To my relief it wasn’t Walker, though. The girl standing by the front door with my mom looked almost like a doll—tiny with bouncing, golden curls and a pixie face. As I came down the stairs she turned a pair of big, blue eyes towards me.
Mom looked up with a smile. “Delaney, this is Molly from across the street. She’s going to be a junior next year, too.”
Molly Powers. I knew who she was, although I didn’t really know her. We’d never had any classes together or anything, and she was really quiet and kept to herself most of the time. From the way people talked about her being so shy, I could hardly believe she’d come over to see me on her own.
Rumor also had it that she was the poster child for every dumb blonde joke that had ever been made. People were just mean sometimes, though, and I wasn’t sure if it was really true or not.
“Hi, Molly.”
A hesitant smile flickered on her lips. “Hi. Um, I’ve seen you around at school, so I thought I’d come by and say hello once you got moved in.”
Mom beamed down at her. “Why don’t you show her your room, Delaney, and I’ll make some cookies. Chocolate chip?”
I couldn’t resist chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven and she knew it. It isn’t as though I would have been rude anyway, but Mom wasn’t taking any chances. I felt like I was back in elementary school again, and she was pushing me to make friends by setting me up on play dates. Well, why not? Looking over at Molly, I found myself smiling. I could always use another friend, and she had been nice enough to come over.
“Come on,” I told her. “My room’s upstairs.”
As I led the way, I glanced back. “Sorry, there’s not much to do yet. The cable won’t be hooked up until tomorrow, which means no Netflix or television.”
“That’s okay. If you’ve got a show you want to watch, you’re welcome to come over to my house.” She laughed. “I know I’d go nuts if I had to miss Walking Dead or Game of Thrones.”
“Yeah, I’m a Walking Dead fan, too.”
“You should come over so we can watch it together. It’s more fun with other people.”
I hadn’t thought of that. Of course none of my friends were as fanatic about it as I was, so I just watched at home and tried to get Shelly to shut up about her crush on Daryl long enough for me to actually hear the show. Watching with someone else who enjoyed it as much as I did sounded like it could be fun.
“So what do you think of the house?” Molly asked as we got to my room. “Ours is a lot like this one.”
“It’s totally creepy, and everything is too small.”
She laughed as she looked around the room and nodded. “You got ripped off on closet space too, huh?”
I liked her laugh. For some reason she was giving off a completely different vibe than she did when she was at school—not as shy, and certainly not dumb. I’d only just met her, but my initial reaction was that she was someone I could be friends with. I hoped it worked out that way. While I loved Allison and Dannika, I missed Emily terribly and I’d start to feel better about the move if it meant I could have a friend right across the street again.
Molly walked over to the window and twitched aside the curtains, a knowing smile forming on her lips as she looked down.
“Well, you may be short on closet space, but you’ve got the best view in the house.”
My face heated with a blush. “I don’t…”
“Don’t give me that, girl. You’d have to be blind and a saint not to want to look at Walker. He’s serious eye candy.”
“Except that seeing him means having to see London Matthews, and I can live without that.”
Her smile vanished as she wrinkled her nose in distaste. “The Skank Queen is back? I though she’d given up on him.”
“She was over there last night. And from the way she was acting they must be dating.”
To my surprise Molly burst out laughing. “I don’t think so. Walker doesn’t date.”
“He doesn’t?”
“He hooks up. He makes out with girls at parties and sometimes at school. He flirts a lot. But he never dates—no matter how hard London tries. They just hooked up one time at a party, and now she’s trying to make it into a thing. Walker won’t do that, though.”
I frowned, a little dubious after seeing them together. “Are you sure? I mean, it seemed like there was something going on there.”
“Did you actually see Walker do anything to encourage her, or was it all just London?”
I thought back. He’d been passive, and I hadn’t seen him touch her or anything. For some reason that made me feel like I was about ten pounds lighter and I could float around the room.
As Molly watched the emotions playing over my face, her eyebrows rose. “I think someone has a crush on her new neighbor.”
I tried to feign surprise. “No! I mean, I don’t even know him or anything.”
“Uh huh. Well, if you’ll take a little unsolicited advice from the girl who has been living across the street from him for the last year, keep hold of your heart when Walker is around. That boy will break it before you even realize what’s happening. He won’t do it on purpose and he’ll feel bad about it after, but that won’t help you any when you’re crying your eyes out at three in the morning.”
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear, and I shuffled my foot around nervously. “He seems nice.”
Molly nodded sagely. “That’s because he really is nice. That’s what makes it so hard. He makes you want to swoon for him. But it’s no use. He just doesn’t do relationships. He’ll play around with a girl, but as soon as he gets bored, she’s history.”
“When you say it like that, he sounds like a jerk.”
She shrugged. “He’s not, though. He just doesn’t see why people make such a big deal out of the whole relationship thing. The thing is, he’s never been in love.”
My eyes narrowed in sudden suspicion. “You sure seem to know an awful lot about what he thinks.”
Molly looked back out of the window, her gaze focused far away. “We talk sometimes. I don’t have any friends at school, and he knows that so he’s nice to me. Plus I don’t trip all over myself trying to get him to kiss me,” she added with a grin. “I think he likes having a girl around who isn’t all after his hotness. It gives him a chance to relax.”
My thoughts drifted. Could I do that? Just turn off that part of my brain and hang out with Walker and be friends? We could sit down and talk about… What? Goose bumps crept across my skin as I remembered losing myself in his eyes. Maybe if I never looked at him it could work.
No, it was too dangerous, especially if he really was as nice as he seemed. I’d end up falling for him, no matter how hard I tried not to. He was so gorgeous that I was halfway there already, and I couldn’t deny the longing I felt when I looked at him.
But I wanted a boyfriend—someone I could hold hands with while we walked to class, someone who would be crazy about me, someone who I could dream about finding forever with. All Walker could give me was a little taste of his lips and a whole lot of heartache. Molly was right about that. Some dark, demented part of my brain just wouldn’t let it go, though, and it was that tiny voice in the back of my mind that I heard whispering again and again until I finally fell into a restless sleep that night.
Wouldn’t it be worth it?
Chapter Five
“So tell us all about Walker.”
Dannika bounced up and down on my bed, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. Down on the floor, Allison left off sorting a jumble of Monopoly money into neat piles and rolled over to add the weight of her gaze to Dannika’s. The two of them were eyeing me the same way Kiki watched the birds that perched in that oak tree by my window. If they’d had tails, no doubt they would have been lashing them.
I leaned back against the wall and feigned an indifferent shrug. “What’s there to tell? I only saw him for like two seconds.” Well, those two seconds and every single time I’d closed my eyes since. “He found Kiki
wandering in his yard and brought him back. That’s all.”
Allison sighed. “That was so sweet of him. Was he nice?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
He had lifted my chin up and I thought he was going to kiss me. That would have been nicer.
Dannika grinned at me. “So he was nice. But was he hot?”
“Duh. Of course he’s hot. He’s Walker Dean.”
“Well, I think you should go for it,” she said.
My jaw dropped. “Have you lost your mind? The guy has cheerleaders following him around like puppy dogs. He’s way out of my league. Compared to them I don’t even have a league.”
She tilted her head and thought about it, one fingernail tapping against her teeth. “Well, you do live next door to him. That gives you the inside track.”
“I don’t follow.”
“It gives you the perfect opportunity to put yourself in front of him every chance you get.”
I sighed and cast a pleading glance at Allison, who could only shrug. Dannika was a self-appointed matchmaker. She wanted everyone to have their perfect happily ever after ending with the boy of their dreams. This was despite the fact that she was hopelessly in love with her ex-boyfriend, who she wouldn’t take back no matter how hard he begged. They had both been miserable during the past year and everyone knew it.
“Look, there is nothing between me and Walker, and there’s not going to be. London Matthews is after him! Like I can compete with that. And,” I continued, holding up a hand to forestall her objections, “even if I did go for it and was able to convince him to give me the time of day, there’s no happily ever after to this story. Walker never sticks with any girl for more than about five minutes. Do you really want me to get all hung up on the guy just so I can get my heart broken when he dumps me?”
“She has a point, Dan,” Allison said, sitting up.
Dannika dug in and wouldn’t let it go. “But what if he didn’t dump you?”
“He always moves on to greener pastures.”
“Maybe that’s just because he hasn’t tried your pasture yet,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
Allison started to giggle, and I couldn’t help laughing, either. “You’re awful,” I told Dannika.
“You know what I mean.”
“As if. Walker isn’t going to fall for me. I’m not anything special. I mean, the last guy I kissed was back in the eighth grade.”
“Well, then you’re way overdue to be kissed again.”
Allison nodded in agreement. “You’re too hard on yourself, Delaney. I know guys have asked you out. You should stop being so picky and say yes now and then.”
“I thought I was supposed to be picky and not just settle for whoever came along?”
Dannika grinned again. “Would you settle for Walker? If he came over and asked you out, would you tell him yes?”
Wouldn’t it be worth it? I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe? Yes, I guess.”
“See?”
“It doesn’t matter. It isn’t going to happen. He doesn’t even know I exist.” Except he already knew my name.
“Give it up, Dan,” Allison said. She finished arranging the pieces around the Monopoly board and looked up at us. “Are you two ready to play?”
“Let’s wait until the pizza gets here so we don’t have to stop in the middle of the game.”
She frowned a little, a Monopoly junkie wanting her fix, but gave a reluctant nod. “All right.”
“I wish you were going with us,” Dannika told me. “Vacation at Grandma’s won’t be the same without you.”
That was why we were having the sleepover—to have a last get together before they both left for two weeks. Well, that and so I wouldn’t be sleeping by myself tonight in this house I was still pretty sure was haunted. Hopefully there would be safety in numbers.
I’d invited Molly to come over, too, but she’d told me she already had plans. I wasn’t sure if she was telling me the truth or if she was just displaying the same shyness she seemed to suffer from at school. I’d try again, though. I wasn’t giving up on her. I promised myself I’d drop by her house the next day for a Walking Dead fix. While I had stacks of zombie movies handy, Dannika refused to watch anything scary. Considering that I lived in a haunted house now, skipping the horror movies was probably a good plan anyway. There was no point in giving the ghosts any ideas.
“I wish I was going, too, but I’m stuck babysitting Shelly since Mom and Dad are both working this summer.”
“At least they’re paying you for it,” Allison pointed out.
“Yeah. Not a lot, but it’s sure better than nothing.”
The doorbell gave its dying duck call, which sent both of my friends into gales of hysterical laughter.
“I’ll go get the pizza,” I said.
Allison choked off her laughter and hopped to her feet. “Wait. I’ll come with you. You might need help carrying stuff.”
Dannika and I traded knowing looks and rolled our eyes.
“Fine. You can both come and hold the pizzas while I pay.”
I’d gotten an advance on my babysitting money from Dad to pay for the pizza. He was easier to work than Mom. A little pleading and batting my eyes was usually all it took. Allison bounded down the stairs two at a time and was lucky she didn’t slip and break her neck on the slick, threadbare carpet. When we got downstairs she was already standing beside the front door, dancing nervously from one foot to the other. I deliberately took my time, making a big show of slowing down as I got closer to the door until the look of anguish on her face guilted me back into normal speed.
The pizza guy smiled as I opened the door. He was tall, though not quite as tall as Walker, with black hair and mossy green eyes.
“Hi, Delaney. Allison.”
She squeaked out a Minnie Mouse on helium reply that might have been hello while I handed him the money for our pizza. He knew our names because we ordered a lot of pizza from the shop where he worked. Or at least Allison did. The reason why was standing in front of me counting out my change.
“Thanks, Seth.”
When I handed him back a ten for a tip he grinned. “Hey, thanks, Delaney. You just moved here, huh?”
“Yeah. This is day two.”
“It’s kind of a weird old place.”
“Tell me about it. I’m afraid to sleep without the lights on.”
I said it jokingly so that he laughed, but I would have died if he found out it was the honest truth.
“Well, I’ve got to make my next delivery. You girls enjoy your pizza.”
Allison’s dreamy sigh oozed with longing as he walked away, and as he pulled out of the driveway she smacked me in the arm.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“Why’d you tip him so much? Were you flirting with him?”
“I always tip him that much, you idiot.”
Frowning, she turned back inside the house. “Well, he didn’t have to act so happy about it,” she grumbled.
“Maybe if you answered the door for a change, he’d smile at you that way,” Dannika told her.
“No way. I can’t talk to him. When I try, my hands get all sweaty and my tongue forgets how to make words and my heart feels like it’s about to explode.”
I knew exactly how she felt—just like when I’d opened the door to find Walker standing on the porch.
Dannika shook her head. “You’re hopeless.”
“You should talk,” Allison snapped back. “Why don’t you just make up with Ashton already and stop driving everyone else crazy?”
I held up my hands. “Children! Behave yourselves or I’ll send you to bed without pizza. Now, let’s go play Monopoly and kill each other over that like civilized people.”
The next morning we got to sleep in, which was good because we had stayed up until stupid o’clock playing Monopoly, drinking hot cocoa, and talking about the boys—or the lack of them—in our lives. This is what happens when you don’t have cable or the
internet.
Shelly had already eaten breakfast by the time we got up and was back in her room watching some animated movie while she talked to a friend on Skype. Without her underfoot, we were able to be our usual selves and worked up a major sugar rush from our cereal.
“So what are we going to do after you two come back from vacation?”
Dannika’s head popped up. “We should go to the seniors’ Fourth of July beach party.”
“We’re not seniors,” Allison pointed out.
“So? Maybe we can find some seniors to take us.”
“Like who?”
Dannika batted her eyes at me. “I’ll bet Delaney can sweet talk Walker into loaning us a couple of his friends for the night.”
“Will you lay off? I don’t know him, so it’s not like I can ask him for favors—even ones that might be realistic. Now, do you two want to help me?”
“Help with what?”
“I found my hammock out in the garage and I want to set it up in the backyard.” That way I could nap out there if I wanted to—safely in the broad daylight of the backyard where there weren’t any spooky noises or ghosts. At least I didn’t think so.
I was a little apprehensive as we carried it out back, but I figured it was late enough in the morning that Walker had probably already finished his exercise routine. If my friends found out about that, they would never stop teasing me about watching the Walker Dean Workout Show.
Together we stretched the hammock out to see how it would fit between the trees that were big enough to support it, before finally deciding on two old oaks that looked promising. Allison held up one end of the hammock while I went to work tying the other end around a thick trunk. Deciding that the two of us could manage the physical labor on our own, Dannika appropriated a lawn chair and set about supervising our efforts with lots of really unhelpful advice. She snickered as I finished up my first attempt.
“It’s all crooked,” she said.
I stepped around the tree and saw that she was right. How did that happen? Grumbling, I went back to the other side of the tree and picked apart the knots I had just tied. I struggled to keep tension on the rope as I adjusted it, but it was hard because I had to hold my arms up over my head while trying to tie off the ends of the rope. Who knew putting up a hammock would be so much trouble?
A Little Bit Haunted Page 3
