Forever a Ghost ✓

Abigail A. Springland

I wake the next day on the couch where I had fallen asleep, a blanket covering my body. The tv is now off and the living room is dark. The curtains are pulled over all the windows, although I can't recall them being like that originally, but I'm also half awake so I can't say I'm correct.

I sit up and rub my eyes, yawning a little. Glancing at my phone that was set on the coffee table, plugged into the charger, I see it's eight in the morning. Early. "Matt!"

"Yeah?" his voice is heard on the other side of the couch. I jump a little in surprise and he chuckles.

"I didn't know you were that close," I laugh, "Anyway, I'm not even sure why I called you. It's becoming a habit, I guess."

"Is that so? Huh..." He trails off. I stand up from the couch and make my way to the kitchen, phone in my hand.

"Ugh, I don't even really feel like anything. You ever want to eat because you're hungry, but don't have the taste for anything?" I ask, realization then washing over me, "Oh wait..."

He snickers, "Actually, no, but I've been dead for 14 years so..."

I snort, "Anyway, yeah, I don't really have the taste for anything. Ugh."

"Ask your friend to go to breakfast somewhere, maybe?"

"Maybe, but Aria isn't usually awake at this hour. Eh, she'll survive." I unlock my phone and dial her number.

After a few rings, she picks up. "What?"

"Wow, thanks."

"Sorry," she laughs, "I was just, y'know, sleeping. What do you need?"

"Can we go to breakfast somewhere? I don't have anything at home."

"Sure. But only if we talk about how your date went. Do I have to pay for your groceries?"

"Nah, but I'll give you the details later. This time, you pick me up, please! I know you're dying to know how it went," I smile, knowing she can't resist.

She groans, "Fine. Be ready in half an hour."

"Deal." I hang up and smirk, knowing I have her under my control for the price of details about the date. "She's picking me up in 30. I'll be right back to get dressed."

"Alright," Matt replies. I race up the stairs and down the hall to my room, stopping at my closet. After getting dressed in overall comfortable clothes and doing any other morning rituals, I make my way back downstairs and lean against the cool kitchen counter. Goosebumps arise on my arms due to Matt's cold aura nearby and feel a bit of comfort knowing he's close.

***

Aria and I walk into the brightly lit diner, being greeted by an employee. We find a booth and nearly instantaneously, Aria already tries to get answers out of me. "Okay, I drove you here. How did it go?"

Before I get the chance to reply, a waitress walks up to us and greets the two of us, setting menus in front of us. Aria quickly orders her drink, glancing anxiously at me as I take my sweet time. All for her.

Finally, when the waitress walks off, she asks, "How did it go? I need to know!"

"Okay, okay, I'm done stalling. I promise you will get to know. By the way, thank you for doing all this for me, I mean, it's pretty early in the mor-"

"Abbie-"

"-ning and I know I woke you. I just had no idea what to eat this morning, you know?"

"Abbie, I swear to G-"

"Okay, fine. The date ended in us agreeing to be friends, but neither of us felt romantically attracted to each other."

"Seriously?!" She exclaims. A silence fills the restaurant after her outburst.

"Yeah."

"Ugh, I was really hoping something would develop," she sighs. "One day you'll have someone, I know it, Abbie!"

"Whatever you say," I respond nonchalantly. The waitress comes back with our drinks and we continue to chat.

"What exactly happened, though?"

"Uhh... We went on a hike. Oh, sorry, did you want as much detail as possible?"

She rolls her eyes, slightly smiling. "You know what I mean."

"Okay, okay. I got into my car, alright? And then I drove there, okay?"

"Stop being difficult!" She snorts, gently shoving me.

"Alright, alright," I laugh. "We mostly just joked around. We also talked about our hobbies and stuff and... I guess that's about it. We went to my house just to talk in private and he said he did think I was pretty, but he just didn't feel anything special towards me and I had the mutual feeling. We did agree to be friends, though. Happy?"

"No! Not at all! Ugh, when will you get a boyfriend?" Aria pouts. "I just want you to be happy."

"Aria, there's no promise a boyfriend would make me happy. I'm content right now, I mean, I'm finally out of my childhood home. Seriously, I'm fine. But thank you, one of the things I've always admired about you is how much you want to see others happy... Even if it means forcing me to go on dates."

"I guess..."

"Aw, come on. Lighten up! I'm the one who should be disappointed in this situation anyway!"

"Okay, okay, I'll lighten up," she shakes her head.

"Good, because I also promised him a board game night and I wanted to invite you along as well."

***

As I exit her car, I wave to her and walk to my front door.

"Remember! Friday night!"

"Yep!"

She drives off and I quickly run to my mailbox, remembering to get the mail on time for once. I find a few envelopes and flip through them, stopping on the one about my house payment. My second payment to my house was successful

Oh, right. The money in the notebooks that was supposedly stolen. That money was for house payments, I had been saving up for awhile when I first planned to get a house as soon as possible, and I was going to put that in my bank account.

I run inside of my house, putting the bills on the counter along with my keys, and sprint up the stairs. "Matt, I need your help," I call out to him.

"Yeah?" I hear his voice from down the hall.

"So, my notebooks. Which ones did you claim my mom stole money from? Because money was in multiple boxes." I still haven't went through the three boxes filled with notebooks, old and new, and sketchbooks. All three lie on my floor next to my closet.

"I don't know. Just check each box, I guess."

"Okay... I'm kind of scared to look... I... I don't want to see the proof that Mom stole from me."

"I know. But you can't pretend the problem isn't there, there was a lot of money in the notebooks. Please check, I'm here for whatever your reaction may be."

"Thank you," I say before hesitantly raising my hands up to the first box. I slowly open it up, mentally bracing myself, and see all my notebooks in disarray. Pages are torn and some are out of my notebooks, not organized the way they once were.

But the most shocking detail to me is, although Matt had warned me about her thievery, there's no money to be found in this box. The one I distinctly remember putting money into so that when I went away, nobody would steal from me. Ashley always had a habit of stealing money from me, and Mom just took some when she wanted to buy something at the store for herself.

It was true, my mom stole hundreds of dollars from me.