Unfinished Business An Angela Panther Novel (A Chick-lit Paranormal book) (The Angela Panther Series) (15 page)

I grinned evilly at Mel. “She’s about ten yards ahead of you. I took off running.

“Oh, crap,” Mel yelled, and took off behind me.

Five minutes later, we were bent over, breathing heavily and trying to catch our breath while laughing at each other. “Oh my God, you have got to stop doing sprints on the treadmill. You’re crazy! And did you see that old man we passed? I almost peed on myself laughing so hard. He was totally getting his Zumba on."

I tried to respond, but had to breathe more first. “I know. Poor guy. Someone needs to tell him he can’t dance. I was embarrassed for him. And those sprints have been amazing. I totally kicked your butt just now.”

“I let you win.”

“Yeah, and I’m a virgin,” We walked.

“So, what’s next?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what’s next? Are you going to do what you did with the ghost at Fowler Park again or what?”

I pulled my hair band off my hair and put it back in. “I don’t know. I know I don’t want to but I’m not sure I can make that decision just yet. Right now I’m just going to sit on it and see what happens. Who knows, maybe I won’t see any more ghosts. Maybe that was it and I’m done.”

“Oh, how I’d love to live in your fantasy world, Ang. You and I both know this isn’t done. These things don’t just happen and then stop.”

“It did when I was little.”

“That’s different. From what I’ve read, kids are more receptive to these kinds of things, but as they get older, they’re conditioned to think it’s not right and they want to be accepted and loved so they stop seeing, like psychic Linda said but you’re past all that now.”

“I still need to be accepted and loved, Mel.”

She laughed. “You know what I mean. I think though, since Fran died and opened up this other worldly door, for lack of a better term, I think there’s no going back now. Your world has changed and I for one am psyched about what can happen.”

I gazed at my friend and admired that she could speak truth to me, regardless of whether I wanted to hear it or not, and resisted the urge to smack her for thinking this was a good thing. “Sometimes you’re a real joy-kill, you know?”

“Yup. That’s what Nick says, too. I’m not trying to be a joy-kill, Ang. You need to look at this differently. Maybe you should go back and see Linda?”

“Linda? For what?”

“For help. Maybe she can help you get a handle on this. We should go to Barnes & Noble or go online and look for some books or something. Maybe there’s something that can help you find a way to come to terms with this thing?”

“You mean curse?”

Mel shook her head. “Fine. Curse. We’ll call Linda after we’re finished here. Come on, let’s run this last mile. I’ll even let you beat me.” She took off running.

I dug my heel in for a strong take off and passed her saying, “Remember, I do sprints on the treadmill.”

She flipped me off.

Seconds later – okay, minutes later, but who’s counting – we were back at the start of the path, panting and bending over again, hands to knees. I laughed. “Yup, those sprints are helping me kick your butt big time.”

She flipped me off again. “Pfft. I let you win, and because of that, you get to buy me a coffee. Let’s meet at Starbucks.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you in a few.”

We walked to our cars and headed to our little slice of Heaven. I called and checked in with Jake.

“Emily came home and went to bed. I went to wake her up, but she said she wasn’t feeling well.”

“She came home from Taylor’s already? Something’s up with her, Jake, she’s not sick. When she’s sick she’s whiny and roams through the house looking for someone to take care of her. Maybe she and Taylor are fighting. Can you check her FaceBook page? I’m gonna a quick coffee with Mel, run and few errands and then I’ll be home. ’K?”

“Yup. I’ll call you if I see anything interesting.”

“Thanks. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

###

M
el and I waved to Jenn, our favorite Starbucks barista. She was making drinks, so I knew mine would be great.

“Yay, Jenn’s on bar."

I nudged Mel. “Hey.”

“What?”

“Do you see that woman behind Jenn?”

Mel walked up to the espresso counter and stared. “What woman?”

“Shh. Come over here.”

“You see another ghost, don’t you? Told you the soccer dad wouldn’t be the last.”

“Crap. It’s that same woman from the other day.”

Mel glanced back at Jenn. “What’s she doing?”

“Making our drinks, duh.”

She elbowed me in the side. “Not Jenn, you idiot. The ghost. What’s the ghost doing?”

“I told you. Standing behind Jenn.”

“She’s just standing there? Doing nothing?”

“Yup.”

“What’re you gonna do?”

“What do you mean, what am I gonna do? I’m not gonna do anything, Mel.”

“Ang, you gotta do something. We grabbed our drinks.

“No, I don’t
gotta
do anything, Mel. Besides, she’s not doing anything either, so we’re even.”

“You need to tell Jenn. What if she knows her or something? What if it’s her dead sister?”

“Jenn doesn’t have a sister.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because she’s worked here for five years and never once mentioned having a sister.”

“That’s because she’s dead.”

“Oh for crying out loud. I am not telling her. No way. God only knows what she’ll think, and besides, she makes my drink. I don’t want her getting mad and messing with my mochas, you know?”

“She won’t mess with your mochas, Ang. Geesh. I’ll be right back.” Mel walked back over to the counter and ordered a morning bun.

I gave her my raised eyebrow look. “A morning bun?”

“We just walked and ran at least a billion miles and sprinted another billion. I can have a morning bun. Besides, I want one.”

We walked outside and sat in our favorite spot. I decided to ask Jenn to put our names on the chair so no one else would take them.

“Ooookay. I wish I lived in that fantasy world you live in" We sat down.

“I love my fantasy world. In it I’m five feet five and one hundred and ten pounds. Oh, and I don’t have any wrinkles or wobbly bits. And my boobs are perky. It’s a great place to live.”

I laughed. Not only because she had an alternate universe but because she described herself dead on but didn’t even realize it. Mel has carnival mirrors throughout her house and doesn’t see how beautiful she really is.

I guzzled my drink quicker than I realized. “I’m getting a smoothie. At least it’s healthier than a morning bun.”

Mel just about jumped out of her chair. “I’m coming with you. I have to see what happens.”

Of course Jenn was still on the counter and of course the ghost was still behind her. As Jenn made my smoothie, Mel started talking to her, likely so I’d have to stare at the ghost and be forced to say something. “So, Jenn, you’ve been here for what, five years and Angela and I realized we don’t know that much about you. So, tell us about you. Do you have a brother or a sister?”

I kicked my ex-best friend in the shin.

“Ouch.”

I didn’t say anything, but couldn’t help from looking from Jenn to the ghost and I think the ghost caught on because she floated over to the counter and said, “Can you see me?”

Crap. I’m going to hate it when this happens every single time. There were at least other five people standing beside me. If I answered her, I’d look like a crazy person. So instead, I looked at her and ever so slightly nodded my head once. She beamed. I frowned.

“Oh my gosh."

I felt myself cringe. What was I supposed to do, respond? Um, no. I didn’t think that would be smart. I nudged Mel, but she kept talking to Jenn. Who, by the way, did have a sister. I guess you learn something new everyday, huh? I nudged Mel again. Nothing. Finally I lightly pressed my heel onto her toes. “Ow! That hurts!”

I leaned into her and whispered, “We need to go outside.”

“What?”

“I said, let’s go outside. I don’t want to be inside.” I grabbed my smoothie and I leaned my head down and widened my eyes, trying to get my point across. The,
I don’t want to stay in here because the ghost knows I can see her,
point.

She wasn’t getting it. “Why? It’s hot out there and we just came in to cool off.” Thankfully she’s pretty because sometimes she’s clueless.

“I. Want. To. Sit. Outside." I pronounced each word strongly.

“The ghost, Mel.”

“Oh. Okay. Yeah, let’s sit outside. We can use the vitamin D.”

We pulled chairs up to the table farthest from the door because someone had taken our table. I was so going to have to get a label made for it.

“Can you not read my mind? Geesh!”

“I was trying to find out who the ghost is."

“Well you weren’t doing a very good job.”

“You didn’t need to smash my toes with your clown foot.”

“I don’t have a clown foot.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. I just have slightly large feet for my size and I’m sorry, but I was trying to get your attention.”

“Well, it became obvious when you broke my toes!” She rubbed the top of her shoe.

“First of all, I didn’t step that hard and secondly, you can’t even feel that through your shoes, so stop trying to make me feel bad.”

She laughed. “So, she talked to you, didn’t she? The ghost. What did she say?”

“Nothing, really. She noticed me staring at her and asked me if I could see her. Obviously I couldn’t answer her, so I just nodded at her and she started to get excited, which is when I nudged you. I wanted to get the hell out of dodge. I don’t want to talk to her.”

Mel signed obnoxiously. She was probably trying to make a point but I didn’t care. “Angela Palanca.”

“Oh geesh. I already have a mother.”

She laughed.

“Cut me some slack here. I need time to work through all of this. It’s a bit much, you know. I mean it’s not
you
that’s walking around seeing dead people. If it were, you’d be a wreck too, and you know it.”

“You’re right. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m just saying to try and change your attitude about it. Besides, just about an hour ago you told me you didn’t really have any feelings about this.”

“I also told you I didn’t want to do this again and right now I’d really like to talk about something else, please.”

“Okay, fine. Let’s talk about something else. How ’bout that Falcons game?”

“It’s summer, Mel. The Falcons aren’t playing now.”

“Oh, yeah. My bad. So what do you want to talk about? Sex?”

Mel was a bit of a sex fiend, but she wore it well.

“Maybe later, right now let’s talk about Emily.”

“Emily? What’s going on with Emily?”

“That’s what I need to figure out. She came home from Taylor’s claiming to be sick, and doesn’t seem interested in doing anything but lie around her room. She said she’s not feeling good, but this isn’t how she acts when she’s sick. Any thoughts?”

Mel took a sip of my smoothie. “Sounds like they had a fight. Did you do any snooping?”

“Not yet, but I asked Jake to check her FaceBook.”

“Think he will?”

“Nope.”

“You going to?”

“Yup.”

“You know she hates when you do that.”

“Yup.”

“But you don’t care.”

“Nope.”

“That’s my girl.”

“Probably need to check her email too.”

“Does she have a Twitter account?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Bummer. Apparently kids are tweeting now because us old people have taken over FaceBook.”

“Great. One more account to crack.”

“Have you not watched the news, Angela? There’s hundreds of social networking sites now. And the things these kids are doing on them isn’t only illegal, but even I wouldn’t do it.”

“Wow. That’s saying a lot.”

“I know. You need to check her computer.”

“I really hate being a spy.”

“You’re good at it though.”

“It’s a gift.”

“Just one of your many.”

I shook my head

“Girls are brutal at this age. Well, they’re brutal at any age, really, but this age is tough. They probably like the same guy or something. I’m sure it will be fine."

“I hope so.”

“Excuse me.”

“Mel, she’s here.”

“Who?”

"The ghost." Then I turned toward the ghost. "Hi." I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Oh my God! The ghost is here!”

I shushed her, and the ghost asked, “Can you help me?” Madone. Hopefully one day I’ll get used to this. I directed myself toward Mel. “She wants my help. I’m going to look at you and talk to her, so when someone comes by they don’t think I’m talking to the air, ’k?”

Mel beamed, so excited I thought she might jump out of her seat.

I focused my eyes on Mel. “I can try to help you, but honestly, I’m new at this, and not very comfortable with it yet.”

I peeked out of the corner of my eye and saw her deflate just a little. “But you’ll try, right?”

“I said I would help you.”

“I don’t want to bother you, though.”

I didn’t want her to bother me, either.

Mel was close to bursting. “What’s she saying?”

“I’ll tell you when she’s finished, but you’re interrupting her.”

Mel made the lips zipped sign.

I turned my chair to face the parking lot, figuring I could see the ghost this way, but still look like I was talking to Mel. “Okay, so what’s up?”

“I need to get a message to my cousin. I’ve been trying to for a few weeks now, but I can’t make her hear me.”

“Are you talking about Jenn, inside?”

“Yes. Can you help me talk to her?”

It was one thing to talk to a young girl at a soccer park. The likelihood of me running into her again was slim to none, but Jenn I saw several days a week. She knew personal stuff about me, about my family. I wasn’t overly comfortable with approaching her about this. “Listen, I can try, but I don’t know if she believes in ghosts, you know?”

“I think she believes. I was at her house the other night, trying to get her to notice me, and I used my energy to make her lights flicker. She told her husband she was starting to think there was a ghost in the house.”