Sweet 16

Teagan Phillips

  Sophomore

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  "Teagan? Teagan, wake up."

  Teagan felt like she was sleeping the sleep of a cold patient who had chugged too much NyQuil. She could hear the voice trying to wake her, but it was like slogging through low-fat peanut butter trying to bring herself out of it.

  "Teagan? Are you all right?"

  Suddenly she recognized the voice and wrenched open her eyes. The cold, acrid air rushed in on her. She squinted in the darkness, her heart pounding. "Mom?"

  A sharp pain stabbed her in the back of the head and she closed her eyes again, the earth spinning beneath her. Shakily she brought her hand to her forehead and at the same time felt her leg twisted beneath her at an odd angle. She straightened her knee, wincing in pain, and took a deep breath. Again the pain in her skull assaulted her.

  "Can you sit up?" a voice in the darkness asked.

  Teagan narrowed her eyes and a face came into focus,

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  hovering above her. Not her' mom. Not at all. This woman had thick dark hair with chunky blond highlights that were just begging for a touch-up. Purple splotches surrounded her green eyes and she had a white bandage taped to her chin. At least her black suit was of high quality. Probably an Ellen Tracy.

  Struggling up to her elbows, Teagan tried to ignore the throbbing in her skull. Lying off to the side was her one unstained Jimmy Choo, the heel snapped in half. Teagan rolled her eyes and winced again. Just kill me now, she thought.

  "Are you all right?" the woman asked again. She turned around and yanked the cord on a swinging bare bulb. Teagan blinked against the sudden influx of light.

  "No, I'm not all right," Teagan snapped back, pushing herself onto her bare knees. Damn, the floor was freezing cold. The woman offered her a hand, but Teagan ignored it and pressed her fingers into the concrete, shoving herself off the ground. She teetered for a moment on her one shoe and when she pressed her other foot into the ground, she realized she had sprained her ankle. "Oh. Mother-was

  "I don't think you want to finish that sentence," the woman said.

  "Oh, you don't think so, do you?" Teagan asked. She braced one hand against the wall and removed her other shoe, tossing the once-precious couture item across the room. "Well, let me tell you what I think. I think I'm going to sue this place for all it's worth. Do you have any idea what you and your idiot staff have put me through tonight? And no light or handrail on the stairs? You people are just begging for it!"

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  The whole time Teagan was shouting, her head screamed with pain and her ankle pulsated like it had its own heart. The injuries only fueled the fire. Unfortunately, the woman didn't appear the least bit intimidated. She was, in fact, regarding Teagan with interest, her head tilted to one side. Like she was studying the windows at Barneys, deciding whether or not to go in. Teagan found it to be seriously unnerving.

  "Do you have any idea why you're so angry?" the woman asked her with the clinical tone of a general practitioner.

  "What are you, insane?" Teagan shouted. "Of course I do! My father defecated all over my sweet sixteen, my Vera Wang is trashed, I just fell down the stairs, and now my Jimmy Choos are Dumpster bound too. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out."

  The woman shook her head, a slight smile playing about her lips, and pulled her hair back from her shoulders. As she did so, Teagan noticed the glint of a slim silver chain around the woman's neck. A small white crystal dangled just above the top button of the woman's suit jacket. Teagan leaned forward to inspect it and was hit with a wave of nausea and dizziness so sudden and fierce she fell back against the cool cinder block wall.

  Please don't let me barf on my dress too, Teagan thought, breathing deeply in and out until the dizziness subsided. She braced her hands over her knees and her stomach grumbled audibly. The woman laughed.

  Teagan suddenly went hot all over. In an instant she remembered why she was down here in the first place. Wine. She needed some wine to dull the pain in her skull and ankle and to shut up her stupid stomach. A nice hearty red. Something expensive.

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  She looked around, ready to grab the first bottle she saw, but realized there were no bottles to speak of. No shelves with little dips cut out of them. No nothing. This wasn't a wine cellar at all but a dusty, box-filled storage cellar.

  The sign on the door had said Wine Cellar. Where the hell was all the wine?

  "What you're looking for isn't here," the woman said, her voice almost kind.

  "Yeah, and how the hell do you know what I'm looking for?" Teagan snapped.

  "Trust me. I know," the woman said, taking a step toward her. Once the woman was standing fully in the light, Teagan could see that she might have once been pretty. Still could have been if she wasn't so haggard around the edges and if she got a decent stylist who would have talked her out of those awful streaks. "Come on," the woman said. "I'll take you where you want to go."

  Finally, Teagan thought. The woman reached for Teagan's arm, but Teagan snatched it away. She was not about strangers touching her.

  The woman shrugged and led the way up the stairs. "Just watch. There's a knot in the eighth step," she said over her shoulder.

  "Now you tell me," Teagan said under her breath. She grabbed her purse off the floor and trudged barefoot after her, luckily at least her ankle was feeling a little better.

  The woman held the door for Teagan, who reveled in the warmth as she stepped out onto the floral carpet. She glanced at the door as it closed, ready to lace into the woman about the incorrect signage, but held her tongue at the last second. The

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  sign on the door clearly read Storage Cellar. Teagan blinked, confused. She really hadn't thought she was that buzzed.

  "This way," the woman said, starting down the hall.

  Teagan looked down at her dress as she followed the woman. The cocktail sauce had dried, forming a thick crust on the skimpy material. One of her toes was still stained red. She couldn't wait to get a little warming wine in her and clean herself up. She pulled out her cell phone and checked the time, wondering how long it would be until Natsui got her butt over here. Over half an hour had passed since she had phoned her maid.

  God. Was I really knocked out? Teagan wondered.

  The woman grabbed a golf umbrella out of a closet near the end of the hall and started for an exit door.

  "We're going outside?" Teagan asked, shoving her phone back into her bag.

  "That's where we need to go," the woman said.

  Teagan rolled her eyes. Did this woman enjoy being cryptic? "Fine, but let's make it quick. I kind of have a party to go to."

  "I know," the woman said.

  She opened the door and raised the umbrella. Teagan ducked under it and stepped out into the thunderstorm. They were standing at the edge of the parking lot. Hundreds of luxury cars were lined up in rows along with dozens of limos with their cab seat lights on, the drivers chilling out inside, smoking cigarettes and listening to ESPN radio.

  "Okay, I'm having a moment," Teagan said. "Where are you taking me?"

  Suddenly another door slammed and out walked Teagan's inept waitress, cursing under her breath.

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  "Spoiled brat bitch," the woman muttered.

  "Ugh!" Teagan gasped indignantly. "Where does she get off?"

  The former waitress struggled with a cheap umbrella, shoving the mechanism up and down to no avail. The canopy refused to open.

  "Unbelievable!" the woman shouted at the sky. She tossed the whole thing into an overflowing Dumpster, yanked the collar of her jacket over her already-soaked head, and ran for it, weaving around BMW's, Lexus SUV's, and Jaguars on her way to the employee lot at the other end.

  "Yeah! That's right! Get in your Subaru and go back to your tenement!" Teagan shouted into the rain. Who did that woman think she was, calling Teagan a bitch? She was the one who had ruined Teagan's dress and her entire night. It wasn't Teagan's fa
ult that the waitress was totally inept. Some people were just so clueless.

  "Nice. Very ladylike," the woman said to her.

  "Bite me," Teagan responded. "Where's the wine?"

  "This way," the woman said.

  Teagan followed her across the corner of the parking lot and onto another flagainstone pathway that led toward the gardens behind the club. Her bare feet were freezing and wet and the wind blew the rain sideways, soaking her heels and calves as well. This place better have some damn fine wine in stock or Teagan was going to pull a Lizzie Grubman.

  Finally the woman paused in the middle of the pathway and Teagan looked up. "Why are we stopping? I swear this place is going right downhill. Is Lowell just hiring right out of prisons and institutions these days?"

  "Funny," the woman said flatly.

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  "Where the hell is the wine cellar?" Teagan shouted, enunciating her words like she was talking to one of the three scholarship ESL students at Rosewood.

  The woman pointed into the rain and Teagan noticed for the first time that they were standing just yards from the gazebo. This was where couples came every spring and summer Saturday to pledge their eternal devotion to each other. She had seen hundreds of romantic photos taken in this very spot when she had browsed through local photographers' portfolios. That was why it took her a second to realize that there was a couple standing in the center of the gazebo right now. It would have looked odd if there hadn't been a pair of lovers there.

  "Ew," Teagan said when she saw that the two people were locked in a tight embrace. "What are you, a voyeur?"

  . The couple parted and Teagan felt her knees go weak. Lindsee wiped the back of her hand across her skinny lips and then pressed her ample breasts against Max's waiting chest. She smiled up at him, running her finger down his cheek.

  "Oh . . . my . . . God," Teagan said under her breath.

  Max, her Max, wrapped his arms around Lindsee's waist and kissed her forehead. She nuzzled into him and he rested his chin on top of her golden blond head.

  "I missed you, Sweet Bottom," he said, clear as day. Then he reached down and squeezed Lindsee's butt cheeks in both hands. Lindsee giggled and smacked his shoulder, loving every minute of it.

  "She's Sweet Bottom?!" Teagan screeched, whirling irrationally on the country club worker. "Her butt is so much bigger than mine!"

  When she turned around again, Max's tongue was halfway

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  down Lindsee's throat. She couldn't believe they had the audacity to just keep making out like she wasn't even there. This was completely out of control.

  "Hey! Slut!" Teagan shouted, rushing toward the gazebo through the rain. She was doused right through her dress in four seconds flat, but she hardly cared. The two cheating, lying, scum-sucking backstabbers didn't even pause for air. "You thought you were leaving her a message last night, you total lush?" she shouted. "God! I can't believe I was going to have sex with you! We are so over!"

  Max simply slid his hands up Lindsee's back and pulled her closer to him. Lindsee lifted her leg slightly, rubbing her knee up and down the side of Max's thigh like a dog in heat. Teagan was sure she was going to boot.

  "Hello?" she shouted, angry tears filling her eyes. "It's me! Your girlfriend?"

  "They can't hear you," the woman said, stepping onto the gazebo's bottom stair.

  Teagan took no note of her. Max and Lindsee broke apart again and Lindsee fiddled with Max's lapel.

  "So, when she tells you she wants to have sex with you, what are you going to say?" she asked coyly.

  "Thanks, but no thanks. Not tonight," Max said with a twisted grin. "There's no way she can compare to you."

  Teagan felt like she had been shot. She staggered back a few steps and whacked into one of the supporting beams. This couldn't be happening. They couldn't be saying all of this right in front of her like she wasn't even here. Her best friend and her boyfriend. All the things she had shared with them. All the secrets and giggles and intimacies. They couldn't be this cruel. "But don't break up with her tonight," Lindsee said. She

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  pulled her compact out of her bag and quickly checked her makeup. "She'll just throw one of her patented fits." She smirked as she snapped the compact closed.

  "I know. I'll wait until tomorrow," he said, pulling Lindsee back toward him by the wrist. "I just can't wait until we don't have to sneak around anymore."

  "I kind of like the sneaking," Lindsee said slyly.

  "All right, that's it!" Teagan shouted. "You want to see a fit!?"

  She was just charging toward them when the woman put a surprisingly strong hand down on her shoulder, stopping her cold. Teagan felt like she was going to explode out of her skin.

  "Let go of me!" she shouted.

  "They can't hear you," the woman said in her ear, sending an odd tingle over her skin. "They can't hear you or see you."

  "Omigod, you are so in need of a straitjacket," Teagan said.

  "Teagan, trust me. If you stop for one moment and really look inside yourself, you'll know what I'm saying is true," the woman told her. you're not even in your own body."

  Suddenly Teagan felt a shot of cold so intense she could have been dropped through the January ice at Wilson's Pond. Her fingers and toes curled and all the hair on her arms stood at attention. Even her teeth felt cold.

  you're insane," she said, ignoring every instinct in her body.

  She lunged forward to grab Lindsee and rip her skinny, betraying lips off Max. But instead of touching Lindsee's dewy flesh, Teagan watched, wide-eyed, as her hand went right through Lindsee's skin, into her shoulder, and out her back. It was like shoving her hand into a vat of warm Jell-O, and the sensation finally sent Teagan's already-ravaged stomach over the edge. Gasping for air, Teagan stumbled for the railing and

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  gripped it with all her might, dry heaving into the rosebushes on the other side.

  Oh God! I'm dead! Teagan thought wildly, even as her eyes bulged and her throat burned with pain. I'm dead on my sweet sixteen.

  This was the perfect end to a totally janked-up day.

  A warm hand touched her back gently and Teagan managed to stand up. She looked into the tired yet kind eyes of the country club worker.

  "Am I a ghost?" she whimpered, trying to prepare herself for the worst. After what she had just felt, she would pretty much believe anything.

  "Yes," the woman said in a soothing voice. "I'm sorry to tell you this, Teagan, but you are."

  Teagan's knees went out from under her and her butt slammed down on a slim bench that ran along the gazebo's perimeter. Her mind swam. She tried to breathe but couldn't. Instantly her heart started to spasm and she put her hand to her chest, gasping with all her might.

  I'm dead, she thought. I'm really dead.

  "It's okay, Teagan," the woman said, coming over and laying her warm hands on Teagan's bare shoulders. She bent over until they were eye to eye. "Look into my eyes and breathe. It's going to be okay."

  "Are you insane?!" Teagan screeched. "I'm dead! Nothing's ever going to be okay!"

  Her gut twisted in pain and she doubled over, pressing her forehead into the cold, wet surface of the gazebo's railing. She clung to it with both hands, desperate to touch anything real. Anything that could make her believe that she was still

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  here --still alive. That this was all just some kind of screwed- up nightmare.

  "Wait a minute," she said suddenly, straightening. "If I'm dead, why can you touch me? Why can I touch this?" she asked, slapping her hand against one of the support beams.

  "We can touch each other because I'm a ghost too," the woman said patiently. "Why we can touch inanimate objects, I don't know. I don't make up the rules; I just work here."

  "You're a ghost too?" This was all too much to handle. Teagan's eyes welled with hot tears and her nose clogged instantly. "No," she said. "No. I don't believe you. I'm not dead. I can't be dead. I'm only sixteen."
r />   She stalked over to Lindsee and Max, not even caring anymore that they were going at it right in front of her, and screamed at the top of her lungs. "Hey! I'm right here! Come on, you guys! Please!" she shouted, the tears bursting forth. "Please! I don't want to be dead! Just hear me!"

  "They can't," the ghost told her, touching her shoulders again from behind. "The sooner you accept this, Teagan, the easier this night will be."

  "Easier? What the hell are you talking about?" Teagan shouted, whirling on her fellow ghost as tears streamed down her face. "You're standing here, telling me that I'm dead."

  "I know. It took a while for me to accept it too," the woman told her. "But we have to. We have to move on. And soon."

  "Move . . . move on?" Teagan asked timidly, her stomach turning. "Like, to where? To heaven?"

  "Not exactly."

  Teagan dry-heaved. "To hell? Come on! I haven't been that bad!"

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  "Oh yeah, you have," the woman said with a smirk. "But we're not going there either. I have some things to show you."

  Teagan swallowed against the hollow fear in her chest. "What?" she asked, imagining every freaky Halloween movie she had ever seen. Images of graveyards and fiery dimensions and skeletal demons in black robes filled her mind.

  "You'll see," the woman told her.

  "Oh no, Cryptic Chick," Teagan said, wiping her cheeks quickly and taking a deep breath. She slid along the railing, backing in a circle around the two people who had betrayed her. She had to stall. She had to think this through. "I... I want to deal with these two first. They can't get away with this! Don't I get a dying wish?" she blurted.

  I can't believe this. I can't believe I just said that. I'm dead. I'm no longer of the living. This can't actually be--

  "Teagan -- his

  "I mean, Lindsee?" she shouted, clinging to a subject she could actually wrap her brain around. "She's totally pushing stuffed-sausage status in that dress! How the hell is she Sweet Bottom?"

  It wasn't true, of course. Lindsee was looking as gorgeous and elegant as ever. But Teagan could think of nothing else to do at the moment but tear the girl down.

  "Can't I just stick around here and haunt them or something?" she asked weakly.