Betelgeuse-A Beetlejuice Novel

Chapter 24: Three, Two, Huh?

Author's Note: Well, this is the third to the last chapter. I hope you enjoyed the ride. I will get the next one up tomorrow, and then the last one on Saturday. It was fun to write, and I'm happy with how it turned out. I hope you do too.

Awkward, Lydia thought as she held BG in her arms. Beetlejuice had been Benny off and on over the week, but the change between who he was seemed to change somewhere between six and forty-two hours. It wasn't easy to make time to hang out with Benny or BJ, considering she never knew which one would be there.

They worked out a small system of 3,2, and huh so far. When she said something Beetlejuice didn't understand, he'd hold up a 2. When he understood everything fine, he'd hold up a 3, signaling he was Benny and BJ.

And he usually just said 'huh?' if he was Benny and didn't understand. Well, Lydia had talked with BJ/Benny on the phone earlier, asking him to go to the movies. Beetlejuice insisted she liven up her decision time by having some fun too. Good ol' Beej. He never made sense.

The only problem is, he was Benny when he arrived at the theatres. Pure, one hundred percent Benny with no memory of his neitherworld afterlife. It usually wasn't so bad. Benny was fine, but she had a terrible feeling when he walked up to her, pushing a comb through his white hair, things wouldn't be smooth.

Benny never cared about his hair too awful much. It didn't get as wild as BJ's, but he didn't pull out a comb to take care of it. Error number one. "Hey, Benny." Lydia waved slightly, trying to be nice.

However, it was as she feared. "Kath." He shoved his comb in his pocket. "Yeah, uh, my hair went white again. Funny, huh?" He tried to smooth his hair down. "Keeps standing up too. Sorry about that, didn't want to embarrass you on the first date." He snorted softly. "Was waiting for the second. So! What did you want to see?"

Okay. "Uh, date?" Unfortunately, Beetlejuice had been absolutely right about the mind plugging what it wanted to for the different three forms. Apparently, Benny's plugged in her phone call to BJ as a date for him.

"Yeah. Saturday night, 7:00, show." He chuckled. "Come on, don't tease."

Before Lydia could try and say something, a few guys about their ages came up toward him.

"Benny," one of them said softly as they looked toward Lydia. "That's the Kathleen girl, isn't it?"

"Yo. Don't start." Benny was practically glaring at them. He wrapped his arm around Lydia. "Just beat it."

Lydia didn't know what to make of the tension.

"Yeah, yeah. Just don't get too attached to that girl," one of them said ."Of course, I hear she's easy for a good time."

Oh. Duh. Of course. Lydia looked toward BG. Because I have him, I'm 'easy', and not to be trusted. For just a little while, hanging around BJ more often, she had felt more normal again. Even enough to go out for a night of fun. But, she forgot. She was Kathleen Smith, a nineteen-year-old with, not only a baby, but a strange amount of money and a  nice house for someone so young. Most of them had assumed her parents had given her a good amount of money to leave them be or something. That's what she thought, until another new piece was heard.

"Fine, Benny, do what you wish," one of the guys uttered. "Just don't let her sugar daddy find out."

Sugar daddy? Honestly, she didn't think people could think worse of her! So now, some thought it was her parents putting her up, but others thought . . . others thought . . .

"That's it," Benny yelled at them, grabbing the first nearest guy. "Stop talking about Kath that way." He pulled his fist back. "You know I'm not joking!"