The Hidden (9 page)

There was silence, and then the unmistakable sound of the bell buzzing overhead.

“Shit. Twice,” she said, throwing one hand to point up. “There goes the bell.”

Glancing around me at the scurrying students, I realized that I was going to be late for class too. And my books were still all over the floor. Dropping to my knees, I started to gather them.

The new girl bent to help me pick one up. “I’m Cyn, by the way. And before you ask, no, ‘Cyn’ isn’t short for Cynthia, or
Cynder, or Alicyn, or any of those. It’s just Cyn. Sweet. Short.
C
-
Y
-
N
. Got it?”

I glanced up. I think I liked her. “Abbey,” I said. “Short for Abigail. And it’s with an
e
.” She nodded, and just like that, we had an understanding.

Upon closer inspection, I could see that she had thin green highlights scattered throughout her hair. The color of new leaves. The effect was striking.

“I like your hair,” I said.

“Thanks.”

I stepped to one side and cleared a path for her to get to locker 9-C. As she slid the numbers around and then threw open the door, a wave of nostalgia overwhelmed me.

Kristen dropping notes into my locker after fifth period. Kristen letting me use her mirror because I was always forgetting to buy my own. Kristen waiting with a Cheshire cat smile and the latest study hall gossip. Kristen—

Cyn snapped her fingers. “Earth to Abbey. Are we losing you there? You’re zoning out on me.”

I shook my head and stuffed my books into my own locker. “Sorry. Just … lost in a memory.”

“I get it. You knew Kristen, huh?”

“You could say that. We were best friends.”

“Oh. Jesus. That sucks. How did she die?”

Such an innocent question. But it made my skin crawl. “She drowned,” I said curtly. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Got it. That memo is loud and clear.” Cyn finally slid the other thing she’d been holding onto the little top shelf of the locker, and I couldn’t help but steal a peek.

It was a dead plant.

She caught me looking. “I have to keep them here,” she explained. “Otherwise my mom will throw them out.”

Why would she want to keep a dead plant?

Apparently my question was written all over my face, because she said defensively, “It’s a hobby, okay?”

I shrugged. “It’s cool.”
Weird, but whatever.

Cyn slammed her locker door shut, then turned to head down the opposite hall. “Nice meeting you, Abbey,” she said. “And don’t worry, I never stay in one place for long. My mom is always moving me from school to school. It’s such a pain in the ass. But that means you won’t have to put up with me, or my
dead plant
, for long.”

She said with such conviction the exact words that I’d been thinking, that I stared after her with my mouth hanging open long after she was gone. What was she, a mind reader?

With the lockdown in the morning, I had only two classes to get through before the end of the day, and when the final bell rang, I heaved a sigh of relief. I ran into Beth on the way back to my locker.

“Hey, girl,” she said, stopping to give me a quick hug. “You totally missed out on the beach house. And the hotties.”

I laughed. “I know, I know. But I made your perfume for you. Hopefully that counts for something?” I pulled out the little sample vial that was in my pocket, and gave it to her.

She opened it, and a look of sheer bliss crossed her face. “This is
so
awesome, Abbey. Thank you.” She poured some of it onto her fingertip to rub across her wrists. “This is just what I needed after a day like today.”

“What happened?”

“Lewis again. The boy can
not
get over our breakup. He’s like this little puppy dog that follows me around, and it’s just driving me cray-cray.”

“Cray-cray?”

“Crazy? You know.”

“Uh, yeah. Right.” I entered the combination into my lock. “He’ll get over it. Just tell him to give you …” The door swung open, and there was a folded-up note with a flower drawn on it sitting there. Immediately happiness filled me. Caspian had been here.

“I just need him to give me what, Abbey?” Beth said, interrupting my thoughts.

I glanced back at her, completely forgetting what I had been about to say.
Something about Lewis
… “Space!” I remembered. “Just ask him to give you some space. It’ll give you room to breathe and him time to accept the truth.”

“I know.” She sighed and pulled out her phone. “Speaking of … Guess who just texted me?”

“Mmm-hmm.” I smiled at her, but already I was turning my attention back to the note. Smoothing down the edges, I took a peek.

A quick hello for you, my dear Astrid, to let you know that I’m thinking of you. Hope your first day back was everything it should be. Meet me at my place when school is over.

—Caspian

His place. …
The mausoleum?

Beth furiously texted away, then said, “I guess this is my cue to leave. I’ll catch ya later, girl. Call me!”

I looked up from my note, confused as to why she was leaving. And then I saw Ben coming my way.

I’m going to have to set her straight on
that
one again.

“Hey, Abbey,” Ben said, getting closer. “You aren’t hiding any Funyuns in your locker, are you?”

I slid the note from Caspian into my bag and turned toward him, shaking my head. “Nope. No Funyuns here.” Ben always knew how to make me smile.

“That sucks. If next Monday is anything like today, I’m going to need some serious snackage.”

“‘Snackage’?” I laughed. “Is that the technical term?”

“Totally.”

Slamming the locker door shut, I hoisted my bag over one shoulder.

“Hey,” he said. “Your arm is better.”

I looked down at it, and then flexed it once. “Yup. The sling came off last week.”

“So now you’re all ready for basketball, right?”

“Maybe if I grow another six inches.” I shook my head at him. “I think basketball is out. But bowling? That I can do. And it doesn’t require any talent.”

He scoffed. “No talent? I’ll have you know that I’m a talented guy when it comes to shoving heavy balls down wooden lanes.”

I stared at him, then started laughing.

Ben scratched his head and cocked it to one side. “Wait a minute. That didn’t come out right.”

“You’re crazy,” I said, grinning at him.

He grinned back. “Yeah, what else is new?”

“What did you think about that whole lockdown thing this morning?” I asked. “That was new. Talk about overreacting.”

He held up his hands. “Anything that gets me out of classes for half the day, I do not question.”

“Can’t say I disagree with that. I skipped English today too because of the new girl that was assigned to Kristen’s locker.”

“New girl?” He looked intrigued.

“Down, boy.”

Then he cast a glance at her locker and moved closer to it. “I guess they had to give it to somebody new sometime. But I thought …” He trailed off and looked sad.

I put out a hand and reached for his arm. “I know what you mean. I thought maybe it would stay empty this year too.”

“Now she’s really gone, you know?” His face darkened. “That’s stupid to say, but it’s true.”

I shook my head. “It’s not stupid. This was like one last piece of her, and now it’s gone.” We both looked at the locker, and a lump started to form in the back of my throat.

Ben cleared his throat, and I saw that his eyes were watery.
He looked embarrassed that I’d noticed, and he stepped away from me, cracking his knuckles as he went. I guess that was the manly thing to do to cover up embarrassment or something.

“I need to get to work,” he said. “See you on Monday?”

“Yeah.” I shifted my book bag again. “See you then.”

Ben turned and started walking backward down the hall. “We need to hang out again soon,” he called. “Maybe get something to eat?”

Always thinking about food.
“You know where to find me,” I said.

He raised one hand in a salute, and then disappeared around the corner. Smiling to myself, I headed to the main door and pushed my way out into the late afternoon sunshine. Cyn was standing on the curb outside, looking at something, with one hand shading her eyes from the sun. She let out a low whistle when I came near.

I followed her gaze across the street just in time to see a black Mustang turn slowly around the corner. A flash of white-blond hair glowed, and I could have sworn I saw a silver Rolex watch on the wrist hanging out the window.

Panic chased a ribbon down my spine, and I stood ramrod straight.

Vincent
.

“Such a hot car,” Cyn mused. “God, what I wouldn’t give to take a ride in that.”

“Looks dangerous,” I said, stepping away from her. “I’d stay away from him—
it
,” I corrected myself, “if I were you.”

She didn’t say anything, and I moved away from the curb. Angling myself firmly in the opposite direction, I started toward the cemetery.

“It was just a stupid car,” I said to myself out loud as I kept walking. “You can’t be positive that it was him. There’s no reason to worry everybody. Let it go. Just drop it.”

Nodding my head in self-affirmation, I tried not to think about Vincent anymore.

Or the fact that I wasn’t going to tell Caspian he might be hanging around.

It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball …

—“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

W
hen I got to Caspian’s mausoleum, he was inside reading a book by candlelight. I was so happy to see him that I couldn’t stop a huge smile from taking over my face. It would be even better when I could finally touch him.

“Got your note,” I said.

He put the book down onto the floor. “Hey, beautiful. How was school?”

I moved toward the wrought iron bench that sat against the wall nearest me. Shrugging off my book bag along the way, I replied, “It was fine.”

He came and sat next to me.

“They put us all on lockdown for half the day because a car backfired outside and someone thought it was shots being fired. But other than that, nothing exciting.”

I leaned forward and let my head hang down, hair cascading around my hands. Scrunching up my fingers, I gently massaged my scalp. “They reassigned Kristen’s locker to a new girl,” I said quietly. “Cyn.”

“How was she?” he asked.

“She was nice, I guess. But she thought Kristen was still alive because I mentioned it being her locker.”

“Awkward.”

“Yeah.”

Caspian got up for a minute, and when he returned, there was something behind his back. “Speaking of …”

He held out a drawing to me.

It was Kristen. A drawing of Kristen. In her favorite red corset shirt and hippie-style jeans.

“How did you …?” I said.

“I saw you guys in the cemetery last year. This is what she wore, right?”

I nodded and took the drawing from him, stroking the outline of her face. Cheekbones, jawline, eyes … Everything was right. Even in her black-and-white world, he had captured
Kristen’s vivacity. It was there, in the slight tilt of her chin, the excited look in her eyes, the way she stood. Happy and ready to experience anything.

“It’s beautiful, Caspian,” I said. “Absolutely beautiful. It’s her. She’s here. Now she’s always here.”

And then I burst into tears. Huge, racking sobs that rolled and shuddered through my body.

“Hey,” Caspian said. “Hey, Astrid. It’s okay. Don’t …”

He moved closer, but he couldn’t hold me. Couldn’t put his arms around me, or move my hair back away from my face. Instead he just did the best thing he could. He let me cry.

“I can’t believe she’s really gone,” I said through my tears. “It was my first day … alone … and her locker …” I cried harder. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t be me without her. I don’t know who I am … or what I am. I’m empty. Just a shell.”

Caspian leaned in close to my ear. His voice was low and soft. I had to slow my breathing to catch what he was saying. “You’re
not
empty. You’re strong and smart and talented, Abbey. Kristen will always be with you, but she’s not
who
you are. You’re Abbey. Just Abbey. Without Kristen, yes, but that’s okay. That’s what makes you unique.”