“Hey, Krysta, missed you on the bus.” Sophie Sinora, my best friend of six years, sat at the far corner cafeteria table. Her bright green eyes sparkling with amusement, she flipped her smooth chestnut hair over her shoulder before pointing a fry in my direction.
“Slept in. My dad had to drive me to school.” I sat down with my usual lunch, diet soda and a side salad.
“Did you get my text?” she asked.
I sighed while shaking my head. “My dad’s late paying the phone bill.”
No surprise there. My dad was usually late paying every bill. Losing electricity or phone for a few days was something that happened all the time in my household.
“Well, I got the scoop on some fashion news. In fact, I doubt you even know about it.” Sophie flashed me a smile before shoving a fry into her mouth.
Impossible. No one heard fashion news before me, especially not Sophie. That girl just lost all her baby fat and I still couldn’t get her to try on low-rise jeans.
“What is it?”
“My mom found out from another realtor that the new name of the mall is supposed to be The Crossover.”
“Sounds right,” I shrugged, “considering where they’re building it.”
Sophie’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“I mean the mall is on an old burial ground.” I sighed, trying to brush back a piece of hair frizz that slipped out of my headband, making a mental note to go gel it before lunch ended. “Didn’t you read my entry last night?”
Even though I had a huge Facebook account with more friends than anyone I know, I also had a private account, just for Sophie and AJ. Sophie was called Mind Whispers, AJ was Dream Whispers and they called me Ghost Whispers. Instead of pictures of our faces, we use the backs of our heads. That was Sophie’s idea, just in case one day Facebook did something weird and made all private groups public. One could never be too careful.
“What time did you post it?” “About two.”
“In the morning?” Sophie rolled her eyes. “Some of us actually sleep, Krysta.”
“Just tell us already.” AJ Dawson, my other best friend, came up behind us, wearing her softball jersey, old jeans and scuffed shoes.
Out of all my friends, AJ really had the worst fashion sense, but there was nothing I could do. She was a stubborn jock. I’d tried putting makeup on her a few times, but she washed it off within minutes. Lucky for AJ, she was a natural beauty, tall with pale blonde hair and flawless, tanned skin.
Some people like me had to work at it, wearing uncomfortable, high heels and spending a small fortune on hair gels.
After tossing her barfy burger on the table, AJ wadded up her wrapper and shot it into a garbage can. “Did you have company last night?”
“More like uninvited pests,” I huffed. They ruined my sleep, causing me to use a lot more concealer to cover up the dark circles under my eyes. How could I go on like this? They said they’d be back to see if I had any ideas. I didn’t know when, but I knew I wouldn’t get much sleep while waiting for them to return.
If it wasn’t for my two best friends, I don’t know how I would have kept my sanity. They were the only “living” people who knew of my gift, if that’s what you’d call it. Most times, my gift felt more like a curse. After the time I saw a ghost in Sophie’s house, no one believed me except Sophie and AJ. They knew I was telling the truth. Maybe because they also had freakish gifts. Sometimes, people’s thoughts just popped into Sophie’s head. And whenever AJ had a dream, it always came true.
“Let me guess,” AJ laughed, narrowing her crystal blue eyes, “they’re going to crash with you for a while until they find a new cemetery?”
Well, at least someone thought this was funny. AJ acted the tough jock, but I knew her wise cracks were just a way to avoid dealing with real feelings.
“No.” I shook my head. “They’re still at that cemetery. The mall developers just moved the tombstones and left the bodies.”
“Gross. I’m not eating at that food-court.” Sophie stuck out her tongue.
I wondered if she knew she had just shown the world her French fry residue.
“What?” AJ jabbed Sophie in the shoulder. “Are you afraid you’ll find an old finger in your French fries?”
“Hey, Krysta.”
My drink froze midway to my mouth at the sound of that familiar voice. The commanding way he said my name was almost like he was making me take notice, but I didn’t need any prodding to notice Bryon Thomas. The boy was gorgeous. He had short blond hair, spiked with the perfect amount of gel. And those clear blue eyes. I just wanted to die every time I looked at him. And he was my new lab partner!
“Hey, Bryon.” I casually turned in his direction. He was standing just a few feet behind me munching on a cookie while he selected a coke out of the vending machine.
“How do you know Bryon?” Sophie leaned over and whispered behind a frozen smile.
I shifted in my seat, trying not to act too excited. “He’s my new lab partner.”
AJ wagged her eyebrows. “He’s a hottie.”
“We know what kind of chemistry you’ll be working on.” Sophie snickered.
Hoping Bryon couldn’t hear my shameless friends, I knew I must have been turning ten shades of red. Just as I was giving them the “shut up or die” stare, I felt his familiar heat behind me. I turned back around. His gorgeous tanned arms were folded across his chest while he clutched an unopened soda.
“Tonight at seven, right?”
Feeling quite awkward that my face was level with his belt buckle, I craned my neck to look up at him.
A few cookie crumbs were pasted to the right side of his mouth. It took all my willpower not to reach up and wipe them off. I had imagined myself caressing his lips for way too long and I’d make a complete fool of myself if I stared much longer.
“Yeah, about tonight.” I shifted again, trying to shake loose the nerves that shot cold heat through my veins whenever Bryon was near. “I was wondering if we could study at your house.”
“No. My dad’s got some clients coming over and wants me out of his hair.”
“I understand.” Biting my bottom lip, I had to come up with a plan. What if they showed up when we were studying? “Maybe we could go to a café or something.”
Bryon sat next to me and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Unfortunately, only my hair was doing the jumping. That invisible light socket attached to my head zapped a piece of frizz out of place and I tucked it behind my headband with shaky fingers.
“Those places are always too noisy. What’s wrong with your house?” Bryon popped the lid on his drink and took a swallow, but not before shooting me a heated glance with his icy eyes.
He was so close to me, I could almost inhale the fizz from his soda. He smelled so sweet, kind of like a fresh batch of cookies. The warmth radiating from his body turned my brain to mush. Every nerve ending in my body was doing back flips and my tongue felt like a dead-weight in my mouth.
“Nothing, it’s just…”
“Great, I’ll see you tonight.” Bryon squeezed my arm before getting up and walking away.
Looking at the fading imprint of Bryon’s fingers on my skin, I felt as if I was melting.
I mean, yeah, expecting a hottie like Bryon to like a short, frizzy-haired girl was a long shot, but I had a right to dream. Besides, we had a lot in common. He had good taste in clothes, and I heard he lived with his dad, just like me.
“What if your friends show up while you’re studying?”
AJ’s question brought me back to reality. What if they did show up? If I told them to go away, Bryon would think I was insane for talking to myself. So what if I told him the truth? He’d think I was insane for having ghost friends. Either way, I was screwed.