Wraith by Angel Lawson Page A

want to speak to me again, that’s fine and I promise to leave you alone. But we need to discuss this.”
    I swallowed. He was right. There were things I needed to understand and I was getting the feeling he needed to as well. “Okay. Talk to me.”
    Both of his hands were still on the steering wheel, gripping it so tight his knuckles were white. His eyes were down, staring at his hands, and I studied his profile. His jaw was sharp, and his cheekbones high and prominent. My fingers itched to sketch him. “Nine months ago I tore my house apart and tried to burn it to the ground.”
    Wow . I was one second from bolting from the car, but I decided to just listen, to hear him out, so I waited, terrified of what he would say next. 
    “I just wanted to make them go away.” His voice was so tight, so tense, as though he fought to get the words out.
    “Who? Who did you want to go away?”
    He turned his head, away, looking out the driver’s window. “Them. The ghosts or spirits—whatever you want to call them. They wouldn’t leave me alone. It was constant and harassing and I thought I was losing my mind.”
    I understood this, some of it. I, too, had thought I’d lost my mind, and Evan’s presence was constant, but it also calmed me –he was my friend. He tried his best from the beginning to respect my space. “How many were there?” I asked, confused by the use of the term ‘they.’
    “One at first, then the others came. It’s like they seek me out. They know I can see them and they come to find me.”
    My jaw dropped in horror. “They seek you out? What do they want?”
    He twisted toward me. “Different things. To pass on messages, to help them find something or someone. To just have someone to talk to. To scare the crap out of me. I don’t know, it’s always different.”
    I stared at the boy next to me. He no longer seemed intimidating, although what he said scared me. Instead, he appeared lost, and it was all I could do not to reach out and comfort him. I kept my hands in my lap, though, and said, “That’s horrible.”
    “What does yours want?”
    “Mine?” I asked. He lifted an eyebrow in question. “Oh, Evan? He doesn’t want anything. He’s just kind of my friend. He helped me out when I first moved and…”
    Connor didn’t seem to notice I’d trailed off. “What do you mean he’s your friend?”
    I shrugged. “He just is—I’m not explaining it to you.”
    “They all want something, Jane. It’s why they’re here.”
    I shook my head in denial. Evan was my friend, he was my ‘spirit guide.’ I refused to believe he was using me.
    Connor’s long, cold fingers wrapped around my arm. “These ghosts…they’re stuck. They’re stuck in our world because they aren’t finished with something from their days of living. They need to move on, but they can’t. So they roam around until they find some unsuspecting fool like me,” and he scowled, “or you, to help them find their way. Your ghost, Evan, needs something. The sooner he finds it, the sooner he goes away.”
    “That’s not true.”
    “Yes, it is.” So confident and sure, cocky even. I hated him.
    I realized Connor still had his hand on my arm and I yanked it away. “Please take me home,” I said, barely audible, but he heard me and his hand shifted the car in gear. I fought to keep the tears back. Evan was not using me. He volunteered. He showed up in my room and he made me laugh when I wanted to cry and he talked to me about music and art and books. He called the mean girls names and made fun of their clothes and hair.
    He wasn’t stuck and I didn’t want him to go away.
    Faster than I thought possible, we were in front of my house. I had no idea how he knew where I lived and I didn’t want to know. I’d been right. Connor was a jerk. Maybe he wasn’t making fun of me, but he didn’t know everything. I fumbled with the door and his long arm stretched over my body to the lever, but he didn’t open it, instead