It was not possible. It was impossible.

But there was no way to explain away what I had seen.

I was shaken. I gave a hurried look over my shoulder to my window of my bedroom, remembering the moment I had seen my dead friend staring back at me in the mirror. Unable to make sense of it I forced myself to look back to my neighbor’s house.

What I had briefly seen in my reflection in my bathroom mirror was not real. That’s what I had to keep telling myself. I shook my head sub consciously trying to rid my mind of the brief and terrifying memory. Vision. Was I crazy? Was that what it meant?

Was I losing my grasp on reality?

Parker was dead. Gone. He had died from a brain embolism. I exhaled slowly releasing the pressure building up inside my chest. He was in heaven or wherever people went once they were no longer alive. I took a deep breath trying to think about anything but what I seen.

I was trying to make sense of something that simply wasn’t possible. There were only a few explanations for seeing a ghost of my dead friend. One, I was now able to see ghosts for some weird reason, or I had been hallucinating which meant I wasn’t well. Or I was losing my mind.

I tapped my foot agitatedly, checking the time on my phone. My agitation moving from thoughts of Parker to Damien.

Where the hell was he? I shot an annoyed took at the neighboring house wondering how much longer Damien was going to be. He was infuriating.

My thoughts kept going back to the Parker no matter how hard I tired to focus on something else. Was I losing my mind? Was that why I was seeing things that weren’t there? It was the only explanation. Or had I suddenly developed a physic ability, which seemed unlikely. Surely you had to be into that type to even consider that type of ability and I wasn’t into it at all.

I had never seen a ghost before.

I was so engrossed in the reasons why I had seen my dead friend in the reflection in my mirror I didn’t notice the car that pulled up in front of me until it honked.

I put my hand to my heart as the sudden sound shook me right out of any explanation I was trying to put together. Damien smirked from the driver’s side and I glared at him while I yanked the door open and got in.

While I had rushed to get ready this morning, barely pulling a brush through my hair he looked like he was ready for a model shoot. I glared at him, feeling every one of my hangups beside him.

“Took you long enough,” I muttered under my breath. I was agitated and annoyed but even I could in that moment recognize it wasn’t entirely from his actions. Deep down I was scared of what I had seen and what that meant.

“Aren’t you just a ray of sunshine first thing into the morning,” he quirked, continuing to smirking which only irked me more.

I wanted to wipe that smile off his face but I curled my hand into a fist and refrained from the violence I wanted to exert on him. Despite not wanting to be in his company at all, I had to remember my grandmother this and she would not be happy if I acted out what I was considering.

“I’ve been waiting twenty minutes.” I folded my arms and glared at him.

He was so annoying. No apologies that any normal person would have said at being so late.

He shrugged. “I’m here now.” His response only seemed to irritate me more.

Then he put switched on some music as he pulled away. It was loud, heavy metal. It only added to my growing agitation and anger toward the driver.

I rolled my eyes before averting my gaze from him. He was so annoying.

He turned down the music. “Put your seatbelt on.”

It was the strangest instruction coming from him.

I gave him an annoyed look but did what he instructed. He turned the music up again tapping his long fingers against the steering wheel and I returned to my stance of trying to ignore him.

I wasn’t sure this was worth the trouble. I couldn’t imagine having to deal with his presence every morning and afternoon. At this rate I was going to be up for murder before the week was finished.

He made me so angry I could scream, yet he seemed to oblivious to my seething emotion.

When we pulled up the school there was a group of girls who moved to wait on the driver’s side of the car.

“Your fan club?” I unlocked the seatbelt.

“Jealous?” He winked at me.

My mouth fell open. The nerve. He was so full of himself.

My chest rose and fell with each angry breath. “No Damien, I’m not jealous. I don’t like you. You’re a conceited asshole. I would rather swim in shark infested water than spend another second in your company if you want full honesty.”

His smile widened. “Whatever you say Tessa.”

The way name rolled off his tongue made me focus on his mouth. I swallowed, reminding myself that I was angry I was with him.

He didn’t value my time and seemed to be obvious to my dislike for him. In fact he seemed to revel in it.

I glared at him. “No. Never. Not in a million years.”

This time he remained silent, enjoying every moment of my balking.

“As if,” I muttered and opened the door quickly. Intent on getting away from him as quickly as possible.

He smiled and gave me a knowing look as he unfolded his large form as he got out the car. The girls surrounding him briefly forgotten as he stared at me for a few more seconds.

I got my school bag and slammed the door shut. I hated how he affected me and I hated it more that I could not seem to get a handle on my temper. When he was near I seemed to lose all control on my emotions.

It would have been better to feign indifference. It would only get worse if he knew he could illicit this type of responses from me.

“Hey,” Joey greeted sounding a little out of breath as he fell in step beside me.

I hadn’t even noticed Joey as I had been fully focussed on the asshole.

He had been less than impressed when I had messaged to tell him what my grandmother had organized.

“Hi,” I greeted, trying to suppress my anger.

“Everything okay?” He looked over his shoulder in Damien’s direction.

“Yeah.”

“Did he do something to you?” he asked when I kept walking away quickly refusing to slow down.

“No. He is just annoying.”

Joey studied me.

“It’s nothing. He is just a conceited jerk.” I brushed off his concern.

“Well he doesn’t seem to have a shortage of admirers.”

I didn’t like how I felt when I thought about all the girls vying for his attention. I shouldn’t care and the fact that I seemed to only added to my frustration.

“They’ll get over it as soon as he opens his mouth.”

“You really don’t like him,” Joey commented and I slowed down.

“No. I don’t.” I shrugged. “He kept me waiting for twenty minutes this morning and didn’t even bother apologizing for being late.”

“Don’t let him get to you,” he soothed, reaching out to rest his hand to my shoulder.

He was right. I didn’t want to think about Damien at all.

Joey massaged my shoulder slightly. “Just shrug it off.”

I nodded. He was right.

“You’re right.” I took a deep trembling breath and exhaled, trying to rid myself of all the built up anger.

I forced a smile, my mind still on Damien. How was I going to cope with being in close proximity to him?

“Come on,” he said putting his arm around me and pressing a kiss to the side of my head.

I let him lead me into the school but I couldn’t stop myself from glancing over my shoulder to take one last look at Damien. He was smiling and the girls surrounding him were lapping his attention up.

It made me feel something other than anger.

I didn’t want to analyze it. I didn’t like Damien and I didn’t want anything to do with him. That was all that mattered.