And she wasn’t the only one watching whatever or whoever it was. In fact, a good majority of the people on this side of the party appeared to be enjoying the same spectacle, pointing and giggling and whispering and…
Oh, God.I froze, afraid to turn around. Only one person made Leanne’s eyes glow with hatred like that—Ben Rogers. Ben and Leanne had hooked up freshman year, and when he’d dumped her, she’d never quite gotten over it. Any chance she could find to cause chaos for him—and get a laugh from it—would be an opportunity she’d take. But his presence alone wouldn’t have been enough to trigger much notice from Leanne or the partygoers. It was, after all, his party. Of course he would be here. Most likely surrounded by whatever drunken or stupid girls he could find…
And suddenly I was terrified that I knew exactly who one of them would be.
Let’s be clear: I never expected the Erin/Lily-at-Ben’s party scenario to be good. I had heard enough from Erin to know that if she was here, she was looking for debauchery at its finest. Or worst. Whatever. Combine that with people thinking she was Lily and remembering what had gone down at the last party she’d attended, and we were already in uncharted levels of nasty.
But I have to confess, when I finally convinced myself to turn around and see what everyone else was seeing just fifteen feet from me, I never expected it to be thisbad. Erin/Lily was wrapped around Ben Rogers like he was a stripper pole. Dark lipstick— nota flattering color or the one I’d picked out for Ally—was smeared across her face; her top bore a huge wet spot from beer she must have spilled down the front of it; and she had grass stains on her jeans from where she’d probably fallen. She was also somehow missing a shoe. But that wasn’t the worst part. No. The worst— oh, sweet Lord—was her sticking her tongue so far down Ben’s throat I half expected it to be poking through the back of his head.
And all of it while wearing MY face and MY body. Well, a face and a body I still thought of as my own; I’d seen them in the mirror every day for over a month.
I gagged first—oh, so many germs; I couldn’t even think about what was living in Ben Rogers’s mouth—and then a flash of fury swept over me, burning everything away, including common sense.
The smart thing would have been to turn around before Erin noticed me, go back to the car to talk it over with Will, and come up with some kind of plan to get her out of here…or at least away from everyone else.
Right.
“You stupid bitch.” The words flew out of my mouth in a shriek, like I had no control, and in that moment, I didn’t. So much for doing the smart thing.
Erin heard me, even over the music, and looked around, dazed and startled. But she still kept her hold on Ben.
Unacceptable.
My vision blurry with rage, I threw myself past Leanne and collided with Erin/Lily, hard. She needed to learn. You do not mess with me. Any version of me. Past, present, or possible.
Ed woke up with a snort seconds after Alona slammed the door shut. The two events were probably not unrelated.
It seemed to take him a few seconds to orient himself in the world again. In the rearview mirror, I watched as he sat up slowly, one hand holding his head and the other reaching out to touch the roof of the car, as if he wasn’t sure it was real.
He belched in that alarming fashion that often precedes major stomach evacuation. “Where am I?” he whispered, more to himself than me.
I turned in my seat to get a better look at him. “About to get kicked out of my car if you’re thinking about puking.”
He squinted at me. “Hey, I know you.” He gave me a wobbly, still-drunk smile. “You’re that kid who sees ghosts. Lots and lots of ghosts…” His smile faded as more details returned to him. “You were at my parents’ house.” He cocked his head to one side. “But they weren’t there. The place was empty.…” He sniffed loudly.
I shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, look, I’m sorry about—”
“Where are we?” Still holding his head, he leaned forward to stare out the windshield, most likely at the brick monstrosity that was Ben’s house.
I took a deep breath. Of course Alona would not be here for this conversation. She was much better at being…well, blunt. That was probably the nicest term for it. Insensitive, occasionally mean, brutally honest—those were probably more accurate. And exactly what we needed in this situation. “We’re trying to find your sister.”
“Erin is here?”
“Maybe.” I glanced back toward the side of the house, where Alona had disappeared. By now she’d reached the party and was probably searching. Given the chaos that Ben’s parties were reported to induce, it might take her a few minutes to determine whether Erin was there and then to report back. “We’re trying to find out.”
He rubbed a hand over his face. “You said…you said she had a body.” He sounded vulnerable and uncertain, like he wasn’t sure if he was remembering correctly, or like he was afraid that he’d somehow incorporated an unrelated drunken dream into reality.
I grimaced. And here we go…“Yeah, she took the body of a friend of mine.” True, regardless of circumstance. “And we need your help to get her out.”
“No,” he said, as firmly as before. “If what you’re saying is true, then I—”
“Yeah, yeah, you owe her, it’s all your fault. Got it,” I said impatiently. “We covered that. But you need to listen to me.” I twisted around in my seat to face him, hoping that would help him understand the gravity of the situation. “It’s not just your life that this is messing with. There is a whole family affected by her actions. Whether she gives a shit about them or not.” Alona, to her credit, had done her best to keep that in mind, at least.
He shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. “And here’s the truth: you have got to own up to this, man. If you want to believe it’s your fault because you let her go to the party alone, fine.”
He winced.
“But neither one of you is moving on until you deal. She is here because of you. Because youare keeping her here.” That was, in fact, a guess on my part. But it made sense. The two of them had been so tied together in life, it would follow that it would also be the case in death.
He looked up sharply.
“Yeah, you.” Based on my admittedly limited interactions with Erin, she didn’t seem to have a specific reason for sticking around, other than to live more—and what ghost wouldn’t want that? And frankly, Edmund could seeher, when he’d had no previous capacity to do so. That had to mean something, didn’t it?
Once again, it would have been so much easier if this job came with labels and a how-to manual; but no matter what, in this situation, I had to go with my instincts and hope they were enough. Even if Alona didn’t want to be—or couldn’t be—Ally again, I couldn’t leave Erin in Lily’s body. I just…couldn’t.
“It’s better than her not existing,” Ed muttered.
I took a deep breath, struggling to hang on to my patience. For most people, this was new territory, and Ed didn’t have the advantage of years of seeing ghosts and the in-between world. “It was an accident, a horrible accident. But there’s nothing you can do to change that now.”
He shook his head.
“There was nothing you could have done, even if you’d been there,” I said, getting exasperated. “They said it was a freak thing. The drop off the porch roof was only about eight feet into bushes and stuff. She probably would have survived if they hadn’t put that walkway in, like, that afternoon.”
Ed looked up. “What?” He seemed paler suddenly, even in the dim light.