Read Ghost Time for Free Online Page A

think of, and he said, You two didn’t have a fight that night? I almost said it, too. I almost said, Cam’s a hacker, not a fighter, but I didn’t.
    I said, No. I mean, we’ve had fights, but who doesn’t?, and he nodded, like he agreed with me. I go, But why did you think we had a fight? I just had to ask, he said, pulling out his card and handing it to me. Please call me if you need anything, or if you think of anything? Okay, I said, and then Knox said, Thank you, and he turned toward the doors.
    That afternoon, after school, I just kept staring at his card, the whole way home—second time I found myself taking the bus home, feeling… so alone , you know? I mean, I couldn’t get anyhomework done, I couldn’t concentrate, I couldn’t do anything. I just sat at my desk, staring at Hubble all night—our notebook, that’s what we call it, Hubble.
    Cam gave it to me for Christmas. It’s got this thick, beautiful paper, and it’s oversized, it’s perfect, and we share it. Like I take one page, and he takes the opposite page, and we swap, back and forth. But I take the left side, because Cam’s left-handed, so he has to write upside down, otherwise. Because it’s spiral, he’d have to write over the spiral, you know what I mean? The reason we call it Hubble is because, well, after he gave it to me, Cam said, What should we call it? And I said, You mean give the notebook a name? What, like Betty? And Cam goes, No. I mean, yes: not Betty, but something. Because notebook seems so… impersonal, you know?
    He was right. I didn’t even need to think about it, because he was right; we had to call it something. I looked at the page where he’d already written an entry, and it looked upside down to me, even though it was right-side up to him. It made me think about the stars, how Cam always loved to say the amazing thing about looking at the stars is you’re looking into the future and the past at the same time, and how, somewhere up there, in the sky, the Hubble Telescope is taking pictures of things we can’t imagine. What about… I started to speak, and then felt kinda stupid, so I shut my mouth. Tell me, he said, and I said, What about Hubble? Cam balked, hearing that, then he smiled this big, big smile. And his smile said yes: perfect. Then, of course—I mean, I didn’t say it, but I was just like, Ohmygod, I just named our notebook Hubble? That has got to be the geekiest idea I’ve ever had in my entire life.
    Anyhow, we’ve been working on it since Christmas, and Hubble’s everything: it’s photos, collage, pencil sketches, ink drawings, inside jokes, our entire universe. Cam even writes these ridiculous formulas—talk about hieroglyphics, don’t ask me if they’re real or he’s screwing around—our video game ideas, our scripts, everything. Everything starts here, goes here, belongs right here. Because it’s our own world, you know? It’s a world just big enough for two, and the day he left—the day he disappeared —god, that’s so hard to say, the day Cam disappeared. Anyhow, that day, for the first time, I couldn’t put anything down. Cam handed Hubble back on Monday afternoon, and it was my turn, left side—except that both sides were these huge blank white pages, and I had this pang in my chest, thinking it might be that way from now on. For the first time, those two blank pages really fucking scared me.
    I kept staring at it, completely spaced out, like somehow the notebook would tell me the answer, solve the mystery of my universe, let my boyfriend know I was going to kill him if this was some sort of joke. Because trust me, I’m not laughing, Cam. You hear me? I don’t know if I said that out loud or not, but then I looked up and saw that I’d written it, in our notebook; these big block letters: I’M NOT LAUGHING!!!!!!!!!!!!

SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2011
    (TWO DAYS EARLIER)
    10:37 PM
    Well, I’m not what you’d call a party girl. I mean, I used to love going to parties, but now,