Chapter Fourteen
As the miles drifted past the oversized, slightly tinted bus windows, Tristan became quieter and quieter until he was only a ghostly presence at my side. I tried not to imagine what he was thinking about, but my eyes strayed often to his stony features. What did really old ghosts think about to make them scowl so often?
I opened my mouth to ask, then snapped it closed again when his hard eyes swung over to me for a brief second. The bus had picked up more passengers anyways, I told myself weakly. Better not talk to myself.
The window was a safer object for my curiosity. At least the window didn't glare at me, even the reflection staring back at me couldn't muster the gumption to glare.
I never had been very brave; probably a result of seeing ghosts my whole life. It made me different from the very beginning and the world didn't often let me forget that.
Or maybe it was just Toby.
I sighed deeply, causing the window to fog up where my mouth was too close to the glass. Running one finger across the window, I traced a small 'T' before I realized what I was writing. Wiping it clean with a closed fist and a gasp, I glanced at Tristan just to be sure he hadn't seen.
He wasn't looking my way; he was still glaring straight ahead. There was no one up there to make him so angry though. Just an older couple, bent low and whispering softly to one another. We could barely even hear their voices, so it wasn't like he could be bugged by them. At least I couldn't.
“Can you hear what they're saying,” I whispered loudly. Too bad I wasn't as good as the couple in front of us. I was out of practice though, I defended myself against the insults that didn't come; then I realized Toby wasn't there.
“No,” Tristan answered shortly.
“Really?”
His head jerked over to look at me briefly, irritation dominant. “I'm not trying to hear them.”
I sat back in my seat, confused by his anger, but too self conscious to pursue any answers. He was just worried, I nodded to my own inner voice, he's worried about where we're going. Look what happened at the bus station- I wouldn't even go with him to get the ticket.
I'll try to do better, I promised silently. People just make me nervous.
As if he could hear my thoughts, which was quite possible, his face relaxed back into an easy smile. “We'll stop soon, then you can get out and stretch your legs.”
“I'm fine.” The man from the seat in front of us turned to look at me, then turned away quickly when he caught my eye. Never make eye contact with a crazy person, it was probably in a brochure somewhere.
Tristan laughed loudly, the sound making my own lips curl up in response. “A lot of people talk to themselves,” he assured me with a wide grin.
“I wasn't talking to myself,” I muttered, “I was talking to you.”
He grinned again, showing off all of his perfect teeth. Tristan was an easy man to trust, with his laughter and relaxed eyes. I felt myself leaning closer to him without meaning to.
He was so different from Toby. And Toby was the one I was supposed to trust. Nona just didn't know Tristan the way I did; or Toby. Her words would have been different if she knew.
I chewed nervously on a loose piece of skin on the tip of my thumb. Nona had told me not to trust Tristan; that he was trying to kill me. Maybe I just had a messed up judge of character. In reality, how many 'good' people did I know?
There wasn't anyone that fit that description, not anymore. It came down to a choice. Between Toby and Tristan. It should have been an easy choice for me.
Tristan was nice to me; Toby hated me. Tristan was the easy choice; why, then, was there such a nagging unease in my stomach?
It's only because you're used to Toby, I tried to argue with myself. He had always been with me, so of course his crude name calling had become second nature- comfortable even. I felt incredibly exposed without Toby hovering over me; and I wasn't sure yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
“What are you thinking about?” Tristan nudged my ribs.
“Nothing,” I tried to smile, but he wouldn't let it go.
“Come on, didn't we promise to tell each other everything?”
“When did we say that?” Why did my voice have to sound so airy?
“I just decided right now,” he winked, “so, what were you thinking about that would make your forehead go all liney?”
Liney? “Just...” I couldn't tell him I was thinking of Toby. “Just a dream I had.”
“What kind of dream?” He scooted closer to me on the seat, pressing our thighs together.
“I was on a road.”
“A road?” He glanced quickly at me, new interest shining in his eyes. “A road to where?”
“A road to nowhere,” I murmured, “with no one on it.”
I had been having the dream for as long as I could remember, until I came to Nine Crosses. Then it just stopped.
I was always on the same road- just walking. Even though there was no destination, I wasn't afraid. I hadn't thought about it before, but could it be the same road Nona had met me on?
“Sounds like a pretty boring dream,” Tristan scoffed.
“I don't have a very good imagination,” I admitted with a small frown.
“Who needs an imagination when you can see ghosts?” He wriggled his eyebrows at me, waiting for my giggle that didn't come.
Glad he thought seeing ghosts was funny. It had never done me any good, though. My mom tried to kill me, my father hated me, and the only friend I ever had... was dead now. Not exactly something to laugh about.
Austin didn't believe in the ghost people, even when he guessed my secret. “You're crazy, Ren,” he had told me, shaking his head.
Nothing new there. A lot of people said that.
I never asked him to follow me that night and I might have tried to save him when the ice broke and he fell in the water- if only Toby hadn't made me stay back. Toby told me there was nothing I could do.
The police found me on the bank of the river the next day, still staring out at the place Austin had disappeared. The only friend I had ever had.
Until now.
It wasn't easy to recreate the same feelings with Tristan that I had with Austin. It was probably just because I didn't know him very well, or maybe because he was a ghost. It was probably just because I didn't know how to be a friend.
Why didn't they have brochures for that? The object of my intense staring session turned his face to smile at me. “We're almost there,” he promised.
I nodded quickly.
“Excited?”
Should I lie? I nodded again.
“Me too,” he admitted with a chuckle.
True to Tristan’s promise, it wasn't long before the long- almost empty- bus pulled into an equally empty gas station. The tires groaned as the driver applied the brakes and switched off the engine.
“Only about fifteen minutes, folks,” he called back before leaving the bus first.
“Should we stay on,” I whispered to Tristan, aware of the people in the aisles making their way to the exit.
“This is our final stop,” he grinned. “Time to get off.”
My legs felt stiff after sitting for so long. How much time had passed since we left the hotel? A day? Two days? Where were we now anyways?
Tristan had said we were there, but there was nothing here. The bus had stopped at an old one lane gas station in the middle of nowhere- straight out of a scary movie. There was probably a man with a chainsaw hiding behind one of the old cars lined up with grass growing from the engines.
A small cluster of women from the bus hurried out of the bathroom at the side of the gas station, huddling close together and obviously waiting for the same man I was. The group got back on the bus together, leaving me completely alone. With a small shake of his head, the driver pulled the door closed and the bus groaned away.
“Are you sure this is the right place?” I muttered to Tristan, who was standing almost behind me.
“I'm sure.” At least he sounded confident.
“Are there any hotels around here, cuz this looks pretty...” I glanced around with another grimace. Even if there was a hotel, we should probably just sleep outside in the woods. At least there were plenty of trees, if not people.
“There's a cabin- not far from here.”
“What?”
“We'll be walking.”
“Walking?” My grimace turned to a groan. I hated night hikes. “I need to use the bathroom first.”