Ghosts {L.P.}

3:25

Ｇｈｏｓｔｓ Ｉｎａｄｖｅｒｔｅｎｔｌｙ
Ｇｏｔ Ｈｅｒ Ａ Ｐｒｅｓｅｎｔ

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|• 0:16

Riya had a new skip to her step that she could've sworn even the bus driver noticed. She still sat in the back corner, curling into herself as she stared at the passing cars, still blasted her mother's music into her ears and revelled in the silence filled with her voice.

But now Riya didn't suffer through the trip, in fact, she enjoyed it, she hummed to the tunes she had learnt by heart, tapped her foot on the plastic seat which annoyed more than one passenger who sat next to her, not that she cared much.

But, most of all, Riya smiled.

She smiled through the dark clouds of smog looming over the bus, she found the beauty in the smouldering lights from above, in the melody from the harmonizing honking cars around her, the mesmerizing pattern of people boarding and leaving the bus.

Riya couldn't remember the last time the sun had shone as bright as it had that day.

The bus driver was absolutely perplexed as Riya thanked him while she left the bus. She had been riding that same bus, with the same driver, at the same hour for the past year, and only then had the driver finally come to notice her.

The lock of her apartment clicked under the pressure of Riya's keys, the last song from the bus still being hummed as she closed the door behind her and tossed the keys on the counter.

Although, whatever haze Riya had found herself in was suddenly cut off as a throat being cleared behind her. For the first time in years, her father was early, leaning against one of the kitchen chairs while sipping on a steaming cup of coffee.

He was still in his officer uniform, perfectly pressed and surviving the day so far stain free. He had a smug look on his face that he was trying to hide behind the rim of his cup, but being sneaky had never been one of his strong suits.

"You're early." Something in the way her father pursued his lips as he set his half empty mug on to the table before crossing his arms over his chest irked Riya.

"Principal Lessa called." Those three words were enough for Riya's stomach to drop into the abyss. It was no wonder her father had been wearing the interrogating look he gave all the lying perps strapped in the back of his patrol car, he truly had known something Riya had yet to spew out.

The moment she had been dreading arrived, the consequences of Riya's actions.

She could think of a thousand punishments, but the one she believed her father would go for would be the absolutely most torturous, no music. After all, music was what started getting her in trouble in the first place.

Riya sighed, wringing her hands around each other while not being able to stare into her father's eyes, rather staring at her slowly dirtying boots. "Look Dad, I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have stolen the guitar and microphone and played unauthorized. I have no excuse and I understand perfectly if you'd like to punish me, but—"

"Punish you?" Riya's father replied in a high-pitched voiced before clearing his throat while Riya herself rose her head.

Her father's face was turning red with effort, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets before he finally broke whatever game he was trying to play at.

He laughed.

Riya's father laughed like she had spoken the funniest joke on the planet, heaving so much with laughter that made him hold on to the chair by his side, knuckles whitening with effort.