Free Wraith by Edie Claire

times tried to deny altogether. It was an
invasion I found hard to tolerate.
    With the car heater running, we dried out and warmed
up quickly, and within a few minutes the skies has lightened and we were cruising
down the highway with the windows cracked again. 
    The windward side of the island was gorgeous. Being
created by volcanoes, Oahu had no shortage of mountainous terrain; but I could
see that its most dramatic peaks were along the eastern coast. Here, sharp
points of green and gray stood up acutely, their tops buried in misty purplish
clouds, their sides swooping nearly straight down to the water’s edge. The road
hugged the narrow coastline with spectacular views in either direction, keeping
me well entertained while Matt—who admitted he knew virtually nothing about the
area—told me more about his high school and why I should go there.
    Zane remained in the back seat, but said nothing;
and when once or twice I glanced at him he seemed to be absorbed in thought.
    Matt stopped the car again near Chinaman’s Hat, an
interesting cone-shaped island that popped out of the water a couple hundred
yards offshore, just begging for a child’s game of "king of the
mountain." His prediction had been correct. The sun was shining again.
    "So," he said, settling next to me on top
of a picnic table. "What do you think of The Rock so far?"
    "Love The Rock," I said without
hesitation. If only I could move Kylee and Tara here with me. My phone
had been buzzing with texts all afternoon,but I had been waiting for a
moment alone to answer them.
    "I was thinking," Matt began, looking at
me hopefully, "are you hungry yet? One of my favorite restaurants is right
around the bay, in Kailua. If we eat an early dinner now, we can skip most of
rush hour in Honolulu. We might not make it back to the North Shore by eight,
though, if you still want to see the high schools and everything."
    I worked hard to suppress a grin. My eyes floated
involuntarily toward Zane, who was leaning against a palm tree a few feet away.
He removed his sunglasses and threw me a pointed look.
    Told you so.
    I didn’t believe that Matt had any real romantic
interest in me—twenty minutes with the football-playing wrestler had shown me
that he was a guy who could take his pick where girls were concerned—and to
date, I had never been anybody’s pick for anything but a gal pal. I was too
tall, too bony, and—according to the undisputed queen of flirtation, Kylee—too
unwilling to feed a guy’s ego with mindless adoration.
    Matt, I assessed, was a genuinely friendly enough
sort to enjoy spending an afternoon with "the new girl" for a change
of pace, if nothing else. But his interest would end there. If I did happen to
run into him at school in the fall, I would probably be long since forgotten.
    But one never knew.
    And I was enjoying his company so far.
    "Sure," I answered brightly. "I’ll
just call my parents and give them an update. What kind of restaurant?"
    "Oh, they’ve got everything," Matt
answered with a smile. "I like the kalua pig—that's barbecued pork,
by the way—but you can get burgers, spaghetti, whatever." He sprang up.
"I’m making a run to the restroom. Meet you back at the car?"
    I nodded, and he headed off.
    Zane looked after him, scowling.
    "What?" I demanded. "You don’t
seriously think he’s dangerous, do you?"
    Zane looked thoughtful for a moment, then came and
sat down beside me. "No," he answered. "He’s a nice enough
guy."
    There was a melancholy tone to his voice that
disturbed me. A gust of wind blew off the water and whipped my hair around my
face; predictably, it didn’t stir his curls at all. I frowned. His transparent
ripples seemed suddenly more prominent.
    "Then what’s wrong?" I probed.
    He looked at me with surprise. "Nothing’s
wrong," he said more cheerfully. "I mean, other than being dead, of
course. But I’m used to that. Never mind me."
    I eyed him suspiciously. "Liar. There is too
something wrong. And it