Death, and the Girl He Loves

Someone cleared a throat. Someone close. I let my eyes drift open and saw Granddad standing in front of me.

“Granddad!” I cried, reality crashing through like a dousing of ice water.

Jared set me on the floor instantly, keeping hold so I didn’t topple over. Then we both turned toward my grandfather, who seemed … annoyed. For some reason.

“Hey, Granddad. Jared was just demonstrating the Heimlich maneuver. You know, in case I ever come across someone choking.”

“Unless you mean choking on someone else’s tongue, I don’t think that particular maneuver will help.”

Cameron shouted from a distance. “What are you doing? Get back out here, you wuss! You hit like a girl!”

“Hey!” Brooklyn shouted in protest. “There’s nothing wrong with hitting like a girl!”

Granddad cleared his throat again. Jared took that as his cue to leave. He stepped past my glaring grandfather but turned back to me, let his gaze linger as he pulled his bottom lip into his mouth. I kind of melted. Until Granddad stepped into my line of sight again.

“The food was great,” I said, my buoyant tone ringing false even to myself. “Did I mention that yet?”

Thankfully almost everyone had gone home by that point, but an exact account of tonight’s happenings would still be making the rounds by Sunday’s sermon. No telling what it would be on.

“You need to see to your friend.”

For a split second I wondered whom he was talking about. Then I remembered Tabitha. I swung around. She stood staring at me wide-eyed.

Raising one shoulder in a gesture of innocence, she asked, “So, um, are you seeing Jared?”

Subtle. “No, we’re just friends. Are you okay?”

Relief washed over her visibly. She believed me. Goodness.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I just wonder if maybe I should ask him out.”

For all her bravado, I realized that she hadn’t actually seen anyone in over a year, and now I knew why. Despite everything, I felt sorry for her.

“Yes, Tabitha,” I said, trying to break it to her gently, “we’re seeing each other. I would’ve thought it obvious.” Well, not too gently.

She crinkled her nose and gave me a measuring once-over. “Well, it shouldn’t be hard to lure him away. Considering.”

And I was feeling sorry for her. Wow.

But still, what I’d seen before was more than a little disturbing. I tried to remember that as she bounced away. I followed her out the door and sat back down beside my new old best friends. We’d done it. Together we’d done it.

“I have to ask you,” Brooke said, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Can you still do … you know. Am I remembering correctly? All the things you used to do? All the times I forced you to practice? Is that still a go?”

I didn’t want to tell her I was just wondering the same thing. “Oh, my God,” I said instead, exaggerating my annoyance. “Practice, practice, practice. That was your mantra twenty-four/seven.”

She got defensive. I tried not to laugh. “Well, practice makes perfect. Where would you be without me?”

“Where would any of us be without you?”

A satisfied smirk lit her face, but quickly disappeared. Her gaze slid past me in thought. “It’s crazy,” she said. “We’ve lived two lives. How many people can say that?”

“Not many.”

She bounced back then elbowed me. “Thank God, right?”

I laughed. “Definitely, thank God.”

Another car pulled up then—latecomers to the party of the century, literally—and Ashlee and Sydnee Southern got out, carrying more food.

Ashlee looked at Glitch shyly as she passed. Apparently they hadn’t hooked up in this reality.

“Hi, Casey,” she said, but Casey the Glitch was deep in thought and missed the whole thing. He tended to do things like that, and it would take the matchmaking talents of Brooke and me to get this ball rolling.

“I just have one question,” he said, his brows drawn in meditation.

“Just one?” I still had a thousand. A million. A hundred million.

He nodded. “Yeah, just one for now.” He narrowed his eyes on me and asked, “Why Glitch?”

BEAST

The next day, I found myself standing on a doorstep I never thought I would, which belonged to a friend I never thought I’d have. Tabitha opened the door. Her eyes widened in surprise; then she turned smug and derisive. Nice to see she was up to form and we hadn’t been that great of friends after all. Clearly she was over me.

“Can I talk to you?” I asked.

She flipped her hair over a shoulder. “What about?”

“Please, Tabitha.”

“Fine, whatever. Just get in here before someone sees you on my doorstep.”

That was a quick turnaround. We went from being besties to mortal enemies in the blink of an eye. Worked for me. I’d honed my speech after the last three encounters. “Look, I’m a prophet. I can see things, okay? I can see into the future and the past, and I’m sorry, Tabitha, but when you brushed up against me once—” I bit down, hating to say what I had to say. “—I saw what happened to you last year. At that party.”

“What are you talking about?” Then realization dawned on her pretty face. She stilled. “You need to leave.”

“I will. But I just wanted you to know that no matter what you think, it wasn’t your fault.”