Learn How to Love (Boy x Boy)

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟏

ITCH NEI BELLO
HARAMITCH ERACE
POLLAR FRAIT ITCH UMBE

The words echoed in my head as I raced back into the kitchen, the book tucked underneath my arm. I was grateful my parents would be gone for the night. If they weren't home before nine or ten than they were at a motel somewhere, probably smoking weed with some stranger they came across that day, which meant Luke and I were free to try and figure out his condition. 

I couldn't believe I hadn't connected the dots before. The spell was about humans ignoring their animal instincts and becoming morally void. The curse turned people into animals. When I read the curse, I expected it to mean like turning a vain person into a warty toad or a lazy person into a cheetah. I never thought that it would only give someone the characteristics of the creature. Cats... cats... cats... I ran through everything I had ever heard about felines. What were they known for? Being selfish, not being as good as dogs, they could be pretty lazy, and they were fluffy and adorable and cute and cuddly and- Stay focused, I chided myself.

"I found it!" I cried, slamming the book down on the table. 

I opened up the book and the tiny piece of paper with "mijo" scrawled across it fell out. I barely noticed. I pointed to the paragraph. "Look, this spell is about turning someone into an animal to teach them a lesson or something."

Luke's eyes sifted from side to side as he read the passage.

"This must be the curse that was placed on you," I insisted. "Which means that we need to figure out how to fix it using this book."

Luke blinked. "You're kind of yelling."

I frowned. "Well duh I'm excited!" Luke winced, flattening his ears. I immediately felt bad. "Right, sorry, I didn't mean to," I said softly. "Alright, so this is what was placed on you, a spell that turns you into an animal to teach you a lesson. Does any of this make sense to you? Have you been mean to any animal brethren recently?"

"I mean, I've been eating a lot of meat," Luke guessed.

I shook my head. "No, not like that. That's what animals do, they eat each other. There must be something else that you've done that caused the curse to take affect."

"How do we know I actually did this?" Luke broke in. "Can't you just place the curse?"

I shook my head. "No, only someone that deserves to be cursed will be punished by the spell cast. There are a lot of rules to this shit, so try to pay attention." I pointed to the paragraph. "So this means that you did something that made this curse believe you warranted the specific punishment."

"The curse decided I deserve punishment? It's not sentient."

"It's hard to explain, but none of that's the point."

Luke pouted. "But I like hearing you talk about this stuff. I don't see why you try to shut out everything interesting. I could listen to you rant about your curses for hours. I bet your grandma could too."

I clenched my fist slightly. "Not the point-"

"There you go again."

I glared at him. "Do you want the goddamn ears gone or not? Read the passage, see if anything rings a bell for you. This is the only lead we have to figuring out what the fuck caused this. So read."

Luke grinned at me. 

"What?!"

"You're cute when you're serious."

I flopped down in the chair, holding my face in my hands. "Oh my god..." This is why I never got along with Luke before the curse- he was so unbelievably annoying. I couldn't stand how incompetent he was. Couldn't he tell I was frustrated? Why try and upset me more? Because that's what he lived to do. He lived to upset me, and he couldn't pretend to be different for the sake of figuring out his curse. 

"Alright, well here's something," he said. He pointed to two lines. Accept the things you cannot change, and change the things you cannot accept. "I don't do that. I just kind of go with the flow most of the time, even if it hurts. I think the bad does sort of prevail for me most of the time too," he added, pointing to the final line. Life needs the bad and the good, but the bad does not have to prevail everytime. "Does that help?" He looked at me like a puppy eager for praise. I could tell he was sorry he'd upset me. That made me feel even worse. 

"I suppose so..." I trailed off. "So does this mean you have to like, overcome your trauma in order for it to be fixed?"

Luke looked at me. "I don't have trauma."

"Sure, sure whatever. But doesn't that take like, years?"

Luke nodded. "Usually, yeah."

I huffed. "So that's not really good either. Maybe as long as you start working towards that, than you'll still lose the ears and tail? As long as the curse can tell you're improving they might get rid of the... appendages."

"Ears aren't appenda-"

"Not the point," I snapped.

Luke rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever." His gaze fell to the square of paper that had fallen out in the beginning. "What's this?" he asked, picking it up. The paper looked a little darker, probably from all the ink rubbing off on the white sheet.

"I think my grandma used it as a bookmark," I said nonchalantly.

Luke narrowed his gaze. "Why is it folded?"

"What?"

Luke turned the paper over. Sure enough, there was a crease. "See? There's a tiny pocket. It's a really easy oragami piece to make, I used to do it all the time when I was younger. It's hard to unfold them but if you slide this up here..." Luke trailed off, and proceeded to unfold (and nearly rip) the paper into six squares. "There!"

I snatched it from him. The words were written in the same ink used in the book. He needs to learn to love. "No... no, no, no, no, no," I wailed, slumping in my chair. 

Luke craned his neck to try and see. "What, what is it?"

"You were right... you were right this whole time!" I cried. "It was my grandma that cast the curse on you. I never thought she'd be capable of doing something like that, but I was wrong. She cursed you, Luke."

Luke picked up the paper. His lips moved as he read. "So is this the fix?"

I shook my head. "No, it's just a note she wrote to me. She wanted me to find it as a way of explaining why she cursed you."

Luke frowned. "Well, isn't this a lead?" he asked. "Your grandma cursed me because she says that I need to learn to love. So, if I figure out how I'm supposed to do that, the curse will be lifted!"

"You aren't mad?"

"Why would I be?"

I sighed. "Because I spent like four days trying to convince you that my grandma would never do anything like that, and now we find out that she did? It's just... upsetting, I guess. I thought I knew my grandma pretty well and now I find out she isn't as nice as I thought. This sucks dick I guess."

Luke nodded. "Maybe. But hey, it's getting late. We can pick all this shit up, go to bed, and you'll feel better tomorrow. Right?"

I groaned. "I don't think I will. My grandma was my entire childhood, like my whole reason for living before I met Sadie. What am I going to do now that I know she's lied to me about pretty much everything? How do I know what to believe and what not to? She told me unicorns existed once. Do they?"

Luke blinked sympathetically. "Hey, it doesn't matter. Not the point, remember? I'll pick up the books, and you can go to bed. I can... lick the sauce out of the pot and then wash it the best I can. Okay?"

I nodded absently. Even though Luke was trying hard to comfort me, I felt the worst when I came to him. I can't even imagine what I must've done to him calling him crazy for thinking my grandma cursed him. I felt terrible. All I wanted to do was go to bed, and wake up with this all over with.