Page 31 of Chasing Your Ghost

9

“Oh my god,” Riley shrieked, clutching her towel tighter and clamping a hand over her stampeding heart.

Asher’s eyes widened as he took in the state she was in, and he swore under his breath. But he was respectful enough—or wise enough—to spin around so that he was no longer looking at her damp and barely-covered body.

“What the hell are you doing in here?”

“I came to find you. I didn’t expect to find you like…this.” He waved his hand around as though wildly gesticulating somehow represented her being pretty much naked.

“Just give me a second,” she grumbled, yanking open one of her suitcases and grabbing a random pair of shorts and the first shirt she saw. “Keep your back turned,” she told him before opening the suitcase that held, among other things, her underwear.

The order was unnecessary, given he had his hands held over his eyes like they were about to play a round of hide-and-seek, but Riley wasn’t taking the chance of him turning around and seeing her rifling through her bras and underwear. Her cheeks heated at the thought alone. They were just lucky he’d arrived when he had and not a minute or two later when Riley would have been in the middle of changing.

“I’ll be back in a second,” she said before locking herself back in the bathroom.

Riley changed as quickly as she could. Though she was flustered and could have used a minute to calm her still-racing pulse, she didn’t dare spend any longer in there. Asher had already disappeared on her once, and she couldn’t have him doing it again while she was hiding in the bathroom.

Asher had lowered his hands from his eyes, but he still had his back to her. He didn’t so much as peek over his shoulder when he heard the bathroom door open. Despite the situation, the corners of Riley’s lips tipped up.

“You can turn around now,” she said, using her towel to squeeze the excess water from her hair.

Ever so slowly, Asher turned to face her. He met her gaze for less than a second before his cheeks tinged with pink and he looked down at his shoes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have intruded.”

She waved him off, her own cheeks heating. “Don’t worry about it. Now, how about you tell me what happened that made you vanish like that on Sunday?”

Asher grimaced and licked his lips. “I’m not sure,” he said after a beat of silence. “It’s happened before, but wherever it is I go, I can’t see or hear anything. There’s just pain.”

“Pain?”

He nodded. “My chest, my arms, my legs.”

Riley could only stare at him. “I don’t understand,” she finally managed with a shake of her head. “You’re a ghost, Asher. You shouldn’t feel pain.”

Frustration darkened his eyes. “Well, I don’t know what to tell you. You’re the ghost expert, not me.”

“I’ve never dealt with anything like this,” Riley snapped back. “None of the ghosts I’ve met before just vanish like that or feel pain.”

He sighed and ran his hands over his face. “I’m sorry. I just don’t understand what’s happening to me.”

Riley immediately felt terrible for losing her temper with him. She knew better than to let a ghost’s frustration get to her. He had a right to be angry. She would be, too, if she were in his shoes.

“It’s okay. I can’t even begin to imagine what you’ve been going through.” She moved to sit on her bed. “I’d like to help you, but I have to be honest. I’m not sure I know how to.”

“What if…” he started, his next words getting stuck in his throat as he paced in front of her. “What if the place I keep getting dragged to is hell?”

Riley’s eyes widened to epic proportions as she stared at the young man in front of her. “Unless you’ve done some seriously shady stuff, I highly doubt that’s what’s going on.”

“I’ve lied,” he said. “To my parents and my friends. I’ve kept things from the people I care about.”

“Asher,” Riley said with a shake of her head. “Everyone has lied. If there is a hell, you wouldn’t get sent there because of that.”

“I cheated on a trig test in high school,” he added, closing his eyes in shame. “I even stole a shirt from a store when I was fifteen.”

“And did you feel guilty about it afterward?”

“Of course.”

“Okay, so you were a typical teenager,” she replied with a shrug. “Those things don’t make you a bad person. They were mistakes.”

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