I know I can't stay here forever...
...It's time for me to go...
...One day.
Rags woke up on Friday morning finally figuring out the last remaining mystery to her dreams. She thought it was something the three guys needed to know about, so she called them to the living room.
Cooper dragged his feet out of his bedroom, rubbing his puffy, post-cried eyes. He groaned, "Rags, I said you could use my body for like your pleasure not your sorrows. I think my eyes are smaller than Arch's now."
In that moment, Archer came out of his room having overslept for the first time in ages. His eyes weren't doing so well either. "Good morning, everyone..."
Cooper stared at him and asked, "Woah, what's wrong with your face, man?"
Archer quickly covered his swollen brown eyes with both of his hands. "N-Nothing's wrong! I just, uh, watched a really sad romance movie last night. That's all."
Skyler exited the kitchen and joined his friends, sitting on the couch with a cup of warm Earl Grey. He teased, "Tell me, Arch. Did that movie involve a ghost possessing a blonde guy to reconcile with her past boyfriend?"
"...Shut up."
Though it took him a second longer, Cooper put two and two together that Archer had been caught eavesdropping yesterday. "Oh, so that's the tea. Ha, get it? Because Sky has a—"
"Shut up, Coops," the entire room said.
"Okay..."
Archer then turned to Rags and asked, "Why did you call us out here?"
Rags brought her mind back to her latest discovery. "Well, remember when I mentioned that countdown at the end of all my dreams?"
Cooper replied, "Ah, yeah. That Ringu shit."
"Right. I realize what it means now. It's a countdown to the end of my afterlife." She noticed the surprised sadness riddled on everyone's faces. Shrugging, she continued, "Maybe some higher power knew I'd only need fourteen days as a ghost to sort things out here before I could find peace."
"Fourteen days?" Archer repeated. "Wait, but you came on Saturday two weeks ago. That means..."
Rags nodded. "Today's my last day. I even heard it in my dream. I only have one day left."
Archer immediately began to panic. "Then, we shouldn't be casually standing here having a conversation right now!"
Cooper corrected, "Actually, Sky's sitting."
"That's not the point! Today is Rags's last day with us! We have to spend it doing something special. Coops, call in sick for work. Sky, you are skipping classes today."
Skyler took a long sip of his tea in thought, eventually reaching a rational decision. "I'm not trying to sound like I don't care about Rags because I seriously fucking do, but Arch, unlike you I care about my grades. I am not missing another class this semester because of you."
"But this is for Rags!" Archer argued, throwing his hands out. "And I care about my grades too. I had a solid 3.8 GPA last year."
"Yeah, last year. I have a 4.0 now."
"...Shut up."
Cooper let out an awkward laugh. "Yeah, like I can't relate to any of that, guys. And I don't think I can call in sick either, Arch. Dr. Russo would kill me if I didn't report in for even a single day to like tell him how sexy he is."
Confused, Archer asked, "What?"
Instead of explaining, Cooper added, "And Margaret is sure to harass me even more if she thinks I'm like sick and whatever."
Skyler passed an apologetic look to Rags which she returned with an understanding one. He said, "I'm sorry. We'll make sure to do something meaningful tonight though, I promise."
Rags replied, "No, don't worry about it. You guys have to live your lives too."
"Well, I'm going to devote my entire day to you, Rags," Archer said proudly. "I know! We should make a scrapbook and fill it with all the memories we have of you. We can even take Polaroids together. You just might appear in them as orbs like in those ghost-hunting shows."
"Okay, that's the gayest thing you've ever said, Arch," Skyler remarked. "And you've said some pretty gay shit throughout the years I've known you."
"Don't hate because you can't relate," Archer snapped.
Soon, Skyler and Cooper were out of the house which meant Archer and Rags had the afternoon with just each other. Mr. Sprinkles was home too, but he preferred to avoid as much contact as he could with his human slaves. He was currently curled up on Cooper's bed, his tail swishing back and forth as he dreamed of world domination.
Rags was able to convince Archer that the scrapbook idea was too tedious to be doing alone in one day since she couldn't exactly help with the hands-on stuff. Not to mention, Rags didn't really want to leave much of herself behind in this apartment. She felt it would only make it harder on the guys once she was gone to have things that reminded them of her. Instead, she proposed having a normal girl's day together, which Archer had no reason to oppose. With his guy friends not around, he could freely take out his pedicure kit and laugh and cry over cliché Korean dramas in peace.
While watching a scene where an angry rich sister found out her brother had been dating the same poor girl she hated due to horrible miscommunication, Rags turned to Archer. There was something she wished to get off her non-beating chest. "Arch, I want to tell you something important."
Archer momentarily put down his periwinkle blue nail polish. He lowered the television volume and gave Rags his full attention. "Okay, I'm listening."
"There's a reason that out of all the places in the world, I ended up in your apartment," Rags confessed. "When I had that dream of Sky, I first thought he could've been the one responsible for my death. But as it turned out, it was the opposite. He could have saved me if it wasn't for my bad decision. He was the last person I thought about before I died because I immensely regretted refusing his help. I'm pretty sure more than anything else I came here to resolve that regret."
"Rags..." Archer fought to hold back his tears. He never expected there to be an explanation for why Rags entered his life. He had assumed it was simply good fate.
"But don't worry. I've settled that regret now, and I'm okay with what happened. I just hope Sky doesn't have any regrets over that night too."
Archer couldn't give her a reply. He knew Skyler still wasn't as accepting of his choices as Rags was.
A few minutes later, Archer was drying his painted toenails while taking notes for his stories on a cringy teen drama about the popular bad boy falling for the nerdy good girl. There was a scene where the boy's friends blindfold the girl to set her up on their first date. Amongst the squealing fluffiness inside Archer's head in that moment, he figured out the perfect plan for his own friends. Secretly, he grabbed his phone and sent his roommates a text.
Guys, I know just what we need to do tonight for Rags.