Phantoms of Fall (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 2) (11 page)

“Okay, but we should get together some night—you
look like you have a lot on your mind lately.”

Now
that
was an understatement. Not only did I have
Zach’s strange behavior to worry about, but I also had a whole
list of other things wrong with my life.
Not to mention the
fact that it was almost time to start applying to colleges. Zach
and I planned to go to the same school, but if we kept fighting
like this, I had doubts. If we broke up and I was forced to still
see him around campus, it would absolutely kill me.

“So are you guys going to the dance Friday night?”

 

“Dance? What dance?”

“The one after the game, silly. There’s a dance every
Friday night through football season, except for Halloween
weekend, of course.”

“Oh, I didn’t know about it so I guess we’re not going.”
I didn’t really want to go to some stupid school dance but I
was upset because he didn’t ask me to go with him. It made
me question our relationship—again. But I bit the bullet and
dug for details because I was curious about what she just said
to me.

“Why not Halloween weekend?” That’s the
perfect
time to have one!
There was always a big Halloween dance
back in my old school in Trinity—not that I ever went to it, of
course. Why don’t you guys have one here?”

“Some girl killed herself at the Halloween dance like
twenty years ago. There hasn’t been one since.”

“Oh. Too bad. Halloween’s my favorite holiday.” So
maybe I wasn’t normal for liking Halloween more than
Christmas, but so be it. Abnormal
was
normal for me and I
learned to just embrace it.

“I know—I love Halloween too! There’s nothing more
fun than picking out costumes. Too bad we couldn’t find
somewhere else to have a party.”

“Yeah, too bad.” I was only half listening to her. The
fact that Zach was still missing worried me.
How much
trouble was he
in
?

When there was still no sign of him as the bell for first
period rang, I forgot all about my other problems.
Misty,
Creepy Girl, and everything else faded into the background—
all I could think about was Zach.
I felt at least partially
responsible for the trouble he was in. Maybe if I hadn’t fought
with him, he wouldn’t have done what he did. Maybe if I’d
answered his calls, we could have settled things last night
instead of letting it carry over into this morning.
But no,
instead, I chose to ignore him and fester over something
instead of talking to him like an adult.

When I stopped at my locker on the way to lunch, I
found a note inside. It was from Zach.

 

Ruby,

I’m sorry about everything from last night
and this morning. I love you and I hate it when
we fight. Lascher gave me detention for the rest
of the week and I’m probably going to be in a lot
of trouble when my mom and dad find out.
You’ll have to find a ride home tonight—I’m
sorry. Please let me make this up to you. I
don’t want to lose you.

Love, Zach

 

P.S. MWAH!

I felt absolutely horrible inside. I didn’t like it when
we fought either so I wrote an apology of my own and slipped
it into his locker. At least when I saw him in math class, the
awkwardness of our fight would be gone.

The
stress
of arguing
gave me a seriously
upset
stomach so I didn’t even buy lunch. I sat at the table reading
and rereading the note he left for me. I loved him so much but
our relationship was so screwed up right now. He was all I
could think about. But at least it helped take my mind off of
one thing.

Creepy Girl decided to start humming an eerie tune
while she stared at me now—like something out of a low
budget Japanese horror flick. She didn’t even freak me out
anymore—she simply irritated me.
If her intention was to
scare me, it wasn’t working. Misty would have to try a whole
lot harder if she wanted to see me lose it in front of the entire
school.

When I finally got to see Zach in math class, he looked
pathetic—so pathetic, in fact, that I felt even worse about our
fight. All I needed was to be alone with him so I could tell him
how sorry I was.
I finally came to the decision that I needed
to have “the talk” with him. We had to discuss the whole sex
thing or we were going to continue to have senseless fights.
But time alone together was something we weren’t going to
have any time soon.

“The school called Mom and told her about my
detention.
Boy was she pissed—sent me a nasty text. I’m
grounded, Ruby—nothing for me but school and the shelter
for the next two weeks. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to
cancel our date this weekend.” He gave me a sad puppy dog
look and said, “I hate it when I do something stupid to
disappoint you.”

Two weeks. The last time we were separated for two
weeks I was almost killed by a vengeful ghost but at least I
didn’t have to worry about that this time around. And it was a
good sign that he realized what he did was stupid, wasn’t it?

In light of that admission, I decided to go easy on him.
“That’s okay. I mean, we’ll still see each other in school and
we can call each other every night, right?”

“Wrong—grounded means no phone, either. As soon
as I get home, I have to give it to her. I’m sorry. I swear I’ll
make it up to you when my sentence is lifted.” He gently
placed his hand on mine and said, “We’ll do something really
special together—something we’ve never done before. I’ll
make it a night to remember—I promise.”

Something special.
He said those exact words before
but it never turned out to be what I was wanting. Maybe this
time would be different, maybe this time he
was
thinking the
same thing I was.

“Okay, Zach. I’ll be looking forward to it.” More than
he could even imagine.

At the end of class, he snuck me a kiss before heading
to detention.
I texted Shelly earlier for a ride home, but I
didn’t tell her why I needed one because I was afraid of what
she would say about Zach’s behavior. Stupid me, I forgot that
she and Diane Mason were friends so of course, she knew
everything by the time she came to get me.

“Is everything okay between you and Zach?” She
barely waited until I opened up the car door to fire that
question at me. I glanced around quickly to see if anyone was
listening before I got in and answered her.

“Well, we had a fight last night. It was nothing major
but when he tried to call me afterward, I wouldn’t answer my
phone.
He was still mad at me this morning and ended up
almost getting into a fight with some boy I don’t know. Now
he’s grounded and I’ll barely see or talk to him for two whole
weeks.” There was a time when I never would have talked to
Shelly
about
Zach like that—or
about
anything
for that
matter. I was sure glad those days were over. Right about
now, I needed all the support I could get.

“I’m sorry, honey. But you guys made up, right?”

“Yeah, but I feel really bad about everything. I never
should have gotten mad at him in the first place—the whole
thing’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not. Zach
chose
to start that fight. It’s his fault
he
got grounded—not yours.
I just hope he learned his
lesson.”

Me, too. I didn’t like seeing him that way—all jealous
and overprotective. He had no reason to be insecure about
our relationship—none whatsoever. It’s not like I ever flirted
with anyone else or anything even remotely close to it.
If
either of us had any reason to be insecure, it was me.

When we got home, I crammed in a quick sandwich
then wallowed alone in my room with Coco all night. I still
didn’t have any real homework yet, so I buried myself in one
of the books from my reading list until it was time for bed.
Just before I shut out the light, my phone buzzed. A text from
Rachel.

“Mwah!”

I smiled, knowing that Zach probably went out of his
way to get that message to me.
I sent the same sentiment
back and turned my phone off for the night.

11. Now What?

I figured that the next two weeks would be pretty
boring, and Thursday proved that by crawling by at the speed
of a snail. So by the time Friday came, I was already dreading
the weekend. There was some serious shopping required if I
wanted to look extra hot for our “special” date the second he
wasn’t grounded anymore, but that was the only thing on my
social calendar.
Thanks to cheerleading, dates with Boone,
and working with Shelly; Rachel had zero free time. So I went
out on a limb and asked Chloe if she would want to go
shopping with me on Sunday. She was all for the idea and we
agreed to meet at the Chicken Shack at noon.
Now that I had
two female friends, I kind of felt popular.

So when I got to phys ed, I was feeling fairly positive
about the whole situation. I should have known better. The
second things start to improve, something always has to go
wrong. And this time, it went
really
wrong.

My first problem was Misty. When Coach Hunter split
us up into two teams, I prayed that Misty wouldn’t be on mine
so of course she was—along with her snotty little friend
Jordyn.
Great.
Two bitches for the price of one. I didn’t
totally
suck at volleyball, but I wasn’t the greatest and with
both of them staring at me and whispering, any skills I did
have went out the window.

When a ball sailed right to me, I got distracted and
missed it entirely giving the other team the winning point.
That’s when I heard it. The comment that started it all.

“If that’s how she handles all balls, no wonder Zach’s
such a raging mass of testosterone,” Misty said smirking at
me.

Rage rippled like flames up the sides of my face. How
dare
she? She didn’t know the first thing about our
relationship. I wanted to rip her face off with my bare hands
but what she said struck a raw nerve. Was sexual frustration
the reason Zach was getting into so many fights?
And if so,
why wasn’t he doing anything about it? Which was worse—
her nasty comment or the fact that she just might be right?
I
walked into the locker room with a chip on my shoulder the
size of…the size of…something large, something very, very
large. So when I started to undress and Creepy Girl sat down
right beside me, I blew a gasket.

“Stop freaking staring at me! And for real, stop
following me around.” I blasted out without even turning to
look at her.

“I wasn’t staring at you and I’m sure as hell not
following you, you freak.”

The voice that answered me wasn’t the voice I was
expecting. It wasn’t Creepy Girl that responded—it was
Misty.
I turned to see who was sitting next to me. It was the
same strange blond girl who dogged me all week long. But
one second
she
was
there
staring
at me
with
a hollow
expression and the next she vanished right before my eyes. It
was only then that I saw Misty standing directly behind where
the girl had been sitting.

My heart fell into the pit of my stomach. She was a
ghost. My mystery stalker wasn’t Misty’s apprentice, she was
dead
. She followed me around all week and I didn’t even have
the slightest clue that she wasn’t flesh and blood until now. I
panicked.
Rita was right about my near death experience
which opened up a whole new set of problems not to mention
what I’d just done. As much as I despised her, I didn’t mean to
start a fight with Misty but that was exactly what I just did. I
couldn’t believe it—I couldn’t even make it through the first
week of school without everything spiraling out of control.

It was a no-win situation. It’s not like I could look at
Misty and say, “Sorry, I wasn’t talking to you—I was talking to
the ghost that was sitting beside me. My apologies.” The only
alternative was to pretend like I
was
talking to her and just
hightail it out of there so that’s what I did. I got dressed so
fast I wasn’t even sure everything was on right. I ran out of
the locker room and snuck into the restroom. I hid in a stall
and cried until the first bell rang.

Drying my eyes as best as I could, I walked to math
class with a heavy heart. Zach. What was I going to do about
Zach?
Our relationship was toxic for him.
Being with me
seemed to make his jealousy explode.
He got angry and
started fights because of me.
And now that I knew Rita was
right, things were only going to get worse for him. He loved
me with his whole heart, but how could I expect him to stay
with me when I would never be normal? I was going to see
things—horrific
things—maybe for the rest of my
life.
I
wanted him to have a good life, a normal life.
But that life
would never be with me.
Did I have the strength to let him
go?

I thought I did. Until I walked into that classroom and
saw the smile spread across his face the instant he saw me.
So beautiful, so innocent. He had no idea that I was as good as
poison to him. My heart weakened. I had to find a way to be
with him—at all costs.
Nothing in
this world was more
important to me than him. There was nothing I wouldn’t do
to be with him. I just needed to sort things out in my head,
devise some sort of plan.
Rita was the key and with Zach
being grounded I would have plenty of time to talk to her
about my paranormal problems.

As soon as I sat down, Zach turned around in his seat.
“What’s wrong, sweetie? You’ve been crying.”