Page 53 of Under Your Spell

There’s a long pause.

‘She’s not answering,’ Lil says. ‘But I can tell she’s in there. I can hear her skulking. Hang on, I need both hands.’ Then she stuffs the phone down her top, treating me to an extreme close-up of her cleavage.

‘Turn the camera around!’ I shout.

‘Oops!’ Lil does, then puts the phone back in her top, so this time I am facing the door. Then I hear her digging through her bag until she finds Serena’s front door key, which she slips into the lock.

‘Hellooooo!’ Lil calls out, moving through the hallway towards the living room. ‘Serena?’

‘Oh for fuck’s sake!’ I hear before Serena appears on screen, looking belligerent. ‘Did Clemmie call you the second I put the phone down, that rat? How did you even get here so fast?’

‘I took an Uber,’ Lil replies.

‘I’m here too, actually,’ I call, presumably from the direction of Lil’s boobs.

Serena’s eyes bore into the camera. ‘Good, then I can tell you to your face that you’re a rat.’

‘Lil thinks you’re in a hostage situation,’ I say.

For a second there’s a look on Serena’s face like she’s considering agreeing with that, as if it were the better option.

‘I’m not a hostage,’ she finally admits, grudgingly.

‘That is the most romantic thing you’ve ever said,’ a voice comes, the one I heard earlier, and a woman steps into the living room. She’s drop-dead gorgeous. Tall and willowy with deep brown skin and braids that fall almost to her waist. She’s about the same age as us, and her wide brown eyes shift nervously to my sister.

Serena sighs, but even over the camera I can see her face soften. She holds out her hand to the woman, who takes it shyly. ‘Bee, this is my sister Lil, and my other sister Clemmie is shoved in her bra for some reason. Lil, Clem, this is Bee.’ There’s a pause and Serena manages to get the words out. ‘My girlfriend.’

‘OHMYGODDDDD!’ Lil launches herself at Bee, which means I do too and the next few minutes are a series of increasingly bizarre camera angles and Lil’s excited squeaking.

Eventually, my sister fishes the phone out of her top and hands it to Serena, dragging Bee off to the kitchen to make coffee and very obviously grill her on her intentions.

‘You really are a pair of nosey bitches,’ Serena huffs.

‘We just love you!’ I insist. ‘How long has this been going on?’

‘A few weeks,’ Serena admits, and I can tell she’s trying not to grin. I feel my heart squeeze, and I just look at her, beaming.

Serena rolls her eyes. ‘Calm down. This is why I didn’t tell you. I’m still me. I’m not turning into some gooey, cutesy little half-person, all right? I’m a whole person.’

I can hear the thread of anxiety in her words.

‘S, you are the most whole human being I know. Being in a relationship doesn’t mean losing a single piece of you. Not if it’s with the right person.’ As I say the words I realize the truth in them – and that I’ve clearly never been with the right person, because with Sam and with Len I gave up pieces of myself left and right like we were in an emotional game of Operation. It’s a moment of epiphany and it’s actually pretty overwhelming.

Clearly Serena comes to the same conclusion because she waves a finger at the phone. ‘Don’t you dare get upset,’ she says firmly. ‘Just stop going out with dickheads, all right?’

‘Sure,’ I nod. ‘Though it would be easier if they wore signs around their necks or something, so I could give them a wide berth.’

‘… And that’s when we cast the spell for Clemmie, but now it’s all coming true for me and Serena too!’ I hear Lil explain sunnily as she and Bee come back in the room.

‘I’m going to kill her,’ Serena mutters.

Lil appears on my screen, right next to Serena, the two of them squished together looking at me, their faces as familiar as my own, and suddenly I miss them so much it’s a physical ache in my chest.

‘You’ll see, Clemmie,’ Lil says confidently. ‘The three wishes are coming for you! Even Serena couldn’t escape the big, soulm—’

‘That’s enough, Lilian,’ Serena cuts her off, sounding so panicked that I have to stifle a laugh.

‘I’ll leave you to it,’ I say reluctantly. ‘But, Lil, you call me later.’