I wake up around 10 am. It was a long night last night. I was thinking about Jacob, but also... Reggie. I knew I had a couple hours before I had to go to Julie's, but I didn't know what to do. I walk into my kitchen and the same ghost I was just thinking about was there, sitting on the counter.
I giggled, "What are you doing here Reg?"
He looked at me and I realized he'd been crying. I walk over and stand in front of him, "Reg, what's wrong?"
He just looked at me, "My parents. They fought all the time when I was alive. I miss them yeah, but Alex and Luke had a heated argument a couple minutes ago and it reminded me too much of them. I needed to get out."
"Hey, hey it's okay," out of instinct I put both of my hands on Reggie's shoulders, "I'm here I promise."
He pulled me in for a hug. I'm not that short, but my head was to his lower chest, since he was sitting on the counter. "Y/N..." I didn't answer, "Y/N!"
I pulled away, "What?"
"You just hugged me," he was smiling now.
"I did? Oh my God I did!"
"We have to go tell the guys!" Reggie poofed away and I waited a second. He came back and I looked at him. He chuckled, "I forgot you weren't a ghost. Whoops." He laughed again, this time a little harder.
He jumped down from the counter and tried to tow me out the door. "Hey hey! Humans have to eat, Reg."
"Oh... right," nobody could wipe the smile off of this boy's face.
I walked over to my fridge and took out a cold piece of pizza. I took a bite and walked over to Reggie. It's a good thing I got dressed before I came down. Reggie was just looking at me, smiling. "What?"
"Nothing," he shook his head. "It's just that I would do that same thing when I was alive."
"Oh," I smiled.
We walked for a little while until we reached Julie's. I walked into the garage, Luke and Julie were sitting on the piano bench together. "Hey lovebirds. Reggie and I have something we want to share with you all."
"Yeah yeah!" Reggie was like a little puppy. "So I was upset when Luke and Alex were arguing, because it reminded me of my parents right? Well... I thought of a place I could go to feel better and I appeared in Y/N's kitchen. She found me and I told her what was wrong because I was crying. She put her hands on my shoulders, so I leaned in for a hug. We stood there a couple seconds and-"
"Wait she touched you?" Julie asked.
"Uh yeah Jules, that's kind of the whole point of the story," I say.
Alex came over to me. He put his hand through me. "I can't touch her."
Luke appeared on the other side of me. He tried to grab my arm, "Yeah. I can't either."
Julie walked over to me, "Why is it just Reggie?"
"I don't know, add it to our list of questions," Alex said.
"Okay how about you guys figure this out and Julie and I can write songs? Cool?"
"Yeah sure, I know a pretty big library about a mile from here."
"Let's blow this popsicle stand!" Reggie yelled.
Once we arrive at the library, we go on the hunt. After 30 minutes of searching, Alex calls for us. He points to a book titled Ghostly Myths and Phantom Facts. I look at Alex and whisper, "You're kidding right?"
"You can check out multiple books right?"
"Yeah," I keep my voice down.
"Well check out this one and the one Reggie's holding."
I turn around and look at Reggie. He holds up the book that's titled, Falling for a Ghost. "Alex, that's fictional."
"It could help us! Plus you guys are cute together."
"Alex! I have a boyfriend."
As if saying that made him appear, I look behind Reggie at a table and see Jacob... and Carrie. They're reading something, I can't tell what. I hear a little bit of their conversation and realize they're flirting. My whole world feels like it's stopping. "Y/N? Are you alright?" Reggie looks at me with sympathetic eyes.
"Yeah I'm fine, why?"
Alex looks at me, "You're crying."
I touch my face and sure enough, my finger catches a tear. I take the book from Reggie and the one Alex pointed out and I go to the counter. I check out the books and rush out of the library, making sure Jake and Carrie didn't see.
I know where we are, so I walk a little to the beach and sit on a bench. I look around and I can see that nobody's around me. I curl my knees up and put my face in my hands. I cry. I cry for the first time in a long time. I feel a hand brush my hair behind my ear. I look up and it's Reggie.
Alex is on my other side, but I lean on Reggie. I need the comfort of touch. He wraps his arms around me and he says, "I can't believe I found you like this."
"Y/N... can you tell us what happened in there?" Alex was worried.
"You guys saw the cheerleader right?" A nod came from both of them, "well. She was with my boyfriend."
"Oh. I saw them a couple minutes after we got there. I just thought they were together or something by the way they were talking to each other," I looked up at Reggie, I know he was trying to help, but that statement hurt.
I then realize that I'm letting these boys see too much of my life. I can't let them in, especially Reggie. "It doesn't matter, he played me and I won't let him win. I suppose I could tell him lies about what I saw, but I bet he'll say the lies are true."
Reggie stammered a lot. He was speaking broken English, but I could tell his heart was there. I looked into Reggie's green eyes, they reminded me of the ocean, all of the colors in them. We walked around for a little while, the guys cheered me up. Alex said he should probably go and hang out with his new friend, Willie.
That left Reggie and I alone. We walked and giggled at some dumb things. We talked about the old Star Wars movies. I also told him about how I've known about Sunset Curve almost my whole life. He was fascinated, but not surprised. I clutched the books between my arms and shivered. The nights of LA were quite cold.
"Here," Reggie took off his leather jacket, handed it to me, and grabbed the books from my hands. I slid the leather jacket on, surprisingly it was warm. I took the books back and we continued walking. We arrived at my house.
"You know I had fun today, other than crying."
Reggie chuckled, "Did you now?"
"Why yes I did."
"Look, I don't want to break your heart or anything, but..." he paused and scratched the back of his neck.
"Reg, it's okay. Tell me."
"I saw Carrie and the guy she was with kiss when we were in the library."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah it was after you left, me and Alex were trying to figure out what was going on and they kissed. That's when we poofed out."
"Oh..."
"You're way too good for him anyways!"
"Yeah, it's just... our one year anniversary is Monday and he's one of my bestfriends. I always knew he liked Carrie more than me, but I didn't think he'd cheat. Quite frankly I didn't think Carrie would cheat on Nick."
"I'm really sorry," Reggie pulled me into a tight hug. I could feel the tears streaming down my cheeks.
"It's okay, I should go inside and get some rest."
"Yeah. I don't know when I'll see you again though."
"Do you want to come over around 3 tomorrow?"
Reggie looked down and smirked, "Yeah, sure."
"I'll see you then!"
I opened my door and walked over to put the books on the island. My mom was making dinner. She smiled at me, "Jake get a new jacket?"
I looked down. I forgot I was wearing Reggie's jacket. "No. This is someone else's."
She finally looked up at my face and she saw the tear-stained cheeks. She put down her spatula and came over to me, "Oh baby what happened?" She cupped both my cheeks.
I didn't tell her about the fact it was the band Sunset Curve back from the dead that I was with today, but I told her every other detail. About the library and how sweet my two new friends were.