Haunted

by Alexandra Inger

  “Great. Well I’ll see you then. I’m gonna go sit with the guys if you don’t mind.”

  “No, of course not! I’m almost done anyway. I’ll see you on Thursday.” I waved at him as he walked away.

  Very strange, I thought. He seemed like such a nice, normal guy. Not only could I not imagine what he had ever seen in Cheryl, but his friend Trevor was a bit of a puzzle as well. Now Cheryl and Trevor, on the other hand, they would make quite the pair! I smiled to myself as I laid my cutlery down across my plate and began to clean up the table.

  When I got back upstairs and passed by Cheryl and Lisa’s room they were obviously arguing with each other full throttle. I caught Lisa saying, “You know what I’m going through. I can’t even bear to look at him. It makes me sick to my stomach to think of it!”

  I hurried along the hall, not wishing to risk any more involvement than I had already.

  Having learned from my mistake earlier, when I finally made it back to my room I called out, “Margie? Are you back?”

  “No, amore, she is not! Thank the heavens for small mercies!” Stefano quipped.

  “Ah! You. Finally,” I breathed as he brought his lips to mine. “I promise I’ll never answer the door ever again.”

  “No no no – make no such promise. You have life to attend to and you must never neglect it for me.”

  “I don’t care for ‘life’; I care for you,” I said shyly as I ducked my head down.

  He sighed.

  “Catherine,” he said in an admonishing tone.

  “I know what you’re going to say. And I don’t care. I’ve been dying to be with you and to be in your arms all day and that’s what’s going to happen right now. Come on. We have three hours before Margie has to be back. Maybe less time if she comes back early,” I entreated.

  His stern face melted and he swept me up and we lay down together on my bed.

  “Can you see that star there?” he asked.

  I looked out the window at the dusky sky where he was pointing. One very bright star had appeared already and looked like a diamond set in purple velvet through the black silhouettes of the trees.

  “I see it,” I answered him.

  “That is your star. I hereby name it for you.”

  “Mmmmmm. No, I don’t want a star that’s just for me.”

  “Why ever not?” he asked.

  “Because it’s too lonely up there in the big sky to be a little star all by yourself. It’s so bright because there are two things shining it….you and me. Name it for you and me together.” I whispered.

  “Very well then, “ he agreed. “I hereby declare that star to be our star, and it will shine down on the world on behalf of you and me together.”

  “Good!” I said. “I like that.” And I curled up and fell asleep in his arms and I didn’t even wake up when Margie came home later that night.

  CHAPTER 13

  The second day of school was relatively uneventful for me. I had homework to do, which I was not thrilled about; in my opinion the first week of school was supposed to be a gentle process of easing back in. Homework in the first week was quite an imposition!

  But I was sitting cross-legged on my bed looking over my textbook and trying to focus on the assignment we had been given when Cheryl came skipping down the hall to my room. (I knew she had skipped, because it was quiet and I could hear her coming up the hall.)

  “Guess what?” she gushed.

  For once, because my bed was littered with homework, she plopped down on the chair at my desk.

  “Did you see Chad?” I asked excited to hear all about it.

  “Yes! We had a really great talk!” She had her knees up and was hugging them.

  “Yeah? Go on, go on! I want details!” I prodded her.

  “Okay, so we met up in the courtyard at the back of the Admin building. And the first thing he said was that he was really sorry about telling me that I was sick and whatever he said that day that he came up. And then he understood why I’d be upset if Janice had seen him with another girl, but that he hadn’t been with another girl and he didn’t have a girlfriend. I was like, you’re sure you don’t have a girlfriend? You didn’t even hook up with anyone over the summer? And he said that no, he didn’t have a girlfriend and he wasn’t seeing anyone. So then I said, what about us? And he said that he didn’t want to jump back into anything, because it would probably just be the same stuff where we were fighting all the time and it was just stressful and aggravating. And so I said, so what now then? And he was like, can we just be friends? And we have separate lives and I can go out with my friends and do whatever I want without having to answer to you? And I kind of didn’t know what to say, because the way he said it made me realize that maybe I’d been kind of a control freak before. And then he said, seriously I don’t even want to be friends with you if you can’t leave me be to live my life. If you’re gonna demand to know where I am and what I’m doing and who I’m with every second of the day then we will not be friends and I will not ever speak to you. And I was like, okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make him feel like that, I think I was just insecure and jealous before. And he said, yeah I know you were, and that’s the problem. So let’s be friends, and just try to be our normal selves with each other and see if we can get to know each other again properly without all the drama and the bullshit.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “So I said, yes, that was a good idea. And then I asked him if him and his friends wanted to go to the school dance next week with me and my friends and we could get a bottle and have a little get together beforehand. And he said yes! So now we have to figure out where we’re gonna have the party and what we’re gonna wear and how we can get some booze!” She belted out the last few words as if she were singing a show tune.

  I could tell that in Cheryl’s mind this whole pre-dance party thing was a date, and that this date was to set the stage for a full-blown reconciliation between her and Chad. I was surprised that he had agreed to any of it, because I had heard how he talked about her behind her back, I had seen how he spoke to her to her face when he was angry, and just yesterday he had warned me that she wasn’t a nice person and that I myself should do my best to avoid her.

  “Well that’s great!” I tried to sound enthusiastic in spite of my doubts.

  “Oh, we’re going in to the city this weekend,” she said as if the thought has just occurred to her, “I’m totally going to go shopping for a new outfit!”

  “You’re going in to the city? Driving?” I queried.

  “Oh. Yeah,” she said dismissively. “Just for the day. Nothing exciting.”

  That was strange, I thought. The city was hours away. To go just for the day seemed highly impractical, but then everything about Cheryl was highly impractical.

  The next day I had my own rather interesting meeting with Chad after school. I had gone into the newspaper offices for the big meeting. He and the other co-editor had been taking turns discussing changes they wanted to make to the paper that year and ideas for expanding the scope of it, when suddenly Chad singled me out.

  “Which brings me to…well, I’d like to introduce you to someone. She’s new this year at Brandenhurst, and not only that but this is her first time at a private school OR a boarding school and I was thinking it would be great to have her write a column about her impressions and experiences from her unique perspective as a first-timer. Everybody this is Catherine Sullivan.”

  I must have turned twenty shades of scarlet as everyone in the room turned to look at me. I gave a little smile and a wave and then I turned my gaze on Chad and tried to send him a very stern ESP message which I couldn’t tell if he received or not.

  “Sorry to put you on the spot, Catherine,” he said apologetically, “but I think it’s a great idea and I would love for you to consider it.”

  “You don’t even know if I can write!” I gasped.

  “Well, if you can’t then the burden of editing your stuff will fall to me!” he joked.

/>   “I like it. We’ll definitely give it a shot, at least for the first semester and we’ll see what kind of response it gets,” said Michael, the other co-editor. “Next up is increasing our advertising revenues…”

  I didn’t know whether to feel furious or delighted. I suppose I was a bit of both. I looked at Chad with what could have only been a bewildered expression on my face, my mouth half smiling, half gaping.

  He smiled reassuringly at me and gave me a thumbs up.

  As the meeting finished, I lingered while everyone else straggled out the door. Chad saw me and approached me first.

  “Catherine.” He put his hand up to stop me before I could speak. “I’m so sorry. Please don’t be angry with me,” he beseeched. “The idea just came to me as we started the meeting otherwise I totally would have discussed it with you first.”

  I said nothing but I tried to maintain a stern look as I nodded silently at him. Unfortunately keeping a straight face had never been my strong suit and my face slowly broke into a grin.

  “So you’ll do it?” he asked hopefully.

  “Yeah, I’ll do it,” I tried to sound reluctant, but by now he was on to me.

  “That’s so great. We can talk about it more later. Come by my office when you get a chance and we’ll talk about word count and deadlines and content and stuff.”

  He gave me a friendly punch in the arm. “Thanks so much. I’m glad you’re on board.”

  “Nice to be on board,” I smiled and then turned to leave.

  Wow, my own column. I was excited thinking about what I might write about. So excited that I decided to head straight to the computer lab to start typing up a few paragraphs as starting points.

  I walked in and to my surprise saw Lisa on one of the terminals. The place was packed and I was at the front counter trying to book some time on a machine for as soon as possible when she caught my eye. I walked over to say hello (and to be honest to ask her how long she was going to be in hopes that I could jump onto her computer) and she got a panicky look on her face and started closing everything.

  “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to interrupt!” I said sincerely.

  “It’s fine – I’m done anyway,” she scowled at me.

  “No, really – I’m not trying to invade your privacy…” I tried to explain, but Lisa was cagey and she didn’t need my explanation.

  “Do you need a computer? I’m done, but I’m still booked for another half hour, so if you want this one, use it,” she insisted as she stood up and gathered her things.

  “Okay, well, thank you!” I called as she stormed out and I slid into her chair.

  How weird – didn’t she have a laptop in her room? I was certain that both she and Cheryl had laptops, so what was she doing in here?

  Before I started typing up ideas for my column – my column! – just to think the words gave me a thrill! – I decided to go online in the vain hope that I might have emails from friends from home. I clicked on the internet browser and the last page that Lisa had been looking at sprung up onto the screen.

  Oh my god. Oh my god. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

  Lisa had been looking at information from an abortion clinic. In the city. Where Cheryl said they were going on Saturday for the day.

  I was horrified. Was she pregnant? Or was it Cheryl? It would certainly explain Cheryl’s crazy jealous behavior towards Chad. But she had told me that they only slept together once and it must have been shortly after Valentine’s Day according to her story, so she’d surely be visibly pregnant by now if she was telling the truth.

  So that meant it had to be Lisa who was pregnant.

  Was it Trevor? Did he know?

  I cleared the cache and shut the browser and fled the computer lab. I ran outside, thinking that if Lisa was headed straight back to the dorm that I might be able to catch her. Fortunately, because of her height and her thick mane of bright red hair she was easy to spot amongst the various people strolling and scurrying about the grounds.

  “Lisa!” I called as I huffed and puffed up behind her. “Lisa!”

  “LISA!” I shouted. I knew she must have been able to hear me and yet she only started walking even faster.

  “Lisa!” I finally caught up to her and put my hand on her shoulder.

  “What?! Do you want?!” She whipped around and I could see that she had been crying.

  “I’m sorry. Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Well obviously I’m not okay. Pretty stupid question when someone’s bawling,” she snapped at me.

  “I know. I mean, I know. About where you’re going on Saturday,” I said.

  She threw up her hands in the air in exasperation and turned and started walking away again.

  “It’s okay!” I called.

  I had to run to keep up with her – her legs were a mile long.

  “I just wanted to tell you that if you need anything, or if there’s anything I can do…”

  “Did Cheryl tell you?!”

  She turned on me and grabbed me by the shoulders.

  “No, no she didn’t. I saw what you were looking at on the computer…” I tried to explain but she wouldn’t let me finish.

  “You were snooping at what I was doing on the computer?”

  She flung me away from her and I stumbled back and nearly tripped into the grass.

  “No, no, no. You didn’t close it properly. It was the first thing that popped up when I opened the internet. I’m sorry – I didn’t mean to see it on purpose. But now I know, I saw it, I can’t UN-see it, so I was worried and wanted to let you know that if you needed any help at all….Lisa, I’m not heartless! What was I supposed to do? Pretend I didn’t see it and say nothing?”

  “Yes, you were supposed to pretend you didn’t see it and say nothing!” she screamed at me. “How do you know about Saturday?!” she demanded.

  I took a breath. I didn’t know what to say. I had really gotten myself deep in it and I was only trying to help.

  “Cheryl mentioned that she wanted to buy a new outfit for the dance next week and she said that she might go shopping on Saturday when you guys went into the city,” I said quietly.

  “Ha!” Lisa wiped at her nose. “I’m getting an abortion and all she can think about is Chad.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “For what?” she snapped.

  “For making you upset. I’m sorry. I saw what you were looking at, I put two and two together and I thought maybe I could help. You’re right, I should have just not said anything.”

  “It’s not your fault,” she sighed. “Just please promise me you won’t tell anybody. I would die if anybody found out. Trevor doesn’t even know. Nobody in the world knows except you and Cheryl and me.”

  She dabbed at her tears with her sleeve and seemed to pull herself together somewhat.

  “I will not breathe a word, I swear,” I assured her.

  “I don’t even know if it’s what I really want to do!” she whispered hoarsely. “But I’m seventeen! And Trevor wants nothing to do with me! And my parents would kill me. They’d disown me! I could never tell them, let alone keep it!”

  She was weeping again.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay,” I said as I put my arms around her. It wasn’t okay, it was horrible. I felt awful for her, and I wanted to say something magical that would make everything alright, but I couldn’t think of a thing.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Let’s just not talk about it, okay?”

  And we walked back to the dorm together in silence.

  We reached her room – it was empty. Cheryl must have been down at the dining hall.

  “Do you wanna come in for a minute?” Lisa sniffled.

  I interpreted her invitation to mean that she wanted to talk, so I agreed.

  “You can sit on Cheryl’s bed if you want,” she offered, so I took my shoes off and sat gingerly on the end of Cheryl’s bed. I don’t know why I was so timid about it - she wouldn’t have thought twice about barreling into my room a
nd sprawling out all over my bed.

  “I’m sorry for being such a mess,” she began and she started crying again.

  “No, no, it’s alright,” I assured her. “I’m sure I would be, too! How long have you known for?”

  “I found out about 2 or 3 weeks before school started. I didn’t realize at first – it must have happened at the end of last year, at the end of June, but I still got my period in July. And then I didn’t get it in August, but it’s not completely abnormal for me to miss a period so I didn’t think much of it right away. I don’t even know what made me get the test…I just didn’t feel right and I had a gut feeling…even so, when it came back positive I couldn’t believe it.” She really started sobbing now. “And I tried to contact Trevor, so I could ask him what I should do. But he never answered me!” she forced out through her tears.

  “Oh my god. That’s so horrible. I’m so sorry this is happening to you.” I got up and put my arms around her. She was so slim I could feel the ribs in her back and her shoulder blades protruding.

  “Is there any way at all you could discuss it with him now?” I asked.

  “I tried to. That first day I went over to his room to try to talk to him. He was just being a complete jerk. He didn’t want to talk about why he had cut me off or if he still even wanted to be friends with me…he was just rude and insulting. And we weren’t like Chad and Cheryl – we weren’t fighting and breaking up all the time. We were pretty stable. So when he just started ignoring me without explanation it really threw me for a loop.”

  She grabbed some tissue off the bureau and blew her nose.

  “So he has no idea?” I confirmed.

  “No. Absolutely nobody knows except you and Cheryl. Cheryl was great at first – I called and told her right away. She just got right down to business and organized the…appointment for me and everything…but she thinks that’s it – it’s done – nothing to worry about anymore. And now that we’re back at school and Chad is here that’s all she cares about or thinks about and I think she gets annoyed with me for being all wound up about this.”

  “Oh my god, Lisa,” I said unable to hide my dismay. “That’s terrible! You’ve been trying to cope with all this emotional trauma by yourself?”