Free Dark Spirits by Rebekkah Ford

a princess for a Gothic punk style, and now was becoming a grease monkey. I always thought Carrie had a cute style with her shoulder length dark hair and dark red tips and punk clothes.
    Nathan placed his hands together in prayer and moved them back and forth. “Then can you please stay home tonight? Please, Paige, for me?”
    He was so damn cute. I couldn’t deny his plea. I playfully rolled my eyes and pretended to ponder it.
    He stretched across my lap and looked up at me with those dark blue eyes. “ Please, ” he said again.
    I leaned over and softly kissed his lips. “All right, I’ll stay home.”
    He smiled and nudged my head down so he could have another kiss. I teased his bottom lip with my teeth, knowing it drove him crazy. A moan whispered out of him. I then snaked my hand up his T-shirt and ran my fingers over the smooth contours of his abdomen. He bolted up, rose to his feet, and pointed at me. His eyes were bright.
    A crooked smile formed on his face. “You’re bad.”
    I feigned disbelief. “Who me?”
    He laughed. “You’re a gorgeous siren who could lure anybody into your arms. But I must go before I deliciously fall under your spell.” He gave me a quick kiss on the forehead. “I’ll call you before I leave, but I shouldn’t be too long.”
    “Okay,” I said, pulling the orange and white afghan off the back of the brown couch. I covered myself and lay back down, grabbing the remote control. “I think I’ll channel surf for a while.”
    “I’ll see ya later.”
    I lifted my hand out of the afghan and did a pageant wave.
    A half hour or so later, I awoke with a start. A show about aliens and Roswell blared from the TV. I must’ve fallen asleep at the beginning of it because it was almost over. My cell kept vibrating on my stomach, the very thing that had startled me. I wondered if it was Nathan, telling me he’d be home soon. Pushing the afghan back, I lifted my cell, and squinted at it. When I saw who it was, my heart raced.
     Brayden.
     I dropped the phone beside me and took a deep breath.
    “You knew he’d get a hold of you,” the little voice in my head said. “He’s one of your best friends and new to immortality like yourself. He might even know things you don’t know about.”
     “Yeah, but he’s my ex-boyfriend and is still in love with me,” I told the annoying voice.
    “So,” The soft voice said. “It’s not like you’re cheating on Nathan.”
    For several minutes, the duality inside my head raged until finally I couldn’t take it any longer.
    “Aw, hell,” I said aloud, lifting the cell to my face to read the message and was surprised how the two words he’d typed instantly brought back a flood of fond memories.
    I grinned.

 
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
    Tree house.
    My heart swelled with a warmth only friendship and love could bring. Immediately, my mind flipped through a catalog of memories associated with that one word.
    When we were eleven, Carrie, Brayden, Tree, and I decided to build a tree house deep in the woods behind my house. Mom used to babysit them, so we were almost always together, playing outside my home. So one summer morning, all four of us sat at my kitchen table and designed it together. Naturally, there were squabbling between the girls and boys, like the boys wanted to build a pirate’s ship into the tree. And then, they started talking and acting like pirates, which was totally annoying. Carrie and I rolled our eyes and had told them if we didn’t build a house, then we weren’t building it at all. Finally, they’d agreed, and we went to work on the design.
    Brayden always wanted to be an architect and contractor, and I have to admit, even at the age of eleven, he was a genius. We told him what we wanted, and he drew it out. Then we got the materials and began building it. Of course, we had some help from the adults, but we’d built most of it ourselves. Brayden’s dad did what was called a girder system, which were beams that