The In-Betweener's

Chapter Fourteen - Home

"Natalie?" Dustin piped in.

"Sorry, you must be confused."

He stopped. "I'm more confused as to how you made it into a Catholic High School with all the cursing and blind, wall kicking rage."

"You know, the sass is going to get really old, really fast."

They both gave me a deadpan look.

I groaned. "What? It's not like we actually had to apply. You went there, you should know."

"You're right, I should rephrase; I'm more curious as to how you didn't get kicked out of a Catholic High School with all the-."

"I get it," I cut him off.

He gave me another sheepish smile.

I put my arms at my side, knocking the letter in my pajama pocket around. With Dustin showing up, I completely forgot to give it to Josh. I'll have to remember to give it to him later, once we get back to the park.

"We're heading back to the park, right?"

"The park?" Dustin asked.

Josh nodded. "Our usual hangout spot, and yeah."

We teleported to the park and thankfully, the bench was empty this time.

I shuddered, and the boys noticed.

"What?" They asked in unison again. I quirked an amused brow.

"Well, when I was here earlier, taking a nap while I waited for you and-."

"We can sleep as ghosts?!" Dustin cut in, and I would've sassed him out for interrupting me, but I knew as a 'newbie', how weight this all was.

"Yes," I continued. "Anyway, I woke up to a guy literally sitting on me. I made a vow to never fall asleep on anywhere the opportunity of someone sitting on me is present."

Josh laughed. "So basically anywhere, then?"

"True," I agreed. "Well I mean, I could always sleep in a tree. This is a daylight only issue mostly, anyway."

"True," he agreed.

We all sat down on the bench for a few minutes before deciding to head to bed. Dustin turned out to be a quick and heavy sleeper, passing out within a few minutes. Josh and I stayed up, I figured this would be a good time to give the letter to him."

But before I could, Josh rolled over to face me.

"Hey, you awake?"

I opened one eye to peek back at him. "If I say no, will you let me sleep?"

He turned to roll back over.

"Hey, I'm kidding. I'm sorry, what's up?"

"Is it wrong to almost want Dustin to not leave, to be stuck like me?" He paused. "I'm sorry. Don't even answer that, even saying it sounds terrible."

He went to roll back over but I stopped him.

"Josh, you've spent 12 years watching every ghost you meet and help here, leave. It's completely reasonable and normal to wish to have a friend to stay with. Someone who won't just leave."

"Exactly, and I love you, and Ally, as friends of course. But I knew that both of you were going to leave, as have the 83 other people I've met this past twelve years."

"Well if his theory is right, he may just be like you. The only thing is, and I'm sorry but I have to say this because I care about you. I wasn't close with anyone either, but I'm still here, and still have a person I'm here for. I just wouldn't get my hopes up until we know for sure, y'know?"

"I know," he sighed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for the glass half empty speech."

"It's okay, I know you're just looking out."

I gave him a sympathetic smile.

"And on that note," I reached into my pocket, grabbing the letter and handing it to him. "It's from Ally. I found it under the bench before I got sat on."

He smiled, grabbing it from my hand gently. As though if he touched it too hard, it would disappear.

"Thanks. I'm not going to read it now, though. I want to be fully awake for this."

I smiled. I could understand that.

I rolled over, tucking my hands under my head and closing my eyes.

The next morning, I decided to go on a journey to the store, to start my plan. I figured that instead of getting a pack of paper, it was probably more logical to just steal a greeting card and pen from the dollar store.

I hoped it wouldn't being me in too far over my head with the big guy upstairs, if he even existed. But I didn't exactly die with my wallet on me, another ironic thing about all of this. I was running to the bank without my wallet and if I had just realized that either way, I wasn't going to make it, I would've lived.

I brushed the thoughts from my mind as the boys came to join me on the bench.

"Ready to go?" They asked.

"Jinx," they said again, breaking into laughter.

I smiled at their antics. They've literally been doing this all day.

I decided to bring them all along with me to the store. Partly because they asked to, and partly because I didn't know how sneaking in and out of the store was going to go. I mean, it wasn't like they could arrest me, but at the same time this wasn't Hogwarts. Watching a card fly through the air and out of the door wasn't a normal occurrence. It would be better to do this as discreetly as possible.

The local Dollarama was about a 15-minute walk away, so we didn't bother teleporting. Instead, we got to walk around the town I used to call home. It felt almost... nice to be back. The animosity I held in my teenage years felt non-existent, and it made me realize that I would've loved to see this town before I bit it. But we can't always get what we want.

But, I got what I needed in Ottawa. And even dead, I was glad I got to be in this town for a little while again.

Maybe life's funny like that. It will give us what we want with a catch, there always has to be a give and take situation. To keep the world balanced, to keep you on your toes. I got to come back, but I'm dead. Josh potentially has someone to stay with, but it's not the woman he's been falling in love with the past six months. And this person is trapped here with him. It was all seemingly strange and incredibly ironic, but it almost didn't matter. Because I was starting to feel at peace with it all, with my death, with the unfairness of it all. With the improbable, unplanned, ill-timed weirdness that life throws at you every single day. Maybe that was irony, too. When I finally began to understand life, was when I wasn't living it anymore.