She wasn't even going to get a definite "Yes, I'll see you" from Sara. That hurt like a paper cut to the lip. Pushing away the feeling, she answered, "Yeah, I'll do that." But she wasn't so sure she would. Seeing Sara might just be too weird to deal with right now.
"Okay, my mom is calling me to help with the dishes," Sara said.
Kylie couldn't hear anyone calling in the background. Not that she wasn't eager to end the call as well. This had been hard. Really hard. "Okay, bye," Kylie said. Have a good life. Nice knowing you.
As soon as Kylie hung up, the phone rang again. This time, she looked at the caller's phone number.
Derek?
He didn't normally call her. "What's up?" she asked with a touch of worry.
A ghostly cold invaded the room as she waited for Derek to speak. A wave of dizziness had Kylie grabbing the computer desk. She had experienced this enough to know that it meant a vision was about to occur.
Or was occurring, she corrected when she saw the casket sitting where the kitchen table had been seconds earlier. The woman in the casket was the ghost. A few people moved around the casket with tears in their eyes.
"Kylie?" Derek's voice came on the line.
"Yeah." She stared at the casket and the people and wondered what she was supposed to learn from this vision. That was why they happened, right? The ghost was trying to tell Kylie something. But what? "I'm scared, Mama." From the back, Kylie saw the little girl reach up and take her mom's hand.
"It's just Grandma." The couple walked up to the casket.
"Kylie, are you there?" Derek's voice sounded upset ... or something. She recalled her concern about Derek calling her. It was so out of character for him.
"Yeah. I'm here. Is everything okay?" Kylie asked, and her concentration on Derek made the vision fade like an old photograph. It lost its color and went into black and white mode as if dating the scene as something that happened a long time ago. Then the vision grew weaker, almost transparent. "Don't go," she said.
"Go where?" Derek asked.
"Not you," she said, but it was too late, only a vague outline remained of the scene. The woman holding the little girl's hand turned around. Kylie got only glimpse of her face, but something about her looked familiar.
Shaking her head, and remembering Derek was still on the phone, she asked, "Is everything okay?"
"No," he said. "It's not okay."
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"You're not here."
She rolled her eyes. "I thought you were serious."
"I am. I've been looking forward to this afternoon all day, thinking you'd be here."
"But I wanted-"
"Please," he said. "I..." His voice lowered. "I haven't ever seen you in a bathing suit."
"And you still wouldn't. I've grown out of my bikini top, remember?"
"Don't remind me," he said with a tease in his voice.
"You're terrible," she reprimanded, but she wasn't all serious. She liked the fact that he was attracted to her.
"Just put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and come down."
Kylie bit down on her lip. She looked at the computer screen, which displayed the list of the Dallas Brightens she hadn't called yet. Della and Miranda had been helping, but so far nothing.
"Please," Derek said.
His plea echoed in his voice and she felt herself giving in. On top of just wanting to make Derek happy, she remembered that she could read everyone's brain patterns and realized seeing everyone all together would be fun. She could compare one brain pattern to another.
"You had a rough day," Derek said. "You deserve some fun in the sun."
I've had a rough few months. "I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Really?" he asked, almost shocked that she'd given in. Didn't he know how much he meant to her?
"Really," she said, and smiled. The smile warmed Kylie inside and out. The memory of how he'd stood up for her even to her dad played in her mind. And that's when she knew that the next time Derek asked her to go out with him, she'd say yes.
It took her fifteen minutes to decide which pair of shorts and T-shirt to wear. She wanted to look good. Extra good. Maybe she and Derek could sneak off together and ... and hopefully he would ask her to go out with him. Heck, maybe she might even ask him.
When she realized how much time had passed, she tore out the door. The shortest route to the swimming hole was through the woods, so she took it. The speed with which she moved shocked even her. Her footeye coordination of where to step and how to miss the trees flabbergasted her.
While speed and agility had never been something she longed for, she found herself feeling a sense of pride at her new talents. If only she knew from what species these new talents stemmed.
She was over halfway to the swimming hole when she felt it. Felt that sensation of being followed. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. And wouldn't you know that's when she recalled Burnett's warning about staying on the paths and out of the woods.
Listening, hoping to hear something other than the sound of feet pounding against the earth, she felt better when the normal sounds of the woods filled her ears. Whatever presence loomed close by wasn't so ominous that birds and insects stopped their songs.
Not that she should stake her life on the wisdom of the birds and insects.
The feeling hit stronger ... someone was here. What should she do? Logic said for her to keep going; turning back would only put her farther away from the help of the others if trouble struck. Her mind went to the girls who'd been killed in town and amazingly, she found herself running even faster.
The clearing in the woods appeared in less than a minute. The bright sun hit her eyes and she could hear the other campers laughing and splashing in the water. When nothing attacked her, when no evil presence appeared wearing a bloody shirt and tried to yank her back into the woods, she wondered if this feeling of being watched wasn't all in her head. Could she be that paranoid?
She stopped in the clearing beside a tree and tried to catch her breath, feeling completely winded from her run. She almost had her breathing back to normal when she saw Derek coming toward her. He wore only a pair of swim trunks. His chest was bare and wet like the other night in the shower. The trunks were regular boy trunks, a little loose on him, even hung a little low on the waist, but they were wet so they molded against his form. Since she knew what he looked like without them, she found herself feeling breathless again.
"Hey," he said, and when his gaze fell to her mouth, she could tell he wanted to kiss her. He looked around and saw that they had an audience.