I kept my word. When Blake showed up at my locker on Monday, I walked right past him without making eye contact. When he sat outside after school waiting for me to join Kayla by her car, I took the long way around, past the gymnasium, to avoid him. I preemptively blocked him on social media in case he tried to contact me that way.

Jack seemed happy with the arrangement even though it meant I was getting no closer to solving the mystery of his existence. "It's just a break until he gets his head on straight," he told me. "Once that happens, you can continue investigating."

I didn't tell him what I knew deep in my gut—Blake wasn't going to be getting his head on straight no matter how much time passed, and it had nothing to do with his unwitting attachment to me. As long as Blake and Jack existed in the same universe, nothing was going to be completely right with either of them.

Several weeks flew by. The jeers and whispers behind raised hands died down. People resumed ignoring me. I could almost breathe normally again when news of the fall dance broke.

"Kayla's brother is going to be the DJ. You have to come," Vanessa insisted. The four of us sat on a large boulder at the waterfront park drinking coffees on a sunny day after school.

"I don't think I do," I answered.

"Sure, you do. It's tradition." She sipped her iced latte through the metal straw of her reusable cup. "Besides, we're going as a group and I don't want to be a third wheel." She eyed Darren and Kayla, the latter squinting her eyes at her.

"We're all going as friends," Kayla said. "And Vanessa's right. Everyone attends the fall dance. Plus, he may be my annoying brother, but Ace is a great DJ. I might even convince Ethan to go."

Darren snorted. "If he's coming with us, count me out."

"Come on, Darren, don't be that way." Kayla scooted over towards him.

I let them all talk about the pros and cons of the dance, knowing full well I wouldn't be in attendance. Not a dance at the school, at least.

By the time the day of the dance had arrived, Kayla had given up trying to convince me to go with her. She knew I had my own plans. They were unconventional, but Kayla was all for it.

"It's romantic, it really is." She handed me a roll of purple streamers. "Does he have any idea?"

I shook my head. "Not a clue."

"Damn, I just wish he could kiss you."

I thought about Jack holding the knife. He'd done similar things several more times since then, lifting a saltshaker, the TV remote. He'd closed a few more doors too. I tried to get him to do these tricks in front of my parents, imagining their horrified expressions when a large knife floated passed them. Jack refused. He was done trying to prove his existence to them.

"It will just scare them," he told me. "They might want to sell the house and move away."

Aww, that was my Jack. He was so scared of losing me, he refused to terrorize my parents the way I'd asked him to.

Being able to even partly use the remote was probably Jack's favorite new skill. It meant he could change the channel. It didn't always work, but he believed practice made perfect. I hoped so, because so far, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't grip my hand the way he'd been able to grip a soup spoon. Maybe if he mastered remotes and utensils, he'd manage skin to skin contact. Lips to lips.

A girl could hope.

On a Saturday evening, I left Jack to flip through the channels, telling him I needed something upstairs and I'd be back shortly. I grabbed a bag of party supplies from under my bed and then raced up to the attic.

Operation Fall Dance for Jack was in full mode.

I draped streamers across the ceiling, hung glittering bead curtains over the windows, and set up a retro disco ball Kayla had pinched from her brother. Satisfied with the decorations, I ran back to my room, threw on the dress I'd worn to my cousin's wedding last June, applied some makeup, and returned to the attic. Finally, I attached my phone to Bluetooth speakers and turned on the School Dance playlist I'd put together.

I didn't have to wait long.

"Are you playing Beyoncé?" Jack's head bobbed up through the floor. He kept rising like an elevator until he was level with me. "What is all this?" He spun around, taking everything in, then turned back to me. "Wow, you look... unbearably beautiful!"

I smiled. "there's a formal dance at school tonight. Kayla wanted me to go."

"Why didn't you? It seems like something you shouldn't miss out on."

I stepped towards him. "I'm not missing out on anything. I'm right where I want to be, and I'm with who I want to be with."

His eyes lit. "You did this all for me?"

"I figured, you can't go to the dance, so I'll bring the dance to you."

He held out his hand. "In that case, may I have this dance?"

I curtseyed. "You may."

We danced. Our bodies in different planes, but still so near. I imagined him holding me, dipping me at the end of a number, swinging me around. We did all those things in my head. In reality, we came close enough. It made me happy and seemed to make him happy.

Four songs in, the front doorbell buzzed.

I moved to the window facing our driveway and moved across the beaded curtain. "Crap."

Even in the fading light, it was clear as day whose car was parked out there. Jack didn't even have to see the car to know.

"He's here, isn't he? Me. I'm here. I can feel me. Out there. Waiting for you."

I turned to him. Our perfect night—we deserved it. "I'm not going to answer it. He'll go away eventually."

Jack's foot began tapping. "No, Mazie. Let's go see what he wants. I... I'm curious."

I frowned. "This isn't a good idea. Remember, Blake told me to stay away from him."

"I know, but this is different. I need to see me face to face. Maybe it will trigger a memory or information that will be useful."

Me, him... it was all so confusing. But that was a fair point. "All right, fine. Just for a minute—just long enough to see what he wants and get rid of him."

I descended the attic stairs and then the staircase leading to the foyer. Jack materialized right next to me just as I opened the front door.

The three of us stood there silently for a moment. Blake was dressed in a navy-blue suit that showed off his trim torso. He looked older, like he was about to head off to work at some fancy job at a financial firm. Jack was the first to speak. "I wish I could change clothes. I look good in a suit."

He wasn't wrong. I bit my tongue to keep from answering him and instead asked the most obvious question. "Why are you here, Blake?"

Blake shook his head like he'd been woken up by a barking dog. "I came to take you to the dance. You look... unbearably beautiful."

Jack scowled. "That's my line."

I gripped the doorframe. "Thanks, but I'm not going to the dance, not with you or with anyone."

His face fell. "Really? But you're wearing that dress, and I thought..."

"I don't know what you're thinking, showing up here Blake. It's a bad idea and you know it." I pointed my finger right into his chest. "You told me to stay away from you, and now you're asking me to be your date to a dance? What's wrong with you?"

"Wow," Jack said. "You're really hard on him."

"He deserves it."

"What?" Blake looked past me into my house. "Who deserves what? Is there someone there with you?"

"No."

"Can I come in?"

"No!" I stood my ground in the center of the doorway.

"Mazie, maybe let him in. I need more time." Jack hovered as close as he could get to the doorway.

I rolled my eyes, then slid to the side. "Fine, whatever. Come in, make yourself at home. That's what you seem to do here."

Blake walked past me into the living room. "You're acting stranger than me tonight."

"Believe me, I'm not. Have a seat, I guess."

He sat down, right in the spot on the couch Jack always sat in. Jack wandered over and stood glaring at him. "He senses something."

Blake shivered. "Your house is weird too. Is it, like, haunted or something?"

I sat across from him, keeping my distance. "Or something. What feels weird about it, Blake."

He stretched his arms over his head. "Like it's wrong and right at the same time. I feel like I'm being watched, which is super creepy, but I also feel... like I belong here. Like being here makes me whole."

Jack floated up towards the ceiling. "He's right, Mazie. This is good and bad. Having him here... I like it and I hate it at the same time."

I swallowed. "Blake, is there anything you want to tell me? Memories, or secrets, or something along those lines."

Blake's gaze lingered. "I have secrets. I don't remember what I've told you."

"That's okay. Don't stress out."

He jumped up off the couch just as Jack slammed down hard onto the floor. The vibration made the floor lamps shake. "Woah, did you feel that? What the hell is happening here?"

"Tell him, Mazie."

"What?" I hissed. "Are you sure?"

"The floor shook," Blake said, assuming I was talking to him. "You must have felt it."

Jack spun around me. "Tell him. Please!"

I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath. "Blake, everything you feel in this house. It's weirdness, like you're being watched. Like you feel whole here. There's a reason for that."

He approached me and grabbed both my hands. "Yes, because you're here. You make me feel whole."

"No, I don't. This isn't about me."

Jack spun again. "It might be. You can't rule it out, Mazie."

"Blake," I extracted my hands from his. "I don't know how to say this, but there is a ghost living in this house. I named him Jack, but his real name is Blake because he's like, some sort of alternate dimension spectral version of you and we're trying to figure out why he exists. Do you understand? The reason you feel a connection to me is because he feels a connection to me. That's why you knew what color my bedroom walls are."

Blake paused, his expression unreadable. "Look, if you don't want to go to the dance with me, you can just say it."

"I already did say it. It's one of the first things I said to you tonight."

Blake sat back down on the couch, like a deflated dog toy. "None of this makes sense."

"No, it doesn't. Sorry, I never promised you logic. But everything I've said is the truth." I looked over at Jack, who was still spinning around. It didn't seem like it was entirely by choice. "Your presence is upsetting Jack. I think you should go."

Blake shook his head. "But the dance?"

"How many times..."

Jack stopped spinning. "Go with him, Mazie."

"No way."

"Yes." He began to buzz. "Keep an eye on him. He's me, remember, and something's not right. I can feel it, he can feel it. I can't go with him, but you can. Please, I'm already slipping away."

"Jack, no!" I grabbed at empty air.

It was too late, not that any grand declarations I might have would have kept him with me. He buzzed like a hummingbird one moment and was gone the next.

Blake crumbled onto the couch. "What just happened? I feel like I just been shot up into space."

I stared down at King Popular himself, reduced to the fetal position on my living room couch. "Take a moment, then get yourself together, Blake. I have to..." Search the house for your doppelganger and come to terms with the fact that he might have disappeared forever thanks you your entitled presence.. "I'll be right back."

"Then what?"

I looked up towards the ceiling and sighed loud enough for him to hear. "You still want to go to that stupid dance with me or what?"