Page 128 of With a Little Luck

“Oh god,” I mutter. “I wasn’t trying to turn this into a therapy session.”

“Well, itisa therapy session, and you’re welcome,” she says firmly. “I mean it, Jude. You’re the one trying to convince me that you’ve been cursed by some fictitious temple. While at the same time you literally just explained how a person breaks the curse.” She reaches for my shoulder323and gives me a shake. “By believing that you. Are. Worthy. Without the magic. Screw the blessing and screw the curse. Jude, if you really think all these weird coincidences are because of this thing, then it sounds like you have something to prove. Not to any curse or temple, but to yourself.”

I wait until I’m sure she’s done talking. “Great pep talk,” I say flatly. “I am so inspired. Thank you, Prudence. You have solved all my problems. Now please go and enjoy your evening, knowing that you have fixed my life.”

The look she gives me then.Oh, that look. Sometimes I think my twin sister could be the boss in one of my dungeons.

I slowly scoot away.

“That’s it,” she says, getting to her feet. “You’re coming tonight.”

I gape at her. “What?”

“You’re coming. Put on a different shirt. Something with a collar.”

I look down at my Ventures Vinyl T-shirt. Back up at my sister. “What?”

She juts a finger toward my closet. “Get changed. We are leaving.”

“I’m not going to prom.”

“Yes. You are.”

“Why?”

“Because you are in love with Ari, and you have to tell her!”

I gape at her.

Pru puts her hands on her hips, determined.

The silence is thick. As thick as mutagen ooze.

There’s a knock on my door, and a second later, Quint comes strolling down, wearing a tuxedo.

“Yo,” he says, stopping at the bottom of the steps and taking note of the thick-as-ooze tension between me and Pru. “What’s going on?”

Pru pulls herself to her full height and crosses her arms over her chest. “Jude is—”

“Don’t you dare,” I say.

She hesitates, scowling.324

Quint looks between us, and I sense that he’s wishing he’d stayed upstairs.

Pru exhales sharply through her nostrils, then a light comes on in her eyes, and she turns to Quint. “Picture this. You are madly in love with a girl who has no idea how you feel about her.”

I bite back a groan, but Quint just nods and says, “Yeah, I remember those days.”

Pru pauses, momentarily flustered. She even starts to blush, and unlikeme, Pru is not a blusher.

“Get a room,” I mutter.

Pru bats the comment away. “And you have to prove,somehow, that you are worthy of her.”

“No,” I interrupt. “Not worthy ofher. Worthy of …” I flap my hands around through the air. “Anything. Everything.”

“The magic,” Pru clarifies, snapping her fingers and pointing at me. “Right?”

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