***
“I don’t think Annabelle’s listening,” someone said.
“What?” Nora’s voice had brought me back to the crowded cafeteria. It was Wednesday at lunch and I was still trying to remember my d“Sorry, what?”
Nora sighed heavily before she continued, “I was saying that we should do something this weekend. I know Lissie’s got that stupid smart people thing, but we could do something Saturday night.”
“It’s a lunch for some of the Academic All-Stars, thank you very much.” Felicity pretended to be offended, but she was smiling.
“Exactly, a smart people thing. So you in Anna?”
“Girl’s night away from my house? Totally.”
May I come?
And he was back. I pulled my phone out of my bag and typed No.
“Who are you texting?” Nora tried to see my phone. I threw it back in my bag.
“No one.”
“Okaayyy. So, Mom and Ma are going out so we can do it at my house.” She threw a grape in the air and caught it in her mouth. One of her many talents.
“Sounds good,” I said.
Why can’t I come?
I swore, he was going to drive me insane.
“What is up with you? You look like you’re about to punch someone,” Nora said.
Both Felicity and Nora stared at me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Now that I’d tossed my phone away, I had no way to communicate with him.
“I’m good. Just having a moment.” Felicity and Nora knew about my moments. Having a moment was code for I’m having spirit issues that I can’t tell you about because you’ll think I’m crazy.
Luckily, they had a ton of patience with my moments. Through the years I’d tried to tell them about the spirits.
When Nora got a Ouija board for Christmas one year, I’d thought that was my chance. They’d thought I’d grown out of my imaginary friend phase, so when I told them I could talk to dead people, they laughed. I’d gone on to explain the whole thing, and they’d both sort of changed the subject. I’d tried to bring it up again, but without much success. They just shut down when I talked about it. And I loved them and didn’t want to lose them, so I figured it was something we just couldn’t talk about.
And then The Incident happened. They’d been so concerned about me and supportive and believed my insane story about how I’d dropped the frying pan and the grease had splashed back on me. Since then, I’d decided that my regular world and spirit world were going to stay as far apart as I could make them.
Jack was making that difficult.
“So, girl’s night? I’ll bring pizza,” I said, plastering a normal smile on my face. They both breathed a sigh of relief and we planned the rest of our weekend with no further interruptions.