We're married?!

Epilogue

Duncan's POV:

I blinked hard at James. Huh?! What gives? Wasn't he supposed to be dead?

"Don't look like that Duncan. You almost don't look happy to see me," he said, pouting and looking hurt.

"That would be coz I'm not. I thought you were dead!" I replied testily, backing up towards my door. I grabbed the handle, stared at James for several moments and then ran out.

"Mommy!" I screamed, tripping past animals in my haste. I do not like my chances of dealing with a ghost. I burst into my parents' room and jumped on the bed.

"Mommy, James is in my room!" I wailed, burying my head in her pillow. Mommy got up, kissed my forehead and said, "James isn't here Duncan. Go back to sleep. It was probably a nightmare."

I hesitated. Nightmare? Oh...yeah, that'll explain it.

I scrambled off the bed and skulked back to my room.

James was sitting on my windowsill, having a staring contest with Charlie. I gulped and headed over.

"You're not real. You're not real," I told him. He raised his eyebrows skeptically. I inhaled deeply and touched him. My hand stayed on his shoulder. It didn't go through. I stepped back sharply.

"Dude..." I breathed.

"Hmm?"

"You're solid."

"Dumb thing to say Dukeson."

"Why?"

"Coz everyone's solid."

"I meant why are you solid when you're supposed to be dead?"

"Oh...that makes more sense."

"Okay..."

"I'm not dead."

"Huh?"

He got up, wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer. He kissed my nose and smiled, "I'm not dead. I'm alive and awesome."

I pulled away from him, tripped over my turtle and fell down. James fell on top of me. He clearly wasn't a ghost.

I shoved him off. He scrabbled to his feet and asked grumpily, "Is there a way we can have a civil conversation without falling over animals?"

I grabbed his hand and pulled him all the way downstairs and then outside. He was gasping for air by the time we were outside.

"So...much...fur..." he rasped.

"Explain," I snapped. He looked at me and said, "I'm allergic to fur."

"I meant about the whole death thing!"

"That's a different story."

"That's the one I wanna hear."

"Fine...what do you know?"

"You committed suicide and now I'm going crazy..."

"Barely the truth. Is that what my parents told you?"

"Casey."

"So that's what they told her. Always wondered. Okay, what really happened was I thinking about committing suicide but I chickened out. I kept the note I wrote because it was touching. I hid it though. A few days after that, my parents went mega grump mode and started screaming at me."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing!"

"Really?"

"We were talking about you and your family and Dad lost it. He started screaming about how he won't have something like me for a son because I like guys...err...then we exchanged words and he got mad and kicked me out of the house. I told him people will wanna know where I am and he'll be ruining his rep but he didn't look back."