“See you at lunch,” he called after me.
I rushed to Alex’s door and knocked. “Alex, please let me in. I need to talk to you.”
For a moment there was only silence, but then I heard footsteps coming toward the door. “Go away, Jodi. I have nothing to say to you.”
“Well, I have something to say to you. Please, Alex.” My voice quivered as I struggled to hold back tears. Emotions welled up inside me. Emotions I hadn’t realized I had. Arianna’s words echoed in my brain. Honey, that boy is in love with you. I pressed my palms against the door and let the tears spill from my eyes. “Alex…I love you.”
Time seemed to freeze as I waited for some sort of reaction, but all I got was silence. My throat constricted. If Alex didn’t listen to me after I’d said the L-word, there was nothing I could do to save our relationship. I was about to walk away when the lock clicked, and the door swung open. Alex stared at my tear-streaked face.
“I’m sorry if I said that too soon. If it freaked you out. I just had to tell you.”
His arms were around me before I could blink. He pulled me close and kissed me. He didn’t have to say it. I knew Arianna was right. He loved me. Alex pulled away slightly. “Do you want to come in?”
I nodded, and he stepped back so I could follow him into the room. Before I made it through the doorway, I saw Chase still standing in the hall. Staring at me. He’d seen and heard everything. My blood bubbled under my skin, but I looked away and walked into Alex’s room, shutting the door behind me.
Alex and I hung out until lunch. I let myself forget about everything else and focused on him. It was exactly like it was before Chase had gotten here. The only problem was that once we left this room, Chase would be there, and what would happen the next time he touched me?
I tried not to think about it while we walked to the dining room. Arianna smiled at me when she saw Alex holding my hand. I smiled back at her and mouthed the words, “Thank you.” She had helped me realize how I felt about Alex. I was still confused about Chase and why he affected me the way he did, but at least I had a handle on Alex.
We took our seats and dug right into the meatball subs Arianna had made us. I even had a side of mac and cheese with Alex. Chase still hadn’t shown up for lunch, but I pretended not to notice. Finally, I heard footsteps and looked up, expecting to see Chase, but instead I saw the corpse. The one I’d left in my bathroom with instructions not to leave unless I told him to.
Leticia screamed and everyone else pushed their chairs back away from the table, ready to spring into action if the zombie tried to attack us.
“That’s the guy from the cemetery,” Leticia said. “The one Jodi raised and brought to her room.”
“I didn’t bring him to my room,” I said. “At least not on purpose.”
Tony stared at me. “What’s he doing back here?”
“I don’t know.” It wasn’t a complete lie. I didn’t know why the zombie had left my bathroom. I hadn’t called him.
Chase walked into the room. “What did I miss?” His gaze fell on the zombie, and he stopped. “Do you guys always invite the dead to eat with you? ‘Cause it’s a little gross, don’t you think?”
I shook my head. “No one invited him. He just showed up.”
Alex stared at me. He knew I was hiding something.
Tony walked over to the zombie but kept a safe distance. His face fell completely still and focused. He was calling on the power in his blood to control the corpse. “Who brought you here?”
The zombie looked past Tony at me. “Her.”
All eyes were on me. No way could I hide this anymore. “Okay, okay.” I put my hands up in defense. “I sort of summoned him this morning…in a dream.”
A chorus of “What?” rang through the room.
“I didn’t know I’d done it. I had this dream and—”
“About what?” Randy asked.
“I can’t remember.” I played dumb. I couldn’t admit I’d been dreaming about Chase. “I only remember I was dreaming, and then someone was knocking on my door. I forgot to set my alarm, and when I saw what time it was, I figured it was Alex knocking, trying to wake me up.” I paused, but everyone was silent, waiting for me to continue. “It wasn’t Alex. It was him.” I turned toward the corpse. “I didn’t know I’d summoned him.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Alex asked. “I came to get you when you were late for breakfast. Why didn’t you tell me then? And what did you do with the guy? He wasn’t in your room when I got there.”
“I told him to hide in the bathroom.” My voice was barely a whisper.
Alex threw his head back and ran his fingers through his hair.
“I was freaked out. You have to understand that. I’m raising souls in my sleep now. Do you know how dangerous that can be for us?”
“Exactly, Jodi,” Alex said. “That’s why you should have told me.”
“Lay off,” Chase said. “She panicked. Big deal.”
I looked at Chase, thankful for his support. I felt like I was up against a firing squad, so it was nice to have one person on my side.
Alex was seething at this point. He slammed his hand down, knocking over his meatball sub. “Don’t try to play the hero here. You have no idea what you’re talking about or what Jodi has been going through.”
“Alex, I think Chase was only trying to help everyone calm down.” Tony put a hand on Chase’s shoulder.
I lightly touched Alex’s arm. “I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
I shrugged. “I sort of forgot he was in my bathroom. I haven’t been to my room all day, and so much has happened since this morning. It slipped my mind, but honestly, the second I saw him again, I was going to come to you for help.”
Alex closed his eyes, processing everything. I wasn’t sure if he believed me or not. All I knew was he was mad.
The room fell silent. I was supposed to be the leader. The one to make the decisions and keep us safe. But instead I was clueless about how to do my job, and I was putting us all in danger. I wasn’t cut out for this, and somehow I had a feeling Hades knew that when he’d agreed to my deal.
Alex sighed. “Release his soul, and Tony and I will go bury him.”
“I’ll help you.” I stood up. I needed to get out of this room. Away from all the judgmental stares.
Alex put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me. “No. We got it. You eat.” There was a small hint of warmth in his voice. Yes, he was angry, but that didn’t change the fact that he cared about me.
I released the soul and watched Tony and Alex carry the body out of the room. The rest of the day was pretty much a blur. Tony lectured about Ophi history. Arianna made something for dinner. It wasn’t my turn to help with the dishes, so I headed to my room to lie down. I wasn’t up for interacting with everyone. Not that anyone really wanted to interact with me. They weren’t being mean or anything, but they weren’t going out of their way to talk to me either.
I flopped facedown on my bed and tried to let the awfulness of the day melt away. It might have helped a little if someone hadn’t knocked on my door.
I sighed and got up to answer it. Chase was standing in the hall with a big bowl of popcorn and a movie in his hands. Oh, this wasn’t going to be good.
“Um, what’s up?” I asked, fully aware of how dumb that sounded.
“Thought you could use a good horror movie to forget your troubles.” He shook the DVD, and I saw it was a zombie flick. How appropriate.
“You’re kidding, right? My life is pretty much a horror movie. How would this make me forget about it?” I couldn’t help it. I laughed. Chase smiled, and I realized that was his exact reason for choosing the horror movie. The sheer irony of it.