A Platonic Friend With A Crush On Her

Holly sat on the step outside her apartment, waiting for her friend Paul to arrive, feeling like a total hypocrite.

She had been incredibly vocal in her opposition of Maisie's plan to attempt to beat the curse by revealing it to a trusted platonic friend and hoping they didn't take advantage of it. Now she was about to do the same thing. But now her sister had brought the curse out into the open her hand had been ****, and the platonic friend route was probably the least bad option for her.

"Hey Holly, great to see you!" Paul, a mild mannered, everyman looking kind of guy smiled as she stood up and hugged him, before they sat down together "What's up? It sounds serious?"

Holly hadn't actually known Paul for all that long in comparison to Maisie and her friend. Maybe five years? They had met at Uni, where they had become great buddies and remained in close contact ever since. He had told her was in love with her once, when he was drunk, but that was quite a while back and she felt sure he was past his crush on her by now. He had a girlfriend and seemed happy enough in his relationship. She knew she had to tell someone her secret soon if she wanted to have any say in who got control of her, and this was as good a plan as she had.

"It's pretty serious, yeah" Holly nodded "So I am going to tell you something and I need you to listen carefully. It will sound insane but I promise you it is all real. And I am going to need to ask you quite a major favour. Are you okay with this?"

"Sure" Paul nodded, with the look of a man who didn't quite know what he was letting himself in for but was curious to find out.

"Paul, say something!" Holly encouraged her friend anxiously, her hair now back to it's usual colour having briefly been bright orange.

He was just sitting there, staring at her open mouthed, with an intense expression that could have been read as anything from fear to bewilderment. She needed to know he was going to be cool about this and that she hadn't just made a life ruining error of judgement.

"I know this feels like a huge thing, but it doesn't have to be" Holly urged her friend "When you think about it, all you have to do is nothing! Just forget about the curse, never speak of it again. Forget we even had this conversation and carry on our friendship like normal"

Paul stared at her emotionally, a look of genuine remorse in his eyes for what his response was going to be.

"I'm so sorry Holly. You really shouldn't have told me this" he finally spoke "I just can't do that"