Ghost Boy (S.M)

five

I pull down the covers to my bed and slide in. Fingers crossed, I'll be able to get some sleep tonight. I grab my phone and started checking my notifications before moving to Instagram. My Instagram is really just adds and Stiles Stilinski edits. It could be worse though

"Can you see me now?" I hear a voice say. I jump up and look at the ghost. My eyes widen. Okay, maybe I'm still a bit scared. "I'm going to go by your reaction and say, you can see me?" He points to himself and I nod. "Yes!" He laughs in excitement and appears in front of me, on my bed. I back up but end up falling off my bed. He tries to catch me but his hands go right through me. "Oh, I'm sorry about that."

"It's fine," I breathe.

"Oh wow, that is the calmest thing you've said to me, well besides when you told me to back up and called me Ghost Boy, not the best nickname by the way."

"Yeah well, I thought it was pretty good." I get up and look at him. He's a bit blurry but he isn't as see-through as before.

"So are you still scared?"

I walk around him, taking it all in. "No, I'm just a bit confused, but I don't think I'm scared anymore."

"Okay, cool because you're kind of the first person I've talked to in three years so I'm a little excited." He says really fast with a smile on his face.

"I can see that." I take a deep breath and go to sit on my bed. He follows me and sits on the bed across from me. His presence makes it colder but I have a sweatshirt, plus I'm talking to an actual ghost so being cold is the least of my problems.

We sit in awkward silence for about thirty seconds, just staring at each other. I feel like I should definitely say something, but I have no idea what. "So, do you have questions, I mean you just met a ghost."

"Oh, yeah, right I should do that." I pull my feet on the bed and sit criss-cross. He does the same. "I guess a good place to start is your name."

"Right, Shawn, Shawn Mendes" He smiles. I have a weird feeling I should shake his hand but its not like it would work.

"I'm guessing you already know my name." He nods. The obvious question is, how did he die but I don't know if it was a touchy subject or not. "How old are you?"

"I died when I was 17, but I guess now I'm 20. Although, when this happened, I sort of stopped aging. "

"Oh." I try to think of ghost related questions, "Um, are you stuck in the house? Like can you leave the property?"

"No, I can't step out the front door. I'm stuck in here." He's making this seem like a lightning round.

"Does salt effect you?" He starts to laugh.

"Is that why you have been carrying that around?" He points to the salt shaker on my bed side table. "Um, I don't really know, no one has ever tried to trap me with salt before."

I suddenly feel like an idiot. Of course salt doesn't work. This isn't Supernatural, this is real life. "Do you like Harry Potter?" Yeah, that was ridiculous but every time I read it, I get cold and probably because of him. He chuckles and I can tell he also thinks its a stupid question. "What?"

"You just met a fucking ghost and you ask me if I like Harry Potter!" He continues to laugh, making me start to laugh. He has a contagious laugh. Something about it is sweet and genuine.

"Okay, well, every time I read it I got cold, so I'm just wondering," I defend myself.

"Yeah, I do love Harry Potter, when I was little I used to have a book of all the spells." He smiles.

"Wow, so you're a ghost dork? I can't believe the first ghost I meet is a nerd." I giggle.

"That was rude. I'm hurt a little bit!" he chuckles before staring at me as if he's trying to read my mind.

"What?" I ask.

"Why haven't you asked me yet?"

"Asked you what?"

"How I died." The tone of the conversation immediately drops..

"I just didn't want to ask that until I knew you more and I didn't know if it was a sensitive subject for you." He looked down.

"It's fine, I've come to terms with it." He pauses. "I can tell you if you want?"

"Its up to you. I'm don't want to make you tell me if you don't want to."

He shrugs like its no big deal but I know that's not true. I don't need to be a ghost to know, death isn't something you can just get over. "I was here by myself and someone broke in trying to rob us." He begins. "I went to go see what was going on and then he just shot me. It was a basic death story." He sighs. I frown my eyebrows. There is something he isn't telling me and it is easy to tell. He acts fine about the whole thing, but I don't think anyone can be okay with being dead.

"I'm sorry, I would give you a hug or something, but I don't know how that would go," I say trying to comfort him.

"It-It-it's f-fine." Shawn starts to fade before my eyes. In a few seconds, he's gone. It wasn't like last time where he was gone in a blink of an eye. It was like watching your phone glitch before it dies.

"Shawn? Shawn?" I whisper but I have a feeling he won't come back tonight.