Chapter 15

Charlotte

I wished that Dimitri would make his move. I wanted him to gently cup my cheek, lean in, and close his eyes when our lips met.

Unfortunately, he did no such thing, and I began to wonder if my feelings were one-sided. If I was braver, I’d have kissed him, but, as always, I was scared and doubted myself.

We sat there for a long time until I realized I might be in trouble. “The sun is setting,” I said, jumping to my feet. “It’s time to go home. My parents will be worried.”

The sunset’s colors matched those of the autumn trees. This place looked like a magical fairy world. A part of me felt as if I was in a fairy tale, and I did not want it to end.

“I’ll drop you off at home first,” I told Dimitri.

“Thank you.” He smiled and got up.

We returned to my car, side by side. We were so close our hands almost brushed together. Although we didn’t touch, there was an electrical connection between us.

Dimitri went to the passenger side, and the sparks faded as he put distance between us. As always, I opened my own door and wondered if I should tell Dimitri I would fancy it if he did it for me.

We drove to his house while listening to our favorite songs. Nothing more was said about the secrets we had shared. I would keep everything he told me to myself, and I trusted he would do the same.

I couldn’t believe that I had a friend, who knew my biggest secret and believed me instead of laughing at me.

I reached for my phone to text my parents. “Oh no,” I said.

“What is it?”

“My phone battery died. My parents are going to be worried sick.”

“This is my fault...” Dimitri said. “I am sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I said. “It was worth it.”

I don’t know when I’d gotten so rebellious. I was bunking school, sneaking Dimitri into my room, and keeping secrets. Maybe I was braver than I had initially thought.

“When will I see you again?”

“I want to visit my grandmother tomorrow. Do you feel like bunking school and going with me?”

“Absolutely. I’ll meet you at your school in the morning?”

“Deal,” I said.

I stopped in front of his house, and he jumped out of the car. I figured he wasn’t in a hurry, he just didn’t want to keep me any longer. “Thanks for today. I really needed a friend.”

“Sure.” I watched him leave.

My throat felt tight. A friend? Just a friend. Was that all I was to him? Maybe he did not have a crush on me after all. Maybe I had been friend-zoned. Maybe he wanted nothing more.

My heart sank as I drove home. This day had been one big high, and I was finally coming down.

Dimitri had not been touchy-feely with me at all. I had thought it was just his personality, but now I suspected it might be because he was not that into me.

I had friend-zoned a few guys in my life. I had always tried to do it gently and take their feelings into consideration. Yet, until now, I had never been in the friend zone myself. I didn’t even know guys did that.

I would respect Dimitri’s feelings. I was not going to be a desperate girl who begged him to want me. We were friends, and that was better than nothing.

Did he have a girlfriend? We had never spoken about relationships before, and he did not mention any other girls to me. That thought made my stomach turn.

If he had a girlfriend, it was best he did not spend so much time with me.

It was dark by the time I stopped at my house, and everyone was already home. I went in, and Amore jumped around my feet. My family was in the kitchen.

“Where have you been?” Andrea cried.

“Charlotte, are you alright?” my father asked. “What happened?”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I was just out with a friend.”

“And you did not think you should let us know?” Andrea asked. “We have been worried sick about you!”

“My phone’s battery died,” I told them.

“This is unacceptable,” Ned said. “You should have planned better.”

“I was not planning to go out after school,” I said. “It was a spontaneous decision. Juan does things like this all the time, and then it’s not a problem.”

“We expect these things from her,” Andrea said. “Not from you!”

“You are always telling me that I need to get out of the house more,” I growled. “And now that I am, you are angry at me.”

“Don’t talk to us in that tone,” Ned said.

“But you guys are yelling at me.” I threw my hands up.

Juan was also there, sitting at the table, holding a glass of water while she arched an eyebrow. “Mom and Dad, it’s good that she is making friends.”

“But clearly they are a bad influence,” Andrea said.

“Stop it!” I snapped, and the kitchen went silent.

That’s how it worked in the Gray household. Everyone could yell at little me and be mean to me, but the moment I had enough and put my foot down, I was the bad guy.

“You are grounded,” Ned told me.

I was already supposed to be grounded, and they had forgotten about it. It wouldn’t be long until they forgot about this as well.

“Fine,” I said. “If I end up depressed and miserable, you are to blame.”

“Go to your room!” Andrea yelled.

“You tell me you’ve been worried sick, but you are not even glad to see that I am alright?” I asked them.

“Charlotte, go to your room,” Ned said.

“Fine.” I skulked up the stairs and slammed my door. The ~bang~ made Amore jump next to me. The dog looked at me with her big puzzled brown eyes.

“They are just being dumb,” I said. “Juan comes home past twelve, and it’s not a problem. It’s only half past nine now, and everyone loses their shit.”

Amore offered me her support and loyalty. Although she did not understand, she still barked as if she believed every word I said.

I soaked in a warm bath and tried to relax. How had my day gone from so good to so bad? I went to bed as soon as I could and tried to sleep. I was ready for a new day, a better day.

***

The next day, I was up early and left the house without eating breakfast. I was still angry with my parents and could not wait to get away from everyone.

I waited in front of my school until I saw Dimitri. My anger faded, and he got into the car and immediately picked up on my mood.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” I mumbled. We started driving, and I relaxed. “I can tell you have a question for me.”

“I do... I just don’t know how to ask.”

I glanced at him. “I can’t help you there.”

“Okay. It’s about the secret you told me yesterday. About you seeing... ghosts.”

“You say it like it’s a bad word.” I kept my eyes on the road.

He laughed. “It’s not. I was just wondering—are there other people that can see them?”

“There are, but not many. I don’t know what gives you the ability to see them, but I know it runs in families and usually skips a generation.”

“Does this mean your grandma can see ghosts, too?”

“She can. None of my other family members can. Thus, they don’t believe me.”

“It must be hard,” he said.

I shrugged. “Yeah.”

Dimitri was quiet for a bit before he asked another question.

“Are ghosts scary?”

The question made me feel a little bit better. He was still there and he did not look too freaked out.

“Some of them,” I said. “Some of them look just like us—and I can’t tell they are a ghost straight away. Others look brutal—they have broken necks or bullet wounds.”

“Do they ever hurt you?”

“Everyone knows a ghost can’t touch you,” I said. “They just freak me out at times.”

“I think you are very brave,” he said.

This caught me off guard. I could tell he meant it. No one else had ever told me I was brave . . .

“I don’t think that I am brave,” I countered. “I’ve always been scared.”

“Being brave does not mean you don’t get scared. It just means you have the courage to stand up to what scares you.”

I let those words sink in and wondered if I stood up to the things that scared me. The Red-eyed Lady scared me, and I hid from her, but I had gone to her modeling agency . . . Was I slowly mastering my fears?

“You are so wise,” I said.

“Is that sarcasm?”

“No.” I smiled. “You just reminded me of my grandma for a second.”

“How come?”

“She is always giving me advice. She is the only person I have ever been able to talk to about these things.”

“She sounds wonderful,” Dimitri said.

“She is. I know she will like you.”

We stopped in front of Grandma May’s house and stepped along the stones through the garden to the front door.

The roof and gutters were filled with leaves. The curtains were drawn, and there was a welcome mat by the front door. I knocked.

“I am coming!” came my grandma’s voice. I could hear her scuffling around the house.

“I think she has misplaced her keys again,” I told Dimitri.

We waited outside for a while until Grandma May opened the front door. Her face lit up when she saw me. “Charlotte! What a lovely surprise!” She then looked past me. “And you brought a friend!”

“Grandma May, this is Dimitri,” I said.

“Hi,” Dimitri said awkwardly.

“Come on in!” Grandma May said.

I walked straight to the kettle and switched it on. Grandma closed the front door to avoid leaves blowing into her cozy but cluttered house.

A hoarder, she had fake flowers, porcelain dolls, and little statues everywhere for decoration. From her cupboard she took out cups for the tea.

“Grandma, we are three people. You only took out two teacups,” I pointed out.

Grandma May looked at Dimitri. “I can tell you don’t drink tea.”

“Are you psychic?” he teased.

“No,” she said. “I’m just good at reading people.”

“Would you like coffee instead?” I offered.

“No thanks,” Dimitri said. “I’m not one for hot drinks.”

Grandma May poured the boiling water into the cups and added sugar. “Why are you two lovely children bunking school?”

“I wanted to visit you,” I said.

“You could have come after school,” Grandma May said.

“I’m grounded,” I said, without a trace of guilt. I was grounded unfairly.

“What for?”

“Coming home late.”

“That does not sound like you.”

I shrugged, and the three of us sat down on Grandma May’s couch. There were cookies on the table, and I helped myself to them.

“I’ve not been feeling myself lately,” I said.

“Does this have something to do with a ghost?” Grandma May asked.

Dimitri was quieter than usual, and I suspected he was not used to having conversations like this. I hoped he would not be scared or freaked out. Grandma and I talked casually about ghosts like other people would gossip.

“Yes,” I said. Grandma May looked over to Dimitri, and I continued speaking. “He knows about my gift. I told him I can see ghosts.”

“She must trust you a lot,” Grandma May told Dimitri.

“She does,” Dimitri said.

Grandma May looked back at me. “Are you ready to tell me what’s going on?”

I took a deep breath. “I saw something, Grandma. I saw something I was not supposed to see.”

“What did you see?” Grandma May asked.

“I can’t tell you,” I said, feeling guilty.

I did not want my grandmother to be part of the Red-eyed Lady’s revenge plan. It was best she did not know what had happened.

“The point is, I saw something bad, and now I am being haunted for it. I believe this ghost wants revenge.”

“What ghost?”

I shrugged. “The Red-eyed Lady.”

“Ghosts that are fueled by anger, rage, and revenge can be more powerful than normal ghosts. I advise you to be alert on Halloween.”

“I will,” I said.

“Tell me more about this haunting,” Grandma May asked.

“It started small—I kept hearing footsteps in my house. Then it progressed. She threw spades in my room and drew flowers on my notebook. I have seen her multiple times.”

“It sounds like she is trying to get your attention. I think she wants to tell you something.”

“But I don’t want to listen to her,” I admitted. “I want her to go away. I want her to leave me alone.”

“The only way to make her go away is to face her,” Grandma May told me. “You have to find out what she wants.”

“But I am scared,” I mumbled.

~Being brave does not mean you don’t get scared. It just means you have the courage to stand up to what scares you.~ I looked at Dimitri, who hadn’t spoken a word.

Grandma May chuckled. “It’s not like you’ve never seen a ghost before.”

“This one is different,” I said. “Grandma, you told me a ghost can’t hurt me. Did you say that only to calm my fears?”

“It’s rare for a ghost to touch you,” Grandma May said. “It’s never happened to me before, but I have heard of it happening.”

I looked down. “Lovely.”

“If you want her to stop, you have to try and find out what she wants,” Grandma May said.

I knew what she wanted—revenge. She was haunting me out of spite, out of anger, because I hadn’t protected her. And even if she wanted to talk to me, it was clear that she couldn’t.

Maybe she couldn’t speak because her murderer had crushed her windpipe, and that was somehow affecting her in the afterlife.

But I was scared to face the ghost, let alone help her. I did not want to come anywhere near her. Dimitri was still with us, and he had gone deathly quiet.

“I did not mean to scare you,” I said.

“Nonsense,” Grandma May interrupted. “He was meant to be here. I saw him in your teacup after all.”

“In a teacup?” Dimitri wondered.

I had not realized how weird it was until I had to explain it. “My grandma reads my tea leaves so that she can predict my future.”

“That sounds interesting,” Dimitri said. “It almost makes me regret not drinking tea.”

“We can still make you some,” I offered.

“Rather not,” he said, “but I would like to see your grandmother read your leaves.”

I liked that he was curious instead of cryptic. I got up, swallowed the rest of my tea, broke the tea bag, and let the tea leaves slosh around the cup.

I went to the kitchen, where I flipped the cup in the basin so that the liquid could flow out.

“If I look into my cup, I will jinx it,” I told Dimitri, as I handed Grandma May the cup.

“Can I look?” he asked.

“Sure,” Grandma May said.

He moved closer to Grandma May. Grandma studied the cup, and after a while she picked up one of her knitting needles. She used it to point into the cup.

“Do you see that?” she asked.

“No . . . ” Dimitri said.

“It’s cosmos,” my grandmother said.

I gripped the couch and tried to keep my face relaxed. The Red-eyed Lady had drawn cosmos in my notebook. I thought it meant death. My death.

“Do you see a funeral?” I asked my grandmother.

“No . . . ”

“Then what does it mean?”

“I don’t know . . . I can only tell you what I see,” she said, much to my disappointment.

“Oh . . . ” I said. “What else?”

“I see candy,” Grandma May said. “I think you are going to have a fun Halloween.”

“That’s good.” But my dire tone contradicted my words. She saw cosmos which meant the Red-eyed Lady wasn’t going to move on. Was she going to haunt me forever?

Grandma May pointed out the candy to Dimitri. He could not see any of the things she did. He obviously did not have the gift. He clearly still found it amazing, and that made me like him even more.

“I see a house,” Grandma May said. “It could be a vacation house.”

“My father wants to go away for a weekend . . . ” I said.

Grandma May put down the teacup. “That is all that I see.”

“Thank you.” For once, I regretted having her read my tea. She saw cosmos... and that just made me more scared.

It was time to go because school ended early, and if I didn’t go now, I would be home late. Then my father would be even angrier at me. I would not be surprised if he stayed home today just to make sure I was home on time.

“We have to go...” I said.

Grandma did not ask me to stay longer because she did not want me to get into trouble. She said goodbye and told Dimitri that he was welcome anytime. Grandma May did not walk us out.

“I hope to see you again soon,” she told me.

“You will,” I said.

Dimitri and I left the house and got into the car. I drove to Dimitri’s house first so that I could drop him off.

“Thank you for coming with me,” I said.

“Thank you for taking me with you,” he said. “It was fun.”

“And thank you for not thinking that I am a freak,” I added.

“You are not a freak,” he said. “I like you very much.”