October Ghosts. Jenny Plumb

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      Chapter 2

      Wednesday evening, Seth was leaning against the wall in the cafeteria lobby next to Jessie. They were waiting for the women so they could have dinner with them when Seth's cell phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket, and looked at the caller ID. Dread filled him as his mother's name appeared on the screen. There were only two reasons she would call. Someone was dead, or she was on one of her drunken rants. Since it was early evening, Seth was certain it was the latter. Taking a deep breath, he swiped to answer and put the phone to his ear.

      "Hi, Mom."

      "When will you be home?" she slurred.

      "I'll be home for Thanksgiving." He didn't remind her that they'd been over that at least thirty times before.

      "But I want you home now."

      Guilt washed over him. "I know, but I'm four hours away. I can't just come home on a whim. I have classes tomorrow." Moving away for his last two years of college had been a calculated decision on his part. He needed to be far enough away from his parents that he couldn't drop everything and see them when his mother called like this. Living with them and going to community college for his first two years, had almost made him snap. It was hard to study when they were both drunk and yelling at each other in the other room. And even harder when he had to drag his drunk mom to bed after a bender and make sure she was lying on her side so she wouldn't drown in her own vomit in the middle of the night. If his bastard of a father passed out somewhere, Seth left him where he was and hoped for the worst.

      "Your father screamed at me for making chicken soup for dinner! Chicken soup, Seth."

      Seth gritted his teeth and with barely restrained anger, asked, "Is Dad there?"

      "He stormed out. Left me alone in this big empty house with nothing to do but miss you."

      Taking a relieved breath, he nodded absently. "Have you eaten any dinner?"

      "I don't want to eat alone."

      His mom's plaintive whine grated on his nerves. He'd been trying to convince her to divorce his father since he was fourteen, but she was always full of reasons why she couldn't. He'd promised himself that he wasn't going to bring it up anymore when he moved away. She was a grown woman with a decent job. If she wanted to stay with a verbally abusive drunk, there was nothing he could do to stop her. Besides, she gave as good as she got and as far as he knew, neither one of them had ever come to blows.

      "Why don't you call Aunt Becky and ask her if she'll have dinner with you?"

      "You know how your father feels about my sister!"

      Rolling his eyes, Seth was about to point out how ridiculous that statement was when he noticed Jessie waving out of the corner of his eye. He looked up and saw Olivia and Paula coming toward them. "Sorry, Mom, I've got to go. I'm about to have dinner with my friends."

      "But, Seth, honey, I'm alone."

      "Mom, I want you to get yourself some dinner, turn on the TV for company, and just enjoy having the house to yourself for a little while."

      "But, Seth—"

      Feeling especially guilty, he hung up on her. He knew from experience she would keep him on the phone for hours if he let her, and he'd be a wreck by the time they were done. But unless she'd already polished off the bottle of wine she was working on, she wouldn't call back.

      He shoved his phone in his pocket and tried to shove down his emotions along with it. He'd had years of practice, so it wasn't too difficult to smile at the women as they got in line together.

      "Hey," he said.

      "Braden and I made the reservations this afternoon!" Paula said excitedly.

      "For all four Saturdays?" Jessie asked.

      She nodded. "It's all planned out."

      "That's great. Is Braden joining us for dinner?" Jessie asked, eyes darting toward the cafeteria.

      "Of course. We'll tell you all the plans once we get inside."

      "Great," Jessie answered with much less enthusiasm than before.

      Seth watched as Olivia linked her elbow with Jessie's and leaned the side of her face against his upper arm. He still hadn't been able to figure the two of them out. Jessie clearly liked Paula even though she was dating someone else, but Jessie and Olivia spent all their free time together and they were quite touchy-feely with each other. Plus, he knew Jessie had some kind of relationship with a woman named Angie, because he spent the night with her sometimes. It was all very confusing, but Seth didn't want to pry. They'd only been living together for two and a half weeks, and he didn't want to rock the boat or make his new friend uncomfortable, because he genuinely liked his roommate.

      Soon the four of them had found Braden, and they were all sitting at a table together with their dinners.

      Paula immediately launched into the plans they'd made. "This Saturday, we'll spend the night at the Benson Hotel. We got one room with two queen beds on the seventh floor. Once we check in, we'll check out all the supposedly haunted areas, and if nothing supernatural happens, we'll split into smaller groups to see if that prompts anything. The next Saturday, will be a tour of Portland's Underground Shanghai Tunnels. Because it's October, they have a special haunted tour, and we have tickets for seven-thirty. The third Saturday, we'll spend the night at the Heathman Hotel and we actually got room 510, which is supposed to be haunted. Then on the last Saturday, we'll be taking the twilight tombstone tour of the Lone Fir Cemetery."

      "That all sounds fun, even if we don't see any ghosts." Jessie sounded enthusiastic. "I've never stayed in a hotel as nice as the Benson."

      Paula grinned at him, and the two of them monopolized the conversation, discussing the amenities at nice hotels.

      Seth easily kept track of what they were saying without diverting much brainpower to their conversation and instead surreptitiously watched Olivia. He found her strikingly beautiful. He knew Jessie was attracted to Paula, but he found everything about Paula off-putting. The mask of thick makeup, the costume of revealing tight clothing, and the brash personality all reminded him of an actress performing instead of being a genuine person. Olivia, on the other hand, seemed genuine with her lack of makeup, comfortable yet pretty clothing, and introspective СКАЧАТЬ