The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic

by Breanne Randall

But fine was what she had to be because if it wasn’t, everything would unravel.

Sadie so often walked the line between who people expected her to be and who she really was, the lines blurred until sometimes she forgot who she actually wanted to be.

And then Sadie felt the pull as they neared Poppy Meadows Bookstore. She heard pages fluttering, calling to her. It was a siren song, one she usually couldn’t resist. The sign in the display window was painted with an open book that had bright orange California poppies sprouting out of the pages. The logo had always made her think of falling into a book the way Alice fell down the rabbit hole. Behind the glass, there were books in white enamel bird cages and hanging from the ceiling by invisible strings.

“Time ceases to exist for you in bookstores, and I am not sitting by for three hours while you get hot over books you have no intention of buying.” “But they need me,” Sadie argued. Her hand

special things were meant to be used and treasured instead of simply stared at.

“People should like you for you. Not what you do for them. You’re always afraid people are going to leave, so you do anything you can to make them stay.”

“When you stop being so afraid of being alone, you’ll realize your worth and stop letting people walk all over you.”

weren’t. But there’s a difference between being happy and being fulfilled. Happiness you feel in your skin. Fulfillment you feel in your bones.”

“Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway,” he said in that trademark twang.

“You know who you are. Never let anyone or anything mold you into something different. Don’t let those idiots tell you what to do or how to live your life.”

“They say that in a relationship there’s always the lover and the loved. But I don’t think that’s right. I think it changes. Sometimes you’re the one who loves more, and other times you’re the one who needs to be loved. That’s what a relationship is. Bracing the other person when they need it. Love is knowing you have open arms to fall back into.”

“If you don’t let me out right now, I’ll paint you a hideous orange and never grease your hinges again,” she whispered furiously.

Her whole life had been about building a legacy. Not of magic. But of family. Because magic without family was nothing, but family with love was everything.

that being afraid didn’t make someone weak or a coward. Doing something in spite of heartbreak and fear, that’s where courage came in.

“Hold on to hope no matter the cost, because as long as there’s hope, everything else is just the unfortunate side effects of heartbreak

and magic.”