The Seven Kings of Jinn

He kicked it back at her. “Ari, quit it. My head is pounding. Just go to school.” He leaned back against his pillow, as if preparing to go back to sleep. Vivien hadn’t even moved, her light snores a soundtrack to their fight. “I’ll see you at your party tomorrow.”

“What’s all the noise?” Mel came up behind her and she sidestepped him, shivering at the feel of his breath on her neck. He reeked.

“Ari’s just leaving,” Charlie mumbled.

“I’m not leaving without you.”

“Then I guess you’re not leaving.”

Mel chuckled. “Sounds good to me.” He slid an arm around her waist, pulling her into him. “We can have some fun, princess.”

“Get off!” Ari pushed at him, but he wouldn’t let go.

Charlie was there in seconds, having moved pretty fast for someone who’d been complaining about his hangover. He shoved Mel up against the door frame, his face scrunched up with anger.

“Hey, man, relax,” Mel laughed unsurely. “Me and your girl are just talking.”

Repulsed at the thought of her and Rickman coupled together, even in just a sentence, Ari balked. “Ugh—”

“Shut up, Ari,” Charlie growled, shoving Mel out of the door before turning to scramble for his things. He yanked on his shirt, stuffing his feet into his sneakers and reclaiming the cell she’d thrown at him. Glad that something had convinced him into action at least, Ari ignored the biting pain of his fingers curled around her upper arm as he dragged her out of the house.

She smiled as they stumbled down the porch steps and annoyance burned in his gaze when he caught her smug expression.

“Don’t.” He shook his head angrily, pale with the hangover. “You think you’re so funny, don’t you?”

“I think I got you out of there.”

He laughed bitterly. “Yeah, well, now I have nowhere to go.”

Ari sobered, thinking about the room back at the Creagh’s. So cold. So empty. Such a stark reminder of everything Charlie’s family had lost. Suddenly, she understood why he truly thought that. Sighing sadly, Ari nudged him with her shoulder. “Come on. I know a place.”

When she returned to her bedroom with a glass of water, a banana and some aspirin, Charlie was already out for the count. He lay sprawled across her comforter, his sneakers kicked off, his hands bunched up under her pillow, his pale face relaxed in sleep. Aching for him, Ari set the tray down on her bedside cabinet and scrawled out a note for him, telling him to take a shower when he woke up and to eat whatever he wanted.

She was late for school, but it beat sitting around waiting for Charlie to wake up. She was afraid when she got home he wouldn’t be there, but on the other hand, she didn’t know what she’d say to him if he woke up to find her still there.

All day Ari half-listened to her friends as Rachel went over the final list of things still needed for the party and as Staci and A.J. had their usual ‘cute’ disagreements. Instead, she pondered the fact that she had really messed this one up. For two years she’d had the opportunity to get Charlie the help he needed, to speak to an adult about what was really going on with him, to even talk to her dad. But she’d put it off and put it off, calling it a phase. And now Charlie was eighteen. He was on his own and Ari was just waiting for him to tell her he had dropped out of school. She could feel it coming.

Ari had to let him know she was there. Maybe she could convince him to talk to someone… like a therapist or something…

Maybe.

Although she doubted he’d go for it.

She had to make him talk.

She had to.

Somehow Ari had known that when she walked into her room, she would find the bed remade, the dishes gone from the side of the bed, and no trace of Charlie in the house. He was like a ghost. She sighed, dropping her bag to the ground. Her blood twisted in her veins, hot with frustration. Her computer chair rolled out away from her desk toward her. She flopped into it.

“Thanks, Ms. Maggie.”

Even her poltergeist was more real than Charlie.

Chapter 5

Can you party in the past?

Rachel’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Duff, were awesome. They hugged Ari close and congratulated her on graduating. They told her how proud they were of her and made sure she was in every photograph. When she stood up on the stage to collect her diploma, they’d cheered just as loudly for her as they had for their own daughter. Graduation hadn’t been so bad. Despite her own fears for the future, the atmosphere vibrated with so much excitement it was hard not to be positively affected by it.

Though Charlie should have been graduating with her.