I felt sick to my stomach as I turned the corner and found Drea, Marlow, Indigo, and even Skye waiting outside the movie room with giant bowls of popcorn.
“There you are. I’ve been texting,” Drea said.
I’d forgotten to check my phone, and pulling it out, I saw a bunch of missed messages from Drea.
“What are you guys doing?” I asked, looking down at their fresh popcorn. “It’s like… midnight.”
“Girl,” said Drea, “we knew you wouldn’t be able to sleep, and we’re not going to let you be alone tonight.”
“Yeah, movie night until we pass out,” Marlow added.
“Or throw up from too much popcorn,” Indigo said, lifting the huge bowl up.
Tears blurred my vision, but I blinked them back, rushing forward to give them all a hug.
“Group hug!” Skye’s voice came from behind me and I stiffened.
“Don’t you dare, Skye,” I warned her.
“Skye’s here too?” Drea asked just as the coldness of Skye’s body passed through me and I shivered.
“Whoa, I felt that,” Drea said.
Marlow shivered. “Me too.”
“That’s creepy,” Indigo added.
Having just walked right through us, Skye stood in front of me, grinning.
“There’s something wrong with you,” I told her. “You like messing with people.”
She nodded. “I really do. And you love me.”
I chuckled. “I really do.”
My joy was dampened as I remembered Skye saying she wasn’t going to be around after I completed my mission. Since Skye was watching me keenly, I’m sure she noticed the shift in my mood, but I continued to just hold her eyes with mine for a long moment.
“You’re a good friend. Thank you,” I told her.
She nodded, her eyes telling me she understood how I was feeling and felt the same. “You’re welcome.”
It felt like a goodbye, and I hated that.
“What’s she saying?” Drea was smiling, looking around the hallway for her spectral bestie.
“Movie time!” Skye said and rushed through the walls.
“She said it’s movie time,” I told the girls with a fake smile.
Indigo opened the door and the three of them followed Skye into the room while I trailed behind them, back in the depressive dumpster fire that was my life.
We watched three movies back-to-back. Skye made me translate for her the whole time, and for once I didn’t hate it. Somewhere in the early morning after my third bowl of popcorn, I passed out.
CHAPTERELEVEN
“Tatum…” Drea shook me awake and I bolted upright, heart racing in my chest.
“Gage?” I looked around the media room, bleary-eyed.
