two ghosts | benoftheweek

ᴛᴡᴇɴᴛʏ ᴛʜʀᴇᴇ

♡
bens pov

i heard quiet sobs coming from tate's room and immediately knocked on her door. "tate? are you alright?"

there was no answer so i warned her that i was coming in. "hey what's wrong?" i asked her. she was looking at her phone as tears rolled down her cheeks. "s-sorry i um.. it's my sisters bir-birthday." she got all choked up and started crying even more.

my heart hurt for her. "why are you apologizing? don't be sorry tate." i sat beside her and gave her a hug.

we sat there for a few minutes then tate said, "sorry i'm crying so much. i wanted to ignore what today is, but snapchat memories had to ruin that." she chuckled softly.

"hey..dont ignore today. today is a special day to celebrate a beautiful life that has been taken. you and your family should celebrate kailey's life." i responded.

"yeah but the day she died, i got mad at her for spending so much time with her boyfriend and we got into a huge argument and everything. then we got a call that she had gotten into a car accident..." her voice trailed off as she stared into nothingness.

she looked lost. and i wanted to find her.

"tate i'm so sorry about that. think about all of the amazing times you guys have had together. i know you guys were close and bestfriends, i saw all the pictures in her room. your family isn't even close anymore. i also saw those pictures. it devastating knowing how close your family used to be. i see it in your mom.. she's broken and so are you. and mr. parker he tries his best to put a smile on his face but he's hurt. tate i know you notice these things too.. you and your family have to stop ignoring each other all day. i encourage you to go to your parents room and talk to them."

i wanted to help tate feel better and make her happy. she deserves so much happiness in the world and i hope i can give it to her.

she looked shocked at my words but nodded. "y-you're right" she sniffed. she wiped her tear and stood up. "you can do this. trust me." i tried my best to encourage her and she walked out the door.

-

i was scrolling on instagram when tate came rushing in the room. she had the biggest smile on her face.

"ben!! thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!! my parents.. they said they were proud of me for finally having a mature conversation about kailey. we agreed to start try to slowly make things go back to normal instead of doing.. whatever we've been doing. thank you so much."

tate gave me a huge hug. she pulled her face away from my neck and kissed me. after she pulled away, i planted a small kiss on her forehead, which made her giggle.

"my parents said we're going to visit her grave for her birthday in a few minutes. they said you can come if you want." she smiled. "oh no, tate i don't think-"

"ben. i want you there."

i smiled to myself because i've always loved when people said "i want you there" instead of "you can come if you want." oh tate.

i hesitantly said, "okay" and got up to put shoes on.

"hey dev, i'm going with tate and her parents to visit her sisters grave. today's her birthday. are you gonna be okay here?" i spoke to devon once i was in my room.

"i'm gonna be more than okay. i can spend more time with riley." devon smirked. i rolled my eyes and walked out of my room.

devon was literally head over heels for riley and they haven't even been talking long. it was kind of cute.

god he never stops talking about her. i mean i can't blame him i do the same with tate.

i walked downstairs and saw the parkers quietly chatting. i could see the sadness in their eyes and it pulled strings in my heart.

"i am so sorry for your loss mr. and mrs. parker. i know how much you guys love your daughters." i agonized. "ben, thank you so much. thank you for talking to tate about this. " mr. parker replied.

"come on guys, let's get to the car." he said once tate came downstairs.

the car ride was silent. tate put her shoulder on me and continued looking through her snapchat memories of her and kailey.

she gasped and handed her phone to her mom, "look mom! this was 3 years ago when we all went to that cute little beach for kailey's birthday."

mrs. parker took the phone and smiled widely as the video played. they were all laughing because mr. parker tripped in the water and got his clothes and shoes wet.

"i miss this day." tate sighed as she took her phone back. "me too."

when we got to the cemetery, the family and i walked to kailey's grave.

"kailey. i miss you so much you have no idea. you were my bestfriend and i'm so so sorry i was being rude to you before the car crash. i love you so much. everyday i wish we were 4 and 6 again and we were having tea parties together and watched disney channel everyday after school. kaleigh you deserved so much more than this.. you had a bright future ahead of you. i love you."

tate stepped forward and leaned down to put a single sunflower on kaleigh's grave. "your favorites." she whispered.

the family continued talking about their fun times with kailey. there were a lot of tears. i obviously didn't know her, so i didn't really have anything to say so i just let everyone cry on my shoulder as the others talked.

a few moments later, we headed home. the family were in tears and kept sniffling. "ben, we wanna thank you. if it wasn't for you then we wouldn't have came here today. we wouldn't have finally gotten out of our bedrooms. we wouldn't have gotten closure. we will try our best to finally pick things up where we left off." mr. parker thanked me.

i nodded and replied, "of course. i'm proud of all of you for coming here today. also kailey seemed like a really amazing person. i wish i could've met her."

mrs. parker turned around and smiled at me, "we're going to take things slowly so tonight i'm finally going to make dinner." tate's eyes glowed up.

"that's amazing mrs. p. i can't wait. devon will love your cooking."

the rest of the car ride, tate cuddled up with me.

♡