A Pocket Full of Posies (Book 1)

Chapter Thirteen

I'm officially insane. It's happened, I've cracked. Do I need to be sectioned? Probably. Carmen, Lily, and I must have been outside the building for about ten seconds when I crash back to reality. As we climb back into the car, the women are discussing university courses or something, but I can't focus on them. Seriously, what is going on? I just saw about twenty ghosts all in one place eating dead guy food and drink, and reacted like it was normal.

I've never seen more than a few ghosts in one place, let alone a group of them having a goddamn party. Did any of them see me? I don't think so. What about the fact I apparently found some soggy manmade caves to be the absolute best thing since sliced bread? I mean, bloody hell. Despite my delirium having vanished, one thing that remains is my mood. I feel good. I feel really good.

Lily drops us back to the flat at around six in the evening. She says her goodbyes to us, tells me it was lovely to meet me, and then disappears as suddenly as she arrived. The second the door to our flat closes, Carmen releases the longest sigh I've ever heard.

"God, she really knocks it out of me," she mutters as we head into the communal area. "Thanks for rolling with this, seriously."

"It's cool, it was fun," I reply. "She's not that bad, c'mon."

We sit down onto one of the black sofas, and out of habit from today, I grab Carmen's hand and rest it on my lap. Realising what I'm doing, I'm about to let her go, but decide not to. I don't really want to. I don't know whether it's my good mood that's making me this bold all of a sudden, but I'm just rolling with it. It's not like Carmen is pulling away.

"No, I know, I am harsh on her. I just..." She laughs, and I don't know if she intends it to, but it comes out dryly. "I wish she could shut up about Dad for five minutes. Makes me wonder if she wants to see me, or if she just wants to beat him."

For the first time ever, there's a glint of something shaky in Carmen's voice as she talks about her parents. She must notice her slip up because moments later, she laughs and starts saying something about her parents being part of The Hunger Games--which according to Carmen is a book reference, as she soon explains to me when she notices my blank expression. Sounds like a rip-off of Battle Royale to me.

Before I can say much back, she jumps up from the sofa and starts talking about drinks, and if I want one. She's already pouring me a glass of wine as she asks, so I'm not sure I have much of a choice.

"This was a fiver from the booze shop round the corner, so it may kill you," she says as she hands me the glass and sits back down. She lifts her own glass. "Chin chin."

"A fiver? Jesus, don't spoil me," I reply sarcastically.

"Fine, I'll take it back," she replies as she reaches out to grab my glass of wine, which I quickly snatch away. "Yeah, I thought so, dickwad."

She lets out a laugh before taking a gulp of her wine, then places it on the floor below us. As I take a sip of my own drink, she turns around on the sofa so that she's hanging off it--her head dangling so that it's almost touching the floor, while her feet are in the air. Her dark hair is sprawled across the carpet like a splash of water, and she shuts her eyes. She moves her feet around in a rhythmic motion as she hums a tune.

"You smashed or something?" I ask with raised eyebrows.

"What? No, this is my first one. I just like sitting like this." She giggles. "And c'mon, if anyone's smashed, it's you. Did you not see yourself in those caves earlier? I'd swear you'd just popped a shitload of pills."

That's a fair point. I was hoping it wasn't that obvious. I'm about to give Carmen some sarcastic response when Annabel appears on one of the kitchen stools, and it bugs me a little. I kind of want to be alone with Carmen.