Seeing Double

Ghosted - Part 5

When Sam shrank back into herself she was knelt on the ground on her hands and knees. She squinted up at Phantom and sat back on her heels, dazed.

Remarkably, there was no damage to her dress. Not a single rip in the cloth, not even a wrinkle. Nor a strand out of place in her weird spidery up-do. Her mascara was running, but she might have been crying before she'd morphed into a giant ghost dragon.

Phantom had no way of knowing. He wasn't there.

Not for the first time he wished he had a cellphone or something. If he could have gotten here sooner, if he'd known, then maybe he could have prevented this whole mess.

Or at least saved the football field's stadium lights.

He wasn't sure if he should lift her up. Maybe fly her home? Was she aware of what had just happened? The damage around them would speak for itself if she wasn't.

Kneeling down in front of her, he extended his hand forward, slowly, as if she were a stray cat he was trying to feed.

She slapped his hand away, spinning away from him. Phantom winced at the reaction and might have stood to back away, but then she puked. She held her own hair out of her face as she retched, she even bunched up the skirt of her dress and held it safely against her chest. Phantom inched closer with his hands awkwardly raised, hovering, looking for a task.

Before he could figure out what that task might be she was done. Then she stood on her own and faced him with her chin in the air. Defiant. Phantom chuckled.

"I know, I know," he said. "You never needed me."

At his words her face crumpled and she bit her lip. "Th-that's not. That's..." She sighed. "I don't want your pity."

"You think I wanted yours?" Phantom countered.

She actually stomped her foot. "That isn't fair!" Sam made as if to swipe her bangs out of her face and growled in frustration when she found that her hair was still gelled into place. "Th-this stupid hair," she said. Even after yanking out the hair ties that held her spiderweb pigtails in place, her hair still maintained its form. She groaned and raked her fingers through the strands, violently ruffling it out of shape.

Phantom stepped forward, his arms lifted. Hovering over her once again. She noticed this time and froze, allowing him to take her hands off her head. He held them in his own for a second before realizing how that must look.

Then he dropped them like he had been burned. "S-sorry, I-"

She grinned. "There he is," Sam said. "That awkwardness. It's a part of you."

He sputtered. "It's the stupidest part of me."

"Try the funniest," she said. "All a girl has to do," Sam leaned forward and ruffled his hair. "Is get a little close." If Phantom were human he would feel the heat on his face. For the first time it occurred to him that he could not blush.

She could read his thoughts. "I don't need to see you blush to know," Sam smirked. "It's written all over your face."

"Wh-what's written there?" he said. "Stop messing with me."

She released him. "I'm just being stupid," Sam said. She wiped at her face and frowned at the mascara on her fingers. "Just... just wanted to get that reaction from you again."

"I missed seeing that look on your face," she added. "Whenever you would talk to a pretty girl or whatever. N-not that I'm a pretty girl," she snorted. "I mean, you know."

"Wha- Sam you've always been a p-pretty girl," Phantom said. He tugged at the hairs at the back of his neck. "Gaaah, and I think Dash and his friends are looking for me. Let's get out of here?"