Strange Magic by Suzana Thompson Page A

asked.  “Oh yeah, statutory rape.  Duncan’s under eighteen.”
     
              “So is Anna,” I answered.
     
              “Doesn’t seem like it,” Caitlin said.  “She sounds about thirty.”
     
              “No,” I said sadly.  “She’s our age.”
     
              “Doesn’t act like it,” she insisted.  “Who shakes hands?”
     
              “Whatever.  You’ll see her for yourself.  She’ll be going to school with us.”  I wished that the cold ice cream could numb my heart as well as my mouth.
     
              “Anyway,” she continued.  “It doesn’t mean they’re going to get back together.  From what you said, it doesn’t sound like Duncan was happy to see her again.”
     
              “Doesn’t matter.  He sure doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore.  He told me that we can’t even be friends.”  I shoved a big spoonful of ice cream into my mouth and gave myself brain freeze.
     
              “I can’t believe he said that,” Caitlin fumed.  “I feel like going over there to talk to him right now!”
     
              “Don’t,” I said.  “Just let him do what he wants.  I can’t deal with him anymore.”
     
              She gave me a sympathetic look, and we lapsed into silence as we finished our ice cream.  Caitlin insisted on driving me home despite my insistence to walk there.
     
              “You look really tired, Suzy.”  She gave me a hug.
     
              She offered to stay with me until my parents got home from work, but I lied that I was going to take a nap.  After she dropped me off, I immediately began cooking dinner so that I could keep busy.  My parents praised my efforts and told me that the meal was delicious, but it might as well have been cardboard for all the pleasure I took in eating it.  I did my homework, took a shower, and went to bed early.
     
              I woke up with a resigned attitude.  There was no use in trying to avoid the inevitable, so I might as well get it over with.  The previous day had been such a roller coaster of emotions for me, but today I felt amazingly calm.
     
              Caitlin eyed me warily when she picked me up for school.  “How you holding up?”
     
              “Don’t worry.  I’m done crying over Duncan,” I assured her.
     
              She didn’t look convinced.  “Just text me if you need to bail.  I’ll cut class with you.”
     
              “Thanks, but I’ll be fine.  Really.  Yesterday was just such a shock, you know?”  I found a smile for her.  “Besides, how much ice cream can one girl eat?”
     
              My glib comments didn’t fool her, and I couldn’t lie to myself.  I wasn’t fine, but there was nothing I could do about it.  Duncan had become important to me.  I had imagined a romantic future for us, and he had seemed on the verge of asking me out until Anna showed up.  He obviously still had strong feelings for her.
     
              I saw her in the hallway after my first class.  She was talking to none other than my ex boyfriend, Brad.  I tried to walk by undetected, but she recognized me.  “Hi, Susannah.”
     
              “Hi.”
     
              Brad tore his eyes away from her.  “Hey b—Suzy.”
     
              Now he knew my name.  “Hi babe.”  I took perverse pleasure in the uncomfortable look on his face.  “Later,” I said breezily and walked on without a second glance.  That lifted my spirits, however briefly.
     
              I wondered what Anna’s plans were.  It had to be more than a coincidence that she had moved to the exact same town as Duncan.  Valley View wasn’t a well-known city by any means.  How had she convinced her parents to move all the way across the country?  Now that I had seen her in person, I was even