Spirits of Spring (The Haunting Ruby Series Book 4) (4 page)

The parking lot at the Bantam was bare save for two
cars—mine and Giuseppe’s. The thought that everyone else
might be gone and the theater locked up tight hadn’t struck me
until now. Giuseppe was turning the key in the lock when we
pulled up alongside him. We were just in time. Was my luck
starting to change? Was this a sign of better things to come?
I
sure hoped it was. Good luck was something I’d never had but
was more than overdue for.

He nodded his head in acknowledgement and undid the
lock. I climbed out of the car thinking that I would tell Lucas
goodbye now and save the friendship ending conversation for
tomorrow. As always, things didn’t go anywhere near the way I
planned. Nowhere even close.

“It seems that isn’t all you forgot inside,” Giuseppe said
as he pointed his ornate walking stick at my attire.
He ducked
his head until he had a clear view of Lucas who was still sitting
in the car. “And that goes for you as well, young man.”

He was referring to the fact that we were both still
wearing our costumes, of course. I was so anxious to find Zach
that I never gave a second thought to the fact that we were
parading around still dressed as Kira and Erik.
Great.
One
more thing I needed to do before I could go looking for Zach. I
was half a second away from begging Giuseppe to let us off the
hook until later but I held my tongue. The man gave me a check
for one hundred thousand dollars—a check I deposited only
yesterday. I didn’t want him to get the idea that I was
ungrateful or disrespectful and stop payment on it. That money
was going to pay for college and other necessary expenses and I
couldn’t risk losing it.

“Here,” he said handing me the keys. “I’m heading to
the cast party and I assume you will be, too, after you change.
You can return the keys when you get there. Don’t be long and
don’t forget to lock up on your way out.”

Returning to the country club was the furthest thing
from
my
mind but since Lucas
had devoured
every
last
sandwich on the drive, I figured that he would be going back if
only to get more free food.
I trusted Lucas with my biggest
secret—I could trust him with the keys to the Bantam. Nodding
my head firmly, I replied, “You’ll have the keys back in no time
at all—I promise.”

Giuseppe got into his car and drove away but Lucas still
sat firmly in his seat.
Impatiently, I urged him to hurry up.
“Come on Lucas, we don’t have all night, you know!”

“Go on in, Ru. I have to park the car first—I’ll catch up
with you in a minute,” Lucas replied with a smile. “I’m going to
park on the far side so that no one will be able to see my car
from the road.”

Why would it matter if anyone saw his car parked at the
theater? Boys made absolutely no sense, I swear. If it were me,
I would have left my
car right where it was—along
the
sidewalk, poised and ready for my escape. Whatever. There
was
no use arguing with “boy logic” because, well, it was
completely illogical and so were they. I flung open the door to
the theater and headed backstage, all the while still freezing
cold from earlier. Why was I still so cold? There had to be a
reasonable explanation for it. My costume wasn’t the cheap,
flimsy kind you would expect at a small town theater like this
one.
They were definitely high quality and Jonas probably
brought them here from New York City with him. I was used to
layering my clothes—that had to be it.
Once I was back in my
usual tank, tee, and hoodie combo my body temperature was
sure to rise. Any other explanation was simply unthinkable.

Once in Rachel’s dressing room, I wasted no time
getting out of that dress. With any luck, she would be feeling
well enough to play the part herself tonight. Don’t get me
wrong—I had tons of fun on stage tonight. Until the kiss, that
is.
The
kiss.
Oh,
even
if Rachel was
on her
death
bed
tomorrow, I couldn’t play the role of Kira again. If I was lucky
enough to convince Zach that the kiss meant nothing to me, I
couldn’t dare let Lucas kiss me again tomorrow night.
Assuming that Zach was still…. No, I couldn’t think negative
thoughts. Zach was alive, heartbroken, and probably taking his
frustrations out on the punching bag in his basement right now.
Yes, that was exactly where I was going to find him.

I already had my jeans on before I remembered that my
ring was still in the pocket of the dress. It would have made
more sense for me to just stick the thing back on my finger
myself so I didn’t lose it but the hopeless romantic in me didn’t
want to do it that way.
There was
something
about the
symbolism of Zach being the one to place it back where it
belonged that I didn’t want to let go of. It would be a sign of a
fresh start, kind of like we would be erasing my mistakes from
the past few months in a way. What was that phrase he used
over the summer when we found out that the chemistry that
drew us
together was
also what was
tearing
us
apart?
Reinventing our relationship, that was it. Zach putting that ring
back on my
finger would be another way
to reinvent
the
closeness we used to share. The ring would have to stay in my
pocket until he was ready to forgive me.

As
I fished through the pocket of the dress
and
retrieved it, I heard the soft click of a turning door knob behind
me. Another ghost? Allison was gone for good—I was sure of
that. The only other thought that came to mind was Jonas and
he certainly wasn’t an entity I ever wanted to come into contact
with again regardless of form. Quickly, I shoved the ring into
my jeans and swung around to see just what category of the
walking dead he transformed into. It was the first time in my
life that I
wished
it was
only the ghost of a freshly
dead,
psychotic serial killer behind me. Why was it that no matter
how hard I tried to be normal, things always seemed to get
more complicated and messy in my life?

“Lucas!” I yelled, “What are you
doing
in here?” I was
pretty certain I already knew the answer to that question.
Quickly, I threw on my tank top to cover myself. It was oddly
reminiscent of the day Zach walked in on me changing at the
shelter. Except that it wasn’t—it was a twisted version of that
innocence. The situation with Zach was entirely accidental and
he was just as embarrassed as I was. He didn’t walk into the
restroom that day with the intention of catching me in my
underwear but Lucas did.
It was obvious—the smile on his
face, the cocky self-assured reaction he had to my outburst, the
fact that he wasn’t fully clothed himself. He did it on purpose.

All of the times people warned me that Lucas wasn’t
who he seemed to be, I brushed them off by thinking they were
just paranoid.
I thought I was right about him.
I thought I
knew him well. I was wrong. After every dire warning not to
go somewhere or
do
something
with
him, I
remembered
thinking, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Now, I was
about to find out.

“Relax, Ru. We have the theater to ourselves.
Officially
breaking up with Zach can wait until morning.” Lucas put one
hand on the back of my neck and tried to pull me in for a kiss
but I broke his grip and reached for my hoodie.

“No, Lucas! You don’t understand. I don’t want to find
Zach so I can break up with him—I want to find him so that I
can repair the damage I caused to our relationship.” I paused
long enough to take a deep breath before saying, “And so that I
can swear to him that I am removing the source of that damage
from my life altogether.” His presence in the room made me
infinitely uncomfortable. He seemed like a completely different
person, not the boy I thought I knew so well
but a total
stranger.

“Really? You’re gonna pick him over me? After
everything I’ve done for you? Don’t forget—I’m the one who
saved you from Jonas, not Zach,” Lucas said with anger thick in
his voice.

When he took a step toward me, I instinctively took a
step backward. There was something about his actions and the
tone of his voice that made me feel vulnerable. Even though I
was still definitely cold, my body temperature wasn’t the only
reason why I felt the need to put the rest of my clothes on. As I
raised my hoodie up so that I could slide into it quickly, I lost
sight of Lucas
for no more than a millisecond.
But that
millisecond was all he needed.

Before I even knew what was going on, he grabbed both
of my arms and pushed me back until he had me pinned against
the wall. “Lucas! What do you think you’re doing? Let go of me
now!” I shouted. How could I have been so wrong about him?
How could I have fallen for the nice guy routine for so long?
When I walked into the theater five minutes ago, I thought
about all of the bad things that could have possibly happened to
Zach tonight. Now, I had to worry about what might happen to
me as well.

“You can cut the innocent act, Ru. I know you want
me—Zach or no Zach,” he said as he ran one hand down my
side.
His hand came to rest at the top of my jeans and he
wasted no time undoing the button.

I began to thrash violently in an attempt to free myself
but the harder I squirmed, the tighter his grip on my wrists
became. My fingers tingled as they started to grow numb but I
continued to fight him.
He was so much stronger than he
looked.

The words shot out of my mouth forcefully and with an
air of authority but I was crumbling on the inside. How far was
he willing to take this? I had to do everything in my power to
not have to find out. Realizing that my efforts to free my hands
were going nowhere, I decided to try a different tactic. I tried
to swing my knee up and straight into his crotch but he had me
pressed too tightly against the wall that I could barely even lift
my leg. In a breathless whisper, I begged him to stop. “Please,
Lucas, you’re hurting me!”

“If you stop fighting me, I’ll stop hurting you. I’ve
worked too hard for this, Ru,” he said as he slid down my
zipper. “I’m sorry it has to be like this—you were supposed to
choose
me
, not
him
.
You were supposed to want this, too.
There’s too much at stake here for me to stop now.
Time is
running out and I’ve wasted too much of it as it is—I can’t
waste any more.”

His words confused me but I didn’t even care what he
meant by them. I closed my eyes and slumped back against the
wall in defeat. The first of what I was sure would be many tears
trickled down my cheek as I heard the sound of a second zipper
going down.

The door opened and a pale, thin woman greeted me
with another apology. “I’m sorry it took me so long to answer
the door,” she said softly, “Step inside—you must be freezing.”

I didn’t notice just how cold I was until she mentioned it
but as soon as she uttered the word “freezing”, I was suddenly
aware of the fact that I was chilled to the bone.
Anger and
adrenaline must have been keeping me warm but both had
suddenly
melted away.
It was
painfully
obvious
that this
woman was sick—and I mean
really
sick. Dying kind of sick.
She was about the same height as Ruby but even during the
darkest moments of Garnet’s haunting, Ruby would have
outweighed her by at least twenty pounds. The lady was frail
and
every
breath
she
took seemed
to
come
with
great
struggling. Now I felt even worse for being impatient.
And for
hoping
to find the
secrets
Lucas
was
hiding.
His
mother
couldn’t have more than a few months left to live—that was a
secret I wouldn’t want to share with strangers, either.

“I wrecked my car just down the road and your mailbox
was a casualty, too, I’m afraid. I left it on the porch for you in
case it can be fixed. Can I use your phone to call my dad?”

“Certainly,” she replied and pointed to the small bit of
counter space separating the living room from the tiny kitchen.
“Don’t worry about the mailbox—all we get are bills anyway. I
was just about to make myself some tea.
Would you like a
cup?”

“Yes, please.” I didn’t really care for tea but I would
have accepted a glass of anti-freeze as long as it was warm. I
almost offered to make the tea for us but I stopped myself. She
was clearly trying to live what was left of her life as normally as
possible and normal didn’t include having strangers make tea
for you in your own home. I still hated Lucas but I couldn’t
even imagine how it would feel to watch your mom slowly die.
I took a deep breath and dialed my dad, knowing that I was in
for some not-so-pleasant parental moments of my own.

My dad’s first question was “Are you okay?” His second
question? “How fast were you going?” Before he could launch
into a lecture about safe driving, I asked him if we could talk
about it when he
got
here and
he
grumbled
affirmatively.
Lucas’s mom was nice and all but she was still Lucas’s mom and
I didn’t want her to know anything more than the bare
minimum about my accident. The faster I got out of here and
the less I said, the better. My plan was to quickly drink the tea
and make my way back to the Neon where I told my dad it was.
Plans don’t always go as planned, though, but in the end, I was
sure glad this one didn’t.