|| 𝑳𝑶𝑽𝑬, 𝑫𝑬𝑨𝑻𝑯 & 𝑮𝑹𝑨𝑭𝑭𝑰𝑻𝑰 ||

18. The Ghost Beside Me

VALERIE

I stayed in the little caravan last night. Underneath all those blankets and huddled up in one of the old sleeping bags, it had been quite cosy. Riley had laid down on the opposite side of the van, and fell asleep as soon as it got dark outside. But as for me, I couldn't sleep. I lay awake, thoughts buzzing through my head, as I watched this ghost snuggle up in a room with me. How could I have slept after everything I'd learned? This strange and fascinating thing...that ghosts were real. I'd felt an urge, at some point, to call Fraya and say sorry for ever doubting all her crazy supernatural talk. She'd been right all along.

I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I'd befriended the undead. And my heart couldn't stop breaking every single time I thought about what Riley had been through, and how his life had suddenly been cut off. There was such a big difference between the two of us, but at the same time we seemed to relate to each other. I couldn't help but wonder if there were problems in his home too.

These things played through my mind until streaks of sunlight began to come through the crack of the caravan door. It was only when I crawled out of the sleeping bag, and folded everything up, that I realised how inconvenient this living condition was. So I've been sitting awkwardly in front of a still sleeping Riley, wondering how I am supposed to shower, pee and charge my phone.

Riley's eyes eventually flutter open, when the sunlight from the window above eventually hits his face. It's now, in proper light, that I'm seeing how smooth his brown skin looks, and how his grey almond eyes are, in a way, quite attractive.

"Good morning." Riley grumbles, sitting up and brushing his coily hair out of his eyes. He's got a loose curly fro, his curls a bit looser than mine, each wisp springing back into place after he's ruffled them up.

"How come I'm only now realising you're good looking?" I ask him, ensuring that I keep a teasing tone.

Riley gives me a strange look, his eyebrows knitting together, before saying, "I don't know. I really don't know."

"Modest much?"

"Well at least I can rest assured I don't have death scars on my face, now." Riley stands up, and stretches, letting out a yawn. "You know a little detail I noticed? Now that I stretch, it's unsatisfying since my bones don't click anymore."

"That's terrible." I reply sarcastically, and he lets out an exaggerated sigh. I wonder how I'm going to bring up the shower situation to him.

"There's a river nearby if you want to take a bath," Riley says to me, amusement in his voice. He crosses his arms, and gives a mischievous grin. "It's in a picnic area though. And you're gonna have to try and not become duck food-"

"No thanks. I'm not bathing in a public river." I snap at him sourly, standing up and pacing up and down, thinking of a solution. "I think I have to go back home. Just to shower though. And get something to eat. But the rest of the time, I'll just stay here." It sounds so stupid. Walking back and forth between streets to shower. But I just can't go back to door 27 again to sleep there. I'd do anything but that.

"That sounds so inconvenient, but you do you, I guess." Riley says casually, but I know already that he is judging me silently in his mind. Perhaps I've been too invasive coming to his childhood hideout and suddenly moving in there within a day. But like I said, I have nowhere else to go.

Pulling on my hoodie and grabbing my bag, I try to muster up the courage to go back to that house. I feel slightly dizzy, as I pack my things. "I'll see you later, after college," I say to Riley, "I have to go otherwise my teachers will suspect something, and phone my parents."