STARDUST ⭑ LUKE PATTERSON

five

AFTER SOME PHYSICAL ALTERCATIONS, with some hair pulling and literal leg biting, Emmy managed to escape Dawn's wrath. Was it easy? No. Did Em regret elbowing her best friend in the nose when she was trapped in a throat crushing head lock? Absolutely not.

    Currently, Em was on a hunt for Willie because Willie would understand. He wouldn't push her to talk to them. He'd recommend it, realize who he's actually talking to, and then bring her home some dessert from work because his job has food that ghosts can eat.

    Emmy teleports to one of his skating spots, thankful when she sees him skating around an art museum like a delinquent.

    "There you are! I've been looking for--AHH!" Emmy shouts, clearing her throat immediately after when she sees a tall, blonde guy also in the museum. "Oh for fuck's sake," she mutters before he gawks at her with an inhumane noise leaving his lips.

    "You!" Alex bites, pointing a finger directly at her face.

    She smacks it away, eyes squinting into slits. "Don't point your finger at me," she scorns.

    Alex retaliates by beginning to point again. And again. And again. Each time, she brutally hits it away. Then, a full force slap fight ensues. From an outside perspective, it was quite comical to see a very tall guy continuously slap at a very short girl's head as she tried to kick at his shins as well.

    "It is you," he spits out, landing a good hit to the side of her neck.

    She guffaws at him before smacking him a little too hard in the stomach. "I don't know what you're talking about." THWACK! "You're genuinely just assaulting a random stranger with premeditated motives."

    Willie rolls up to them, kicking up his board and watching them silently, but with some sort of amusement as well.

    "Don't lie to me. I know a miserable little worm when I see one," Alex states.

    "Ah!" Emmy shouts in disapproval. She hits him one, two, three times in the arm.

    "AhhaH!" Alex squeals.

    "Enough!" Willie exclaims, appearing between the both of them, accidentally getting slapped directly in the face by Emmy's small hands. He sighs loudly afterwards, turning to her with a certain look. "Both of you just yell."

    "What?" Alex asks.

    With a deep breath, Willie leans back and screams as loud as possible, hands clenched at his sides. After, he slaps a hand to Alex's chest lightly, causing the blonde to let out a yell so embarrassing, Emmy had to bite her tongue trying not to laugh.

    "AHHHH!" Willie bellows louder, Alex following with the same gusto. Emmy rolls her eyes at the two, but Willie then turns to her and continues to scream in her face. "Ah," she draws out sarcastically, instantly being met with another shout. She wails another time just to match Willie's volume out of spite. Soon enough, the three of them were screaming nonstop--at each other, at the world.

    That's when it stopped. The tension. The malice. All of a sudden, it was just the three of them standing there, chests heaving as if they actually needed the air.

    Alex, no longer feeling the need to fidget with his fingers, takes a deep inhale. He looks at Emmy, and it feels like that was the first time in forever. There she stood, still dressed in the same style: baggy jeans and a cut up band t-shirt he just knows once belonged to him, Luke, or Reggie.

    "What did I do?" he whispers. "Why weren't you happy to see us? To see me?"

    She tries to look anywhere but him, which was awful in her opinion. She knew better. She also knew that if she looked at Alex, she would break, and she's been able to keep her composure for twenty five years now.

    "I'll give you guys space to talk," Willie announces before disappearing into thin air.

    "He knows about how you left the other day. I guess he made the connection that the mystery ghost girl was you," he explains, taking a seat on a cement bench. "But you shouldn't be a mystery ghost girl, Em. You should be alive, making music or something."

    "I could say the same for you," she sighs, plopping herself down next to him. "I didn't even know you guys were dead."

    He nibbles nervously on his bottom lip. "You didn't look for us? You didn't check to see how we were doing? I just got here, but I have a feeling you've been here since...since however long you've been, um, dead." Emmy stays quiet at that, not knowing how to explain herself without sounding stupid. "You were supposed to be my best friend," Alex sniffles. "I know Luke and you had your, um, thing, I guess, but it was me and you a lot, and it just hurts--God, I'm crying?! I spent twenty five years crying and I still have tears left?" Alex shudders into a shell of himself before shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "Yeah, it just hurt. That's it."

    "It's okay; you can cry," she says softly, and he found comfort in that.

    "I know you're not a touchy person, but can I please have a hug?" Alex sighs with exasperation. "I was crying for forever in that dark room and was not hugged onc-"

    He was cut off by a strong force colliding against his body. All this time, she still smelt the same and something about that made him hug Emmy tighter to him, tears falling into her lavender hair.

    "I hate this," she mumbles into the space between his shoulder and neck.

    He laughs, the vibration shaking her softly. "I know, but just a little bit longer please."