STARDUST ⭑ LUKE PATTERSON

three

"YOU KNOW YOU GUYS TREAT ME LIKE A CAT, RIGHT?" Emmy kicks at a pebble, watching it fly down the busy street of people. "You try to get me to sit with you on the couch all the time, try to stop me from knocking glasses over, and force me to go on walks with you, even if I'm most definitely an indoor cat."

    "You need the fresh air," Dawn tries to reason.

    "My lungs don't work, idiot." Emmy tries to hold in the groan of annoyance when another person, a lifer, walks through her. "And you always take me to crowded places. I hate when people walk through me. They're almost always bad people."

    "It's more fun this way!" Willie cheers. "Don't you miss feeling like you're one with the people? You don't have to deal with rude people bumping into you when you're a ghost."

    "I hate people." Another person walks through Emmy and her eyes twitches. "I swear to God, that person was a murderer."

    "This is where I bumped into him," Willie says, stopping in the street. "He was really cute too. He died a while ago, but he's only ghosting now. Weird, huh?"

    "So, you're, like, in love now?" Dawn teases. She elbows him in the side. "At least one of us gets a fun, ghost romance."

    "I'm not in love with him. I just met him!"

    "That's never stopped me."

    "It should," Emmy states.

    Ignoring her, Dawn turns away from the both of them. Her annoyed face morphs into one of interest when she takes in the flashing lights of the building before them. "Hey, why don't you play the instruments in there, Em? Scare a couple lifers?"

    The blue lights blink on and off, letters melting down in a vertical drop, as if the entire word would fall any second, crushing Emmy into a ghost pancake. If it were possible, her hands would be sweating, but they stayed the same. Cold and empty.

    "No."

    "Why not?" Dawn whines.

    Emmy shakes her head, crossing her arms over her chest to bring about a feeling of comfort to wash away the dread building inside of her. She attempts to hide it all with a sarcastic smolder. "The Orpheum doesn't deserve my talent."

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    "I could have sworn there were people in here during this time," Dawn states. Her fingers trace over the backs of the black chairs in this music room. "It would've been so funny for an entire class of teenagers to just hear you play piano."

    "So, when I said the Orpheum didn't deserve me, you thought high school choir room was more my speed?" Emmy drawls out. She grazes over the ivory keys, lightly touching them so not a single note would accidentally play.

    "Should we go to the lunch room? Maybe that tall, brunette senior is there again. I wanna stare some more at him in a flannel."

    "I'm literally begging you not to ogle over another lifer. Go to that club Willie works at and date another ghost."

    "Bold of you to assume I'm the dating type," Dawn picks at the nail polish on her finger nails before flicking it away somewhere in the room.

    "I wouldn't know," Em shrugs. "The one guy you liked in the afterlife ended up being gay," she smirks, "and our roommate."

    Dawn stomps her foot like a child, kinky hair bouncing with the movement. "I'm leaving. I'm gonna go somewhere in this school where you can't find me!" She turns to leave, but Em's scoff stops her.