The Girl In White

by Shannon Reber

  I couldn’t take my eyes off Emma. I didn’t even notice when Ian’s fingers entwined with mine. We stood and stared together until she disappeared as she had done earlier.

  I took in a quivery breath and glanced over to find that Ian’s face was damp with sweat, his teeth clamped on the inside of his cheek in a way that distorted his face. He had seen her too? How was that possible?

  I had been willing to accept my own delusion. The idea that Ian too had lost his mind, that was not possible. We had seen her. She had been there.

  I squeezed his fingers, relieved when he looked down at our hands. The spell had been broken. He pulled his hand free and reached up to rub at the back of his neck. It was an odd thing to see him not as Emma’s brother but as a guy who was as scared as I was.

  Our eyes met and I knew that whatever was going on, we would figure it out together. He and I could very well turn out to be friends . . . maybe.

  FOUR

  White hot anger rose inside Emma. Maddie and Ian had been together, holding hands like some annoying couple. Neither of them had listened to her. They HAD to listen to her.

  Men. They were the problem. All men. They would pay.

  Her eyes fell on a man who had walked out of the house Maddie and Ian had been at. He had his arm wrapped around a woman, his eyes fixed on the butt of another woman. How dare he! He would pay.

  Emma’s body suddenly faded, the cold air around her like a harbinger of doom. She did not know where she was or how she’d gotten there but the guy from the party was present again.

  He was alone in his car. Yes. It was all Emma needed. She would make him pay for his disloyalty to his date and she would also show them all the mistake they had made.

  She felt her body solidify as though she went from spirit to live being. She could feel the cold still inside her, feel the rage.

  She raised her thumb into the air. She was aware of how she looked in a skimpy, white dress with her long leg extended out in invitation.

  As his car stopped next to her and the guy leaned over to give her a long look, Emma knew what she must do. She would show them how blind and stupid they had been. She would use that guy to tell them the truth.

  FIVE

  My heart skittered in my chest. Fear wrapped its arms around me. I didn’t know why. All I knew was that something was wrong.

  I rolled over in bed and let out a groan. It was too early. Why had I woken up?

  Then it came again, the beep of an alert on my phone. I pulled the pillow over my head but couldn’t resist the curiosity that filled me. Nobody texted me anymore. Why would they? The only two friends I had in Pittsburgh lived in the same house as me.

  I pulled the pillow carefully away from my eyes and jerked as a gasp escaped me. Someone was there. They stood next to my bed.

  My fear melted into irritation when I saw it was Serena. She stood next to me wearing a big t-shirt and boxer shorts, her hand extended toward me with a glass of juice.

  “Wake up, little dreamer. You have details to share with me,” she said and stepped onto my bed. She shifted around so her back rested against the wall and her bare foot pushed me toward the edge of the bed.

  It was comical to sit next to her like that. The difference between us was like night and day. Her long, mocha-toned leg set next to my shorter, pale leg was like a study in contrasts.

  I moved so she could extend her legs out, then leaned against the wall next to her and took the juice. She brought her mug of coffee up to tap against my juice and took a drink. I did as well, every part of me still convinced something was wrong.

  It was all too clear what Serena wanted to know about. I was not in the mood. Morning chats were not my thing. It took me far too long to muster up the energy for conversation.

  So I reached out to pick up my phone. The texts were all from Serena, telling me she was coming to wake me up. Why hadn’t I locked my door?

  I drank more juice as my mind spun. I felt like somebody stood behind me with a blade pressed to my spine? All I wanted was to burrow under my covers to hide from the creepy-crawlies like a little kid.

  Serena took another drink of coffee before she bumped her foot into mine. “Okay, so why didn’t you ever tell us you had a connection to the two hottest guys who go to Duquesne?” she asked, her eyes fixed on the cup of coffee in her hand.

  I looked at my juice, my head bowed. “I moved away from here when I was fifteen. I don’t know them anymore,” I evaded, sure she wouldn’t let me get away that easily.

  I was right.

  Serena reached over to pinch my arm. “Madison, you may be the computer genius in this house but I am very good at Googling things that interest me. When I got home last night, that’s what I did and let me tell you, there are a LOT of pictures of you in a group of very hot people when you were younger. Ian and Dylan are both in those pictures.”

  I didn’t look at her, didn’t speak. Those pictures were probably from the party Emma had thrown when Ian was a senior. We’d been sophomores a few months from our sixteenth birthdays. It had been one of the best nights of my life.

  The day following that party, my mom had told me she and I would be moving to Philadelphia. It had been only a four-hour drive but it had felt like I had been transported to a foreign planet.

  Emma had been heartbroken when she found out. She had made me accounts for every social media site known to man and talked Ian into creating a blog where she could post pictures and tell stories. She hadn’t been about to let me miss out on anything.

  That must have been what Serena had found. Ian had gone all out. He had called the blog Inseparable and for the first few months, it had helped me get through the adjustment between life in Pittsburgh, to my new home in Philadelphia.

  I stared into the cup in my hand, my heart newly broken over the loss of my best friend. I had thought my grieving was done. With the sights of her in the last few days, it seemed my grief would never end.

  Serena poked me in the side. “At the party last night you flatly refused to allow Dylan Funar, who is so hot he makes me think bad boy might be the way to go, that he was not permitted to call you Maddie. Then you let Ian Gregory use that name without any problem at all. There is so much more to the story and I plan to sit here until you spill it.”

  I thunked my head into the wall and groaned. “You want to know, fine. My best friend was the most beautiful, most confident girl I have ever met. Everybody loved her. Every guy I liked, she liked them more and they always liked her back. Every good thing that ever happened to me happened when she was there. She was like a sister to me. Then when I was fifteen, my mom and I moved to Philadelphia. A few months later Emma sent me a text and said she needed me to come home so I got in the car thinking we’d spend the weekend laughing. I pull into her driveway and I find her dangling from the rafters of her garage.” A sob escaped me as I recalled the gruesome sight. “Yes, I know all of them. I know Dylan. I know Ian. I know their parents. I know most of their secrets. I can tell you the look that comes to Ian’s face right before he says something that’ll make you want to cry for three weeks straight. I know the charming way Dylan smiles when he wants something. I know it all. You want to hear more?” I asked, my shoulders shaking as tears streamed down my cheeks like a storm of pain. “You want to know how lonely my life has been without Emma? You want to know about the therapist my mom sent me to when I started having nightmares about it? I could tell you—” I broke off, unable to tell her any more of it around the lump in my throat.

  Serena sat still for a three full seconds before she hooked her arm around me and pulled me in for a hug. She didn’t say anything, which made me feel both better and worse about spilling out my life story to her. All she’d wanted was to know about the guys. Since I didn’t know them at all anymore, my info on them would be both incomplete and boring.

  Serena pulled me back and leaned forward to kiss my forehead. “Madison Meyer, you’ve been holding that in for WAY too long,” she said and took
a drink of her coffee as though it was meant to fortify her. “So since I have officially adopted you, I feel obligated to tell you something,” she nodded decisively. “You, my little friend, are one of those natural beauties who doesn’t need makeup to draw a guy’s attention. And let me tell you, Ian Gregory was most definitely paying attention.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Ian can hardly stand me. He made that clear as day from the time I was six on.”

  “Little boys are mean to little girls. It’s how they show their affection, silly,” she said with a smile. “He saw you as a woman last night, Madison and me thinks he liked what he saw.”

  My phone beeped at that moment. I grabbed it, eager to get off that very uncomfortable topic. It wasn’t true so there was no need to even think about what Serena had said.

  The text turned out to be from a number I didn’t recognize. I opened it, my eyes narrowed in confusion.

  Meet me at Espresso Express, was all the message said.

  Who is this?

  Dylan.

  I let out a groan and again thunked my head into the wall.

  “What’s going on?” Serena asked, cradling her coffee cup like it was a boyfriend or something.

  I showed her the phone, too confused and annoyed to bother speaking anymore.

  Serena’s eyes went wide. “Dylan, the hottest bad boy on campus wants to meet you at the best coffee shop in the city?” she squealed and gave a decisive nod. “You’ll meet him in an hour. You don’t want to seem eager,” she said and began to type out a message before I could stop her.

  I was tired of being strong-armed into going places and since Imogen was at work that morning, there was no one I could turn to for backup.

  Serena jumped off my bed and ran toward my closet. “Okay, you want to be hot without looking like you’re trying. You have amazing eyes, so we’ll—”

  “Serena, I can’t do this.”

  She turned to look at me and shook her head. “Sweetie, he was drunk and mean. The fact he wants to talk to you means somebody told him what he said to you and he’s going to apologize. Let him. Everybody deserves to be given a second chance.”

  I tossed a pillow at her. “The fact that you’re coming with me is the only reason I’m even considering going, not because I want an apology from him.”

  She whooped and ran off to get in the shower. It was one of those things. With Serena, a guy could be a complete error code but if he was hot it was all good by her. She would probably have a date set up with Dylan by the time we left the coffee shop.

  I resigned myself to an uncomfortable morning and simply began to get dressed. I didn’t want to talk to Dylan. I wanted to lay in bed before starting the project I had been hired to do. It was one I looked forward to doing, the kind of thing that made me happy.

  Computers made sense. They never made me feel inadequate. They always acted like I expected them to act. They were reliable and I loved them for it.

  I smirked at Serena when she came out of her room an hour later. She wore a simple yet sexy off the shoulder shirt with snug jeans and another pair of ankle boots that looked fabulous with the outfit. Oh yeah. Emma and Serena would have gotten along perfectly.

  Serena gave me a long look and bobbed her head in an approving way. “The black t-shirt is a good idea. It’s simple and makes your eyes stand out even more. I have one that’ll be better. Come here,” she said and dragged me into her room.

  “Serena, Dylan might be willing to apologize for what he said but he couldn’t care less what I look like.”

  She handed me the t-shirt and smirked at me. “Sweetie, don’t you know? Ian Gregory works at Espresso Express. If he’s not there, I will be shocked. I’d guess that’s why Dylan wanted to meet there.” Her Cheshire grin made my face ache even at the sight of it.

  I groaned. “That means Dylan’s not apologizing. Ian is making him do it.” I folded my arms like a petulant little girl, irritated by that reaction in myself.

  Serena threw back her head and laughed. “Madison, you look like you need a spanking. Stop pouting and put on your shirt so we can get to the coffee shop and you can be your broody genius self."

  I huffed in exasperation. For some reason, I did as she said. It made me feel both annoyed and pleased, the conflict of my emotions entirely too much for me to deal with. Recalling so much of what had happened with Emma made me feel torn up on top of everything else. I was a little afraid of what my reaction might be at the sight of Dylan again.

  I’d had such a crush on him when we were younger. He had been around the Gregory’s house as much as I had, so we’d all grown up together. Memories danced through my mind as Serena and I drove to the coffee shop, ones that made me want to cry yet again.

  I closed my eyes as I pulled into a parking place. I knew Dylan. There was no need to feel betrayed that it was all Ian’s idea. Dylan might have come up with the idea to apologize on his own. It didn’t matter either way.

  I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years. One night of him being a drunken ‘bad command’ didn’t mean he was a bad guy. He’d always been my favorite of Ian’s friends, far more fun than the rest of his rule following buddies.

  Serena pulled down the vanity mirror to check her makeup, glancing at me when she saw she was perfect. “You ready to have your butt kissed?” she asked with an irreverent smirk.

  I rolled my eyes at her and got out, not ready at all. Why did the past have to be so in my face? Why couldn’t I get over the grief that still felt like it could cripple me?

  The smell of coffee wafted through the air as we opened the door, baked goods an equally strong smell. It was pleasant, a smell that felt welcoming even though I didn’t drink the stuff. The smell was enough for me.

  Serena chuckled a little as we walked up to the counter. Ian was indeed there, serving a group of college girls who all treated him like he was a flower and they were bees trying to pollinate. She leaned closer to me and pitched her voice low enough that no one else would be able to hear her. “There’s a hot bad boy heading in our direction while an even hotter good boy is about to serve us the greatest beverage ever made by man. We are very lucky girls, Madison.”

  I scowled, irritated that she seemed to think this was something very different than it was. I wanted to turn around and walk away, to pretend never to have gotten Dylan’s text or simply to have refused to come.

  I smelled Dylan’s cologne before he was even close to us. It was a smell I didn’t like in the least. It was too strong, too fake, a smell that made my nose twitch.

  I didn’t turn to look at him as he stepped up next to me, my eyes fixed on the menu board. I needed time. I also needed food.

  Dylan let out a theatrical groan and stepped forward, pulling his shirt up to show me his back. “Okay, fine. I’m a horrible, drunken slob and I deserve to be flogged. Let me have it, Maddie.”

  I glowered at him when he glanced at me. “My name is Madison. Maddie doesn’t exist anymore. She’s dead.”

  He released his shirt and turned to face me, holding out his hand between us. “Madison, I’m sorry. I was drunk and stupid,” he said, charm oozing off him like puss out of a huge zit.

  I ignored his hand and nudged my chin toward the counter where Ian stood watching. “So did he threaten to break your nose if you didn’t apologize?” I asked, doing my best not to smile even slightly.

  Dylan snorted out a derisive sound before he glanced at Ian. “You really think I’m scared of pretty-boy there?” That had been the same insult he’d used on his friend since they were twelve.

  I made a motion toward the guy in question. “I know you are. You rile up the blue-eyed golden boy, you learn what true pain is,” I teased, only saying that because Ian’s attention was fixed on us.

  Dylan shot me one of his most dazzling smiles. “I could take him,” he said cockily, despite the fact we all knew it was a lie.

  Ian leaned his hands on the counter and stared his friend down. “What was that?” he asked, his tone
polite with only the slightest barb at the edge.

  Dylan pitched his voice loud. “I apologized to Maddie . . . I mean Madison. I think this means you can stop eye-punching me. It hurts and I’m a very sensitive boy.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. The thing was, I wasn’t mad. I hadn’t been mad the night before and wasn’t mad that morning. He hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true.

  Ian’s chin was still tipped back in his angry stance as he turned his eyes down to meet mine. “We’ve got this awesome cheesecake that’s topped with blueberries, exactly how you like it. Dylan’s buying for both you and your friend,” he said decisively with a nod of greeting to Serena.

  Dylan gave a resigned nod. “Yes, I will buy your cheesecake,” he said before he turned his eyes on Serena, his charm there in full force.

  Those two began flirting openly together, both of them making it clear they were into each other. It became uncomfortable quickly, so I stepped forward to watch as Ian made Serena’s latte. “It’s funny. I always imagined you as a grease monkey, not a barista,” I said with a small smile as he foamed the milk in a way which made a beautiful leaf form on the top.

  He kept his eyes on the job in front of him, his lips turned up in a wide smile. “I am a grease monkey. I just work here because college loans need to be paid and this also feeds my addiction to coffee.”

  I let out a laugh. “That’s one of the first memories I have, of your mom setting down her coffee cup to answer the phone and coming back to find it empty because you’d drunk it,” I said, delighted by that sweet memory in the midst of so many bad ones.

  He grinned, wide and boyish. “And you thought I was going to get in serious trouble, so you told my mom you’d drunk it. Always trying to protect me, aren’t you, Maddie?” he said, turning his eyes to meet mine full on. “Speaking of protection, that Imogen girl needs to be careful. The guy she was talking to at the party last night is trouble.”