Page 40 of Possess Me! (I Want You To)

There were things I didn’t want him to know.

He wouldn’t help me if he did.

“No.”

“Yes! I need to know stuff, Prudence. If you’re going to be a permanent roommate in my body I deserve to know what I’m getting into.”

I’d already told him this was temporary.

What part of the fact I wanted to die, did he not get?

Though…the idea of being permanently attached to the pink-haired weirdo wasn’t entirely unappealing.

“What if I want you to do something for me in exchange? It seems to me you’re asking for an awful lot when you have little to offer.”

“Um, excuse you. I’m offering you an apartment in my head? I think that’s enough, don’t you?”

I guess he had a point.

“Fine.”

“Awesome-sauce!” Luca wiggled happily, still smashed in his own mess like the world’s sluttiest worm. I couldn’t help but stare. It was like he didn’t even remember that his ass was on display anymore. Or maybe he did. Maybe he liked the fact that I was looking.

Shameless.

Why did I like that?

This was not “awesome-sauce” at all.

Even though I’d asked him to stay, Prudence wasn’t physically present like I’d hoped he would be. Clearly, despite what Violet had told me, I knew shit about ghosts. It could’ve been a placebo effect but I swore I could feel the tickle of his presence in the back of my mind, watching my every move.

After we’d had sex he’d disappeared—again—go figure. I’d wasted time on my computer for a while, but ultimately given up stalking my little brother’s Facebook in favor of getting ready for bed. I probably should’ve texted Adam back—since I’d left him on read. But every time I thought about talking to anyone in my family my stomach twisted in knots.

I still hadn’t called Mom back since my accident the other day.

And, because I was the worst son in the history of the world, I’d been “forgetting” to charge my phone so I wouldn’t have to deal with her phone calls.

The moon rose above the city skyline, and the scent of salt water crept through the cracked bathroom window as I brushed my teeth, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

This afternoon had been too good to be true. It really had. Distantly, I wondered if I’d look happier now that I’d gotten laid. Violet had been pushing me to get out of my funk and meet someone for months—and now that I had…well...maybe I wouldn’t look so tragic. Glancing up at the mirror, I was startled to catch the flicker of an electric blue eye staring back from my reflection. The first time I’d seen this back in Elmwood it had made me feel vaguely terrified. Now though? I only felt excited, because I knew what I was looking at.

Prudence’s eye.

I wasn’t stupid.

Some things were obvious, even to me. This whole thing was weird as hell, and should not have been physically possible. Someone else’s eyeball was literally glowing at me from my face. It should’ve freaked me out, but mostly I was just…curious.

Questions itched beneath the surface of my skin. Belatedly, I recognized that I should’ve bargained for more answers from Prudence. Not that he’d probably give me any, let’s be real, I’d had to fight tooth and nail for the first three. The dude was as tight lipped as a sexually promiscuous nun.

Too many questions. Not enough time.

Was Prudence like those little people in Inside Out? With his own teensy-tiny desk in the back of my head, watching out my eyeballs like a bossy-as-fuck lil creep?

I snorted, then sighed. I couldn’t really picture him. Even tiny. It still bugged me that I didn’t know what he looked like, or even what his age was. His eye was the only part of him I’d seen thus far—and oh. Oh. That sudden realization made an excited quiver tremble through my body. Shit. This was his eye. I was literally looking at it—through it? Whatever. Didn’t matter.

Ha!

Maybe I couldn’t see all of him, but I sure as shit could stare his eyeball down. (Yes, I was self-aware enough to know I was acting a bit…insane. But that wasn’t enough to stop me from doing it.)

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