Ghosted (completed)

Horror Movies? My Entire Life Is One

I shut my locker just after last period to find Kingston leaning into the one beside it, a hint of a smirk touching at his full lips. A yelp broke passed my lips, so loud that it managed to catch the attention of our peers and sent heads in our direction. I immediately fell back into the corner between the door to English 11 classroom and breathed out shakily, hoping my retreat would signal for everyone to return to their conversations.

I'd always hated that King could sneak up on me and I'd have no knowledge. I'd grown so used to my super Spidey sense tingling around ghosts, I'd half expected it to work on the living too. Unfortunately, it did not.

"You're jumpier than usual." King commented, joining me again. "Getting visited more often by your ghost friends?"

I shot him a dark look, scanning the area around us to be sure nobody was eavesdropping.

Truth be told, the last two weeks had been horrible. I'd only had a couple ghosts outside of Oliver come to me, but the entire situation with the Mr. Valedictorian was freaking me the hell out. With every day that passed, the more real he became. He'd gone from a gentle touching of my hand to being able to completely grasp my arm or shoulder without it falling through, and with my help, he'd been able to learn to manage his anxiety and fear and wasn't blipping as much. Sadly, this only made things worse. Being around more often meant more memories surfacing. Most of them were vague, things like quick flashes of light or yelling that he couldn't decipher, but it was a step in the right direction. To my relief, he'd asked me to keep Axel out of the mess until we had a solid answer.

"There's a new horror movie out." King continued when he came to the outstanding conclusion I wasn't going to respond. "A few of us are going to see it. Chicks are going too. It's like a group thing to get us hyped for Halloween. Come with us."

"My entire life is a horror movie, King."

More now than ever before.

"Seriously, Fai." he sighed, extending a hand to tuck a loose strand of my dark hair behind my ear. "You've been dodging me for the last few weeks. I wanna hang."

"Why can't we chill, just us?" I considered my question, then straightened the slightest bit when I understood exactly what was going on, "Holy crap, you're trying to get me to give Marcus another chance, aren't you?"

King crossed his arms and started to mutter incoherently under his breath.

"I'm not interested in giving your buddy a second chance, Kinig."

"It's not that." Irritation was clear as day in his voice. "You need to be more social, Fai. Please. You promised you'd come to the afterparty the night of Homecoming and you never did. You owe me."

I slumped back against the wall, caving into the pleading, "Fine. But it better be you who's picking me up."

He flashed me a toothy grin and leaned in for a quick side hug before he disappeared down the hall to his friends standing at the door waiting for him. I waited until he'd disappeared from view to rest my head back against the wall and close my eyes.

My peace was only temporary, as not even a minute later, Oliver's voice filled my little corner of solitude.

"Are you okay?" he asked, and when I opened my eyes, I was staring directly into the hazy, muddied blue of my ghost friend. "You look exhausted."

"I am exhausted." I confessed, in fact, I was too tired to even glare at the people that glanced my way as I started down the hall, assuming I was talking to myself. "I don't even know what sleep is."