Ghosts {L.P.}

8:20

Ｇｈｏｓｔｓ Ｈａｖｅ Ｔｏ Ｆａｃｅ
Ｔｈｅｉｒ Ｆｅａｒｓ Ｔｏｏ

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|• 3:40

Riya replayed the words over and over in her head, she thought of the entire introduction speech she was about to give Luke's parents as if they were lyrics without the rhyme, not as actual words she'd have to say to her almost ghost boyfriend's parents about a song their dead son wrote for his mother before he died, and she had somehow acquired—she was still smoothening out the final details after all.

Who was Riya kidding? She was certainly going to be turned away as soon as she knocked on the door.

Nevertheless, she kept trotting away down the familiar sights of the street Alex and Reggie had taken Julie and her for when they were angry at Luke.

How things could change in such a short time.

Riya's footsteps came to a complete halt right before rounding the corner into the stone pathway leading up to the front door. Luke had somehow beat her to his own house, though she doubted it was for the same reasons.

Without his beanie his hair was even more of a stuck out mess than it usually was, and he had gone back to Julie's garage for an orange-red flannel coat he wasn't wearing before. There were tears in his eyes as he stared past the closed window into the empty living room, shoulders weighing him downwards while an array of memories flashed before his still eyes. The sight would have been creepy if anyone else could see him and hadn't known the context, however, Riya instead found it absolutely heartbreaking.

"Luke." His head snapped towards the side, sniffing while pressing the sleeve of his coat against his eyes, trying to return the tears to where they came from before they fell.

"What are you..? How...? Reggie." Luke didn't finish his questions, but Riya still understood his intention while the loose stone pebbles crunched under her feet while she walked towards his side.

What was she doing there? How did she know it was his house? And of course, Luke came to the conclusion to blame Reggie, the most chat forward of their friend group.

"More like Alex and Reggie, they said you come here a lot when you're sad, I should've known you'd be here." Luke wiped at his eyes again, trailing after Riya who went to stand by the closed door rather than fully out in the open.

Unlike Luke, people could see her looking into a window, and it would not be taken well by any onlooking party.

"You're not here looking for me?"

"Not exactly, but I'm glad I found you because I probably should have asked before planning all this." Reaching into the pocket of her overall, Riya handed the neatly folded piece of ripped out paper to Luke's hands, him having also moved towards the door rather than brooding by the window.

"My song... did you?"

"Rip it out? Maybe," An overwhelming feeling of needing to explain herself overcame Riya as she fiddled with the pockets by her hips, but there was also a fire of determination burning inside her, one which could be easily put out were Luke to ask her to go away, but not before Riya at least tried.

"Look, you're dying again, no use beating around the bush," Luke winced at Riya's harsh statement, not expecting her to be so blunt about the situation, but she was only getting started and couldn't stop even if she wanted to as the word vomit was already escaping her.

"You said something before about how you didn't want words to be left unsaid between us, and I may have interpreted it as you not wanting to leave these words die with you a second time as well. If you want me to leave, I will, no one will hold it against you and there'll be no hard feelings between us. But if you want me to stay and show your Mom just how much you love her before it's too late, I'll stay."