“Izzy, you don’t look so good,” Joshua said. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s not the ‘what’ that’s wrong,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Huh?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing I can’t handle, don’t worry about it,” I said.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this,” Joshua said, and it pained me to see the concern in his eyes. He did love me, just not in the way I wanted.

  “Like I told you, don’t worry about it.” How was I living through this day again? Was this a weird supernatural thing that could happen to anyone, or was this done to me?

  “Can’t help it,” he said, and for a second I wanted to tell him everything. I resisted the impulse. If this was done to me by something or someone I needed to play it safe.

  “Maybe you should write in your notebook like you always do,” I said with a forced smile, propping up my feet on the table up against the wall. Maybe if I went with the flow, things would go back to normal.

  Of course normal meant Manny would be dead. Was that why I was reliving today? To prevent his death?

  Joshua pulled out that musty smelling old book with the fragile-looking discolored yellow pages. I briefly wondered if that was the book with the demon summoning spell, but how could I ask him without it sounding odd?

  Hell with it, I went for the usual blunt approach. “So what’s in that old book anyway?”

  "Stuff you wouldn't be interested in, Izzy."

  Damn, hearing him say it again was like listening to a recording. "Tell me, I might surprise you and be interested."

  Joshua paused in his writing, and I could hear the barest whisper of a sigh. "Are you interested in the history of Witchcraft?"

  “Any other day, I’d say you were right, but right now? I am totally interested.”

  “Wait, since when?” He looked up at me, a word halfway written down in his notebook. I’d have normally been smug and made a smarmy remark about this, but I had more important things to do.

  A thought struck me. I’d had déjà vu the first time I went through this day. Was it possible I had been repeating today, only I was now aware of it? If so, why?

  “Let’s just say I’m ready to broaden my horizons. I mean, you’re my best friend. What kind of best friend doesn’t show an interest in his pal’s hobbies?”

  Joshua blushed, then went back to writing. “"What're you doing after school?" he asked.

  The question came early this time, but I already had my answer prepared. "Not much, why? Do you need a ride somewhere?"

  Joshua gave me a nod of his head. "To Candleworks."

  The last time Joshua explained to me what kind of place it was I unconsciously rolled my eyes. This time I kept them on him, but he failed to see it since his eyes were darting over to a corner in the room. Did he see something I couldn’t? "What's over there?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

  He shrugged, not making eye contact with me. "I just want to see what they have in stock," he said. "I might find something you’d be interested in seeing."

  Oh, I was definitely sure of that.

  After school was done I drove Joshua and myself to the strip mall where I looked longingly at Maximum Effort. I’d have to find another store for my supps, though to be honest I didn’t really need them thanks to my supernatural nature. I just felt if I used them I’d get even bigger. Bigger is better after all.

  We got out of the jeep and made our way towards Candleworks. It still had the curtains which obscured the doors and windows from outside passersby, and when I went in I took in the subtle scents of incense and Kevin’s familiar brand of cologne—still as thick and overpowering as I remembered the last time I smelled it.

  It was weird seeing Keith ringing up the skinny guy again. Weirder still to watch the kid check me out. Instead of a nod today I gave him a wink, which made him blush even harder and move a little faster out the door.

  “Hey there, big guy,” Keith said.

  “"What happened to Maximum Effort?" I said, keeping up the replay act.

  "Ah, yeah. They closed us down this week, Israel. Sorry about that."

  I scratched the itch on my shoulder. This place had legit magic, or at least enough to aggravate me. I wondered if I could get Joshua’s help once we got to the point where I confronted him about his potential for spell casting?

  "I was there last Saturday. Why didn't anyone tell me?"

  "We didn't know until Monday. Corporate closed us down and gave us three days to move all the inventory to the warehouse."

  "God dammit." The swearing felt forced now. Maybe I could tone it down. By now my entire body was tingling. Yeah, this place had serious mojo. Dangerous mojo in the hands of neophytes like Joshua.

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  "I know, but I lucked out and managed to get a job here the next day."

  The last time I had this conversation I was irritated but today Kevin was safe from my biting remarks. "Still studying to be a physical therapy trainer?" I asked, grinning at him.

  "Yup, so if you ever get hurt working out, I can help you get back to your best." He flashed me a big grin, and I just had to shake my head at that. When I hit the age of consent I was going to ask him out. He was, admittedly, my type. Even if he thought he was an alpha dog.

  "The old personal touch, huh?" I leaned forward, folding my arms across the counter. I watched his eyes move towards my biceps, then gave him a knowing grin when our eyes met.

  "Y-yeah," he said, taking a big swallow as if his mouth had suddenly run dry. I would've gone on like this for a while, but I knew I was about to be interrupted with the sudden arrival of Joshua, who had the small container that reeked of strawberries as overpowering as Keith’s cologne

  "That was fast," I said, turning away from Keith and folding my arms across my chest. I heard Keith sigh behind me, and I didn’t smirk this time. I just smiled at Joshua. There were some advantages to reliving today. Tormenting Keith in a playful way was one of them. "I thought you just wanted to see what they had in stock?"

  Joshua's eyes flicked towards Keith as he made his purchase, then back to me. "They had something I wanted."

  I looked over at Keith, giving him a wink. "That's my cue to get out of here, Keith. Take care." We left the place, and I drove Joshua over to his house.

  “So what’s that stuff you bought?” I asked, trying my best to be subtle. Whatever he had in that bag helped summon that demon which had possessed… will possess… Manny. “Smells nice.”

  “You can smell it?”

  Uh oh. Was the scent subtle? Dammit, I had to think up a quick fib to keep Joshua from getting too suspicious. “It’s really faint, but I caught a whiff of it when we got out of the store and away from Keith’s cologne.”

  “Oh. Yeah, he really put on too much didn’t he?”

  Whew. He bought the fib. Though I think he already thought he knew what I was, but I didn’t need him to know that I knew he knew… gah, it was so hard to keep track of everything. “So yeah, what’s the stuff?”

  “Just some special herbs.”

  “For your research into the History of Witchcraft?”

  He grew quiet, and I would bet money he was trying to come up with a plausible lie. “Yeah, I wanted to see if Candleworks carried it.”

  “What’s it used for?”

  “It’s to keep my enemies from doing harm to me.”

  “Since when do you have enemies?”

  “I guess more like bullies.”

  Like Manny, though I just grew quiet for a second or two. “Are you going to put it in his drink or something?”

  “No, I was just hoping…”

  “He’s not going to bully you anymore, Joshua.”

  “How do you know? Because he told you?” he said with so much venom I reflexively gave him a quick glance before reverting my attention to the road.

  I wasn’t expecting so much anger from him. I should have tried to stop the bullying a long time ago. How long had it gone on? “Yes,” I finally said. “Because he promised me.”

  “And people always keep their promises, huh?”

  I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. “If he breaks his promise, I’m going to make him regret it.”

  “I don’t want you protecting me, Izzy.”

  “I know, Joshua, but I can’t stand bullies. Especially when they target my friends.”

  We got quiet as I pulled up to the empty driveway. "Are you still coming over for dinner tomorrow?" I asked as Joshua was about to get out of my Jeep, once again knowing the answer.

  "I guess so, if your parents don't mind."

  "My mom loves it when you come over," I said. "She thinks you're a good influence on me."

  "I guess I'll come," Joshua said, slowly closing the door as if afraid it'd break.

  "All right, I'll see you tomorrow." I drove off, looking at Joshua's receding image in the rear view mirror. So I had to figure out when he was going to do whatever he was going to do. Maybe I could make up an excuse to go visit him in an hour or so.

  I then remembered what was coming up in my future and a grin crept up on my face. I was going to have that argument with my Dad, and I would want to turn to my best friend so I could vent about how unfair my parents could be to poor lil’ ol’ me.

  I took the back entrance of the house again and prepared myself with the sight of Mom cooking. Yup, they had the fight already. I walked into the kitchen to see her petite figure working that squid half her size on the cutting board. Just as I remembered her platinum blond hair was tied up in a bun, and the dark lines of the hairnet couldn't keep a few wild strands from escaping down her forehead.

  Time to repeat the dialogue from yesterday. "Hi, Mom, what's cooking tonight?"

  "Spaghettini with squid," she said, pulling the tentacles away from the hood, the intestines following behind them, "in black ink." She started to remove the tentacles by cutting under the eyes with a wicked sharp knife. Even though I should have been used to the sight of Mom preparing food, it was still damned intimidating.

  "That's… going to be interesting." I was kind of surprised at how easy the words came out. If I just went with the flow I didn’t need to remember what I said. They just flowed out of my mouth. "Wish I could be home to have some of it." I watched as she dug her fingers under the beak, popping it out like a zit again. By the time she yanked out a transparent quill, my survival instinct was screaming at me to get out of the kitchen because I still wasn’t willing to take the heat of my Mom's anger.

  "And just where do you think you're going, young man? It's a school night." She started cutting up the squid into thin slices, and I fought the urge to tell her the truth, that I was reliving today and I had no idea how to get out of this loop. Maybe this was a one time thing, but the déjà vu I had already experienced put that into question. And besides, Mom and knives were scary as Hell.

  "I'm going on patrol tonight; there's been a situation at the school." I prayed she wouldn't call me out on my lie, because even under normal situations it was hard enough to deal with my parents. Repeating the same day over and over is definitely not under any circumstances normal situations.

  Fortunately I knew what to say, because Mom's face brightened into a sunny smile. "It's good that you're taking charge of the territory," she said, going back to slicing up the squid, which I knew was starting to look unrecognizable by now.

  "I try my best, Mom," I said, trying my damned hardest to avoid looking at the unblinking squid eye. "I just need to get dressed for it, and I'll be on my way."

  "Go talk to your father first. He wants to give you some more of his fatherly wisdom."

  “Sure thing, Mom. I’ll do that right now.”

  It was time to face my Dad, only this time I was ready for what he had to say. I put on my best disgruntled face and entered the den.

  It was time to act like a teenaged rebellious son. Something I was very good at. I’d even go so far as to say it was a part I was born to play.