chapter eight:: the hotdog story
"HAYES," I breathed out as he stood before me, clear as day. I felt like throwing up.
"I didn't know you were performing here," He told me subtly, "You did amazing. I knew you could sing in front of everyone one day." He then looked at Evan, smiling, "Hey, Evan."
"Hayes, long time, no see," Evan responded, holding my hand now as it shook violently.
I then felt Reggie lean into me to whisper, "Who's that?"
Hayes then looked at Reggie, "Hey, I'm Hayes." Reggie suddenly jumped back a little, causing a laugh, that I never thought I'd hear again, to escape Hayes. Hayes then looked at me amused, "I think I scared your friend."
"Wait, you can see us too?" Alex asked him, "Are you a ghost?"
"Sort of," Hayes hummed, "Are you?"
"Yes!" Reggie exclaimed, but looked at me, "Is he a ghost seer like you?"
"No," I bluntly answered, but looked at the guys as they all looked at me confused, "He's just an Anchor."
"An anchor? What the heck is that?" Luke then asked me, but as I was about to answer the guy on stage spoke again.
"Okay we're going to close out the night with one more group," He said, "Julie and the Fat Ones?"
Alex then glared at Luke, "Really?"
"Dude, my handwriting sucks," Luke responded, "Come on." He told Alex and Reggie before they walked, but Luke hesitantly looked back at me before getting on stage.
Hayes held onto smile as he looked at me, "So, Dawn, I think we should really catch up sometime-"
"Evan, you ready?" I asked Evan, turning my back away from Hayes, watching Evan quickly nod. I didn't want to miss the guys performing, but I definitely didn't want to see Hayes for any longer. Evan wastes no time to grab my hand and pull me out of the coffee shop and towards his car. I hurry into the passenger seat as he got into the driver side, quickly driving off. I groaned heavily once we turned the corner, "Oh my god!"
"He really is Voldemort, because what are the odds that we finally say his name and he just pops up a while later," Evan commented and when I give him a look, he sighed, "Are you okay?"
"Yes- no," I groaned, putting my head in my hands, "Why did he come? Why is he here?"
"Yeah, wasn't he supposed to be in, like, Michigan," He wondered, "Or hell?"
A headache began to form as I just thought about Hayes. What is he doing here? How long has he been here? Did Evan really summon him by saying his name? Why is he here and why now?
"You want to spend the night at my house in case he shows up?" Evan asked as he stopped in front of my house.
I glanced at my house, but shook my head, "No, it's fine. I'm fine," I assured him, "Perfect, even. Just.. peachy."
"I've never heard you use the word peachy before," Evan informed me, "Should I be concerned?"
"No, I just- I got it from Luke," I told him, but glanced back to see him lost by my words, "Luke is one of the ghosts I saw."
"Oh, okay," He nodded, "Wow, I just realized they were supposed to perform and this was going to be my only time to see how they look." I smiled, causing him to smile too, "Look, I got you smiling."
"Thank you," I then leaned in an gave him a hug, having him hug me back, "I'll call you later?" When he agrees, I leave his car and head straight to my house, locking it once I got inside. I hurry up to my room and quickly lock that too, but once I turn around, I see Luke leaning against my window, "Luke, what are you doing here?"
He pushed himself off of my window only to sit on my bed, "Just came to see if you were alright. I saw you left before we performed."
"Yeah, I just couldn't stay," I told him, putting my jacket in my closet, "I'm sorry I missed it."
"It's fine, there's always another time," He shrugged, "Did you leave because of that Hayes dude?" I turned to look at him and hesitantly nod, "Who is he?"
"No one," I huffed out, "Just my ex boyfriend."
"You had a boyfriend?" He asked and I raised a brow at him.
"Is it such a strange thing for me to have had a boyfriend?" I retorted, "Do I seem like the person to never date someone?"
"No, no, I just-" He paused, "I just never thought of you dating someone."
I tried to put my input on his words, but couldn't find any of my own to make sense of his statement, so I moved on, "Well, I dated him when we were in freshman year, but we broke up last year."
"Why?" He asked, but shook his head when I gave him a look, "Sorry, you don't have to tell me. It's not my business."
"It's okay, it's just... our relationship wasn't the best," I sighed, sitting down next to him on my bed, "He was very protective and controlling. He didn't like me doing much, even contacting my father."
"He sounds like an ass," Luke remarked and I let out a laugh.
"Yeah, he was," I sighed, rubbing my forehead to surpass my headache, "But one day, we got into this huge argument and the next thing you know, he was gone. And it was messed up because he was the only person to understand what I was going through since he dealt with the supernatural too." I then chuckled, "Thinking back, that was the only thing we had in common."
"Well, lucky for you, you and I have more in common," Luke suddenly stated and I furrowed my brows at him, "I mean, you like music, I like music. We both play instruments and sing- plus, we're both involved with ghost!"
I laughed, nodding as I looked at my hands, "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"And you killed it tonight, by the way," He nudged my shoulder with his, "Didn't think you had it in you. I bet Reggie that you were going to pass out on stage."
I gasped and smack his shoulder,, "Now who's the ass?"
"Reggie because I bet you weren't," He lied, unaffected by my hit as he stood up from my bed to go to my cello, "You know, I never heard anyone play a cello before."
"Never?"
He shook his head, "Does it look like I listen to it?" I then scanned his outfit when he motioned towards it, to show his rocker fashion. I laughed, shaking my head, before he opened the case and took my cello out of it, "Can you play for me?"
"What? No." I got up from my bed and take cello out of his hands, leaning against my wall only for him to grab it again.
"Why not?" He wondered, "I want to hear you play."
"Because it's bad enough you heard me sing," I addressed, "Now you want a concerto."
"I don't know what that means, but yes, I do," He nodded and I smiled in amusement as he went on, "You seem like a great celloist, so I know you can do it." I suddenly burst in to laughter, causing him to raise a brow at me, "What? What's funny?"
"There's no such thing as a 'celloist', it's cellist," I corrected and he slowly nodded as I took my instrument away from him again.
"Please, Dawn, just this once," He begged and I shook my head, "What if I said it's my birthday?"
"Then I would wish you happy birthday and tell you goodnight," I told him, but eyed him as he stuck out his bottom lip and pouted. I huffed out exaggeratedly and grabbed my chair nearby, "Fine, but only this one time since it's your birthday."
He grinned widely and plopped down on my bed, laying out as I sat before him, setting up my cello. When I finished, I positioned my bow on the strings held my fingers at the neck, glancing up at him as he was now sitting up, watching me intently as I began to play. I then close my eyes and let my fingers take control as if they were their own person.
Usually, I play in my room at night when I can't sleep because I felt that it would keep me distracted. Playing meant I had to put all my concentration in my fingers, but let my body ease with no intent of messing up. But I've been playing since I was a kid, so there was no need to mess up with so much practice.
I let my mind force the thoughts of Hayes away, leaving me to only focus on the instrument in my hands and surprisingly, Luke. I began to play and while I did, I thought of Luke, keeping my eyes shut. I thought of his smile and choice of clothing and I smile myself because of it. I tuned in on my music and felt satisfied as I let myself feel free to the sound all the way until I finished.
Slowly I opened my eyes and immediately met his as he looked at me with amazement. I sighed lightly and moved my cello to the side before pushing my hair behind my ears, "So, what did you think?"
He began to stutter, his mouth hanging open a little, "Dawn, that was- you were amazing!" Suddenly, he shot up from my bed, "I never heard anything like that before."
I laughed, nodding my head, "Yeah, I can tell," I then rest my chin on my knees when I brought them to my chest, "Now that I played for you, when am I going to hear a solo?"
"Soon," He responded, "You just can't rush perfection." I scoffed as he smiled at me, "Thank you, that made my day."
I hummed, "Thank you for distracting me. I needed to get my mind off of tonight for a minute."
He nodded, "Well, if you need more of a distraction," I perked up at his offer, "I'll tell you how we died, but don't laugh, alright?"
"That's something I've always thought about anyways," I chuckled, "But tell me, was it in a crash? Did you all simultaneously fall off stage or get hit by a massive truck?"
"No, no, we didn't die like that," He shook his head, "We died by..."
He mumbled the rest of his answer, so I furrowed my brows, "Huh?"
"We died by..." He muffled, but saw that I still couldn't hear him, so he huffed out, "We died by eating hotdogs!" I immediately burst out laughing, causing him to groan. "I told you not to laugh!"
"I'm- I'm sorry, it's just," I stifled, hiding my mouth behind my knees, "It's just I never heard of such thing and I see ghosts all the time. I thought this guy dying from his own laughter was the strangest thing I've heard, but you guys- you died from eating a hotdog!"
"It was a street dog, okay? A guy would make hotdogs from his car," He explained and I laughed harder.
"That wasn't a red flag, Luke?"
He shook his head, "No, not at the time because we used to always eat them. That night was just a bad batch," He tried to excused and I tried to stop myself from laughing after a couple minutes, "Are you done?"
"Yes," I assured him, but grinned, "That was probably the best thing I heard tonight."
"Haha, I'm glad you found my death funny," He sarcastically commented and I chuckled, "Well, I'm off."
I then stand up from my seat and go over to him, pulling him into a hug that I knew I couldn't feel. He couldn't feel it either, but he didn't step away, "Thank you for tonight, Luke. I really needed this."
"What are ghost friends for?" He asked before I pulled away and he disappeared. I let out a small laugh again, thinking to myself, who would have thought that a rock band would die from eating hotdogs?