I swish my feet in the water, not looking up as Bradley sits down beside me and hands me a glass of iced tea.
"Thanks." Our fingers brush as I take it from him, and I try to ignore the tingles it sends down my spine. Starting to feel anything for him is just going to complicate matters.
"Are you going to tell me what's bothering you?" he asks.
"No."
"You know what they say, a problem shared is a problem halved," he teases. "And I am your fake boyfriend. I think I'm supposed to listen to all your problems and help you with them."
I snort. "So you're saying that you want all the responsibility along with none of the benefits?"
"If that's the way it's got to be, then that's what I'll take."
I think about it for a moment. The side effects from the cat spell haven't come back, but they're constantly sitting in my head, waiting for any quiet moment to pounce.
"Alright, but if I tell you, then you have to promise not to tell anyone." I pause. "Especially my brother." I add that as an afterthought.
"Believe me, Daphne, I'm not about to talk to your brother about anything like that."
"Good." I take a deep breath, readying myself for what's to come. Everything spills out. From Ryan charging me with seducing a vampire, to the adventure in the catacombs. Bradley listens without interrupting, for which I'm grateful.
"That explains a few things," he says after a moment's pause.
"I'm sorry," I murmur.
"You don't need to be sorry, Daphne. It's not something that's really in your control. What are you going to do?" he asks.
"I don't know. I've been trying to find some sort of information about it for days, but I keep coming up with nothing. It's almost as if no one's ever made this kind of mistake before."
"That seems unlikely," he muses. "have you tried the more advanced sections of the library?"
I nod. I've even tried the secret library that Mona's teaching assistant boyfriend showed us, and there's nothing there either.
"Alright, what about the book itself?" He looks lost in thought.
"I have photos, but nothing I've been able to decipher." I get my phone out and flick through the photos, finding the right ones and showing him.
His fingers brush mine as he takes it from me, and I ignore the fuzzy feeling it brings out in me. It hurts me to let my phone out of my control, something I hate about myself but realise is just a normal part of modern culture. That phone has my entire life on it, including a crazy amount of private information.
Bradley frowns as he tries to read the swirly writing in the book.
"You don't have the real thing, do you?"
I frown. "No. It's down in the catacombs." And I'm not convinced asking Heath to take my fake boyfriend down to the library is the best idea. I want to keep my boy complications to a minimum.
"That's a shame. The photos really downgrade the quality," he muses.
"I know, but apparently we're not supposed to take it out of the library it's hidden in." I should get Ryan to tell me all the information he actually knows about the book and the spell, he's not been the most forthcoming on the matter.
"That's annoying."
We sit in silence, the unspoken question of seeing the book in person hanging between us. I want to offer to take him, but it's not a good idea.
"There are some other things we can do," he suggests.
"Like what?"
"Did you know I've been taking the advanced counter-charm course?" A small smile lifts the corner of his mouth, as if he's planning something.
"I didn't. You think something in it might work?" Hope wells up inside me.
"I think there's a couple of things that might be. But I won't know until I do some research."
"That makes sense." I nod, a little disappointed, but nothing that's not manageable.
"And it'll make it easier if I see the symptoms in person."
I chew on my bottom lip and splash my foot into the water again. "I hope I never have to show you."
He turns to smile at me properly. "Is it wrong that a part of me wants you to have to?"
I chuckle. "I think that only makes sense. We're not here because we want to play at being witches and warlocks," I point out.
"Exactly. We're here to learn. And this could give us an idea of how to do something we could never have learned otherwise."
A fish splashes in the pool, drawing both of our gazes there and away from one another.
"You don't think it's going to turn out to be like counter-curses?" That's one of the major concerns I have.
"There's a possibility it might, but as far as I'm aware, there is no such issue with charms. Something to do with the fact charms are likely to be done with good intent not bad ones."
"That's something at least," I mutter, thinking on Mona's curse. She's truly stuck without the counter written by the same person.
"From what you're describing, the side effects aren't a direct result of the spell, it's more like something that's mixed with your unique magic."
I sigh loudly. "And I thought the most difficult thing about academy was going to be cramming for exams." Such childish dreams I had.
He chuckles and picks up a small pebble from the ground we're sitting on. He throws it up in the air before skimming it across the water.
"You should have known that was never going to be simple."
"The price of independence from home," I muse.
"Exactly. We have to feed ourselves and deal with backfiring spells. Have you considered going to the infirmary to deal with it?" he asks.
"Yes. But..." I glance in the opposite direction, not wanting to meet his eyes.
"But?"
"Something Ryan said made me nervous. I think we may have broken some kind of law when we did the spell, but I'm not completely sure..."
"Daphne Chambers, I never pegged you as the kind of girl to break the law," he jokes, knocking me gently on the shoulder with his.
"I didn't do it on purpose," I counter. "It was just one of those things that happened by accident."
He starts laughing even more than before. "No one will ever believe me when I tell them that you broke the rules."
"Please don't tell me anyone." The words are hushed, but I know he hears them.
"Of course I won't. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to lighten the mood."
"I know." But it doesn't soothe the little part of me that's worried about how people are going to respond to all of this. I've done something wrong, I'm aware of that. I just need to find a good way of dealing with the consequences.