you like him? Better than me?”

“Of course not.” It was true. I didn't like Lance better. But at the moment I did need him more than Cole. “We just came here to see him, so I thought we should.”

“We'll never get past all that security. Let's do something else instead. Like go to the music store. There's a ton of songs that could have been written just for you.”

“Oooh, like Mara's Daughters' ‘Mysterious Love,' ” Max said.

“Or ‘Beautiful Wonder,' ” someone else yelled out.

The next thing I knew, everyone was calling out names of songs that reminded them of me.

I couldn't even have a private conversation. Everyone just butted in.

And nothing anyone said was of any importance. Well, other than Cole. He made one good point. We'd never get past all that security around Lance. It was true. There was no way
we
would. But I could.

I just needed to ditch the army following my every move.

“Okay, everyone. I'm so glad you're all here,” I said to the crowd. “But I need a little time alone. So why don't we all meet up in the food court in an hour.”

“No way,” Jaydin said. “What if you take off again? We can't take that chance.”

“I promise I won't,” I answered her.

“Sorry,” some sixth-grader from my school said. “Don't hate us for it. But we're never leaving you. We can't. We love you.”

Just perfect. What was I supposed to do?

I turned to Cole. “I need to get away from these people,” I whispered.

“What did she say?” Courtney asked.

Cole took my hand. “What she said,” he told Courtney and the crowd, “is that this is no way to treat someone as awesome as she is. She wants the royal treatment.”

Max started to bow.

“Not like that,” Cole said. “What I mean is have a little respect. You all just pounced on her when she arrived. She deserves a grand entrance.”

“That's true,” Lana agreed. “They play a song when the queen of England enters a room. I bet I can find it on my iPhone.”

“Good idea,” Cole told her. “There's a Radio Shack right there. Put it on one of their stereos and have everyone wait there. Then Angel can walk in while it plays. And I promise,” he crossed his fingers behind his back, “I'll make sure she doesn't disappear.”

Lana nodded furiously like she had a new mission in life—to see that I was tended to. “Don't worry, Your Majesty,” she assured me. “I'll see to it that everyone gives you the respect you deserve. Come on, people. Don't keep the queen waiting—we have a grand entrance to get ready for.” She ushered them to the store.

“Just hide in the bathroom for a little while,” Cole told me. “I'll tell them all you ran to the food court. They'll go searching for you there. Then we can duck out of here.”

“Perfect,” I told Cole.

I slipped into the ladies' room. It was very cool having a smart boyfriend, even one under a spell. Thanks to him, I lost the mob. Or so I thought.

Because next thing I knew I heard him yelling, “You can't go in there!” He was trying to give me a signal that someone was coming into the bathroom. I jumped into a stall, and, as carefully as I could, I placed my feet on the toilet bowl. I stood crouched there praying I wouldn't fall in. Staying still perched on a toilet is a lot harder than it sounds. People in the movies do it all the time, but it was supertough to keep my balance. Especially for someone like me. It was slippery. I felt one of my feet moving. I tried to stop it, to keep it in place, but I couldn't. It was like it had a mind of its own. And before I knew it, my foot slid right into the toilet bowl! Yuck!

I couldn't even move. I had to keep it there because the door to the bathroom opened. If the water made a splashing noise, whoever it was would find me.

The person was walking around the bathroom. Then I saw her face peer under the stall. It was Jaydin. I froze.
Please don't see me.

She backed away. Phew. I was free! For a whole second. Because a moment later she shoved the door open. “Gotcha,” she said. “I knew Cole was lying. I knew you were just trying to get away.”

I should have known not to underestimate Jaydin Salloway. She was way smart.

I jumped off the toilet and ran, my foot squishing water as I went. Why did I always make a bad situation worse? Jaydin was right behind me. Cole, too.

“Angel's over here,” Jaydin shouted to everyone in the area. “This way.”

I turned into the bookstore and hid behind a shelf.

“You can't get away,” Jaydin said. “You're leaving a trail.” I looked down. She was right. Toilet-water footprints were leading her right to me.

I wanted to vanish. But seeing as my powers were what got me into this mess, trying another advanced one seemed like a bonehead idea. So I got down on my hands and knees and crawled, trying to stay hidden behind rows of books. As Jaydin and her followers got closer, I crawled under a table in the kids' section and hid.