"Hey, you remember what I said last year, right? We're Zombie Boy and Ghost Boy. I'm not ever gonna leave you."
"Promise?"
"One hundred percent."
***
In which Alistair fights the monster that possessed his friend alongside his friends, while trying...
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Chapter Thirteen: Breakup Woes And Ghostly Terrors
(The Case Of The Missing Lifeguard)
***
Alistair wondered if his eyes were going to be stuck in his head from the amount of times he rolled them in the past hour, much less in the entirety of the day.
He, Will, Mike and Lucas were back in Mike's basement, where for the past few hours Mike had nursed his broken heart after the breakup in junk food and moping. Lucas had been consoling their best friend while Alistair and Will remained at the campaign table, a bag of Reese's Pieces that Alistair shared with Will in his hands. Alistair had alternated from being silent to rolling his eyes to going over the notes of the campaign with Will together as they set it up again. While he knew not everyone was lucky to have a breakup as mutual as his and Cami's had been, Alistair was honestly getting sick and tired of Mike moping in it—especially when it could have easily been avoided if he followed Alistair's advice and told El the truth about why he lied. And especially when he was asking what he'd done wrong when the answer was incredibly obvious, and Lucas tried to console Mike in saying he didn't do anything wrong.
Case in point when Alistair heard Mike say, "What's wrong with me? What did I do wrong?"
"Nothing," Lucas responded, and Alistair rolled his eyes for the upteemth time as he doodled his character in the margins of his character sheet.
"What did I do wrong? What could I have done wrong?" Mike asked out loud to no one in particular, shaking the bag of Doritos in his hands.
Alistair looked upwards, as if begging an imaginary god to give him strength as he muttered under his breath, "Do I need to spell it out, Mike?"
"Do I have to go through this again?" Lucas questioned, a tick of annoyance in his tone.
Mike crunched on a Dorito, saying, "I just don't understand what I did to deserve this."
Are you kidding me? Alistair thought, sharing a disbelieving look with Will as Lucas said, "Nothing. Nothing. That's my whole point. You are the victim here."
"I know. It's just, why is she treating me this way?" Mike said, shaking the bag again.
"I don't know, maybe because you lied to her and didn't tell her why?" Alistair muttered, rolling his eyes as Will nodded in agreement. Alistair handed the bag of Reese's Pieces to Will, ignoring the sparks shooting through him as their hands brushed.
"I don't know," Mike muttered, wallowing in his self-pity as Lucas said, "Mike..."
"What did I do wrong? What did I do wrong?!"
"Mike, stop," Lucas said, pushing Mike's feet down on the couch as he grinned. "Relax. Just relax. Okay? Stop asking rational questions."
"I know, I know. You're right," Mike replied, nodding.
