Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4) (52 page)

 

“I’m going to miss you, Ruby. You’re the best ghost
whisperer ever.” He gave me one last wink and walked away.

Rita turned up the radio on the way home and left me to
my thoughts which were terribly conflicted. How could I be so
happy and yet so sad at the same time?
I felt like I was being
torn into a thousand emotional pieces.
To make matters
worse, I was still burdened with the fear that the worst was yet
to come.

39. The Pit and the Pendulum

Prom. The day I’d been dreading for some time now
had finally arrived.
While every
other girl in
school was
happily getting her hair done professionally, I sat on my bed
staring at the mermaid costume with my straggly locks in a
ponytail. I didn’t want to go.
Especially not without Zach. But
Shelly said something to me that made me feel like I
had
to go,
regardless.

“I didn’t really want to go to my prom, either. It made
me think of how my biological mom threw me in a dumpster on
prom
night like I was nothing but garbage.
But then my
adoptive mom talked to me about it. She reminded me that
she
was my mother now and that she wanted to see her beautiful
daughter forget about all of the bad things in her life and enjoy
herself for one night.”

I would have thought she was only trying to guilt me
into going for my mom’s sake but I hadn’t shared Clay’s
revelations with either of my parents yet. I would eventually
tell them but it was a secret I wanted to keep to myself for a
little while. It was a secret between me and my mom and it was
sacred. So, like it or not, I was going to the prom. Dressed as a
mermaid.

Because the dress was so hideous, I had zero concern
for how the rest of me looked. I had no date but at least I was
being spared the embarrassment of walking in alone. Rachel
and Boone were picking me up so that I didn’t have to drive
myself, either.
I waited until the last possible moment to put
that ugly rag on.
Shelly insisted on doing my hair and makeup
and I didn’t feel like arguing. In fact, when I looked in the
mirror and saw that she’d left my hair in its naturally curly
state, I was
totally
indifferent.
Without Zach on my
arm,
nothing else mattered.

As I rummaged through my purse for the essentials I
would need to transfer to my silver evening bag, I once again
came across
the
stone that reminded me of Zach.
I
kept
forgetting to get rid of it. I still intended to toss it away but for
tonight, I wanted it with me. I needed memories of him now
more than ever.
With a sigh, I dropped it in and headed
downstairs for one last thing before my ride showed up.

We had already decided to stop off at the hospital to see
Zach before making our way to the school. I wasn’t wearing
any flowers of my own, but I wanted him to have one.
He
wouldn’t be in a tux but I could still tuck a rose into his hospital
gown. It would make me feel like he was there in spirit with me
even if I was telling myself a lie.

While I was in the conservatory trying to choose the
perfect bud to cut, my dad walked in with his camera. I was
going to have a hard time smiling for the obligatory photos—a
very
hard time.

“Please don’t make me stand here pretending to be
happy for long, Dad. Just take one or two. I’m not going to
want to remember this night anyway.”

“I know tonight is nothing like how you wanted it to be,
but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have a good night,” he said
as he positioned me where he wanted me for the first photo.
He held the camera up and I plastered a fake smile on my face.
I held it there for a while but he never took the photo. Instead,
he lowered the camera and said, “Stay right where you are—I’ll
be back in a minute.”

I allowed my facial muscles to relax.
There was a limit
to how long I could pretend not to be miserable. A few minutes
later, he returned with Shelly and a black velvet box.

“Here. This is for you,” he announced as he opened the
lid to reveal an absolutely stunning emerald necklace.
Before I
had a chance to tell him that he shouldn’t have spent so much
money
on something
I would never wear again—it was
gorgeous but it
was
still green, after all—he explained further.
“It belonged to your mother.”

The goose bumps came back as Shelly pulled my hair to
the side and
fastened it around my
neck.
The
secret I
uncovered in Ohio no longer felt like mine to keep so I told
them both what I now knew about my mom.

Shelly let out a small gasp and reached for the tissues.
Dad got a faraway
look in
his
eyes
then
promptly
began
glancing around the room as though he were searching for a
trace of her.

“I want to hear more about her—not
tonight—but
someday soon.”
Carefully, I touched the emerald in hopes of
feeling her energy. Just like with the chunk of pink quartz, I felt
nothing but the smooth, polished surface of the stone between
my fingers.

“I’ll tell you everything I knew about her. I’ve been
waiting for the right time to give you this necklace. I know it
isn’t your color but I think you’ll grow to love it just as much as
she did.”

“I already do,” I said, throwing my arms around my
dad’s neck and giving him a tearful hug. “I already do.”

The smiles in the photos he took were real now.
If I
couldn’t take Zach to the prom, at least I knew I had Mom by
my side.
This was the weirdest prom night ever.
I was still
miserable but oddly at peace with it when I climbed into the
backseat of Boone’s car and set out for the hospital.

Placing that rose in the folds of Zach’s hospital gown
was one of the saddest moments of my life.
It was like a
physical sign that I’d given up on him ever participating in life
again. And as long as he wasn’t participating, I didn’t want to
either. But I had to because life wasn’t going to stop for me
while I waited for Zach. I kissed his forehead and whispered “I
love you” before leaving for the high school.

Back in Trinity, proms were held at luxury hotels. In
Charlotte’s Grove, the cafeteria doubled as a ball room for the
night. I had so many bad memories in that cafeteria—both real
and
in
dreams—that the sight of it all decked
out as
an
enchanted forest took me by surprise.

It was
completely transformed.
The
doorway
was
framed by two large trees that stood guard to the wondrous
new world within.
The vibrant greens of the leaves were
magnificent;
the
silvery
complement.
Everything
barks
of
the
trees
the
perfect
matched my
dress
and
I got the

feeling that I could hide anywhere in here and not be found. On
a night like tonight, blending in was priority number one.

I didn’t want to socialize even on a good day but tonight
there seemed to be no escaping it. Once the rumor about how I
revived Zach went viral, people didn’t seem to be as afraid of
me anymore—so much so that I forgot to check for buckets of
pig’s blood hidden amongst the fake foliage decorating the
ceiling.
I received numerous compliments on my dress and
issued a half-hearted thank you every time.
There was of
course one person at that dance that would never tell me I
looked good until the day I was under the guillotine with my
head in a blood-soaked wicker basket.

Misty. There she was on Kody Kirk’s arm wearing
my
signature color.
Of course, she picked the sluttiest dress ever
sewn by human hands but what fabric there was was a deep,
ruby red. Was that disappointment I saw on her face when she
caught her first glimpse of the color I was wearing? Yes, yes it
was. She’d been trying to out-Ruby me but I accidentally foiled
her plans. Good. I needed to send that dress shop a thank you
card for their fortuitous mix up.

We spent way too much time at the hospital so the
dance was well under way by the time we arrived.
Boone and
Rachel took an unenthusiastic twirl around the floor then he
offered to be my partner for the next song and I accepted.
It
was terrible.
Boone was nowhere near as coordinated on the
dance floor as he was on the football field. It wasn’t like
dancing with Zach who seemed to anticipate my moves and
coordinate with me perfectly.
Nothing was as good without
Zach but at least for now, I needed to get used to that.

The three of us sat down at an out of the way table and
tried to eat.
The
food
was
good but
it was
obvious
that
something—some
one
—was missing. Even Boone’s notorious
appetite wasn’t what it should have been. The number of finger
sandwiches he consumed didn’t even equal a full hand’s worth.
We sat there in silence for a while, all contemplating the same
thing.

“Well, I don’t know about you girls but I’m not having
any fun and this tux is driving me nuts. How much longer do
you want to stay?”

“Let’s go,” I exclaimed as I leapt from my seat and
grabbed my bag from the empty chair next to me. I didn’t want
to be the one to drag everyone else down but if they were
already down with me, it was time to leave.

“I was thinking the exact same thing,” Rachel said as she
flung her shawl around her shoulders.

The music had stopped and the once crowded dance
floor was now practically empty giving us a clear shot at the
door.
If one of Boone’s friends hadn’t stopped him to say a
longwinded hello, we would have already been in the parking
lot for the next big shock of the evening.

The
music
stopped so that Principal Lascher could
announce this year’s prom king and queen. Great. Now I was
going to have to watch them put a crown on Misty’s head
before the whole school donned sacrificial robes and bowed
down to their evil goddess.
This was a moment I could have
done without.

I tried to block out every word of his speech and I was
successful until he got to the dreaded words “Misty Landrum”.
She wasn’t shocked in the least bit. I didn’t want to watch her
claim her crown but my eyes wouldn’t look away. It was one
more bit of proof that life simply wasn’t fair. She was mean and
hateful. Instead of the silvery crown adorned with leaves and
flowers, she deserved a halo of barbed wire.
Now I
really
wanted to go home.

Misty took her seat in the green velvet throne with a
smug look on her face and beckoned Kody to join her. As he
was about to sit down, Principal Lascher spoke hushed words
directly into his ear and Kody instead stood obediently behind
Misty’s chair. With an irritated look on her face, she barked out
to Principal Lascher, “The king is supposed to sit with the
queen. That’s just how it goes.”

“Not this year—this year is special,” he announced
through the microphone.
This year we have a tie.
We have
enough crowns but only two thrones.”

Misty went from irritated to furious.
I, however, began
to smile.
She was being forced to do something she had no
interest in doing—share the spotlight. While the second royal
couple was probably only Jordyn and her escort, I still found it
hilarious. Looks like the karma bus finally found Misty’s
address. Then I laughed the first real laugh since the day Zach
got shot. Maybe life was more fair than I originally thought.

I’d seen all I needed to see so when Boone finally broke
away from conversation, I led the way to the door. I was about
to pass through the leafy arches
when the room got quiet
except for the
five words
that were booming
through the
speakers.

“Ruby Matthews and Zach Mason.”

Suddenly, there was a spotlight searching the cafeteria
until it found what it was looking for.
Me. It was looking for
me. Dumbfounded, I froze in its bright beam unable to figure
out what was going on. Like a lopsided nightmare, hands began
to reach out to me, pulling me back toward where Misty sat.
Then another set of hands placed a crown on my head—an
exact replica of the one presented moments earlier to my worst
enemy. I was in shock.

This had to be a cruel joke orchestrated by her royal
highness of the snake pit.
I fought against the urging for me to
take the seat next to Misty. This was my
Carrie
moment.
This
was where they would unleash some foul form of mockery on
me. This was where they would all make fun of me. But unlike
Carrie, I wouldn’t be able to defend myself. Why now? Wasn’t
having Zach at death’s door enough punishment for me?

I took a deep breath and sat down. If completely and
totally humiliating me was what they wanted, then I was going
to give it to them. My only defense, I realized, was in how I
reacted to it. If I sat there crying and screaming, they would get
what they wanted. If I kept my head held high, they would see
that they hadn’t succeeded in breaking me. I was unbreakable
now. And I had Zach to thank for that. If only he could be here
to see this. To see
me
. To see how much meeting him changed
me. Because of him, I had the strength to face whatever was
about to come my way. What came wasn’t anything I could
have mentally prepared for.

Principal Lascher placed the crown on my head then
handed me the one meant for Zach to wear. “Congratulations,
Ruby. It’s too bad that Zach can’t be here to share it with you.”