• chapter fifteen •
I took a bath and carried my sandals and comb to Ashley's place. She was super-excited, which meant that she talked a lot. She sat me down on a chair in her bathroom in front of the mirror and did my hair and make-up, then did her own hair and make-up, then brought out the dresses. They were twin dresses, and the most beautiful ones I'd ever seen, too. Hers was red and mine was sapphire-blue, since I had postponed the dress-buying till the last minute and hadn't found a black one. They didn't have straps. I don't know what they're called- tube dresses, maybe. The skirts were long and voluminous.
I slipped into the dress. It was silky-soft. I put on my heels, and then looked at myself in the mirror, grinning. This night was going to be amazing.
I stood and admired myself in the mirror till Ash came and dragged me away, saying that the boys were about to come. We sat on the sofa outside and waited. Pretty soon I heard the roar of an engine outside, and then footsteps, and then the doorbell rang. I jumped up and ran to the door.
It was Liam. He was wearing a black tuxedo with a bow-tie. For the first time, it looked as if he had combed his hair. He looked so handsome.
As soon as I pulled open the door, Liam's eyes popped out like tennis balls. He stared at me open-mouthed, his lips parted slightly, then quickly closed it and smiled. "You look...stunning."
Hearing that from him melted my heart. I put my arms around his neck, and he scooped me up in his arms and kissed me. I'd never felt happier. When he pulled away, I grinned like I was the luckiest girl in the world.
Someone giggled behind me. I turned around. Ash was looking at Liam. "You have lip-gloss on your mouth."
I laughed and wiped it with my finger.
The headlights of a car washed over us. It stopped behind Liam's car, the gravel crunching under the tyres. Zack stepped out. He had his camera slung around his neck.
He walked towards us, and his gaze fell on me. "Oh my God. This girl looks a lot like Reddie, but I'm pretty sure it's not her. And you're very...blue today. I should be calling you Bluey." We laughed. He shut one eye and looked through the camera lens at us. "Say cheese!"
We were about to pose, but Ash heard his voice and pushed us aside and ran towards him. "Zack!" She jumped on him like she was meeting him after years, and then they started kissing and we had to look away, because it was impossible to look at them. "And Ashley should be my Reddie," I heard Zack say.
After a long time, when they were done, we posed again. Liam slipped his arm around my waist and kissed the side of my head. The camera flashed, and I closed my eyes as the flash blinded me, and he had to take the photo again.
Then he threw the camera at me. I caught it. "Take our pictures too." He posed with his tongue out.
"We'll grab something to eat first?" Liam asked once we were in the car.
"Yeah," I said. "Did I tell you that you look hot?"
He laughed. "Thanks, babe. Where do you want to go for dinner?"
That made me smile. I stared out of the window at all the buildings rolling by in a blur, and didn't answer. "Hey?" he asked, but I was too busy grinning, caught up in the fact that he had called me 'babe'.
He reached out and poked me with his finger. "There's a very nice Chinese restaurant I can take you to."
"Nah. I don't really want to go to a posh place. Because there you have to sit and eat like you have a lot of manners and if your spoon falls down or something then people start staring at you like you've committed a sin. Can we eat burgers instead?"
"That will require you to open your mouth very wide. And if you ruin your lip gloss then Ash will kill me and justify the murder by saying that it was totally my fault and that I shouldn't have fed you burgers. Let's have pizza."
"Alright."
There were already lots of people there from our school, wearing dresses and tuxedos. We found a small table in the corner next to the window. He pulled out the chair for me like a gentleman. I blushed and sat.
He ordered. We ate without speaking, which suited me, because I wanted to sit and gaze at him and daydream for a while. Our spoons clinked together whenever we reached inside the shared chocolate sundae cup for a bite.
"Can I ask you something?" I said slowly.
"Sure."
"Why did it take you so long to ask me out? I mean," I nervously twirled the spoon in my fingers, "you knew you liked me for six months."
"Becaaause..." he hesitated, as if wondering whether to tell me or not, "I wasn't very sure if you liked me back, and I thought if I confessed my feelings, our friendship would get awkward. Or maybe I was just worried that you'd leave me for the same reason Abigail did. That you'd say that it was best to end it because you couldn't love me back the way I did."
I was flattered. "You...love me that much?"
"I love you more than I loved her."
I looked up. He was smiling at me. And I was kind of overwhelmed, I guess, because I stood up and leaned over the table and kissed him. It was a short, two-second kiss, and then I sat down quickly before anyone could see and start hooting and it could get embarrassing.
He looked at me silently, still smiling that smile I loved so much. I blushed. Then I asked, "Why?"
"Why," he repeated. He put his spoon down and leaned back in his seat. "Because you're not judgmental. Abigail was cool and wild and really nice and all, but she was judgmental and I had to think twice before saying anything to her. And whenever she came to my room, she would look at the bookshelf and say, 'Why do you read so much?' and that really annoyed me. But it's not like that with you. I never have to think about what I'm going to say before I say it to you. You find whatever I say funny. And I know I can act like an idiot in front of you and you won't mind."
"Whatever you say is funny."
"See?"
I laughed.
We sat in the car again and drove to school. "The thing is," he continued, "you are my best friend before being my girlfriend. I love that about us."
The bushes and trees in the yard were covered with strings of little yellow lights. A carpet stretched out up the path all the way to the gym doors. The muffled sound of music came from the gym.
He parked. I was about to get out when he cried, "Wait!" and got out. Then he came around to my side, opened my door and held out his hand. "May I?"
I got out and looped my arm through his. "You're adorable."
He shot me a goofy grin. "I know."
He walked me to the gym. We pushed open the double doors. The music was booming loudly through the speakers. A party song was on. The lighting was dim and the disco lights were flashing, people were dancing and yelling and taking pictures in a corner and making out, but mostly they were dancing.
He took my hand and led me through the crowd to a nice spot. We met Luke on the way, and he and Liam shook hands and gave each other awkward smiles. I was glad they weren't fighting anymore. We stood for a while in the aforementioned nice spot, and another song came up, and everyone cheered.
"I love this one!" he said, and then started dancing, or to describe it better, jumping up and down with the beat. I was swaying. "Come on!" He took my hand. "No one's watching you, Hazelnut. Everyone is too busy looking at their dance partners. Come on!"
He tried to teach me the steps, and I laughed, and the world melted away and it was just me and him. He lifted me up and spun me around. I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt so in love. I was having so much fun; I felt like a kid.
Please Forgive Me came up next. He pulled me really close and put one arm around me and laced his fingers with mine, which made me blush furiously. We moved slowly. I planted a kiss on his cheek. This was all I wanted for the rest of my life.
"What the hell!" Liam exclaimed, staring at his car. The front tyre was flat. He walked to the car and knelt down to examine it. "Someone has let the air out," he grumbled angrily. "Idiotic people and their sense of humor."
A cool breeze tickled my bare shoulders. It was past midnight. I rubbed my arms. "Maybe Zack can give us a ride home."
We went to his car and waited for a while, leaning against the bonnet. Ash and Zack came a while later, arm in arm, giggling about something.
After fifteen minutes of begging him, he agreed to drop us home. Those fifteen minutes were spent like this:
Liam: Someone let the air out of my car's tyre. Can you drive us home?
Zack: No.
Liam: Dude. Please?
Zack: Say 'pretty please'.
Liam: Pretty please.
Zack: No.
Liam: What?
Zack: Say 'you are so hot, Zack'.
Liam: You're so hot, Zack.
Zack: Say that you're an asshole.
Liam: I'm an asshole.
Zack: No, I said, say 'you're an asshole'. You said 'I'm an asshole'.
Then he howled with laughter, and Liam said that if Zack didn't agree to give us a lift, he would kick Zack so hard in the balls that he would never have kids. And then he agreed.
Liam sat in the passenger's seat, hoping to stop Zack from speeding. Ash got in the back with me.
He drove at a hundred miles an hour on the highway, and that freaked everyone out. He turned left into a street, which was free of cars, so he increased his speed. "Zack," Liam warned, "slow down."
"Nah."
"Dude, you'll kill all of us."
"Can you chill?"
We turned right. It was awfully dark here. I looked around and noticed that all the streetlamps were off. The moon gave out the only light. I grabbed Ashley's hand. I couldn't see anything properly, apart from the dark silhouettes of buildings and trees. On the road in front of us, we could only see the area lit up by the headlights, nothing beyond that.
Then I realized that goosebumps had risen on my skin. A few minutes later my teeth started chattering. It couldn't be so cold on a summer night. Something was wrong.
I leaned forward. "Zack, we should turn around."
"Why?"
"Because it's dark and it's cold and that can only mean one thing—"
And there she stood. My breath caught in my throat. She materialized out of thin air about fifty meters away from us. It was like one second we were staring at complete darkness, and the next second we were staring at a translucent woman with porcelain-skin and black, flowing hair.
I remembered how, when I had seen her for the first time, her eyes had looked sad and helpless. Now whenever I saw her, they looked angry.
Considering the speed at which we were going, we were probably two seconds away from crashing into her. Zack pounded the horn.
"Go straight through her," Liam instructed urgently. He was trying to sound brave, but I knew how scared he was. His fingernails dug into the dashboard.
"Are you crazy?" Zack shouted, pounding the horn again. He tried to slow down, but the needle of the speedometer only went from a hundred and fifty to hundred. He couldn't have slowed down more than that in such a short time. "MOVE!" he screamed.
"Trust me!" Liam yelled. "Go straight through her!"
But Zack swerved to the right and stepped hard on the brakes. We bumped into a tree. My neck snapped forward as the car came to an abrupt stop. I was sweating.
"Fuck," Liam mumbled. I thought he was talking about the car, but then I followed his gaze and saw that Mary was walking towards us. Zack didn't notice. He opened the door and got out to examine the damage. The smell of burnt rubber filled my nostrils.
"Come back!" Ash cried, but it was too late. Mary was already standing behind him. She raised her hand to touch him.
"No!" In a flash, Liam was out of the car. He pulled Zack away from the ghost.
She glared at him, gritting her teeth together. "Why have you not killed him yet?" she asked in her whispery voice. The cold breeze grew stronger, whistling through the empty road, as if reflecting her anger.
Both of them were trembling against the tree. We were still sitting in the car. I took Ashley's hand and whispered, "Should we get out?"
Before Ash could reply, Mary looked at us, and the car started shaking. I pushed at the door, but it didn't open. "Try the other one!" I said frantically.
"Are you crazy? She's standing right there." She sounded like she was about to cry. "Open it, Hazel! Quick!" The car shook harder. Ash pushed me aside and kicked as hard as she could. The door shot open. I looked at her in surprise. We scrambled out as fast as we could, and the apparition appeared in front of us. I thought of backing away, but my feet refused to respond. I was paralyzed with fear. Her lips moved. I said, the wind whispered, why haven't you killed him yet?
She brought her face close to Ashley's. "Be-because he is... he is already dead," I said quickly. "It's 2009." My hands were shaking so hard, it felt like my arm would fall off.
He is alive, she growled. I can feel his essence.
"Where is he?" Zack asked boldly, and she flew from us to him, and he started trembling again.
Here... In this city.
"Y-You can k-kill him yourself also, you know," he stuttered.
I cannot! I do not have the energy! The wind was blowing faster now. My hair fluttered wildly around my face, and my skirt flew up into the air. I give you a last chance...Find him.... Or you die. I shivered, but it wasn't from the cold. She slowly faded away.
Ash sobbed a little, and then broke down. She held up her palm in front of her face. "She was this close to me! She was— it was so cold!"
The boys came over to us and we group hugged for a while.
We didn't say anything. Zack was staring off into the distance, his mind was clearly busy. Even mine was. I had to go back to that bookstore and look for 'The Book of Souls.' There had to be some information in it on how to protect ourselves from ghosts.
"So...should we go home now?" Liam asked. Without a word, we all piled into the car after examining the damage. One headlight had smashed and there was a small dent at the front.
The ride home was a very quiet one.
Zack dropped me at my house, and Liam got down to walk me to my door. We heard the car start up, and by the time we realized what was going on, Zack had driven off. He was laughing like crazy. "Have a hot night of passion, guys!" he shouted. A small attempt at humour.
"Zack!" Liam called, but Zack didn't stop. "I don't want to walk home!"
I giggled. Liam looked at me, and the funny side of the affair struck us, and we burst out laughing. He kissed my forehead. "Bye."
"Bye," I said, entering the house. Shutting the door, I leaned my back against it and sighed happily as the day re-winded in my head. It was like a fairytale.
Then I realized something which horrified me. I hadn't told him I loved him, not even once. He had already said 'I love you' to me so many times, and I had either kissed him or smiled or blushed, but I hadn't said those words. How could I be so stupid?
I kicked off my heels and threw on my slippers, yanked the door open and ran out of the house. I could just see his silhouette in the distance, getting smaller and smaller with each step. "Liam!" I called out, and ran after him. "Liam!"
He turned around and waited. I ran in my slippers as fast as I could without tripping, and finally reached him. I bent down and rested my hands on my knees and struggled to catch my breath.
"What is it?" he asked, cupping my face with his hands.
"Wait," I gasped. "Let...me...breathe."
He waited, and when I was normal again, I stood up straight and looked into his eyes and said, "I wanted to say that I love you."
In that moment, I swear time froze. He wrapped his arms around me. "You've said it to me so many times already," I continued, "but I never had the guts to say it back. But now I'm saying it. I love you."
He rested his forehead against mine. "You really mean it?"
"Of course I do, loser."
"I love you, too."
I looked into his grey eyes. It felt like I could look into those eyes all day. They twinkled. "Anything else you didn't have the guts to say?"
"Yeah. I had the time of my life."
He traced the shape of my lips with his thumb. It tickled. I smiled. His fingers travelled down my neck and arm, till they reached my hand. He kissed my palm. "I'll walk you home again." He offered me his arm and I took it, and we started walking.
∞