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That Friday, Gimble assembled everyone in her home. Again, the warmth of baking cookies floated through the house, as well as pizza. The pizza wasn’t freshly made, but it was plentiful, coming in a stack of boxes from the local big box wholesaler. Ty carried them in, a door created just so she could transport them without having to use the ferry, and Elliot watched hungrily, idly entertaining the idea of getting to take a whole box home.
They gathered in Gimble’s living room, sitting on overstuffed couches and cushions on the floor, eating and talking about the week. Meryl arrived with Ty, bringing barbecue from a place in the International District, a Chinese restaurant that had long become part of the fabric of “Seattle.” Cassie arrived soon after, whom Elliot was surprised to see, but happy all the same. She set a bottle of wine down on Gimble counter, and she and Gimble gossiped about the other covens in the area. Z came last, carrying a pack of local craft beer in one hand, and a case of diet cola in the other. She hugged Elliot as soon as she could.
“I’m glad you came,” Z said. “These are nice. After a week of work, it’s nice to be social for a while.”
Elliot nodded absently. She was watching the edges for the ghosts. Despite her anxiety, they kept visible the entire time, socializing with people as they arrived. Meryl even happily hugged them, somehow, like they were old friends.
Elliot found a spot on a couch, not too far removed from the socializing, pulling her legs to her chest. She quietly ate her pizza, entertaining the idea of one of the beers Z brought, except that she hated hipster beer — if she could describe the beer as being ‘beardy’, she would. It’s a beardy beer — and anyways, she didn’t want to feel tipsy right then.
Meryl flopped down on the couch with her, and Elliot’s ears dropped to the side of her head. The whole point of sitting over there was to be out of the action, and yet…
Meryl gave her a crooked smile and offered her some of her Chinese. “How have you been?” She asked. “I feel like it’s been forever.”
“Uhm…” Elliot said. “Fine? I’m still processing a lot.”
“Yeah…” Meryl said. “You opened the floodgates huh? But you’ll get there, and we’ll help you.”
Elliot looked down at her pizza. “Thanks.” She thought a moment. “I don’t get why you guys are nice to me, but I appreciate it.”
Meryl smiled and let her eyes drift to the ceiling. “Yeah, we’ve all be there. Some day you won’t have to guess why we care. We care because we’ve all been baby witches and we all needed support. Things can go really badly if you don’t have the right support.”
Elliot’s ear twitched in thought. “How do I know you’re the right support?”
Meryl looked over at her, locking eyes, and for a moment, she felt as though Meryl was trying to grab her soul from her. And then she gave Elliot a broad, wild smile. “Because we’ve been on the wrong side of bad support.”
“Wha-?”
“You wanna see a really cool scar??” Meryl grabbed the rim of her shirt and started to lift it up.
“Meryl!” Ty called from the kitchen. “Cassie wants to know about your costume for Emerald City ComicCon.”
“Oh!” Meryl said. And she was gone, like she had never been there to begin with.
Elliot sat stunned for a moment, and then finished her slice of pizza.
“I’m glad you made it,” Gimble said. She sat down next to Elliot, holding a glass of red wine.
“Thanks,” Elliot said softly.
“Have you had enough to eat?” She asked. “There’s plenty more in the kitchen. Please take all you need.”
“I’m fine,” Elliot said. “Thank you. This is…” Elliot thought a moment. “I didn’t really had a lot to eat for a long time, so sometimes my body doesn’t want me to stop eating and I have to be careful.”
Gimble nodded thoughtfully. “That’s really good to know. I’m glad you told me. My family saw starvation in its recent history, so feeding those we care about is incredibly important. I will, however, trust that you have what you need.”
“You guys are all so nice.”
Gimble patted her arm. “So, are you ready to learn more?”
Elliot looked up at Gimble. “Yeah, totally. I’m ready to learn. What…” She looked around, feeling silly. “Are there, like, spells? Do I get a wand? Are there wands?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Gimble said. “We’ll work on spells and divination too. All the things you need to know to get started. We can talk all about that this weekend. But first, I have homework for you.”
“What? What am I, 12?”
“I want you to be looking for magic around you.”
“Oh, okay.” Elliot said. “I’ll just look for magic.”
“It’s there, if you know what to look for.”
“But I don’t-”
Gimble smiled. “I want to see if you pick up on it first. After that, we’ll talk all about it.”
Elliot nodded. “Okay. I think I can do that.”
“Good. Do you have a grimoire yet? That’s the perfect place to write it all down.”
“Yeah, it’s just a notebook but…” She wandered if she should tell Gimble about Right Determination.”
“A notebook will do,” Gimble said. “As long as you can write in it. But I do think you should take Right Determination up on her offer.”
“Did you just…” Elliot leaned closer. “Did you just read my mind, because I’m not okay with that.”
Gimble took a thoughtful sip of her wine. “Z mentioned a demon had offered you a book. I made an educated guess that it was her.”
“You know her?” Elliot’s ears perked. Gimble let out a low laugh.
“She’s somewhat known among the covens. And it sounds like she’s happy to help you out.”
“Yeah…” Elliot didn’t know what to say. She looked around. Everyone else had made it into the living room, and they were talking about what movie to watch. Meryl sat down in between Elliot and Gimble and fixed her eyes on Ty.
“But it’s almost Halloween!” She said. “We have to watch a scary movie!”
“We’re not watching Dead Alive,” Ty said.
Meryl turned to Elliot. “You’ll love it, it’s so gross!”
“Yeah, that’s why we’re not watching it. I would like to sleep tonight.”
“I’ll help you sleep!” Z said.
“You wish,” Ty said. “The current leader is Alien.”
“I’m just saying, Sigourney Weaver,” Cassie said. “Just like, all of that on the screen.”
Elliot leaned over to Gimble. “Can I learn how to defend myself? Like, is there a spell for that?” She asked, her voice just above a whisper.
“Is this about the boy that’s been following you?” Gimble asked.
Elliot hesitated. “…Yes?”
“It might be best for now to avoid confrontation. At least until we can figure out what’s happening.”
Elliot nodded. “Okay.” She sank back to her spot and listened to the argument. God, it couldn’t be that hard to pick a movie.
She sighed and remembered the beverages in the kitchen. She quietly excused herself and wandered away. In the kitchen, she leaned against the counter, folding her arms over her chest, and let the noise of the other room fade. She thought about more pizza, and even the beer. It’d be nice to calm down for a bit. And didn’t have to drive anywhere…
“Hey.”
Elliot looked up. Meryl stood just inside the kitchen, like she was making sure she was keeping an appropriate distance. She watched Elliot carefully.
“Sorry, I was just…” Elliot started.
“No worries,” Meryl said. “It was getting loud in there, wasn’t it? If I had, like, anxiety issues, I would have hidden an hour ago.”
“Ha,” Elliot said. “Yeah…”
“I heard what you asked Gimble,” Meryl said, taking a step closer. “Is a guy harassing you?”
“Yeah,” Elliot said. “He’s this nerd who saw me on the train once, and now he keeps appearing where ever I go.”
“Creepy,” Meryl said. She took another step closer, until the tiled island stood between them. Meryl put her hands on the counter. “I can teach you how to defend yourself.”
“Yeah?” Elliot asked. “What about what Gimble said?”
“Just some basic things,” Meryl continued, “but it’s important and I think you shouldn’t have to feel worried and afraid when you’re out in public.”
Elliot nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, thanks.”
“Let’s hang out tomorrow. We’ll get some coffee and then go out into the woods and wreck shit.” She stepped around the island and took Elliot’s hand in hers, looking up at her, her eyes almost sparkling.
Elliot pulled her hand away. “It always feels like you guys are hitting on me.”
Meryl laughed. “I think you’re not used to affection from friends,” she said.
“I’m not used to friends,” Elliot said.
“But also, that does sound like a rad date, huh?”
Elliot pulled her arms over her chest tighter.
Meryl laughed again and hit Elliot on the arm. “You have nothing to worry about. Just a friend teaching another friend how to use magic to fuck someone up. Normal friend stuff.”
Elliot let out a little laugh. “Okay. Tomorrow.”
“Be at Z’s at seven!” Meryl said, and flitted out of the room.
“What, in the morning?” Elliot asked back. “Hey! Come back! In the morning??”
When she got back to the living room, Meryl had snuggled up next to Ty, like nothing had ever happened. Z caught her eye, and patted a spot next to her. Elliot’s shoulders dropped. It was as good a spot as any, and when she sat down she wasn’t at all surprised that Z put her around around her.
Affection. Huh.
Elliot decided she could get used to it.