Love, Like Ghosts: A Bay City Paranormal Investigations Story

jogged out of the hall while most of his classmates were still in their seats.
“Adrian, wait up!”
     
With a frustrated groan, Adrian slowed down to a rapid walk. “I’m late meeting someone, Ryan.
    What’s up?”
Ryan matched his pace, grinning ear to ear. “I heard through the grapevine that some lucky man
finally captured the enigmatic Mr. Broussard. More specifically, I heard you were dating Greg Woodhall.” Surprised, Adrian glanced at Ryan. “You know Greg?”
“Not personally, no. But I know who he is. My friend Isobel was in theater classes with him last year,
and she had a huge crush on him. All to no avail, of course.” Ryan nudged Adrian’s shoulder. “So, it’s
true? You and Greg are an item, for real?”
Adrian rolled his eyes. “Good grief, doesn’t anyone have anything better to talk about than my love
life?”
“It’s your own fault. You wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if you hooked up all the time like a normal
person.” Ryan leaned closer with an exaggerated squint. “Nice hickey, by the way.”
Heat flooded Adrian’s cheeks. He covered the mark on his neck with one hand. “Shut up.” Ryan laughed. “Sorry, it’s just weird to see you walking around with love bites, you know? I was
starting to think you were asexual.”
“I dated Christian for six months in freshman year. Did you forget that already?”
“Dude, Christian never once left you looking like you’d been sexed up by a mountain lion and liked
it.”
It was true, which irritated Adrian beyond belief. He shot a glare at his friend. “Change the subject or
go away.”
Ryan held up a placating hand. “Actually I did have a real reason for stopping you. I wanted to ask
you if you had Dr. Orson’s lecture from last week. I got held up at computer lab and missed it, and they’ve
already taken it down off the website.”
“Oh. Yeah, I have it on my hard drive. I’ll email it to you.”
“Cool, thanks.” Ryan dodged around a slight young man and a tall, rangy girl making out in the
middle of the sidewalk. “I tried to ask you about it last night, but you ignored me in favor of gazing
soulfully into Greg’s eyes.” Folding both hands beneath his chin, Ryan batted his eyelashes. Adrian frowned. “What’re you talking about? I didn’t see Greg last night. I was home alone all night
working on a paper.”
“Really?” Ryan’s eyebrows went up. “Huh. Must’ve been someone else I saw.”
Someone else. With Greg. Last night.
Gazing into his eyes.
Adrian shook off the instant surge of jealousy. Any number of perfectly legitimate reasons existed for
what Ryan had seen.
“Someone else. Yeah.” Adrian forced a laugh. “I would’ve thought you’d be able to recognize me by
now, though.”
“Hey, it was dark, and I only saw him from the back. And the guy had on a knit cap or something. I
just assumed it was you because whoever it was, he was alone under a tree at night with Greg, and I’d
heard y’all were dating. It was definitely Greg, though.” Ryan pointed a finger at Adrian. “If I were you,
I’d find out who this dude is. Looked to me like he was trying to put the moves on your boy.” A trickle of unease ran up Adrian’s spine. He didn’t believe Greg would cheat on him. But something
felt off. Maybe he should ask Greg about it.
No. Ryan probably just saw him talking to a friend of his. If you start asking questions, it’ll look like
you don’t trust him, and he’ll get angry. Just keep it to yourself.
Easier said than done. But Adrian did trust Greg, and he was determined not to let his insecurities turn
something innocuous into a potential source of contention between them. He wouldn’t ask Greg about the
man Ryan had spotted him with last night, no matter how badly he wanted to.
Adrian glanced at his watch and cursed under his breath. “Shit. I need to hurry. I’ll send you that
lecture later this afternoon, all right?”
“Sure.” Ryan gave him a narrow-eyed stare. “You okay, man?”
Adrian answered his friend’s obvious worry with a smile. “I’m fine. Talk to you later.” “Yeah. Later.” Ryan clapped Adrian on the shoulder, then veered off across the quad. Drawing a deep breath to steady himself, Adrian picked up his pace and hurried toward the theater as
fast as he could without actually running. He had an audition to get to.
~ * ~
     
“Well, crap.”
    Adrian glanced over the top of his MacBook at Greg, who sat on the other side of the library table staring at