Allie Williams is a typical 21 year old college senior. She’s thin and pretty with long straight strawberry blond hair working at Starbucks and is constantly balancing her social life, school, work, and fitness, all while the fall semester rockets towards finals. She has hardly been more stressed in her young life. And yet, her young life is about to be changed in a way that she would never have expected. Allie is about to have her first experience with magic. Of course, she hasn’t the faintest clue that magic actually exists, so she's in for a very confusing and confounding experience.
***
Allie tied her apron on as she walked towards the back door of Starbucks in the dry and crisp December air. She sighed, finals week was right around the corner. A week of grinding, oscillating between work and school. The stakes were high as Allie wanted nothing more than to graduate in five months and begin her career in sports medicine. But as she trudged towards the back door of her workplace, she just wanted to be in her bed and nowhere near work at all but of course she needed the money, and that gym membership wasn’t gonna pay itself.
She walked in and took a seat in one of the chairs of the tiny break room that they were fortunate enough to have, five minutes before her shift began. Allie began checking her phone when she heard the all-too familiar voice of her best friend and roommate, Haley. Her super long brunette hair hung down all over her tall, curvy body. She'd always been jealous of how Haley's features popped compared to Allie's chronic skinniness.
“Oh there you are!”
"Oh hey.”
“'Oh hey' What’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t wanna be here.” Whined Allie, putting her phone down on her leg.
“None of us do. Also, you’re five minutes late.”
“What?” Allie checked her phone. Then she remembered it was still ten minutes off. “Shit.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Haley adjusted her glasses.
She put her hat on her head and dragged herself out to the front, where the morning barista Tasha was making a latte.
“Oh look, it's you.” Tasha teased after giving the customer his drink.
“Oh hey, sorry I’m late.” Allie said.
“Haha it’s fine. I could use the extra money anyways.” Said Tasha.
“What, the extra 50 cents?” Allie jibed.
“Yeah! Fifty cents can go a long way.” Tasha untied her apron and clocked out, prompting Allie to clock in as she’d forgotten to do so.
“That kid’s here again by the way.” Said Tasha.
“Who?” Allie turned to her.
“I just gave him his latte, he's sitting over there.” Tasha nodded towards the booths situated to the right of the counter. Allie saw a tall, skinny guy with glasses and curly hair, wearing a leather jacket, sitting down in front of his laptop alone wearing big gaming headphones. She recognized him as a regular. He was kind of cute but not her type.
“Yeah, so?” She turned back to Tasha.
“He’s weird but kind of cool.” She told her. “The other day he was in here and I swear I saw him like- hold up his hand and one of the sugar packets just flew right to him. Like he was summoning it or something."
Allie looked at her funny. “Right- Tash, how much sleep have you been getting lately?”
“More than you.” Allie couldn’t argue with that.
“Well that’s very- interesting.” Said Allie before getting a surprise hug by Haley from the back.
“Yay! We get to work together!” Haley squealed.
“I’ll leave you two to it then. I gotta go home and walk my dogs.” Said Tasha before heading to the back.
“Bye, Tash.” Allie waved as Haley still hugged her. “Hales, we work together every day.”
“Nuh-uh.” She finally released her.
"This is the first time we've worked together in like- a week."
Allie leaned against the counter and sighed. She loved Haley to death but couldn’t get over the fact that they were probably around one another a little too much. They were kind of best friends after all, and they shared a duplex with two other girls.
Haley chuckled and began cleaning off the steam wand on the espresso machine. “So how do you feel about finals?” She asked Allie.
“I don’t even wanna think about those.”
“I’m probs gonna fail Political Science.” Haley said nonchalantly.
“Isn’t that like, a big deal?”
“I’ll just take it again in the spring.”
“If there’s room.”
“Sure there is. And if not, I’ll just graduate in August.” Haley shrugged.
“Hales, we’re supposed to graduate together."
“But why? It’s just a dumb ceremony.”
Allie rolled her eyes. “Well I’m getting out of here as soon as I can, I don’t care how much sleep I lose.”
A customer walked in. Allie groaned as she had grown sick of the routine with this job: ring them up, cash them out, make the drink. It was a never ending cycle of monotony that she knew all the ins and outs of. She had considered a promotion but figured that would only add to her stress despite the pay raise.
Another few customers came through. Boring. Routine. Meh. While Haley finished up the last drink of the round she said to Allie-
“That guy over there is looking at me I think.”
Allie looked over at the guy on his laptop.
“The one Tasha was talking about?” Allie said, wiping down the counter.
“Yeah.”
Allie looked over towards him. Soon, their eyesights met and they exchanged a pair of passive grins. Then something weird happened. Allie looked away towards the other part of the shop and when she looked back there he was, standing in front of the counter. She was startled to say the least.
“Oh shit.” She put a hand to her chest.
“Oh, sorry about that.” He said.
“No, I'm sorry. I was lost in my head I guess.” Allie chuckled.
“I do that a lot too. So uh, do you like magic?”
“Magic?” Perhaps Tasha was onto something earlier. “Uh, sure.” She shrugged.
“Sweet. Hand be a cup of coffee beans.” He requested. Allie gave him an espresso shot cup of beans from the machine.
“Now, you’ve got this expensive, fancy machine here that turns these into liquid, yeah?”
“Umm, yes.” Allie chuckled, wondering where he was going with this.
“Well, you could save yourself a bit of money. Watch this.” He poured the beans into his hand, closed it, then he set the cup down. Holding his hand sideways over the cup, liquid espresso poured out of his hand and into it.
Allie couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Okay, how did you do that?” She folded her arms.
“Magic of course.”
“Mmm-hmm. Where are the beans?”
He held out his empty hands, then he rolled up the sleeves on his jacket.
“Not here, they’re in the cup. Liquidized.”
Allie picked up the cup and observed it. It was hot, and it sure did smell like espresso.
“This didn’t burn your hand?”
“No. I mean, it’s hot because it’s an authentic expresso shot.”
“Espresso. With an s.” Allie corrected him.
“Whatever. Coffee words. Hi, I’m Josh.” He extended his espresso-processing hand.
“Allie.” She shook it.
“Nice to meet you.”
“So, Josh. Are you gonna tell me how you did it?”
“Did what?” He drank the shot.
“Turned the beans into coffee.”
“Magic, I said.” Josh grimaced as he put the cup down. “God I hate coffee. The only thing I get here is a chai latte.”
“Uh huh, well I could ask my boss if we’re hiring someone to replace our espresso machine.” Allie told him. Josh chuckled and shook his head.
“I'm flattered, but I don't think I've worked out to steam milk with my hands yet."
Allie giggled before noticing that Haley was assisting a couple customers and might need help but she was too intrigued by what Josh was doing. He was somewhat mysterious, and that was something Allie found attractive. Even if he didn’t seem like her type.
“So you go to UST right?” She asked him.
“Yeah, sophomore. You?”
“Senior.” She gave a little mock celebration and rolled her eyes. “Finals week is already killing me though. I don’t suppose you can work some magic that’ll alleviate my stress?”
“Hmm, I maybe could. But I can’t guarantee it.”
“Give it your best shot.” Allie told him.
“Miss, are you asking me to do a magic trick on you?”
Allie hesitated, taken aback by his formal wording. It was cute. “Yes.” She didn’t know how this was about to end up.
“Okay uh, alleviate stress. Let’s see, here-“
Then everything went black. Not even black, just… all of Allie's senses ceased to exist. Well, she knew she was still standing behind the counter but something was missing- it wasn’t that she couldn’t breathe. It was just that she didn’t need to. She couldn’t feel her mouth, nose, eyes, or ears. Reaching up, Allie found nothing but smooth, featureless skin covering her head where her face should’ve been. It would’ve been scary, but it was just blissful. Feeling her blank head for a few moments, everything suddenly came rushing back as she could see, hear, smell, and taste again.
“Sorry, you looked like you were really immersed.” Said Josh. “But if I leave you without a face, I might get in trouble.”
“Uh- wha- how? Was that- was that real?” Allie asked, completely flabbergasted.
“It was.” Josh nodded.
“Hey Al, a little help?” Haley called, there were now five people at the counter and she was making all their drinks.
“Sorry I gotta-“ Allie turned back to see that Josh was gone, and had sat back down on his laptop.
Numbly she walked over and began helping Haley by making a couple Frappuccinos. Pouring the ingredients into the blenders, she couldn't figure out how to process what had just happened to her- her face was actually gone. There was no way that could’ve been a trick, she’d felt her head and there was no nose, eyes, mouth, or anything beyond a smooth blank canvas of skin. Allie was so distracted that she almost messed up the drinks.
“Hey, that’s the wrong drizzle.” Haley jabbed.
“O-oh yeah.” She set it down and corrected her error. Haley took the drinks and gave them to the customers. Allie just stared into space.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Haley asked her.
“Tasha was right. Th-that kid over there, the one I was talking to. He- he can do magic.”
“What?”
“He turned coffee beans into espresso. A-and he made my face disappear!” It was so crazy saying these things out loud, but also relieving to tell someone.
“Allie, you need to get more sleep. You're starting to see shit."
“No I'm not!” She laughed almost hysterically. “Here- I’ll show you!”
Grabbing her by the hand, Allie dragged Haley over to the table that Josh was sitting at.
“Hey um, Josh-“ she hesitated. “My friend Haley wants to see you do a magic trick.”
Josh looked up at the girls and raised his eyebrows, taking off his headphones. “Oh sorry, what’s up?”
“She says you can do ‘magic’.” Haley made air quotes and put a hand on her hip.
“Oh yeah. Uh- can I borrow your phone real quick?”
“What?” Haley said.
“Your phone. You have it right?”
Haley rolled her eyes and reached for her back pocket, only to find no phone.
“Hey- what the fuck? Where’s my phone?”
Allie watched intently. “Oh sorry-“
Josh stood up and reached to the left of Haley’s head, and from nowhere he pulled out her phone. Haley jumped back, and saw Josh holding what was inexplicably her phone, it had the same Riverdale themed case and cracked screen. Allie was in awe.
“Hold up- did you like take my phone? Was it in your sleeve?” Haley asked.
“No, it was behind your ear. I just got it out. You really shouldn’t misplace your phone like that.” Josh told her.
Allie slapped her on the arm and cocked her head giving her an ‘I told you so’ look. Rolling her eyes, Haley shook her head.
“Whatever. What did you need my phone for?”
“Because, I wanted to give you ladies an invite-“ Josh pressed Haley’s phone between his hands and somehow turned it into a paper card, which he handed to the girls.
“W-where’s my phone?” Haley asked. “In your pocket of course.” Said Josh.
“Wha-“ she reached back and sure enough there it was, in her back pocket where it should’ve been. “What the fuuuuuck?” Haley laughed uncomfortably. "This is fucking weird." She said through gritted teeth.
Allie, still amused, picked up the card from the table.
The UST Sorcery Society Presents: Enter A World of Magic!
Featuring Sorcerer-In-Training Joshua Sullivan
Admission is Free but Space is Limited. First Come First Serve. Must Be 18 To Enter
Main Hall, Ashby Rexall Building
Saturday Dec. 7 @ 6-9 PM
“Whoa, so like- you do shows?” Allie asked.
“More like a presentation. It’s gonna be my first one, since I was chosen as the number one rookie in the Sorcery Society.” He explained.
“There’s a… Sorcery Society?” Haley asked. “How come I’ve never heard of it before?”
Josh shrugged. “You never looked. Also you have more customers.”
“Oh shit.” Haley hurried back over to the counter. Allie saw her manager Dan over there too, so the girls were probably in for a brief chewing out for being away from their station.
“Umm, thanks.”
“You’re welcome. I hope you come to the show tomorrow.”
The girls returned to their station and Allie stuffed the card into her back pocket behind her phone.
Allie had second thoughts to herself about this magic thing. She was still bewildered, amazed, even a bit freaked out. She was still coming to terms with the fact that she didn't have a face for a few seconds. Where did it go? How was it even possible? How did Josh make it disappear?
Allie thought about asking him, but he left soon after and the shift went on as normal. Until Allie took her break, she sat in the tiny break room with a latte as usual and pulled out her phone to peruse social media and text her friends. She stumbled upon the card from Josh still in her pocket and looked at it for a second. She wasn't really planning on going to this magic show or whatever it was, not only because she was busy but also because the whole magic thing was just weird. Plus Haley didn't seem to phased by it and there was probably no convincing her to be interested in it. Sure Allie wanted to know more about it but it wasn't exactly top priority.
Sticking the card into her purse, Allie noticed some notes jotted on the back. They spelled out some words that she didn't understand, perhaps in Latin. Allie just shook her head, sat down and enjoyed her break. Not having the faintest clue that her worldview was about to change forever, even more than it already had.