Read Online Wish by Alexandra Bullen - Free Book Online Page B

dry, fraying ends. She kept her eyes on the sidewalk below. The sun was just coming up, and a few hard-core bikers were already zipping across the pavement. If she looked back at her sister, Olivia knew she’d start crying, or laughing, or both, and that wouldn’t get them anywhere.
    Violet cleared her throat. “Um, Olivia,” she began slowly, “what butterfly?”
    Olivia rolled her eyes. It was bad enough she had to see it, but saying it out loud was like pouring a box of salt over a bloody, open wound. “There was this butterfly,” she said heavily. “I guess it was like a tag, or something, sewn into my dress—”
    “What dress?”
    “The dress the girl in the Mission made me,” Olivia explained. “After I took yours in to have it fixed.”
    Violet just stared at her. “Okay, so what happened to the butterfly?”
    Olivia threw up her hands. “I told you!” she huffed. “It flew away. Into the night. Bye-bye, butterfly. Hello, sister-ghost.”
    Violet didn’t waste any time with dramatic pauses, immediately erupting into a fit of hysterical laughter, kicking her bare feet against the iron balcony, her long, bright curls shaking out around her face.
    “Stop it!” Olivia commanded. “This isn’t funny. This is my life , okay? I have no idea what’s going on. You asked me what happened, and that’s what happened. All right?”
    Violet composed herself and looked hard into Olivia’s jumping blue eyes. “All right,” she said. “So then what? The wish, the magical butterfly, and what happens next?”
    Olivia searched the deepest spaces in her memory, trying to come up with something, anything , that could possibly explain even part of what had occurred since then. “And that’s it,” she gave up. “I woke up, and you were here.”
    Violet stared at her for a long moment, her blue eyes squinting and serious. “Okay.” She nodded. “I think we need to talk about this dress.”
    “We’re closed.”
    The tinny chimes were still ringing overhead as Olivia stepped carefully into Mariposa of the Mission.
    “She always says that,” Olivia whispered under her breath to Violet, who was as dumbstruck as Olivia had been that first rainy afternoon, eyes darting from one bald and haphazardly attired mannequin to another.
    During the walk over, Violet had coached Olivia on what to say when they got there, and Olivia had pretended to listen, but she’d been too distracted searching the early-morning faces of everybody they passed. Could they see Violet? Could they hear her? Or did Olivia just look like a lunatic, nodding to herself as she hurried along the sidewalk? After a few sideways glances from a homeless guy pushing a shopping cart, she was pretty sure the latter was the case.
    Inside the shop, Posey was spread out on the couch, her back to Olivia, with a new paperback open in her lap. This one had a tropical theme, with a brawny guy lounging against a palm tree and a busty bikini model straddling his lap in the sand.
    “Hi.” Olivia spoke tentatively.
    “What part of closed was confusing?” Posey closed the book quickly and looked up.
    “Oh.” She started. “It’s you.”
    Olivia nodded.
    Violet’s instructions had been simple: Olivia would explain about the dress. And the butterfly. And, without going into too much detail, she’d suggest that something, well, even stranger had happened overnight. And then they’d wait, for what was sure to be a logical explanation.
    But now that she was here, in the shop—which, the more Olivia looked around, was really just an old, grimy seamstress’s studio—the whole plan sounded a little, well…insane.
    “Hi,” Olivia repeated, exhaling and playing with the tips of her nails. “I was just…I mean, I just came to—” She could feel Violet’s eyes burning into the side of her face. “I mean…I thought I should…pay you!” Olivia spat suddenly. “For the dress! I forgot before, and then I remembered. So here I am!”
    Violet flopped her