Ghostly

by Samantha Combs

  “Jeez, Sixx. Can you cut it out for like two seconds?” I didn’t think Sixx understood how much she happened to be embarrassing me. I glared Sixx down, full-on in the face. I could feel heat blooming on my face and knew my cheeks were fiery red. Maybe if she saw those, it would give her the hint. I gave her a hard look and she finally got it.

  “Hey, Jett, how about you and Shane walk me to class?” Sixx linked her arm though Jett’s and steered him away from me and Creepshow. Shane easily took the hint and drifted after them.

  “Bye, Shane. I’ll see you after school, okay?” I waved goodbye to Shane and the others and turned to face Creepshow. I kept waiting for the feeling of weirdness when I found myself alone with him, but it just wasn’t there. I wondered if that could be another sign that Creep and I were meant to be together. I tried to think of something to say. Then Creepshow reached out and grabbed my hand. How had I not known how smooth his hands were?

  “Cassie didn’t hurt your feelings, did she? I don’t know why she has to always be so hateful.”

  “Oh, her Wonderbra is probably on too tight. I wasn’t paying that much attention to her anyway, Creep. But, you were seven kinds of awesome to knock her down a couple pegs. And thank you, by the way, for the nice compliment. Not too used to hearing many of those.”

  Creepshow leaned down close to my face, like he wanted to tell me a secret. “I think you should get used to it, Juice,” he murmured. “I’m going to tell you that a lot. I’ve wasted a lot of time.” He gave my hand a little squeeze before he dropped it.

  The morning bell rang, reminding me that we had a day of school to get through. Before I could react, Creep kissed me softly on my cheek. “Drive you home today, Juice?” he asked.

  All I could do was nod and watch as his lanky form casually ambled off to his first class. Yup, this still qualified as the weirdest couple of weeks ever.

  Chapter Seventeen

  As soon as I heard the horn honking outside, I hurried to grab my wallet, keys, and a little glittery purse Sixx and I found at the thrift store. It matched my new silver skirt perfectly, which we also found on our clothes hunt several hours earlier. Sixx had finally dragged me on one of her epic thrift store runs and we had both scored huge. I found the skirt, the purse, and an amazing jean jacket with a gold lame pyramid on the back exactly like the one Madonna wore in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan. Of course, I matched the whole outfit with my trusty Converse sneakers. Sixx did even better than me. She scored the whole outfit she would be wearing tonight to the party, from head to toe, including a pair of killer 80s style disco sandals.

  The horn honked again. I tossed a little compact and my pink lipstick in the slinky purse and flicked out the light in my room. My head spun with everything that might happen tonight as I headed out to the driveway. First, I was excited to see Creepshow. I hadn’t seen or talked to him since Friday after school and I found that more and more I missed him when he wasn’t around. And that feeling kept taking me completely by surprise.

  Second, I still had a semi-date with Mason tonight. I knew Creep was aware of that, but I still wasn’t sure how it would go down. And lastly, and maybe most important, because it happened to be the whole reason we were going to the party, I needed to keep my promise and find a host body for Shane. Even if it meant deciding that body would be Mason’s.

  With so much to consider, I felt dizzy by the time I reached The Gator, parked in my driveway and waiting for me with the engine running. Here, though, we veered from the norm. Instead of the side sliding door open for me to climb into as usual, Creepshow stood by the passenger door, grinning wide and holding it open, clearly waiting for me.

  “Hey, Creep. Don’t you look snazzy?” And he did, too. He wore a great throwback bowling shirt over chinos and had on a trilby hat at a rakish angle. As I approached, he pulled it off and bent low in a mock bow.

  “Glad you approve, Juice. Wanted to look different for the big bash tonight.” He held out his hand to help me navigate the high step up onto the passenger seat in my short skirt.

  I rotated toward the back to see who was joining us. Jett lounged against the back seat all decked out in black, of course, and Sixx sat on the opposite side, busily applying a thick layer of black eyeliner to her already perfectly applied makeup.

  “Hey, Jett. Hey, Sixx. You guys look great. Is it me, or do we need to dress up more often?”

  “It is not you. We clean up way too nice to be wasting this on a once a year thing. From now on, we dress up once a month, even if all we do is hang out at the 7-Eleven.” She shouted to Jett. “Deal?”

  Jett lowered the ubiquitous sunglasses and nodded. “That’s affirmative.”

  Sixx hollered forward at Creep, who had started backing The Gator out of the driveway. “You in, Creep? Dressing up for no reason at all? Just because we look so fine and beautiful?” Creep looked at me before he answered and nodded. “Oh, yeah,” he yelled back to Sixx. “Totally in on that one. Like what I see.” Without another word, he wheeled The Gator around and headed down my street.

  “Do you have the directions, Creep?”

  Jett hollered from the back of the van. “He’s not only got ‘em, Juice. He memorized them.”

  I looked at Creep. “Memorized them?”

  “Didn’t want to get us lost.” Creep defended himself. He looked so cute when he did it, I wanted to kiss him.

  I couldn’t believe some of the thoughts I had been having. When did I start thinking like this? I guess when Creepshow started finally revealing his feelings for me, I began to realize I had feelings for him. I looked back over at him, casually driving The Gator. He looked so handsome, it bummed me out that he wasn’t my technical date tonight. But, I had to honor my commitment to Mason. He didn’t know that in the time since I last spoke to him on the phone, I think Creepshow and I had fallen for each other.

  As for Creep and me, I couldn’t wait for the time when we could go on a real date together. As if he could hear what I was thinking, Creepshow looked over at me and grinned. We were too far apart in the van to hold hands, but he winked at me and a warm shiver ran up my spine.

  Before too long, we arrived at the house of Mason’s friend. It wasn’t hard to tell we were at the right place. The house was lit up like the Las Vegas strip and there were about four hundred or more cars parked up and down the street starting from almost three blocks away from the actual address. This clearly had the makings of one rager of a party.

  Creep got lucky and grabbed a spot close to the house from an arguing couple who were leaving in a hurry. He snugged The Gator into the vacated space near the curb and killed the engine, and we piled out. Although he rushed around to open my door, I had already gotten out and helped Sixx out of the sliding side door. She had on those killer high heels and needed help negotiating the step down to the sidewalk. Creep came over to the passenger door and we both took a hand and helped her down.

  “Sixx, are you going to be able to walk in those things all night?” I had some concerns about her clomping around in those stilts in an unfamiliar house.

  But Sixx waved me off. “No sweat, Juice. Are you kidding me? I love these shoes! I am not taking them off for any reason at all.” I could tell by the tone in her voice she meant it. She would rather die than not be remembered for fabulous footwear.

  “They are great kicks, Sixx. I’ll give you that,” said Creepshow with a smile of appreciation.

  I shot a surprised look at him.

  “Well, they are,” he said defensively.

  “I’m not denying that they are,” I explained with a laugh. “I’m just surprised you think so.” I leaned in and gave him a quick hug. “I think it’s great.”

  Jett came around and slung his arm around Creepshow’s. “All right, comrades. We ready to crash this pad?”

  “Jett, we were invited. Remember?”

  “Yeah, Juice. But I maintain you were the main attraction. We were just the side dishes our host felt obligated to order along
with the entrée.” I cast a sidelong glance at Creep, who was doing his best to pretend he didn’t care. Then I glared at Jett, who immediately looked contrite. Sixx did me one better.

  “Come on, Jett! Ever learn to shut up?” And then she socked him in the arm.

  I felt as though a big show of solidarity would be in order here and it was now or never. Creep needed to know he had nothing to worry about. Because as far as I was concerned, he didn’t. Stepping close to him, I slid my arms around his back. I looked up at him and locked my eyes with his. Taking a deep breath, I told him how I felt.

  “Creep, I want to be clear about something. I’m totally into this new thing going on with you and me. You know I made the plans for tonight with Mason before you and I had our, well, let’s call it our coming out, for lack of better words.” I pressed into him and grabbed both of his hands. “I intend to honor my obligation with Mason in the same way I intend to honor my obligation to help Shane find a host body. This party tonight is important. I made a promise to Shane and I’m going to keep it.”

  I stopped to see how Creep was taking this. He didn’t say anything, but he pulled me more tightly to him. I could feel Jett and Sixx behind us, not moving and not wanting to for fear of breaking our spell. I continued. “If you can take just one more promise, I want to make one to you, Creep. I promise it’s you I want to be with. Okay?”

  Creepshow stepped back away from me and I almost stopped breathing. Did I say something wrong? Could it all just be too much? Then he took my face in his hands and leaned down and kissed me very gently, very softly, on the lips. With an unreadable expression, he straightened up and looked at me. He could have said anything at that moment, but what he said sounded perfect to me. “Okay.”

  Jett cleared his throat behind me. “Hey, you two. Should we get going into this bash, or what?”

  Creepshow winked at me and walked over to Sixx. He linked his arm through hers and said, “Let’s do this.” Jett slipped his arm through mine and that’s how we walked up the street to the party.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The front door to the party house stood wide open. We walked in and squeezed through the throng of kids in the hallway, living room, and what looked to be the dining room. This was a gorgeous house. The rooms were enormous. Obviously, someone’s parents made a lot of money. There had to be about two to three hundred kids jammed in each room, dancing to music pouring from what we found to be a DJ station in the backyard patio area. No expense had been spared here.

  We made our way out to the back yard, which represented a sad word for what we actually found, which was a yard as big as a small golf course. If at all possible, there were even more kids out there, dancing and drinking soda from plastic cups set up next to a beverage table opposite the DJ table. More kids were near there just hanging out in groups, talking and laughing. It was there that Mason spotted me.

  “Hey, Juice! You made it!” He came over and gave me a hug, which I tried to return as quickly as possible. I distracted him by making re-introductions.

  “You remember Sixx? And Jett and Creepshow?” I pointed each of my friends out hastily. Mason exuberantly hugged Sixx, and didn’t seem to notice her stiffen when he did it, then clapped Jett and Creep on the backs, each in turn.

  He was so genuinely happy to see me, I could feel the guilt crawling back in again. I reminded myself I hadn’t done anything to lead him on and that I had nothing to be ashamed of. I also reminded myself of the bigger picture, namely that we were scoping for a body for Shane. Speaking of Shane, I had been sure he was going to meet us here. I didn’t know how in the world I would find him in this sea of bodies, but I didn’t worry about it. He always had a way of finding me.

  “You guys want anything to eat or drink? There’s a ton of food down by the swimming pool on the second level. Kirk’s dad is some kind of sports agent or something. All I know is they’re crazy rich. Oh, here he is now. Hey, Kirk. Come over here for a second and meet some friends of mine.” Mason slipped his arm around my waist as he hollered for his friend. I cut my eyes over to Creepshow, worried how he would react, but he looked at me with a little smile and kind of shrugged his shoulders. He totally understood! I fell a little more in love with him. I reached for a soda on the refreshments table and kind of danced out of Mason’s grasp. He didn’t seem to notice.

  “Hey, Kirk. This is Juice. You know, the girl I told you about?” Mason indicated me to his friend who came bounding up in a striped boat shirt holding about eight plastic cups nesting in one another. Clearly, he’d had something more than soda. Since no alcohol was being served here, he had to have snuck it in. Drunks were so uncool. As if to prove my point, he leaned in and crushed me in a bear hug.

  “Juice!” he slurred. “Welcome to my parentsh howsh. You’re pretty.”

  “Okay, drunk boy. That’s enough.” Mason peeled his friend off me. But Kirk had more to say.

  “No, no, no. Ish all right. Brian tole me you’re pretty. And he wuz right. You are. Soooooo pretty.” Mason’s friend started to sway in front of me and I was afraid he might fall down. Mason caught him as he lurched forward and excused himself to take his friend inside the house. I had a moment to think. That’s when I realized what he had said. Brian told him? Then it dawned on me. Brian from school! Kirk must be the mutual friend. If he invited Brian, that must mean Cassie and Jenny were here somewhere. I started to communicate this to Sixx, but as usual, she jumped one step ahead of me.

  “Oh great,” she moaned, “Does this mean Barbie and Skipper are somewhere in this house?”

  “Nope. Just your friendly ghost.”

  I whirled around to see Shane standing there grinning.

  “When did you get here?” I was so happy to finally see him. I hoped we would get some time alone. I wanted to share with him what had happened with Creepshow and me. But, looking around at all the craziness at this party, I doubted I would get the opportunity here.

  Sixx and Jett had been touring the gigantic house and Sixx had come back looking nearly breathless.

  “This place is like a museum, Juice! You should see it.” I noticed Sixx leaning into Jett more than ever before and Jett slightly guiding her with his hand on the small of her back. Little changes outwardly, but they screamed Major Change to me. I asked Sixx the big question with my eyes and she only winked at me in response. Wow! Things were happening so fast in our small little world. It was getting hard to keep up.

  “Hey, Shane. You finally showed up. Wondering where you been keeping yourself, man.” Jett and Shane greeted each other.

  “Wow, Sixx. You look pretty fabulous,” said Shane.

  She twirled and curtsied in response. “Why, thank you, kind sir. And you don’t look too shabby yourself. In fact, we all look in fine form. Didja get a load of Creepshow’s hat?”

  “No. In fact, I haven’t even seen him yet. Where is he?”

  “Yeah.” I pivoted, taking in all the faces surrounding us, but looking for one in particular. “Where did he go? Last I saw him, you guys were all together. When did you get separated?” Now, I was anxious. I realized I hadn’t seen him since right after we arrived. It must have sucked for him having to watch me hang out with Mason and now that Shane arrived it would be doubly hard. Probably, he just struck out on his own. But I still began to get an uncomfortable feeling. As if on cue, I heard a familiar annoying voice.

  “Oh wouldja look at this? They’ll just let anyone into this party.”

  Peeling her way through the crowd, I could see Cassie Carmichael and, as usual, never far behind her, Jenny Harmon. They were dressed in nearly matching outfits of strapless micro minidresses. Of course, Cassie filled hers out better, so poor Jenny just looked ill-fitted in hers. Even standing still, she fidgeted and yanked on it, tugging it up on the top and down on the bottom. I felt so sorry for her.

  “HEY PARTY PEOPLE! LET’S GET OUR DRINK ON!” Brian Yates barreled up to us right behind the girls with a full cup of something, almost knocking them both
down in the process.

  Cassie whirled around, annoyed, and smacked him on the back of the head with her purse. Jenny clutched the top of her dress with fear in her eyes, as though terrified the dress Cassie had, without a doubt, made her wear, would rip down and expose her top half to the whole gathering. Brian, drunk as a skunk on who-knows-what, that he got from who-knows-where, seemed oblivious to it all. He was making a bee-line for me.

  “JUICY, JUICY, JUICE-JUICE! HOW YOU DOING, GIRL!” Brian shouted about an inch from my face.

  Jett got there a second after that, pulling him back and making sure he didn’t fall on top of me and flatten me. Three hundred pounds of solid football flesh would likely squash me like a bug. And Brian wasn’t just drunk; he acted completely blitzed. Mason had come back outside to see what all the commotion was about and he helped Jett wrestle Brian back to a standing position.

  “Whoa, cowboy. You need to slow your roll.” Mason and Jett leaned Brian against a wrought iron patio table that Brian was in no danger of crushing with his weight, and took his plastic tower of cups away. He protested with a weak “Hey!” but didn’t resist too strongly.

  “Thanks.” This, surprisingly, came from Cassie. “He’s been a total jerk, for like, the last two hours. I’ve been trying to get his stupid truck keys so I can take us home. Every time I reach for them, he goes off on me.”

  “Maybe he’ll fall asleep soon and you can get them then.” I suggested.

  Cassie gave me a withering look. “He never does that. Once at a party, he drank someone’s dad’s liquor, threw up in some lady’s rosebushes, then made me stop on the way home so he could throw up again. He got me home hours past curfew and I got grounded for two weeks.” She sighed. “I sometimes don’t even know why we are still going out. He does this every time we go to a party. I don’t even know where he gets the liquor.”