Paranormal Keepers

One

The summer moon is bright enough to clearly make out the ordinary sights of the cemetery that don't include my friends gathered around a Ouija board in the center: granite of all different colors and shapes bearing the names of mothers and fathers missed by a list of grieving children, tall crosses and stone angels watching over those with certain religious beliefs, even an old crypt with the remains of some rich, local celebrity who died so long ago that no one knows much about him anymore. There's a damp, sweet smell embedded in the air, still lingering from the brief rain shower earlier in the afternoon. Although I'm not really afraid, my breaths sound extraordinarily shallow, and I swear the dirt wheezes underneath my feet.

I don't believe in the whole thought process behind cemeteries-a place to bury your dead loved ones under the ground where their bodies are left to rot and decay among the tree roots and bugs, only to stand over them while trying not to picture their exposed bones grinning up at you through six feet of dirt. The concept of the place is unnerving.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Harper?" Gavin whispers, brushing his soft lips against my ear. He closes the pickup door behind me before wrapping his built arms around my waist, trailing kisses down my neck and across my bare shoulder. "I can think of several other things we could do instead."

My heart races with his touch. I readjust the straps of my tank top before he decides to strip me down in public. "You really think I'm rattled by the thought of a little séance? Please. Everyone knows Jess only believes in this stuff because her parents are hippie wannabes. Knowing her, this has something to do with that cat she ran over last week."

Jess has been a friend since kindergarten when she moved into my neighborhood. Her parents, both really into the art scene, are infamous for smoking pot and spouse-swapping with their other artsy friends. They're nice and everything, just incredibly odd. My mom never let me go to their house alone, so Jess would always come over to play Barbies in my room.

Giggling, I wrestle Gavin's wandering hand out from underneath the back of my top. "Would you stop? If we wait any longer, Jess will use her hocus-pocus on both of us."

I stand on my toes to press my lips to his, intending to keep him satisfied for another hour or two with a short peck, but he pulls me closer and slips his gentle tongue into my mouth. Softening beneath him, I wrap my arms around his blond head and hum.

Gavin is my first official boyfriend. We hooked up freshman year after he accidentally toppled over me in the stands while rebounding a basketball. Like pretty much every other girl at our school, I had my eye on him long before that. Between having a smile that would turn anyone's knees to butter, piercing blue eyes among a thick nest of eyelashes and the muscular build of a twenty year old, how could I not? Until we met, however, he was too focused on sports to give any thought to dating. It turned out we have the same warped sense of humor and passion for movies.

We became the kind of "it" couple everyone finds nauseating because we're that into each other, hardly ever spending a minute apart unless he's involved in one of his three sports or I'm at dance practice.

As he kisses me in the middle of the cemetery, I'm reminded how perfect we are together. After confessing our mutual love a few months into the relationship, we decided there probably isn't anything that could ever break us apart.

Gavin pulls back, flashing his brilliant white smile-a result of his mom's insistence of using bleach strips. The flare to his sky-blue eyes turn my insides to goo. "All I could think about today was what I was going to do to you once we were alone."

"Hmmm...in that case, I'm sure your dad was impressed with how focused you were at work." I snuggle beneath his warm arm and inhale the scent of the designer cologne I gave him for his sixteenth birthday. Moments like these I want to forget about the rest of the world and just get lost in him. "Have you asked him for time off to go to Mexico? What if you can't come up with the money? We're buying our tickets this week. Will you please at least consider borrowing the money from my parents? You can always pay them back."