Authors: Jacqueline Smith
Michael laughed.
“Sorry.”
Kate looked up at him.
“So what do you want to know?”
“Well, I guess for starters I’ve got to know, did you actually read
Twilight
?”
“All four,” Kate answered matter-of-factly.
“Seriously?”
“In less than a week.”
“That’s kind of sad.”
“No, the sad part is that I reread them. Twice,” Kate admitted. “Next question.”
“Okay.
What’s your favorite holiday?”
“Tie between Halloween and Christmas.
How about you?”
“I like Christmas.”
“Too many ghosts around Halloween?” Kate teased.
“Too many weird people in masks,” Michael shuddered.
Kate raised an eyebrow.
“Really?
You see ghosts on a daily basis and you think masks are creepy?”
“Ghosts are just normal people.
Some of those masks have eyeballs hanging out of the sockets!”
“That’s twisted,” Kate told him.
“Okay, so what are you afraid of?”
“Bu
gs, Yoda, germs, and guys who wear socks with their sandals.”
“Not ghosts?” Michael asked.
Kate thought about it.
“There’s only one who really scares me,” she confessed.
“Trevor.”
“Have you seen him?”
Kate asked.
“Yeah.
I saw him the day you moved in.” Although there was no doubt in her mind that Trevor existed, Michael’s confirmation made her shiver.
“What does he look like?”
“He’s tall.
He’s got an army haircut, dark eyes. He sort of looks like a biker.”
“And um... do you think he’s angry at us?”
“I think he’s angry at Gavin,” Michael answered slowly.
“Why?”
“You know him better than I do.”
“I can’t think of anything. Gavin’s never been in trouble a day in his life. Growing up, he was the golden child. Straight A’s, athletic, multiple scholarships... I was the one who would get in trouble for staying out late or getting a tattoo or - ”
“Wait, you have a tattoo?”
“Maybe,” Kate grinned.
“The point is whatever problem this guy has with Gavin, it wasn’t Gavin’s fault. I don’t even know where he would have met a guy like that.” Michael’s brow furrowed, like he was doing some serious considering.
“We could always ask him.”
“Oh no.
Gavin made it very clear that he doesn’t want to hear anymore ‘ghost talk.’”
“I meant Trevor.
” Michael stopped and turned to face her. It took Kate a moment to process what he was proposing. After everything he’d told her the night before, she understood that this wasn’t just a simple favor between friends. She wanted to say that she couldn’t ask that of him, that he’d already helped them so much. But maybe, just maybe, if they could find out why Trevor was there, they would be able to help Gavin.
“You’d do that?” she asked.
“It’s something I should have done the day I met you,” Michael told her.
Kate wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
“You will never know how much this means to me.”
“Then let’s go talk to him.”
He turned to walk back toward the car, but Kate stopped him.
“One more thing,” she said.
Then she took his arm and pulled him down into another kiss. This time, he kissed her back.
Throughout the ten-minute car ride back to their apartment complex, Michael tried not to show how anxious he was about talking to Trevor. That he hadn’t willingly spoken to a ghost who wasn’t Brink or his grandmother in ten years would have made him nervous enough, but the fact that he was going to talk to the guy who’d been making Kate and Gavin’s life a living hell...
He’d rather be off chasing a bunch of pioneers with Luke Rainer.
As nervous as he felt, however, Kate seemed ten times worse.
While he was more the kind to remain silent in the face of a nerve-wracking situation, Kate dealt with her anxiety by listing every single worst-case scenario that she could possibly imagine. Surprisingly, it wasn’t making Michael feel any better.
“Okay, so say this guy does have a problem with Gavin.
You don’t think we’re going to make it worse by talking to him do you? Or what if he hurts you? You said ghosts can do that right? Maybe we shouldn’t do this. But if we don’t and it gets worse, then I’ll never forgive myself for not helping Gavin when we had the chance. But if we make him angrier and things get worse, we might have to call an exorcist. Do you know if there’s a Cathedral around here?”
“If you don’t want to talk to him, we don’t have to,” Michael told her, halfway hoping she took the out.
And by “halfway,” he meant “desperately.”
“No, I know we need to.
I’m just nervous.”
“Me too,” Michael admitted.
“I mean, what if Gavin did do something?
I’m sure he didn’t, but still. What if it was a hit and run? Or what if Gavin owed him money and he died and Gavin never paid him the money and now he thinks it should go to his family, but Gavin thinks that since he’s dead, he doesn’t need to pay but his family is starving and their only hope for money is the money that Gavin owes him?”
“Your brain seems like a stressful place,” Michael remarked.
“It can be.”
Much sooner than Michael would have preferred, they pulled into the apartment complex.
He parked the car in his driveway and together, they climbed up the stairs. Kate was still rambling.
“So we’re going to have to figure out how to get Gavin out of the apartment, or at least out of earshot.
Or maybe if we can’t get him out, we can ask Trevor to follow us back to your place and we can talk to him there. Or we might be able to - ”
“Hey,” he stopped her and took her hand.
She looked up at him with wide eyes. “Everything is going to be okay. I promise.” She grinned wryly, but Michael could tell she was still nervous. He was, too.
“Thanks,” she said.
Then she took a deep breath and pulled her keys out of her purse. “Alright, let’s do this.”
Four people were waiting for them in the living room.
Gavin sat with an older couple, whom Michael assumed were his and Kate’s parents, on the couch, while Trevor paced angrily back and forth across the room, every so often running a hand over his short hair. All four of them looked up when Kate and Michael appeared.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” Kate asked her parents.
“Well, if you bothered to check your cell phone, you would have known that they called last night to tell us that they were stopping by for a visit this afternoon,” Gavin told her.
“Why didn’t you tell me this morning?”
“I tried, but you were out the door before I could say anything.”
“Oh.”
“Kate?” their mother said.
“Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
“Oh, I’m sorry.
Mom, Dad, this is my friend Michael. He lives across the hall. Michael, these are our parents, Terri and Rex.”
“Hi,” Michael gave a nervous wave.
“It’s nice to meet you
.” Mrs. Avery nodded.
“You too.”
“So what’s going on?” Kate asked.
“Actually, we wanted to talk to you,” Rex replied.
“Okay.”
“Maybe we should talk in private,” Terri suggested, lightly implying that she would rather Michael not be there for what they needed to say.
“Why? Is something wrong?” Kate asked.
“No, of course not.
We just want to talk to you.”
“Then why would we need privacy?”
“It’s alright.
He can stay,” Rex said. “Why don’t you kids sit down?”
Together, Kate and Michael retrieved a few chairs from the dining room table and dragged them into the living room so that they were facing the couch.
They exchanged curious glances as they sat down.
“Kate, your father and I have been talking,” Terri began.
“And we think it would be best - ”
“For everyone,” Rex interjected.
“- if maybe you moved back in with us for a while.” Terri pursed her lips as she waited for her daughter’s reaction.
“What?” Kate asked, looking as though she wasn’t sure she’d heard them correctly.
“Back when you and Gavin decided to become roommates, we all agreed to give it a trial period, remember?”
“So why are you saying this now? Why not back before I put my name on the lease for a new apartment?” Neither parent seemed to know how to answer.
“We wanted to give you every opportunity to make things work on your own.
But with Gavin still being sick, we just think it would be better for you to - ”
“Wait a minute.
If this is about Gavin being sick, then why don’t you make him move back in with you?” Kate demanded. Michael glanced over at Gavin, who was looking terribly pale and uncomfortable. His eyes were locked on a spot on the floor and he was clutching the arm rest on the sofa so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.
“He’s older.
He’s lived on his own a lot longer than you have,” Terri tried to explain.
“You mean he didn’t bust his head open in a car wreck,” Kate translated.
“Kate, I know you think we’re being overprotective, but I still don’t think you understand just how critically injured you were.”
“I was in a coma for three weeks. Trust me, I get it. What I don’t get is why you think I need this. Every single doctor I’ve seen has told me I couldn’t be healthier.”
“Yes, but sometimes things happen,” Terri insisted.
“What could
possibly
happen?”
“We just don’t want you overexerting yourself,” Rex said.
Kate narrowed her eyes.
“What does that mean?”
“You’ve just seemed so stressed since the break in - ” Terri began.
“Oh, here we go,” Kate murmured.
“- and the doctors said we needed to be vigilant of your mental recovery as much as your physical recovery.”
“Mental recovery?” Michael asked before he could help himself.
“Mom, please...” Kate begged.
“Kate has retrograde amnesia. She lost two and a half years of memories after the crash and if she ever wants to get them back, the last thing she needs is to be stressed out over nothing,” Terri told him. Michael looked at Kate.
“You didn’t tell me that,” he said.
“I didn’t want you feeling sorry for me,” Kate explained.
“Besides, they all filled me in on what I’m missing. They showed me a bunch of pictures and videos and Facebook posts, so I sort of remember everything.”
“Pumpkin, it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Rex told her.
“I’m not ashamed of it! I don’t particularly enjoy
talking
about it...” She may not have been ashamed, but Michael could tell that thinking about all the time she’d lost upset her.
“Then we won’t talk about it,” Terri said.
“Kate, if you start packing now, we can have a few bags of your things back at the house tonight and-”