Finally, Thursday morning I walked into my homeroom class earlier than anyone else and I spotted him, sitting at the same desk as the first time I met him. I practically ran into the room.
“Where have you been?”
“Ah, I figured you were a little busy. I wanted to give you some room.”
The heat of a blush crawled up my neck and invaded my cheeks. Did he know about Mason? Was he stepping aside in some kind of gentlemanly fashion? Didn’t he know how much more attractive that made him? The boys in my life were making me absolutely crazy.
“Well, don’t—you’ll excuse the expression—disappear like that again.” I smirked and Shane groaned. “No, for real. I thought maybe you’d given up on me and taken a powder.”
“Not a chance, Juice. Sorry, but you’re kind of stuck with me. At least until we find a new home for all this.” He waved his hands up and down his ghostly form.
“I actually have some news on that front.” I explained about the upcoming party and the opportunity it afforded for body-shopping. I also told him that we’d all be there, so it would allow us to spread out and really cover the place.
“I’m telling you, Shane, with all four of us scoping the place out, if there is a body there that would be a good match for you, we’ll find it.”
“That sounds great, Juice.”
“HEY, JUICY LUCY!” The voice was deafening and could only belong to one person. I looked up and sure enough, Brian Yates came barreling down the aisle. He crashed to a stop just short of where Shane still sat, looking up at him with an amused expression. I, on the other hand, was not amused. Not even a little.
“What is it, Brian?” I asked, in a bored voice.
“Heard you were going to the big party in Oakwood this weekend.” He leaned his butt on the desk Shane sat on and I tried to stifle a laugh when Shane pantomimed shoving him off.
“How’d you hear that?”
“Went to football camp with a guy who said his friend asked you out. Thought I didn’t hear him right. Nearly dropped my protein shake. I’m all ‘Juice from MacGregor High?’ and he’s all ‘Yeah. Cute girl with short blond hair and great legs.’ And I’m all ‘Yeah, sounds like her all right.’ So. Guess I’ll see you there.” He spun around to walk back up the aisle, then turned back to me. “Not bad, Juice. Looks like our little sophomore is growing up.” Then Brian winked at me and walked away.
I sat there, amazed. Brian Yates, Captain of the football team and generally the most popular guy in school thought I was cute and had great legs? Who in the world were these people and where had they been for my entire agonizing freshman year, for crying out loud?
I looked over at Shane and he just grinned at me.
“What are you so happy about?” I grumbled.
“I’m happy that you are finally starting to see what most of us have known all along, Juice. You are special. You are cute and pretty and amazing. Oh, and you do have great legs. Those are not the reasons I chose you to help me, but they would be some pretty good ones, if you ask me.” Shane leaned in so close to me that if he wasn’t a ghost, I swear he would have kissed me. The familiar heat of a blush crept up my cheeks again.
Chapter Fourteen
For a change, Shane didn’t disappear after homeroom. In fact, he shadowed me through the rest of my morning classes, fading in and out when appropriate, but staying reassuringly close. By the time lunch came around, he was fully visible (a new trick he had been working on) and we both got lost in the crush of kids surging toward the quad and the cafeteria. I grabbed a tray of food and we went to join Sixx and the guys at our usual spot. Jett and Creep were there already but there was no sign of Sixx. I plopped down Indian style and Shane sat down next to me. He greeted the guys.
“Hey, Jett. Creepshow. What’s up?”
Jett looked up and nodded his head in the universal guy greeting. “Hey, Shane. Been awhile. Sticking around now?”
“Yup. Heard about the party this weekend. Thought I might tag along. All right with you guys?”
“I’m cool. You cool, Creep?” Jett nudged Creepshow who had not yet acknowledged either Shane or me. Creep looked up from digging around in his backpack and answered, “I’m cool.”
I’d had enough. “Can you please speak in complete sentences? As soon as there are more than two of you together you start sounding like cryptic karate movies. It is completely annoying. Cut it out!”
All three of them started laughing at me. They were still laughing when Sixx came up to us.
“Okay, it’s got to be bad when the boys are laughing and the girl is not. What happened, Juice? Were you just accidentally more mature than them?”
“Ha ha, very funny. Where have you been?” I still felt ticked off and I knew I was taking it out on her, but still.
“For your information, I happened to be in the ladies room taking care of some personal business.” I knew that qualified as code for she was likely ditching class in there, “and I happened to overhear some very interesting dirt from the two cheerios we treasure most.”
“Who? Cassie Carmichael and Jenny Harmon?”
“None other. And get this—they were talking about your new ‘friend’s’ party this weekend. It appears they will be attending the soiree.” Sixx leaned back against the big tree, probably to be certain this piece of information delivered the bombshell she intended it to.
“Well, that does make some sense, doesn’t it?” I glanced at Shane for confirmation. Sixx immediately launched off the tree, bent that the news wasn’t the earth-shaker she envisioned.
“What do you mean ‘it makes sense’?” she demanded.
I told her about my encounter with Brian in homeroom. Since he had been Cassie’s boyfriend forever, it stood to reason she would be going to the party with him. And since Jenny had been Cassie’s best friend at least as long, and joined at her hip most days, of course she would be there as well.
“Great. Even at a party away from my own school, I still can’t shake the King and Queen of the prom.”
“We might have another problem.” Shane finally spoke up. The rest of us rotated to look at him. “With people from your school at the party, it may make it harder to, you know, find a suitable donor for a body. Maybe it’s not a good idea anymore.”
“No!” The force of my conviction shocked even me. “It’s the perfect place. It has to work.”
Sixx sat down next to me. “And it will, Juice. Trust me, Brian will be wasted long before the party even gets going. That drunken tool won’t remember anything. And as skinny as those two girls are, you know they can’t hold their liquor. They’ll be passed out before anything interesting happens. They always are.” Sixx nodded knowingly. “You know they’ll find some way to sneak liquor in, even if there is no booze at the whole party. You know that as well as I do. I’ve seen it plenty of times.”
Jett agreed. “So have I.”
Even Creep weighed in. “Me, too.”
“See?” I triumphantly circled back to Shane. “It’s settled. We’re all going to the party.”
Shane looked around at the four of us. “You guys drive a hard bargain, but okay. I’m in.”
We finished lunch and as I headed into my afternoon classes I had a lot to think about. I wondered if Cassie or Jenny would say anything about the party to me the next time I saw one of them. Shane left, but he promised to come back and see me at least once before the end of the week. Then, as I got to my first class after lunch, I realized Creepshow hadn’t said one word directly to me during the whole lunch period.
By my last class of the day, I felt bothered enough by the whole issue with Creepshow to want to do something about it. We had been friends for so long that him not talking to me for even one lunch period was totally not okay. I resigned myself to get to the bottom of this new attitude as soon as possible. The class bell rang and I grabbed up my books not bothering to stuff them in my backpack. Then I drifted out of the room with a sea of other kids, lost in my thoughts. I got
carried along with the human tide, completely absorbed in my mental meanderings, when I crashed into Creepshow. I had been so preoccupied I didn’t notice that he’d been standing outside the classroom, waiting for me.
“Hey, Juice. Got a minute?” He looked nervous, leaning against the row of lockers lining the wall opposite my class.
Before I could cross over to him, a gang of freshman girls passing by giggled and waved and chorused, “Hi, Creepshow!” in perfect harmony. I watched while he ran his hand through the front of his hair and said hi back to them. In a moment of startling clarity I realized that Creep was considered hunky by female standards at my school. In that instant, and that simply, I started to look at Creep with new eyes.
“Sure, Creep. What’s up?” I struggled to rearrange my mammoth Humanities textbook and Science lab notebooks in my arms before they fell and was surprised when Creep stepped forward and deftly removed them from my clutzy grasp.
“Here,” he said. “Let me.” Astonished, I let him take my books and we walked down the hall, with me acutely aware that Creepshow was actually carrying my books for me.
“Can I give you a ride home?”
“Sure.” Although, I could tell from his attitude that this wasn’t going to be any ordinary ride. “Where’s Jett today?” Creep and Jett were usually inseparable.
“Oh, um, Jett got another ride home. It’s just us.” He didn’t look at me as he said this, just kept his head down and kept walking toward the parking lot. I followed, curious now, wondering what the ride home would hold.
We got to the parking lot well ahead of most of the student body, but that didn’t stop us from garnering an audience. And Creepshow didn’t disappoint his growing fan base. Amid shouted greetings from a heavily female population of admirers, Creepshow spared no nuance. He walked me to the passenger side of The Gator, opened the door, seated me, arranged my books on the floor at my feet, checked that my hands and feet were clear from being crushed, and then closed the door. He got in the driver seat, then stared at me.
“Do you have to go straight home, Juice?”
“No.” He didn’t seem nervous at all, but I was dying.
“Feel like cruising the beach? I kind of wanted to talk to you.”
“Yeah. The beach sounds great.” At least if I fainted there, lifeguards could revive me.
“Cool.” For the first time since I found him slouched outside my class, he seemed more like his old self. He cranked The Gator up and soon the sounds of Thin Lizzy flooded the van and we were coasting down to the beach. I loved that song.
I rolled the window down and pulled off my hoodie to reveal my favorite Mexican camisa blouse underneath. Then I brought my knees up and rested my Converse-clad feet on the dashboard. The sun shone on my face and a light breeze fluttered through my hair. I reached down and fished a pair of sunglasses out of my backpack. Leaning back in the passenger seat, enjoying the ride, I looked over at Creepshow and caught him looking at me with a heart-stopping smile. I mean, my heart literally almost stopped. In that moment, I knew. The crush went both ways.
“What?” I tried to play off my newfound knowledge.
“Nothing. You look great, that’s all.”
“Whatever.” But the compliment made me blush and I ran my hand self-consciously through my bangs. We got closer to the beach and the wind came in the window harder now, fresh and salty. The way it whipped through my hair made me feel excited and pretty and sexy. I had never felt this way ever before. I knew I was smiling like an idiot. I tried to quit it but I couldn’t and soon, I stopped trying. I wanted to tell him what I felt, but I still couldn’t put it into words, couldn’t give it a name. But I wasn’t worried. Somehow I knew, there would be time. I relaxed and continued enjoying the drive.
Creepshow swung The Gator into the beach parking lot and we both got out and started walking down toward the sand. I stopped and sat down to take off my sneakers and when I stumbled getting back up, Creep put his arm out to steady me. Another stunning revelation: Creep was strong. And muscular. When had that happened?
We kept walking on the beach, next to each other, aware of each other, but not touching. Finally, we stopped and Creep brought out a blanket I didn’t notice he had been carrying. He spread it without a word and we both sat down.
Creepshow looked out at the water for a while, his knees drawn up, elbows propped and folded on each one. I sat next to him and waited for him to speak. This was his deal after all. I wasn’t even sure where he was going with it. I only had a few clues from Sixx and I wasn’t even sure if she would be right.
“I kind of have a problem, Juice. It’s been building for a while and I need to get it out in the open. Problem is I like you. A lot.”
Okay. So Sixx had been right. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to interrupt whatever he might say because one, I totally wanted to hear it, and two, I had no idea how to respond to it. Yet. I was still forming my own feelings. But they were gelling fast into something solid.
“I should have said something a long time ago when there wasn’t, like, a mob scene of guys trying to get next to you.” Great, did he seriously just say mob scene? And did he say a long time ago, too? Okay, brain, shut up before I miss something truly important. “I just thought I had more time, you know, to get my head straight. Or to not be afraid of what you might say. Jett always says go after what you want. But I don’t have his guts, you know?” Then, Creep tilted his head and looked at me shyly, from under that chunk of streaked blonde hair that fell over his eyes. I felt a wave of heat rush through me. Without thinking about it I reached over and put my hand on his arm.
“I think you’re plenty brave, Creepshow.”
It seemed like my few words bolstered him with renewed confidence. Creepshow jerked his head to shift the hair out of his face and began talking again. “I’ve been going over this with Jett. I know you like this ghostly guy, Shane. And now you like this new guy Mason. But I just wanted to let you know how I feel.” Then, he twisted to face me, his face clouded with confusion. “I’m not asking you to make any decisions or anything, Juice. I guess I’m throwing my hat in the crowded ring, and I just want to know. Can you ever think of me as more than a friend?”
I didn’t know how to answer him. It was true that lately I had been noticing him in a different light. And that even as lately as this same afternoon I had been looking at him with a different set of eyes. But how in the world could I explain that to him? This was turning into the weirdest couple of weeks ever. I knew I remained the same old Juice. I looked the same, dressed the same, I’m sure I acted the same. But somehow, no one had been treating me the same. Now, not the least of which was Creepshow.
I looked at him. He appeared to be still the same funny, wonderful, generous friend I knew and loved for his quirky ways and unique perspectives. But, now he looked more like a guy than a friend, more like a hunk than a pal, more like someone I wanted to kiss than hug. It was getting so confusing. How could I have these feelings for Creepshow and still keep my promise to Shane?
Creep seemed to understand that I had landed myself in the middle of some kind of internal struggle. He leaned over and wrapped his arms around me.
“You know what, Juice? It doesn’t matter. As long as you and I are friends, I’ll take that and be happy with it. I just want you to be in my life. You’re,” he appeared to search for the right word, most likely looking for one he thought wouldn’t freak me out more than I already was. “You’re important to me, Juice. I can take us being just friends. For now.”
Creep’s arms slipped around me and I sank into their warmth. Hard. He smelled of salt water and beach air and board wax. He pressed a soft kiss the top of my forehead. I melted. I felt so comfortable here. Resting in his arms brought with it the reassurance of being with my wonderful friend and a new excitement I never thought I’d feel with him.
I couldn’t just be Creepshow’s friend now, could I? Not with all these unresolved feelings I was having. I need
ed to tell him what I’d been struggling with. It seemed only fair. I slowly unwrapped my arms from his hard body. When had he developed all those muscles? I meant only to gently break the contact but as I lifted my head he looked into my eyes and a crazy hunger took me over.
Suddenly I felt myself kissing Creepshow. And I started it!
I leaned closer and pressed my lips harder against his. He seemed surprised at first, and tried to pull back, but I laced my fingers behind his head and gently clung to him. After a moment, he seemed to change his mind and I felt him turn his body into mine and press back, molding those taut muscles against me, holding me firmly and returning my kiss as passionately as I gave it. I scooted closer to him on the sand and crawled into his lap. He put his arms under mine and wrapped them tight around my back while I rested mine on his shoulders and ran my hands through his beautiful sun-bleached hair. We kissed like mad, crazy, hungry people until he pulled his head back, tenderness reflected in his eyes. I slid back and we sat like that staring at each other, shocked into silence, waiting for one of us to speak. Finally, he did.
“Man, Juice. I’m sorry.” He rested his hands on my legs, still draped over his.
“Don’t say sorry, Creep. I started it. I should say sorry.”
“Don’t even think of it, ‘cuz there’s no way I’m sorry you did that.” And he beamed.
“Then I’m not either.” I scooted closer to him, feeling sand crawl up my shorts and not caring one bit.
“I thought it was pretty awesome, myself.”
“Guess that answers your previous question then. About being friends?” I cocked my head to one side, resting it on my arm. Please say you don’t want to be just friends!
“Yep. Pretty much does.” He paused. “Where the heck did that come from, Juice?” He lifted me back up onto his lap until we were eye to eye again.
“Heck if I know, but once it got here, there is no way I could stop it.”
Ghostly Page 7
