The Boy and the Ghost

The Date

The inside of Jacob's room looked exactly how Suresh imagined it would. A large space with a master bed with satin sheets. The entire room was grey and white. Plain and elegant, ombre tones and white lights. And mahogany shelves of books and what looked like ancient scholarly tomes.

Suresh approached one of his bookshelves, his fingers brushing over all the comics and mangas he had. A plethora of Lego toys and figurines on the shelf were starting to collect dust. He'd almost forgotten it's been at least three days since Jacob died.

"Nice collection."

"Thanks." Jacob shrugged.

Suresh made his way over to a wall of posters and album covers.He couldn't help but let out a snort.

"Didn't realise you were so into K-Pop."

Jacob scratched the back of his head. "Yeah well, there's a lot you didn't know about me, Susu."

Suresh pointed at one of the posters. "I love I.U too."

"Favourite song?"

"Tough question. Blueming, I guess. Or Celebrity.  You?"

"Good Day. Definitely. Hands down." Jacob responded.

"A classic." Suresh laughed. Something else caught his eye, hanging off a rack in the corner of his room.  A green banner.  "You're a Slytherin, huh?"

"Yeah." Jacob said. "You one of those Potterheads that glorify Gryffindor or a Slytherin sympathiser."

"I don't appreciate that term. I think they get too much slander. Nothing sympathetic about liking them."

Suresh turned to face Jacob. "I'm a real Potterhead. I even went to this lame event the other year. It was in this tiny café and they served Teh C Peng as but-"

"As butterbeer." Jacob smirked. "I know. I was there. That's where I got the poster."

Suresh was genuinely surprised. "You were there?"

"Yeah. I saw you buy tickets to it in the school library. You were giddy about it the whole day."

"Why didn't you come up to me? Or say hi?"

"We weren't exactly friends back then, Susu." Jacob sounded a bit annoyed. "You treated me like your mortal enemy."

"We treated each other like mortal enemies." Suresh retorted.

"Nope. Just you." Jacob looked down and put his hands in his pockets. "I on the other hand had the biggest crush on you and you never noticed."

Suresh almost died right there and joined Jacob in the afterlife.

"You-" Suresh couldn't get a single word out of his throat. It was like his heart stopped beating and his mind went blank.

"Don't act like your surprised." Jacob kept his head down, staring pointedly at his feet. "It had to have been obvious."

Suresh was still at a loss for words, but mustered the mental capacity to form a few sentences. "No. Honestly I had no idea.  Are you kidding?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding, Suresh?"

Something about the way Jacob said Suresh's name made his heart skip a beat. And then he banged his chest awkwardly with his fist and caught his breath. Because he had no idea why that flustered him so much.

A few moments of awkward silence passed and Suresh found that Jacob was still looking at him. Suresh quickly switched his gaze to the floor, the veneer of the wooden tiles suddenly fascinating.

"Why did you never tell me?"

"I tried, Suresh. Really, I did." Jacob sounded exasperated. As if the words had been lodged in his throat and were all spilling out now. "Or at least in my own shitty way."

Suresh laughed. Exasperated almost. Still trying to take in what he had just heard. His mouth opened to say something, but he just looked down.

"Do me a favour and open this drawer for me."

Suresh looked at the drawer Jacob was gesturing to. He opened the first drawer and in it was a paraphernalia of objects and tokens. Key chains. Rubber bands. Lego toys, A case for his glasses.  A bottle of lotion (he was not going to ask what that was for). And a few pictures.

"Look at the photos."

Suresh did as he was told. He found