The Attachment

Chapter 9

I shower and spend some time with just me and Oakley before I decide to call Jc. He picks up after the first ring and I can see he's still laying in bed. "It's 2 pm."

"Yeah well at least I woke up in my own bed." He shoots back. I roll my eyes as I lean my phone against my mirror so I can use my hands to do two French braids in my hair.

"How's your hangover?" He asks.

"Fucking shit. But we're powering through."

"How was last night? Did you two...you know?" I look away from the mirror at him.

"He says we didn't. I don't remember anything."

"He's a good guy, Ellie. He won't lie. How have I not known you were crushing on him though?" He asks as his dog takes up the screen of the FaceTime call for two seconds.

"Honestly, I wasn't even sure. How can I like him? I barely know the guy, we've hung out like three times."

"That doesn't mean shit Ellie, you can hang out with someone once and fall for them just like you can know someone for years before falling for them." Jc sits up to talk, "anyways, he's a good guy. He won't treat you like shit, I know that. Plus maybe it's time you dated again."

"I don't know how ready I am for that."

"Not all guys are Chris." Jc says making my breath hitch at the sound of that name.

"I know. If it makes you feel better, I'm getting ready to go hang out with him now so I'm not closing in on myself like I usually do."

"That's good. Have fun. I'm going to take the dogs out and then get everyone here up and at 'em."

"Okay, dad!!" I laugh as I end the call. Maybe Jc was right. Maybe it was time.

When I pull up to the mansion the gate opens for me to park inside and Colby is waiting by the front door in nothing but a pair of swimming trunks. Why did he have to be so attractive? Oakley was too happy the see the brunette again and ran out of the car to jump at him for kisses. Colby looked at me like he didn't just see me that morning looking like a complete mess and smiled. We walk through the house and then into the backyard where everyone is laying around on the loungers and a few were sitting on the shallow end of the pool.

"Oh my god! Who is this?" Sam asks as he spots Oakley running into the backyard and over to the small group.

"Everyone meet Oakley." He immediately takes a liking to Sam, slobbering all over him and then settling at his feet without paying mind to anyone else.

"I think he loves Sam more than he loves me now." Colby frowns as lowers himself into the pool. "Ellie! Are you coming in?" Kat asked from her place in the pool.

"Sure." I slip my T-shirt and shorts off since I'd worn my bikini under my clothes and shyly step into the pool walking a bit further into the deep. Colby keeps his eyes on me making my cheeks heat up with a blush. Jake comes out of the house with a six pack of Gatorade and passes them out to everyone who is sporting a hangover.

"So what have you been up to lately Ellie?" Sam asks.

"Oh my God dude! I forgot to tell you." Colby speaks up, "my girl designs clothing. She's talking with Chris at Fanjoy." I blush as he talks so proudly about me.

"Holy shit! That's sick! I wanted to actually ask you for some help designing a poster for our channel, I usually do it but the fans roast the shit out of me for it."

"Yeah I can help out. What about you guys? What have you been up to?" I look at Katrina so she'd know I was including her in my question.

"I'm filming my music video next week," she says excitedly.

"Yeah and right now we're just thinking of some cool haunted locations to film at." Sam says.

"Oh cool. What have you guys brainstormed so far?"

"Well we have some super spooky places we've been thinking about but we're thinking of keeping those for next year. We might revisit some places we went to but never got to do a legit investigation at." While Sam talks I notice Colby looking at me as he bites his lip and furrows his brow. Almost like he's thinking of asking something.

"What do you think of all this paranormal stuff?" Sam asks causing Corey who sits close enough to hear to perk up. I look over to where Tara and Jake are sun bathing and out of ear shot and then at the four who are looking at me expectedly.

"I asked you about this and you said without a doubt, that you experienced some shit and you still haven't explained what you meant." Colby says.

I look around at them, "You're gonna think I'm fucking crazy."

"I promise none of us here will think that...maybe Jake but he isn't listening." I look over at Corey who looks genuinely interested.

"I can like...I see shit. Well I have seen shit." I ramble causing more brows to furrow, "okay, when I was growing up, the house I lived in...I'm pretty sure was haunted as fuck. We were going through a really hard time, things were just going wrong, and I would always feel like it was more than just bad luck you know? I don't know. One night my sister and I went to bed, we slept on opposite sides of the room, and I'm trying to sleep but I keep feeling like something is watching me...I open my eyes and it's just sitting there at the end of my sister's bed holding her legs."

"Dude, I just got chills when she said that," Corey said.

"Yeah it was pretty scary, I told my parents about it, we has a priest come and get it out...it was scary, ever since then I've been able to know when there is shit around. I've been able to see them, sense them, know things about them."

"So you're like a medium then?" Colby asks. I look at him and think what the fuck did I just do? Now he is going to think I'm crazy.

"I guess...I wouldn't say that though. All the times I've known or seen, it wasn't voluntarily and I've never experienced anything good." I look at all their faces and their open mouths. "Shit now you guys think I'm batshit crazy."

"No no, actually, I believe you. Like usually I'm a skeptic but I believe you." Colby says and somehow I know he isn't lying. I look at Sam and he's thinking hard.

"I used to think the world was very black and white. And then the Queen Mary changed everything for me," I had actually watched their video at the ship when I'd now met them so I knew what he was talking about, "I also know how I felt when people doubted that very real experience we had. I believe you."

"You don't even need to ask me if I believe, you all know I do," Corey said making us chuckle.

"What is that like? Is it like all the time?" Kat asks.

"No, it's not like I see them everyday all day. Sometimes if the energy is bad enough then I see or I feel."

"Bro, are we haunted?" Corey asks, "like seriously? Am I haunted?"

I tilt my head at him, "honestly, I can't tell. If you are, it's probably not bad enough for me to know."

"Dude. Like, you could say no but would you be down to like go to an investigation with us or something? We've never actually taken a medium or someone like you with us." Sam says.

"Sam, she not one of our equipment, bro. Don't treat her like one." Colby says defensively.

"Right, sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

"No, it's okay, Colby, I understand what he means. And yeah, I'd be down for it. I've actually always wanted to go investigating but my uh...my family was never down for that."

"Would they be mad if you went with us because it'll be on the internet." Colby asks caringly.

"They don't really have much to do with me so it wouldn't matter," I say getting up coming out of the pool, "I'm uh gonna use the bathroom. I'll be back." I grab my towel and wrap it around my waist heading inside. I didn't really want to talk about my parents after just offloading the one thing that I thought always made me a creep. I just needed a minute. A breather.

I find the downstairs bathroom easily and I stop for a moment to just breathe. I look at myself in the mirror and notice that my hangover wasn't very visible anymore. Why was I nervous about being around these new people? Why did I want them to like me so much?