‘Zoe,’ I whispered.
“Shhh.’
I waited. But I could see them – black shapes moving in the dark recesses of the room. I felt tears pricking my eyes. ‘Zoe, please.’
‘What?’ she hissed.
‘I – I –’ I bit my lip. ‘I’m sorry. I’m really scared.’
Zoe looked at me, her eyes narrowed and a half-smile on her lips. ‘You’re kidding me, right?’
I shook my head. ‘This is frightening me to death. I didn’t think I believed in ghosts. Did you?’
Zoe looked around the room before she answered. ‘Of course I do. I can feel them, right now. We asked for them and they came.’ She smiled.
I took two or three deep breaths, to try to stop myself from crying in front of her. ‘I want to stop all this. Please.’
‘We can’t stop now. It’s too late. You can’t wake up the spirits of the dead and then tell them, whoops, you’re sorry, you didn’t mean it.’
I looked into Zoe’s eyes, but my vision blurred a little. She leaned forward and put her hands on my shoulders. ‘Hey. Don’t be upset. I promise they’re good spirits. I know it. Look at all the stuff that’s been happening.’
I wiped at my eyes.
‘You want your dad back home for good, don’t you?’
Before I got a chance to answer, there was a sudden piercing sound as someone pressed the doorbell hard. It went through our heads like a gunshot.
Zoe swore.
I stood up, blinking and a little dizzy.
‘Don’t answer it,’ Zoe pleaded, but I couldn’t do that.
‘Clear up, will you?’ I asked. ‘And open the window. We can guess who it is.’
I was right. ‘Hi,’ I said, barely able to meet Kerry’s eyes. ‘You OK?’
It was typical. I was the only one who didn’t drink a load of cider the night before, but somehow, I was the only one feeling nauseous. What was going on? Kerry lingered about on the doorstep and I knew I had to ask her inside. Zoe was going to go mad.
When I opened the bedroom door, all the ritual stuff had been tidied away. Zoe was getting very fast at that and the window was wide open, although the smell of the incense hung around. Sweet, though, not sulphurous. Zoe was sitting upright on my bed looking like Mary Poppins, all prim and innocent, flicking through a magazine.
‘Oh,’ she said to Kerry. ‘It’s you again.’
‘Zoe,’ I said. ‘Kerry really helped you – us – out last night, remember.’
‘Was that your shirt I had on?’ Zoe asked.
Kerry nodded, grinning daftly and waiting to be thanked. ‘I gave you one of my best ones.’
‘Damn,’ said Zoe. ‘I used it to clean up the flat this morning. Then I put it in the bin.’
I could’ve slapped her.
‘Tell me you’re joking,’ I said, when Kerry gave a nervous little laugh.
‘Nope, sorry.’ Zoe put her palm to her cheek and rolled her eyes. ‘So stupid of me.’
I felt myself going red and hot and full of shame, although I’d had no part in this. I picked up the T-shirt Kerry had given me. ‘Here,’ I said, in a mumble. ‘I washed it. Thanks, Kerry. I – I’m really sorry. You were great last night.’
Kerry took the top without a word. I didn’t want to look at her face, so I kept staring at the ground.
There was a horrible silence. Then Kerry said, with forced cheerfulness, ‘So, what shall we do today?’
‘We?’ Zoe was flicking through the magazine again, as if Kerry wasn’t there.
‘Want to go to the shops?’ I suggested, sure that it was hopeless. ‘I need a new bag for school. Mum left me some money.’
‘No cash again,’ said Zoe, without looking up. I knew she was going to be like this as long as Kerry was there.
‘Well, I might – I might – just go home then.’ Kerry had a catch in her voice. She wanted to be asked to stay and part of me wanted to make her feel better. But I could tell that Zoe would just freeze her out. Or torture her in some way.
‘I guess,’ I said.
I hated myself.
Kerry turned and I followed her down the stairs. ‘Hey.’ I caught her arm before she went out the door. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know why Zoe is – I think she’s just – I can’t –’
Kerry shrugged.
I picked up the tenner Mum had left on the hall table and pushed it into Kerry’s hand. ‘Will this go towards a new top?’
She shoved it back at me, shaking her head, and I guessed she was going to cry again. I let her go. As I shut the door, I thought about her fearsome mum and knew that Kerry was going to get into huge trouble over the missing shirt.
‘She gone?’ Zoe came down the stairs. ‘Good. Now we can go into town.’
‘You said you didn’t have any money,’ I reminded her.
‘That was just to get rid of her.’
‘Did you have to be so –’ Horrible, I wanted to say. Cruel.
‘Cruel to be kind,’ Zoe said, as if she’d plucked the word out of my head. ‘I keep telling you, if we’re nice to her, she’ll haunt us for our whole lives. She was such an embarrassment last night. Having to look after her ruined the whole thing. She finally needs to get that we don’t want her around – especially now we have our own place.’
We caught the bus into town and went to one of my favourite cafes, but I felt like I had maggots squirming around my insides and I couldn’t even finish my burger. Zoe chatted all the time about all sorts of things – school, GCSEs, one of her latest arty projects. This was the Zoe I loved. A different Zoe to the one who could treat people so badly. I tried to push that Zoe out of my mind.
Just then, we heard loud sniggering and turned to see Maxine and some other girls from school, waiting to get a seat. ‘Not sure we should stay here,’ one of them was
