Swore?
Whore?
“She said she’d like a pour,” Josie said, coming to her rescue.
“Uh, yes. That’s exactly what I said.” Riley reached for the two-liter of soda and dumped some into one of the empty plastic cups next to the pizza. “So, Sesame, what was it like remembering your life before your amnesia?”
Sesame blinked rapidly. Her thick lashes looked as if they were capable of creating an actual breeze. “Well, it was overwhelming for one. I thought I was never going to remember, and then there I was, standing in a store when it all came rushing back.”
Riley’s nose twitched, and the clouds in her head parted. She found herself standing next to a mannequin in an unnatural pose in an upscale department store. There was a man next to her with his back to Spirit World Riley. He had thick, dark hair that curled at the ends and virtually no butt at all.
Sesame was admiring a suede minidress the color of violets. She turned to Mr. No Butt and held it up with a smile. A happy rush of warmth that didn’t belong to Riley spilled through her. She peeked at the price tag and flinched. “Twenty-five hundred dollars? Seriously?”
“It is a very pretty dress,”Spirit Gabe said.
Then suddenly the dress and the man were gone, and the luxury apparel was morphing.
“Oh, crap. It’s happening again.” Riley felt sweat break out on her forehead. Her nose twitched again as the department store melted out of existence and reappeared as the deli section of a grocery store.
Her stomach swooped, and her head started a violent spin.
Sesame was there. But instead of admiring a $2,500 minidress, she was pushing a cart full of nutritious snacks and staring at a pack of organic hot dogs.
Everything was blurry, and somehow gravity was pulling at Riley from the wrong direction.
“Strengthen your filter.”Spirit Gabe sounded like he, too, was on the verge of vomiting.
She tried to shift her attention away from the dizzying spiral of her brain, but it was to no avail.
“Six years of amnesia, and it was the hot dogs that made me remember,”Sesame said with a giggle.
“Dad always loved grilling hot dogs,”Kellen recalled.
“Help me out, spirit guides,”Riley begged through clenched teeth as she fought to stay in the vision. She was sweating from the effort to push out a defense and pull in access to Sesame’s thoughts. But the clouds in her head were whirling together like a tornado. The pinks and blues turned murky again, and she felt herself being spit out of the spirit world.
She came back into her body with a jarring thud. “Oh, God. Dislike,” she groaned. The room was spinning so fast she didn’t even care that Nick, Brian, Kellen, and Sesame were looking at her like she’d lost her mind. Wilhelm didn’t seem to notice because he’d moved on to squats.
“Are you okay?” Sesame asked, looking concerned.
Riley tried to read something, anything from the woman. Sinister intent. Guilt for wrecking her brain. Triumph. But all she felt was genuine concern.
“Totally fine,” she lied.
“I am feeling rather unwell,” Gabe said.
Riley carefully turned her entire body to look at him in case her head was about to detach itself. Her friend lay prone on the floor while Burt licked his face.
“You and me both, buddy,” she said.
“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Nick demanded.
Kellen was looking at them with suspicion.
“It must be flu poisoning,” Riley slurred.
“Did you mean the flu or food poisoning?” Sesame asked.
“Yes. I should go to bed so I can die,” Riley croaked.
