“Okay, first of all, you have got to stop calling them that. They are your lemmings now and you need to keep that in mind. Seriously, Zoe. And secondly, you can’t call me your fairy godmother. It’s offensive.”

I open my mouth to apologize and he chuckles. I flip him off.

“So if I can’t call them lemmings, what should I call them? Minions? Ooh, I know, groupies.”

“How about friends?”

I pout. “Do I have to?”

He nods. “Yep sorry. It’s part of being the leader.”

“What if I don’t want to be the leader?”

He chuckles again, “You should have considered that before you started dating the most popular guy in school and dressing like a model.”

His eyes widen. “Hold up. Is that what the wardrobe make over was all about? Landing yourself a boy?”

I grimace. “Busted.”

He folds his arms. “Zoe, I can honestly say I’ve never been more proud of you than I am right now. Using your feminine wiles to reel in a helpless man-fish. Albeit a very hot man-fish. Seriously.”

“Feel free to shut the hell up.”

“I just want to relish this moment,” he says with a devious grin.

“And I want to not have to kill you and bury the body. I’m willing to do many things, Carlos, digging isn’t one of them.”

“And you wonder why the police suspect you of being a psychotic murderer.”

I pout, “Well, they never actually accused me of being psychotic.”

“Only because they don’t know you.”

I stand up, setting Brim on the floor beside Carlos. She immediately begins rubbing herself against him. He sneezes.

“That’s low, Zoe.”

I shrug. “Kitten bomb. New weapon in the field of allergen warfare.”

He gently brushes Brim aside. “Just remember, that with great popularity comes great responsibility.”

I raise an eyebrow.

He sighs. “I mean, Kaylee used her powers for evil. Remember that girl freshman year that ended up in the hospital because Kaylee called her fat so she stopped eating?”

“How could I forget? I always thought Kaylee should put that on her resume someday. Or the time that guy in her Chemistry class accused her of cheating so she had the football team push his Jeep into the pool?”

He nods. “Classic Kaylee. But that’s what I’m talking about. What if you used your newfound popularity to actually make people’s lives a little better, instead of making people’s lives miserable?”

“I’m intrigued. What are you thinking?”

“Well, like, you know that the debate team just lost their funding and they can’t afford to travel to state this year.”

I frown. “No, I actually didn’t know that.”

“I heard one of the kids in my history class talking about it. Anyway, what if the student council—backed by you and your new friends—did a fundraiser or something to help them out?”

“I like it.” I grab a piece of paper and a pencil and hand it to him. “Here, let’s keep a list of ideas.”

Wiping his hands on his slacks he starts scribbling. When he’s finished, he chews absently on the eraser.

“What else?” I ask

“You could ask the principal to extend off campus lunch privileges to underclassmen. It would help with the crowding issues a little.”

I hold up my hands. “Whoa, what do I look like, a miracle worker?”

He tilts his head, “No you look like the reigning Queen of Royal Oak High School.”

I shake my head. “Kaylee was the queen.”

“The queen is dead. Long live the queen.”

I fight off a shudder.

Carlos spends the better part of the evening coming up with causes for me to champion, everything from vending machines to bigger lockers. There’s no way I could accomplish even half of the things he’s scribbling down. Still, he loves making lists and he’s right. I might actually be able to do some good my last year of high school. When he hands me the list I can feel my eyes welling up with tears.

“Are you crying?” He asks, his tone shocked.

I make a face. “Pfft. No. My eyeballs are sweating.”

He chuckles. “Okay, this is me. What’s up?”

I take a deep breath, trying to steady myself before I speak. The emotions are washing over me so quickly I feel like I’m in an estrogen blender. What is my problem?

I rub at the corner of my eye. “I suppose I just thought…I thought I’d go all the way through high school as a nobody, you know? Like, I figured no one would ever see me, ever care what I thought or what I did. Now it’s like—“

“Everyone is watching.”

I nod. “Exactly. I went from being invisible to being the center of attention overnight. All by not actually being myself. I feel like a total fraud.”

As soon as the words are out, I feel the truth of them aching into my bones. I’m a fraud as a girlfriend, a fraud as a friend, and a fraud as a leader. I may have convinced myself I was doing it to help Logan, but deep down, I wanted to be seen. And now I am. And all I can think is how quickly I would give it all back if it meant Logan didn’t have to be dead.

I suck in a sharp gasp.

“What Zoe?”

I look up at Carlos, waiting patiently for me to spill my guts to him. But the thing is, I can’t. I can’t ever say the words that are eating away at my soul. Not out loud, to him or anyone else.

I’m in love with Logan.

I cover my mouth with my hand to keep from laughing hysterically. Of course I’m in love with Logan. He’s the very epitome of the unattainable hero. Handsome, smart, a giant pain in the ass sure, but he’s also a really good guy. He’s perfect actually, except for the fact that he’s dead.

Oh sure. I have a perfectly great guy—one who is still breathing—and the popularity I always wanted. And what do I do? I go and fall for the dude with no pulse.

There is something so very, very wrong with me.

Inside my mind something flashes. What if Logan isn’t really haunting me? What if I’ve had some sort of a mental breakdown? It would actually be more plausible than the truth.

“I wonder.”

“What?” Carlos asks, grabbing another slice of pizza.

“I wonder if there’s some kind of support group for people who are my brand of crazy.”

Carlos winks, “Oh sugar, I doubt it.”

When Carlos leaves it’s after nine and I’m lying in bed, the covers pulled up to my chin, flat on my back and staring at the ceiling. I’m trying to think back, trying to isolate the point when I lost my mind. It’s harder than it sounds because, let’s face it, I’ve been a mess since the day my dad died. I play it over and over in my head, the funeral, seeing Logan in the coffin. Everything rolls through my brain over and over in Technicolor. My stomach is churning and my mouth is watering like I might actually throw up. And I’m so cold I’m shivering all over.

Shock.

I think I’m in shock.

Maybe I should call my mom?

As soon as the thought comes, Logan appears in my room. I feel him more than I see him. The lights are all off, the blinds are closed and the curtains drawn. I’ve even unplugged my alarm clock. It’s just darkness and a hint of shadow.

“Zoe, are you alright?”

The sound of his voice unspools a ribbon of pain inside my hollow chest. I squeeze my eyes closed. Out of nowhere my overhead light flips on. I jerk upright in bed.

Logan is standing there, his hand still hovering over the switch. He glances from it to me, his face just as surprised as I’m sure mine is.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, moving to the foot of my bed and sitting down. I curl my feet out of the way, flopping back down.

“I got accused of murdering your girlfriend today. Cut me some slack.” My voice is bitter and cold, sharper than I mean for it to be. But everything is so raw, I feel like if I don’t strike out at someone—anyone—I’ll just end up cutting myself to shreds.

“Yeah, about that. I followed the cops for a while. Sounds like you were their best lead, but when you were able to explain everything…well, let’s just say they believed you and that’s all that matters.”

“So do they have any other leads? Anything at all?”

He sits back, curling his legs under him, leaning back against the footboard.

“Not really. They are looking for the mystery guy she was seeing. But other than that, nothing. They said she was only a few weeks pregnant, so there’s no chance of recovering any DNA.”

“And even if they could, they would have to have a guy to match it to, which they don’t.”

“Exactly. So I went back to The Tower, that’s where they found her body. They think she was thrown off the top.”

I shiver, adding another layer of goosebumps to my skin.

“And they are sure she didn’t just jump?”

“I guess she’d been pretty badly beaten up first. I saw her body. In the morgue. I just—“

His voice cracks. I fight not to look at him, I don’t want to see the pain in his eyes. I have enough of my own emotional damage to deal with.

“Anyway, afterwards I went to her house, to the cemetery, the school. Anywhere I could think of.”

I swallow and it feels like hot coals going down my throat. “You went looking for her. For her ghost.”

“I didn’t find anything. Noting except that ring wraith that’s been following me. He got really close to me tonight at the cemetery, Zoe. I thought… I just had this feeling like if he touched me, I would disappear. Like he’d eat my soul. I freaked out and screamed at him. I asked him if Kaylee was gone.”

I wait, not moving. I’m completely paralyzed, even my lugs aren’t working.

“He didn’t answer, not that I could hear, but I sort of felt it. It’s hard to explain. But Kaylee isn’t here. He’s not a ghost.”