You Had Me at Halo by Amanda Ashby Read Free Book Online Page A

Restless , her favorite soap opera, where everyone was convinced Joanne and Carlos were going to get together, but Holly had been adamant Lee would win through in the end. And she had been right.
    Being right was such a nice feeling and she was still basking in it as she sat down at the nearby bus stop and searched Vince’s pockets to find a cell phone to call Gemma.
    There was no answer and Holly cursed. The sooner she got Tina’s address, the sooner she could confront the girl and put a stop to the suicide rumors. Then tomorrow she could concentrate on clearing the air with Todd. Well, it wasn’t her typical to-do list, but then it wasn’t a typical day.
    “In fact, it’s probably been the weirdest day of my life,” she muttered to herself as she drummed her fingers on the magazine.
    “I’ll say,” a disembodied voice replied.
    “What? Who said that?” Holly jumped back to her feet again and spun around, only to see nothing except an empty street and a candy wrapper blowing in the breeze. Well, that was strange. And why did she suddenly feel so ...weird ?
    “What’s going on?” the same voice demanded.
    “That’s what I’d like to know.” Holly tried to stay calm. After all, she was dead. Technically nothing bad could happen to her. Could it?
    “Ideas would be welcome,” the voice said with a hint of impatience.
    “Who are you?” Holly croaked as she clutched at her throat. It almost sounded like the words were coming from inside her. But that was just impossible.
    “I’m Vince, who are you? And more importantly, what the hell are you doing in my body?”
    “What do you mean you’re Vince? Vince is dead,” Holly said into the thin air, feeling more than just a little bit silly (and considering the past two weeks, that was really saying something).
    “I’m dead?” the voice sounded surprised. “Are you sure? Because I don’t feel dead. Perhaps I’m just having some sort of weird dream? I get them sometimes.”
    “No, you’re definitely dead.”
    “Oh, so this is heaven? Because I’ve got to say, I expected more. This place looks like the bus stop outside Baker Colwell.”
    “Of course it’s not heaven,” Holly scoffed. For a start there were no dead people around. Sort of a give away. Though she still wasn’t quite sure why she was having a conversation with Vince’s body.
    “So it’s hell then?” the voice continued to probe. Was Vince’s body always this annoying in a conversation?
    “No,” she explained. “It looks like the bus stop outside Baker Colwell because it is the bus stop outside Baker Colwell.”
    “Right. So how did I get from the funeral to here?”
    Wait . This was getting ridiculous. Surely she wasn’t really having this conversation. Perhaps if she closed her eyes, the voice would go away?
    The problem was, not only did the voice make her feel weird, but something strange was happening to her leg as well. It felt... twitchy.
    An uneasy feeling lodged itself in her stomach, which she tried to ignore. Surely this was just a side effect from Dr. Hill’s plan and no doubt if she’d read the rulebook she would know all about strange voices and twitchy feelings in her leg.
    She gave her thigh a wriggle.
    “Hey,” the voice said. “How did you do that?”
    Holly started to sing the latest Coldplay song in her head. It had only come out a week before she died so she didn’t know all the words but at least it would stop this voice from talking.
    Then her other leg wriggled. All by itself.
    Holly stopped singing and clutched at her thigh. And now spasms? This was so not her day. “What’s going on?” she croaked as she found herself sitting back down on the bench.
    “That’s what I want to know,” the voice said. “One minute I was at Holly’s funeral and the next minute I’m at the bus stop outside Baker Colwell. It doesn’t make sense. And why can I taste lipstick on my mouth?”
    Holly felt her hand reach up to her lips and gulped as a thought too