Page 49 of A Very No Strings Halloween

He still doesn’t acknowledge me.

“Billy!”

He sees me out of the corner of his eye and shouts, “Mothahfuck!”

I scream.

We both freeze and stare at each other for a few seconds until we can really focus on one another, and we burst out laughing.

“Jesus,” he says. “I didn’t hear you come in.” He steps out of the bathtub and runs his fingers through his dark hair. He looks so cute in his unbuttoned flannel shirt.

“Yeah, well, I heardyou…” I almost lean in to kiss him. Which is not a thing that we do. But it feels like it should be. “Got your caulk out, I see.”

“Awww yeah. I’ve been putting this caulk to work all over this house.”

“What was that song you were singing?”

“Huh? When?”

“Just now.”

“Was I singing?” He looks genuinely confused.

“And dancing a little bit.”

“I was?” His brow furrows. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Billy look confused like this before. He usually just goes with the flow. “That is so weird. I’ve had this song in my head ever since I got here today. But I don’t think I ever heard it before. And I definitely didn’t realize I was singing it.”

Yeah, that checks out, and that’s not creepy at all…

“Well…sounded like you were having fun!”

“Whatcha got there?” He nods at the box of letters. “Cigars?”

That makesme laugh. “No! It’s the letters.”

“What letters?”

“The ones Lara wanted.”

His face is blank.

“Remember, you said that she told you she was looking for the letters Lars wrote to her?”

He looks less confused now. “Ohhhh. Yeah, right. From the Ouija night.”

“Yeah.”

“So we’re doin’ that again?” He sounds oddly excited about the prospect of contacting a ghost again.

“Yeah. I left the board here and that bag of salt is still in the bedroom, so I guess we should contact her that way. I could just try reading the letters out loud to see if that does it for her, but I don’t really feel her presence right now—do you?”

“You mean Lara?”

“Yeah.”

“No, not yet. I mean, you’re not acting like her right now, right?”

“What?” Now I’m confused. “When was I acting like her?”