Ghost Girl

Chapter 9

I picked up my phone, "Hello?"

"Where have you been?" Lili shrieked through the phone. "I've been trying to get a hold of you forever. Way to freak me out!"

I sighed, waiting for Lili-the-dramatic- to run out of steam. "Done?" I asked as Zak sauntered back into the room and planted a kiss on my cheek. I turned away from the phone and covered the speaker with my hand.

"I'm going to head out. I'll be back soon though, promise. Where are your keys?" he asked, moving papers in his attempt to find them.

I laughed, only half paying attention to Lili. "Here," I said, digging in my purse. "Drive nicely please."

He nodded solemnly. "Of course; see you soon."

I watched him walk out the door and drive away; it physically hurt to let him go after everything that had happened between us in the last 12 hours.

I suddenly became aware of Lili calling my name. "Skylar!"

"Sorry Lil, what did you say?" I asked.

Lili huffed. "God, what is with you this morning? You seem so distracted; it's like you're on a different planet or something."

Something like that. "Yeah, sorry. It's just been a crazy couple of days around here," I admitted.

"Then let's meet up! We need to catch up; I haven't seen you in ages," she cried and I could hear the smile in her voice.

"Lili," I sighed. "I would love to but I've got tons of marking to do today." It was partially true; I wasn't ready to share Zak with her yet. If I told her, I knew the news would spread like wildfire and that was the last thing either of us wanted right now. This was all too new and I wasn't willing to jeopardize it.

"Does this have anything to do with the voice I heard in the background?" she asked coyly.

"What?" I stuttered. "What voice?" Shit, not good!

"Oh come on, Skylar... don't play dumb with me. You've got a guy with you. And my guess is that if he is at your place this early, he spent the night. Am I right?" I could hear the teasing in her voice.

I knew I had to give her some sort of explanation because she wasn't going to let me simply brush this off. I had been so depressed after I broke up with Travis but it hadn't lasted long. Still, she had been worried about me. Now that I had some new guy hanging around, she wanted all the details. "He's just a friend. He's visiting from out of town." And that was all she was getting out of me today.

"Oh my god! Who is he? Tell me!" she pleaded. "Tell me or I'm coming over!" I could hear keys jingling on her end and I knew she wasn't kidding.

"Ha," I laughed. "Not going to happen. You can come over all you want but he's not even here," I sighed. "Just drop it. Please, Lili. I can't deal with this right now, okay?"

I could literally hear the pout in her voice. "Okay, fine. But I'm going to meet him before he leaves."

I sighed; looking over my shoulder to make sure Zak hadn't come back, even though he'd just left. I didn't want my next comment to hurt his feelings despite the fact that it was far from the truth. If he heard what I was about to say, it would undo all we had accomplished in the last few hours.

"He's just a friend. If he was more, you'd be the first to find out. I'm not ready to get back out there and date," I winced inwardly. Lying to Lili wasn't the smartest thing to do but until I was ready to share Zak, it would have to do.