Haunted (10 page)

We burst through his bedroom door, me first with Sean at my heels. Cooper was sitting up in the middle of the bed, soaked in sweat with his sheet stuck to his body. His eyes were open, but I wasn't sure that he was fully aware of his surroundings; he looked like a cornered animal.

I softly called his name as I walked towards him. Sean grabbed my arm to hold me back, clearly unsure of how Coop would react; he didn't know this wasn't my first time at the rodeo. I gave him a reassuring nod and he let me go, looking not entirely happy about it.

Cooper was not really looking at me as much as through me. I kept speaking to him in a soft, low voice all the while pushing a calming energy his way as I had so many times before. It was taking longer than usual to work.

I scooted my bum up onto the bed beside him and pulled my legs up after. He was still not out of it yet. I moved closer and closer until I was literally on his lap, straddling his knees with my face in his; he then snapped out of it.

“Ruby, I'm so sorry, did I—” he started, before I quickly cut him off.

“It's okay, Coop. You're okay. I'm here,” I said soothingly.

He looked over my shoulder to see Sean in the doorway, his expression unchanging.

“You have to tell me what's going on, Cooper, please!” I begged, noticing that Sean had started to pace the room, looking around.

“Do you feel that, Ruby?” he asked.

“Yes, I always do. I don't know what it is,” I said, hearing the frustration in my voice.

From the hall I heard dainty footsteps approaching.

Peyta! Poor thing, we must have scared the crap out of her.

Peyta rounded the threshold rubbing her eyes and smoothing her hair as a huge yawn escaped her mouth. There was a single bedside lamp on in Cooper's room, but apparently that small amount of light was enough to cause her to squint as she looked in on us. She scanned the room taking in the view, and I was sure we were quite the site to behold – Sean in his skivvies, which was a site unto itself, and me straddling a sweaty, possibly naked Cooper. I was setting an excellent example; Ronnie would be thrilled.

“Peyta, I'm so sorry sweetie. We must have scared the pants off of you just now,” I said, trying to elegantly crawl off of Cooper while blocking her sight line of Sean.

“It's cool, don't worry. You guys having a party in here or something?” she asked innocently enough.

“Um, no. Definitely not a party,” I said.

“Who's he?” she asked, pointing towards Sean and his absent wardrobe. It seemed interesting that she was suddenly so able to open her eyes wide as she looked his way.

“That's Sean, he's a friend of mine, of ours,” I blurted, digging my hole deeper as I went.

“Riiiight,” she responded dubiously.

Awesome. She thinks I'm having a threesome. This just keeps getting better.

“Who are they, then?” she asked, pointing to an empty corner of the room.

I looked at her completely confused, then turned to Cooper and Sean.

She must not be awake yet. Ronnie didn't mention that she sleepwalks…

“Who are you talking about?” I loudly asked, wondering if it would wake her up.

“The two guys in the corner. Who are they? Are they your 'friends' too?”

I got off the bed and walked over to her, waving my hand in front of her face several times to see if she was awake. The look she gave me was a huge affirmation of that.

“Are you guys high?” she shouted as she stomped across the room, past Sean to the corner in question. “These guys, right here….” She trailed off as she reached her destination.

“Interesting,” Sean said as he eyed her up in her confused state.

“What's so interesting, Sean? I've got Coop wigging out and Peyta is delusional. My night/morning is deteriorating by the second.”

He walked closer to Peyta, studying her on the way. She turned to face him and tried to do the same; she seemed to be having trouble getting past the underwear.

“It's interesting, Ruby, because she isn't delusional at all.”

“She's seeing things that aren't there, Sean, what would you call that?” I asked, showing my irritation.

“She doesn't see things that aren't there, Ruby,” he said, sounding older somehow. “She sees Those-That-Cannot-Be-Seen.”

“Meaning?”

“Ghosts, Ruby. Peyta sees ghosts.”

13

I opened my mouth to tell Sean that he'd officially lost his mind, but when I turned to see Peyta staring blankly at the empty corner she was convinced just moments earlier was occupied, I realized he wasn't crazy at all. He was right.

“But I just saw them,” she said, turning a blank face towards us. “They were standing right here. They were real, I swear.”

Sean advanced towards her as she struggled to make sense of what was going on. Even in his underwear he was extremely intimidating when he had his game face on, and judging by the look of him, it was kick-off time.

“How long have you seen ghosts, Peyta?” he asked her with an eerily calm voice.

“Since I was a kid, but they weren't—” she replied as he cut her off.

“What did they look like?”

She shot him an angry glance as he came to tower over her.

“Like people.” Her voice was laced with insolence and Sean was having none of it.

“This is not the time to be cute. Answer me,” he demanded.

“Peyta, I know for a fact that he's not going to quit until he gets what he wants. Do us all a favor and speed this whole thing up. I'd like to get at least a couple hours of sleep in tonight,” I said, seeing where the scenario was headed.

“Fine,” she said, scowling at Sean. “They looked like men, twenty-somethings maybe. They didn't exactly look like the dead.”

“Explain,” he ordered, crossing his arms across his naked chest.

“Ghosts look how you'd expect, like weak, slightly transparent images of the people they used to be. I would never mistake them for a living person,” she said plainly. “Nobody would.”

“But you just did,” he pointed out, further pissing her off.

“Right, but like I said, they didn't look like ghosts,” she said, defending her abilities.

“And you've never been wrong before?”

“Never.”

He raised a curious eyebrow at her response as he stared her down. She stood defiant, mimicking his stance crossed arms and all; Ronnie would have been proud. I had caved under that stare a time or two. Peyta had spunk and I admired her for it. Sean was formidable to say the least.

“How old are you?” he asked out of nowhere.

“I hardly see how my age has anything to do with this.”

“You wouldn't,” he responded curtly. “How old?”

“What's your deal?” she asked, preparing to embark on a verbal assault.

“Peyta, please…just tell him,” I said, rubbing my forehead where a massive bass drum had started playing.

“I'm seventeen,” she said, staring him down. “Happy now?”

“Elated,” he replied sarcastically. “When is your birthday?”

“Seriously, Ruby, who is this guy?” she asked, turning to me for aid.

“That's the million dollar question, Peyta. I'm still working on the whole story myself,” I said while pressing harder on my head. “My face is going to explode,” I muttered under my breath.

“Not likely, Ruby,” Sean assured me. “Your birthday, young lady?”

“It's next weekend, Saturday to be exact.”

He said nothing but stood there staring at her. Their standoff was highly entertaining and all, but I needed to get some ice for my head. I turned to leave and jumped when I saw Cooper sitting on the bed; I'd forgotten he was even there. He was surprisingly quiet and looked horribly nervous.

“Cooper, you just scared the shit out of me. Why is this night conspiring against me?” I lamented as I walked out of the room. Sean followed me with Peyta tight on his heels, taking a verbal strip off of him. She sounded like a yappy terrier.

“Ruby, I need to talk to you,” he said calmly over top of her ranting.

“Not now. Need ice. Head pounding.”

“I want to know how my birthday has anything to do with this!” Peyta demanded as she trailed him. I could only envision her staring down his ass, as I had many times before.

“You'll know what you need to know. Go to bed,” he ordered.

So not helping, Sean.

Just as Peyta inhaled to inevitably start her bravado, I snapped.

“EVERYBODY SHUT IT!” I yelled. “Peyta, Sean does this, it's his thing. It's irritating and infuriating and he enjoys it immensely. You're only fueling his fire. Your birthday probably doesn't have anything to do with this at all; he just wanted to piss you off. Mission accomplished.”

“Fine,” she said, looking angry but defeated. “I'll go, but keep this dickhead away from me. He's skeeving me out.”

“Duly noted,” I replied.

Peyta disappeared into the darkness of the living room and got into bed. I grabbed an icepack from the freezer and pressed it to my forehead as I walked by Sean, giving him the hairy eyeball as I passed. I heard him snort then follow me down the hall. I didn't even bother going into to Coop's room – I couldn't deal.

“Close the door,” I barked at Sean as he entered my bedroom. I heard the lock click and I turned around to see Sean curiously eying me up.

“What?” I asked.

“I'm not used to being ordered around,” he said.

“No shit,” I replied. “Want to let me in on what all of that was about?”

“It'll make for a much longer night.”

“Sean, it's already morning. Spill it.”

My gall apparently amused him, judging by the smile he wore as he walked past me to the bed. He threw back the covers and climbed in as if it were his own, resting against the worn out, antique headboard, hands clasped behind his head like he was about to be arrested.

He better not be hoping for handcuffs…

He dropped his gaze to the empty space beside him. My bed was only a full-sized so there wasn't much empty space, period. I shot him a look that made him laugh, then watched as his abs danced, counting the lines they formed as he did.

I didn't know they came in eight-packs.

“Eyes up, Ruby,” he said with obvious amusement.

I flushed with embarrassment having been caught in the act.

“There's not enough bed for the both of us,” I protested. “You're sleeping on the floor.”

“But we're not sleeping, remember? You wanted to know what just happened,” he reminded me.

Damn, he's tricky.

With a sigh, I tossed my ice pack onto the floor and walked around to the far side of the bed; there was no way I was crawling over him. I climbed in, barely clearing the edge to sit as far away from him as possible. Laying down, I pulled the blanket up as far as I could before closing my eyes. I was sure he was chuckling on the inside, but I had no intention of staring across my bed at him while we had our chat. I may have been pissed off with him that night, but my ability to recall that fact seemed to falter in direct relation to his skin exposure.

“Are you sleeping or listening?” he asked.

“Listening. I'm just resting my eyes.”

“Yes, they must be tired from all they just took in,” he said sarcastically.

“Maybe I'll give you a show someday so that I can give you shit afterward.”

“I look forward to it.”

Moving right along…

“Before we start, I wanted to clarify an issue. I'd like to know exactly why Cooper's tongue was down your throat at Vain,” he said in his casual business voice.

“Not a clue. I told you, he's totally off his rocker right now. Were you not just in the other room?”

“I was indeed,” he said simply.

“And? Did you see the look on his face? Something is eating away at him, Sean, and he won't let anyone in. I feel like he's self-destructing.”

“Do you feel he's a harm to himself or others?” He asked as though he wanted to have him admitted to a ‘facility’.

“I don't know,” I said, trying to keep the uncertainty and sadness from my voice and failing miserably at it. “He's threatened me a couple of times, but I don't think he really meant—”

“He what?” Sean asked, pulling the blanket off of me. My eyes opened to see him hovering a foot and a half above my face.

“It's not as bad as it sounds. He walked away the first time, and the broken ribs incident really wasn't his fault,” I defended.

Sean was halfway to the door when I realized what was happening.

Shit!

“Sean, no! Stop, please, stop. Let me explain this better,” I begged as I dove in front of the bedroom door.

“Ruby, move. Now,” he ordered, his expression murderous.

“No. If you want to kill Cooper for being a dick at least wait until you know the whole story. I don't want it on my conscience,” I said, still plastered to the door.

He looked angry but thoughtful for a moment, then nodded once in agreement. Every muscle in his body appeared tense and he couldn't seem to bring himself to speak. I decided to seize my opportunity.