Falling for Tia

“What are you writing about now?” I question reaching my hand out to try and pull the little black book down, with my pointer finger, to get a peek inside. “Nothing!” Tia says as she slams the book closed. “Let’s get out of here.” “But we still have and hour and a half of class le,” I am cut off mid sentence as a voice comes over the intercom. “Attention faculty, staff, and students, we are having problems with our air conditioning working properly, we will be dismissing early today. Please walk, don’t run, and have a great weekend.” Tia looks back at me, “What were you saying, Jamie?” “I was saying lets get out of here!”

I am not sure how I came to like Tia; I hardly knew her two weeks ago. "All I know is I follow her around like a little puppy and I do weird things now," I think to myself as I look at the two matcha lattes the barista sat on the coffee bar in front of me, Tia's favorite. I head over to the table where her and some other friends are gathered. “Excited for this weekend?” Amber asked as I slid into the booth sitting Tia's drink in front of her. “Sure, south beach for the school thing right?” I ask. “Senior weekend! And if you’re not there Jamie Reed, you will not be allowed at the cool kids table anymore,” she laughed. I roll my eyes and take a sip of my matcha latte. When did I start drinking matcha anyway? It's certainly not good and without Tia, I wouldn’t even know how to pronounce matcha.

I drive Tia to her house. I don’t know what her old house looked like but she just moved into this one and my whole house could fit in its garage! Her family must be loaded, but I can’t bring myself to ask such a silly question. “What time should I be ready tomorrow?” Tia asked. “I can pick you up around six tomorrow morning?” “Sounds great!“ she says, pulling out her little black book. I swear that thing is attached to her; she never goes anywhere without it. “Will I ever be able to see what you write in that thing,” I ask. “Nope,” she says kissing me on the cheek and hopping out of the car. “See you tomorrow!”

Early the next morning, I get up and notice purple swim trunks lying on my dresser. “I don’t remember owning purple swim trunks?” I think aloud scratching my head. Perhaps Jeremy left them when he stayed over the other night. I look around for my blue ones, but I can’t find them. Glancing at the clock, I notice I am going to be late if I don’t leave now. Hesitantly, I grab the purple swim trunks, slip them on, and head out the door. I pull up at Tia’s house and she jumps in giving me a kiss as she pulls the door shut.

South Beach is an hour and half drive from our town. We arrive to see a couple friends already putting up the volleyball net. “I’m going to help set up,” motioning to them, “do you need anything?” Tia shakes her head so I run off to help. Jeremy is holding the pole in place when I walk up to him. “Are these your Trunks?” I ask tugging on the material. “No, I don’t own purple swim trunks, but I like that color.” We just finished pulling the net tight, when I turn and see Tia and Amber walking up. Tia is wearing a two-piece swimsuit identical to my purple swim trunks. “Well don’t you two look cute as ever,” Harper smiled from behind me, “I love the matching suits!” I look over at Tia, her smile bashful but still bright as ever. Confused, I begin to speak, but I'm interrupted, “Race you to the water!” Tia squeals and speeds away.

The day passed quickly, Tia kept pulling out her black book to jot things down. Whatever she is writing in there it must be important because she brought it to the beach, of all places. “Amber, Harper, and I are going to the store for snacks, care for anything specific?” Tia asks, walking over to me. “ No thank you, just be careful!” came my response as they hurried off.

A couple minutes passed and I realized she forgot her bag. “Can’t buy snacks without a wallet,” I laughed. I get to my feet and pick up her bag. The little black book was left sitting in the sand underneath where her bag was. I pick it up, more curious than ever. I flip to the first page and read, “I wish to have a big house.” “I mean you already have a big house, but okay.” I laugh to myself. Continuing to read I notice everything begins with “I wish,” and all of these wishes seem irrelevant because she already has these things. I come to a page that says, “ I wish Jamie Reed would ask me to be his girlfriend.” “That’s strange.” I say quietly to myself. Flipping through to the last page with writing I read, “I wish school would let out early.” My eyes widen as I read the next line, “I wish Jamie and I had matching purple swimsuits.” I look down at my swim trunks then back to the page. “I wish for my team to win the volleyball game.” “I wish my hair didn't frizz.” Looking up from the book I see Tia and the others walking back down the beach. I push the book into the bag and head toward them. “I noticed you left your bag,” I call to Tia, “I was just bringing it to you.” “Thank you!” She smiled “But Harper paid for our snacks, “ and handed me a mountain dew and a Twix candy bar. I notice her hair is unusually straight for someone who has been at a beach all day. “Ready to watch the sunset,” She asked. “Of course,” I say, putting my arm around her as we walked to the seaside to find a good spot in the sand.

The Sunset was beautiful, although; I really couldn’t think about anything other than the book. Why were Tia’s wishes coming true? Is that why she carries the book around? Is it magic? I decide I need to find out for myself. On the ride home, I managed to sneakily pull the book from Tia's bag and place it in the back floorboard as if it had fallen out. I said goodnight to Tia as she exited the car and headed for home. A few minutes later I got a panicked phone call, “Jamie! Have you seen my black book, I’ve lost it!” Tia sounded like she was about to cry. Unwilling to lie, I replied, “looks like it has found its way to the back floorboard of my car, I will get it back to you first thing tomorrow morning.” “Oh good,” Tia sounded relieved. “But Jamie, please don’t look inside, There’s important things that I don’t want to share just yet.” “Goodnight Babe,” I say to avoid her request, she seems satisfied and we hang up just as I am pulling into my driveway.

“Time to find out what this thing is,” I say as I grab the book and head to my room. I open the door and sit down on my bed. Grabbing the pen that is attached to the cover I write down on the last page, I wish my swim trunks were blue. Nothing happened, so I start to write down something else but pause when I feel a tickle brush across my leg. I look down to blue, not purple, swim trunks. “What in the…” I jump to my feet, “How did that happen?” Grabbing the book again I jot down another sentence, I wishto have $20,000. Two stacks, each containing ten $100 bills appeared on my bed. My mouth fell open. Just out of curiosity, I wrote down, I wish I had a plate of jello. When the jello appeared I quickly erased the sentence in the book and the jello disappeared. “Interesting!” I exclaimed, flipping to the front pages where Tia had written, “I wish Jamie Reed would ask me to be his girlfriend.” I pondered for a moment, and decided to erase that sentence too. Nothing happened or at least I didn’t feel any different. It's late so I put the book on my nightstand and go shower. Maybe if I get some sleep, this will make more sense tomorrow.

Waking the next morning, I see the book right where I left it, and the $20,000 sitting beside it. Anxious to see Tia, I slip on some clothes and head out the door. I pause when I get to my car, remembering I wrote in the book. I rip out the page I wrote on and another appears in its place. “Wha,”shock twisting my face. I run back upstairs to see the $20,000 still on my desk and my blue swim trunks sitting in my hamper. Intrigued, I jot down a couple other things I’ve always wanted, like a new game system, an acceptance letter to Presley University, and the most extensive baseball card collection you could imagine. When all those things appeared, I ripped out the page. Everything stayed right where it appeared and the book spawned another page in the old one’s place. Even more anxious to talk with Tia, I rushed out the door.

I pull into the driveway and Tia came out to meet me. “Jamie, what are you doing here?” “I came to return your book, remember?” I asked suspiciously. “My book!” Tia screams, grabbing it and hugging it to her chest. “I sort of took a peek inside,” I admit. “It’s just things I wish would come true.” Tia shrugged. Confused I replied, “you don’t have to keep it a secret Tia, I am your boyfriend after all, you can tell me anything.” She looked puzzled, “Boyfriend?” Just then, I remembered erasing her wish. “Do you not remember me asking you to be my girlfriend?” I question. “No, you’ve never asked me to be your girlfriend.” Oh no, I might have been magically forced into asking Tia to be my girlfriend, but I really like her. Grabbing the book from her before she could protest I wrote down, “I wish Tia would remember.” Suddenly Tia's face turned a bright red. “I, I am so sorry,” She began, “I just liked you so much, and I knew that you would never see me without the book…” “It's okay,” I interjected. “I understand, sort of. Just promise me you will use this more carefully and not manipulate me into liking matcha.” I laugh, handing the book back to her, “you're not mad?” she asked. “A little” I reply, “I wish you would not have used the book to manipulate me, but I do love you.”

Tia and I have since locked the book away in a secret place. I went back and erased my acceptance letter to Presley, I ended up getting in the old fashion way. Tia and I have a place of our own now that we are paying for with our own money, minus the $20,000 down payment. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to keep the gaming system either, but no more wishes for us. Maybe someday the book will be needed. Until then, Tia and I plan to live a life free of magic and wishes.