Hayden

“Come on, Hayden,” Lucy said, trying again to grab his hand. “Stop being such a baby.”

“I just don’t believe in any of that shit,” Hayden said, slapping her pale hand away. “All the medium shit, crystal balls and this palm stuff. I don’t buy it.”

“If you don’t buy it, then what are you afraid of?” she asked, smirking at him and fluttering her eyelashes.

“Don’t you go flapping those press-on bristles at me. I’m not Tom,” he said, laughing.

“Fine, whatever then, dude.”

Hayden sighed and shook his head. I might have gone a bit too far.

“Sorry, fine,” he said, holding out his hand. “Read it or whatever you witches do.”

Lucy smiled before roughly grabbing him by the wrist.

“Hey now, no damaging the merchandise!”

“Oh, hush, Mr. Soft Hands. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Turning his hand over, she began tracing the faint curves with the black nail of her index finger. It tickled, more than he would have expected. But he did his best not to flinch and ruin her concentration.

“Hmm, very interesting.”

“Yeah, I bet.”

“Ye of little faith. Which makes sense,” she said, stretching out his thumb. “lots of logic, but maybe too much. No room for a bit of whimsy.”

“I’m whimsical as fuck,” he said, laughing. “You’ll have to do better.”

Lucy ran her nails tapped her nails against his palm, before circling it with one quick motion.

“You have an interesting fate line; it crosses over many other paths, intersecting and contributing to a complicated life.”

“I’m not sure that sounds good.”

“Better than boring,” she said without looking up. “And hey hey hey, look at that love line.”

“Now I know this is bullshit.”

“Just because you’re in a dry spell now doesn’t mean you’re not due for a wild time.”

“I’m not sure a bit of strange is really what the doctor ordered.”

“Strange wouldn’t account for this. It’s interesting, like your fate intersecting many other lines, but I don’t know if that indicates a broken path. I think this could be one great love. Something real and long-term.”

“I’m not sure the doctor ordered that either.”

“Well, your doctor is an idiot,” she said, gripping his hand and flexing it into a fist before letting it spring back open. “It’s not really your choice anyway; fate isn’t exactly taking notes…”

She paused before letting go.

“And that’s all I’ve got.”

Hayden sighed.

“What is it? Did the strange leave a weird mark? Should I go get checked out?”

“No,” she said, faking a laugh. “It’s nothing, really.”

She turned to walk away when Hayden stopped her.

“Hey now, I played along; the least you can do is give me the whole reading.”

Lucy turned to him, but wouldn’t meet his gaze.

“Okay, but this isn’t a science; it’s all interpretation, so I might be—”

“Just tell me.” Hayden said sarcastically.

“Fine, your life line, it’s broken, cut off early by the fate line everything else is tied to.”

Haden scoffed.

“Okay, but what does that even mean?”

“I don’t really know. The books just say that means there is a ‘great transition’ of some kind.”

“But you have a different interpretation?”

“The same fate that leads to your one great love…it might just get you killed.”

“Okay, so I meat some great guy doing motocross or something, and that same dangerous hobby kills me in my early 50s,” he said, jovially. “Even if I thought this was more than a bit, I could deal with that.”

“Exactly. It’s nothing to worry about.”

Hayden studied her, her posture stiff and crooked. Her eyes, dark and distant.

“But that’s not it, is it?”

“No…it’s much sooner than that.”

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