Ghostly Love

Why I'm Here

Gabriel and I walk home from school together. Nothing exciting ever happens at my home so I'm going to his. We walk throuh the front door of his house.

"Maman! Papa! Je suis rentré de l'école!" he yells.
English: "Mom! Dad! I'm home from school!"

Gabriel moved here recently from Montréal. He originally spoke french all the time. His little sister runs up to him and jumps into his arms.

"Gabriel!" she squeels, "Tu me manques!"
English: "Gabriel! I missed you!"

He laughs and spins her around. When he sets her down she looks at me. Right at me.

"Mon nom est Emily, qui êtes-vous?" she asks.
English: "My name is Emily, who are you?"

"Je parle en anglais," I say.
English: "I speak in English."

She nods and speaks again. This time, not to me.

"MOOOOOM! GABRIEL BROUGHT A GIRL HOME AND SHE SPEAKS ENGLISH!!!" she yells.

I almost laugh. A young lady wearing a french braid walks into the room. She looks around, clearly not seeing anything. Gabriel laughs.

"Okay someone must've had a weird dream," he says.

"But she's here!!!" Emily protests.

Her mother shakes her head.

"Emily, vous devez retourner dans votre chambre et terminer vos devoirs," she says.
English: "Emily, you need to go to your room and finish your homework."

Emily sighs and walks away.

"Maman," Gabriel says, "Je vais dans ma chambre pour travailler une tâche."
English: "Mom, I am going to my room to work on an assignment."

"Trés bien sûr," his mom says.
English: "Okay sure."

I have no clue what they are saying, as I am not a french type of person, and follow Gabriel cautiously up the stairs. He goes into a very pink bedroom, obviously not his, and walks up to Emily sitting on her bed with a notebook and pencil. She looks up as we enter her room.

"Qui êtes-vous?" she asks me again.
English: "Who are you?"

"My name is Jayden," I say.

"Why can't my mom see you?" she asks.

"I'm a ghost, I'm not alive," I explain, "Only certain people can see me."

Her jaw drops.

"Vraiment?" she asks.
English: "Really?"

"Yes."

She jumps up to try to touch me and her hands lands on my arm. I feel her warmth seep into my icy, cold skin.

"I can touch you!" she squeels.

"Yah you can!" I say.

She smiles and I laugh. Gabriel pulls me out to the hallway, and into a very black and white room. His room. Never thought I would ever be here.

"Soooo," Gabriel starts, "How did you die?"

I sigh.

"Well..."

***Flashback***

I rush out of my house surrounded by my friends.

"Have a good time!" my mother shouts at us from the porch.

"We will!" I yell back.

It's my birthday and my three close friends and I are going to a party. We run down the street giddy with excitment.

"I can't believe we are actually going to a party!" Emma squeels.

Emma is the social butterfly that got us hooked up to this party. It's being thrown by her brothers best friend, and there in HIGHSCHOOL!

"Meh, not my first," Sasha says.

Sasha is the outcast. She's an emo and I was her first real friend. I'm really nerdy.

"It's m-my first p-p-party," Teegan stutters.

Teegan is adorably shy. She's the baby of us four. The nerd, the emo, the social butterfly, and the shy kid. We call ourselves The Outcasts. We are best friends forever.

We walk up the driveway of a five-story mansion and ring the doorbell nervously. Andy, Emma's brothers bestfriend, opens the door.

"Emma!" he says hugging her.

He looks at each one of us, his eyes lingering on me.

"And you guys must be the rest of The Outcasts, eh?" he asks.

We nod. He smiles.

"Come on in!"

We all enter the house. It reeks of weed and alcohol. I get kind of scared and shy away to a wall. Sasha disappears into the crowd, Emma runs away with Andy, and Teegan grips onto my arm. Sasha returns holding two red cups of something and a bottle of water. She hands the water to Teegan and the second plastic cup to me. I take a sip. I gag and almost spit it out. It tastes gross, and as I swallow it burns my throat.

"It's Tequilla and vodka and gingerale and lime," Sasha explains.

I look around. Lots of other people are drinking out of plastic red cups, and Sasha has downed her glass already. I take another sip and ignore the burning feeling.

"I'm getting more, wanna come?" Sasha asks.

"Sure," I say.

We leave Teegan alone at the wall and plunge into the mob of sweaty, dancing people. We get to the kitchen and Sasha refills our glasses with more Tequilla and other stuff. I take my glass back and take a sip. Not as bad anymore.

After five cups of it I start to get woozy and climb up the stairs to find a place to lie down. The first door I open is a bathroom, the second is a bedroom that is "occupied", and the third has more stairs. I walk up them.

When I open the door at the top, I feel a breeze of fresh air. I stumble out onto the roof of the house and overlook the backyard. A pool, a garden, and a basketball court. Big. My vision starts to blur a bit and I stumble foreward. My feet slip on a wet patch of the roof, and I feel myself fall and plunge into icy, cold water, as my vision goes black.

***Present Time***

"So you drowned?" Gabriel asks.

"Yah..." I say, "I was drunk and stupid."

He laughs. I raise an eyebrow at him.

"What?" I ask.

"I dont know," he says.

He walks over to his computer and presses the play button. Music fills the room.

When I was, a young boy
My father, took me into the city,
To see a marching band.
He said "Son, when you grow up,
Will you be, the saviour to the broken,
the beaten, and the damned?"

My Chemical Romance, Welcome to the Black Parade. My favourite song ever! When he sees me lip-synching he laughs and turns up the music. I laugh and sing out loud. He joins in. His voice is so angelic I rush over to him and hug him. He picks me up and spins me around the room. I laugh and laugh. I've never been so happy.

"Hey," Gabriel says.

"What?" I ask.

"Um...is it wrong that I really kinda like you?" he asks.

I laugh.

"Nope, because I really kinda like you too!"

He hugs me tightly and I breathe him in. Cologne and sweat and pancakes. Wait...pancakes? Yummy. I really do like Gabriel.