“How?”
“Are you going to make me go through this again?”
“Witch. Got it.” I looked around, making sure no one was glancing our way.
“I cast a spell so people won’t even notice us. We’re in sort of a bubble, shielded from view.”
I nodded and leaned my elbows on the counter. The tears came on before I got a single word out.
“There’s something I haven’t told you. I’m not just having attacks. I’m having visions, too.”
“I know.” She sipped her coffee.
“You know?”
“Yeah. The day we met, in the bathroom, you’d just had one. And then when you fainted, that was another.”
“How come you never mentioned them before?”
“I didn’t think I needed to. You’re seeing glimpses of the people you killed, right?”
Why did all of this seem so normal to her? Shouldn’t she be at least a little surprised?
“Usually, but I’ve been seeing someone I haven’t killed, too.”
She put her coffee down. Now I had her attention. “Go on.”
“At first I didn’t know who he was. He was old, but then I had another vision and he was a little younger. He’s the only person I’ve had more than one vision about, and it didn’t stop there. I saw him again today while I was in class. He was getting married. He…” I choked on the words. My throat was closing up.
“Did you find out who he is?” Nora asked.
I nodded, not sure if I could say his name out loud. A whimper escaped my lips.
“It’s Ethan.” Even though it was Nora who said his name, I burst into tears. My stomach cramped. I felt like someone was squeezing my insides in a vise.
“Don’t fall apart on me.” Nora came around the counter and held me up by my arms. “Let me look into it. I’ll see what I can find out.”
“How? How am I hurting him?” My eyes pleaded with her for answers.
“I need time.”
“He doesn’t have much time left. It was his wedding day. He was in his twenties. He’s seventeen, Nora. That’s only a few years.”
She nodded in understanding. “And you can’t give back the time you take.”
I hadn’t even thought of that. “Do you mean, even if you can stop this, he’ll still die before his wedding day?”
She didn’t answer, but she didn’t need to. Ethan had watched me die of cancer. Wither away to nothing. And now I was going to have to watch the same thing happen to him. Only I was the one doing it to him.
“What do I do?”
“Act normally, and whatever you do, don’t tell Ethan what’s going on.”
Of course I couldn’t tell Ethan, but how was I supposed to act normally? I’d gotten a second chance at life. Sure, it wasn’t at all what I would’ve wanted, but I was here. Ethan wasn’t going to get that. Unless…
“Ethan is the one who figured out how to bring me back,” I said. “He won’t tell me what he did, but he knows how to bring someone back from the dead. If I can somehow get him to tell me what he did, then I can save him, too.”
Nora shook her head. “Think about this, Sam. We haven’t gotten a hold on your situation. Do you really want to risk Ethan coming back the way you are now? Or worse?”
What could be worse than being a killer? And it was Ethan. What choice did I have?
“I won’t let him die. Even this…” I gestured to myself, “is better than being six feet under.”
“Give me a few days before you talk to Ethan. You said he was in his twenties in the vision. We still have some time to figure this out.”
“Why do you care if I talk to him? He could help.” I was getting louder and a few people around us were glancing in our direction, squinting like they were trying to see something that wasn’t really there.
Nora noticed it, too. “The spell is wearing off. We can’t talk anymore.” She stood up. “Give me two days. That’s all I need.”
Two days. How much time would Ethan lose in those two days? So far years were flying off his life. “Two days. Unless I have another vision. Then, I’m going straight to Ethan.”
She leaned forward and whispered, “Call me before you talk to him. No matter what.”
The rest of the diner came crashing back to me. The people, the loud discussions. The spell had worn off.
“Waitress.” A guy held his hand up to get my attention.
I nodded at Nora. “Okay.”
She left me to help the customers who had no idea I’d been here this entire time.
Somehow Gloria hadn’t missed me in my absence. Whatever Nora had done had made Gloria think I’d been doing my job since I’d walked in the door. Only when we closed up for the night did she sit down and question why she was so exhausted.
“I didn’t think there were any more people than usual tonight, but I’m wiped out.” She kicked her shoes off and rubbed her feet.
“Yeah, I think everyone was overly demanding tonight. I felt like I was on the go nonstop.” I wiped the counter down to avoid eye contact. More lies. Did I even know how to tell the truth anymore?
“Go collect that boy of yours and get out of here. It’s a school night.” She held her hand out. I untied my apron and gave it to her.
“Goodnight, Gloria.”
“Goodnight, Samantha. Don’t keep that boy up too late, you hear me? I heard about that kiss in the hall today.”
“How did you hear about that?”
“A couple of your school friends were in here. Some girl—what was her name? Beth something or other. She said the whole school is talking about that kiss.” Gloria winked at me. “I remember when Jackson used to kiss me like that.”
I smiled, but it faded quickly when I thought about why I’d kissed Ethan in the hallway. I was losing him.
Ethan came out of the kitchen and looked back and forth between Gloria and me. “Uh oh, looks like I walked into some girl talk.”
“Don’t worry,” Gloria said. “Samantha is a lady. She doesn’t kiss and tell. Your other school friends are a different story, though. They had plenty to say about that kiss.”
Ethan blushed. If it were his guy friends who’d said it, he’d be laughing and high-fiving. But coming from Gloria, it was totally embarrassing.
I took his hand, and we walked out to the car. “Let’s go somewhere where we can look at the stars for a while, okay?”
“You sure? It’s getting late. Don’t you have homework or something?” He opened my door for me.
“I don’t care. I want to be with you.” I sounded needy again, but I did need him. I needed to savor every moment I had with him because I wasn’t sure how many more there would be.
“Okay.” He walked around to his side and got in. “Mountain view or open field?”
“Doesn’t matter. You pick.”
He drove us back to the spot overlooking the river—the spot we’d stopped at the other night. It was perfect. Just big enough for the two of us. We reclined our seats and opened the moon roof.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, looking up at the stars.
“You’re beautiful.” He rolled over onto his side so he was facing me. “But there’s one problem with this arrangement.”
“What’s that?” I mimicked his sideways position.
He patted the center console between us. “I can’t get to you.”
“I have an idea. Follow me.” I got out of the car and climbed onto the hood, leaning my head against the windshield. Ethan did the same. My hair got tangled in the windshield wiper. “Ow. Okay, maybe I didn’t think this through.”
“Here.” Ethan untangled my hair and slipped his arm around my shoulders. “Now you can lie on me instead.”
I stared into his eyes. His beautiful blue eyes. “I love you.”