Sadie
You’re thinking about HIM again, aren’t you?
I shake myself out of my daydream…
And the school cafeteria comes back into focus.
My best friend, Sadie, stares at me with judging eyes.
Sadie
Come on, Emma, I know that glazed-over look.
Sadie
You just CANNOT stop thinking about Chris.
The sound of his name sends a painful pang through my stomach.
Chris is a boy I met at summer camp last year…
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him.
The problem is, he lives on the other side of the country…
And he now has a serious girlfriend.
Emma
I can’t help the fact that I want someone I can’t have.
Sadie
Do you want to know a secret?
Sadie
I also want somebody I can’t have.
Sadie
I’ll give you a clue.
Sadie
It’s somebody in this cafeteria.
She looks at me with sadness in her eyes.
I glance around, and I know who she must be talking about.
Sitting just a few seats away from us is Hayden Smith…
Captain of the football team and Sadie’s former neighbor.
They were friends growing up…
But he shows no interest in her now that he’s the most popular boy in school.
Emma
Ugh, what are we doing?
Emma
We both want people who don’t want us back.
Emma
There has to be something we can do to get over these crushes.
Sadie
You know what? You’re right.
Sadie suddenly pulls out her phone and taps away at the screen.
Emma
What are you looking at?
Sadie
It says here that the best way to get over someone you can never have…
Sadie
Is to erase all of your memories of them.
Emma
What, with some kind of memory wiping device?
Emma
I’m pretty sure that technology doesn’t exist.
Sadie
No, it’s a spell of some kind.
Sadie holds up her phone for me to see.
It looks like she’s on a witchcraft website.
I take the phone from her and read the text out loud:
Emma
Get a photo of you and your crush together…
Emma
And say the following:
“Erase all that we shared before…”
“So my memory of you exists no more.”
Emma
Then rip the photo into little pieces…
Emma
And dispose of them.
I hand the phone back to Sadie while rolling my eyes.
Sadie
Do you have a photo of you and Chris?
Emma
Wait — you’re not taking that thing SERIOUSLY, are you?
Emma
You think it could actually work?
Sadie stares at me intensely, her expression deadly serious.
Sadie
There’s only one way to find out.
That evening, I pull out a photo of Chris and me from my bedside drawer.
I feel a familiar pang of longing for him.
In the photo, we’re standing around a campfire…
And Chris has his arm around my shoulders.
It’s one of my favorite memories of him. Of us.
What I’m about to do feels wrong on so many levels…
But if it works, I’ll finally be able to move on.
I hold the photo up in front of me…
Then I take a deep breath and say:
Emma
“Erase all that we shared before…”
Emma
“So my memory of you exists no more.”
With tears in my eyes, I tear the photo down the center…
Right through the middle of Chris and me…
Then I tear the photo again and again…
Until it’s scattered across my desk in little pieces.
Before I can regret what I’ve done…
I sweep every last piece into my wastebasket.
Then I wait with bated breath for something to happen.
Hoping for a flash of light, or a magical sound of some kind…
Something to signify that the spell worked.
My memory of Chris is as vivid as ever…
And my favorite photo of him is gone for good.
With a heavy heart, I slump onto my bed…
And fall into a troubled sleep.
When I wake up in the morning, I feel…different.
I feel lighter somehow, as if a huge weight has been lifted from my chest.
I sit up and think about the events of last night.
I remember saying an incantation to get over my crush…
And ripping a photograph up…
But something about it is a little fuzzy.
For some reason, I can’t remember who I was trying to forget.
Walk over to my wastebasket…
And pull out a piece of the photo.
Staring back at me is a boy I’ve never seen before in my life…
And I feel absolutely nothing towards him.
I have to tell Sadie right away.
I quickly throw on my school uniform…
When I reach the school gates, I see Sadie entering the yard.
She has a spring in her step…
And her face is beaming with happiness…
Which can only mean one thing:
She also performed the incantation…
And it worked for her, too!
I run to catch up to her.
When I reach her, she turns and gives me a radiant smile.
Emma
Can you believe it?!
Emma
The incantation actually worked!
Emma
Look at how happy we both are!
Emma
We can finally move on with our lives!
Sadie cocks her head to one side slightly…
Her smile falters a little…
As she focuses on my face…
Sadie
I’m really sorry, but…
