Chapter 18
-Wrigley-
Reena leads me over to the sofa, sitting me down and holding my hands gently. “Wrigley let me explain. You know that I can see ghosts, right?”
I nod slowly, genuinely curious as to how she knows about Cash’s…ghostly existence. Reena glances over at Randy before sighing slightly.
“So a while ago, I was visiting the mausoleum to just look at the ghosts there. And it was your dad’s birthday so I saw you. I was about go over and say hi, and then I realised you were there with someone. You were holding hands and Randy had literally just texted me saying you have a boyfriend, so I was like oh ok cool I’ll leave them be. And then like a day later I saw your boyfriend again. Except he was alone, hanging out in a graveyard and looked distinctively dead and ghostly. I thought oh my god Wrigley’s boyfriend just died and told Rand later but he said that you hadn’t said anything and that Leigh was busy right now hanging out and getting to know your boyfriend.”
Reena glances over at Randy for a moment before continuing. “So I thought cool, maybe your boyfriend has a dead twin. But then Randy told me your boyfriend’s name and it matched the grave I always see him at in the evenings. Wrigley, I don’t know how this is happening, but your boyfriend is definitely a ghost.”
I blink a few times, trying to keep my expression blank before I say anything and accidentally give away that I know my boyfriend is a ghost. Or maybe I should just tell them? It’s not like anything bad would happen, and then we could stop pretending that Cash isn’t here whenever he actually is.
However before I have a chance to say anything, a familiar voice sounds to my left and I do everything in my will power to not turn to look at Cash. “Oh, I didn’t realise everyone is here. You ok there Wrigley? You look…weird,” he says, his smirk evident even in my peripheral vision, despite his expression also being slightly concerned.
A quick glance in Reena’s direction confirms that she both sees Cash and hears him. Wonderful. Sighing, I toss my plait over my shoulder. “Cool well the cat’s out the bag. Reena, this is my boyfriend Cash, and as you can tell, he is in fact a ghost.”
Randy and Leigh gape at me whilst Reena blinks a few times. “Wait so you- you knew? How come you started crying then?” Reena asks, resting her elbow on the sofa’s armrest. My boyfriend walks towards me slightly, reaching out to touch me before thinking better of it.
“You cried? What happened?” He asks worriedly. I just snort, turning to Reena. “You try listening to someone tell you that your boyfriend is dead and not cry during it. I mean, sure I already knew, but still.”
I reach out my hand to Cash whilst Leigh and Randy look at me like I’m crazy, holding out my hand to thin air. Reena however, well. She can actually see Cash, so that’s a different matter. My boyfriend takes a step towards me, touching his fingers to mine. The moment he does, both Randy and Leigh gasp in tandem, and it’s actually kind of funny.
I take Cash’s hand in mine, glancing over to Reena. She looks pretty surprised too, but not Leigh level of surprised. “So yeah, he becomes visible and like kinda solid when we touch,” I explain nonchalantly before letting go of Cash’s hand and letting him ‘disappear’ to Leigh and Randy.
“What the actual fuck Wrigley! I thought you were a charlatan but you’ve got some mad skills!” Reena exclaims, slapping my arm playfully. I just shrug, patting the sofa next to me and watching as Cash smiles and sits down next to me, draping his arm across the back of the sofa behind me.
“No trust me, I have literally zero powers, this was all a total coincidence. And I can’t see any other ghosts, Cash is the only exception because of some confusing bullshit and also we accidentally made a contract.”
Reena keeps staring at me agape whilst my other friends are still getting over the fact that my boyfriend can vanish and reappear. And also that I confirmed he is a ghost.
“Damn, I didn’t realise your type was dead guys. Interesting,” Reena comments, elbowing me in the ribs. I snort, pushing her away and leaning into Cash’s side. My ghost smiles, touching my braid gently where it rests on my shoulder.
“I mean can you really blame me; there’s a hot guy appearing in my room occasionally for the sole purpose of either pissing me off or watching a movie with me. It was inevitable that something would end up happening. And then we had to pretend to be a couple around Randy and Leigh, so yeah.”
Leigh makes it out of their frozen stupor and leans across the coffee table to flick me on the forehead. “You dick! I can’t believe you and Cash aren’t even a couple! And you lied to me,” they say with a pout.
I roll my eyes, taking Cash’s hand in mine and giving it a squeeze. “Except that we are a couple, so. I wasn’t technically lying. I may have just told you that we were together before we actually were, but oh well.”
Leigh smirks at me, leaning back in their seat and resting their head on Randy’s shoulder. “So let me get this straight,” Leigh begins, looking between Cash and I. “Cash is actually dead, and- hang on, Cash are you secretly like 500 or something? Are you from the medieval times? Were you a knight and you got murdered protecting a princess?”
Cash bursts out laughing, looking Leigh dead in the eye after a moment. “Nope, I died a little over two years ago. And I fell asleep in the bath and drowned, before you continue coming up with dramatic and heroic deaths for me.”
Everyone is silent for a moment before Randy laughs abruptly and then clamps a hand over his mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh but- you fell asleep? How does anyone even do that? In the bath? Like my mum always told me it could happen but I didn’t think-“ Leigh cuts him off with a sharp elbow to the ribs.
“Stop talking about it! How would you feel if someone started talking about your death like that?!”
My boyfriend just shrugs, closing his eyes for a moment and giving my hand a squeeze. “I don’t really mind, it’s one hell of a stupid way to go, I’ll tell you that for nothing. Still, being a ghost isn’t the worst thing, it just kind of sucks that I can’t see my family anymore.”
Cash’s family. He mentioned seeing them again once before, very briefly. It was a passing comment and he quickly changed the topic soon after, so I didn’t bring it up again, but still.
“Cash, you know that we could go see them, right?” The words slip from my lips before I have the chance to even think about them. Cash blinks a few times before his expression melts slightly and he strokes my cheek gently.
“Can we talk about this later? I’ve been meaning to bring it up for a while, but I just…never did,” he says quietly. I nod quickly, leaning in to his touch slightly before remembering that my friends are literally right next to me or otherwise I’d grab Cash and snog him right here and now. “Yep, that’s totally cool. We can talk about it once these ghost busters leave if you’d like.”
Reena snorts whilst Cash nods, side-eyeing the others slightly. “I’d like that. And to be honest I’m still confused as to what even happened here, so you could please fill me in on that too?”
I nod, squeezing his hand gently. “Of course,” I say with a bright smile.
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