by Joy Elbel
To make matters even worse, the first person I saw when we got out to the field was Misty. There she was doing stretches in her tiny little track shorts, clearly aiming her barely covered behind in the boys’ direction. Why did she have to be so skank-tastic? I mean, for real, she was totally gorgeous and wouldn’t have to do anything to get attention. She took “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” to “if you’ve got it, shove it in every male’s face within a three mile radius and shake it like a cheap stripper”. I didn’t understand it nor did I even care to at this point. As long as she kept it far away from Zach, she could point that rear end in any direction she pleased. My feelings for her went far beyond hate and into something as yet unnamed. But rest assured, I would find a way to name it.
Coach Hunter gave us time to warm up before tryouts and for some odd reason, I let Rachel talk me into at least giving some of the more frightening events a try. First up, the discus which I flung with all my might. Too bad my might could only send it clunking to the ground a few feet in front of me. Next, the shot put. Yeah, I could barely even lift the thing and once I somehow managed to get it into position, it was too heavy and fell with a thud behind me. I practically ran screaming when Rachel tried to hand me the javelin. I was well aware of the fact that everyone was snickering behind my back—I didn’t want to be tempted into the impaling rod idea.
High jump, long jump, pole vault—my performance at each was equally miserable. Who was I kidding? I wasn’t even the slightest bit athletic—what was I doing here? Besides making an even bigger fool of myself than I already had, that is.
Once the field tryouts were over and we hit the track, I started to feel like less of a loser. I picked two events that I knew I was at least able to compete in—the 100 and 200 meter dashes. Rachel knew that I could beat her at both, so she chose to go for the longer distance runs instead. I came in first in both of my events and then plunked my tired butt down in the grass to cheer Rachel on. Misty also chose the longer distance runs and Rachel was only slightly ahead of her the entire time. You could see the determination on that evil serpent’s face— she didn’t want to lose period, let alone to my best friend. But that was exactly what happened as Rachel maintained her lead past the finish line.
I thought that my day was over so I grabbed my hoodie and started to head for the locker room. Coach Hunter had other plans for me.
“Not so fast, Ruby! I saved the best for last—the relay. I need my four fastest girls on this one if we have any chance of winning it. Rachel, Jordyn, Misty—I’m talking to you, too.”
Of course. I had all the luck of a black cat born under a ladder on Friday the thirteenth. There was no way that I could display any sort of team spirit with that succubus in the lineup. Despite weak protests that I didn’t want to do the relay, Coach Hunter gave me “that look” and pointed back toward the track. Begrudgingly, I did as she wanted me to do.
“Rachel, Jordyn, Misty, and Ruby—in that order, please—take your places. I want to get an idea of your times so pretend that we are at an actual meet and give it your all.”
It didn’t hit me at first but once the race started, I realized that Misty was going to be the one handing off the baton to me. I half expected her to switch it out with a lit stick of dynamite before shoving it into my waiting hand. As I watched Rachel pass off to Jordyn, I started to get anxious. I was merely seconds away from coming face to face with my mortal enemy. Unfortunately, sweaty palms were a side effect of my anxiety.
As Misty started to make her approach, everyone started yelling for me to break into a run. I’d never been part of a relay team before so I stood there dumbly for a moment before I figured out what to do. Then, as Misty roughly shoved the baton at me, I fumbled and it slipped out of my hand. Unsure of what to do, I did nothing.
“What? Did a poltergeist knock it out of your hand, dumbass? Pick the effing thing up and run, freak!” Misty spat out angrily at me.
I was so mad that I could practically feel flames burning up the sides of my face. My usual instinct was to run away from my problems and this was the one time that it was the correct thing to do. However, anger obviously messed with what little coordination I did have. As I turned to run, I stumbled over my own feet and almost did a complete face plant. I caught myself with both hands, road rash seared across my palms and tears stinging in my eyes. That was it. I was done. Rachel and Coach Hunter were both going to have to deal with the disappointment—this was both my first and last day of track.
“You run like a girl!” Never before had an insult brought a smile to my face. But that taunt didn’t come from Misty or anyone else in her serpentine brood—it came from Clay.
13. Dancing with Myself
It took everything I had not to scream his name right there in front Misty. Just when I thought that I would never see him again, he showed up right when I needed him the most. In a weird way, he was kind of like the ghost version of Zach. Neither of them was always by my side, but they somehow seemed to end up there at exactly the right moments—like this one. If I ever needed my own cheering section, this was certainly the right time for it.
“Stop standing there like you’ve just seen a ghost— run!” He barely got the words out of his mouth before breaking out in laughter. My bad mood shot out of me at the same speed as my feet as I flung myself into a full throttle run.
“Is that the best you can do? Misty ran twice as fast as that!” Clay shouted to spur me on. And it worked, too. My new goal in life was to not let that slithering little sidewinder in tiny shorts beat me at anything ever again. I kicked it up another notch and lunged for the finish line.
“Wow. Excellent job, girls!” Coach Hunter said as she jotted our time down on her clipboard. “Ruby—you clearly need to work on your hand off. Everyone else—you need to dig deep and find the kind of motivation Ruby has. I don’t know what it was that got you moving so fast there at the end, but whatever it was, don’t lose it.”
“I don’t intend to, Coach,” I replied with a smile. Clay was one of the best friends I’d ever had—I would be very careful not to hurt his feelings ever again.
When Coach Hunter dismissed us all back to the locker room, I hung back so that I could have a quick word with Clay. I was happy to have him back but nowhere near happy enough to allow him into the locker room with me so I asked him to wait by my car for me. He must have been pretty happy to have me back in his life, too, because he instantly did what I asked him to do without any kind of sarcastic rebuttal. Score another point for the dominatrix!
After changing, I sent Rachel a quick text to let her know that Clay was back. There were far too many curious ears for me to risk saying a single freakish word out loud. I did another epic sprint to the parking lot to meet him. He was about to hear some serious apologizing. Or not.
“Even though you couldn’t see me, I could hear every word you said to Shelly that day. I followed you home so that I could find out what caused you to say the things you said to me. I’ve been around far more than you realize—I just wasn’t ready to face you yet. Apology accepted. Now, can we never bring up the subject again?”
He ran his hand back through his hair several times during that short monologue. This meant only one thing—he was nervous. He had to know that I thought that he was in love with me—it was the only possible cause for his anxiety. The fact that he didn’t want to address the subject meant something entirely different—it meant that I was right. What was I going to do? For the moment anyway, I was going to put that thought out of my mind. We had some serious catching up to do.
Once home, I quickly filled Shelly in on the day’s events while filling a plate with her latest culinary masterpiece— rosemary chicken with garlic roasted potatoes and green beans. Someday I definitely needed to send Diane Mason a thank you card for saving me from the scorched Spaghettios of my past.
As I scooted for the staircase, Shelly tried to stop me. “Hey, your dad isn’t going to be home for a few hours—I was hoping that
you would have dinner with me and then watch tonight’s episode of Cinnamon Jones. There are only five more until the finale and this week is where it really starts getting good.”
“Sorry, but I need to catch up on things with Clay—he’s already waiting for me upstairs. DVR it for me though—I need to catch up on the last few episodes first anyway. Maybe we can watch them all Sunday night after we get back from our shopping trip.”
Shelly nodded but I could see that she was clearly hoping for a different answer from me. To smooth things over a bit, I took a bite of the chicken and told her that it was the best that I had ever tasted.
“Thanks, it took me all afternoon to make! Have fun with Clay and I am going to hold you to that Sunday night DVRfest. I want to spend as much quality time with you as possible before you leave for college.”
While she wasn’t exactly crying, her eyes were far from being dry. Now was not the time for this! Now was the time for me to talk to Clay about other things. I shoved a heaping forkful of potatoes into my mouth so that I could politely nod before running away. Why did everyone around me seem so emotionally charged lately?
Between bites, I filled Clay in on my history with Misty and her sheer desperation to break Zach and me up. He listened closely without interruption until I got to the part about the shower video.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a copy of that around, would you? You know, just so I could see for myself how evil Misty really is.” He tried to deliver that line without laughing but failed miserably.
“Oh no, I’m not falling for that old trick! You may be dead but you’re still just as hopped up on testosterone as you were when you were alive, aren’t you?”
“Who? Me? Nope. Not at all. Scout’s Honor,” he replied with a devilish grin. I never noticed it before but he had a really nice smile—almost as nice as Zach’s. Clay was an attractive, funny, and—dare I say it—sweet boy. It was too bad that his relationship with Sophie didn’t work out. If it had, he may still be alive right now. I hoped that somewhere in her heart, she knew what she gave up and regretted it.
Happy to see him acting more like himself, I blurted out the worst thing I possibly could have. “There’s the Clay Roseman that I know and love!” Remembering that he had a crush on me a millisecond too late, I took it back with a hasty, “Well, you know what I mean”.
His smile instantly faded. He lowered his gaze and ran his hand back through his dirty blond locks. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. I know exactly what you meant. Let’s talk about something else now—like the fact that you still have to help me find out who killed me.”
“ What? Haven’t you heard a word of what I’ve been saying to you for the past hour? My secret’s been exposed. I’m the town freak. I’m only a half a step away from being burned at the stake. I—“
“You don’t have to worry about any witch hunters coming after you with flaming torches or anything. If no one ever set fire to old lady Douglas, I highly doubt they’ll do it to you. She really is a witch!”
I assumed that he was joking but he had that “Scout’s honor” look on his face. He actually believed in witches. I was about to point out the sheer lunacy of that belief until I realized something—I was going to be explaining said lunacy to a ghost. It was the proverbial “pot calling the kettle” scenario to a tee and not a point worth arguing.
“Witch hunts aside; I simply don’t want to attract any more attention to myself than is absolutely necessary. Maybe if I ignore ghosts, they will start leaving me alone. I’m not referring to you, of course.”
“Of course not.” Clay sat there in silence, absentmindedly plucking at the loose threads in his jeans. I could tell that he was intently thinking about something but I had no idea of what it could be. Whatever it was, he snapped out of it and acted like nothing was wrong. “You still have to take me to see my grandma, though.”
“Absolutely! We can stop at Roseman’s Floral Emporium on the way home from school tomorrow. I need to take a look at flowers anyway, you know, for prom. My going in there won’t even be remotely suspicious—she won’t have any idea that I have her dead grandson in tow.”
“Yeah, the fewer people who know about me, the better, right?” His tone of voice was sadly sarcastic but I decided not to call him on it. I simply nodded and left it at that. He could be offended all he wanted to but in the end, it was my choice and there was nothing he could do about it. It wasn’t that I was keeping him hidden because I was embarrassed by him—it was because I was embarrassed by me. I was nowhere near ready to fly my freak flag freely around town—and I never would be.
“Right,” I replied cheerily then immediately changed the subject. “If you want to stay here again tonight, you can. I’m going to call Zach real quick and then get ready for bed. Shall I turn the TV on for you again?”
“No, that’s okay. I’m not in the mood for television tonight. I have a few things on my mind—tonight feels like a Silver Lake kind of night. Maybe tomorrow instead.” “Oh, okay.” Now it was my turn to be disappointed. I missed him while he was gone—it was nice having him around again but I understood completely. We said our goodnights and Clay disappeared.
Zach was happy to hear from me as Rachel had only briefly filled him in on what happened at track practice. My goal was to get through what little time remained in my senior year with the least amount of drama possible. The only way I was going to achieve that was with Zach’s and Rachel’s help. They were truly the only friends I had left in that school. What would I ever do without either one of them?
After talking for a while about our weekend plans, my eventful day began to catch up with me. When I found myself starting to nod off as he explained how great Foxy was doing, I knew that it was time to get some sleep. I barely got out an “I love you, goodnight” before I drifted completely into dream land. Unfortunately, my version of dream land was anything but dreamy.
It was nothing like my usual nightmares but that was kind of what made it even more frightening. This one was scary because it felt real. No ghosts, no blood, no weird goings on—I was just supposed to meet everyone at the diner for breakfast. I was the first one to arrive so I asked the waitress if we could combine a few tables so that we could all sit together. When she asked me how many were going to be in my party, I named them each out loud as I counted them on my fingers.
“Dad, Shelly, Garret, Diane, Andy, Rita, Rachel, Boone, me, and Zach—don’t forget Zach.” When I mentioned Zach’s name, she gave me an odd look.
“Party of nine then?” she replied abruptly. “No, I counted ten—you must have forgotten Zach. You can’t forget him!” “If you insist,” she said mysteriously. “Party of ten it is. Follow me to the backroom. I think you will be more comfortable back there. Don’t you?”
She was without a doubt the weirdest waitress I’d ever encountered. What was her problem? No, never mind—I didn’t want to know. I was here to enjoy a nice meal with my family, friends, and the most perfect boyfriend a girl could ask for. Nodding my head in agreement, I followed her to the backroom with nothing more than a mumbled, “whatever”.
My dad was the next person to arrive. “Hey there, Ruby,” he said awkwardly as he sat down beside me. “Hey,” was all I said in return. He was acting just as oddly as the waitress had. Or maybe it was just my imagination. Yes, that had to be it. I was absolutely starving and I’d been known to get a little loopy when I hadn’t eaten for a while.
One by one, each chair was filled except for the one right beside me—that one was reserved for Zach. When Shelly walked in and made a beeline for that coveted spot, I stopped her.
“Sorry, Shelly—I’m saving that one for Zach. The one beside my dad is still open, though.” Shelly sat Ruby—” Shelly approached.
down next to me anyway. “About that, stopped mid-sentence as the waitress
“Now that you’re all here, are you ready to order your drinks now?” It was a fairly simple question—one that she probably asked a lot of people—but
for some reason she pronounced each syllable slowly and with the precision of a Shakespearian actor.
“But we’re not all here! We’re still waiting for Zach. He usually isn’t late. I hope he isn’t having car trouble or anything. Maybe I better check to see if he’s texted me.” As I reached under my chair for my bag, Shelly placed her hand gently on my arm.
“He didn’t text you, Ruby. You know that. I know how terrible it was for you—losing Lee and moving to Charlotte’s Grove and all. None of us realized just how fragile you were. We thought that you would come out of this yourself sooner or later. We never should have let this go on for so long—that was our mistake. But we are here today to correct that.”
“I’m not fragile—not anymore!” I shouted as I slapped her hand away and went for my bag again. “All of that changed when I met Zach.”
Everyone at the table began to speak at once so that I couldn’t even make out a single word any of them was saying. I rummaged through my bag until I found my phone. Once it was in my hand, I opened up my messages screen to see if Zach had contacted me recently. Nothing. Not only had he not texted me yet this morning, I couldn’t even find the ones he sent from the night before. My stupid phone must have erased the conversation somehow.
I went into my list of contacts to bring up his number so that I could call him to see where he was. I scrolled all the way to the bottom of the alphabetical list but came up empty handed. The last name on the list was Shelly’s. Where was Zach? My phone couldn’t have erased his entire contact profile by accident, could it?
My dad rose from the table and called for an end to the verbal cacophony. The room instantly fell into an eerie silence until he shattered it with the most terrifying words I’d ever heard anyone utter.
“There is no Zach, Ruby. He never existed. You created him in your mind because you were lonely and afraid to face life without Lee. You couldn’t handle the idea of losing another boyfriend, so you found one that could never leave you.”
