1. Chapter 1 2. Chapter 2 3. Chapter 3 4. Chapter 4 5. Chapter 5 6. Chapter 6 7. Chapter 7 8. Chapter 8 9. Chapter 9 10. Chapter 10 11. Chapter 11 12. Chapter 12 13. Chapter 13 14. Chapter 14

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Friday night was as much the product of our competitive nature as it was curiosity. Steven, Dan, and I had been lounging around a few weeks ago, shooting the shit like usual. Somehow we’d gotten on the topic of picking up girls, somethings that none of us were particularly good at, and Dan was on his usual rant.



“Man,” he said, “if I were a chick I swear it’d be so easy to get a guy. I betcha so many guys would be, like, lining up to hit on me.”



I rolled my eyes and Steven sipped his beer. Dan was all talk and no action. He liked to talk shit about how this or that thing wasn’t hit fault and how it would be so much better if this or that other thing that was out of his control was different. It was like this all through school — the test was on a bad day or there was construction outside his dorm room, so he couldn’t concentrate — and not much had changed in the years since we’d graduated.



This day was different, though. On this day I had been a little buzzed and the columns of dust kicked up by the draft in the house and illuminated by the late summer sun must’ve gotten in my head. On this day, instead of just nodding and moving on, I challenged Dan.



“Fine, man.” I said, “if it’s so easy then prove it. Let’s go out on the town as girls for a night and we’ll see how many guys you can pick up.”



I don’t think Dan had ever been challenged like this before. He looked like a deer in the headlights, his eyes two big saucers while his brain tried to produce an action plan.



When his sense came back to him, he brushed me off. “No way, Mark. I’m not gonna pick up guys, I’m not gay.” He turned his attention to his beer and tried to pretend like nothing had happened, but I was feeling emboldened and I wasn’t about to let this go.



“Are you kidding me?! A girl and a guy hitting it off is literally the least gay thing in existence.” He wasn’t engaging, so I knew I had to put something else on the table. “If you do it, then I’ll do it too.”



That put Dan on the spot. He was running out of excuses. Of course we had the means — my great aunt’s spellbook, which we’d found a few years ago while cleaning out her attic after her passing. I suppose that’s a whole ‘nother story by itself. Suffice to say, it didn’t have many spells that were useful to us, like turning to lead into gold or anything, but I knew for a fact that it had the spell we’d need to pull off this little adventure.



Without being able to complain about the mechanism of my bet or my own willingness to “suffer” at his side, Dan had no choice but to accept.



“OK whatever,” he said.



We both turned to Steven. “I guess,” he muttered, shrugging his shoulders like he couldn’t care less.