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Chapter 1 - Cara
Cara kept looking at the clock on the wall as she rushed around her bedroom.
"You always do this," Quinn said, her impatience palpable. "You're late again. Every single time we go out, and that makes all of us late.”
"You love being fashionably late," Cara replied, searching her wardrobe.
“I guess,” Quinn sighed.
Cara didn’t say anything. Quinn was demanding, but she was a good friend, and she was on time. Unlike Cara. Cara was the late friend. These days, she kept putting herself into categories to keep her life from spiralling out of control. Friend, daughter, and witch. Three sides that kept trying to pull her apart.
She pulled on her outfit and fixed her hair, and she smiled at Quinn. “Ready.”
“Perfect,” Quinn said. “Julia’s outside.”
Julia was small, and she looked even smaller because of the huge coat that engulfed her.
“Don’t judge me,” she said. “It’s freezing.”
“Why didn’t you wait inside?” Cara asked. “Did you forget your key?”
“If I go inside where it’s warm, I might bail on the entire evening,” she said.
Cara thought about grabbing a jacket, but they were already late, so she decided to suffer through the cold until they got to the house.
Quinn shivered as she walked, but they didn’t mention it - they had already had the same conversation a thousand times. Quinn never wanted to cover up her outfit with a coat, and Julia always tried to change her mind.
Cara didn’t say much. She didn’t like lying to her friends, but she couldn’t exactly admit that she could keep them warm with a flick of her fingers. So she kept quiet.
It didn’t take long to get to the house with the party. Julia pointed ahead. “It’s the one on the end of this row. The big one with... Oh.”
They all saw it. The crowd of college students streaming out of the house, and the very angry man standing beside the front door.
“I’m guessing that’s someone’s dad,” Cara said.
“Looks like it,” Julia said. “I knew the party was happening here, but they said his parents were away for the week.”
“Guess they came home early,” Quinn said.
Quinn waved to someone, and a few of their friends broke off from the crowd to join them.
Cara knew all of them - four guys and two other girls who gave her a quick wave. They all went to college together. She noticed a stranger at the back, chatting to one of the guys. She knew almost all of them.
“That’s Nick,” Quinn said quietly. “Isn’t he great?”
“Uh, I suppose so,” Cara said. “I haven’t met him yet.”
“I know, but look at him, he’d be perfect for you.”
“For me?”
“Yeah, why not?”
Cara hesitated. She was already stretched too thin, she didn’t have time for dating.
Julia obviously noticed her expression, and she slipped her arm around Quinn’s arm and led her away. “Maybe wait until she’s had a chance to talk to him,” Julia told her.
The two groups merged, and Cara lost herself in conversation, but she couldn’t stop glancing over at Nick. He was taller than most of the other guys, and his dark hair and broad shoulders would have drawn her attention anyway, but there was something else. Something magnetic about him. It was probably Quinn’s voice in her head.
