Bad Girl Gone

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Bad Girl Gone Page 22

by Temple Mathews

“I wasn’t lying,” I said. “I meant every word. It will happen for you. It’s just going to take time.”

  “That … I got…” he said.

  I turned to Darby. She immediately went into defense mode.

  “Don’t get all mushy on me. I hate mushy.”

  “Okay. You suck.”

  “So do you,” she said, a small smile creeping onto her face. Without warning, she bolted forward and grabbed me in a bear hug.

  “You … you’re about the only person who’s ever been nice to me. Thank you for that,” she whispered in my ear.

  Then she practically flung me away from her as she turned her back on me and blew her nose.

  Cameron held up a hand and we high-fived.

  “I’ll catch you next time around.”

  “Yeah.”

  Lucy had morphed into her black-cat self and purred as she circled my leg, her tail snaking around my calf.

  “See ya…”

  I’d said good-bye to everyone except for Cole. He was staring past me into the distance.

  “Cole…”

  “I’m wondering…”

  He looked at the others. They backed off and gave us the space we needed.

  “I’m wondering if, even if I get to live a thousand lifetimes, I’ll ever feel the same about someone as I do about you…”

  His eyes held so much love that there was only one thing for me to do.

  “That thing we talked about? Now would be good,” I said.

  It was his cue to kiss me, and he did. I can’t say for sure how long it lasted, but as our lips met and our tongues touched, it was as though we’d melded into one person, our bodies and souls merging. Every cell in my body was tingling with an unimaginable thrill. I wanted the kiss to last an eternity. I can’t remember who stopped first, but as soon as we parted, I felt a crushing emptiness.

  More clouds dissipated in the insistent glow of the moonbeam. My voice croaked as I said, “Take care. I mean it. All of you.”

  I raised my arms up, half expecting the hands of the universe to reach down and yank me up. For a long time, nothing happened. And then I began to rise. They were all staring at me with their sad eyes and I looked at them one by one, saying a silent, heartfelt good-bye. And then I looked at Cole. He mouthed the words I love you. My heart weighed a thousand pounds. Our eyes were locked on each other like laser beams. I continued rising up into the sky as now a galaxy of tiny lights began to whirl around me, escorting me upward to begin the next chapter of my existence.

  You know that feeling you get when you’re doing something and you’re convinced to your core that it’s the completely right thing, that somehow you’ve stumbled into your destiny, riding a wave of what you’ve known all along would and should be happening? This wasn’t one of those feelings. This was completely the opposite. This felt like I’d just taken a wrong turn down a one-way alley into a black hole. Everything was backward and convoluted.

  I tried to think about my future and what it would be like to be reincarnated as someone else. I tried to lift my spirits as my ghost body was ascending with such grandeur. But my thoughts kept coming back to Cole and my ghost life at Middle House.

  I wanted to help Zipperhead find out who had pushed him to his death. I wanted to help him experience love. I wanted to lead the way as the gang discovered who shot Darby and then haunted the SOB until he paid the price. I wanted to help Cameron and Dougie and Lucy solve their murders and move on, too. But most of all, and I know this was totally selfish, I wanted to be with Cole. I wanted to be by his side when he found his killer and brought him to justice. And if we should happen to work in another astonishingly beautiful kiss or two along the way, then that would be just another one of the perks of being a ghost.

  The realization came down on me like a landslide. I wanted to go back. So I lowered my arms. I continued to rise and I swear I could hear harps—or maybe it was just night birds chirping or my brain shorting out—and then the whole night went silent as a tomb. This was it, my moment of truth.

  I began to float back down. I tried not to be too happy about it, in case I reversed the flow, so I closed my eyes. I asked the universe to do with me what it wanted. Take me or leave me—it’s up to you. I repeated these words over and over, silently in my head. And then I felt my feet on the ground. I opened my eyes. The whole gang was smiling at me and looked like they might burst into a cheer.

  I’d come back. Why? I might not know for a very long time. But it was clear that I wasn’t done on earth. Cole stepped forward.

  “Welcome back. It looks like you have some unfinished business.”

  “Yeah. Looks that way.”

  He smiled. And then pulled me into his arms.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to acknowledge my fabulous, talented editor, Brendan Deneen, at Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press for his cogent guidance; my tireless manager, Patrick Hughes, whose faith in my work continues to inspire me; my sister Marsha Holand for her unwavering encouragement and support; and my dear friend Mike Karson for generously lending me his sky castle to dance with my muses.

  ALSO BY TEMPLE MATHEWS

  THE NEW KID

  THE RISING

  THE SWORD OF ARMAGEDDON

  THE GOOD FATHER (AS WILLIAM PAYTON)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  TEMPLE MATHEWS is an author and screenwriter with several films to his credit, including Disney’s Return to Neverland, The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea, and Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. He wrote Aloha Scooby Doo for Warner Brothers and Picture This for MGM. He is also the author of the New Kid trilogy. You can sign up for email updates here.

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  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Awakening

  Water

  Dining

  Introductions

  Shower

  Escape

  Crime

  Love

  Rules

  Confessions

  Revenge

  Water

  Obituary

  Funeral

  Buried

  School

  Knife

  Diary

  Damage

  Darling

  Dance

  Prisoner

  Intruders

  Chaos

  Seduction

  Ouija

  Mother

  Tragic

  Vetting

  Theft

  Axe

  Girls

  Murder

  Power

  Zen

  Crack

  Daisies

  Andy

  Dani

  Karma

  Stay

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Temple Mathews

  About the Author

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.

  An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

  BAD GIRL GONE. Copyright © 2017 by Temple Mathews. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.thomasdunnebooks.com

  www.stmartins.com

  Cover design by Lisa Pompilio

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Mathews, Temple, author.

  Title: Bad girl gone: a novel / Temple Mathews.

  Description: First edition. | New York: Thomas Dunne Books / St. Ma
rtin’s Griffin, 2017.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017010996 | ISBN 978-1-250-05881-2 (hardcover: acid-free paper) | ISBN 978-1-4668-6324-8 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Teenage girls—Crimes against—Fiction. | Murder—Investigation—Fiction. | Future life—Fiction. | Self-actualization (Psychology)—Fiction. | GSAFD: Ghost stories. | Mystery fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3613.A8275 B36 2017 | DDC 813/.6—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017010996

  eISBN 9781466863248

  Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].

  First Edition: August 2017

 

 

 


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