Read Online The Dead Gentleman by Matthew Cody - Free Book Online Page B

like to talk to her. It’s important.”
    Sasha’s mom scratched her head. She was obviously having trouble processing information this early on a Sunday.
    “Hold … hold on, Jezebel. Just wait here.”
    The door shut and Jezebel was left alone in the hall. After a few minutes she heard voices inside Sasha’s apartment, then the door clicked open and Sasha stepped out into the hall. She wore the same groggily concerned expression as her mother, but hers was colored by something else like annoyance or embarrassment. More likely a combination of all three.
    “Jez, what are you doing? Do you know what time it is?”
    “Yeah, it’s six. Your mom told me. Sorry about that.”
    “You know as soon as I go back in she’s going to ask me if you’re on drugs.”
    “Listen, I need to talk to you about something,” said Jez, taking Sasha by the arm and leading her away from the door. “But I need you to promise me that you’ll listen and not freak out. Or tell me I’m crazy.”
    Sasha pulled her arm away. “You’re already acting nuts, but okay. This better be good.”
    Jezebel told Sasha the whole story, starting with her trip to the basement and ending with last night’s closet monsters. Sasha raised an eyebrow at the description of the mysterious ghost boy, but otherwise she didn’t show much reaction.
    When it was all over Jezebel took a deep breath—she felt like she’d just swum from one end of the pool to the other without breathing. From the shallow to the deep end.
    Sasha just stared at her, her brow wrinkled with thinking.
    Please believe me
, thought Jez.
Please
.
    “Jez,” Sasha said after a moment. “Are you jealous of me and Max?”
    Jezebel started. She felt she’d just been hit with a case of verbal whiplash.
    “What? No! Of course I’m not jealous.… Did you listen to a word I said?”
    Sasha smiled and winked. “Of course I listened, but you don’t expect me to believe that you’ve got monsters in your closet! Or that you’ve got a ghost boyfriend who only you can see.”
    “He’s not my boyfriend! I’m telling you something serious is going on, something really scary, and all you can think about is Max?”
    “Well, it’s obvious you are trying to get my attention. And besides, I know you had a thing for him.”
    “I did not!”
    Sasha placed her hands on her hips. “You gave him your picture.”
    “I what?” asked Jez.
    “He has a picture of the two of you, together. In Mrs. Leonard’s class.”
    “Mrs. Leonard’s class? We
all
took pictures of each other on the last day. I even got my picture taken with Mrs. Leonard, and she’s like a hundred and hunchbacked!”
    Jez was confused. She felt suddenly guilty even though she had nothing to feel guilty about, and the guiltier she felt the guiltier she looked. She probably had her picture taken with Max but she couldn’t remember.
    Jez felt her face turning hot. Her voice began to crack. “Everybody got their picture taken with every—”
    “Max didn’t have his picture taken with me!” Sasha said. She poked her finger at Jez, and she was no longer smiling. “He still has it. Yours is the only one he kept.”
    “Huh?” asked Jez.
    “He keeps it in his notebook! I saw it there when we were studying together.”
    Jez felt her cheeks were on fire. She felt like she was under a hot lamp. “I … I don’t know! He … he has a peach fuzz MUSTACHE!”
    The apartment door opened and Sasha’s mother poked her head out. “Girls!” she whispered. “It’s six in the morning!”
    Jezebel wasn’t aware that she’d been shouting, but she was suddenly certain that she was being watched through peepholes up and down the hallway.
    “Sorry, Mom,” said Sasha. “We’re finished, anyway.” And with an angry glare she went back inside the apartment as her mother shut the door behind her.
    Max Perkins? Jez had lost her best friend because Max Perkins had hung on to a stupid photo? It was creepy to think that someone she