Early in the night, Dakota stood outside his older sister Sabrina’s room. His relationship with Elan wasn’t going anywhere, and he’d had enough. The only thing he could think of to steal his heart was a love potion. As the most experienced witch in their litter, Sabrina had been mastering how to brew love potions with their grandmother.

	Without further hesitation, he took a deep breath and barged in. There she was, lying on her bed and browsing social media without a care in the world. At 20 years old, she resembled their mother back when she was in her early twenties. 

	She looked over and smiled at his intrusion. “’Koda! It’s been forever! Did you come to play house? Take your skirt off, husband~.” She said and sat upright. Her sultry face revealed her intentions to him like a giant flashing sign.

	“Ugh, no, you creep! I’m here for ‘the thing.’” He said. Asking her was the last thing he wanted to do, but he couldn’t risk screwing up the potion in addition to his plan. If failure was an option, he’d rather take a shot at brewing his own… At the risk of poisoning himself or blowing up his room.

	She looked at him awkwardly. “Oh, um. Look, I think it’s, like, totally awesome that you like boys, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to share my toys with you.” She said. His face was burning up from embarrassment. “You, like, steal money from peeps, right? Go buy your own.” She said.

	Ditzy girls like her would never get the point unless it was shouted at them. “No, you idiot! I’m here for a love potion. Mom said Grammy’s been teaching you how all week.” He said. 
	Her expression turned into a heartfelt one. (“Aw, that’s so cute! The little perv’s all grown up.”) She thought. The boy he had a crush on must’ve been his classmate, Elan. She’d never met him personally, but she heard a lot of interesting things about him from her younger sister, Emma.

Sabrina stood up from her bed and walked over to a black wooden cabinet next to her desk. He could hear the clinking of glass bottles as she searched around. “Here we go!” She said. She walked over to him and handed over a small bottle filled with an unknown pink liquid. Whatever it was, the liquid inside pulsed eerily with life. 

	He reached for the potion, but she pulled her hand back at the last second. “But you need to be super careful.” She said. For once, she had a stern expression on her face. A rarity for someone carefree like Sabrina.

	He snatched the potion out of her hand and hid it behind his back. “And why’s that?” He asked. If worse came to worse, there’s no way it could poison anyone. Hopefully. Though, thinking of the possible repercussions made him slightly worried. 

	Her eyes widened in horror. “You need to be at, like, max hearts with the other person, or you’ll get the BAD END! Like, OMG!” She said and put her hands on her cheeks and silently screamed. 

	She was clearly hamming it up and trying to scare him. But he had to know the real dangers of it. “Stop screwing around. What’ll really happen if it doesn’t work?” He asked. He held up the bottle and examined its contents again, a little anxious.

	Sabrina plucked the bottle out of his hand again and examined it as well. The pink liquid sloshed around inside and pulsed faster as she rotated it. “Hm, well…” She began to talk, deep in thought. 

“I wasn’t really paying attention, but Grammy said something about the other person’s soul rejecting you, or something. Like, they’ll know deep down you’re trying to screw with their heart. And then they’ll, like, totally push you to the ground and strangle you to death! Dun dun dun!” She said and gave him a noogie. 

	After a moment, she let him go and handed the bottle back. “Well, at least that’s what I think’ll happen. If you aren’t compatible, he’ll hate you. End of story.” She said.

That bit of knowledge made him more nervous. His relationship with Elan hadn’t been the healthiest it could’ve been. In all of their encounters, he usually bullied or teased his meek friend. Even though he didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. He just had a hard time expressing his unrequited love for him. 

	Using this love potion would be a hail Mary. If the two didn’t have any compatibility like she said, Elan would never speak to him again. Or at the very least, he’d turn berserk and strangle him to death if her lie was true. That’d be a better ending for him than living without Elan.

	While he was staring at the potion, deep in thought, he felt Sabrina rub his shoulders sensually. “C’mon, husband. Let’s play house~. Take your skirt off.” She whispered into his right ear. Her warm breath made every follicle on his body stand on end.

	He ducked away from her and ran out of her room, potion secure in hand. From a distance he could hear her yelling at him. “This is why I only play house with Emma! You suck, Dakota!” 

	He didn’t expect to hear that revelation. (“What the hell? She does that stuff with Emma? Gross.”) He thought. The only one he’d ever play “house” with was Elan.

Tomorrow was Friday. It was now or never, or Elan would be busy with his group of friends all weekend long. Picturing everyone’s faces next to his pissed him off. (“I can’t stand them. Always playing with him. What do they have that I don’t?”) He wondered. As he listed off each boy’s characteristics in his head, he felt more and more guilty. They all had two things in common: they were nice to Elan, and they were nice to each other.

	Once again, he looked at the potion in hand. Even to him, doing something like this felt a little wrong. It wasn’t brainwashing, but in a way, it went against free will by altering fate. He held the warm bottle in his hand tighter. (“I just want him to feel the way I do about him. If it doesn’t work, and he hates me, I deserve it, I guess.”) He thought. (“I love you, Elan.”)

The next day, Elan’s classes today were uneventful and quiet. Something, or rather, someone was missing from every class today. Besides a couple of sick students, the only person missing was Dakota. Elan hadn’t heard anything about him being sick. Of course, it wasn’t unheard of for him to ditch classes at his own leisure. He hoped nothing bad happened to him.

	As he waited for the last three minutes of class to tick away before lunchtime, he saw a message on his phone pop up. “Go to the roof.” —Dakota. He sighed a breath of relief. Dakota was perfectly fine and just up to his usual shenanigans. Though, a request like this and ditching every class was out of character for him. At last, the bell rung loudly and he was free to go meet him on the school’s roof.

	Rarely anyone went up to the roof, besides Dakota, thanks to the doors being locked 24/7. Elan figured that he had access thanks to the roof key he duplicated a long time ago. One time, he went snooping through his purse and saw a keyring full of school keys that he’d created by hand. In addition to his own house keys that Dakota duplicated.

The starewell door at the top of the stairs was coming into sight. It opened and shut gently in the breeze. He opened the door and saw a hooded figure in the distance. He called out to them. “Dakota? I’m here.” There was no response, whether they’d heard him or not. He closed the distance and saw they were clenching their arms tightly, seemingly anxious.

	“Um, Dakota? What’s wrong?” He asked. He put his hand on their shoulder and felt them shake it off. “Don’t touch me.” Dakota said. Now Elan was really worried. Did something happen to him? He wasn’t sure how he could comfort someone like him. Dakota had always been the emotionally tougher of the two.

	He walked around to face him. To his own relief, he wasn’t crying, but rather, blushing. “Sorry. What’s the matter?” He asked. Dakota looked away blushing more than before and clenched his arms tighter. Whatever was happening, he refused to make eye contact with him.

	“I can’t stand you.” Dakota finally spoke. Those words cut him deeply. He never expected a boy he’d been friends with for a long time to utter such words. Did he always hate him? Maybe he misread their relationship since day one and kept bothering him.

Elan, himself, felt like crying a little. He kept it together as best he could and sniffled softly. “Sorry…” He apologized. If Dakota called him up to the roof alone, this must’ve been his way of ending things with him. He didn’t know what he’d do without him. Dakota may have been rough around the edges, but he always kept things interesting with his spicy personality and love of mischief.

	Dakota finally looked at him in the eyes. “I mean, I can’t stand the way you are.” He said. “The way you act around them. The way you are around that fleabag. I hate it.” He said. Elan could hear a painful jealousy in his voice. Maybe he neglected to spend time with him while he was hanging around the other boys. No, that couldn’t be the root of the problem. The way he referred to Ethan as a fleabag felt like that was the real reason. Was he jealous of his relationship with Ethan?

	“I’m sorry you feel that way. But I like Ethan.” Elan said. He was the one to look away this time. Ethan had always meant a lot to him. Having to choose between his love and a longtime friend pained him deeply and made his stomach turn.

	With that statement, a torrent of emotions shot out of Dakota. “Yeah, well what about me!?” He shouted. “Don’t I matter to you!?” Tears were welling up in his eyes, and dripping down his face. He started to hyperventilate while sobbing. “I-I’ve always loved you, and you never cared! You’re always with HIM! What the fuck, man!?” He sobbed uncontrollably. 

	Elan never knew he harbored such a strong love for him. He always thought that Dakota saw him as an extra in his life. Someone that could be easily brushed to the side. The only thing he could do was be there for him. He pulled him in for a hug and let him sob into his shoulder. “There, there…” He consoled him. This was an odd feeling for him. He’d cried plenty of times, and it was always Dakota that calmed him down.

(“Dakota…”) Elan thought to himself. Memories of their time together played in his mind. The time he was almost beaten up by a bully, before Dakota swooped in and defended him. Dakota hated crying people, but he stood there and let him cry into his shoulder.

	Then there was the time they went trick or treating together with Ethan. He’d never seen Dakota so happy before. Surprisingly, Dakota and Ethan got along well enough. Even though Ethan didn’t approve of him pickpocketing strangers and TP’ing houses.

	When his dog, Cloud, went missing, he cried endlessly. He remembered that the only one of his friends that wasn’t there to console him was Dakota. Because he was busy searching every street within a few blocks until he found him sniffing around someone’s yard late at night. Elan had never hugged someone so tightly before that day.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you felt this way.” Elan said. Dakota stopped crying and looked into his eyes for a brief second. Without hesitation, he pulled him by his collar in for a kiss. 

	Dakota’s tongue entered his mouth and he could taste it. It gave off an oddly numbing sensation and it had a sweet taste. His first instinct would’ve been to push him off, but he didn’t want the nostalgic feeling it gave off to go away.

	The more they kissed, the more he felt whole with him. This feeling of being complete made him rethink things. Maybe Ethan wasn’t his soulmate after all. The fire in his heart that he had for him had turned into dying embers. It was probably all just a common childhood crush. That made the most sense to him.

	After Dakota parted ways, he had a hard time keeping his eyes off him. His furrowed brows, his curly orange hair, and the little stripes on his left cheek. He never noticed how cute they were before. Now that he thought about it, his cute girl’s school uniform also suited him well. Had he always been this attractive to him before? He needed to keep his arousal in check. Anyone could interrupt them.

“Hey. What are you looking at, huh? Stop it. It’s embarrassing…” Dakota said. Now that Elan’s full attention was on him, he couldn’t help but feel shy. Thinking about having Elan all to himself now made his heart flutter. There was also room for doubt. Elan was probably just reacting oddly to his confession. There was a possibility that the potion didn’t work.

	“Sorry…” Elan apologized. “Do you want to sleep over at my house tonight?” He asked. Dakota probably wouldn’t accept his invitation, but it was worth a shot.

	Dakota’s eyes widened. Elan was … inviting him to sleepover for once? He needed to test the waters, just in case. “What? I thought you were going to hang out with your lame friends all weekend. Or did you forget that?” He asked.

	Elan didn’t appreciate the way he referred to his friends, but he kept that to himself. “Well, I can always do that next weekend. I just want to spend time with you. I hope you don’t mind.” He said. He looked away shyly and blushed.

	Whether the potion had worked or not was up for testing. But the way Elan saw him had clearly changed, and that was good enough for him. Dakota smirked and looked at him with bedroom eyes. “Heh, sure. I can think of some fun things we can do tonight.” He said. He grabbed Elan’s ass. The things he had planned for him tonight would take him a weekend to recover from.