He still kept disappearing in her presence, and hadn’t said one word to her in three and a half months. He and Bree were still together, but Eva noticed neither of them seemed happy, wondering what that meant. Liam was still with Corrine, and they seemed more in love than ever. Finn and Meg couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Everywhere, it seemed that Banshee and Leprechaun were engaged in tight embraces, kissing each other, while she and Lucas were the only ones without a companion—forced by the headmaster’s decree to part ways—while the other students had free reign over their emotions.
“Don’t worry,” Meg had said to Eva.
They had been sitting on Eva’s bed, after class, a day after her and Lucas’ separation, to which the whole school already knew.
“If you’re meant to be together, you will be,” she continued. “Think of this as starting from scratch. You’re friends. Then as you learn more about each other—”
“And lay off the kissing,” Corrine interjected with a smile, sitting at the foot of Eva’s bed.
“You’re one to talk,” Meg said, but not rudely. “You and Liam kiss so much I’m surprised you don’t have a Texan accent by now.”
“And freckles,” Eva joked.
“Don’t be makin’ fun ’bout me and my man,” Corrine joked in a southern accent. They’d laughed and Eva felt better. She had her friends, even Bree whose only worthless advice was: “Get over it. There are plenty of fish in the sea.”
She had been in a bad mood during October, and it’d gotten worse going into November, and by the beginning of December, she was in full bitch mode.
“Where are my boots?!”
She was shouting at Sara Brogan, thirty and petite, with strawberry-blond hair, who was the school’s launderer and seamstress, as well as the nurse. Eva admired the woman for her many talents, but one of them wasn’t self-confidence, especially when it came to Bree, who had to have her way—in everything.
“We-we ran out. Harry-Harry’s gone to get more,” she stammered nervously, standing in the doorframe, wearing a long black sweater over green jeans. Winter had quickly arrived and since the girls wore skirts, Sara brought heavy supplies of black tights, along with sweaters that replaced the white tees, and green wool coats. The guys received black ones.
Harry Gleeson, the other launderer was a nice man in his mid-forties with long brown hair that he kept in a ponytail and a green shamrock earring in both ears. He was out in the snow of Boston buying black leather boots for Eva, Meg, Corrine, and Bree. It had been tough wearing just their clogs over tights, and Eva hoped Harry would return soon, so Sara could get some peace from Bree.
“Well?! What is he doing?! Skinning cows?! What’s taking so long?!”
But Sara didn’t respond, just shrugging and shaking her head. Bree threw her hand up, and then paced back and forth. She finally threw herself on her bed, wrapped the green comforter over her legs, and frantically typed away on her laptop.
Eva had no doubt who she was writing to—Devin. They were still together, but he didn’t hang around her as much, and they didn’t talk on the phone. Bree had resorted to pestering him with emails and text messages from her pink smart phone when they weren’t in class.
“Ugh! Why doesn’t he respond?!” She let out a scream, and Sara quickly left the room.
Eva wondered why Devin was acting that way too. Before the whole school found out about Eva and Lucas’ forced separation, Devin and Bree seemed to be going full steam. Now the brakes had been slammed. Still, there was no change in his attitude to Eva. He still was as silent and mysterious as ever, running away from her at every opportunity.
Lucas, on the other hand, was being forced to stay away from her. But after some time, she started to cope with the distance between them. Of course, she still worried about him, worried what would happen when the headmaster’s contacts in Dublin made a decision. And then she had school. And her parents who called her, emailed her, and wanted to know if she was “doing any better.” She told them everything was fine, and she couldn’t wait to see them for Christmas break. They were supposed to fly up from Miami and take her back for a week.
She wasn’t sure if she wanted to see them. She knew they were living apart, and her recovery was doing nothing for the rekindling of their relationship. She also didn’t know how she’d cope with being away from Green Clover Academy for seven whole days. Meg and Corrine had told her that they’d miss her. They’d decided to stay at the school, as they had the previous year, since both their parents worked full time, and couldn’t get off until the summer. Bree had plans to go to New York to visit her aunt, who was a fashion magazine editor.
“We’re going to have so much fun!” She’d told them excitedly one night, while they studied in their room for end of semester exams.
Eva, Meg, and Corrine had been busily typing away on their laptops. Eva had studied a lot over the past few months, since she was absent all last year from being in a mental asylum, where state education requirements were put on the backburner. But she was improving in her studies, catching up, now that she and Lucas weren’t caught up in each other all the time.
Meg sighed, but kept on typing. “We’ve heard about New York like twenty million times!”
Bree halted her fingernail brush in the air above her pink toes. “You’re just jealous!”
Meg turned in her seat, spit-fire mad. “We’re not jealous, Bree! We’re just so sick of hearing about it! And we’re trying to work here.” She motioned at Corrine and Eva.
Eva quickly turned away to face her laptop, nervous of Bree’s stare down. Corrine didn’t seem to be paying attention, flipping through a textbook. Eva didn’t particularly desire to hear Bree brag, but she needed a break from her English term paper about Emily Dickinson, who was a Banshee. Go figure.
“Well, whatever,” Bree said. “I was going to bring you all back something, but now I just don’t know.”
Corrine finally turned away from her assignment. “No, you weren’t. Just shut up and let us work.”
Corrine had been more assertive lately, something that Liam encouraged in her, especially to Bree.
Bree’s mouth hung open at Corrine’s bold statement, and Eva heard her mutter something about “bitch” and “can’t wait till I’m out of here.”
Everyone ignored her and went back to their studies. But Eva hoped to hear something about Devin. Even a tiny scrap of news, anything, but nothing was revealed. She tried to forget about him, but it was hard since he was still dating Bree. It was clear that they were having relationship troubles, and Eva was desperate to know exactly what was going on. But she couldn’t talk to Bree without a bitchy explosion, and Devin wasn’t exactly a fountain of information, especially when it came to Eva.
That night, when Bree basically told her roommates they were nothing to her, Eva desired to flee while everyone was asleep, for just a little while, and headed outside the school. She wore her green wool coat over her pajamas—a pair of red flannels that Corrine had given her. A green scarf was wrapped around her neck, and the green cap the girls wore was pulled tightly down over her head; now in the winter cold, she wished that she had shamrock-shaped earmuffs too, hating this biting weather, desiring to be in sunny Miami. As she walked in the black leather boots that Harry Gleeson had finally bought for her, she found a foot trail in the snow.
She wasn’t alone. Up ahead was Colin, leaning against a lit chimney with smoke filtering out in the air from the fire below. Green flood lights shone down on him, making his black cap look like an eerie green halo. He was smoking as usual. His short brown hair was hidden below his cap and dark brown stubble cast a shadow on the lower half of his face. Fighting against the cold, he tugged at his shabby black wool coat around his black long-sleeved cotton shirt and black jeans with black boots to complete his shadowy costume.
“Want some?” he asked, holding the cigarette out to her, his breath visible in the cold weather.
She scrunched her nose. “No, thanks,�
�� she answered, watching her own breath flow to him.
“It’ll warm you up,” he said with a devilish grin.
She laughed. “It doesn’t seem to be helping you any.”
He shrugged, took a drag, and exhaled. The smoke trailed away in the freezing weather. “Only for a little while.”
A gust of cold wind blew in their direction, and Eva pulled the lapels of her coat up to her face. Colin’s cigarette went out.
“Shit!” He flicked it on the ground and found his joy in this weather a useless endeavor. “So what are you doing out here in this cold?” He smirked. “Need someone to warm you up now that Lucas has to stay away?”
She lowered the coat lapels that had been blocking her mouth. “I’m doing just fine, thank you very much,” she said in a stiff and polite tone.
Actually, she was. She and Lucas were no longer meeting in secret. They were both busy with their studies, especially Lucas, who was about to finish up his last year at Green Clover Academy. Also he and the other band members of the Four Leaf Clovers were practicing all the time. She found relief in being alone, being single. But she missed being kissed, being touched.
He pulled the lapels of his coat up to his face, leaning in close to her. “So why are here? With me?”
She shrugged. “You’re nice.”
He laughed. “I’m nice? C’mon.” He shook his head. “What’s the real reason?’Cause we know it’s not that.”
“You are nice,” she emphasized, nodding, because it was true to her.
“I’m not nice,” he contested in a deep voice.
She noticed the desire in his eyes and before she could pull away, he swooped in and crashed his lips against hers. The familiar taste of tobacco, the same as Lucas’ was back inside her mouth, and his stubbly beard rubbed roughly against her skin.
“No,” she moaned against his lips, gently pulling away from him.
He licked his lips and smirked. “C’mon, Eva. Why else would you be sneaking out of the school to come and see me? We can go back to my room. The headmaster didn’t say anything about you and me staying apart.”
She backed away. “No, I wasn’t coming to see you. I was just…I needed some air.”
He looked up at the night sky, at the full moon and countless stars, and then back down, at the snowflakes in the air, falling to the white-blanketed ground.
“Well, you picked a hell of a time to come outside.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to kiss. I just want to talk.”
He closed the gap between them, his footsteps crunching in the snow. Now they were face-to-face, but he didn’t try to kiss her again.
“All right. Let’s talk.” He held his arms out, as if he wanted a hug.
“What are you doing?”
He rolled his eyes. “Taking you to my room.” He smirked. “So we can…talk.”
“You want me to…teleport…with you?”
“To my room,” he repeated, smiling.
She was tempted, feeling lonely, but not for Colin. Only Devin. Always Devin.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m going back to bed.”
She expected a crude remark from him, but he just shrugged in his worn-out wool coat, and lowered his arms.
“Okay, whatever. But let me take you back inside. You might get in trouble along the way.” He smiled, opening his arms again.
She relented. “Okay, but outside my room. Not in,” she emphasized, pointing a threatening finger at him. “I don’t want my friends seeing you.”
He smiled. “Ashamed of me?” he asked, motioning for her to come to him.
“No,” she moaned.
She wasn’t ashamed of him, but she didn’t want to hear the screams from her roommates, and then the inevitable rumors. And the possible retribution from her friend, Lucas.
His coat hid her embrace as she wrapped her arms around his chest. He held her tight, pressing his hands against her back. It felt good and she rested her head in the crook of his neck. She waited, but they stood rigidly still in the cold of the winter night.
“What’s the deal?” She looked up at him. “Why aren’t we moving?”
He was looking down at her, smiling. “I’m just savoring the moment.”
“Well, your savoring is over. If we don’t leave in the next five sec—”
But she didn’t get to finish her demand as they disappeared. She felt that same familiar tear of transforming into a black fog, vanishing, and teleporting, as if she were being pulled apart from the inside out. After all her disappearances with Lucas, she still wasn’t used to it.
They reappeared just outside her bedroom door. She pulled away from him, and she noticed that it took more force on her part to wrench herself away from his tight embrace. The snowflakes on their hats and clothes were already melting in the warm school.
“Why didn’t you let me finish talking?” she asked in a quiet voice, since they were among a wing full of gossiping Banshees.
He smirked. “Because,” he began, keeping his voice low too, “if I had let you keep yapping those lips, I would’ve shut you up with my lips.”
She furrowed her brow, putting her hands on her hips. “Is that all you think about?”
He shrugged. “Pretty much. It’s all these guys think about.” He waved his hand beyond her, in the direction of the east wing. “Take your ex, Lucas. Bet he’s moved on with someone else.”
She shook her head. “No, he wouldn’t do that.”
“You don’t get it, Eva. Lucas jumps from one girl to the next,” he said, making an arch movement with his finger. “If he couldn’t get it with you, then he’ll find some other girl who’s willing, and believe me, most of the girls here are willing.”
“Shut up!” She slapped her hand over her mouth, hoping she didn’t wake anyone up. Then she removed her hand, and said, “He loves me,” in a low voice, uncertain.
“I’ve heard him say that before.” He took a step to her, and she backed away, unsure of his intentions. He threw his hands up. “I’m not trying anything. I just don’t want you so tangled up over this guy. He’s a user.”
“And you’re not?” she asked, throwing his accusation back at him.
“I may seem that way, but I’m not. Truly,” he answered softly.
She looked in his brown eyes and believed him. He was a sad man, cleaning up after everyone, who didn’t give a damn about him, and no one here wanted to be with him. He was all alone. Just like how she felt sometimes. But now was not the time to have a heart-to-heart with Colin.
“I’m tired. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
“Fine, but if you want to talk, I’m here.” He smirked. “And if you need something more.”
She rolled her eyes at him, but couldn’t contain her smile. “Just the talk, nothing more.”
“A man can dream.”
“Well, that’s all you’ll be doing tonight,” she said, holding on to the knob of her bedroom door, but not ready to go back inside.
He scanned her from top to bottom, smirking. “Nice jammies.”
She furrowed her brow. “How are these nice?” She tugged at the thick fabric. “They’re flannel and baggy.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Just the thought of a girl in pajamas is enough to drive a guy crazy.”
“Why?”
“’Cause it makes us think of bed, and what can happen on that bed once those pajamas come off.”
“Go to sleep,” she demanded, but smiled.
She couldn’t help it. Colin was nice to be around, as long as he didn’t try to make a move on her.
“Dream of me,” he said, smirking.
She couldn’t hold back her smile. “Never.”
He sighed. “A guy can wish. Goodnight, Eva.”
“Goodnight, Colin.”
He vanished with a farewell smile. As she turned to enter her room, she noticed that the seven on her door, once a lopsided L, had been fixed.
Colin.
>
She smiled. Maybe she did like him. Or maybe she was just lonely. Or both.
16
Ghosts Rarely Bring Good News
It was the night before Christmas, and Eva was with her parents. Boston Logan International had been snowed in, and they couldn’t make their flight, so Eva spoke with them from her laptop’s web cam, sitting at her desk. Every once in awhile she would look up at the line of pretty red and green Christmas lights that were attached to the wall, trailing around the room. It had been Meg’s idea and another lighting issue Bree bitched about.
“Sorry about the snow,” Eva apologized. “It’s not Miami up here.”
Her mom and dad were sitting side-by-side in front of her mom’s laptop. But Eva noticed that they were at her dad’s apartment, a small place with a dishwasher that broke all the time. She didn’t mention it, but hoped it was a sign that her parents were soul mates, and that they decided to get back together. But if they had, they would’ve told Eva, but the conversation was all about her.
“How are your grades?” her dad asked, wearing a gray T-shirt to beat the warm December weather in Miami.
Green Clover was starting to feel like Miami too. The heat had been cranked up, and Eva wore a navy scoop neck tee, faded black jeans, and white sneakers.
She shrugged. “They’re good. I had some catching up to do when I first started here, but all the professors are really nice. My Spanish professor, Mr. McManus, said that I’m so good at Spanish that he’s thinking of putting me in his advanced class, where the third and fourth years are.”
Eva didn’t know how she felt about that. Yes, she was more advanced and easily making A’s in the first block with Meg, Corrine, Liam, and Finn, but if she were to move to the advanced second block that would mean she would be with Lucas, Devin, and moody Bree. Her plan to go to New York fell through because her aunt flew to Paris instead to consult with the editors of the magazine’s French edition. The string of curses that came out of that girl’s mouth was enough for a lifetime.
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