Page 160 of Sigils & Spells

HORSESHOES AND FAIRY RINGS

Z.Z. Warlander

PICKLE GIRL AND RODEO BLAZE

I didn’t goto work. Hungover and still a little convinced that I’d met fairies last night, I called in sick and plopped my ass in front of the TV, without bothering to turn it on. For a long while, head pounding, I stared at my rough reflection. Dark circles had formed under my eyes, visible even in the TV screen reflection, and my hair, a usual mop of carefully maintained curls was… well not that. A squirrel making a nest up there might have done a better job.

It was 3pm and I’d only been awake for a few hours. Well, a couple. Well, one hour. I kicked back the recliner and closed my eyes, letting the gentle rumble of the air conditioning soothe the throb that persisted right between my eyes.

“Julian?”

I cracked open an eye at the voice from the doorway. My roommate and best friend, Minho, stood in his boxers and socks in the opening of the little hallway, a toothbrush in his hand and a mouth full of toothpaste.

“What the hell man!” he demanded around the toothpaste, before putting up a one second finger and disappearing into the bathroom. Minho appeared a moment later wiping his face with a washcloth. “Where were you?”

I snorted—which hurt—and closed my eyes again. “What are you, my mom?”

“Maybe!” Minho smacked me with his washcloth. “It is three in the afternoon! I thought you’d died or something!”

“Is that why you’re still in your boxers? I scared the pants off you?”

Minho made another “I’m gonna smack the shit out of you with this washcloth” motion. I laughed and raised both hands in surrender. “Nah, I’m fine. That girl pulled over to let me throw up, and I must have passed out.”

Minho rolled his eyes and collapsed onto the couch. “Julian, you are insane. I’m going to go gray because of you, you know that.”

I winked at him, “You’d make a pretty hot silver fox.”

Minho rolled his eyes and I laughed. I stood and stretched. Every muscle was sore. A gentle pitter patter had started since I’d come inside, and now it rose to a gentle roar. Outside the window, the sky was a delicate gray. Not quite gray, but not blue either. Just a soft, almost whitish color filled the sky. A single bird cast a speck of black onto the white as I looked and was just as quickly gone.

Rain was good. It had been too long since the golden grass had seen water.

“You smell like shit.” Minho told me matter of factly.

“Sniffing me again, huh?” I winked at him again, earning another eye roll, and made my way to the bathroom. As I rummaged through the drawer for my toothpaste, I called out loud enough for him to hear me. “So, I demolished that guy Chad McCormick from high school in beer pong last night.”

“The one who called us racial slurs?”

“Yep. Still an asshole. Still dumb. Probably still humiliated.”

“You are too good at Beer Pong!” Minho called. “You need better, healthier hobbies.”

“We work at a bar.”

“My statement stands.”

I rolled my eyes, and continued. “Anyways, after Lizzie ditched me I passed out in one of those mushroom circles. Fairy rings or whatever, and I had this dream that I was a fairy at a party or something and this lady who looked like she was made out of a tree gave me an apple.”

My mouth tasted like a drunk squirrel had crawled in there and died while I was asleep, so I started scrubbing furiously at my teeth, stepping back out to look at Minho—who was automatically more appealing to look at than my own grizzled reflection.

“Well, you should know Lizzie called me last night, crying.” He said. “Apparently you did not ask to throw up, just jumped out of that car, while it was still moving and refused to get back in.”

“I did?” With my toothbrush still in my mouth, it sounded more like “ah bib?” but Minho seemed to understand. I didn’t remember any of that.

“That’s what she said. But she also said she had a good time but wasn’t interested in another date.”

“Umberstanmable.” I said through a mouth full of toothpaste.

“Dude.” Minho looked at me like a tired dad.

---