Ghost Not Forgotten

VIII: Then

*banner by Clickhappi (livejournal)

I heard the scrape of the window and the thud of sneakers and I turned in my bed. I had just switched off the lights and was ready to sleep.

"'Bout time," I said.

"Sorry," he kicked off his shoes, took off his shirt and jeans and crawled into bed with me. His skin was cold and made me jump when he hugged me. "Brad and Taylor wouldn't shut up."

"That's why you ditch those losers," I grunted, my eyes closed. "For forever if you can handle it."

"Can't do it," he said, his voice grinning. "You won't sneak into Stanley's cellar with me."

I rolled my eyes. "Because I have some brains."

"As do I."

Which was true, the kid was too smart for his own good and yet he still did stupid-ass things in the name of pranking. And I, believing I was super mature at the age of sixteen, never understood the fascination. But I guess it was, as Bennet always said, because I was a girl.

"Did you even study for the history test tomorrow?" I said, getting sleepy fast.

"Lil' bit," he said. He didn't sound tired at all. "It's easy though."

Sometimes I hated him for being so smart. I had spent the whole afternoon and evening studying my brains out and I was still lost when it came to the Revolutionary War. He'd probably get an A and I'd probably barely get a C.

"Go to sleep," he said in my ear, shifting closer to me until his whole body was pressed up against mine.

We always had to be pretty sneaky but we had managed to sleep in the same bed every night for nearly a year and had only been caught once. My mama told us not to do it again and so, of course, the next night we did.

I'm still not sure if she knew or not, she never told me. If she did, she obviously didn't care much, which doesn't surprise me. There were a lot of things about me that my mama didn't care about. That's just how it was.

But it worked for us at the time, so I never worried about it.

"We gotta big day tomorrow," Bennet said, hugging me tighter.

"You say that about every day."

"Yeah," he said. "In the hopes I'll be right one of these days."

"You're so dumb."

"I love you too, baby."

And I fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I didn't feel his arm on me. I turned and saw he was gone. He never woke up before me, so I wondered if something was off. Or maybe he thought my mama would catch us in bed together and so he moved to his room downstairs.

I searched the house, including his room. He was nowhere. I called his house. No answer. I checked his house. No one. I checked with Burty, he said he hadn't seen him since the day before. I went to school. He never showed up.

By school's end we had cops looking all over town for him and even calling some of the neighboring towns to see if they saw him. No one had.

No note was found, no phone call was made, no sign of any kind appeared. Bennet had vanished into thin air. I repeatedly told the cops he didn't mention anything to me about leaving and he hadn't been acting strangely or anything. He was the normal Bennet he had always been.

There was no answer, he was just gone.

And as I sat at the counter at Della's while she was closing up and the cops were finally leaving me alone, I realized something. Bennet had finally been right.

Tomorrow had been a "big day" after all.