Out of the Darkness

106

I watched the girls hit the massive beach ball back and forth, unable to work out their crazy point system. When Sam cheered, I cheered. "Do you even know what's happening with this game? Who's winning and how do you tell?" I asked, leaning closer to him. He laughed, and shook his head. "No clue brother. When Kat gets a big smile on her face, I cheer. It's worked for me so far." I grinned at him and shrugged. "As long as it works, I guess." We clinked our cans together and laughed. "Hey, what's so funny? I wanna know what's funny. I wanna laugh," Jake said, moving closer to us, like we were about to tell him some secret. "Nothing man. Just the little things we do to make our women happy," Sam replied. Corey, Tavan, and Chazz got out and walked towards the side of the house. "Yo, what's up?" I called out. Tavan looked back and made a smoking sign with his fingers next to his lips. I nodded, and laughed. "They'll be in Corey's car or room, listening to music or playing Rocket League before they remember that we're even out here," I joked. We all laughed, then Jake nudged me. "Bro, you know Tara's friend is into you, right?" he asked quietly, motioning his head towards Addy. I looked her way, and smiled to myself when she blushed and looked down as soon as our eyes met. "Nah. She's just shy," I said, not really caring one way or another. Not that she wasn't beautiful. She was. She definitely was. I watched her for a minute, admiring the way her body filled out Kat's old bathing suit, then looked back at Jake, who was nodding his head at me. "What?" I asked. Sam laughed, and nudged my other side. "You think she's hoooot," Jake said, dragging out that last vowel. I shrugged. "Of course I do. I'm a guy. She's hot. Look at her. But I'm not interested." "You're never interested," Jake said, rolling his eyes. "What does a girl have to do to catch your eyes Colby? You're breaking hearts all over LA, my man." "Oh shut up," I replied, laughing a little. "That's an overstatement. I barely even talk to anyone. Especially lately." "It's Anna, isn't it?" Sam asked, keeping his eyes on the girls still playing their game. "Anna? The girl that's been over a few times? Well, why isn't she here tonight?" Jake asked. Oh my God, they were always so damn nosy. I couldn't keep anything to myself. "Yes, it's Anna. It's obviously Anna, Sam. You know this already. Jake, because things are...weird between us right now. We're...taking a break." I couldn't explain this in a better way, besides saying "oh she's a ghost, and we aren't supposed to be around each other because this weird dream walker guy told me to stay away from her. Now, I have no idea what's going on, or even where she is." Yeah, that probably wouldn't go over very well. "I'm gonna go use the bathroom. That okay?" I heard Addy ask the girls. "Yeah, of course!" they exclaimed. "Colby, can you take her? We need to finish our game and Addy is out anyway," Tara called out. I glared at her, but she just smiled back. I rolled my eyes, and muttered "whatever." I climbed out of the pool behind Addy, grabbed our towels, and passed hers to her. "Thanks," she said, hurriedly drying herself, before she tied the towel above her breasts. I averted my eyes then walked next to her up to the house.  "Sorry about this," she said. "It's fine," I replied gruffly. I didn't want to give her any sign that I might like her back, but I didn't want to be rude either. That wasn't really who I was unless I needed to be. This girl had done nothing to me, and was perfectly nice. I opened the kitchen door, noticing that the lights were off, before I let her go in before me. "Thanks," she said, softly. "Mmhmm," I murmured, trying to remember if anyone had turned the lights off. I didn't think so. Maybe a bulb had blown. I flicked the switch, and the kitchen automatically flooded with light. Weird. I pointed down the hall and was about to tell Addy which door the bathroom was when we both heard a frustrated, female groan come from down that exact  hallway. "Um, is there someone else here? I thought we were the only ones left," Addy whispered. I swallowed hard, instantly recognizing the groan. Anna. "Um, someone probably just left their tv on or something." "No way!" she exclaimed, edging closer to the hallway. She poked her head around the corner before I could stop her. "Um, hello?" she said, her voice shaky. I prayed with everything I had that Anna was not standing there, all transparent, or God forbid, floating there. I wouldn't be able to explain that at all. I poked my head around the corner, leaning around Addy. "I know I heard someone and it wasn't a tv..." she said, taking a step into the hallway. "You heard it right?" She knew that I did. I cleared my throat, trying to think fast. "Yeah, but Jake is always leaving his tv on. I'm sure that's all it was." She didn't look convinced, but I decided to ignore it and pretend like it didn't matter. Maybe she'd think she was overreacting or something. "The bathroom is right over here," I said, leading the way to the guest bathroom and opening the door. "Do you want me to wait or..." That felt weird to even ask, but everyone was outside, and this was her first time in our home. She walked inside and turned around to look at me, biting her lip nervously. "Yeah, if you don't mind. I'm sorry if it's weird. I just...I feel like someone is watching me. Not a nice someone."