Chapter 17
-Wrigley-
“Cash isn’t here today?” Leigh asks, lounging around on the sofa in my living room. I hum, not wanting to lie and say no when he’s literally asleep upstairs. Yeah so we found out that Cash can go to sleep with me when he’s solid and then stay asleep even when I’m no longer touching him.
And he’s sleeping as in like…sleeping sleeping, not his usual just passing the time kind of sleeping. So, I’m leaving him to sleep. To get some real rest. And he looks so content when he’s sleeping, it’s really adorable.
“So, what’s up with Randy? He’s been acting really weird lately” I say after a moment, pouring my friend a glass of water and placing it down in front of them. Leigh takes the glass gratefully, patting the sofa cushions next to them.
“Well you see, you know how your families were friends with their weird ghost shit?”
I nod; Randy’s ancestors like mine were spiritualists and apparently Randy’s sister can see ghosts, but he can’t. “Yeah? Everything ok?” I ask, leaning back on the sofa. Leigh nods quickly before it turns slow and they sigh.
“I honestly don’t know. But every time I say I’m going to visit you, he says to be careful and he has been since you first introduced your boyfriend to us.”
Oh fuck. There’s no way Randy knows Cash is a ghost, right? I mean Randy can’t see ghosts, so we should be fine? Unless that somehow changed. Fuck. I hope nothing changed.
“Wow that’s um, that’s weird huh. Do you know why he isn’t um, why he doesn’t like coming here as much as he used to?” I don’t think he was giving Cash any weird looks when he was here the first time though, and since then I just thought he was being antisocial when he sat in the corner not really talking to me.
I really don’t know what’s wrong.
“Hang on, lemme call him right now. We need some answers and I don’t like that my boyfriend has been obviously stressed these past few weeks and won’t tell me why,” Leigh says authoritatively, whipping out their phone and stabbing at the screen angrily a few times with a perfectly manicured nail.
Leigh talks quietly on the phone for a while and I try my best to not eavesdrop, instead thinking about my own boyfriend. We’ve been a couple for around a month, and not much has actually changed with our relationship since before we became a couple. We act exactly the same, except now we kiss.
So actually, a lot has changed.
It’s nice knowing that he has feelings for me, it’s nice knowing that I’m not the only one feeling this way. It’s nice being able to hug him without having to figure out if I’m giving away my feelings for him, and trying to tiptoe around anything which might be coming on too strong.
We can just say whatever the fuck we want. We can just cuddle whenever we want. And it’s nice. It’s really nice. Cash is still the same ass he’s always been, and I still deliberately piss him off whenever I should so desire. But it does feel slightly different now. Different in a good way.
“Ok he’s coming over now. I said your boyfriend isn’t here and Randy said he has something to tell you. Apparently he’s bringing his little sister too, so I’m not sure what that’s about,” Leigh says, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Wait what? Why is Reena coming?” I ask, panic already setting in. If she really can see ghosts, then what about Cash? I have to make sure that no one enters my room. I should probably wake him up and tell him to stay out of sight or something, but he looked so relaxed earlier, I can’t bear the thought of waking him up.
“Yep, they were hanging out close by so they’ll be here soon.”
I gape at my friend for a moment before sighing. “Cool, that’s cool. That’s fine. It’s chill. No problem. I’ll just uh- why do they even want to come here?”
Leigh shrugs, inspecting their nails before glancing over at me and smiling. “I don’t know. Be prepared for Cash to get slagged off though. I’m pretty sure Randy hates him, poor guy. He seems cool and he obviously makes you happy so I don’t really get what Randy’s problem is but hey. Sorry in advance for anything my boyfriend says.”
I grimace slightly, patting Leigh’s arm. “No worries, hopefully once Randy gets whatever this is out of his system, then he’ll give Cash a chance.”
Leigh nods just as someone knocks on my door and I shoot out of my seat, pulling it open for Randy and his sister Reena. She instantly pulls me into a hug, tossing her box braids over her shoulder and pushing my own plait over my shoulder. “Hey lovely! It’s been ages, how are you?”
I smile; Reena has always been the sweetest person. Normally I just don’t have to worry about her exposing my boyfriend as a ghost. “I’m good thanks! How are you?”
She pulls back from the hug, inspecting me with a big smile on her face. “I’m great! Worried about you being haunted though I’ll be honest.”
And I literally feel the colour drain from my face. Randy glances over at his sister anxiously, before patting my arm. “Wrigley, we have to tell you something terribly important. Your boyfriend isn’t who you think he is.”
Leigh sighs, taking Randy’s hand in theirs and shaking their head. “Rand seriously, you can’t just accuse Cash of something like that. He clearly makes Wrigley happy so what are you even worrying about?”
I nod along, like I totally don’t know that they’re about to give me the shocking news that my boyfriend is a ghost. I’ll need to come up with something convincing to say if someone points that out, and I’m a shit actor so we’ll see how well that goes.
Reena turns to me, her expression serious as he places her hands firmly on my shoulders. “Wrigley, your boyfriend is dead.”
Now, I obviously know this. This shouldn’t sound shocking to me, but it still somehow does. And then I don’t have to do any kind of award-winning acting, because somehow those words manage to make me actually start crying.
Honestly, I feel like it’s a natural reaction to hearing about a loved one’s demise, despite the fact that I literally met Cash when he had already been dead for two years.
So now Leigh looks completely shocked as they hug me whilst Randy looks kind of guilty and Reena tries to explain what she’s talking about. But in the end I don’t stop crying until I think about the sleepy ghost in my bed, and how he may be dead, but he’s still very much here and extremely lively.
I mean, someone entirely dead wouldn’t be able to piss me off as much as Cash does. And someone utterly deceased wouldn’t be able to make me as happy as Cash does either.
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