So Hot For You (5 page)

“Whatever.”

Ragan smiles, smug and happy,
chirping
“Thanks!” and she’s out the door.

After she leaves, I just sit staring at nothing. Jeremy Michaels. He’s really back.

***

I lay curled up in a ball on my bed, still staring at nothing. Ragan is science partners with a zombie! The realization makes me shiver. I crawl under my covers, trying to get warm, but it’s no use. I’m a quivering mess.

What’s going on? First Jeremy took over my locker, now he is taking over my sister. It’s as though he is taking over everything, my whole life. Why?

Finally, after maybe an hour, I don’t know how long really, I get up and start playing my guitar. Sometimes playing helps calm me down. Sometimes.
But not tonight.

Thump, thump.

There’s a knock at my window. I swear
,
I jump like a mile in the air. But it’s not Jeremy come from the grave. It’s Dakota from across the street, so I guess I’ll be okay. Eventually.

“Hey,” he says, coming in as though I invited him.

“Hey,” I tell him back, glancing around my room. It’s kind of embarrassing having him come in like this, my underwear from yesterday in a heap at his feet. That’s something I could do without.

Still, of course I’m glad to see him. In fact, you could call me psyched, but I play it chill. “You almost gave me a heart-attack.”

“Sorry. I’ve been texting you all day, but you never wrote me back.” He straddles the chair at my desk. “And I would’ve used the door, only it’s kind of late. I thought maybe your mom would be mad.”

“She wouldn’t.” My mom is really calm. It takes a lot to make her mad.

“Yeah, well,” Dakota raises his eyebrows, “then I guess I used the window for old-time’s sake.”

Since I can’t think of anything to say to that, I just nod.

Back when we were kids Dakota and I used to crawl through each other’s windows all the time. We never used doors. But that was a long time ago. Before he became super popular. And before I started wearing a bra.

“I heard you playing.” Dakota picks up my guitar. “You’re getting really good.”

I shrug, but that means a lot coming from him. Dakota has been playing a long time. He’s awesome.

He plays something now. It’s soft and pretty and kind of sad. I wonder if he wrote it himself. He writes most our band’s songs—the good ones anyway.

When he’s finished, I sigh, realizing I’d been holding my breath—ogling and admiring, all that fan-girl stuff. “Pretty.” I clear my throat. “Did you write it yourself?”

“Yeah.” He laughs, kind of self-conscious like. “I wrote it for you.”

Whoa. Tingles run through my body, all the down to my toes, and I can feel my face turning red. Ugh! I have to look away. This would be a magical moment, though. I mean
,
my stomach is all fluttery and full of butterflies. He wrote me a song! But the gross thing is, we can hear Ragan through my wall. Her room is right next to mine. She keeps giggling. Obviously she’s talking to Jeremy. It kind of blows the moment.
For me anyway.

Dakota raises his eyebrows, like: “What’s up?”

“That’s Ragan,” I tell him. “She’s on the phone.”

“Is she talking to that new guy, Jeremy?”

Yeah, the demon from hell
, I want to tell him, but I just nod.

“They were together all during lunch,” Dakota says.

I squeeze my eyes shut, not knowing what to say, not even sure I can speak—my throat feels all tight and sweaty. So does my stomach, like I might barf. I’m just so hoping this is all a bad dream.
All of it.
That soon I’ll wake up and laugh.
Crazy dream
.

“He seems pretty cool—I guess. Gina says so anyway.” Dakota gives a little laugh. “But what does she know? She likes me.”

I can’t help smiling. Dakota is the most adorable guy in our whole school. But he’s really modest about it and he’s not just faking. He has no idea what he does to my heart.

We’re silent for a moment, just looking at each other. It’s kind of weird. Finally, Dakota breaks the silence. “When, you were in that coma—I’d go to the hospital every day,” he says.

“I know. My mom told me.”

Dakota sits beside me on my bed. “I’d go there and just watch you…. I was afraid you were going to die.” He stares into my eyes, then down at his hands. “I kept thinking, if she dies—I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Dakota looks up at me. “
Lexi
,” he pauses, “you’re my best friend.”

Hearing him say that, I feel sort of funny. I mean, it’s not like he said, “I love you” or anything. Still, my heart is pounding all wild and doing acrobats.

“You’re my best-friend, too,” I tell him.

“Well … I guess I should go.” Dakota starts to crawl through my window, but then stops and turns back to me, as though he has something important to say, but then he seems to change his mind. Instead he says, “You’re getting really good at the guitar.”

Then he’s gone, out my window and into the night.

That’s when I remember, he said he texted me. I run to my
iPhone
all happy and excited. But when I check, I see I have messages from Jeremy too.
Like a dozen of them.
They all say the same thing:
I’ve come back for you
.

***

I didn’t go to school today. I wanted to, but Mom wouldn’t let me. Instead, I lay on the couch watching
Buffy
reruns, not planning to even move until three. But my plans get heaved out the window at lunch when Ragan comes waltzing through the front door.
With Jeremy.
I jump off the couch so fast
,
I almost break my neck
.

Ragan turns to Jeremy and gives him this
I-told-you-she’s-a-nut
look. But all she says is: “This is my sister,
Lexi
. You met her yesterday, remember?”

Jeremy smiles at me as I glare at him from our stair landing. “Yeah, I remember.”

His transparent-blue eyes glitter up at me. “How are you doing?”

“How are
you
doing?” I want to ask. But I don’t. I know how he’s doing. He’s dead.

So, instead I just raise my eyebrows at him. “I’m doing better than you.”

Jeremy smirks, but Ragan rolls her eyes. “She’s not better. Look at her—she hasn’t combed her hair in a week.”

That isn’t really true. I combed my hair just yesterday, but I don’t bother to point this out to them. Instead, I just stare at Jeremy.

“Yeah, my hair’s probably a mess,” I tell him. “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting a visit from the undead.”

“
Lexi
!” Ragan shrieks, as though I’ve lost my mind. But Jeremy just grins, like what I said is amusing. He doesn’t seem confused by it at all. Ragan sure does though. She looks ready to throw me in the loony bin.

“What’s the
matter
with you?” she hisses.

“Nothing’s the matter with me,” I tell her. “But you should check
his
pulse. He’s Jeremy Michaels—get it? The guy that died.”

She looks at me like I’m foaming at the mouth.
Grrr
!

“The guy from my car accident!” I’m practically yelling, but she’s not listening to a word I say. Or at least she’s not taking my words seriously. Instead, she’s squinting her eyes at me and shaking her
head .

“
Lexi
, I think that accident’s given you permanent brain damage.”

Ugh! I give up, marching upstairs. I do it with as much dignity as I can muster wearing a chocolate-stained bathrobe and
Tweetie
bird slippers. I can feel Jeremy’s eyes follow me up the stair. I want to flip him off.

As soon as I get to my room, he sends me another text.
Grrr
! After a minute of chewing on my lip, I read it, but it doesn’t say what I expected. It says, “You promised.”

A shiver runs through me.

For a long time I chew on my thumbnail, then I chew on my lip, trying to figure out what that means—
you promised
. Finally, I give up and text back, “Promised what?”

He responds almost immediately, “That you would come back to me.”

Another shiver runs through me, through my body, through my soul. What is he talking about? I don’t have a clue, but I don’t want to know. I don’t write him back. Instead, I throw my
iPhone
across the room.

***

Right after Mom gets home from work, she and I go to Ragan’s choir recital, but I do a double take when we enter the gym.
Dakota’s sitting up in the front bleachers.
I wince. I forgot, Gina’s in the choir too. Dakota waves and gestures for me to sit with him, but I don’t. Instead, I turn to Mom. “I don’t feel well,” I rub my sweaty forehead. “I’m going to go back home.”

It’s not a lie; I don’t feel well. But if Gina
wasn’t
here, I’d probably stay. Only, she is here, and I don’t feel up to watching Dakota gaze at her all night.

Dakota follows me outside, though.

“What’s up with you?” he asks. “Where are you going?”

“Home,” I tell him, or more like snap at him.

But he doesn’t get it. “I’ll walk with you,” he says.

“No, don’t. I don’t want you to.” I keep walking. “Stay and listen to your girlfriend.”

“Why are you acting like this?” he calls after me, but I just keep walking.

I leave the building by myself. I head for home feeling dizzy and sick. The spots are back. They’re zooming all over the place.

“
Lexi
.” I hear my name, but it sounds far off, distant. I turn to look. It’s Dakota. He’s down the street, about half a block.

I try to yell to him, tell him I’m falling, but I can’t. Nothing comes out of my mouth. I wanted to tell him to catch me. But somehow he’s already doing it. He’s here.
Beside me.
I can feel his arms cradle me as I fall.

***

When I wake, I’m sitting on the curb.
Dakota’s beside me, his eyes full of concern.
“You’re awake.” He sounds so astonished it makes me smile. “I was afraid you went into another coma.”

“No.” I swallow, trying to piece things together. “I just fainted.”

He looks at me closely. “Are you okay now?”

I glance around, feeling sort of dazed. “Yeah. I think so.”

Dakota helps me home.

“Isn’t Gina going to be mad?” I glance at Dakota sideways, knowing she will be. Dakota’s leaving the recital to walk me home will make her explode.

Dakota raises his eyebrows. “She already is. But she’ll get over it.” He shoves his hands in his pockets. “I know you two don’t get along, but I wish you could. You both mean a lot to me.”

“I know—I’m your best-friend.”

“Yeah.”

He seems kind of hurt. Like I was mocking him. And I don’t know, I guess I was. Now I feel bad.

“Thanks for helping me home.”

He sits at my desk, playing my Game-boy as I drift off to sleep, soothing me with his gentle promise, “I’m going to guard you until your mom gets home.”

***

When I wake, there is a dark, shadowed figure sitting in the chair beside my bed. Instinctively, I know it isn’t Dakota.

I rub my eyes, trying to dissipate the grogginess of sleep. “Dakota?”

The figure shakes his head. “Your mother sent him home.”

My heart gives a gigantic thump of pain. “Jeremy?”

Even in the dark I can see him wet his lips. “I told you I would come for you.”

His words fall flat, dead in my ears. Yes, he told me that. He told me he would come. I don’t remember when he said it, but I remember the words. They haunt me. “
If you leave me I’ll come for you
.”

And here he is.

He’s come for me.

“You said you were coming here only to say good-bye.” Jeremy sounds hurt, as though I betrayed him. “You promised if I let you go, you would come back to me.”

Hearing him say this, I remember. I was with him, while I was in my coma. We were together. We held hands.

“But … I don’t want to go back.”

He shakes his head. “You don’t have a choice.”

“Please. Jeremy, I want to stay.”

Jeremy takes my hand. It’s warm. “
Lexi
,” he says. “You’re dead.”

***

I’m cold.
So cold.
I’m freezing!

With confusing effort, I open my eyes, only to be more confused.

I’m in my bathtub, full of ice.