All Alone.

What?

"Jake, I really need to talk to you." called Jake heard the smaller boy call. "What's wrong?" he asked, sliding into the seat next to Rich. They were at Subway, by Rich's request. He had called Jake earlier and seemed panicked, so Jake was there in a flash. He was worried about his friend. Rich hadn't been the same since...

The fire. He hadn't completely stopped apologizing yet, even though Jake assured him that all was forgiven.

"Tho, you know how I'm bi..." Rich began, running his fingers through his dirty blonde hair and grimacing. Jake stared at the ever present burn scars, faded but obvious. "Yeah." he answered cautiously, not quite sure where Rich was going with this.

"Well, I came out to my parenth and they kinda..." Rich mumbled the last bit "...kicked me out..."

"Oh god, Rich are you okay? That must've been awful. I can only imagine..." he gave Rich a quick hug before continuing "Hey, you can stay at my place, 'kay?"

"But didn't your houthe?..." he mimed the rising of flames.

"Well, yeah" Jake replied "But they've nearly rebuilt the whole thing." he stood up and gestured for Rich to follow him as he walked out the door. "There's definitely enough room for my best friend!"

0_0_0_0_0_0_0

"Whoah..." Rich gasped. "They did rebuild it!" he looked down "Thorry 'bout that whole, arthon thing."

"It's chill man, I forgive you." Jake playfully punched Rich's shoulder. "Now let's find you a room."

Rich eventually chose a room down the hall from Jake's room, with a simple double bed and walk in closet opposite a small window. He'd already gotten his stuff (with the help of Jeremy and Michael.) from his parents house and was moving it all into his new room. Since Rich was busy Jake decided to go for a walk.

He was walking in the park near the old cemetery, thinking about Rich, when he turned his head just in time to see a figure right in front of him. Surprised, he jumped back and nearly fell, flailing to regain some balance. He fell, twisting his ankle slightly, and when he looked up the figure he had nearly crashed into gasped. "You can see me?" exclaimed the figure, a teenager about a year or two older than him, athletic, with blondish brown hair and greenish looking eyes. Not to mention all he was wearing was a letterman jacket and underwear. Jake looked around to see if anyone else was staring at the guy. No one payed him any attention. "My names Kurt, Kurt Kelly." said... Kurt. "How can you see me? The only other person who could see me..." he trailed off. Jake took a moment to look closer at Kurt. When he looks at him the right way he could see light shining through him. He seemed less solid than most people. Oh no. Thought Jake. "You're a ghost, aren't you?" he asked cautiously. "Ugh, yeah I guess. So, I take it you don't know why you can see me?" Jake shook his head. "You haven't happened to see any other ghosts around here, maybe dressed kind of like me?" Kurt asked, seeming almost hopeful. "No, I've never seen a ghost before at all." Jake replied. "Huh," mused Kurt. "You just seemed so chill about the whole thing, I figured you'd met ghosts before or something." Jake shook his head again. "Nope, I've just seen so much crazy shit that ghosts are normal." he laughed quietly, and was turning around to leave when. Kurt called out to him. "Wait, take me with you!" he cried. "You can't leave here?" asked Jake. "No." Kurt replied sadly. "When I first died I was allowed to haunt the girl that killed my best friend, that other ghost I mentioned. But when she resolved her internal conflicts and all that junk, we dispersed and I never saw Ram again. I also haven't been able to leave the general area of where I was murdered since then." Jake did a double take. "Wait wait wait, back up to the part where you and your best friend were murdered!" Kurt blushed. "We were some pretty awful people, and we angered the wrong messed up dude and his girlfriend. We both came to realize that what we did was wrong, but not before we were both shot and killed." Kurt swept aside a lock of his hair to reveal a bullet wound in his forehead. "I just want to find Ram. I haven't seen him in so long and I miss him." Jake felt a pang of sympathy for the ghost. He would feel awful if he had to be separated from Rich for... "When did you die again?" asked Jake. "1989." Kurt replied miserably. 30 years without Rich... "Sure, come with me." Jake offered. "Who knows, maybe we'll find your friend."