Ghost Boy

Ch 3. Home

After the funeral, everyone who was close to me gathers at my family's home. They all tell stories of my life. Caleb doesn't interact with anyone, he just sits there in the corner; His eyes trailing across the faces of the people near by, and only focusing on the pictures of me that line the walls.

He stands, and walks up the stairs to my room. It looks the same as I left it; dirty laundry scattered around on the floor and in the overflowing basket, my computer on my messy unmade bed, the photos of me Caleb push-pinned to the walls, the fake plants taped to my bedside table, and my pride flag above my bed. The handmade paper flowers that he and keykey insisted on hanging over my desk.

My desk, the definition of a overflowing catastrophe. Papers  littering half of it, my antidepressants on a little shelf above the mess. And my diary which I wrote in every day religiously (as a dare from Caleb which I was too stubborn to chicken out of.) the drawers where all my stuff goes to die.

Caleb walks to my desk, picking up my diary; and opening it.

He reads the first words on the paper which I scribbled in my messy hand writing.

'In honor of Caleb and my stubbornness. It was a mistake to play truth or dare with you, you bitch.'

He smiles, and starts to read, his hands are shaking. His whole body starts shaking, he looks like he's going to cry.

He turns to my last entry.
And there in small, neat handwriting. I wrote what I had planned for the day, and it comes rushing back to me.
The day I died, where I was going, and why.
I was going to tell Caleb how I felt about him. It's cheesy, the way I wrote the last entry. It wasn't half-assed like all the other entries. It had effort put into it. I was ready to tell him, but now I'm not so sure.

I'm not ready to show myself.

Caleb..
The first person I was ever jealous of, the first person I ever had a major crush on. My first grade crush, my first best friend. He depended on me, and I depended on him. He kept me alive and I did the same for him. He'd talk to me, and no one else. We depended on one another, the same way we depended on our parents.

But.. his family moved away, and I didn't see him for years. We weren't able to keep in touch, because of how I didn't have a phone at the time.
But one day, years later I looked on my Instagram, and I saw that he found me. @Caleb.trevorr "Caleb. T. Wulf" my heart started racing, and as I started to build up the courage to talk to him, he beat me to it.
It was late at night, I was still awake, and he slid into my DMs.
All he said was 'hey, how are you? I haven't seen you in four years. How have you been?'

It's rather funny, actually, that I didn't reply for a while I just stared at my phone.
Eventually, I responded. And we got back in touch. We called on the phone a lot. But on my birthday, I was surprised by a knock at the door, and when I opened it. There he was, this boy who I hadn't seen in years, at my doorstep, completely unrecognizable.
He grew, he was tall as hell, and wore a damn ponytail. For a moment I was confused, and then he spoke.

"H-hey.. Lock, it's been a while.." he said, scratching the back of his head, looking at his feet.

I stared at him wondering who he was, then it clicked.
I was so happy, my best friend found me, after four years of little to no communication.

I dragged him into the house, without saying anything.

"Who was at the door furry?" Keykey asked from the living room.

"Well how about you get off your lazy ass and greet them!" I responded, trying (and failing) to hold back my excitement at Caleb being back.

"Oh no, someone's happy." Naia said, walking to the hallway; keykey and Jason following her close behind.

Keykey stared at Caleb not recognizing him, neither of the twins recognized him either.

I nudged Caleb, "make key remember."

He just smiled, "hi sis."

Keykey's eyes got huge, and a grin formed on her face. "Caleb?"

"Ja, du bist meine Schwester keykey." He beamed.

I laughed at the expression on key's face. Which was of utter confusion.

"What the hell did you just say?" She asked

He laughed, as he scratched the back of his head again. "I said 'yes, you are my sister keykey.'"

After that, Caleb told us that he was going to move here, with out his family. He said he'd rather live here with his friends than with his family because of parent issues.

I was so happy when he said that. But as he said, all good things come to an end..
Now I'm dead and a ghost, Caleb is in my bedroom reading my diary, and is probably going to look on my computer.

He sets the diary down, and walks to my computer. Turning it on and typing in the password.
Caleb was the only person other than myself who knew my password.
He looks through the notes folder, reading each and every one of them.
He smiles, closing my computer carefully.

He stands, walking toward me.
I panic, Can he see me?!
But he walks straight through me. To the pile of clothing that I considered reasonably clean, even though I wore them about five times since they were last washed.

He grabs the first shirt he sees. Which is a white T-shirt that I stole from him. He buries his face into it. Then, he falls to his knees, his shoulders shaking and choking on his tears.

I rest my hand on his shoulder. He looks at where I am, he frowns. "He's not alive anymore, Caleb. You've got to stop fooling yourself, you didn't see him at the church. And you didn't see him just now." He says to himself with a sad tone to his voice.
And then I make a decision:

Soon. Not now necessarily.
But, soon.
Soon I'll show myself, soon.