Clutches and Curses Read Free Page B

tonight, I saw that somebody had dinged my fender and hadn’t left their name or number or anything.
    â€œAnd that ticket you got for running a red light on the way home?” Marcie asked.
    â€œThat could have happened to anybody,” I told her.
    â€œThat’s a lot of coincidences for one evening,” she said, shaking her head. “You’d better take this seriously.”
    Marcie was almost always right about things, but I couldn’t go along with this one. Some wacky old woman waving her finger at me and mumbling a few words couldn’t really have an effect on my life. Besides, I refused to believe that someone who dressed as badly as she did had the ability to actually call on the power of the universe to curse me.
    That’s how I roll.
    â€œLook,” I said, “tonight I’m going on a hot date, with a really hot guy, and we’re going to talk about moving in together. Could that happen to someone who’d been cursed?”
    â€œWell, maybe not,” Marcie said. “But still . . .”
    â€œA few bad things happened to me, but so what? They weren’t serious. Just annoying. And they certainly didn’t have any real impact on my life. If they did, then maybe—”
    My cell phone rang.
    Marcie and I both froze and looked at it lying on the bed beside me. We turned to each other again and I knew we were both thinking the same thing—that’s what best friends do.
    â€œIs that Ty?” she asked. “Cancelling?”
    â€œNo way,” I told her, and picked up the phone. I looked at the caller I.D. screen and gasped. Oh my God. It was Ty.
    â€œSorry, Haley,” Ty said when I answered. “I can’t make it tonight.”
    I waited for the usual wave of disappointment to hit me.
    It didn’t hit me.
    I heard muffled voices in the background, and Ty said, “I’ll call you later.”
    I waited for the usual anger to hit me.
    That didn’t hit me, either. Nothing hit me.
    â€œI don’t think you should call me,” I said. “You’re not ready for us to move in together. So I’m giving the offer back to you. Keep it. And if you’re ready to extend it again, call me.”
    I hung up the phone, calm, collected, and stunned.
    Marcie looked at me, equally stunned.
    Why wasn’t I hurt, angry, screaming, crying—something? Why wasn’t I rushing to the kitchen for a Snickers bar, or clawing into my emergency package of Oreos?
    This wasn’t like me, to be completely emotionless. I wasn’t acting like myself at all. It was like some weird cosmic force had taken control of me and—
    Oh my God. Oh my God. Had I really been cursed?
    Â 
    Everybody in the Holt’s breakroom was staring at me—which was understandable since I’d walked in a moment ago with a gorgeous Fendi shoulder bag, which I’d stowed in my locker—except, they were all looking at me weird. I was in line at the time clock, waiting for another few hours of my life to chug past in a forgettable blur, and, not only was everyone staring, they were leaning their heads together, whispering and pointing.
    Had I missed a meeting?
    â€œEverybody heard about the curse,” Sandy, behind me in line, said quietly.
    â€œI’m not cursed,” I told her, loud enough for everyone to hear.
    â€œNothing bad has happened to you—other than that panel falling out of the ceiling, nearly killing you?” Sandy asked.
    Everyone in the room stared harder.
    Yeah, okay, my car had been hit in the parking lot and I’d gotten a traffic ticket—not to mention that thing with Ty and my weird reaction to it—but none of that meant I was cursed.
    I saw no need to mention them.
    â€œWell, you know, things happened—but things always happen,” I said.
    Everybody glared harder at me now.
    The line moved forward. The time clock thunked as the employees ahead of me fed their time cards into