Phantoms of Fall (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 2) (21 page)

“So you want to stay together? Even after what
happened?”

“Zach Mason, I will never break up with you! You’re
the only thing that keeps me going!” All of the tension in my
body released, rushing out of me in waves.

He grabbed me and hugged me close. “I’m so sorry
about everything, Ruby.”

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry.” I held onto him like I
never wanted to let him go. Because I didn’t. “We need to talk
about it though. There are things I need to tell you, things I
need to ask you.”

“Shhh, not tonight. Tonight I just need to hold you.
When I thought I’d lost you….”

 

“You’ll never lose me, Zach. Nothing in this world
could make me want to live my life without you.”

So we held each other quietly until I had to go home.
Thinking about that night later, one poor choice of words kept
coming back to haunt me. “Nothing in
this
world.”

18. Break Up, Break Down

I was so relieved that we were still together that I
wasn’t even the slightest bit upset when he told me just
before I had to leave that he wouldn’t have time to see me the
next day. There was a mass rescue of forty cats from a house
across town and Andy needed his help.
So me being the
awesome girlfriend that I was, I volunteered to help them.

“Thanks, sweetie! You know I always need you
around, but tomorrow especially.
After spending the last
twenty-four hours thinking that you wanted to dump me, I
don’t want to let you out of my sight.”

“I agree completely—I spent the last twenty-four
hours feeling the very same way.” I felt so much better now
that I knew he still loved me. Like that piece of my heart I
entrusted to him was still locked safely away for eternity.

“So now we’ll have two people to help us get them
settled while we get some of them in to be neutered.”

 

Two? “Oh, who else will be there?”

 

“Didn’t I tell you? Chloe decided to start volunteering
on weekends. Tomorrow will be her first day.”

Chloe. I liked the girl, honestly I did, but something
about knowing she was going to be spending every weekend
with my boyfriend struck a raw nerve. Maybe he really did
forget to tell me about it, but was it just a coincidence that she
did, too?
Or did she not say anything on purpose?
If there
wasn’t anything weird going on, why keep it such a big secret?
I faked enthusiasm but tucked that knowledge into a safe
place in my brain so that I could revisit it later. It wasn’t that I
thought he was cheating on me with her, it just felt like there
was something between them that I wasn’t a part of. And I
didn’t like it.

We parted with a kiss and agreed to get together
Monday night after school to talk about what happened at The
Hideout Friday night. Open communication was way overdue
between us so we made a pact to be completely honest with
each other about our relationship. Well, almost honest—I still
felt that telling him my ghostly secret wasn’t necessary and
therefore irrelevant. Everything else, though, was fair game.
The minute I got home I was going to make a list of what I
wanted to say and what I wanted to ask him.

And that’s just what I did, too. With Coco curled up by
my side, I propped myself against my pillow and made that
list. Why didn’t he want to sleep with me? Why was he so
prone to anger lately? Was there a secret between him and
Chloe that he wasn’t sharing with me? Those were the three
big ones but I knew there were more so I relaxed and thought
about it. I relaxed so much that I fell asleep. And dreamed
again that Chloe was ripping me to shreds to get to Zach.

I told Zach that I would meet him at the shelter at ten,
but I must have shut my alarm off because when I finally
opened my eyes and looked at the clock it was almost eleven.
I jumped out of bed and texted him on the way to the shower.

“Sorry—just woke up! Be there soon.”

 

I don’t know how I wanted him to respond, but it
definitely would have been nothing like what I actually got.

 

“That’s okay—Chloe’s here. Take your time.”

Take my time?
Why, so she could put the moves on
my man while I wasn’t there? No freakin’ way! I showered,
dressed and made myself beautiful in record time. There was
no time for breakfast so I grabbed a banana from the kitchen
and ate it as I drove. When I got to the shelter, I could hear
their laughter echoing from the back. Time to put a stop to
that
.

Zach was too busy laughing at whatever Chloe just
said to even see me come in so I snuck up behind him and
gave him a flirty hug. He turned around and gave me a kiss
and afterward I floated her a smug look to let her know I was
on to her game. When she acted like she didn’t even notice, it
only infuriated me more.

It wasn’t until Andy came in to let Zach know that he
was ready for him that I realized I was going to be spending
the entire day with Chloe. It wasn’t going to be fun, but now
more than ever I needed to keep my enemies close.
So I
pretended that nothing was wrong all day and so did she. She
didn’t show the slightest hint that anything was amiss. I had
to give her credit—she was good.
Misty was obvious about
what she wanted and it was easier to spot enemies like that.
Chloe, however, was crafty and sly.
I had to keep a close eye
on her from now on.

Shortly before we were done and ready to leave, she
dropped the bomb on me.

“It’s too bad that you and Zach fought Friday night. I
know how much you were both looking forward to your
date.”

What? How could she possibly know that we fought?
Rachel must have let it slip at some point, but when? Keeping
my emotions as in check as I could manage, I asked her how
she knew.

“Oh, Zach told me last night.”

Last night. So he
was
with her yesterday. This was
her first day at the shelter—he told me so last night. Which
meant that he was with her during the time that he was
avoiding me, when he was gone and even his sister didn’t
know where he was. Why didn’t he tell me about it? Add one
more thing to the list of questions I had for him tomorrow
night. It was a big one so I decided to put it right at the top.

I was seriously pissed but I had to play it cool.
It
would do me more harm than good if I let her know I was
upset. “We worked everything out though—it’ll take more
than that to break
us
up.”

“I’m sure it will. See you tomorrow.” She waved as
she drove off, leaving me standing there wondering what she
meant by that.
She
was
plotting to steal him—I knew it.
I
knew going into this relationship that he was the kind of guy
girls would be willing to do anything to get their hands on.
Apparently, that included befriending me.
At least I had
Rachel on my side. It was sad that the only girl I could trust
not to try to steal him away from me was his sister.

Zach thanked me for helping
out and
kissed me
goodnight.
He assured me that we would talk about
everything Monday night and that once we did, I would never
doubt his love for me again. Trusting that he was right, all I
had to do was make it through one more day of doubt.
It
turned out to be the longest day of my life.

It all started at breakfast Monday morning.
Shelly
reminded me that my dad made my doctor’s appointment for
that afternoon.
I knew that I agreed to it when he first
suggested it, but I would have done practically anything to get
out of it now. There wasn’t even anything wrong with me. I
was just under a crushing weight of stress—that was all.
I
tried to argue with her but got nowhere. Shelly informed me
that she would pick me up from school at noon and drop me
back off after the appointment so I could see the results of my
math test.
And then she got quiet.
There was something
more.

“So I spoke with your father this morning and we both
agreed on something.”

 

Okay, they agreed on a lot of things so what made this
one thing special enough to announce?

“We think it’s time for you to go on birth control. I’m
going to talk to the doctor about it today.” She said it so
casually between sips of coffee that if I hadn’t been paying
attention, I would have thought she was just commenting on
the weather.

What could I say to that? “Thanks, but my boyfriend
doesn’t want to touch me so it’s really not necessary.” That
was something I would
never
admit to another living soul.
Ever.

Suddenly
the cereal
in
my
bowl looked positively
inedible. “I don’t need it, Shelly. Really, I don’t.”

 

“Maybe not, but you will soon.
I want you to be
prepared for when you do need it so no arguments.”

She was serious so I didn’t protest. Instead, I took two
bites of cereal and threw the rest away. “I’ll see you at noon,”
I said leaving quickly so she couldn’t grill me about not eating.
Again.

When I got to the school, something felt weird.
In
place of the normal chaos there was an oddly quiet air of
organization. No one was running or shouting. They were all
standing on the sidewalk in clusters, closely huddled around
their phones and laughing.
As I got out of my car to meet
Zach, I watched as each cluster turned toward me and the
laughter was replaced with whispers. At first, I had no idea
what could be going on but eventually it hit me. Somehow
everyone knew about what happened on our date Friday
night.

But how? I didn’t spill a word of it—not even to
Rachel.
There was only one possibility. Chloe. Zach had to
have told her about it and she leaked the information to the
entire school.
Betrayal paralyzed me like a toxin. How could
he share something so private with her?
Anger trumped
humiliation and I stormed up to him to demand an answer.

“Hey, beautiful, are you ready to….” I stopped him
mid-sentence. Smack!
A well placed slap across the face left
him and everyone watching us stunned.

Zach rubbed his cheek with his hand and shouted,
“Hey! What was
that
for?”

“You know
exactly
what that was for! I trusted you
and
this
is what I get.” I extended my arm in the direction of
one of the clusters of girls giggling over their phones.

“Ruby, I don’t know what you’re talking about! Get in
my car—you have some explaining to do!” He opened the
door for me but I shoved past him roughly.

“You told Chloe everything that happened Friday
night and she told the whole school. I’ll never get in that car
with you again as long as I live!”

Zach denied it all. “I didn’t tell her any details! She
knew we fought and that’s all. I didn’t even tell my sister—I
swear!”

“Really? So why is everyone staring
at me and
laughing?”

Storming into the school with Zach hot on my heels, I
walked in to a deafening chant coming from a line of boys by
the lockers.

“Turn around! Turn around! Turn around!” Almost a
dozen
boys
were alternating
between
glancing
at their
phones and staring straight at me, all the while repeating that
one phrase. At the center of them stood Alpha male himself,
Ryan Fedderhoff.

Ryan broke formation and stepped up to me. “Do us
all a favor and turn around next time, Ruby.”

 

Zach positioned himself between Ryan and me. “Get
away from her, Fedderhoff! Do
not
piss me off right now!”

 

Zach turned to face me. “I don’t know what’s going on,
sweetie. But it wasn’t my fault. Please believe me!”

I was still fuming but he seemed sincere and I started
to believe him.
I was just about to apologize when Ryan
interjected.

“It’s actually pretty funny that you’re the last one to
see it, Mason. She’s a bit of a freak, but I’d still do her.” Ryan
hit a few buttons on his phone and a ringing sound came from
Zach’s pocket.

Hovering at his side, I watched as Zach opened the
message. When the video started to play, it took me a second
to realize what it was. And then I recognized myself and the
locker room shower. Someone recorded every second of my
freak out last week. I watched in horror as I saw myself on
the screen naked and screaming. Only the blood I saw that
day wasn’t visible—I was seeing the scene the way everyone
else saw it.

You couldn’t see anything but my exposed back, but I
still felt infinitely violated. The idea that someone could be
cruel enough to film someone in the shower was unthinkable
to me. The only person I knew who would do something so
evil was Misty. This was what she was talking about in the
bathroom that day—it had to be. My lip started to quiver and
tears spilled out of my eyes.

Zach had a different reaction.
As he watched the
video, I could feel his entire body tremble. When the tremble
turned to full blown vibrating, I knew things were about to
get ugly. I reached out to his phone and turned it off. But the
damage was already done and when Ryan opened his mouth, I
knew that it wouldn’t even matter to Zach what he said. They
were going to fight and I had to stop it.

“Sucks to be the last guy in school to see your
girlfriend naked, doesn’t it?” he said with a cocky smile. “Next
time, Ruby, do us all a favor and turn around.”

It was like a bolt of lightning flashed through Zach’s
eyes and he flung his entire body into Ryan like it was a
guided missile.
Ryan slammed into the lockers head first and
winced in pain.
But that was just the beginning.
His fists
pounded repeatedly into Ryan’s face with crushing blows.
After a strange popping noise, his nose began to spout blood
but the assault continued.