by Edie Claire
Zane folded the jersey carefully and returned it to the suitcase. “You mean these?” he asked, lifting out the red and black boardshorts. “Nice. When did you say you’re going to meet this guy?”
“This afternoon. In Mililani.”
“Any chance I could tag along and—” His head sprang back suddenly as if he’d been punched in the face.
“Zane!” I cried, stepping closer.
“Sheesh,” he muttered, feeling tentatively along his jawbone. “That was pretty convincing.”
“Try not to look at him,” I begged. “That’s the only way he can get to you. It’s Jabba the Hutt again, isn’t it?”
“Yep.” He looked at me strangely. “Wait, how you’d come up with that name?”
“Kylee.”
He studied the air, then nodded his approval. “I see the resemblance.” He dodged another imaginary blow.
“Close your eyes!” I ordered. I could sense no hostility this time, which encouraged me. My platinum was working. The ghost’s emotions weren’t getting through. “Will you chill the hell out?” I hissed at the spot Zane had recoiled from. “You know we’re giving all this stuff back to your precious Tim Jones in a matter of hours, and in better condition than we found it, even. So lay off!”
But of course Zane would not close his eyes, and I could tell from where he kept looking that the stupid ghost hadn’t budged an inch. When Zane tensed up for an obvious third blow, I groaned aloud with frustration. “Oh, just put them back!” I urged, grabbing at the boardshorts in his hands.
Pain slammed into the left side of my head. Dizziness. Weightlessness. My feet… floating. The sun in the sky and the lid of the trunk swirled together in a molten mass like a witch’s brew in a white-hot cauldron. Seconds passed and time blurred as the blood began to blend in. My blood, swirling through the other liquids, thick and red, even as everything else around me turned to blue. Streaks of aqua shimmered in from all sides while the sinking began. The slow but steady sinking of me as the pressure on my skull and around my chest tightened and the water on my skin grew colder and clammier and the light grew dimmer and then my eyes were so very heavy until at last I couldn’t see at all… blackness… coldness and darkness and deepness and despair…
“Kali! Snap out of it!” Tara ordered, her hand none too lightly tapping my cheek. “Zane! Are you all right?”
I blinked at her. She was standing in front of me — in front of both of us — holding the boardshorts in her hands. I watched as she breathed out with relief, stuffed the boardshorts back in Tim Jones’ suitcase, and closed the trunk. “Geez, these things are a pain in the butt!” she griped. Behind her clunky dark frames, her blue eyes held mine. “What was that all about? The two of you looked like you’d been turned to stone or something!”
The two of us?
I turned to Zane. He looked back at me with a gaze every bit as bewildered as my own. “What just happened?” he asked.
“You… you first,” I stammered.
He looked warily around the car, but as far as I could tell from his reaction, he saw no more ghosts. “The… uh,” he began uncertainly. “Well, Jabba the Hutt was laying into my face, and then—” he stopped and looked at me curiously. “And then you touched my hands, and it was like I was… transported. I was seeing something else, a whole different scene. And my head hurt. When the guy was hitting me before I didn’t feel a thing, but all of sudden — wham. And then there were all these funky colors, and I was bleeding, and… I don’t know. I think I drowned.”
My heart nearly pounded out of my chest. “Where did your head hurt?”
He put up a hand and touched his left temple.
“And what colors were you seeing? Not the blood… the rest of it.”
“Shades of blue.”
I let out my breath in a rush. “We had the same… well, whatever it was, it was the same. And I’ve had it twice now.” I felt a flush of heat as anger pulsed through my body. “It’s that damn ghost again! He’s trying to get to me. To scare me. I don’t know if he knows I’ve always been scared of drowning… or if he just got lucky. But he’s doing his best to scare the hell out of me!”
“You still think the ghost is doing it?” Tara said skeptically. “But how? How could he produce images inside your brain? He’s just a marginally visible energy form!”
I frowned at her. “You have a better explanation?”
“I saw it, too,” Zane reminded, perplexed. “And it wasn’t anything like the other stuff I’ve been seeing lately. The other times were just like being plucked out of one ordinary, everyday place and being dropped into another. This whole thing was just… weird. Like I was inside a brain that wasn’t working right.”
“Or like it was a fantasy created to scare us,” I argued. “I’m telling you, Jabba has it in for me. You probably just tagged along for the ride. You know — saw it through my eyes?”
“Was your blind in place when it happened?” Tara asked. “The new and improved one?”
Her words made my blood run cold. “It was,” I answered feebly. “And it was working great, too. Just seconds before, it was blocking the ghost’s feelings completely!” I slumped against the car’s bumper. “This makes no sense!”
Zane leaned beside me and hugged my shoulders. “Since when does it ever, at first?”
“Speaking of making no sense,” Tara said begrudgingly. “You do see the obvious connection here, don’t you?”
We looked at her. My brain was still spinning, although I was very much enjoying the feel of Zane’s arm.
She gestured toward the trunk. “Oh, please. Don’t make me say it. You know, don’t you?” She winced. “The freakin’ boardshorts!”
Zane and I shared a doubtful look. “Get out,” he mumbled.
Tara groaned. “Look, you think I enjoy pointing this out? It’s absurd! But Kali, you were holding them when it happened before and you were holding them just now. Both of you! And the vision stopped when I took them away. Have you actually held them in your hands any other time?”
I thought about it. I shook my head.
Zane cast a wary glance over my shoulder toward the trunk. “So… you seriously think that what Jabba and Baldy have a problem with is people dissing our boy’s boardshorts?”
“Do not make me say it again,” Tara replied dryly. “I have little enough respect for myself as it is.”
“Hey!” Kylee called from a few yards away. “You guys okay? We’re all done with lunch — Matt and Lacey are just throwing away the trash. I, uh… noticed you had company.”
Zane stood up from where he was leaning against the bumper with me, and I felt his absence like a cold draft blowing.
“Kylee!” he cried. “I almost forgot… what did you see? How long have you been watching?”
She joined us, and her voice lowered. “Long enough to know I’m never touching those boardshorts again.”
“She sent me over here,” Tara explained.
“Did Matt and Lacey notice anything?” I asked nervously, casting a glance in their direction.
Kylee shook her head. “No, they were facing the other way.” She looked at Zane. “I saw the big guy slug you,” she explained. “But then you and Kali were both just standing still, like statues. What was that all about?”
“The same drowning thing as before,” I answered shortly. “Why? What were the ghosts doing then?”
Kylee studied me a second, her dark eyes concerned. “Nothing. They weren’t doing anything. One minute the ghost was pounding on Zane, the next minute you guys are frozen and the goon is just standing there. I swear he almost looked confused himself. Then both ghosts just faded out.”
Zane and I looked at each other. Then we looked at Tara. She held her palms up in the air. “Don’t ask me,” she said gruffly. “I don’t get any of this. I thought I knew from weird already. But ‘Attack of the Killer Boardshorts’ is over the top. How about we all just go snorkelin
g already and forget any of this ever happened?”
We all stood silently and stared at each other again.
“You know, Tar,” Kylee said finally, smirking. “For once, I actually agree with you. Screw the analysis. At least for now. Let’s snorkel!”
Zane’s green eyes twinkled into mine, and he put his arm around my shoulders again. “Sounds good to me.”
I cuddled into his side. So nice.
“We ready?” Matt called cheerfully, reappearing with Lacey. He withdrew his keys from his pocket and gave them a jingle. “I can take somebody else in my car, if you want.”
Kylee made a move, but I snatched at her elbow just in time. “No, we’re good!” I called with equal cheer. “Meet you there!”
Matt and Lacey moved off toward his car and the rest of us piled into mine. Kylee glared at me as she slid into the back seat. “Did it ever occur to you,” she said heavily as we all buckled up, “that I might not want to ride with two ticked off ghosts and a haunted pair of boardshorts?”
“Did it ever occur to you,” I fired back as we pulled out of the lot, “that I am trying to facilitate true love, here?”
“I am helping with that!” she protested.
“How?”
“By showing Lacey what a hottie she’s got, of course!”
“Oh, please,” Tara rebuked from the other rear seat. “How convenient.”
“Speaking of convenient,” Kylee said, turning on Tara. “You’re the one causing the distraction, in case you haven’t noticed. Like, why do I even ask that? Of course you haven’t noticed!”
“Noticed what?” Tara asked, baffled.
“See?”
“Noticed what?” Tara repeated, her voice rising.
“That Matt has a thing for you!” Kylee screeched.
“Oh, please! He does not!”
“How can you not know that? You are so like a guy!”
“Will you knock it off?” Tara ordered. “Acting like I’m one of the guys does not mean I’m flirting.”
“That’s not what I meant—”
“If anyone’s a shameless flirt out here, it’s you!” Tara griped. “Seriously, Kylee, we’ll be gone in a matter of days. What is the point? Like you could ever tolerate a long distance relationship!”
“Who said I was looking for one? Or for a relationship at all? Why can’t you just have fun for one afternoon? I still can’t believe how cold you were to Flynn yesterday. He really liked you!”
Tara groaned. “This again? They were leaving for the airport in hours! We were never going to see them again!”
“You don’t know that!” Kylee argued. “What if you end up at the University of Tennessee? How cool would it be to know somebody there?”
I squirmed with embarrassment. I loved my friends dearly. But… “Um, Zane—” I began.
“No worries,” he said pleasantly. He was slouched in my passenger seat, dangling his arm out the open window while the breeze made his blond curls dance around his face. “I tune it out in real time.”
I grinned at him, my heart swelling with emotion as the bickering in the back seat continued.
“Thanks for that.”
Chapter 14
Lacey and I sat on the sand beside the snorkeling cove at Turtle Bay, watching the tops of everyone else’s heads skim along the surface of the water. The group had come up with five sets of snorkeling gear among us, but one of the masks had started to leak, so now we were down to four. I was more than content with the trade-off plan. The sky was still sunny and the water was warm, but the ocean’s colorful underwater secrets were not holding their usual allure for me this afternoon. Besides, I’d been waiting all day for the chance to talk to Lacey alone.
Now… how to bring up the subject of Matt without being too obvious?
“I’m glad you and Matt are finally getting the chance to hang out again,” I said casually, feeling her out. “Not that you wouldn’t see him at school next week anyway, I guess!”
Lacey shrugged. She smiled slightly, but didn’t say anything. A long pause followed. Just when I began to fear she really didn’t care, she came out with a statement I was wholly unprepared for.
“He seems to really like your friend Tara.”
Crap. “You think?” I said weakly.
Lacey smiled at me knowingly. “Knock it off, Kali. You know how he is. He flirts with everybody, but every once in a while he discovers a gem. He liked you right away, didn’t he? He sees something in Tara, too. He does have taste — when he chooses to use it.” She breathed out with a huff, then closed her eyes and tossed her head back in the sun.
I studied her peaceful expression. I honestly couldn’t tell if she was jealous or happy for him.
“Tara’s great, but she’s going back to Wyoming,” I said practically. “What do you think Matt should be looking for?”
She opened one eye and squinted at me curiously. I decided to go for it.
“I mean,” I continued, “what kind of girl do you think would make him happy?”
Lacey opened both eyes and sat up. She dusted the sand off her hands and looked thoughtful. “I used to think you would,” she said frankly. “But now I see how you and Zane roll, and I can tell I was wrong. I mean, let’s be real. Zane is a little more evolved. Matt’s no Neanderthal, but he needs somebody who needs somebody, you know what I mean? Or at least, he needs somebody who’s willing to pretend she needs somebody.”
My heart sped up. Yes! Lacey had Matt’s number all right. And unlike either me or Tara, I had the feeling that Lacey herself would enjoy that kind of pretending.
“I think you’re right,” I agreed with enthusiasm.
“He doesn’t know that, though,” she continued, her tone turning melancholy. “The guy’s social radar totally sucks. You and Tara are rare exceptions for him — usually he goes straight for the legitimately needy types, and then five minutes later he’s bored out of his mind. He can’t get it through his thick head that he doesn’t actually have a thick head!”
I cracked up. Lacey seemed to have given Matt’s love life a good deal of thought already. Come to think of it, she had a better handle on his needs than she did on her own.
“Have you ever told him this?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I try. He doesn’t listen to me.”
I inhaled sharply and decided to go for it. “He does realize you’re not actually his sister, doesn’t he?”
Lacey’s head whipped around. She stared at me for at least five seconds. “No,” she answered slowly, her voice serious. “I really don’t think he does.”
I made no response. I had expected her to laugh, to make a joke about it, to be lighthearted. But the blue eyes that normally danced with merriment were now all seriousness.
“I don’t mind,” she continued, speaking softly. “I like what we have. It’s special. But it does seem a little weird sometimes, now that Ty’s out of the picture. I mean, that’s how it started, you know. I was always off limits because I was his best friend’s girl.”
I swallowed. Now was the time. “You could change that dynamic,” I suggested mildly. “If you wanted to.”
Lacey looked away. She seemed like she was about to say something, but before she could, a dripping giant blotted out the sun. “Hey!” Matt said, pulling off his mask and giving his muscular chest and shoulders a shake. Seawater flew from his hair, scattering droplets in all directions as we closed our eyes and cringed. “Who’s next? Kali, you haven’t been in much.”
I opened my eyes. I knew I should take the mask he held out. He was right, I had only taken one turn, and then I’d only stood in water up to my knees hoping that no one would notice my lack of enthusiasm. But I didn’t want to go any farther out; I didn’t want to get in the water at all.
“No thanks,” I said without thinking. “I’m good.”
Lacey and Matt both looked at me strangely. Whoops. This was awkward. Maybe Matt wanted a chan
ce to be alone with Lacey on the beach. Maybe Lacey wanted a chance to be alone with Matt.
Isn’t that what I wanted, too?
I gazed out at the calm blue ocean, at the modest ripples of swell that broke in gentle white crests over the sand. A lamer, tamer, less intimidating body of water could not be found anywhere on the North Shore, unless you counted the stagnant, manmade shrimp lagoons up in Kahuku.
I didn’t care. I still didn’t want to go in.
“I’ll go again, then,” Lacey said finally, ending the awkward silence. Although she did throw me a quick, questioning glance, she smiled cheerfully at Matt as she reached out for the mask. “Who knows when I’ll ever get back out here? Maybe I’ll see a turtle this time!”
“I heard a guy saying there was a little one over that way a few minutes ago,” Matt offered, pointing. “No more cooing about how cute they are, though. It’s annoying.”
She made a face at him. “Turtles are adorable. Deal with it.” She adjusted the mask, they traded the flippers, and off she went.
Matt watched her walk away awkwardly, like a frogwoman, with a shake of his head and a smile that lit up his whole face. Then he dropped down on the sand beside me with a satisfied sigh. “Man, this has been awesome,” he praised. “Thanks for inviting me. It’s been great to meet your friends finally. Nice of Zane to get them up here, too.”
I agreed.
“So, Zane said he’s supposed to get you surfing by the end of the summer. How’s that going?”
An icy rock dropped into the pit of my stomach. Surfing?
We had indeed been working up to it all summer, with the swimming lessons and the laps, and supposedly I was on target for the final exam next week. Zane wasn’t the only one pushing the “three generations” thing — my father and grandfather had both been making a ridiculously big deal out of it. I had been looking forward to the big event myself, even.
Key word: Been.
“Um, I guess it’s still on.”
“You don’t sound too excited about it,” Matt observed.
“Oh, I am,” I said unexcitedly. “I’m just a little nervous, that’s all.”