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reasons I loved him.
    “She killed herself?” I asked. He’d told me that. It didn’t seem part of the secret.
    “Yeah.”
    Curiosity got the best of me. “How?” I asked.
    He raised an eyebrow, but said, “She hung herself.”
    “Oh my God!”
    He nodded in agreement. “It wasn’t the first time she tried.”
    “Is that why she was there? In the treatment facility?”
    “Yeah. Kind of.”
    We were quiet and I ran my hand over his knee. “I’m sorry this happened to your friend.”
    “Thanks.” He grabbed my hand. “Promise me you’ll stay safe. Don’t do anything foolish. Please don’t let any of those ghosts touch you, okay? I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
    “I won’t.” He didn’t look convinced. “I won’t! I promise, and I’ll call Jeannie.”
    “Good.” He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “I should go. My mom is probably looking for me.”
    We walked downstairs and Connor left with his own promises to call me later that night.
    &
    “Thanks for inviting me,” I said to Ava and Julia. I used my hand as a shield to see their faces past the glare of the sun. The clear sky made it the perfect day to lounge on the deck at Ava’s neighborhood pool. Ava sat to my right and Julia had her nose buried in a tabloid on my left.
    “No problem. I hate coming here alone. You guys are welcome any time.”
    We stretched across towels, burning under the sun. Each of us had a full cup of soda, a magazine and an iPod playing music between the chairs. The sun was hot, scorching even, but it felt nice to be outside. No work. No ghosts. No drama.
    “Hottie by the lifeguard stand.” I saw an eyebrow arch over the top of Julia’s sunglasses as she announced this.
    Easy to spot, the cute guy flirted with the female lifeguard in the chair. “You mean the lifeguard’s boyfriend?”
    “We can still look.”
    “Speaking of hot boys,” Julia said. “What did you and Connor do last night?”
    “Not much. We went for ice cream and watched a movie at my house. With my parents.” I lifted up my sunglasses so she could see me roll my eyes.
    “That’s a little bit adorable.”
    “Shut up.” I fanned my face with my magazine. It was a little bit adorable. “Do I look red? I feel like I’m getting red.”
    Ava looked me up and down. I poked the pale skin of my stomach to see if it left a mark. “No, but here’s some sunscreen. Can’t hurt to reapply.”
    I layered my skin with a coat of lotion and handed it back to her. She placed the bottle in her bag and said, “I love that he hangs out with your parents. Christian is terrified of my dad.”
    “Ava, your dad is terrifying. I think he may be a mobster.”
    “What?” She swatted me. “He is not a mobster. He’s just Italian. And from Brooklyn. He can’t help the fact he sounds different.”
    “Okay, okay if you say so,” I laughed. “Connor doesn’t really like to hang out with my parents either, but he kind of owed me one.”
    “Because he ditched you the other day after art camp?”
    Among other things, I wanted to say, but I just nodded.
    “I suppose he deserved a bit of punishment then.”
    “I’m trying to cut him some slack. His friend died and he’s pretty upset.”
    Julia glanced up from her magazine and asked, “Who died?”
    “Some girl Connor met last year when he was sent away.” I didn’t elaborate. Ava and Julia didn’t know the real reason Connor left school. They thought it was because he got into so much trouble, which is true, but he was not sent to boot camp like everyone suspected. “I guess things were really bad for her. She committed suicide.”
    “Wait… what? Suicide?” Julia said. She put her trashy magazine down for the first time that day.
    “She killed herself.”
    Julia sat up and swung her legs over the side of the chair so she was looking directly at me. “What was her name?”
    I shrugged. “Charlotte something.”
    “Charlotte Brady?”
    “I have no idea.