“hey” Luke walked up to Jules swallowing the lump in his throat “Can we talk?”

Jules, who was surrounded by a gaggle of her friends coolly looked at him for a few moments while the redhead squirmed under their gaze

“Never really realized how popular Jules is” he thought to himself as Jules finally nodded her assent and sent the girls away, who all gave Luke a onceover as they left.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Jules calmly folded her arms, the indifference emanating from her making Luke flinch internally as he tried to steel himself up.

“I’m sorry about running off on you the other day” he apologized “after you kissed me”

“okay” Jules still had her poker face on “anything else?”

“And I’m sorry for being an idiot and not seeing all the hints you must’ve been dropping” Luke pushed through with the apology; Jules may not give him a second chance but he owed her an apology anyway.

“Been speaking to Obie I see” Jules mocked him.

“No, my mother told me there’d be hints” Luke’s eyes widened “Obie Knew?!”

“Everybody Knew!” Jules hissed angrily “except for your stupid ass”

“I-I don’t know what to say” Luke felt weak in the knees “I just… I just never thought a girl could like me”

“And when you found out you ran away?” Jules still wasn’t over it

“Like a dumb little bitch” Jules’ frown softened a bit upon hearing Luke’s response.

“And now what?”

“Now…” Luke smiled mirthlessly “now I shamelessly ask for a second chance. A chance to actually be the boyfriend you deserve”

“You serious?” Jules shifted her weight from one foot to the other

“As a heartbeat” Luke looked her straight in the eyes “please give me a chance; one single chance, to show that I can actually be a guy worthy of you”

“Only you decide your worth” Jules shot back in an instant “do you actually like me? Or do you wanna date me because I’m the only girl who actually showed an interest in you?”

“I wanna date you because you’re the only one whom I feel comfortable enough to speak to about my mom” There was no hesitation in Luke’s voice. He had had a pair of long nights to realize how close to Jules he had really gotten.

“alright” Jules finally smiled and Luke felt like the clouds had parted and the sun was shining again “It’s a date”

XXXXXXX

“What’s wrong?” Daphne asked Obie, who was nursing his right arm close. The three of them were winding down in Elsewhen.

“Luke punched me in the arm after Jules told him that I knew she had a crush on him” Obie grumbled irritably, while the girls could only laugh

“But, seriously, why did you never tell him?” Phoebe couldn’t help but ask bobbing her head along to the music

“We did, me and James” Obie revealed “the first day of high school we had met Jules and it was clear that she took a shine to him, it later became a full blown crush and when we brough it up, Luke thought we were screwing with him and laughed it off” and the girls laughed even harder.

XXXXXXX

Luke audibly swallowed the lump in his throat as he rang the doorbell. The seconds felt like they had slowed down to a crawl, and then the door opened and time seemed to have stopped completely.

Jules had done up her hair into ringlets that framed her face, she was wearing a grey top and blue jeans with boots, but all Luke could notice was that she seemed to be practically glowing.

“Luke?” her calling his name shook said boy out of his reverie

“Uh-um; t-this is for you” Luke stammered, off guard, and intimately aware of how hot the air was as he handed a grey dolphin plushy to Jules.

“This…” Jules stared at the Dolphin as she took it, and Luke cursed himself for not going with normal roses “… Is the cutest thing ever” she hugged the plushy before putting it on the key stand beside the door “Shall we?”

“Yes!” Luke straightened up, feeling overly aware of the sweatiness of his palms “yes!”

XXXXXXX

“Can’t wait for summer already” Obie shivered as he, Phoebe, and Daphne patrolled

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I like a little chill” Phoebe looked affronted

“Cause you’re not Latino” Obie declared haughtily “we need the heat” the girls shared an amused look but didn’t say anything, before Phoebe’s face suddenly changed.

“What is it?” Daphne was immediately alert.

“magic” Phoebe pointed down the road “from there”

“… Want me to call Luke?” Obie asked the girls

“No, it’s not a strong signature” Phoebe shook in refusal

“Still…” Obie pressed

“Why do you think we can’t handle this by ourselves?” Daphne gave the boy a dirty look

“Just a feeling” Obie remained unmoved as the three walked into a morgue.

XXXXXXX

"I'd be a tree" Jules declared after some thought "provide shade, provide oxygen, and I’d grow really tall" the last point seemed to make the petite girl visibly excited

"I said non living thing!" Luke protested "what non living thing would you possess as a ghost and haunt the world? Like a car or maybe an airplane?" The two of them were currently on top of the town water tower, enjoying the hot wings and soda they had gotten from the Sweet and Vade diner.

"And what would you be smartass?" Jules raised an eyebrow in challenge

"A cloud!" Luke replied in a 'duh' voice "I could float all over the world and if I ever see a douchebag, I'd totally pee on them"

"Eww" Jules lightly whacked him on the head

"Like you wouldn't want to ruin the day of someone who took two parking spots instead of one"

"Whatever dude" Jules didn't refute him, the two then fell in content silence as they just enjoyed the view from the water tower and each other's presence.

XXXXXXX

"Why is that old guy chanting as he burns corpses?" Obie asked Phoebe in a whisper as they stepped away from the stepped away from the crematorium of the morgue

"He's praying" Phoebe explained "he's sacrificing the corpses to a fire spirit in exchange for fire magic"

"Do we let him be?" Obie wondered aloud "he isn't hurting anyone, just a bunch of corpses that were probably gonna be burned anyway"

"The problem is that warlocks tend to upgrade to living things very quickly" Daphne recalled "and then get much harder to deal with"

"But what if he doesn't?" Obie refuted her "what if he sticks to just corpses?"

"Do you really want to bet the life of innocent people on a stranger's strength of character?" Phoebe posed to Obie

"I'll save you guys the philosophical conundrum" the three whipped around to see that the old fire warlock had snuck up right in front of them "I do sacrifice living people to my patron" he threw a fireball at them that Daphne slashed into oblivion with her sword.

Phoebe followed it up with launching a magical bolt

But the warlock conjured a ball of fire in his hand and held it up so that the magical bolt hit it and they both dissipated.

He followed it up with a fireball to which Phoebe created a magical barrier, but instead of dissipating like the other fireballs, this one burned brightly against the barrier

“Um… Guys!” Phoebe realized the fireball was burning through her barrier “Run!” the three sidestepped the barrier and ran down the adjacent corridor.

“What now?” Obie asked the girls as they felt the heat blast in from behind them as the warlock gave chase.

“Plan B” Phoebe replied nonchalantly “we got this”

XXXXXXX

“Well, we’re here” Luke’s face fell just a little bit when he saw Jules’ house.

“Yes, we are” Jules noticed his face and felt just a little more happy “I had a great time today”

“Me too” Luke smiled at her as the two of them walked over to her front gate.

“Well, this is it” Luke shifted his weight from one foot to the other “good night?” Jules rolled her eyes, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down into a kiss.

“She tastes of cherries” Luke noted absently as he melted into the kiss “and hot wings” he grabbed Jules by the waist with both hands and pulled her closer against him, he felt her tongue push into his mouth and felt his mind stop working as instinct took over.

After what felt like an eternity of bliss the two finally broke the kiss because their lungs demanded oxygen.

“Hah… hah… hah” Luke was out of breath and out of words.

“You… hah… you…” Jules stopped trying to speak for a moment to catch her breath “you wanna come in for a coke?”

Luke blinked “we just had coke with the wings, and too much sugar keeps me up at-”

Jules then grabbed him by the shirt again and pulled him into the house “my parents aren’t home, so we have the house to ourselves” she reiterated in plain words “also, you’re an idiot”

“That, I cannot deny” he agreed as she pushed him onto the couch and climbed onto him in a straddle. “Now, where were we?”

XXXXXXX

“Your plan to split up was good” the warlock confessed to Phoebe when he finally trapped her in a dead end “it just wasn’t good enough”

He splayed out his palms and created a jet of fire like a flame thrower towards Phoebe, who conjured up a golden barrier, which was able to resist the flames.

“Not bad” the warlock grinned “but it’s clear that you won’t last long” and he was right, for the special flame resistant barrier was sapping a lot of Phoebe’s strength.

“She won’t have to” Obie called out from behind him and unleashed the fire extinguisher on the man.

To his credit the warlock immediately created a shield of flame behind him without stopping the fire stream that was attacking Phoebe.

“I’m gonna get you next” he swore irritably at Obie, while the fire extinguisher’s foam couldn’t do anything to him, it still got on his nerves.

But Obie couldn’t say anything because that was the moment Phoebe slammed one hand on the left wall and activated her already running earth escape spell.

The wall gave way right in front of the warlock so that Daphne could jump out and slice his neck open before he could react.

“hahh!” Phoebe ended both the barrier and earth escape spell and nearly fell on the ground, continuously powering both spells was crushing on her, she didn’t think she could stay awake much longer.

“Hey!” Daphne was beside her in an instant, while Obie pointed stepped around the corpse of the evil human that wanted to kill them and walked over to her.

“Just spent” Phoebe chuckled weakly the three smelt something burning and turned back to see that the warlock’s body was starting to burn, a final claim by the fire spirit patron.

“Well, that takes care of that” Obie helped Phoebe up as she swung an arm around both him and Daphne “let’s go home”

“Sounds perfect” the blonde witch admitted drowsily “you’ll just have to carry me” she told them as she finally fell asleep.

XXXXXXX

The next morning Luke met up with the other three at the quad “did you guys find anything in yesterday’s patrol?”

“No” Obie lied through his teeth as the girls too shook their head in negative “how was your date?”

Luke paused for a moment as he thought back to how they had spent the night; talking, joking around, enjoying junk food, and making out “It was nice”

“Just nice?” Daphne had expected more, and from her expression, so did Phoebe

“That good huh?” Obie knew his best friend, and knew exactly what ‘nice’ meant

“yeah” Luke’s face split open into the widest grin the girls had ever seen on him “I’m gonna marry her one day” and then the girls slapped their palms onto the faces.