Echoes Between Us - McGarry, Katie Page 0,9

causes all of us to turn our heads. I strain to see into the darkness, eager to catch a sight of the shadow figures people have talked about online. Leo moves closer to a window then gives me a wide grin. “Want to go in with me?”

I’d love to, but the annoying giggles from below keep me rooted in place. I shake my head, and Leo disappears through the floor-to-ceiling window and into the darkness.

To be honest, Leo could have rocked smart, cool-boy overachiever. A part of me believes that’s who he’ll become in college, and that’s why he’ll forget me. With Leo now a safe distance away, I finally release the air I had been holding. Nazareth gives me a concerned glance as he takes the spot beside me Leo abandoned.

“How are you?” he asks in that quiet way of his.

Only my closest friends are aware that pain is a part of my life. Sort of like how my arms and legs are attached to my body. But today is a good day and the pain level is minimal. More like a shadow of a memory of what it could become. “I’m migraine free.”

“That’s not what I’m asking.” Nazareth swings his gaze from me to where Leo disappeared, and my chest aches.

I’m in love with Leo, and Leo doesn’t know. Nazareth does. Jesse, too. Some days I wonder if I’m that good at hiding my emotions from Leo. Other days I wonder if Leo is blind. “I don’t want him to go.”

“Do you want him to stay?”

I shake my head. I’d never clip anyone’s wings. Especially Leo’s.

Nazareth pats my knee, and with that one touch, I lean into him and place my head on his shoulder. Nazareth is like my security blanket I used to drag around with me when I was a child. I’m not into him, and he’s not into me so we’re safe and easy with each other.

A ladybug walks along an overgrown bush close to us and it’s clear she’s headed for a spider’s web. Nazareth, of course, reaches over and lets the ladybug walk onto his finger before gently depositing her onto the rock wall beside him. I smile; there’s such a gentleness to Nazareth I’m not sure exists in anyone else. He literally lives the phrase do no harm.

“What about nature’s balance?” I ask. “Didn’t you just starve the spider?”

“The spider already has a meal and one waiting. She doesn’t need three.”

Because Nazareth is not only the kind of guy who cares to know what markings make a spider a male or female, but he also cares enough about a ladybug to save the day. Sure enough, the spider is weaving a web around a struggling fly and there’s another fly caught in her sticky nest waiting for its turn to be spun.

Ice-pick pain spikes through my brain, and I shut my eyes and wince.

“V?” concern oozes from Nazareth’s quiet tone.

Though the pain of that spike still reverberates through my skull, I force myself to lift my head and smile at my friend. “What?”

“You flinched.”

“I yawned.” My vision doubles and it takes a moment before the world refocuses. This is why I refuse to drive. I tell Dad it’s because we don’t need the additional cost of insurance, especially when living in the center of a small town, I can easily bum a ride or walk. But it’s really because headaches like this can hit fast, and I don’t want to ever cause an accident.

Nazareth broadcasts his doubt rather loudly through his tense jaw, but he does what I need and lets it go.

“I have an idea for our senior thesis,” I say, ignoring the baby tremors of aches rolling through my brain. “It’s a crazy idea, but I love it.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” Because crazy is who I am.

“I’m thinking we center our project on ghosts. Urban legends. Kentucky ones to be specific. It’ll meet all the requirements we need to hit.” I stick out a finger as I tick off each of the “rules” of the game our teachers have created. “We’ll have to do extensive research, so we’ll research the legends. We have to visit areas that deal with our project, so we’ll visit the haunted spots. We have to conduct interviews, so we’ll—”

“V,” Nazareth interrupts me, which he rarely does. I fall silent, and it’s weird that he won’t meet my eyes.

“What?”

Nazareth rests his arms on his legs then joins his fingers together. For each beat of time