Ghosts {L.P.}

5:20

Ｇｈｏｓｔｓ Ｍａｄｅ Ｈｅｒ Ｓｍｕｄｇｅ Ｈｅｒ Ｍａｋｅｕｐ

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|• 1:13

Riya had finished an entire box of tissues before she finally calmed down.

The last time she had cried as hard had been during her final weeks of primary school, where the kids wanted to test all of Riya's limits before they graduated. She spent two hours crying into her father's shoulder, only consoled by some musical playing in the background and her favourite burgers to eat.

Similarly, she was also crying about something ghost-related.

It was poor Julie who had to suffer through Riya's tears, although she was the one who initially insisted on her not bottling it up. Which left Riya in a state of a hot mess.

Her mascara had long been rubbed out of her eyelashes and on to the skin around her eyes to make her look like a raccoon. All traces of eyeliner had smudged onto her cheeks in blurry streaks adorned with glittering gold. Even Riya's dress suffered after she forgot the colour of it and instinctively tried to muffle her tear filled cries behind her sleeve only to discover makeup stains left behind after every attempt to stifle her cries.

The only thing around Riya which wasn't a complete utter mess were her intact hair and the box of tissues she was fiddling with as she lent into Julie's side while her and Flynn popped balloons on the gym floor, a distressing activity suggested by Flynn herself which Riya was too tired to partake in.

"I can never show my face at this school again." Julie was the first to speak after a long while of silence only filled by Riya's sniffles and the boom of the compressed air of the balloons as they exploded.

"That's what we get for depending on boys." Riya truly wanted to laugh at Flynn's attempt of a joke, which was more of a statement really. But all she managed was the flattening of her heavy pout, while Julie simply sighed, popping another balloon in the process.

"I don't know if I should be mad or worried. They're ghosts. I don't know what kind of trouble they can get into." Silence settled once again.

Riya was truly neither of the things Julie was feeling. Her worry had long since faded, they were ghosts no danger could come to someone who was already dead—unless ghostbusters had suddenly chosen to exist, which Riya severely doubted. And she wasn't mad, she didn't think she could get mad at such a thing as being ditched, it took much more than that to get Riya angry.

If she had to describe her emotion, the closest would be disappointment. She had been so excited to play again, to feel the rush of adrenaline playing with Julie and the guys in front of a crowd gave her. She looked forward to the shocked gasps of the crowd and constant cheers which followed Julie's vocals and Luke's riffs. Riya was even hoping to dance around with Reggie and Alex for a bit to include the drummer and bassist more in the principal dynamic.

Instead, Riya was on the questionably clean gym floor, with a face painted of nightmares and her dreams all shattered like a thin glass vase.

"I'mma get us some ice cream from the cafeteria," Flynn broke the silence with the possibility of gaining the exact thing which always helped bad situations, ice cream. "Fools gave me the keys. We can all crash at my place and forget about this whole nightmare."

Riya sighed while checking her phone, five minutes past midnight, it wouldn't be long before her father would show up and drive her back home. And as much as she'd enjoy a slumber party with Julie and Flynn as a pick me up, she wasn't in the mood.