Ghost Girl by Becca Marien (great book club books txt) 📕

Olive Hicks sat on her couch, a thin throw blanket around her shoulders. Her head fell forward as she dosed off. She jerked her head up and looked around. She was alone, her parents and sister long gone to sleep. She looked at her cell phone on the coffee table, screen blank.     

She had lost count of how many prayers she sent up to a God she wasn’t sure she even knew of. Ring, she begged her phone. She reached over and tapped the screen. No missed calls or messages. Kenna’s parents had promised to call her if they heard any news.

Olive and Evelyn had been best friends since preschool. Evelyn was the new girl, and had everything anyone could want. When one of the girls stole Evelyn’s Hello kitty pencil box, and she didn’t do anything about it, Olive punched the girl and handed Evelyn her pencil box. Ever since then, Olive felt responsible for her.

This is why Evelyn’s disappearance was her fault. Evelyn was acting strange all week. Sleeping through class, and showing up to a few classes late. Her hair got a bit messier, her clothes a bit darker. Evelyn didn’t want to talk, so Olive didn’t make her.

But she should have. She should of grabbed Evelyn by the shoulders, and shook out her deepest secrets. If she had, Evelyn wouldn’t be gone. The cops suggested drugs to her parents. They laughed, and then stopped.

The cops where serious. They thought it was drugs because she was acting different. Her parents said her sleeping and eating patterns varied at best.

Thursday morning the cops pulled Olive out of class. Her Father sat with them, his hand over his mouth as he shook his head. Her first instinct was that Daisy, her sister was dead. But as she approached she learned the truth. The cop asked her one questioned that stuck with her for the next three days.

Did Evelyn ever talk about being depressed? No. Evelyn had everything. Two parents that loved her, a flashy car, nice clothes, Her and Olsen. What did she have to be depressed about?

What was the definition of depression anyways? Being sad? Being alone? The cell phone lit up and buzzed as Olive jumped. She scrambled for her phone and typed in her password.

 But it was only Olsen, asking her if she had heard anything. No, she texted back. She was only barely starting to talk to him. She had asked him out, and he had turned her down. That summer Evelyn was dating him.

Of course he would pick her. She was flawless and didn’t know it. It had hurt Olive when she saw that and stopped talking to him all together. She lied for the first time to Evelyn and told her she was just busy and her afterschool activities conflicted with his. Evelyn believed her.

She always did. She put her phone down and crawled into a ball. She hadn’t been really sleeping. Not ever since she found out about Evelyn being gone. Her parents, and Evelyn’s, and the few times she had Seen Olsen’s, all asked her if she was okay.

 Yeah I’m fine, she lied, I just hope they find her. The cops had grilled her about places she could go, and what kind of person she was. But hers and Olsen’s answers were the same. She wouldn’t have gone anywhere alone, because she was afraid of being alone.

Olive was failing miserably at acting like she was okay. He had met her… the summer before high school. She was always the head strong one. She was stubborn, and frankly scared the shit out of him. He leaned against my locker as He watched her Yawn her way through the hall.

She tried her locker combo three times before standing there and giving it the evil eye. He swooped into the rescue just then and shouldered her out of the way.
“How’s it going?” He muttered.
“Like a basket of peaches.” She muttered back, and then shoved a book into her locker when I opened it.

“You need to sleep O.” He put a hand on her shoulder, and moved her to face him.

Olive gave him an annoyed look, “What Olsen?”

“When was the last time you slept? Eaten?”

“I can’t remember.” She slammed her locker, “All I can think about is Evelyn.”
He stood there watching her, clutching his strap to his bag.
“Why aren’t you as tired and worried as I am?”
“Because I’m too busy looking after you. There is nothing I can do to help Evelyn.”
“Leave me alone.” She shut her locker, “I don’t want to be your friend.”
“Well the way I see it, you only have me, and I have you. Now, are you going to look through Evelyn’s room while I distract her Mom or not?”

“Fine.” She sighed, looking over her shoulder, “I’ll do it.”
    Olsen had noticed that ever since Evelyn had gone missing, Olive was constantly looking over her shoulder. They were supposed to be worrying about college and finals. Not looking for the girl who, well just vanished in thin air. And it seemed like that is exactly what happened to Evelyn.

 Evelyn was always a constant. If it was one person he could count on being around it was her. The two of them were constantly talking. Be it over the phone, through texts, or face to face. Olsen had noticed it immediately when Evelyn began to change.

Even before her own mother had taken notice.  As first it was little changes and he wasn’t worried, because she was still her. Then she began to change in big waves. The biggest one, was she stopped texting and calling him first. Their conversations where left short, and opened ended.

He wasn’t worried that she was kidnapped. He knew she left. He just wanted to know why she had cut him off. He could have gone with her. He would send their parents texts, and she wouldn’t like that.

 So he now understood why she had cut him off. She began cutting people off one by one in the days leading up to her disappearance. He took little comfort in the fact that he was the last one she cut off. But it gave him hope. Maybe she would listen to him.

Hear him out for old times’ sake. And if not he could always grab her tiny ass and toss her over his shoulder and bring her home. There was always another choice.

Victoria Castor sat in her kitchen on a bar stool with the house hone between her arms. Her cell phone was next to her right elbow, the volume up as far as it would go. Something wasn’t right. Evelyn always texted her before she was going anywhere. She also texted her when she got to where she was going, and when she was leaving to another place. Her daughter was extremely responsible that way.

The first twenty four hours after Evelyn had gone missing where the hardest. The cops told her a person had to be gone with no contact to anyone for twenty four hours before they started looking around. Yes the cops where now involved but they should of found her by now. How far can a little tiny girl get without her car? Or her wallet?

How had she not noticed that Evelyn wasn’t in her room? She told herself that since Evelyn wasn’t a reckless child, that she had no reason to suspect anything. And that was the honest truth. She could see out of her peripheral vision her husband had just entered the kitchen. He sighed setting his brief case on the counter.

“Victoria, you need to sleep.”
“What I need, is to find my daughter.”
“Are we really going to do this now? She’s my daughter too. I raised her since she was six months old.”

“I’m sorry. Your right.”
“Why don’t I look after the phones while you sleep. What good will you be to the cops if you can’t answer any of the questions they ask? I promise to wake you up the second I hear anything.”

“Okay.” She sighed.

  Once she was heading upstairs Deven sighed. He walked over to the fridge and grabbed out everything he needed to make a sandwich. He loved Evelyn, but couldn’t help but to be mad at her for what she was doing. There was a very high chance that she had trusted the wrong person and got kidnapped. That would be just like her.

 He should of taught her how to fight. Should have taken No for an answer and tossed it across the room. Because now his daughter was missing, with no way to protect herself. He put his sandwich together and took a bite looking at the phone. Ring damn you.

 He didn’t know how much more of this he could take. Of Evelyn being gone and his wife looking like the walking dead. Of seeing the parents of people Evelyn went to school with at the store. All the whispers and the pathetic I’m sorry looks earned everywhere he went. He knew in his heart that Evelyn hadn’t run away.

Because if she had, she would have been found by now. He didn’t share this with his wife however. The sharp ring of the phone made him almost drop his sandwich. He scrambled for the phone so it wouldn’t wake Victoria.

“Hello?” He questioned.
“Mr. Castor?”

“Yes.”
“We need you down here at the police station. We may have something. We need you to come prepared.”
“I’m on my way.”

 Deven unplugged the phone and reached for his keys.

She lit a cigarette, and took