Page 131 of Chasing Your Ghost

Asher had asked if he could watch her dance, and she’d surprised herself by saying yes. Though she usually hated having her lessons observed, she’d found she didn’t mind the prospect of him watching. And with the way his eyes had run over her leotard-clad body before she’d begun the lesson, she was glad she hadn’t denied him.

Of course, once Edith found out that Riley’s boyfriend would be attending her last private lesson as a spectator, she’d insisted that she and Olivia be allowed to come as well. Riley’s half-sister had been surprisingly happy to come, her anger toward Riley a thing of the past. Or so Riley hoped. It was hard to know where she stood with the teenager, but for now, they were on good terms, and Riley was glad for it.

Edith watched Riley with an intensity that was almost uncomfortable, her awe plain on her face even though Riley had seen Olivia dance, and the girl was more talented than she could ever be. If anything, she had expected her mom to be a bit disillusioned by her performance.

“Your best work,” Miss Markova said when Riley came to a stop and the music had faded away. “You danced with your whole heart today.”

Riley’s eyes moved to Asher without her permission, and she blushed, though she doubted anyone could tell. Her face was already flushed from the exercise.

“That was incredible,” Riley’s mother agreed. “The videos your dad sent me didn’t hold a candle to this.”

“Thanks,” Riley replied, not squirming under the compliment as she would have two weeks earlier. She’d come to realize that Edith only tried so hard because she loved Riley, and though it could be uncomfortable and smothering at times, it was also strangely nice.

“You were great,” Asher told Riley once she was stretching at the barre and Edith and Olivia were chatting to Miss Markova. He shook his head, looking impressed. “I don’t know how you and Olivia do it.”

Riley laughed, her chest warming with the compliment. “Lots and lots of practice.”

He nodded. “Thanks for letting me come. I’m glad I got to see you dance in person.”

Her brows drew together. “What do you mean in person? How else would you see me dance?”

He smiled the smile of someone who’d been up to no good. “I may or may not have asked your mom to send me some of those videos she was talking about, and I may or may not have watched them all.”

“I can’t believe you,” Riley said, swatting at his arm. All of his stitches had been removed, but she was careful not to hit one of the angry red lines carved into his skin.

Asher could have hidden the marks on his arms and legs behind long sleeves and long pants if he’d really wanted to, but Riley was glad he didn’t feel the need to cover them up as though they were a source of shame.

“You were such a cute kid, by the way, but it was weird seeing you with blonde hair. Maybe it’s because I met you when it was dyed, but I think I prefer it this way.”

Riley understood what he meant because, for a long time, she’d only ever seen him in his white shirt. The first time she’d seen him wearing something else, it had shocked her. It had taken her a bit of time to get used to seeing him in other colors, but her favorite so far was the jade green shirt he was wearing right then. It matched his eyes.

“And here I was thinking of changing it back to its natural color,” she admitted, lowering her right leg and lifting her left one to stretch it on the barre.

“Why? I thought you loved it?”

She lifted her shoulders and dropped them again. “Well, besides the fact that my roots are showing, the lavender makes me stand out a lot. I think I’d prefer to blend in a bit more on campus.” The blonde roots could be fixed. The standing out part, however, not so much.

She had always tried her best to fade into the background in school, not that it did much good, and the thought of her loud hair bringing her peers’ attention to her didn’t appeal to Riley. These were people she’d have classes with every week. They weren’t random strangers she’d never see again. She didn’t want them focusing on her and deeming her a freak if they noticed something strange. Like that she sometimes looked at people who weren’t there, for instance.

She’d had no trouble telling her bullies in high school to go to hell, but she really didn’t want to have to revert to being that cold, hard-shelled, blank-faced Veronica Mars-like version of herself.

She wanted not to have to be on constant alert for snickers and hissed insults aimed in her direction. She wanted to be able to set up social media accounts and not be forced to take them down within days because people flooded them with abusive comments. She wanted to not be an outcast.

“You realize that being my girlfriend will bring more attention to you than your hair will, right?” Asher pointed out. “My missing person poster was hung up all around the area, and I’m sure most of them have seen the news about me going missing and about me being found. Not to mention they’ll see my scars. They’re going to look at me, which means they’ll probably look at you too.”

“Oh.” Riley hadn’t thought of that. She’d known that reporters had been hounding him for an interview—one he refused to give—but she hadn’t thought of the implications it would have when Asher went back to college. “Right.”

His eyes searched her face. “Does that bother you?”

“It bothers me that people are going to be looking at you like you’re a spectacle and not a human being,” she said, hating that people got some kind of twisted kick out of other people’s pain and trauma.

Reporters feeding off Asher’s story like news-hungry vampires only added to his stress, making things worse for both him and his family.

They hadn’t heard anything about Brett from the police, nor had Brett made any more moves or tried to contact Ella. He’d disappeared, but Riley couldn’t help but wonder for how long, and with him still out there, none of them felt safe.

“And I won’t lie and say I won’t mind the attention,” she continued. “But I can handle it.”

She’d dealt with far worse for years. Attention she could handle. It was the consequences that could come from that attention that scared her, but she’d become far more careful over the years. As long as she didn’t talk to people no one else could see in public settings, which she wasn’t planning on doing, she didn’t think she’d have to worry.

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