Ghost Perfume | ✔

Chapter 18: Shop with Me (Part 1)

When the others returned, we didn't go hiking, but we went shopping.

It was Lukas's fault.

"I have no clothes,'' he complained, picking at a loose thread in his sweater. "It's this stupid place. Six months I buy ridiculous winter clothes like we're in the North Pole, and now you're telling me it'll be a hundred degrees in two months?''

"Not a hundred degrees,'' I said, laying my head beside him on the sofa. I was taking a break from the ghosts, because the stinging in my chest had reached slightly unbearable proportions. "It might get to a hundred in August.''

"Tell the truth, tiny one,'' Lukas said. "Who here pissed off what god?''

"I'll check with Tommy,'' I mumbled.

"How is he?'' Gabriel called.

I thumbed my phone. I'd been texting with him. "He's good.''

If he was to be believed, he never stopped reading except to eat and sleep.

I had a hard time believing him. But the very fact that he answered my texts was a signal of how much he'd changed.

"Actually,'' I said to Lukas, "I don't have enough clothes for summer left either.''

Was that an understatement.

It simply was not an option for Michael or any of the Alistairs to see the rest of the rhinestones in my current wardrobe. I had money in a bank account now. I had to take charge of this.

Lukas clapped his hands. "It's decided.'' He shot to his feet. But then he hesitated, frowning down at me. "Except didn't you lose a pint or twenty of blood recently?'' He collapsed back beside me. "Let's wait on strenuous activities for a few days.''

"Um ... what?''

"I was extremely upset when Alexander told us,'' Lukas said sharply. "Just because I'm acting cool now, don't mistake it.''

It was the first he'd said to me on the subject. I ignored his ominous tone. "What strenuous activities? Do you want to go shopping?'' I looked at him hopefully. "How strenuous could it be? And it wasn't twenty pints.''

He bit his lip. He looked devastatingly handsome when he did that, his hair flopping over his forehead.

"Come on, Lucky,'' I said persuasively. "I'll drive us. I can drive now.''

There were loud guffaws. I jumped and craned my neck to see behind the couch. Alexander and Gabriel looked down at me from their great heights.

"Is this true?'' Gabriel asked.

"If you mean she can turn a car on, press a foot to the gas, turn a wheel ...'' Alexander mused.

"That's not fair,'' I protested. "I took us on the highway and no one died. I mean, except for the people dying normally.''

"Well done,'' Lukas praised, while Gabriel smiled at me sweetly. "Fine. Let's go to the mall.''

"Dammit, come on,'' Alexander said, at the same time that Gabriel scoffed and said to Lukas, "You don't need more clothes.''

"What do you know about my closet?'' Lukas frowned. "What are you even doing thinking about my closet?''

"You're not dragging Rose to the mall,'' Alexander told him. He came around to sit on the nearby couch. "If she wants to practice driving, she can do it on our road here.''

"You want her to drive back and forth on our road?'' Lukas asked, exasperated, as Michael came back into the living room. He handed me two vitamin gummy bears and I ate them obediently. "That's not real driving. She has to learn on roads with other drivers.''