Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4) (2 page)

“We’re not going to Zach’s house because that’s not
where they are, silly,” Lucas replied. “When you’re done
panicking, I’ll tell you where to find them. I know you’re
anxious to get this whole thing settled so that—”

I cut him off sharply. “Look, we can play this ‘I know
something you don’t know’ game some other day. Okay? Right
now, you
better
tell me what you know.”

His calm and playful demeanor disappeared instantly
and Dr. Jekyll transformed into Mr. Hyde right before my very
eyes. “They’re at the cast party, Ru. I don’t care how sick she is,
a diva like Rachel wouldn’t dare miss her own party,” he replied
coldly and with a not so subtle hint of sarcasm.”

If I hadn’t been in such a hurry to find Zach, I would
have chastised him for rudely calling Rachel a diva.
He was
right of course—Rachel
was
a diva but not in the traditional
sense. She wasn’t mean and she didn’t belittle other people.
She
was
simply
filled with
over the top enthusiasm
for
whatever her current passion was. Rachel didn’t think she was
better than other people—she just liked to excel at the things
she enjoyed doing. I kept my opinion of his comment to myself
but Lucas was definitely going to get an earful about this later.

“Fine. Where’s the cast party?” I said using my best
non-freaking out voice.
I had a vague recollection of Rachel
mentioning it to me but as usual, I had my mind on other things
at the time. She always talked so fast that I learned a long time
ago to only try to grasp half of what she said and when I was
preoccupied, I pared that fraction down even further. Why did
I always seem to miss the important parts of her ramblings?

As soon as I heard the words “country club”, I was
flooded with memories of the Humane Society fundraiser that
Zach and I went to over the summer. Summer. It seemed like
so long ago to me now but it hadn’t even been a year yet. Life
felt so complicated and dramatic
back then but looked so
different in retrospect.
It was a time of innocence when the
only thing standing in the way of our love was a lonely ghost
just looking for love herself.
With no other outside forces
driving
us
apart, we
grew so closely together.
But no
relationship will ever be an island—other people, other things
will always play a role in our lives no matter what. Fate did its
best to tear us apart and I almost let it succeed.

I was done clinging to my past because I finally realized
that my future was more important—and that future was with
Zach. Even if my dad didn’t approve, I was going to follow Zach
to Ohio in the fall. With the money I got from Giuseppe, I could
afford college on my own now. I would still have to sit out the
first semester but I could get a job and work on my writing in
the meantime.
No more hunting ghosts—or serial killers—
either. It was time to cut out all of the unnecessary things in
my life.
Of course my plan hinged on one thing—whether or
not Zach still wanted to be with me.

As Lucas and I pulled into the parking lot of the country
club, the first thing I noticed was what
wasn’t
there.
No red
Neon but Lucas was right about
one
thing.
Flu or no flu,
Rachel’s little yellow car was parked right up front. Zach’s car
wasn’t at the theater when we left which meant that he
definitely wasn’t with his sister. Where
was
he? In my panic to
find him, I left my phone at the theater along with everything
else so I couldn’t even message him. Not that I thought he
would respond to a text anyway
but even
so, this
was
a
conversation that we needed to have face to face. I just needed
to find him. The second thing I noticed was the time on the
clock.

8:47. As I got out of the car, a freak gust blew past and
sent the car door slamming shut behind me.
The wind was
gone as quickly as it came but the chill it cast on me lingered.
As I stepped inside the front door to the country club, my entire
body convulsed in a violent shiver. I felt like I’d just walked
over my own grave. While I would have gladly followed Rachel
into a walk in freezer just so I could ask her where her brother
was, I was relieved to find her by the roaring fireplace engaged
in conversation with one of the country club employees.

“Rachel!” I called out as I approached, “I need to talk to
you—
now
!” Still overwhelmed with coldness, I cast the
warmth of my breath on my hands in an attempt to heat up at
least one part of my body. I’d often used the phrase “chilled to
the bone” but that didn’t even come close to describing how
cold I was. That wind cut to my bones then sliced even deeper.
I was chilled to my very soul.

Rachel cut her conversation abruptly when she heard
my voice. With a look of pure anger on her face, she replied,
“You’re damned right you do! Get over here, Ruby!” When she
caught sight of Lucas following behind me, she added, “I can’t
believe you brought
him
with you!”

How could I blame her for being so mad at me?
She
obviously thought that I chose Lucas over Zach. If I were her, I
would hate me right now, too. I turned around to face Lucas. “I
have to talk to Rachel—
alone
.
Go get
some
punch
or
something,” I hissed as I gestured toward the buffet table while
simultaneously walking away.

“Whatever,” I heard him mumble behind my back. He
could “whatever” me all he wanted to—I simply didn’t care. He
overstepped the bounds of our friendship by kissing me the
way he did. As far as I was concerned, that friendship was now
officially over. Unfortunately, by the look on her face, mine and
Rachel’s might be as well.

As I approached the fireplace, Rachel reached out,
grabbed me by the forearm, and dragged me behind her toward
the ladies restroom. She’d dragged me here and there with her
a million times before but this time there was none of the air of
exuberance that usually marked our little excursions.
This
time, she meant business. While the warmth of her hand felt
good on my ice cold skin, her demeanor was purely frigid. I
decided to allow her a few minutes to blow off some steam
before I explained my side of the story. I knew her well enough
to know that until she got everything off of her chest, she
wouldn’t listen to a word I had to say anyway. She quickly
checked the stalls to make sure we were alone then locked the
door behind us. One verbal whiplashing coming right up.

“How could you do that to him, Ruby?! He sat through
that entire play gushing about how good you were and how
proud he was of you!
I made sure he knew ahead of time that
you and Lucas would have to kiss at the end but I
swore
to him
that it was nothing major. How do you think it made him feel to
have to watch you guys play tonsil hockey in front of the entire
town? I told you a long time ago not to break his heart but you
had to go and do it anyway, didn’t you? He’s not
like
other
boys, Ruby!
If you wanted to be with Lucas, all you had to do
was tell him the truth. You didn’t have to destroy him the way
you did!”

Wow. I’d never seen Rachel so mad before. The anger
flashing through her eyes was reminiscent of the look in Zach’s
eyes the day he pummeled Ryan in the hallway at school.
Thank God she
had better impulse control than Zach did
because if not, they probably would have been hauling me out
of the country club in a body bag. My plan to let her cool down
first before trying to reason with her wasn’t as practical as I
originally thought it was going to be. If I waited for that, we
would still be in this restroom five days from now—if not
longer. As she took a deep breath in preparation for round two
of the whiplashing, I seized my opportunity.

“Rachel, I know it looks bad—I
know
that I must look
like a super bitch right now, but I can explain. Please hear me
out!” I pleaded. “You have to believe me—it’s not what it looks
like. Scouts honor!”

When I held up the Boy Scout hand signal that I learned
from
Clay,
I of course thought
of him.
And he
instantly
appeared beside me with a huge grin on his face when he
realized he was once again in the ladies room. That grin turned
to a slight look of fear when he glanced Rachel’s direction and
saw the steam all but rolling out of her ears. He pointed to the
door and walked straight through it without a word. How sad
was it that I was now scaring ghosts and not the other way
around? Why couldn’t I just have a normal life?!

“You have exactly sixty seconds,” she said as she looked
at the time on her phone. “Starting now!” Rachel leaned back
against the sink and folded her arms across her chest. She cast
her eyes at the floor in front of her. If she was so mad at me
that she couldn’t even look at me, how much worse was my
conversation with Zach going to be?
Assuming that Rachel let
me walk out of the restroom with the ability to still speak, that
is.

Unsure of whether or not she would actually hold me to
her one minute promise, I flung the words out of my mouth as
quickly as I could. The fact that I
had
been torn between Zach
and
Lucas, between
the
long
road and
the easy
way
out,
between the past and the present—all of it shot out of me in an
emotional regurgitation. All of the things I’d been holding
inside of me for way too long because I hoped they would go
away on their own now lay metaphorically at my feet as well as
hers.

“So yes,” I admitted, “I
did
enjoy that kiss but not for the
obvious reasons. That kiss freed me from all of my guilt and
doubt. Kissing Lucas proved to me once and for all that I want
to be with Zach and
only
Zach.
Please tell me where he is!
I
have to talk to him and beg him to take me back!”

Once I fell silent, Rachel finally looked me in the eyes.
“So why is Lucas here with you now? He sure doesn’t look like
someone who just had his heart broken.
Or are you keeping
him on the leash until after you talk to Zach?
You know, as
backup in case my brother wants nothing more to do with
you?”

Her accusation inflamed me but I knew that I’d earned
it. “No, Rachel! I haven’t talked to him yet because I want to
talk to Zach first. He’s the one who truly deserves an apology
here. I’ll deal with Lucas later. Even if Zach never wants to
speak to me again, I still don’t want to be with Lucas. If I can’t
be with Zach, then I would rather be alone.”
I waited for
another round of assaults but it never came. Instead, she asked
me only one question.

“I don’t know where he is and frankly, I’m a bit worried
about him.
He was really upset when he left the Bantam.
I
texted him a few times but he never responded. Just before you
walked in, I got a funny feeling that something bad happened
but I tried to ignore it. That feeling isn’t going away either. I
knew something was wrong the day Grandma died, remember?
This doesn’t feel exactly the same way but kind of. You don’t
think he could be….” Rachel stopped herself from saying the
next word but I didn’t have to be psychic to know what it was
going to be. Dead. She was pondering whether or not Zach was
dead.

As I was about to console her by saying that I would
know for certain if he was, I realized that it would be a lie.
Seeing ghosts wasn’t an exact science. I hadn’t come across Lee
or my mom yet—the two people you would think would have
contacted me first.
Sudden horrible thought.
Maybe I
had
come into contact with him but I just didn’t realize it at the
time.
That freak wind, that unending sense of cold—was it
possible that Zach was now gone and transformed into a new
type of entity that I never knew existed? Oh dear God, no! If he
died thinking
that I betrayed him, it could turn
him
into
something dangerous and vengeful. I couldn’t let Rachel know
what I was thinking—it would only cause her to freak out. We
needed to both stay calm and find him as soon as possible.

“We need to find him
now
, Rachel!” This time
I
was the
one grabbing
her
arm and towing
her
behind. “Come on—let’s
go
!”

Rachel firmly
planted her feet in
the doorway
and
shook her head no. “I can’t, Ruby! My intestinal tract is still a
mess.
I barely made it here from the theater in time, if you
know what I mean. You’ll have to go find him yourself.”

Just what I didn’t want to hear. I was afraid to go alone
now just in case I found him dead somewhere. Lucas would go
with me if I asked him to but I needed to stick firmly to what I’d
said to Rachel. If I couldn’t be with Zach, I would rather be
alone. My friendship with Lucas had to end tonight. It had to
end now. All I needed was a ride back to the theater to grab my
keys and phone. This was the last favor I would ever ask from
Lucas. The theater wasn’t even that far away. What’s the worst
that could happen?