Tonya Hurley_Ghostgirl_02 by Homecoming Read Free Book Online

off the phone the other night,” she went on. Before she went any further, she hit the brakes and just flat-out admitted, “I thought, maybe, you just didn’t want to talk to me.”
    “Why would you think that?” Damen asked.
    But the look of distress on Scarlet’s face was so pronounced now that he knew the answer to that specific question was not important.
    “I didn’t call because I was in the library cramming for a test,” he explained. “And” — he paused — “I was coming home anyway.”
    “Coming home?” she asked.
    “For Homecoming, to surprise you,” Damen said as he hugged her again. “I know it’s not your thing, but I missed you so much.”
    No kidding, Scarlet thought to herself.
    “I went straight to your house and your mom told me what was going on,” Damen explained, bug-eyed. “I couldn’t believe it.”
    He had every right to be stunned, everybody was, but Scarlet was trying to decipher from the tone of his voice whether Damen was expressing simple astonishment, or feeling something more, something deeper, like, oh, sympathy, regret, or … rekindled love. This was so not like her that she made a conscious effort to get out of her head and back into the conversation.
    “Mom’s a wreck,” she said. “She’s in such denial she won’t even come here until the news is better.”
    “Yeah,” Damen laughed nervously. “She had all Petula’s shoes out and she was polishing them when I got there.”
    “Last night she was lining up all her fake eyelashes and press-on nails in size order,” Scarlet confided. “She’s lost it and I’m not far behind, to be honest.”
    This offhand confession to Damen was the first time Scarlet had spoken out loud about her feelings for Petula’s plight, and the fact that the words had come out of her mouth frightened her. He held her close again, brushed the hair from her puffy eyes, and after a minute, they both walked into the hospital room. Damen pulled the blue curtain back and looked Petula over — studied her was more like it. Scarlet watched his every move for telltale signs of revived passion. She couldn’t help herself.
    This was the first time he’d seen her in ages. Since the Fall Ball last year, when she’d flipped out. He’d been sort of preparing himself to see her at Homecoming. But seeing her like this was sad. If Petula was anything she was proud, and though she probably wouldn’t mind being on display, she would totally chafe at being so available.
    “What happened?” Damen asked.
    “The doctors say she got an infection from a pedicure,” Scarlet explained. “The one she wouldn’t have gotten if she wasn’t going on a date with Josh … the date she wouldn’t be going on if I hadn’t taken her boyfriend.”
    “You’re not really blaming yourself for this, are you?” Damen asked her gently.
    That was nice of him to say, but how could she not, Scarlet thought?
    Petula was at death’s door and there were probably a million medical reasons why, but for Scarlet, the only relevant cause was her own selfishness. The doctors wouldn’t find it in the Merck Manual, but she was the reason.
    Damen walked over, picked up Petula’s limp hand, and held it in his. It hurt Scarlet to see him standing there so concerned. He fixed the blue blanket and looked at all the machines. He then brushed Petula’s hair out of her face, gently, just as he had hers. Scarlet wanted to get up and leave the room, but she didn’t. Petula and Damen had a history together and nothing was going to change that. If he didn’t care about her, what would that say about him as a person, Scarlet thought?
    “She’s gonna be okay,” Damen reassured Scarlet, his voice wavering.
    “I don’t know,” Scarlet sighed.
    “What are the doctors saying? Are they good doctors?” Damen asked, fighting back tears.
    “There’s nothing more that can be done for her,” Scarlet said, also fighting back tears — not only for Petula, but for herself as