Lake Larson

"Lake!" Ian yelled. "Lake!" I slowly opened my eyes.

He stood at the edge of the bed with an annoying expression of excitement. Once he noticed my eyes opening, he stepped onto the bed near my feet. My body shook as he jumped like a child, trying to wake me. His deep laugh filled the room as I sat up, feeling the soreness in my body. Ian smirked and sat on the sheets next to me.

"Good morning," he sang with too much energy.

"Morning," I croaked out.

"Morning voice." He flipped his hair back away from his face. "Kinda sexy." Ian crawled over me, standing on the floor. "Kinda not."

"Ian." I closed my eyes. "I can't with you this morning." I fell back, laying my head on the pillow.

"You see, Lake," he said, prompting me to open my eyes and watch him. "You don't have a choice. Time to wake up."

I moaned in annoyance, grabbing my blanket to cover my head in my haven. The warmth and darkness told me to fall back to sleep, but the ghost haunting my life would make that impossible. My eyes had a rough time staying open, and I didn't know the time, but something told me it was early.

"You have a lot," Ian said from outside the covers. "And I mean a lot of missed calls from a Brandon."

The name caused panic as I jumped from the bed, tripping on my blanket. I fell on my palms quickly, but stood and raced to Ian, glaring at him.

"Don't touch my phone," I said as he gripped my cell. "You are getting good at holding things, but not my phone." I snatched it from his fingers. "That's my personal space."

"Who is Brandon?" he asked.

"A nobody," I replied and walked away into the bathroom.

I shut the door behind me, hoping Ian wouldn't follow, needing some space. I was not used to the company always being there.

I looked down at my screen to see four missed calls from Brandon and a call from Alex. I ignored Brandon like I always did and dialed up Alex.

"Hey, I'm surprised you are up already," she said in a high-energy tone.

I pulled my phone from my ear, checking the time to see it was before eight in the morning. Huffing out, I closed my eyes. What the heck, Ian?

"Ian woke me up." Frick, did I say that to Alex?

"Who's Ian?" she responded with an attitude. "Is he your distraction from Hudson?"

I laughed, hearing my giggle mimic around the bathroom. "You could say that."

"Am I going to meet Ian tonight?" she asked.

"No, he doesn't like to be—" I looked at myself in the mirror. "Seen."

"Oh, is he ugly?"

I paused, seeing my expression change in the mirror. With a smirk, I peeked out the door at Ian. He had a magazine on his lap while he sat on my bed. His eyes peeked up before he smiled widely at me. His perfect teeth added to his beautiful grin. I sucked in a deep breath, shutting the door with my back to it.

"No," I let out. "Ian's very cute." I bumped my head on the door, glancing at the ceiling. "Like cuter than the guy we met in Seattle last summer."

"Ronny," she said in a dreamy voice. "Too bad that beautiful girl already caught his attention." Alex giggled lightly. "So you and the new guy are a thing?"

"Oh, no," I replied with my heart racing. "Let's just say Ian's unavailable."

"Is he gay?" Alex asked.

"No," I replied, thinking I should have said yes to stop all the questions. "Anyway, onto why I called you." I changed the subject. "Why did you call last night?"

"Oh." Alex thought, trying to remember as I heard her moving things around in the background. "I don't recall, but probably not important. Sorry, Lake, someone came into the shop," she said. "Got to go."

"No problem. See you tonight."

"Yes!" she yelled. "See you tonight, girly." Alex hung up the phone, leaving me in the silence.

I stripped my clothes off as I set my phone on my vanity. Stepping into the shower, I cleaned myself up and lazily got ready, knowing I would be in my dorm all day. A soft knock had me glancing at the door in confusion.

"Yeah," I said, opening the door to see Ian straight-smiling at me.

Leaning against the door, I eyed him, waiting for him to talk. His eyes met mine while I raised a brow.

"Ian?" I questioned, looking into my apartment. "What's wrong?" I glared at him. "What did you break?"

He scratched his head, palming his face. "Nothing."

"Well, what is it?" I stepped into my apartment with him in my shadow.

Ian tapped his hand on his side, looking away from me. Was this what I looked like when talking to Hudson? I could feel the nervousness of Ian.

"Spit it out," I said, copying something Ian would say.

"Well, I remember something," he finally said with his hands on his head. He awkwardly looked at me with his eyes wide. "But I'm a little hesitant about telling you because once you know my past, you won't like me anymore."

"Oh," I replied, glancing at my hands.

"If you knew my past and the actions I did to people." he shook his head, walking away from me. "I was terrible."

I watched him pace before my table. He would pause at moments to look at me. His hazel eyes were wide with uncertainty.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Ian, if you remember something, just say it." I smiled at him. "I won't look at you any different." My smile turned to a smirk. "Can't get any worse. I already know you are an idiot."

"Ha," Ian responded with sarcasm. "Okay." He exhaled a deep breath. "I'm not sure where in my timeline this falls, but I remember being at a frat party here on campus. I went to a party with a girl and left with a different girl." He eyed me. "She was angry with me because we were dating. I think."

"You think?" I replied, shaking my head.

"Well, I took that random girl back here after the party and started stripping off our clothes."

I waved my hands at him. "We can skip those details."

"Anyway, the girl I was maybe dating arrived at my door the next morning." He shook his head.

I giggled, prompting him to glare at me. I covered my palm over my mouth and tried not to laugh, but more laughter filled the room.

"Lake, calm down," he said, not seeing the entertainment. "She threw pictures of me all over the apartment and lit them on fire!" he yelled.

I laughed even harder, holding my stomach. Ian walked by me and pointed at the burn mark on the wood floor.

"I don't recall much after that or between New York and the party. It's all still blurry."

Walking over to the burn mark on the floor, I crouched down to touch it. I always wondered where the burn came from. A girl setting pictures on fire was not my first guess.

"Well, let's find her," I said, glancing around for my laptop. "What's her name?"

Ian didn't answer me as I gripped my computer and sat on the bed. I opened up the screen while he froze in place.

"Ian, name," I repeated.

He spun to look at me. His expression said it all.

"You don't know her name!" I yelled with a slight laugh. "You were dating her."

Ian huffed while looking at the ceiling. "I said, maybe dating, and let me think."

I danced my fingers over the keys, not typing but making noises. Ian plopped beside me, trying to place his hand on mine, but his palm sunk through me.

"Emily," he said.

I glanced at him. "You sure?"

"Yes, I can picture her now, and I'm positive it was Emily."

"Okay, Emily, what?" I asked.

Ian brushed his hand through his hair before looking at me with sorry eyes. This man did not know her last name.

"It's okay," I replied to him. "You just remembered all of this, so Emily's last name should return to you soon, right?"

He straight-smiled awkwardly at me.

"Ian, you knew her last name when you were alive, right?"

"Here's the thing—" he said, but I stopped him.

"You were dating her." I shook my head, palming my face. "Well, frick, Ian," I muffled under my hand. "You were a man whore, weren't you?" I glared at him, but placed my finger up to stop his response. "Wait, don't answer that. Let's get to the EWU library and dig up old newsletters to see if we can find Emily." I shut my laptop, standing from the bed.

Once at the library, I shook my winter coat off and found a computer in the back area, away from others. With a tiny amount of people in the library, given it was Saturday, it made it easier for Ian and me to hide from others as I talked with him.

The building smelt like coffee and old paper as I searched EWU newspapers from 2001, hoping she would be in them some place. Ian sat close to me, glancing at the screen as I clicked the pages. Since I did not know what Emily looked like, Ian needed to see all the pictures.

"Look, the New York Yankees beat Arizona Diamondbacks in November." Ian pointed at the image.

"You were a baseball fan?" I asked, looking at the screen.

"No, I'm super bored with this. How long have we been here?" Ian asked with his lips close to my ear.

I leaned away, looking at my phone. Another missed call from Brandon blinked on my screen while I checked the time.

"We have only been here for an hour," I said as my phone buzzed.

Ian's eyes were on my screen as we both saw Brandon's name pop up. I hit the ignore button fast and set my phone back on the desk. Scooting closer to the library computer, I clicked to the following picture, seeing students smiling back at the camera. Ian shook his head, prompting me to scan to the next one. The Eagles football team stood front and center while the woman's volleyball picture sat tiny underneath. The picture had one girl in mid-air, hitting the ball.

I scrolled the mouse to the next page while Ian jumped closer to me. "Wait, go back!" he yelled, causing me to respond quickly. He pointed to a girl on the volleyball team. "That's her."

"Really?" I asked with excitement, zooming into the article. "It says her last name is Backer."

"Okay, what do we do now?"

"Facebook," I replied, grabbing my phone.

"What's a Facebook?" He peeked at my phone.

I laughed slightly, thinking he sounded like my mom. "It's a social media page where you can communicate and share your life." I paused and looked at him. "Or stalk people."

"Okay, yeah, like AOL."

I closed my eyes, laughing too loud. My giggles filled the library before I calmed down. "No, nothing like that."

I motioned for him to move closer so I could show him, but my phone vibrated, popping Brandon on the screen again. Staring at the call for a moment, I let it ring.

"You should just answer it," Ian said, pointing at the screen.

I watched it go to voicemail. "No."

"Who is he?" Ian asked again.

I rolled my eyes, not wanting to answer, but I couldn't run away from this one. "My ex-boyfriend." I looked at Ian. "Back in high school. He—" I stopped and looked Emily up on my phone.

"He what?"

"He messed up," I said while Emily's face popped up on my phone. "I found her."

Ian tried to grab my hand to see my phone, but went through. I shifted in my seat so he could see my screen. Emily was an elementary school teacher in Cheney and lived with her two cats. This woman was very active on her time off with hiking, biking, and kayaking.

I clicked on the message icon, starting a conversation.

"What are you doing?" Ian asked.

"My plan is to tell her I work for the newspaper at the campus and want to write an article on selected alumna." I typed fast. "I'll see if she wants to meet me here at EWU." I sent my message, seeing her view it right away.

Ian pointed over my shoulder. "What is that?" he said as the three wiggling dots popped up.

"It's her typing."

Emily's response popped on the screen while Ian read it out loud. "Sure, I am on campus now. If you could meet in ten minutes at The Roost?"

I stood quickly and responded to Emily, shifting my winter coat back on and stuffing my phone in my pocket. "We better get going," I said to him, walking away.

We raced in the cold, feeling the heat of the restaurant as we entered the building. The smell of fried food filled the area while students crowded the place.

"Here." I pointed to a table. "Let's sit here."

I shifted my coat off, sitting in a metal chair. Ian sat beside me, tapping his hand on the table with nerves.

"I hope she doesn't sit on me," Ian said while Emily entered the restaurant, scanning her eyes around.

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