Haunted Page 8

  “Hey, it’s warm and it’s getting me back to my room! You’ll hear no complaints from me!”

  As we drove past the bar to get onto the main road that would lead out of town and back to school, it occurred to me, what if Cheryl and Lisa did wait for me? Maybe I should have left them a note or something? They couldn’t be completely heartless – what if they got worried and went looking for me. I voiced my concern to Chad. He laughed.

  “I wouldn’t worry about those two. Trust me – they’ll come back to the car and they won’t even notice that you’re not there. And if they do, then who cares. They’ll spend ten minutes driving around looking for you, get fed up and come home. And they should worry about you after ditching you like that,” he asserted. “No offense. It’s not that you’re that forgettable – it’s just that’s what they’re like.”

  I nodded silently. I didn’t quite know what to say. I felt like such a fool and yet so grateful to him at the same time.

  “Cheryl and I dated for the last six months of school last year,” Chad informed me, “So I know exactly what she can be like. And what she did to you was not cool.”

  “Well,” I began carefully, not wanting to say anything that could possibly come back to haunt me later, “it was nice of them to invite me. I moved into the dorm at the beginning of the week and I’ve been completely by myself and I’ve had nothing to do and no one to talk to. I did tell them that I didn’t have ID, but they thought they could get me in anyway.”

  “Yeah, but they couldn’t. So why would they leave you there outside at night? Knowing full well that you don’t know anybody and have no way to get back? What was so important in there that they had to ditch you like that?”

  A beat while I considered whether I should say anything or not.

  “I think they were hoping to see you and, your friend. Is his name Trevor?” I asked uncertainly.

  “HA!” Chad burst out loudly. “Now that’s funny!” He was laughing heartily and even took his hand off the wheel to slap his thigh.

  I smiled weakly. What had I just said?

  “Those two were so desperate to get their claws into me and Trev that they ditched you outside in the cold by yourself with no way to get home, and as a result of that, me and Trev didn’t go to the bar after all! I can picture them right now, standing around, holding drinks, looking all pissed off waiting for us to show up! And instead I’m driving you home! That is too funny,” he shook his head. “That is great. I think that is what they call ‘poetic justice.’ Well, much as I would love to point out to her how she screwed herself over with her own selfishness, I think it’s best that you don’t mention to her that I drove you home. Say you caught a ride with some of the other kids or something.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” I agreed with him. I could just imagine the fireworks if Cheryl found out she had stood around waiting for her ex-boyfriend all night and meanwhile he was in a car with me. I re-played in my head her threatening warning from earlier in the day: yeah, and he’s mine.

  “So where are you from?” Chad asked me.

  “Out west. Washington state,” I answered.

  “Oh nice. I’ve heard it’s beautiful out there. Mountains, beach…”

  “Yeah, actually. It’s not bad. Where are you from?”

  “Houston. My dad’s in oil.”

  “Really? You don’t sound like what I imagine a Texan to sound like!”

  He chuckled. “No, I guess I don’t. Well my parents don’t, because they’re not originally from there and I’ve been sent away to schools my whole life, so other than summers and Christmas vacations I haven’t really spent a lot of time there.”

  “What’s that like?” I asked.

  “Its fine,” he shrugged. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever known, so I’m just used to it. I go home for summer and there are kids on my street that I know and that I played with when we were kids and now I hang out with them…I don’t know, it just seems normal.”

  “This is my first time away from home,” I confessed.

  “Oh really? Well welcome to the joys of boarding school. You’ve already been introduced to some of the pains!” he joked.

  “Uh, yeah!” I agreed.

  “Are you homesick?”

  “Totally. Yeah. Well. We also moved at the end of the school year. I just realized - I keep telling people that I’m from Washington, but I’m not anymore. My parents bought a place down in Florida and got rid of the house I grew up in. It’s been a rough time these past couple of months.”

  Why on earth was I telling him this?

  “Oh my god. That is rough. And then you come here and meet two crazy bitches who drive you into the middle of nowhere and take off on you!”

  I laughed at that. “Exactly!”

  “Well. It’ll get better. I know it will.”

  “Thanks.”

  I just met this guy not even half an hour ago and I already felt like he had saved my life several times in one night.

  “What do you do? Like sports, I mean,” he asked suddenly.

  “None, really. I’m more a book nerd,” I admitted a little sheepishly.

  “Oh great – do you like to write? I’m co-editor of the paper this year. Maybe I could get you to write some articles for us,” he suggested.

  “Really? I would love to! That sounds great!” I enthused. This horrible night was turning out to be a blessing in disguise.

  “Cool. Well we’ll talk about it next week – once classes have started and everything’s up and running, you know.”

  “Yeah, yeah! I’d really like that!”

  Chad turned out to be very easy to talk to and I realized that despite how upset and off-centre and nervous I’d been when he first approached me, by the time we pulled up outside the dorm I felt completely at ease with him.

  “Thank you soooooooo much,” I turned to him as I opened the door to get out. “You really saved my life tonight.”

  “No I didn’t. I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’ve never even met,” he winked.

  I smiled at him and walked towards the door. He waited there with the engine running and didn’t drive away until he saw me safely inside.

  CHAPTER 7

  The first thing I did upon returning to my room was to change out of Cheryl’s top. I went through my own closet and found an empty hanger to put it on and then I padded down the hallway and hooked it onto Cheryl & Lisa’s doorknob. That way, I reasoned, when they got home, they’d see that I had made it back already, and Cheryl would have her blouse back and they would have no need of coming to look for me and perhaps I could manage to avoid them for a few days until school started.

  I came back down the hallway and crashed back into my room exhausted from the emotional roller coaster I had just disembarked. Ironically, I spied the pad of sticky notes on my desk that Margie had written her phone number on for me in case I needed anything. Well that might have come in handy tonight if I’d have had it with me! I thought ruefully. Except that no it wouldn’t have because I didn’t have a phone anyway. I planned on calling my mother the next day and requesting that she get me a cell phone. For my own safety.

  “What the hell just happened to me?!” I demanded to the universe out loud as I plopped into my chair. I had a grim sense of foreboding. I wasn’t going to be able to shake those two no matter how much I wanted to and they were going to make my life very difficult.

  “What did happen to you? And who was that boy whose car you just got out of?” came Stefano’s voice.

  I jerked my weary head up to find him perched on the edge of my bed.

  “Stefano!” I cried, “Oh my god, you have no idea how happy I am to see you!” I crossed over to sit next to him. I wish I could have hugged him tightly. I felt the need to attach myself to something or someone for dear life.

  “Is everything all right?” He looked concerned.

  “Oh god. Those girls…” I began.

  “Ah. I knew those girls were trouble
. So did you. What happened?”

  I told him the entire story, including how I had made a point earlier in the day of saying that I had no ID and no way to get into a bar.

  “We had so much fun in the car on the way there. We were singing at the top of our lungs and laughing…I thought it was going to be great night.” I looked at him and threw up my hands helplessly. The travails of a teenaged girl away at boarding school being mishandled by a pair of mean girls must have seemed so childish and petty to him.

  He said nothing, but his green eyes bored into my soul and I knew he was thinking deeply about what he would say to me.

  “Lady Catherine,” he began, “First of all, I am so sorry this happened to you. It does not seem as though human beings improve with the ages.” He let out a sigh. “But what pains me most is that you are so much above these kinds of people. You are so beautiful and smart and curious and well-read. How do they dare even think to treat you like that?”

  “I don’t think they think at all. That’s what their problem is. They don’t even think about not thinking!” I laughed bitterly.

  There was silence and neither of us looked at the other.

  Finally Stefano said, “What about the boy?”

  I didn’t realize to whom he was referring at first.

  “What boy?” I was puzzled.

  “The boy who drove you home. Do you like him?”

  Did I detect a hint of jealousy in Stefano’s voice? I did! I’m sure I did! My face broke into a grin.

  “Ha! No! I don’t like him! Would it bother you if I did?” I teased him.

  But he stayed completely serious. “No, on the contrary I think it would be good for you.”

  It was like a slap.

  “What? In what way could that possibly be good for me?”

  “I think it would be nice for you to turn your attentions to someone your own age. Someone alive.”

  “Are you for real?” My voice was rising in my throat. “First of all, I don’t find him attractive. Second of all, he’s off limits because as I mentioned to you he’s Cheryl’s ex-boyfriend. And third of all –“

  I caught myself before it came flying out of my mouth.

  “Third of all, what?” Stefano prodded me. “Third of all what?”

  “Third of all it really hurts my feelings that you would say that,“ I croaked out, “because,” my chest was heaving now and I could hardly breathe, let alone talk. “Because...” Oh, I was fighting off the tears so valiantly. I refused to let them take me over again.

  “Because what?” he asked as he moved closer to me on the bed. “Because what, Catherine? Tell me. Why are you so upset?”

  “Because if you haven’t figured out yet that you’re the one I’m interested in…”

  “Oh, Catherine,” he meant to seize me by the shoulders but I only felt the slight warmth of his energy. “Look at me now. Come on, look up.”

  I turned my face to his, but my eyes were defiantly down.

  “Catherine. Please. You must know that I was smitten with you the first time I saw you. As much as I’ve tried, I haven’t done a terribly good job of concealing my feelings for you. But it is because I care for you so much,” he said as he brushed my cheek with his fingertips and I let my eyes float up to meet his. “It is precisely that reason why I can’t let you…”

  He was at a loss for words. He collected himself and then began again.

  “You know I’m not real,” he said, as if I had forgotten, could have forgotten.

  “Not physical and not real are two different things,” I insisted.

  “Catherine. You mustn’t become too….”

  “Too what? Too attached? Why not?” I demanded as I dropped my hand to my side.

  “I can’t……” He trailed off as he struggled for words again.

  “Can’t what? Can’t stroll around the garden with me enjoying the roses? Can’t sit with me in my room discussing poetry? What can’t you do?” I challenged.

  “Catherine! I wasn’t going to do this. I fully intended to restrict myself from your company except on occasion, as I told you the other afternoon. But I can’t seem to stop myself. I’m sorry, my Lady Catherine. I don’t want you to be disappointed later on.”

  He searched my eyes. I could see he was sincere and only had my feelings in mind.

  I collapsed back onto the bed in exasperation.

  “There’s no reason I can’t live a normal life half the time and be alone with you the other half,” I protested. “It’s not like there’s anybody else even here for me to talk to! I can’t see how you could possibly disappoint me, when all you’ve done is cheer me up and talk to me about things I like to talk about that no one else my age has any interest in. Besides,” I grew bold, “You can’t hurt me. You are me. I see it in your eyes.”

  “If you look closely at anybody’s eyes, even your worst enemy, you’ll see yourself reflected in them,” he mused darkly.

  “Whatever,” I dismissed his remark. It was the not the response I had hoped for. “The point is that you feel something for me, too. You talk like two people, two creatures, two entities having sympathetic feelings for each other is a horrible thing! Then don’t come to my room and recite poems to me and then chastise me for feeling something for you!”

  He bowed his head and would not meet my look. But then he lifted his eyes to me and smiled. “You are a strange mixture of stubborn and shy. If the way was completely clear for you, you’d be tentative and unsure if it were yours to take. But when someone puts an obstacle in your path you immediately try to scramble up over it.”

  He was talking in riddles now.

  “You are quite right,” he continued. “I have been wooing you in my own way since the moment we met. I am torn, for I am drawn to you. I do have sympathetic feelings for you. You have a mysterious beauty that quite takes me. But I know the limit of what I am – of what I can be – to you. And having been deprived of earthly love myself, I would not be the one to deprive you.”

  “Deprive me of what?!” I exclaimed. “Don’t you see that I’m here all by myself? That I have no one! That I feel like the loneliest most unloved girl in the world?” And then the dreaded tears that had been plaguing me all summer came and I buried my face in my pillow to hide them from him.

  “Catherine!” he pleaded with me. “Please, my darling, I didn’t mean to make you upset.“

  He stood up and began pacing about the room as much as he could in the small space.

  “Look – even now I can’t hold you or stroke your face or wipe your tears. I’m quite helpless. Can you imagine how that makes me feel? It’s undeniable that we have finer feelings for each other, but this is my point exactly. It’s excruciating to me that I can’t reach out – physically - to you right now.”

  I was tortured that he was tormented and I did my best to steady myself and staunch the flow of tears. I wiped my face on the pillow as best I could as I sat up to face him.

  “But I feel warmth from your energy,” I reasoned. “Maybe you wouldn’t be able to save me if I were drowning, or even push my hair back off my face if it was in my eye, but I can still feel you in the way that’s most important.”

  I stretched both my hands out toward him. He stopped pacing abruptly and his glittering emerald eyes met mine.

  He stepped forward and put his hands in mine. I grasped his wrists – he had no wrists to grasp, but I felt the energy of him vibrating in my hands and I pulled him back onto me. I was enveloped in a comfortable vapor and I knew we were mingling at some molecular level. I could feel his very atoms in me and on me and all around me like being in a warm bath. Our faces had never been so close and I saw now that his eyes were absolutely clear and translucent.

  “Kiss me,” I whispered breathlessly and as he obeyed I felt the most delicious sensation – like warm honey on my lips. And then the honey poured through my body from head to toe, leaving a puddle in my stomach that warmed me all through and I felt as though I might melt into a pud
dle myself.

  “Stay here with me tonight,” I breathed into his ear. “Fall asleep with me.”

  He looked up at me, his eyes half closed almost trance like and he nodded wordlessly.

  Even though it was still too early to go to sleep, I had no wish to move from the heaven I was now in. I pulled the covers around us so that we were both covered, and in the best and deepest way possible, we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  CHAPTER 8

  In the morning I woke up – alone – to furious banging on my door.

  “CATHERINE! ARE YOU IN THERE? CATHERINE!”

  It was Cheryl. I suppose I knew I’d have to face the wrath of Cheryl sooner or later.

  I stumbled across the room and pulled the door open.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” she actually seemed sincere and not sarcastic.

  “What time is it?” I asked, groggy eyed and confused as Cheryl pushed her way inside my room.

  “It’s eight o’clock already. I’m surprised you’re not awake seeing as you must have got home before we did,” she remarked pointedly.

  I had decided it was in everyone’s best interests (especially my own) for me to play it cool, even though I was secretly livid at her.

  “Oh yeah,” I said calmly. “How was last night?”

  “Well it was a complete waste of time. We might as well have not even bothered. Chad and Trevor never showed up,” she said indignantly.

  “Oh that’s too bad. Was there anyone else interesting there?”

  She sprawled herself out on my unmade bed. I wanted to scream at her.

  “No. Just some fat old bearded man who insisted on buying us beer all night. I don’t even like beer,” she shuddered in disgust.

  I couldn’t quite believe that she had invited herself into my room to sit on the bed she had just roused me from and that we had already exchanged this many sentences about last night and not once had she bothered to ask what had happened to me or how I had gotten home or if I was alright.

  “I don’t know why that girl told us that Chad and Trevor were going there last night. I’m SO irritated with her. She wasn’t even there, so she must have known something.” Cheryl sounded like she had vengeance on her mind.