The Girl In White

by Shannon Reber

  And my temper rose up. I swiped the napkins from Spencer’s hand, balled them up, and flung them in Ian’s face. “Don’t you dare—”

  That was when Infinity chose to fling herself at Ian, clinging to him like she was the one who had been hurt. “Come on, baby. Let’s go back and do some more dancing,” she cooed in his ear, her hand rested possessively on his chest.

  Ian didn’t respond, his eyes still fixed on me. “Go home, Madison. You need to take care of that,” he made a motion to my foot like I’d forgotten about it or something.

  I closed my eyes and counted to three, doing my best not to let my temper fly free. The trouble was, it had already cracked the surface and the molten lava of my anger began to bubble over. “If you ever tell me what to do again, you will figure out why I work so hard to keep my temper in check.”

  Infinity let out a shriek of laughter. “Come on, Ian. You and I have a date with some music,” and she pulled on his arm to get him to go with her.

  My lips curled in a derisive sneer. “Yeah, Ian. Go and dance. Your ‘DATE’ has been working so hard to get your attention. Save her from having to strip or something equally appalling. I’d hate for you to have to endure that,” I said in a sarcastic tone and turned to walk away.

  That was when Ian made his mistake. He reached out and grabbed hold of my elbow, turning me around to face him. I’d reached my limit. I wasn’t about to be manhandled by him or anyone else.

  I rounded on him, my hands balled into fists. “You know, I’ve been kicking myself all week about not having the cojones to come and talk to you, to apologize—”

  Ian cut me off before I could finish my tirade. “You were going to apologize to me for thinking I murdered my sister? That’s so sweet of you, Maddie. The nicest gesture. Maybe next you could come to my parent’s house and accuse my dad. I mean, he did ground Emma once. That must mean he lost his mind and hung her. Or how about my mom? Or that teacher who thought you wrote Emma’s last Language Arts paper because it was so much better than usual. Maybe—”

  “You’re right!” I shouted and yanked my arm free of him, tears streaming down my cheeks. “I hate myself for doubting you. Emma was all I had. Losing her showed me that even more clearly. She was the only one who loved me . . . the only one. Now that I know she didn’t kill herself, it’s like something inside me broke. You were right. I really am wounded and broken. We made ourselves blood-sisters when we were eight and I believed that she killed herself.” A sob of sheer misery escaped me. Tears flowed like a storm of pain down my cheeks. I didn’t even care that we stood in the middle of that large a crowd, everyone staring at us.

  Ian wrapped his arms around me and held on even when I fought him. I wriggled and elbowed but he held on. He shook as hard as I did, though his arms were warm and strong.

  And suddenly all the fight left me. I rested my cheek on his chest and let the misery have me. He didn’t let go. It was like he intended to be the glue which mended my broken bits back together.

  EIGHTEEN

  It turned out that getting away from Infinity was the least of my troubles. My foot was a mess. Blood had soaked into my shoe and the tendons she had stabbed with her heel felt like they had been severed.

  Fortunately for me, there was a first aid station not far from me. I hobbled my way in that direction, ignoring the squawking that followed me. It didn’t matter. She didn’t matter. I could handle it.

  It seemed Ian didn’t agree. He hooked his arm around my waist and half carried me over to the stand where a harassed looking EMT stood. It was nice of him to help, yet I was hardly in the mood.

  My temper had not faded and being proved to be weak made me angry again. The trouble was, my foot hurt like crazy. It wasn’t like it was the first time Ian had helped to take care of me. It was the first time in a long time, though, and it made me nervous.

  Like he understood that, he stepped back when we got to the stand. He stayed close, his eyes still fixed on mine.

  Spencer walked over as well, his chartreuse eyes narrowed angrily. “Imogen’s coming,” he said in a tight voice.

  I let out a groan. “Spencer, please stop her. That’s a good way to be noticeable. I’ll head home and you can offer to take her home,” I pleaded, not wanting to have to face the scene Imogen would make.

  He coughed out a snide sound. “Oh, yeah. That’s the perfect time to ask her out. It’s when her best friend is bleeding because of some spoiled little princess throwing a temper tantrum.”

  Infinity began screeching insults at him, her vocabulary very impressive.

  Spencer didn’t seem to have heard her at all. It was like he was oblivious to everything she said. And that girl said a lot.

  I opened my mouth to defend him until a hiss of pain escaped me. The EMT had begun to clean the blood from my foot and holy blue-screen did it hurt.

  Ian stepped closer again and shot me a scornful look. “Nut-up, Maddie. You are the little girl who didn’t cry when you fell out of a tree and broke your arm in three places. This should be nothing to you.”

  I glowered at him. “I was seven, you error code. I was trying to be brave because you intimidated me.”

  “So you’re saying I don’t intimidate you anymore?”

  “No, Ian. You don’t. You haven’t in a long time.”

  “What does intimidate you, Maddie?”

  “Stupid questions,” I snapped, shooting him a black look.

  Ian smirked at me in a way that made me feel like I’d been played. That was when I realized that the EMT guy was done bandaging my foot. So Ian had been distracting me like he’d always done when we were little.

  I sighed and held out my little finger between us. “Does this mean I also have to apologize for calling you an error code?” I asked, unsure why he was even still around.

  Instead of hooking his little finger around mine, he wrapped his hand around my wrist and gave it a friendly little squeeze. “You don’t have to apologize for anything,” he said in a quiet tone as he gave my wrist a little tug. “Come on. I’ll take you home and you can yell at me for being that error code.”

  I shook my head. “Looks to me like you’re the one who deserves to do the yelling.”

  Infinity howled like a rabid dog. “She told me all I had to do was show up here! She’s so good at getting what she wants, I was sure she was right. You’ve wanted me since high school. She said it was true!”

  Ian tipped his chin back in obvious confusion. “What are you talking about?” he asked, his face a mask of bewilderment and irritation.

  She turned away from him and stalked away, muttering as she went.

  I shrugged it off and moved to stand up. Putting weight on my foot hurt a lot more than I wanted to admit. Those lethal heels had done a number on me, that was certain.

  Ian offered his hand to me. “Will you let me take you home?” he asked, a plea written clearly in those words.

  I looked over at Spencer and arched my brows at him. “Would you mind driving Imogen home, telling her I’m fine and all that?”

  He nodded, turning away before anything more could be said.

  I wished we’d had more time to talk. I wished I knew if Imogen liked him. I wished quite a few other things as well. Wishing was a waste of time, though.

  Instead, I decided to focus on the man who walked next to me. Ian supported me as we walked, his arm wrapped gently around my waist. And again, guilt filled my heart and mind.

  “Ian, I’m so sorry. I never should have doubted you,” I blurted out, my eyes fixed on the ground in front of us as we walked together.

  He blew out a long breath and shook his head. “I get it, Maddie. I’ve known you almost your entire life. I know what your life was like, what your mom is still like. I don’t blame you. You were taught not to trust. I just . . . thought you had more faith in me,” he said in a monotone as his shoulder sagged.

  I stopped and stepped in front of him, slowly reaching up to rest my hand on his cheek. “I knew i
t was crap. I knew it. I was so freaked out by everything, I latched onto the idea. I do trust you, Ian. I always have. I probably always will . . . unless you choose to date someone like Infinity. Then I’d choose to forget you existed,” I said with as wide a smile as could be mustered.

  He took my hand from his cheek and linked his fingers with mine. “There’s only one girl I want to date and it is NOT her,” he said and began walking again.

  My stomach fluttered at those words. The thing was, Infinity was on my mind. Who had told her that Ian had liked her since high school? Even I knew that wasn’t true. I supposed it didn’t matter, not much anyway.

  We remained quiet until we got to my car where we had a little battle over which of us would drive. He won, the worm.

  By the time we got to my house, it was like nothing had gone wrong for us all along. Our friendship was still there, a little dented but whole. And that was how I felt as well. I was damaged. I was still whole, though.

  I motioned Ian to follow me up the steps, grateful to have his help in getting up them. I did not want to admit how much Infinity had actually hurt me. I had never understood people like her. She was one of the most perfect girls I had ever seen, yet had no idea how to handle it that Ian didn’t seem to want her. It was odd although in my world, odd had become the norm.

  Ian stopped as I got to the door of my bedroom, his eyes flicking away from me as he rubbed the back of his neck.

  I stepped into the room and motioned him to the desk chair. “Do you know who TC Erkens is?” I asked, hoping to be able to talk to him about everything I had found out in the last week.

  He faltered before he gave a slow nod. “Uh, yeah,” he said and turned my desk chair around so he straddled it as he sat.

  I sat on the floor in front of my bed and opened my laptop. “It’s possible I might have a line on what he’s investigating. The problem is, he seems to think electronics are evil and I can’t hack hard copies,” I said distractedly, fiddling with my shoe.

  “You’re trying to investigate a paranormal investigator?”

  “Trying and failing.”

  Ian snorted before he let out a belly laugh that sounded almost exactly like it had when he was a little kid. “Maddie, you are unique. You know that?” he asked and rose from the chair.

  He sat down in front of me and took my foot into his lap, carefully unhooking the strap that held it in place. He eased the shoe off, his eyes fixed on my foot. Something about it had apparently made him angry because his nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed as he looked at it.

  “What did you do to make her hate you so much?” he asked like it was all my fault that the girl had decided to stab my foot with her lethal heel.

  I yanked my foot free and shifted around to rise. “Oh right. I forgot. It’s obviously my fault when—”

  Ian leaned forward and clamped his hand over my mouth. “It’s good to know the bad tempered little girl is still in there. I wasn’t saying any of this was your fault. It was only a dumb comment that you do not need to bite my head off about.”

  I turned my head to get him to remove his hand, though he refused to move it.

  “There is a reason I stayed as far as I possibly could from her. Her and Manuel dated last year and she had more than a few screws loose.”

  I tried to speak around his hand, to tell him how revolting of him it was to say that Infinity was crazy when Manuel had apparently believed himself to be God’s gift to women.

  Ian tightened his hand further. “I know, Maddie. Manuel was not a good guy. Infinity is not a good girl. They were the worst couple in the history of the world, in my opinion.” He uncovered my mouth and bumped a callused finger against my bottom lip. “Saying the wrong thing to you seems to be what I’m best at. If I was going to reword what I said before, I’d ask why she was so mean to you.”

  I rolled my eyes at him, my lips quirked up in an unwilling smile. “It’s all a competition to her. In high school, she didn’t like having a little kid beat her in the classes she used to be top in. Now, it’s because of you,” I said and nudged my aching foot into his chest. “You are a hot guy she’s marked as her own but haven’t been playing along. She’s the type to blame things on someone else, so I was elected. She obviously doesn’t know how you feel about me.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “How I feel about you? How do you think I feel about you, Maddie?” he demanded.

  I tapped my finger to my chin in a thinking pose. “That I’m obnoxious. That I’m troublesome. That my freckles make me look like my face is dirty. That my face looked like a butt. And then there were my favorite remarks of yours, to do with me being demon-spawn.” I waved my hand in a negligent way. “You made your feelings about me very clear. I had cooties.”

  His lips quivered a little before he turned his eyes down to look at my foot. “I was a stupid little kid who had no idea how to deal with you. You were this feisty little thing who was around my house all the time, always hacking into something or another. I never thought of you in any kind of uncomplimentary way. I was a stupid kid and had no idea how to tell you I had a crush on you.” His blue eyes turned up to meet mine. “That party you and Emma threw for me my senior year, I couldn’t take my eyes off you. I felt like a pervert since you were only fifteen. It didn’t stop me from wanting you.”

  I gaped at him, my mouth working silently for a bit. After a few seconds, I was able to pry my jaw off the floor. I still didn’t know what to say, though.

  He shot me a sheepish look and set my foot on the floor before he moved to sit next to me. We were side by side, not touching, not looking at each other. I felt closer to him at that time than to anyone else in the world.

  After an uncomfortable minute of silence, Ian turned his head to look at me. “So when you were talking about Infinity, you said something about me being hot?” he asked with a wicked little grin.

  I shot him a dark look or tried to anyway. It came out as a smile. “You know you are. It’s obvious in the way you carry yourself. You swagger,” I accused, unable to look away from him.

  “And you prowl. You’re like a cat.”

  “Ian, I still don’t get you,” I said in a quiet voice, still staring into those eyes of his.

  “Yes you do, Maddie. I’m easy to figure out. I’m a grease-monkey who’s addicted to coffee and watching this gorgeous little hacker breaking laws. That’s me, cover to cover.”

  I tipped my head to the side, a slight smile on my lips. “So Ian, that girl you want to date . . . are you trying to say it’s me?” I asked, my stomach clenched into a tight knot.

  He took my hand and threaded his fingers through mine. “Yes, Maddie. You’re gorgeous, staggeringly intelligent, adorably snarky with me, and you have this way of being so oblivious. To every person in my life, my feelings for you are obvious. Not to you, though.” He traced his thumb over the back of my hand. “Any chance we could go out sometime, Maddie?”

  I leaned my head to the side to rest on his shoulder. “Do we have to go out? I mean, we could order a pizza and sit on the couch,” I said a little desperately.

  He leaned his head against mine and squeezed my hand. “I was actually thinking about getting some food and going out into the woods around my parent’s house. That was always the place you looked most comfortable.”

  I sat still for a bit before pulling myself free of him. I shifted around to face him and gave him a solemn nod. “You don’t always say the wrong things to me, Ian. Sometimes, you say the perfect things. Are you sure, though? I mean, I don’t have a lot of friends. If we date and something goes wrong it would ruin everything.”

  His lips quirked a tiny bit although he suppressed his grin. “Maddie, you can’t break up with me before we’ve even gone on a date,” he said and leaned forward to touch his lips softly to mine before I could respond.

  It was a quick, soft, sweet little kiss and it moved me. Ian Gregory had kissed me. It was like he saw me as someone very different than I had ever believed. />
  He retreated after only a moment, his eyes fixed on mine as though mesmerized. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.” He ran his knuckles down my cheek. “And I promise you, no matter what, you and I will be friends.”

  “Does this mean you don’t think I have cooties anymore?” I asked, my smile a little snide.

  He shrugged. “I’ve come to love your cooties, Maddie. Without them, my life is boring.”

  And that was when everything started clicking into place in my mind. “You’re the one who hired TC Erkens. You’ve suspected for a long time that something was wrong. You were trying to keep me from looking into it. That’s why you tried to make me think I was crazy.”

  He closed his eyes and tipped his head back. “I wasn’t trying to make you feel crazy. I was trying to keep you safe. I should have known you wouldn’t let it go. Once you get an idea in your head, you never let it go.”

  “Wow, I love when you talk about me like I’m not here,” I snarked at him. Because I wasn’t actually mad, I turned so we were side by side and set my laptop on my legs. “The thing is, I think the ME missed something. I don’t think the rope is what killed Emma.”

  Ian groaned and rubbed a hand over his brows. “Wow, I love it when you pull out your deerstalker and pipe right after I kiss you.”

  “That hardly counted as a kiss, Mr. Gregory,” I said and bumped my shoulder into his arm. “That was a peck. Pecks aren’t supposed to make a girl all swoony unless she’s a complete sap, which I’m not.”

  “So you’re saying if I want to have a romantic moment, it has to be a full make-out session?”

  “It’s elementary, my dear Gregory.”

  He snorted and ran his fingers over that ticklish spot on my side. “The game is totally afoot. Let’s do this,” he said and leaned closer to look at what was on the screen.

  His smile fell away immediately as he saw that I had opened the pictures of Manuel’s body. I knew it hadn’t been fair of me to shove him into it without warning. There hadn’t seemed to be any better way to do it, though.