Ghost

Chapter Four

"So..." Mary murmured on Monday morning over their breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, hashbrowns, and baked beans.

Nathan looked at her over his spoonful of baked beans, half of it falling back onto the plate. He raised his eyebrows at his mother, even his father—Martien—looked up from the paper he was reading.

Mary smiled at Nathan. "Prom is in two weeks!" She trilled, "Have you picked a pretty girl yet? You have too soon so we can get your suit and dress made."

Nathan groaned and went back to eating.

"Come on, Nathan," his father urged in his thick English accent, "there are tons of lovely girls at that school, pick one!"

"What if I don't want to go with a girl? What if I want to go by myself?" Nathan asked, glancing up at his parents.

His parents burst out laughing.

"Oh, Nathan!" His mother breathed, a hand to her chest, "You don't want to appear gay! That will never do!"

"And you can't go by yourself, that will ruin our name," his father added, waving his fork at him.

"You're lucky I already have a crush," Nathan muttered, looking back down at his plate.

"That's wonderful!" Mary clapped her hands, beaming, "What's her name?"

"I can't tell you yet," Nathan said, picking at a piece of egg on the edge of his plate. Why had he said that? Curse his big mouth!

"Well, I can't wait to meet her!" Mary sounded joyous as she went back to eating.

This is just great! Just fucking great! Nathan said nothing more. This was the worst way to defy his parents, but love was stronger than his desire to behave.

***

After gathering his English book, Nathan went and waited by Luis's locker. He knew it was Luis's because someone—probably Andy—had written 'DIE' on the locker door with a black marker. Nathan was busy scraping the word off the locker with his nails to block out his fury.

"Nathan?"

The soft voice made Nathan look up, his heart giving a nervous flutter. Luis was standing in front of him, his black hair a mess, green eyes cautious and questioning. He was still wearing the same jumper and track pants as yesterday... and the day before. Nathan wondered why.

"Hey, Luis," Nathan murmured, positioning himself so that his body blocked most of the hateful word.

It was no use, Luis had already seen it, his green eyes clouded over, and his shoulders slumped a little. "You don't need to clean that," he mumbled.

"It's alright," Nathan said, turning around to finish scrapping the marker off the door with his nails.

Luis grabbed his wrist to stop him. His hand was warm and soft, but Nathan felt the roughness of scars that made him worry briefly, but the zap of electricity running up his arm to his heart distracted him. It made his blood thrum and his heart beat double time. Nathan felt the heat of a blush creep across his cheekbones, he half turned away to hide it.

"Please, just leave it," Luis pleaded. He was blushing hard too, the red colour standing out starkly against his pale skin.

Nathan dropped his hand and Luis let go of him, his fingers brushing Nathan's. Nathan looked down the hall to the large white clock above the front doors. They had five minutes before class started...

Following the rapid, beating desire of his heart, Nathan made a split-second, probably stupid decision. "Come with me, I want to show you something," he murmured, clapping Luis on the shoulder and heading towards the front doors.