Out Of His League, Into His Power

Joey couldn't figure it out. It wasn't that he was out on a date with Madison Ashford, the hottest girl in school, one who was so far out of his league that the only time she'd ever really noticed him was to humiliate him for being clumsy. It wasn't that his history teacher had changed his failing grade right in front of him, just before she came on to him. It wasn't even that he had suddenly attained some sort of power that somehow was changing the people around him based on what he said.

No, what Joey Granger couldn't figure out was why it had stopped working.

At first he'd gone back and forth as to whether or not what was happening was in his imagination. But after his conversation in the stairwell with Madison, combined with the encounter with his teacher, he was convinced. Something, if not magical, extremely out of the ordinary was happening. What he was saying was changing people's beliefs.

And now he seemed to have lost the ability!

"You don't have to change," he'd said, trying to mitigate the damage he'd done to Madison, but she'd brushed it off.

"You’ve got to be your own person. Don’t lose yourself for anyone. Not even me," Joey tried again, more convincing, this time. Madison wasn't convinced.

"Okay then, maybe you could act like you, like you used to. For me, I mean. Could you just act like you used to? Go back to your old life?" Joey attempted to use her newfound affection to his advantage, to get her back to normal. She would have none of it.

And so there he was, sitting across from the girl he, and half the male population of the school, had secretly lusted after since he learned the definition of the word, drinking a milkshake while she ran her foot up and down his shin under the table. Either his power had abandoned him or he didn't know how to use it. Maybe it was a once-and-done kind of thing. Like, once a person had been changed, there was no changing back. Had he screwed up Madison forever? Would he have to live with the fact that a woman was obsessed with him, giving up her agency in order to be close to him, for the rest of his life?

"You know," Madison's voice brought him out of his reverie, "the problem with my old life was that it was all wrong. I thought I had everything figured out, but what I didn't realize was that I had missed out on the best possible thing for me."

"What do you mean?"

"You, silly!" she reached across the table and took one of Joey's hands in her own, "You and I have been in school together for so long, and I completely missed out on you! I can't believe how stupid, how dumb I've been! And now I can't believe how lucky I am that I get to go out with you, Joey Granger. Going back to my old life would be the worst decision I ever made, especially now that I've realized where my life was wrong, now that you've explained it to me."

"You said that before," Joey realized that she'd talked about him explaining the truth already, "back at the school. Do you remember what exactly I explained to you?"

"Oh, I'll never forget," Madison said, a grin on her face, a faraway look in her eyes, "Right after I'd been such a monster, you took the time to explain that I'd be lucky to have a guy like you, that a guy like you would be the best possible thing for a girl like me, and that I'm just too dumb to have figured it out on my own," she paused, taking a deep and satisfied breath, "I've never felt so free, so liberated by the truth. I've worked so hard my whole life to be the best, striving to reach the top, but now, just as I'm starting out in my adult life, you've saved me from years of waste. So many people throw their whole lives away on bad ideas, bad direction. You, Joey Granger, my Joey Granger, set me on the right path."

"Just by explaining it to you?"

"And I'm not sure if I've properly thanked you," she moved her foot from the outside of his shin and began to slide it up his leg.

Joey pushed his chair back. The last thing he wanted was to have an out-of-control erection in an ice cream parlour! There were kids around!

"Woah," Joey stammered out, his voice in a loud whisper, "Knock it off! We're in public!"

Red flushed in Madison's face, her eyes beginning to tear up. "I'm sorry," she whispered back, "See? That's my old life sneaking back, an old habit. As soon as I did it I knew it was wrong. Your friend Jake had told me to let you take the lead, to not be too be too up front and obvious. He said I'd scare you off," tears began to flow, "I did it, didn't I? I screwed it all up. You were right. I'm so dumb."

Madison's dropped her face into her arms on the table, quietly sobbing. Her dirty blonde hair spread across the table like a silky blanket. When she began to cry, she'd released Joey's hand. Surprisingly, as soon as she did, he felt like he missed the warm smooth skin of her palm.

But that didn't matter. Who cares if he wanted to hold the hand of a pretty girl? What mattered was that he had made that pretty girl cry. Sure, she was under the influence of some sort of mind control, some sort of magical spell, but it was still his fault.

"Madison..." he began.

"If you want, I'll go," she said, still buried in her arms, "Just because a guy like you is the best thing for a girl like me doesn't mean that a girl like me deserves a guy like you."

"You're not dumb..."

"Don't even say that," the valedictorian said, looking up at him with red eyes, "I'm so dumb that I never noticed a guy that I'd be lucky to be with for years! You were right there all along, right in front of me, and stupid me never even noticed until you explained it."

"There are lots of guys..."

"There is only one of you, Joey. One of you," she said with intensity, then, "But I get it. You're in charge. If you need me to leave you alone, I'll do it. It's not your responsibility to take care of me, to give me what I need. I'm just being selfish."

Joey stared at the red-eyed woman across from him, sliding his chair back toward the table. If only it were so. She was exactly his responsibility. Just a hint of rejection, just a hint of a stern word crashed the beautiful Madison Ashford into an emotional trainwreck. What would happen to her if he rejected her outright? Would she even survive that?

Now it was Joey's turn to reach out and take Madison's hand.

He watched as her eyes went wide. Tears still flowed, but this time they weren't in sadness. The joy lighting up her face was the kind of expression Joey would expect to see on the face of a bride after hearing the love of her life say, "I do."

He had done enough damage to Madison. He would find someone else to experiment on, to figure out if his powers still existed, and if they did, how they worked. But with Madison, this gorgeous woman who he had always considered out of his league, he couldn't hurt her any more. She didn't deserve that.

"You're not being selfish," he said softly, "I was being selfish. I'm sorry. And you look cute in the hoodie, go ahead and wear it. Or wear whatever. It's all okay with me."

Madison, to her credit, didn’t unleash the torrent of gratitude Joey feared. She said nothing at all. Instead, before he realized what she was doing, her free hand slid behind his neck. Rising from her seat, she leaned across the table. Her breath, warm and sweet with a hint of vanilla milkshake, ghosted over his lips before her mouth met his. It wasn't a kiss of desperation, the needy kiss that Joey had seen in the school hallways so many times. The kiss was soft, deliberate, and affectionate. But more than that, it was novel.

Joey felt, for the moment, lost in Madison Ashford's lips as she gave him his first kiss.

And what a kiss it was.