Gravity, a young adult paranormal romance

by Abigail Boyd

  "That's what she says," I said carefully. "We were playing tennis in gym, and she hit the ball, which struck my nose. It could have been an accident, yes."

  He studied my face, gently grabbing my chin and rotating my head side to side.

  "I think you made enemies with the wrong person," was all he said, and started the car.

  We spent the afternoon at the hospital. The emergency waiting room was packed when we arrived, full of coughing kids and broken limbs. It took nearly forty-five minutes for the triage nurse to get to me. I felt goofy as I explained what had happened.

  After more waiting in the exam room, a technician performed a CT scan on my head to check for problems. But when the doctor breezed in, he told me there was no internal bleeding or real cause for concern.

  "And there's just a small fracture at the top of the bridge," he said cheerfully, as if it were good news. Did he not see that I was a fifteen year old girl, not a football player?

  "My nose is broken?" I asked, horrified.

  "Yes. But once it heals you shouldn't notice any difference in the way you look," he said dismissively, before hurrying back out into the hall. Easy for him to say.

  "You'll be okay," Hugh said, more to himself than me, his voice cracking.

  Hugh stopped at the drugstore on the way home, and stocked up on ice packs and tabloids, the best reading material when one is incapacitated.

  "Does this mean I get to stay home tomorrow?" I asked.

  "I suppose it does," he said, a tired smile forced on his lips.

  I leaned my head against the window. It bumped against the glass as the tires navigated potholes. My eyes kept sliding shut, lids heavy from a combination of swelling, tiredness, and medicine. I was suddenly very hungry but food sounded gross.

  By the time we got home it was dark. We went inside and Claire squeezed me in a tight hug. It was a rare show of affection, for her. I patted her back through her jacket for comfort.

  Pulling back, she inspected my face like Hugh had; only her hands were on my cheeks. Exchanging one of her glances with Hugh, sharing their worries silently.

  "I wanted to come to the hospital," Claire said, apologetic. "I couldn't get off of work, and your father said it was alright. She looks awful, Hugh."

  "Thanks so much," I said.

  "She's fine, Claire. The doctor checked her out, he ran a head scan, and he didn't find anything to concern him. Her nose will heal. She's going to be okay."

  He preached all of this as if trying to convince himself. He couldn't stand still in the kitchen, tossing his keys on the counter and drumming his knuckles, then pacing over to the fridge and back. Unspent anger colored his cheeks.

  "Honey, why don't you go take a shower?" Claire said to me. That meant they wanted me out of the way so that they could argue. "The steam will probably make you feel better," she finished.

  The suggestion did sound heavenly. My back was sore from both falling on the floor and lying in the hospital bed. Falling through the floor my thoughts whispered. You fell through the floor and you saw...

  "Yeah, I think I'll do that," I said, willing my thoughts away. It was just a dream, no different than when I had dreamed she was at the orphanage. So what if I had seen the ghost of a little girl merely a few days ago. That was a totally different experience. A person had to be dead to be a ghost. Jenna had run off, like everyone said, and was now living it up, and had totally forgotten the small town she came from. But her eyes were black...the same little voice of my thoughts whispered. I shook my head.

  I went into the downstairs shower. Hugh and Claire talked in hushed voices, but I could still make out a few words."

  "Is it dangerous for her to be at that school?" Claire asked.

  "I don't know," Hugh said after a moment.

  I paused, shivering in the bathroom even though it was warm. I hadn't thought about it like that. I turned the shower on hot, letting the steam fill the bathroom and fog up the mirror.

  "There's definitely favoritism," Hugh said. "The Thornhill reach extends all the way into the classrooms."

  "You really think it has to do with that silly committee?" Claired wondered aloud.

  Hugh didn't respond.

  I undressed and stepped into the shower. The sharpness was beginning to return to the pain in my face, meaning the painkillers were wearing off on schedule. I shampooed quickly, then just stood in the hot water. It felt good on my aching face.

  I got out eventually, fully expecting Claire and Hugh to be yelling. But there was silence. The kitchen was empty by the time I had gotten dressed. It must have meant they had retreated to their individual corners.

  A few pieces of baked chicken sat on a cookie sheet on the stovetop. I made myself a small plate, and while I didn't usually take food to my room, I figured this time would be alright. I trudged down the stairs with my tabloids and my food.

  It didn't take long after eating and taking my pills to fall asleep.

  The next morning I woke up to find Hugh had already called in, for both of us.

  "What if Gwen needs you there?" I protested.

  "Gwen runs the place better than I do. Have a seat," was his reply.

  He slid two pieces of French toast from a skillet onto my plate. My favorite breakfast food since I was a little girl. I couldn't taste anything very well because of my nose, but it was still a nice change from plain cereal.

  I spent the day lazing about the house, watching daytime TV and putting together an old puzzle I found underneath the couch. I wondered what Theo was doing, hoping she was keeping her anger to herself. And I wondered if Henry had heard about me getting hurt.

  Around 3:30, I heard a knock on the front door. I got off the couch were I had been watching courtroom shows and answered it.

  Theo stood on the porch. She smiled sympathetically when she saw me. The world behind her looked inviting after being cooped up all day. I didn't know how I'd lasted so long over the summer inside.

  "How are you?" she asked.

  "Bored," I said. "Come in. Did I miss anything at school?" I shut the door behind her.

  "No, nothing as exciting as yesterday," Theo said, taking off her sneakers. "You are the gossip around school, though." She ran a hand through her hair. "Henry asked me how you were; I thought you would want to know that."

  A little thrill went through me. "Oh." I wondered why he hadn't gotten a hold of me himself.

  We sat down on the couch. It took a moment before either of us spoke. Theo picked up the cushion behind her and hugged it to her chest. Her admission yesterday about Jenna hung heavy in the air.

  "I wanted to check on you," she started. "But I also wanted to tell you more about what I said yesterday."

  I sat up straighter, bracing myself for whatever bad news she would share.

  "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about seeing Jenna before," Theo said.

  "Are you sure it was her that you saw?" That was the biggest question that had been nagging at me to ask her.

  "Positive."

  Hope inside me deflated, right when I realized I was holding onto it. Theo ran her finger along the hollow of her pale throat.

  "She was wearing a necklace with her name on it."

  "I gave her that necklace," I said. I ripped a tissue to pieces with my fingers and didn't realize it until I looked down at the mess on my lap. I scooped up the pile and put it on a leftover plate on the table. "For her tenth birthday. She gave me a turtle piggy bank."

  We were silent.

  "She didn't do anything to me," Theo said finally. "It was sort of how it was when you saw Henry stand by and watch that kid get beaten up. She didn't do anything wrong, really, but she didn't stop it, either."

  I nodded. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I was starting to think there things about Jenna that I didn't know.

  Chapter 19

  I was ready to go back to school the next day. I got a lot of stares in my direction, but I clutched my books to my chest and did my best to ignore them.
In Gym class, Coach insisted that I sit out even though I told her I was fine. I peered across the floor to the spot where I had fallen. The blood was all cleaned up, of course, but I could almost see it, a shiny crimson puddle.

  I didn't even look at Lainey and she ignored me in kind.

  At lunch, even though Theo had to serve her unfair lunch detention, I still sat in our spot against the wall, enjoying my Spooky Spaghetti in peace. Theo had gathered up my homework from the day before and I was trying to blow through it as fast as possible, not wanting to fall behind.

  Henry suddenly crouched down in front of me. Oh no. I hadn't wanted him to see me like this. Calling was one thing, but seeing the actual nose brokenness...

  "Hi," I said, embarrassed and trying to duck my head.

  He remained where he was, shaking his head back and forth slowly. That didn't instill a lot of confidence. "They weren't kidding."

  I wished he would stop looking at my face.

  "What did the doctor say?" he asked.

  "I'm fine. It's not even broken. Just looks ugly," I muttered.

  "Oh shut up," he scoffed lightly. "You're always beautiful, this doesn't change that fact."

  A thrill rushed through my blood. He patted my nose with gentle fingers. I thought I had imagined him saying it. My heart was dancing out a contorted rhythm underneath my shirt.

  "Did they give you painkillers?"

  I nodded.

  "Sweet," he said, grinning. "Gotta look at the benefits, right?"

  "Right," I said. I wanted urgently to kiss him again, even if it was in the middle of the noisy commons. But that seemed like a long time ago. Even though it was the most recent of many times that I thought our relationship, as it were, had finally progressed into something more than friends, I wondered if I had imagined that, too.

  Although Lainey and Madison carried on relentlessly with their missing girl's committee, stopping people in the hallways and handing out information cards, not much came from it. I wished that I had seen more when I saw the ghost of the girl, and now it nagged at me. Was she the one who had been following me? There had been no more noises in my room...did the séance actually dispel the spirit? And why was she appearing to me, anyway?

  In homeroom, a girl who sat behind me was talking about how her father ran the police department tip site.

  "The missing child inquiry is clogged," she said. I listened intently without turning around. "They've been getting a bunch of false leads and prank submissions, hundreds that they have to sort through a day."

  I knew that Jenna's own fanpage had blown up with posts from various people with clues and bogus "tips". At first I had been extremely excited, until I started scrolling through them and saw that it was a bunch of garbage. The page had been cleared out and shut down, with a note to contact the Hell Police Department directly.

  I tried not to look at the flyers, but I gravitated towards them. Jenna's face seemed to follow me everywhere. On the paper, her eyes reminded me of how black they were in my vision.

  The lights began flickering often in school, and no one could figure out the cause of it. Which drove everyone nuts, especially the teachers. The electricians still hadn't been called, and even though we kept hearing it would happen during the morning announcements, there was always an excuse as to why it didn't happen.

  "This is no way to conduct school," Warwick muttered after another blackout. The only teacher who didn't seem to be affected was Ms. Fellows. Her projector would shut off, and she would merely stare at the roll down screen, blinking, until the power came back on.

  After class late in the week, Mr. Warwick pulled me aside. My nose was healing pretty fast, although it was so still so bruised that concealer hardly made a difference.

  "Great job on the test, Ariel, really," he said. I had gotten an A on practically every assignment I'd done in History, but it still gave me an accomplished feeling. Seeing the big red letter on the page brought me back to first grade, when we would get check marks or minuses. I always felt smart when I'd get those little checks.

  He sat on the edge of his desk, looking at me expectantly. Warwick was the same age as my dad, which made sense considering they went to school together forever ago. His cautious gray eyes analyzed my face. He was familiar to me, but at the same time cut off, sort of in the same way Aunt Corinne was.

  "It must be hard for you," he said finally, crossing his arms. The pale blue stripes on his shirt contorted and twisted at odd angles.

  "What's hard for me?" I asked. My eyes found the globe behind his shoulder and focused there, picking out England, Spain, China.

  "Seeing your friend's face all over school," he said. "You've been doing great in my class, but I can tell that you're upset. You don't interact much with the other students. You don't ever raise your hand even though I know you know the answers."

  "I don't have anything to say," I said, shifting my binder from one arm to the other. I was very uncomfortable with heartfelt talks. My heart could stay right off my sleeve and inside my chest. "I prefer to write my answers down."

  "I just wanted to let you know if you ever need anything, there are people you can trust here. I'm one of them. Your dad and I have been friends for many years," he said. "You could tell me anything that was bothering you."

  I mumbled my appreciation, looking at the floor. I was suddenly feeling weirded out, and I didn't know why.

  "Thanks," I said.

  "So is there anything you want to share?" he asked. There was an unusual twinkle in his yes I'd never seen before. I didn't want to say anything.

  "No, not right now," I said.

  "Okay," he said, jumping off of his desk. "Just wanted to let you know that I was there. Go on off to class now, I'll write you a hall pass."

  I took the pass and walked out of his classroom. In all honesty, I couldn't stand being treated like that, even if it was from someone who cared. I wondered if that made me a bad person.

  Would it always be this way? Would I be getting print outs in the mail in ten years, age progressed to make Jenna look like she was twenty-five? Maybe I would never know what happened to her.

  Before school on Friday, I waited at a table for Theo in the commons before first bell. We were going to quiz each other for math since we both had Geometry, and there was another big test today. Mr. Vanderlip seemed fonder of tests and quizzes than he was of his chalk.

  But Theo didn't show. I flipped through my flashcards absently, hoping I was prepared enough. I had been up on the phone for an hour last night with Henry, his soothing voice asking me questions and nearly lulling me into a trance.

  A few minutes before the bell rang, my phone beeped a text alert. It was Theo, saying I'm not coming to school, I'm sick. Doctor's office. Sorry! Hope test goes okay. Theo texted novels the same way I did. She had been complaining of the sniffles and a sore throat yesterday, I recalled. I sent her a get well text back and went to class.

  I was happy I had Geometry first hour, only because I could get the test out of the way so it wouldn't be on my mind all day. I was confident I more than passed, but didn't want to speculate. More than anything I just felt relieved. I didn't celebrate until I received the paper back with the grade on it.

  I missed Theo in gym, although luckily we were only doing yoga poses led by a college instructor, so we kept busy. The lesson was complete with new age music. I was jealous of Lainey's flexibility as I wobbled from one pose to another. She was still pretending I didn't exist, which was a relief as well. I wondered if her parents had coached her on ways to avoid retaliation for my still-bruised nose.

  In Art, the empty seat that Theo usually occupied made me lonely. I felt selfish depending on another person so much for companionship, but it had helped so much to pull me out of my introverted state. Theo was so different from Jenna in so many ways, but we had already become quite close friends when I wasn't paying attention. Part of me felt like I was betraying Jenna by moving on. But part of me argued that perhaps she had betra
yed me.

  Art class itself had taken on a relaxing atmosphere. We were still deep in free painting, and now that I didn’t take my attempts at art so seriously, I was actually enjoying myself.

  I picked up my brush and dipped the end in brown paint, working on a ropey-looking horse's tail. In actuality it looked more like a camel than a horse.

  Henry seemed tense, shifting around in his seat. Without Theo there, I didn't check myself in looking at him. Twenty minutes into the hour-long class, he got up and asked Ms. Vore for hallway permission. Since I pretty much always involuntarily looked at him whenever he moved, I gazed up at him and was surprised to see him staring intently at me. Either me, or the poster behind me of the talking pencil. He didn't smile like he normally did when our eyes met. What was going on with him?

  He left the room, and didn't come back. I couldn't help checking the clock as the minutes ticked by. Ms. Vore was too busy helping other students with their paintings to notice.

  Out of nowhere, the fire alarm started blaring. It was so loud my ears hurt. I dropped the paintbrush in my rush to cover my ears. The muddy paint made a splotch on the floor.

  "Okay, everybody, let's go," Ms. Vore said calmly, already standing at the door. Everyone lined up, shuffling out into the hall. Our teacher remained as unruffled as could be, although I saw her push her glasses up her nose and it reminded me of Theo.

  I followed the quiet procession of kids, strangely somber. I was the last in line since I sat in the back corner. But as we were heading down the hall towards the exit, I imagined I heard someone calling to me from down the hall. It wasn't the same voice that had called me when I saw the little girl, but it was almost an echo of that. The same strange urge that I was being pulled manifested again.

  I suddenly had to find Henry. He could be in danger.

  I ran down the hallway. Ms. Vore didn't notice me because she was already at the exit. I walked quickly, swinging my arms to propel me forward, hoping I could find him fast and get out. I had no idea what had caused the fire alarm to go off, but it couldn't be good.

  Further into the school, the electricity suddenly went out. I froze, skidding to a stop and almost falling over. Of course today would be the day I didn't wear sneakers, the impracticality of the heeled boots on my feet never occurring to me.