While going to my hometown where I couldn't fit in with the person who hated me more than anything was less than ideal, we were on our way to get the second coin back from Butterfly. And that was more important than any of the minor flaws in the nonexistent plan.

"Maybe I should drive, considering I'm not partially deaf," I said.

"You'll kill us both with your ADHD decision-making. I'll be fine," Dominic said.

I smiled and shook my head. "The only bad decisions I've made lately all involve you." And as far as I was concerned, it was completely true. I hated going to ASL in the first place because of him, I brought him in to complicate the talisman mess, and I was just about to get the second talisman-like object back by any means necessary with him.

I paused my thinking for a second. What the hell was I doing anymore? Just two months ago, none of this would have made any sense.

The talisman was probably my best shot at a decent future without my parents' money or school. And even though my parents weren't billionaires by any stretch, they got me through high school more than I ever did.

"Whatever. I don't care what you think about me as long as we get that back. I don't trust anyone who calls themselves Butterfly," he said.

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh, you're not getting the second talisman. Sierra is next in line after me."

"Yeah, and she told you to give it away. I'm helping you get it back, so that puts me ahead of her." He opened up the door to his car.

"That's not how this works. She'll kill me, Dominic. Is that what you want?"

"I wouldn't be that torn up about it, honestly." He climbed into the car. "Just let me move these coffee cups from the seat. I have some class."

"Do you now?" I asked with a smile. I wasn't sure when he decided on that, but I was willing to give him a chance that he would most definitely ruin.

"I'm very classy. I only drink pour-over coffee."

"So you're the jerk who holds up the line at the coffee shop because you need special coffee."

"I'm not a jerk. It tastes way better that way."

"It literally tastes no different." I got into the car after Dominic cleared off the seat. "And you make fun of me for being an entitled rich girl with nothing to offer but a good collarbone."

"I can appreciate the collarbone and hate the personality that's attached to it," he said.

I smiled as he drove off from the Tillamook College campus. I could never turn down a compliment like that. "I guess that's true. Sierra liked you for a while even though you're actually the worst."

"Did she?"

"Oh, don't pretend you didn't know that. She could not have been any more obvious unless she stuck her tongue down your throat."

He chuckled. "But she doesn't anymore?"

I shook my head. "She hates you now."

"Do you gossip about everyone like this?"

"I don't gossip. My mother gossips."

"Gossiping is a hereditary trait, Lindsay. It's not your fault." He paused to check in the rearview mirror. "What do you say about me?"

"Why do you assume that you ever cross my mind?"

"Because that stupid talisman seems to think that you always need me around."

That definitely wasn't the explanation we agreed upon, since the talisman always seemed to do exactly what I didn't want, so I shook my head and mumbled, "Don't be stupid. And I'm not about to talk about this for an hour and a half."

"What?"

I didn't repeat myself. He knew what I said whether he heard it or not.

***

After an hour and forty minutes of Dominic bitching about nearly every song I played, we arrived in Butterfly's shop in Sherwood. It was better than listening to whatever he liked, though. No one liked My Chemical Romance or Metallica or whatever he liked.

He and I headed past the worn-down sign in front and into the shop, and the little bell announced our arrival.

"I'll be with you in a minute," Butterfly called from behind the shelves that she stood back up after the little incident on Saturday.

All the glass had been cleaned up and all the shelves were straightened but noticeably emptier. The real damage was the lost goods, but I could probably help build it back up over time with different items. My metal detector hadn't failed me yet.

"Don't rush, Butterfly. It's only me," I said.

"Hughes?" Butterfly said and poked her head around the corner to find us at the door. She must have already forgotten my first name despite the fact that it was on a bunch of forms she and I filled out just two days prior. "What are you doing here? It's Monday."

"I was just seeing if—" I began, but Butterfly interrupted me and pointed to Dominic.

"And what's he doing here? I told you that this is a negative vibe-free zone."

"I know, and he's sorry that his negative vibes caused me to destroy half your store." I looked over at him. "Right, Dominic?"

He shook his head. "My vibes are so goddamn positive."

How could he say that with a straight face?

I laughed on his behalf. "You can just ignore him and his vibes. We just came because we wanted to know if the good talisman is still here."

Butterfly nodded. "Well, I almost sold it to a dentist for a decent sum, but when he told me why he wanted it, I couldn't sell it to him."

"You're trying to sell it? Why would you do that?" I asked.

"It can't magically poof my store back to the way it was. Talismans are just for protection, usually."

"Are you sure you're using it correctly? I'm pretty sure it's got a lot more magic in it than—"

This time, Dominic interrupted me. "I think we're ignoring the more important question here. What did he want it for?"

"He said that he has too many immigrants as patients and needs something to keep him safe," Butterfly said.

I covered my mouth. "That can't be real."

"Immigrants from where?" Dominic asked.

"Does it matter? It's xenophobic no matter what," Butterfly said.

"Well, yeah, it matters. French people are really annoying."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, so I turned back to Butterfly. "If the talisman is still here, where is it?"

"Look, for obvious reasons, I don't want everyone and their neighbor to know that's here especially after what happened this morning, so I'm only going to offer it to people I know I can trust," she said.

"How much are you asking for it?"

"Three thousand."

My eyes widened. "Oh my god. Three thousand dollars for a piece of metal with a tree on it?"

Then what could I get for my talisman when I knew for sure it could do much more than offer worthless protection?

"It's magic, Hughes. You can't find it just anywhere," Butterfly said.

I sure as hell had no problem finding it anywhere. And if there was more of it to be found on campus, I was probably going to be the one to find it. As far as I knew, no one else heard the same kind of call that convinced them to buy a metal detector instead of paying their dorm payments.

I wasn't sure how it worked or who made it or where it came from, but that information would set me on my way to making money without a degree. And even though I enjoyed anthropology a lot, it would take a lot of school to get to Dr. Reed's point, and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it for that long.

"Can we see it to make sure it's safe? I mean, it used to be Lindsay's, and if there's one defining characteristic about her, it's that she is the most caring person on the planet."

I held in a laugh at the obvious lie.

Butterfly smiled. "That's so sweet. How on earth is she with someone with such negative vibes like you?"

This time, I let out the laugh. "Oh, we're not together, like, at all. It's a miracle he hasn't killed me and thrown my body into a pond."

He nodded. Ass.

"If you want to see it again, it's in the back room where we met on Saturday. You can check it out now if you'd like," she said, and as Dominic and I headed that way, she held out her hand. "No negative vibes. I'm serious."

"I don't think you understand how hard I'm trying to just have neutral vibes right now," Dominic said.

"Try harder."

I laughed.

He put on a smile, and that seemed positive enough for Butterfly, so we headed to the back room. Butterfly had a desk where she kept all of her financial information, I assumed, and at the corner, there was the second talisman. Since she kept it so safe and out of the public's hands, our best bet was to blame its disappearance on the dentist, but that was going to require us both to know the plan.

"So we're blaming this on the dentist, right?" I asked.

"We don't have to. She won't notice," Dominic said.

"So we're just going to take it? Won't she know it's us?" I asked.

"She won't know it's gone. I was looking into some more information the other day since Dr. Reed is just about worthless, and I found a silversmith that took Sierra's drawing of it and replicated it." He dug around in his pocket and held up a medallion that had the same tree design on it. "See?"

I hesitated. "So it's not magic?"

He shook his head.

"How did you get it so fast? That's ridiculous," I said.

"I didn't know there was an actual silver one until a couple of days ago, but this one was already done so I could study it. I tried to tell you and Dr. Reed about it, but you have the focus of a housefly."

"You could have tried harder."

"That's real funny coming from you," he said, but those words didn't matter. With the gold talisman in my pocket and the silver in his hand, for once, the weight of the magic didn't feel like too much. We had everything figured out, and even if he was annoying and thought he was better than me, he was on my team.

I let out a breath and shook my head. "You brilliant bastard."

He wasn't too much taller than me, maybe three or four inches, and the same feeling that bought the metal detector for me possessed my entire being again; I stood up on my tiptoes and kissed him. Everything that had happened—the heart attack, shattering an entire store, and taking back what was ours—it all was in my head and my heart, but this time, it was only happening to me and him, and it was good. So, so good.

What the hell, Lindsay?

As an alarm went off in my head, Dominic didn't push me away like I thought he would. Instead, his hand found its way to my waist, and he kissed me back like he had the exact same memories in his mind.

I paused for a moment to look at him from closer than we had ever stood before, and he did the same to me as the butterflies settled down in my stomach. His dark eyes didn't look irritated, which would have been unsettling if I didn't feel so close to him. Where the hell did that come from? And why did I almost like it?

"Should we go?" I asked.

He nodded.

"And should we just pretend this never happened?"

He nodded again.

At least we were on the same page.

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Hello everyone! Thank you so much for reading!

First of all, I would like to congratulate myself on breaking my record of "the longest I have ever gone before I first make two main characters kiss" by one chapter. This is obviously a very big accomplishment for me, and I'm glad you got to witness it.

So what do you think? What's going on with Lindsay and Dominic?