Happy Birthday!

Ever since I remember I always loved stories with a happy ending. I loved fairytales, where the loving couple lived happily ever after in the end. First, I was obsessed with “Prince Charming”, always falling in love with the heroin at the first sight, and saving her with a kiss of true love.... As I got older I found more romantic types of love in all the manga and webtoon comics, but there was always some amazing hero type that won over the female lead's heart. When I became a teenager, I changed my target into a more “mature” one… That was the first time that I read about an incredibly handsome, cold, and calculative CEO.

I quickly got addicted to those kind of stories. I literally read every comic and watched every drama, and movie where there was a powerful, tough, and often cruel, handsome guy wearing an expensive suit. I even stopped caring about the romance, because the male character completely kept devouring my attention. I kept dreaming of meeting that type of man, hoping to act more decisive, intelligent, and mature in front of him than some dumb webtoon heroin.

Of course… my life was far different from all the stories I read and watched. First of all, my loving Mother gave me a very special name – Kassandra, exactly like the one from mythology, a prophet who could foresee every kind of disaster, yet no one believed her. Thanks Mom! On the other hand, maybe I should be grateful, that she didn't named me Pandora…

Unlike my name, my looks was far less interesting. I was never a school beauty, or that one cute girl that everyone likes. My chances that some handsome CEO would pop out and fall in love with me at the first sight were close to none…

Moreover, my precious Grandma who raised me after my parents died in accident, was considered a freak selling herbs and love spells. But I didn't even know how unordinary my life was about to become until my sixteenth birthday…

“Happy Birthday… You're a Witch!” my Grandma called out merrily.

That was how she decided to announce the truth about our family that she was hiding from me up until that moment.

“W… what?!” I shouted, choking on my birthday cake.

My quite peaceful and normal life ended the second my Grandma dropped that bomb on me without a warming.

“Every female in our family becomes a witch when she reaches sixteen. Now, you can cast your own love spell, and your power will only grow with every year,” she explained, casually.

“Love spells?! Does it mean that what you've been doing all your life… was real?! The herbs, candles, potions, spells… that is all real?!” I screamed frantically.

“Yes… From now on, your wishes and words might become real… So, be careful what you wish for, literally,” she grinned, wickedly.

“How do I get rid of it?” I asked, forcing myself to regain composure, and find some rational way out of that nonsense.

“Well… you can't, that is our blessing… and a curse,” Grandma chuckled.

“What do you mean a blessing and a curse?!” I was in absolute state of panic.

“Witches in our family have an ability bind the man they choose with a kiss. The first person that you kiss having a strong feeling will forever become your true love. Isn't that wonderful? It happened to your Grandpa and me, your mother and father, and now you… Just be careful who will receive your first kiss, since you will not get rid of him for the rest of your life!” Grandma burst out laughing.

She called it a wonderful thing… I treated all that magic and the kissing spell like a curse, and decided never to kiss in my entire life! Of course… my “never” period ended when I was studying at the University and fell in love with a “real person” for the first time, manga and webtoon characters didn't count.

He wasn't a CEO… at least not yet. His name was Nick. He studied economics while I studied scriptwriting at the same University. He was handsome, ambitious, and self-confident. It wasn't clearly love at a first sight, but ended up loving each other and planning our future life together. Our first kiss happened on my 21st birthday.

“I love you, Kass!” he called, right after I blew all the candles and our lips touched as a sign of the beginning of our “happy ever after”, or that was how I thought…

On the day of my 25th birthday a miracle happened… I got my first job as a scriptwriter! I was supposed to be an assistant scriptwriter for the TVM station's hit drama “The CEO's Only Weakness”, it was like my dream had finally came true!

Right after I got the news I rushed to the apartment that Nick and I rented together. We were going to celebrate my birthday in the evening, but I couldn't wait to tell him the good news. I opened the door wide, and ran inside the house ecstatic.

“Nick! You are not going to believe what happened!” I shouted with a huge grin on my face… and then froze.

My boyfriend, the one that supposed to be my “one and only”, was lying in our bed with another woman…

“Kass…” my boyfriend, smiled nervously, “You told me, you will come later…”

I stayed silent trying to comprehend the situation, and restrain myself from crying.

“Honey… Didn't you tell her about us? Didn't you tell her to move out from your apartment in few days?” the woman chuckled, putting her slender arms around Nick.

He smiled at her awkwardly without saying a word, then turned my way.

I was absolutely stunned. I wrote in my scripts about a cliché situations like this one. Yet, I had never thought that this kind of thing would ever happen to me! I closed my eyes shut and opened them again, just to check if I didn't fall asleep and entered some nightmare. The disgusting view didn't disappear, so I decided to follow the script.

“Who are you?” I asked the woman who was still hugging MY Nick.

“I'm Jessica, Nick's fiancé,” she smiled confidently, pulled out her golden-blond hair, and reached out her hand towards me.

There was a beautiful ring on her finger. My head started to spin, I didn't like that scene at all. Nick got up from the bed, covering himself with his pants.

“Kass… I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know how… You were so happy, I didn't wanted to spoil that happiness by telling you, that I'm getting married,” he laughed feverishly.

“What kind of shitty line is that?!” I shouted.

Jessica giggled lying in our sheets, Nick walked my way, hoping to cool me down, and I felt my anger raising with every second. I was at the verge of exploding, but I took a deep breath and decided to change those idiotic script lines.

“First of all, lady-whatever-you-name-is, let me get things straight, ” I pointed at the blond, “You are inside the apartment for which I am paying for. The person next to you didn't pay for the rent for the last six months, claiming that he was saving the money for his carrier development… Now, I can see, that money landed on your finger. The contract with the landlord is also on my name, and makes me the only one who has the right to say anything in this place, and I don't want you here. Now, get up, leave, and I suggest you do it fast, before I call the police, and press charges against you for trespassing!” I presented my speech perfectly, on one breath.

I think, she got mad at me for saying that, because she started hurriedly dressing up, glaring at me, and showing her discontent. I smirked wickedly. Nick stood in disbelieve, gazing at me and silently observing his wife-to-be leaving.

“Kass.. you…” Nick tried to say something, but I didn't want to hear his voice.

“As for you… honey, I give you 15 minutes to pack your things and leave as well, forever that is. You can move to your precious fiancé's house. I will also give you a month to give me the money for the rent back. That will be 5 000$ in total. Because I'm generous, I will not charge you for the food you ate that I paid myself,” I continued, trying to keep my composure.

“Kass, you are being unreasonable!” Nick shouted, “I didn't know you could be that vicious!”

“God… the words you are saying are so predictable… Did you memorized it from some B-class drama, or something?” I chuckled, and checked the time, “Now you have thirteen minutes. You'd better hurry up.”

I bet he kept cursing me while packing all his clothes, but fortunately he was too weak to argue with me. That prevented me from seeing him longer, I couldn't stand the sight of him, my frustration grew inside me. He finally left glaring at me and hissing that I would regret treating him the way I did… Well, I regrated. I regrated kissing him, falling in love with him… but I allowed myself to lose composure only after he was gone.

I started crying desperately. The man who just walked out of my life was the one whom I gave all my firsts… He was the first to have my love, my kiss… my body. I felt so pitiful I had to talk about it with someone, but a person raised by a “freak”, which was how everyone viewed my Grandma, I was also considered a freak. I had no one I could call a friend…

Everything inside the apartment smelled like Nick. I couldn't stand it. I had thrown away every piece of bed sheets, just in case Jessica and Nick had done something I witnessed few more times before. I wished I could be somewhere else, I wished I could be with my Grandma, the only person in the world who understood me…

I ran out of the apartment and kept running, and crying, although I couldn't even tell where I was running to. Suddenly, I found myself right outside my Grandma's home. I wanted to knock on the door, but somehow she knew I was outside. She opened the door before I could do anything, and hugged me.

“G…grandma!” I burst out in tears, “The kissing spell… it didn't work! He… cheated on me… and we were supposed to be together!” I shouted, crying.

“That is impossible, Kassi… Let's go inside… before we'll give our neighbors a new subject to talk about,” she smiled, and led me inside.

I told Grandma everything about Nick, about the beginning of our sweet love, and the exact date of our first kiss.

“Something must have been wrong about that kiss…” Grandma kept wondering, “Did he had feelings for you then?”

“I guess so… he confessed seconds before, and I'm almost sure that it were his true feelings…” I answered, confused.

“Are you sure you didn't kiss anyone before him?” she kept asking, persistently.

“I am positive! How could I kiss someone just like that?!” I convinced Grandma.

“Maybe… it was something you didn't exactly called a kiss…” she continued considering different possibilities, “How about some other situation when you touched somebody's lips?”

“For real?! Grandma that is absurd, how could I…” I stopped and froze.

I remembered a situation from the day I turn twelve. I was on my way to home, from school. I walked by the pond and saw some boys throwing another one into the pond. The boy screamed that he couldn't swim. I had always been a good swimmer. Instinctively, I jumped in the water and saved him. He was unconscious and I gave him mouth-to-mouth respiration… That was actually the first time that I told about that whole situation to Grandma. Back then, I was too concern about telling her, that I deliberately jumped into the pond and destroyed the dress she gave me, so I ended up telling her someone pushed me into the water…

“That was your actual first kiss!” she called out agitated.

“Grandma… It cannot be consider a kiss!” I protested, “Even if our lips touched, there were no feelings in it!”

“Yes, there were feelings!” she argued, “I bet you had multiple strong feeling while trying to save his live, didn't you?”

“I… wished that he didn't die… I cried and shouted that… I won't let him die…” I collapsed in desperation.

“See? I was right,” Grandma stated happily.

“So… what do I do now?” I inquired, confused about all of it.

“I… I don't know, but the book knows…”

She got up and took out some very old book from the top bookshelf in the room. It wasn't an ordinary book, it looked like an expensive antique. It had a leather cover, and beautiful ornaments all around the front and side. When she opened it I felt some wave of electricity flowing through my body.

“You felt it, right? That's magic,” Grandma chuckled, “This is our family's magic book. It has an answer to most of the magical problems we could encounter,” she explained.

Then she flipped few pages, searching for something with a serious expression on her face.

“Oh! I got it! But… it's not good…” she looked at me, concerned.

“What is not good?!” I shouted, shaking with impatience.

“He was unconscious when your lips touched his, right?”

“Yes.”

“So… he couldn't kiss you back…” she continued.

“Yes… I mean… it wasn't a kiss! But… yes,” I replied, agitated.

“So… basically you have to find him, and make him kiss you… willingly, and you will have to do it before your 30th birthday,” she declared, closing the book.

“What happened if I don't…?” I asked, already trembling in panic.

“You will die,” she stated it seriously.

“Grandma… but how could I ever find him?!” I burst out laughing hysterically.

“You will have to use your magic. I will teach you how. Don't worry, you still have five years,” she grinned, like she forgot that she just told me I could die quite soon.

“Until my 30th birthday…” I sighed, feeling like I was about to cry.

“Oh… one more thing Kassi… Happy birthday!” Grandma called out.

I only wasn't certain if that day was still worth celebrating…