Phantoms of Fall (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 2) (18 page)

The test was easier than I expected so I blew through
all fifty questions with fifteen minutes left to spare. Zach was
still busy calculating in front of me so it’s not like we could
talk or anything.
Time to daydream.
And by daydream, I
mean think about him while I stared at that sexy neck of his
that I loved so much.
By the way he was sitting, I could tell
that he was anxious about the test.
His back was stiff and his
left hand was clenched into a fist. He would do fine—I was
sure of it. He was much smarter than he gave himself credit
for.
The same could be said for everything else about him,
too. He was gorgeous and there wasn’t one girl in this
school—or the entire state of Pennsylvania for that matter—
who wouldn’t have been proud to call him her boyfriend. Yet
he picked me.
Me! And tonight…oh, tonight!! Five more
hours….

Zach put his pencil down just seconds before the bell
rang. He gathered up his books and dropped his paper onto
Mrs. West’s desk with me right on his heels. I expected him to
talk about the test at length on our way out but he didn’t even
mention it once. All he talked about was our date.

“So I’ll pick you up at eight unless you think you can
be ready by seven. I’m working at the shelter for two hours
then flying home for something to eat and to get a shower.
Can you be ready an hour sooner? If not, that’s okay. I’m just
so excited about tonight!”

Wow. For that moment, I almost felt like I was talking
to Rachel. I’d never seen him so wound up. Though, I
was
flattered to know that I was the cause of all his spastic energy.
And truth be told, I was stifling some girly giggles myself.

“Definitely—but I’ll need to leave right now. I have to
head to The Village and then home to get ready.”

“Okay, I don’t want to, but I’ll let you go now.” Zach
took both of my hands in his and stared at them momentarily.
When he lifted his eyes to mine there was a spark in them that
I’d never seen before. “I love you,” he said quietly.

“I love you, too,” I replied. It came out as barely more
than a whisper.
The words paled in comparison to how I
really felt inside—like no words could ever truly express how
I felt about him. Luckily, tonight, I wouldn’t need words.

Zach let go of my hands reluctantly and we got into
our cars to drive away.
There was a lot to do and the clock
was ticking. First stop—The Village. I needed to exchange the
clothes that were now too big and get them in smaller sizes.
Knowing exactly what I needed, I figured I would be in and
out in less than ten minutes. Wrong. The skirt and top went
on sale after I bought them and the sizes I needed were now
sold out. So, I had to start over from the beginning.

There wasn’t enough time for me to scour the entire
shopping center, so I decided, for better or worse, to stick
with
that one store.
Running
through the store like a
contestant on some crazy game show, I snagged anything
decent I could find in my new size.
That amounted to about
twenty items and I got a distinct eye roll from the fitting room
attendant. I gave her a big eye roll right back. She’d probably
never even had a date let alone one as important as mine was
so I didn’t expect her to understand.

One at a time I tried things on and hated them all. The
last thing in the pile was a pair of jeans and a black lace
trimmed top that I really liked.
I crossed my fingers and
hoped for the best. When I looked in the mirror and didn’t
hate what I saw, I knew it was the best I was going to get so I
went with it. Not bad was better than nothing at all.

On my way to the car, I glanced at my watch.
Five
o’clock—way later than I expected. Driving a little faster than
I should have, I made it home in record time. There was still
enough time left for me to grab something quick to eat.
The
flu bug was still gnawing at my insides, but I was starting to
feel faint. I didn’t know exactly what to expect from tonight
but there was one thing I was pretty sure of—I was going to
need all of the energy I could get.

Dad and Shelly were just sitting down to dinner when
I entered the kitchen.
The room smelled of roast beef and
freshly baked bread. Normally I would have piled my plate
full but there just wasn’t enough time and I simply couldn’t
trust my delicate stomach.
I poured myself a glass of water
and sat down at the empty place setting.

“Ruby, how was your day?” Dad said, sliding a slice of
roast beef onto my plate.

“Good. The math test was easy—I think I aced it.” I
pulled back my plate as Dad tried to give me another piece of
meat. “One’s good, thanks.”

My dad eyed me suspiciously as I spooned out a small
heap of carrots and set my plate down in front of me. “Is that
all you’re eating?”

“Yeah, I’m not real hungry and I’m in a hurry. Zach’s
picking me up at seven.” I knew exactly what was happening
here.
My conversation with Shelly about the weight I lost
must have been communicated up the ladder. Now was
not
the time for a lecture.

“Are you on a diet? You look a little pale—I don’t
want you to overdo it.”

“I’m not on a diet. I’ve just felt a little queasy lately.”
As soon as I said the word queasy, I felt the alarm level go
from yellow to red. “And no, I’m not pregnant. And yes, I’m
absolutely certain.”

My dad finally relaxed enough to put down the roast
beef and pick up his own fork. “Okay, so if it’s not a diet and
you’re not,” he almost choked on the next word, “pregnant,
then we need to get you a doctor appointment. There might
be something else wrong. I’ll see if I can find someone to
check you out tomorrow.”

“Can’t it wait until Monday? I mean, it’s not like I’m
dying or anything.” Really, I just wanted to spend all day
Saturday basking in my non-virgin glow. That simply wasn’t
something I would achieve in a doctor’s office while clad in a
hospital gown with my butt hanging out for the world to see.

“Ruby’s right, Jason. How about you set something up
for Monday afternoon?
I can swing by the school and get
Ruby out early and take her myself.”

Shelly gave me a weird look that I couldn’t interpret. I
didn’t have time to argue or try to figure it all out. “Yeah, I
agree with Shelly—Monday sounds good.”

I crammed the last bite of my roast beef into my
mouth and put my plate into the dishwasher. Before Dad had
a chance to argue, I said, “Make the appointment for Monday
around noon—that way I can be back in time for math class. I
really want to see how I did on that test.”

Dad clearly knew when he was overruled, so I left it at
that and went upstairs to get a shower.
It was nearly six
o’clock. I had to make sure I was perfect from head to toe and
I had only one hour to do it.
I was in such a hurry that I
stepped
into
the
shower
without
even
checking
the
temperature of the water. Ice cold. Turning up the hot water,
I smiled to myself. No need for a cold shower tonight!

Scrubbing twice as hard as I normally did to make
sure every part of me was clean and soft and shaving twice to
make sure that I didn’t miss a spot, my shower took nearly
twenty minutes. Add in time for lotion and a healthy spritz of
Midnight Kiss, and I only had a half an hour left for doing my
hair
and
makeup and
increasingly
nervous
as
actually getting
dressed.
I got
the clock inched its
way toward

seven. So when it was obvious that my dinner wasn’t going to
stick around, I heaved it all back up hurriedly, brushed my
teeth and didn’t miss a beat.

When I was finished, I took one final look in the
mirror.
Hair—stick straight.
Makeup—flawlessly applied.
Clothes—even better than when I tried them on at the store.
With a nod of my head, I said out loud, “Ruby, you look
perfect.” And I’d never even come close to telling myself that
before.

Slipping
into
the
black
boots
that
Rachel
once
considered attempting
Chinese foot binding
to
fit into, I
grabbed my bag off of my bed and went downstairs. And not
a moment too soon.
By the time I reached the foot of the
stairs, I could hear the familiar sound of the Neon outside. It
was a big moment for me.
The Ruby who walked out that
door wouldn’t be the same Ruby who walked back in it later.
After tonight, I would forever be changed, forever linked to
Zach in the most profound way. And
that
was what I wanted
more than anything else in the world.

16. But I Didn’t Come Here to Talk

Zach opened the car door for me as I approached,
gently taking my hand and pressing his lips to it as I slid into
my seat.

“You look beautiful,” he said smiling. “Just like
always.”

He certainly was charming. He saw me at my absolute
worst the night I almost drowned but he still told me I was
beautiful even then. I had the most amazing boyfriend and
there was no way I would ever let Misty get her dirty claws
into him. I still wasn’t sure I deserved someone as perfect as
Zach, but I knew that
she
definitely didn’t.

And when I say he was perfect, I mean perfect. His
hair was evenly spiked, his scent was intoxicating and his
clothes fit like they were tailor-made.
My head swam just
thinking about what I would find underneath them. Finally,
his momentary encounter with Misty would be overshadowed
by what we were about to do together.

With my parents at home and as far as I knew his
parents were too, there was only one other place we could be
going. The Hideout. The blanket he kept in the back seat of
his car would now be used for the very same purpose I feared
he intended it for on our first date. There was nothing for me
to be afraid of this time. We barely talked as we drove—we
just kept sharing nervous smiles instead.

When we passed the turn off I assumed he would take,
I became confused. Did he get us a hotel room for the night?
He had to know that my curfew still stood at midnight—
regardless of how monumental our date was.
So I just came
out and asked him where we were going.

“To the school dance.” Zach uttered the words
proudly like they were a huge announcement.

What? The school dance? I loved him dearly, but if he
planned on doing it under the bleachers or something, I was
going to have to protest. Just as I was about to ask, he added,
“And then I have something special planned for afterward.”

There. That was more like it. I wasn’t quite sure why
he wanted to waste time at some stupid school dance, but I
was willing to humor him. He probably thought it would be
romantic—something I would remember years from now.
And it was—or would be—if it weren’t for the fact that I was
already past that stage. But I would really love to rub Misty’s
face in it so I hoped she was there to enjoy the show.

I noticed there was an eerie similarity to my dreams
as we walked into the cafeteria.
The lights were low, the
music was pounding and the crowd parted as we walked in.
There was a lot of whispering going on among Misty’s coven.
Paranoia wasn’t the answer—I knew they were talking about
us—or more specifically, about me.
Misty had something
planned to get me out of the way so I had to keep my guard
up. Whatever it was, I wasn’t going to fall victim to it.
Especially not tonight—everything had to be perfect and stay
perfect tonight.

A slow song started to play, so Zach pulled me close.
“You’re the prettiest girl here.”

The noise in the cafeteria was deafening so he had to
speak directly into my ear. Too bad. That was something the
coven could carry back to their leader who was noticeably
absent. She couldn’t know for sure that we would be here
tonight—even
I
didn’t know that until a few minutes ago—so
I pushed visions of her rigging a bucket of pig’s blood directly
above me out of my mind. No one was going to ruin our big
night. I repeat, no one.

The longer we danced, the more I understood why we
were there in the first place.
It was like public foreplay. Not
in a creepy, perverted way—in a see how much we love each
other kind of way. With each song we grew closer together
until I rested my head on his chest and pressed myself tightly
to him. Garnet was the furthest thing from my mind when I
spotted a strange shadow high up on the wall.
It was the
shadow of a body swinging from the gallows.

Instincts took over and I ripped myself away from
Zach to see from where the silhouette was being cast.
The
spotlights
shone
in
every
direction throwing
outlines
of
balloons and streamers across the room but none of them
looked like the one I was seeing. None of them looked like
death. I spun back around to find that the hanging figure had
disappeared.
confused and
needed it fast.
But Zach was right where I left him, looking
concerned.
I needed an explanation and
I

Zach gripped me firmly by the shoulders and forced
me to look him in the eye. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

I wanted to tell him the truth—I really did. I wanted
to share every moment of my life with him. But I couldn’t.
Not this.
Maybe years from now when I had more control
over what was happening to me, I could tell him the truth.
But if I told him now, we may never have that future together.

“I thought I smelled smoke but it must have just been
my imagination.” Lame, but it was the best I could do.
His whole body relaxed. “I’m glad that’s all it was. I
hate to say it, but you looked like you’d just seen a ghost.”