My backside hit the ground with a teeth-jarring impact, and she was right there, standing over me. Her hand locked on to my arm, and in that second, I could see her clearly. Long red hair hung over her shoulder, a pink bikini top showed through her cutoff Señor Frog's T-shirt. A spring-break bunny. One who should have been wearing a tankini or one-piece. Much more flattering to her modest, at best, chest.
Holy crap. This was Spring Break Girl. She was exactly as Will had described her.
Her brown eyes widened, and I wondered if she could see me, too. Not Ally. Me, Alona.
“You didn't disappear,” she accused. “You just found a better deal.”
I weighed my options. Continue lying, or fall back on the bravado that had served me plenty well in the past? She wanted something; that much was clear. And, as I knew all too well, people who wanted something, anything, were vulnerable to machinations that made them believe they might actually get it.
So, easy choice. Time to change it up. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but… well, as much of the truth as would help me.
I straightened up as best I could, ignoring the nervous fluttering of the heart in my borrowed body. Mind over matter. “Yeah, I did,” I said simply, calmly, as if this were no different than someone confronting me in the hall at school on something I'd reportedly said. Public, teary outbursts had been rare, but still something I'd grown to expect, on occasion. The person with the cooler head — me — always won. So that was it — I just had to stay calm.
I pried at her fingers on my arm. “You mind?”
She released me, ending my ability to see her clearly, and sank to the floor next to me, or at least, that's what it looked like. The blurry space she occupied hovered above the floor in the vague shape of a person. “How did you do it?” she asked.
I ignored her. “Who are you?”
“Erin,” she said impatiently. “Did you kill someone?”
My mouth fell open. “What?”
“I thought about that. Like, maybe I could slip in as the other spirit was leaving, but since the only people we might actually be able to hurt would be ghost-talkers who would see us coming…” She heaved a disappointed sigh, as if she were talking about not being able to get concert tickets instead of, you know, murdering someone.
“No, I didn't kill anyone!” I struggled to my feet. “What is wrong with you?” I demanded. So much for staying calm.
She rose with me, and I caught a glimpse of flashing dark eyes. “What's wrong with me? What's wrong with any of us? We were cut off before our prime! Right before things started getting good. I want to feel the wind on my skin again. I want to go swimming in the ocean.”
“Yeah, because there's a lot of that happening in
She ignored me. “I want that first kiss with a new guy again. I want to dance and feel the music pulsing in my chest. I want to be alive and to know it, you know?” She sounded wistful.
I might have felt sorry for her except for the fact that she was obviously crazy with a capital
“I want to be alive… like you,” she added, her voice taking on a darker edge.
“He can't do anything,” she said dismissively. “And even if he could, he's a total straight-edge, believe it or not.” She snorted. “He knew about you and didn't even tell me.” She sounded hurt.
I clamped down on the panic threatening to overtake me, and made another effort to sound reasonable. “Seriously, Will is the only one who can—”
“No, you're going to show me how.” She grasped my arm, tighter than before. It hurt, and I flinched away from her. Which was a mistake. Something inside me shifted, and I felt loose in my own skin — well, my borrowed skin.
Erin inhaled sharply. I could see her again, thanks to her grip on me, so it was not hard to follow her gaze and figure out what she was looking at. She was staring at her hand on my forearm, her eyes almost buggy with surprise.
And with good cause. Her hand was sinking into my — no, Lily's — flesh.
I jerked back from her, but all that did was pull her with me, her hand now embedded in Lily's arm. Just as mine had once been.
