Ghost Kiss

Lily

     Everything is great again. Working out exactly like it's supposed to. Well, minus my unexpected roommate. But that's not so bad. We seem to get along great. I look forward to coming home every day knowing that he will sit with me and just listen to all my stupid stories about work and whatever else I've done that day. I know that most of his interest is because he can't leave the house so these stories are all he has to go on really. But, that's ok with me. He's a good listener.

     I came home today super excited. I just picked up the last of my books and my confirmed class schedule. I've been looking forward to it ever since I moved here. Someday, I'm going to be a graphic designer and own my own business.

     I hear the knocks telling me that he's in the room with me. Sometimes I wonder if he's in the room with me and just decides not to signal. That's the only downside really, I'm unsure of how much privacy I'm actually getting.

     "Hey, I start classes tomorrow morning. I can't wait. Everything I've done since I was 16 years old has led up to this." I turn around to where I thought the knocking was coming from and I drop everything that I'm holding.

     Deacon is fully materialized in front of me. I can see him. He looks exactly like he did in his picture. "I don't know how long I can be like this, but I wanted to try." He says. I smile at him. I study him. Trying to commit everything to memory regardless that I can just look at his picture. It's not the same.

     "I want to try something but you can't move." He says to me with a questioning look on his face. But I know he wouldn't hurt me intentionally. "Ok." I stand perfectly still as I see him walk towards me. I'm amazed at what I'm seeing. It's like he's solid but he's not. I can still faintly see the wall behind him.

     He reaches out and takes my hand. I smile as I look at our conjoined hands. "I feel the cold," I say to him. "I feel the warmth." He says back. He then cups my cheek with his other hand, I'm looking directly at him. "I have to do this at least once." and he leans in and kisses me. It happened so fast. Then he's gone.

     What just happened? I'm still standing there, unmoving, even minutes later. I don't know what to do after that. My lips are still cold. "Deacon?" No response. "You can't just do something like that and disappear." Still, no response. I head for the kitchen and make myself a sandwich and sit on the couch. I'm trying to figure out what that was about. "You probably can't respond. I bet it took a lot of essence and control to materialize like that for that long." I know even though he can't respond he can still hear me. "We are friends, right? We have a good thing going here. I can't have you putting thoughts in my head of something that can never be. But I understand. I'm not even sure when the last time you were able to kiss a girl and I'm the only one you have access to. I get it. But please, don't do it again." Still no response. I know he's still in the room. He's not the type to just do something like that and leave.

     I continue my evening in silence. Deciding to focus more on my classes starting tomorrow. I picked up the books I dropped earlier and started going through them and even making some notes ahead of time since I had the syllabus for all my classes.

     It's bedtime now. I crawl in and into the silent dark say "Goodnight, Deacon." It's quiet so I wonder if he's even in the room. Knock. Knock. Knock. I smile and take it as a sign that we are forgetting the kiss even happened. I get comfy and go to sleep.