Ghosted

Chapter 14: A deal for souls

The morning after their gig, Alex and Willie were
walking along the beach, talking about their childhood, their families, and their favorite memories. Alex only ever talked about Sunset Curve, not really wanting to talk about his parents. Talking about them would only make him remember how great they were, until he was himself. Then everything changed and they acted like he was some weird stranger. An outsider. No longer a part of their perfect family.

Willie seemed to have a decent family. His dad was a magician for kid's birthday parties. The kind of magic that is just slight of hand, mind and eye tricks. Not real magic like they witnessed with Caleb. Willie's dad even taught him a few basic tricks.

"Want me to show you?" Willie smiles.

"Wow me." Alex says, never feeling excited about something uncertain before.

Willie pulled out a fake gold coin form his pocket and waved it around putting on all the dramatics for Alex. Willie makes the coin "disappear" by using slight of hand to make it seem like the coin was in one hand, when it was really in the other. While Alex was focused on the one hand, he was able to slip the coin back into his pocket and then he opened both hands showing the coin was nowhere to be seen.

"Ta-ta! Abracadabra!" Willie says.

"That was pretty cool." Alex smiles. "But I'm pretty sure you're supposed to say abracadabra before you make the coin disappear. And by disappear I mean causally and sneakily slip it back into your pocket."

"Oh, you saw that." Willie says. "I guess I'm not as good as my ol' dad was." He chuckles. "Well, what about you? What were your parents like?"

"Oh...um they were alright I guess." Alex shrugs, looking down at his shoes.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Willie says realizing he hit a sore spot.

"No, no it's cool. I mean, you don't know so it's alright." Alex says. "They were alright. They were great actually, until I came out to them. Then everything changed."

"I'm really sorry." Willie says empathetically. He was lucky enough to have a supportive dad when he came out, but he knew exactly what it felt like to tell someone who you thought would stand by you no matter what turn away from you in disgust because of who he was.

He lost all his friends at school after coming out to them, and they outed him in front of the whole school and started bullying him. People he thought were his friends made him hate himself and everything he was to the point his dad pulled him out of school and homeschooled him.

"It's okay. I had Reggie, Luke, and Bobby. They've always supported me. They're my real family." Alex says. At least Luke and Reggie were, Alex had let go of Bobby. As much as it stung that someone he thought he could trust let him and his friends down, he was thankful for what he still had.

"I'm glad." Willie says. "You deserve some one like them. You deserve to be loved."

"Oh, thanks. I guess." Alex blushes. Of course he's heard that form Reggie and Luke before, but he never heard it from Willie before and hearing now is like he's worthy of Willie's love.

"I should get going actually." Willie says. "Um, Caleb apparently returned to the club. I can't be away too long."

"What?! Caleb's back?" Alex panics. "Do you know anything? Is he planning something?"