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She had needed the reassurance of a hot cup of tea to steady her nerves, and she didn’t know how long Chloe would be in collecting their breakfasts. Phoebe was grateful that Aunt Trish hadn't followed them upstairs, wondering if something had gone wrong with their morning.
Well, something had gone wrong...seriously wrong.
"Jenna, if that was some kind of joke, it wasn't funny," Phoebe whispered pleadingly into the air, not really expecting her sister to answer. "Not funny, at all."
Phoebe had seen remnants of spirits before, and she had even caught a glimpse of a banshee. But she had never, ever seen another apparition the way she could her older sister.
Until today.
"Think of something else, Phoebe," she told herself as she peered out the window. Chloe still hadn't exited the diner. She must have gotten stuck talking to Betty, who had no doubt made a pitstop while on the gossip mill train. Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe there was a chance that she had information from way back then. “This isn’t working.”
Phoebe let the sheer curtain fall from her fingers before turning around to face the living room. Part of the area gave the impression a bomb had gone off, with three separate sweaters and a pair of jeans thrown over the overstuffed chair. Two different types of boots had also been discarded next to the couch.
Chloe had decorated the upstairs apartment, but she eventually planned on moving into Phoebe's neighborhood come summer. In the meantime, she had painted the living room a cheerful sky blue and retouched the corners of the white built-in bookcases along the far wall on either side of a matching TV stand. The shelves had been filled with books, framed photos, and knickknacks.
To the left, the small galley kitchen gleamed with stainless steel appliances and blue accents. The fridge was covered in photos from some of their trips, and quirky magnets secured various takeout menus. A bowl of fresh lemons sat on the counter next to a vase of wildflowers.
Phoebe peered down the short hallway that led to the bedroom and bathroom. The long floor runner was that of a sunflower, and there were framed pictures on the wall of Chloe's family. Both doors to the bathroom and bedroom were open.
"Please don't appear," Phoebe murmured, wondering if those on the other side of the veil would listen. The sight of the apparition had been unsettling, but not in the same way she experienced when being visited by Jenna. The two were distinctly different, and Phoebe couldn't help but wonder if she was finally losing a grip on her sanity. Maybe her parents had been right all along. "Please don't appear if you’re not my sister."
The front door banged open, Chloe's sudden entrance causing Phoebe to spill her tea. She moaned in protest. She was on edge, and she didn't like it one bit.
"Breakfast is served!" Chloe announced a little too cheerfully as she kicked the door shut behind her. She had been trying her best to settle Phoebe's nerves, but that wasn't going to happen for the foreseeable future. "Dishtowel is on the—"
"I know, I know," Phoebe muttered as she closed the distance to the sink. She set her teacup down before grabbing the dishtowel off the counter. She returned to where she had been standing and wiped up the droplets of tea that had landed on the hardwood floor. "Chloe, I saw a dead person. It is one thing to see Jenna, but this was…different. This isn’t good. At all."
Chloe made her way over to the coffee table. She set the cup holder down. Two were tea according to the strings hanging from the sides. The white takeout bag already had a grease stain on the bottom.
"Pheebs, you saw a banshee a few months ago." Chloe unzipped her puffer jacket, but she hesitated before throwing it on top of the clothes that were on the chair. It wasn't long before she was shoving her jacket into a garbage bag, doing the same with Phoebe's jacket. "Don't worry. I have an extra one you can wear until we can swing by your place. Start eating your breakfast while I change clothes."
Phoebe's house was located twenty minutes outside of town. The urge to drive home and bury herself underneath the covers on her bed was quite tempting, but apparitions weren't something she could escape.
She tossed the dishtowel onto the small counter before making her way to the couch. Checking the small squares on the strings, she realized that Chloe had brought her two different teas—English Breakfast and some type of herbal tea.
Maybe the herbal tea would help calm her nerves.
"I ordered you pancakes, bacon, and plenty of hashbrowns," Chloe called out from the bedroom. "By the way, Trish managed to stop me when I came into the yarn shop. She wanted to know if we found anything yet."
"What did you tell her?" Phoebe took a long sip of the herbal tea. The warmth seeped into her hands and the sweetness coated her tongue. She nodded her approval, and she was finally able to relax a little. "I haven't even had a chance to tell Mom or Dad about the dirt underneath Jenna's fingernails."
"I told Trish that we drove to the high school to pick up Jenna's student file." Chloe's voice wasn't so distant anymore. She walked into the living room wearing a pair of brown corduroy pants, an oversized cream sweater, and enough perfume to take down an elephant. "It wouldn't surprise me if she knocks on the door sometime soon."
"Aunt Trish is just worried about Mom." Phoebe set her tea down to unpack the food. Now that she wasn't alone, she was more comfortable. "I need to drive over to my parents’ house before we go anywhere else today. Oh, and please don't mention what I saw in the school’s parking lot. I don’t think they can handle anything more than what we told them last night."
Phoebe made a face after lifting the lid on one of the containers. The contents included a veggie omelet. She slid it toward Chloe, who had already plopped herself on the couch.
"My lips are sealed," Chloe said as she chose one of the coffees from the cup holder. The melodic chimes from her bracelets were muffled by the sleeve of her sweater. "Have you looked at Jenna's file?"
"No, not yet." Phoebe wasn't about to admit that she had been standing in the same place for who knew how long dreading that some apparition would show itself. "I did write Derek Vance's name on the whiteboard."
Phoebe began to pour maple syrup over her pancakes instead of looking inside the folder that had Jenna's name printed on the tab. Phoebe needed something in her stomach before reading over the papers tucked inside.
"You mentioned that Olivia still lives in town, right?" Chloe sat back against the cushion with her omelet and a plastic fork. "She would be the one to know if Jenna was involved with Derek."
"Jenna never said anything to me about Derek," Phoebe stressed after she had taken a few bites of her food. Chloe had been right about breakfast. Phoebe was more like herself now that she had ingested some pancakes. "Plus, Jenna was leaving for New York after that summer. I highly doubt that she would have gotten seriously involved with anyone."
"Summer fling?"
