“Ah ha!” He cries victoriously and straightening, he turns to hand you a thin silver chain with something dangling from it.
Holding the chain up you see it is a small green shamrock, amazingly lifelike and made of some strange glistening metal you don’t recognize. Other than the superb craftsmanship of the leaf itself you think the whole thing seems a bit tacky and look back at Mike expectantly.
“It’s an amulet, man!” He says excitedly then goes on to explain, “My dad got it off a freakin’ leprechaun as part of a land deal he brokered. It’s meant to be lucky, but my dad is old fashioned and doesn’t really like magic; so he gave it to me!”
You examine the chain and amulet more closely feeling skeptical; it looked a bit like a trinket you might but at the flea market rather than a magical artifact…
“C’mon, try it on…” he encourages, “I’ll bet it does something cool.”
Fastening it around your neck, you wait expectantly for some tingle of magic or telltale feelings but nothing happens. You look over at Mike who is watching you with anticipation and you realize he doesn’t know what to expect either.
“Mike…” you ask in a suspicious tone “Have you or anyone else ever tested out this ‘magic’ amulet?”
“Nope.” He replies unconcerned and begins fishing in his pockets as your eyes widen in alarm.
“What the hell Mike?!” you yell in panic, “I’m not some guinea pig! This thing could be dangerous!!”
“Just chill for a sec…” Mike says calmly pulling a coin from his pocket and smiling confidently “Heads or tails?”
“Heads… but Mike…”
Ignoring you, your new room-mate flips the coin and it comes to land on the carpeted floor showing heads…
“Doesn’t mean anything…” Mike muses “We’ll have to do this a few times… heads or tails?”
Arguing with Mike is clearly getting you nowhere, so you play reluctantly along calling heads for each flip. Ten flips later both you and Mike are gaping at the coin as it rolls to a stop on the floor showing its tenth head in a row.
“Holy shit dude!” Mike cries excitedly “The odds of that happening are over a thousand to one. That shamrock amulet gives you the Devil’s own luck! Here give me that thing back. Fuck school, I’m off to Vegas baby!”
With a sigh of regret you reach behind your head for the chains clasp… and can’t find it!
“What the…?” you mutter fingers probing the entire loop of fine chain, not finding any way to unclasp it. The loop of tiny silver links is too small to pull off over your head and you can’t find any other way of removing it without breaking the chain itself.
“Lemme see.” your increasingly annoying room-mate commands as he reaches for it.
Sitting down on your bed you endure Mike’s clumsy fumblings at the chain around your throat until you can’t stand it any longer. After all, you didn’t come to a big city university full of hot Fae women to feel this guy’s hot breath on your neck…
“Get off of me! We’ll just break the damn chain.” You tell him in an irritated tone, but no matter how you or Mike yank on it or try to cut it, the chain remains solid and intact.
“This…” says Mike self-importantly “…is why I didn’t try it on myself first. You never know what these magical items will do until you try ‘em. Did I tell you about Kim Wu, the cursed girl from my highschool?”
You stare at Mike in utter disbelief as he flops lazily back into his own bed and reaches for a magazine, seeming to forget all about you and the problematic amulet. You are fast coming to realize that your new room-mate is a complete asshole!
“Oh but don’t forget…” he says looking over the magazine at you seriously. “…you owe me for that amulet bro. I’ll think of some way for you to repay me, no sweat.”
Sitting there on your bed, fingering the small magical shamrock and glaring angrily at Mike, you figure that it’s probably better if you got out of this small shared room and saw more of the campus. It had to be better then wasting anymore time on this selfish jerk…
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