The Haunted (29 page)

Caspian looked at me in disbelief. “That nerd boy who tried to put the moves on you?”

“Yeah. He came over for pizza today, and we watched a movie because I totally forgot about our tutoring session, and…” My words deserted me. I couldn’t speak fast enough to keep up with my racing mind.

“God, Caspian! I just can’t believe it. All this time.”

I started to feel queasy again, and put one hand to my mouth.

“Why don’t you sit down?” Caspian came closer and shepherded me to the bed. I followed, and he sat next to me, looking concerned. “Are you sure it’s him? Really,
really
sure? I certainly don’t want to stick up for the guy, but he doesn’t seem like the type to have made her keep such a big secret.”

I shook my head. “It has to be him. He knows all this stuff about Kristen. Like where she wanted to go to college, and what her brother was good at… And at her funeral? He seemed really upset. Like,
really
upset. More than normal. He probably felt guilty.”

Caspian was silent.

“Arrrrrhhhh!” I yelled. “How could I
not
have seen this? All this time. He was always so nice to me. I bet he was just trying to figure out how much I knew.” I jumped up to pace again. I couldn’t sit still.

“Maybe you should ask him,” Caspian suggested.

“What?” I stopped. “No, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Be-because he’s just going to lie to me,” I stuttered. “He’s not going to tell me the truth.”

“Maybe he will.”

“Yeah, right. Like you did?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. “I’m sorry. That was below the belt. I didn’t mean it.”

“Yes, you did. But it’s okay. I deserve it.” His eyes looked miserable, and it broke my heart.

I sat next to him on the bed. “No you don’t,” I said. “I’m just being an asshole because I’m pissed at Ben, and I took it out on you. Forgive me?”

“Of course,” he said. “Always.”

But he wouldn’t look at me.

“Caspian.” I tried to nudge his arm and felt the tingle. “Hey, Casper.”

That was enough to get him to look at me.

“I’d hold your hand right now if I could,” I said.

He smiled. “Thanks. It’s the thought that counts.”

Knowing that I was truly forgiven, I leaned back on the bed and looked up at the stars. “It has to be him… right? I mean, it makes too much sense. Everything he knows about her, showing up at her locker last year, being so upset at her memorial. Even making friends with me… It all points to classic signs of guilt.”

“Or it could just mean that he misses her.”

But that didn’t make any sense. “I don’t think so.”

We sat there in silence, and I kept turning everything over in my mind. Replaying bits and pieces of conversations, trying to make all the puzzle pieces fit. It was all so shocking and new. I felt blindsided.

“What are you going to do?” Caspian asked.

“I don’t know. How do you bring up something like that? As a question? An accusation? Do I slip it into our next casual conversation?” I laughed bitterly. “Like we’re going to have any more of those. And to think that he was in my—” I stopped abruptly and shut my mouth.

“Was in your… ?”

I could feel my face heating up, and I shook my head.

“Come on,” he prodded. “Was he in your cereal bowl? Tea leaves? What?”

“Nothing.” I snapped. He didn’t respond, but just sat there quietly. Looking at me. “Oh, all right, fine,” I finally sighed. “He was in one of my dreams, okay? But then he sorta turned into you, and it was crazy.” His eyes widened. “Can we please get back on track here?” I said. “People can’t control their dreams.”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Do you have his phone number? You could call him.”

“That’s not exactly a conversation best suited to the phone, you know?”

“Do you want to go talk to him about it?” His green eyes held mine. “I’ll go with you.”

Fear and excitement rose inside of me. “I don’t know…” I bit down on one thumbnail, worrying the edges with my teeth. “Could I?
Should
I?”

“Asking is the only way you’re going to find out for sure. And think of it this way: Without knowing, are you going to be able to sleep tonight?”

No.
“Good point. But I don’t know where he lives.” I stood up and went over to my desk, flipping the switch on my computer. “Google.”

Nervously tapping my fingers on the edge of my computer monitor, I waited for the computer to start up. But then the tapping noises started to make me irritated, and I switched to rolling one of my perfume bottles back and forth between my hands.

Finally, the computer stopped clicking and whirring, and I pulled up a search engine. Typing in Ben’s full name and
Sleepy Hollow, NY
brought up a database listing in no time.

“Looks like he lives over by the high school,” I said. “Feel up for a walk?”

Caspian stood. “Let’s go.”

We climbed out the window and crossed the yard, setting off in the direction of the school. Twenty minutes later we reached Ben’s house, and I bounced from side to side on the balls of my feet, trying to psych myself up like a prizefighter getting ready for the ring. I carefully pushed the doorbell and then waited for someone to answer.

A middle-aged woman with brown hair opened it up. She was wearing a light-colored tunic and gray pants. A dish towel was suspended in one of her hands. “Can I help you?”

“Um, hi, Mrs. Bennett?” At her nod I continued. “I’m Abbey Browning. Ben is tutoring me?”

A wide smile broke out across her face. “Oh yes, how are you, Abbey?”

“Good, thanks. Um, do you know where Ben is? I need to talk to him.”

Her smile turned to a slight frown, and then it was gone. “He’s with his father. At the Christmas-tree farm, about five blocks away from here. Next to a vacant lot.”

I nodded. “Okay, thanks.” I was already turning away from her.

“Do you want me to call him?” she asked.

I turned back. “No, thanks. I’ll surprise him. See ya, Mrs. Bennett.” I waved cheerfully and turned away again as soon as she shut the door.

Caspian and I made short work of the five blocks. The Christmas-tree farm, if you could even call it that, was a small strip of land. A
very
small strip of land. There were twenty or thirty baby trees, growing in rows.

A man was there, doing something with a bucket, and at first I didn’t see Ben. Then he stood up, and I realized that he’d been bending so low to the ground that I hadn’t seen him. But now I could make out his curly hair.

“Ben!” I called, waving my arms in the air. He looked my way, and then said something to his dad before jogging over.

“Remember,” Caspian said. “He could have an excuse. Don’t fly off the handle right away.”

I gave a short, jerky nod.

“Abbey?” Ben said, getting closer. “What’s up? Why are you here?”

I took a deep breath and clenched my fists, nails biting deep so that I would have something to distract me. Without waiting, or thinking, I plowed straight ahead. “I know, Ben.”

He gave me a puzzled look. “Know what?”

“About you and Kristen. I found her diaries and you were mentioned in them.”

“What?”

I wanted to yell, to
scream
in his face that I knew, and he needed to stop lying, but I saw Caspian shaking his head. Counting to three, I said very slowly, “I know that you and Kristen were dating, and that you wanted her to keep it a secret from me.”

Ben took a step toward me, and even though I felt like flinching, I held my ground. “What are you talking about, Abbey? Kristen and I never dated.”

His earnestness threw me for a loop. “But your first name is Daniel, and she was seeing someone named D.”

“She was?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I mean, no. I mean… You should know.
You’re
D.”

He shook his head. “Sorry, Abbey. But it wasn’t me.”

Caspian watched us, and I stole a glance at him, trying to keep my focus. “I know it was you. She wrote that you guys were meeting at secret places, and… and how do you know so much about her if it
wasn’t
you?”

Ben blushed a little. “Because I liked her.”

“How do you explain all the personal stuff you know about her?”

“We shared a couple of study halls, and I asked her some stuff.”

I searched his eyes, trying to see if he was lying.

He wasn’t.

“Why didn’t she ever tell me?” I asked.

“I don’t know. But I
was
going to tell you about my feelings for her. That’s what I’ve been trying to talk to you about.” He glanced down, looking embarrassed. “I thought that maybe I had feelings for you.… But then I realized—” He broke off and looked up at me.

I stayed silent.

“Then I realized that I, uh, I didn’t really have those… uh, feelings… for you,” he said. “It was always Kristen. I guess
it was just a temporary transference type of thing.”

I unclenched my fists and stared down at my palms. “Where were you?” I asked. “The night she went missing?”

“Out of town. With my dad. We went on a fishing trip upstate. Ask him if you want.”

I studied him again. Looking for something… anything. “It’s
not
you?”

He shook his head. “I almost wish I
was
this guy. Then I could give you some answers. But I’m not. In fact, one of the reasons I was so upset at her memorial was because I missed the search-and-rescue teams. I would have… helped.” He looked so miserable that I knew there was no way he was faking it.

“You’re not D.,” I whispered. Half to Ben, half to Caspian. Hanging my head, I felt empty now and drained. “I’m sorry, Ben. I’m just… sorry.”

He nodded once, and turned away from me to go back to his dad. I didn’t know what to say, so I let him go. Now I was even worse off than before. I
still
didn’t know who D. was, and I’d possibly cost myself a friend.

The next day at Uncle Bob’s shop was long, and I didn’t think I’d make it through till the end. My brain and fingers were disconnected, and I felt clumsy and slow. Several times I dropped the
scooper onto the floor mid-scoop, and I had to stop each time to get a new one.

Then I hit the wrong button on the register as Aubra was showing me how to use it (“for the fifty-third time!”), and even Uncle Bob couldn’t figure out how to fix it. For the rest of the day everyone automatically got their ice cream at half price.

Thursday wasn’t much better, and Ben missed our tutoring session. He called me later and said he was sorry, he just got busy, but I knew it was because of our awkward meeting at the tree farm. He wasn’t sure how to act around me now.

But at least I had one bright spot at the end of each day. Caspian would come over and stay for an hour or two while we lay on my bed, just talking about nothing at all. Sometimes we didn’t talk, but listened to music instead, and that was nice too. Just knowing that he’d be there waiting for me was what kept me going.

Friday, though, was the toughest day of all. Aubra was in rare form, even for her. At first I thought it was just a PMS thing, but she kept taking all these breaks to go text on her phone, and when she’d come back, her eyes were red.

Then I just figured it was a Vincent thing. He didn’t exactly seem like the best boyfriend on the planet, so it was no surprise that he’d be making her cry.

I tried to steer clear of her, and actually went to hide out in Uncle Bob’s office when it was time for my fifteen-minute break. Uncle Bob snuck up on me and made me jump.

“Staying away from the customers, are we?”

I spun around. “It’s my fifteen, and I…”

He chuckled. “It’s okay. I understand. Sometimes they can be pretty rough. I swear, this summer heat brings out the crazy in people.”

It drives some employees crazy too
, I thought. He gave me an odd half smile, like he’d heard me.

Moving around the desk, he shifted a stack of papers from one side to the other and then sat down in his chair. “You know what I like best about you, Abbey?”

“Um… my adorable personality?”

Uncle Bob shook his head. “You change people. That’s what I like best about you. Take this office, for instance.” He gestured around the room. “When you took it upon yourself to organize it, you changed me.”

I started to protest, to say I was sorry for not asking him first when I’d come in here last Thanksgiving and rearranged his stuff, but he held up a hand.

“I mean that in a positive way. I
liked
the fact that you took initiative. Now, granted, not everything took”—his eyes slid
over to his messy cabinets, and I grinned at him—“but for the most part you helped me change in a positive way.”

He picked up a metal, triangle-shaped paperweight and studied it before looking back at me. “Some of the people will be negative. They’ll go out of their way to make you miserable or choose to ignore you.”

I glanced down at my feet. It wasn’t hard to figure out he was talking about Aubra.

“What’s important to remember though, Abbey,
is
the fact that you change people. That overrides all, no matter what. Always remember that.”

I looked up at him.

“Do you understand what I mean?” he asked.

“Yup. I got it. Thanks for the pep talk.”

He looked pleased and bashful all at once. “It’s nothing. Just my way of buttering you up so that I can ask you to stay an extra hour. Busy shift.”

I groaned. “Uncle
Bob
. Seriously?”

“Sorry, Abbey. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t really need it.”

“Fine.”
I sighed heavily. “I’ll call Mom and tell her to pick me up later.”

He pushed an old-fashioned, eighties-style professional-office phone my way. “Here you go, you can use this.”

I picked up the clunky black receiver and eyed it doubtfully, but dialed Mom’s number. “Hey, Mom. Uncle Bob needs me to stay for an extra hour, so you’ll have to pick me up at six.”

“Okay,” she said. Someone was laughing in the background, and she sounded distracted. “Wait, six? But the Maxwells are coming over for dinner, and I told them we’d eat at six thirty.”

“They
are
?” I could feel a happy smile cross my face. “I haven’t seen them in so long! Oh man, that will be great. Just push dinner back to seven thirty, then.”