Page 3 of His to Hunt

The bottom of the frame says, “Best friends forever, no matter what,” which was our slogan. I guess it still is, since it’s the name of our group chat.

“What were we even doing?” I sigh, looking at the photograph, noticing we all look like emo goths. “This was during our witchcraft phase, wasn’t it?”

“The Covington Coven!” Madison says proudly. “If you fuck with us, we’ll put a curse on you!”

I look away when she says curse. It’s a stupid word. A childish word. The kind of word we used to throw around when we were bored girls wearing too much eyeliner.

My grandmother believed in those as much as she believed in the rest of the nonsense. Supposedly, one was cast on my family by a witch long ago. If I believed like she did, I could blame all my troubles on that, instead of accepting that the universe hates me.

“Thank you, Madison. This brings back some good memories,” I say, smiling weakly as I put the photograph on the shelf by the table.

“Okay, open mine!” Shana says excitedly, moving her gift closer.

I pick up the present and tear the paper off. Underneath the birthday wrapping is a stained matchbox, which makes me raise a brow. I slide it open and my eyes widen a little. It’s a joint.

“You bought me drugs?” I ask, a little confused. “Your parents will kill you if they find out you brought drugs into their house.”

“It’s just weed,” she sighs. “Besides, it’s legal where I go to school, so I didn’t technically break any laws. It’s not like I went to some shady drug dealer.”

“They’d still be pissed,” I say.

“Then we better burn the evidence before they find out? Right?” Shana laughs. “I told you it would put you in the mood for cake.”

I wanted to feel like a foolish, happy kid tonight. This will definitely do it, especially after downing several shots. We used to smoke weed in high school, when we could get our hands on it. We didn’t mind if it came from a shady drug dealer back then. We went to high school with several of them.

“There are no matches,” I say, removing the joint from the box.

“Madison, you’ve got a lighter, right?” Shana asks.

“No, I quit smoking,” Madison says.

“Aw, good for you,” I say, looking around until I see the box beneath my shelf. “Wait, I think there are some matches in the stuff from my grandmother’s house.”

I open the box and start moving things around. I don’t open it often because it’s filled with painful memories. My grandmother raised me. Well, almost. She died when I was sixteen and while I felt like I was all grown up, I realize now that I was just a foolish girl who still had a lot of growing up left to do.

Madison leans over and looks in the box while I search for matches. Just as I find them, she reaches in and pulls a book out.

“Oh my god! This is the book of spells we were trying to translate!” she says excitedly. “I wondered where it went.”

“It was my grandmother’s book, so I returned it after we grew out of that phase,” I say dismissively.

“This brings back so many memories,” Madison says.

“Yeah, I suppose it does,” I say, tossing the matches on the table.

“Nah, you’re the birthday girl, so you get to light it,” Shana says, sliding them back to me.

I pick up the joint and matches. I press the joint between my lips, and the first match is a dud, but the next one gives me enough fire to light the joint. I take a deep drag and immediately cough, because it’s a lot harsher than what we used to smoke in high school.

“Holy shit,” I gag, passing the joint to Shana.

“Yeah, this is the good stuff from a dispensary,” she says proudly, taking a hit.

“I’m going to open the door, so the basement doesn’t smell like weed if your parents come down here,” Madison says, walking to the sliding glass door that opens to the side yard.

The sliding glass door is the only source of natural light in the basement, but I had to put curtains up because it gets bright when I’m trying to sleep in. It’s also the only reason the basement doesn’t feel like a storage closet with a shower, toilet, and bed. I normally use it as an escape hatch, if I want to leave without dealing with Melinda or Frank.

Once Madison pulls the curtains aside and slides the door open, smoke starts rolling into the night. The moon is brighter than usual tonight. Figures that my birthday would fall on a full moon. My grandmother used to say a full moon turns people into lunatics. But she said a lot of weird stuff like that.