Ghost Boy (S.M)

thirteen

When my mom left I ran upstairs, to my room and grabbed the bag of Shawn's stuff. I took the candles and cake out of the bag but left the frame. It was only 7:40 am but I was too excited to wait. Shawn is a great person who went through shit and these few weeks I've spent with him have been amazing, so I really want to give him a good birthday. I mean he hasn't had one in three years.

I open the clear carton with the slice of cake, on my bed, and put in a candle. "Shawn? Are you there?"

He appeared on my right. "Please tell me this isn't for me."

"I can't do that."

"Gracie..." I cut him off.

"No don't say anything! It is your birthday and we are going to celebrate."

"But I'm dead and I don't even age. It's been three years and I still look 17, not 21." He takes a deep breath. "This isn't necessary Gracie."

"I don't care if is, you have existed on this planet for 21 years now. It doesn't matter if you're dead or not, we can still celebrate!" He doesn't say anything for a few seconds.

"You better have gotten me a present." He says scratching the back of his neck.

"What, is your friend coming over later not enough." I say jokingly.

"Oh yeah, do you know his name?" I look at him seriously.

"You had more than one friend?" I start to laugh.

"Ha, ha, you're so funny." He says being sarcastic again. I smile and look up to him. He was closer than I thought he was. If he was breathing I'd be able to feel it. I was looking at his lips and he was staring at mine. Everything around me faded, it was just him and I. His lips are the best pink shade and look so soft.

Shawn stops and looks away at the ground. It snaps me out of my weird desire to kiss Shawn even though I can't. "S-So, um, are we going to light the candle or what?" I look back at the cake on my bed while biting my lip.

"Right."

I light a match and carefully light the candle. Shawn turns off the lights with his weird ghost powers. It wasn't to dark, the light from the windows made it very easy to see everything.

I pick up the cake and start to sing, while trying to be quiet so I don't wake up Sammy.

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Shawn
Happy birthday to you!

Shawn blows out the candle with his powers. "Enjoy the cake." He chuckles and I give a big smile. I take the cake and a fork to my window seat. Me and Shawn sit down facing each other.

"Is it weird not eating? Do you ever want to eat?" Okay yeah, that may be weird to ask but I am just curious.

"I mean, some things smell good and look good but I don't get hungry or anything."

"So you never have a desire to eat?"

"Not really." he shrugs.

"And you can smell things?" He gives me a weird look, like a 'are you serious' look. "I mean your a ghost and I don't exactly know how you work so I'm just asking." I try to explain myself but it's still a weird thing to ask, I get it.

"Well all my other senses work. I mean I can see, hear, smell."

"Well not all of them because you can't taste or touch." I say acting like a figured out a code.

"True, I guess I can't taste things."

"Wait so do ever get like a dry mouth? Can you feel your skin? If you wanted to could you take off your clothes?"

"Um, no, yes, and do you want me to?" He gives me a smirk.

"No, no, I'm just asking. I'm curious how you work, I guess." He doesn't say anything back for a few seconds.

"One, I can't take off my clothes. Two, 'your curious how I work?" He starts laughing really loud.

"Shut up you moron, my brother is asleep!"

"Don't worry he can't here me if I don't want him too. Also I should work on figuring out how to touch things. We know that I have to be solid and somehow it's tied to my emotions."

"Yeah, you seem to have a lot more energy lately." He stares at me, confused. "Well I mean when we first met you couldn't even stay around for five minutes, but now if you use it wisely it can be like a few hours."

"Yeah you're right." He pauses and we sit in awkward silence for a few moments.

"So your present." I stand up and go to the bag besides my bed. The bag was just a plain paper grocery store bag but it's fine. I sit back down with Shawn and take out the picture Frame of his family. "Here you go." I show it to him. He gets a smile on his face and starts to tear up. He sits there staring at the picture for a few seconds, analyzing every detail.

"I haven't seen my parents faces in so long. How did you get this picture?" A tear rolls down his cheek. I guess we can add that to the list of things Shawn can do, cry.

"I found it on Aaliyah's Instagram."

He looked at that picture for probably five minutes. "You like it right?" I ask.

"Of course! Thank you so much! I would hug you but you know." Then I remember Shawn has been able to touch things when he's sad. I slowly go to touch his knee not bring attention to it. I figured if it didn't work Shawn wouldn't have to know.

Then I could feel his black skinny jeans. I look up at Shawn with a smirk on my face. He looks at me and I look back at his knee, wanting him to look. "Oh my god!" His smile grew larger and so did mine. Shawn stands up and so do I. He then hugs me. His hands were around my back and mine were around his. It felt so good to hold him. He smelt like axe but I never noticed that before. "You feel so warm." Shawn says. He rested his head on mine. Shawn was a bit taller than six foot and I was 5'7, so he was pretty tall compared to me.

We were hugging for more than a few minutes. It just felt so good to hold each other. I even started to cry a little bit, I don't know why, but I did. Shawn was messing with my hair and it felt so nice and gentle.

Shawn broke the hug and wiped his tears. "Happy birthday." I say again.

"Thank you."

"I was thinking we could put the frame on the nightstand."

"Won't your mom think it's weird you have a random family's picture on your nightstand?" He asks.

"Yeah but if it's on right side of the bed where you sit and the pillows block the view, I don't think she'll notice. Plus, she hardly ever comes in here." I take the picture and set it on the nightstand.

"Thank you." He says wiping another tear.

"You can stop saying that, you've said it 3 times."

"I know but this means a lot to me. You are such an amazing person Gracie Jo."