Falling For a Ghost? How Is That Even Possible?

“Miss Chambers?” Mrs. Green asked.

I raised my head from the desk and looked at her. “Yes?”

She cocked her head to the side. “Are you alright? Feeling okay?”

No. I just found out that ghosts are real and one has been following me around for a while now. He scared my father half to death so I have no idea when he’s coming back. And I have no idea where that particular ghost is at this exact moment because he can go “invisible” whenever he wants. Oh! And lets not forget the big, important, IMPOSSIBLE fact that he thinks we’re soul mates. So, yes, I’m doing just dandy! Thanks for asking.

I nodded my head and shrugged. “I’m fine. Thanks.”

She watched me for another minute until going back to her lecture on North Korea and their nuclear artillery.

After class, Mrs. Green called me up to her desk again and asked me to take Bird out for another walk. Apparently Bird held her bladder longer whenever I took her out walking…Which is just weird.

“Sure,” I said. “I don’t have anything else to do anyways.”

She beamed at me. “Thank you very much, Amy!”

I was tense the whole way walking to my locker and then to the Home Ec. room. I mean, who wouldn’t? I had no idea where Cale was! Heck, for all I knew he was at McDonald’s right now eating a McChicken, fries, and a chocolate shake.

I set my books down on my Home Ec. desk and sat down, then froze. Tomorrow was Friday…meaning my date with Cale. Does he remember?! I prayed that he didn’t. How would that work anyhow? We’d go to the Diner; people would think that I was talking to myself, and eating two plates of food…Did Cale even eat food?

“Hey, Amy.”

I looked to my left and saw Austin slid into his chair next to me. “Oh, hey,” I returned.

He studied me for a second before saying, “Penny for your thoughts?”

I frowned. “What?”

“You just look really deep in thought. I was wondering what you were thinking about.”

Ghosts.“Oh, uh, nothing.”

He shrugged. “That’s cool. I often think about nothing too.”

I chuckled and got started on my book work. An apple is a fruit…so is a tomato…

“That looks really boring,” a voice commented in the seat to my right.

I jumped in my seat, causing Austin to cock an eyebrow at me.

“Uh, thought I was getting a cramp in my back,” I explained poorly.

He half smiled. “Yeah, that happens sometimes…”

After he went back to his work, I glared at Cale. He had a foot propped up on one leg and had an amused look on his face. He wore white washed jeans and a very well fitting plain white T shirt.

“We need to talk, Amy,” he said finally.

I shook my head.

“We need to talk about us.”

I wrote on my paper in big letters. There is no us.

“You don’t mean that.”

Wanna bet?

“You feel something between us. I know you felt it last night…” His voice almost sounded like he was pleading.

I’m not going to deny it. I did have a small, tiny thing for you. But that was before I found out what you were.

Cale leaned forward and put his face in front of mine. I quickly looked away.

“So…You won’t accept the fact that we’re soul mates because I’m a ghost and you’re a human?”

I could feel tears weld up in my eyes and nodded. Why wouldn’t he just go away? I didn’t want to talk about this, not now.

“Amy,” he whispered. “That’s not fair…”

“Life’s not fair,” I said aloud, but softly enough so no one could hear me. But instantly Austin looked at me. I stared into his green eyes absently, listening to Cale.

“Don’t make me go through this, Amy,” he said softly. “Do you want to know what happened with the other two cases?” He paused.

I held my breath. No. I didn’t want to know. But he told me anyways. Meanwhile, Austin was still staring into my eyes.

“After the two humans refused to be with the ghosts, the ghosts killed themselves. You wouldn’t think we can kill ourselves, but there are ways we can. The two ghosts didn’t want to go through the rest of their life trying to get their humans to love them, so they ended their lives and are now spending their lives in Hell.”

They killed themselves. Love killed them.

“Those two ghosts couldn’t handle the pain. The pain was in their hearts, their souls, because they couldn’t be with the one they loved. Eternal life in Hell was better than the agony their hearts were going through.” Cale pulled away from me and leaned back in his chair.

I continued to stare into Austin’s green eyes, processing the information Cale had just told me. And the only thing I could come up with was thinking how awful that must have been for the ghosts. The person they loved rejected them… How awful.

Hot tears ran unyielding down my cheeks.

“Amy?” Austin asked, snapping me back to the real world.

“Oh,” I said, wiping the tears from my face. “I’m sorry…I was just thinking of something, that’s all.”

He shrugged. “You’re a woman. It’s understandable.”

I couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“Hey, listen, are you doing anything after school?”

Cale abruptly stood up behind me and yelled. “Yes, she is! And she doesn’t want you there!”

Anger boiled inside me. “Yeah,” I told Austin. “But I’m just walking Mrs. Green’s dog. You can come if you want.”

He grinned and nodded. “I’d love to. And say, how about we have dinner too? I’ll make the food and we can have a picnic or something?”

“NO!” Cale shouted. He was really starting to give me a headache. “Amy, tell him no. He can go for a walk with us, but not a picnic! God, how lame is that?!”

I ignored Cale and smiled back at Austin. “Sure. Meet me at the park around four thirty?”

He nodded. “Can’t wait.”

And for the rest of the class, I had to listen to Cale point out everything “stupid” about Austin. His stupid wavy brown hair, his stupid green eyes, his stupid smile, his stupid smooth talking…

And how stupid it was that Austin was a human…and he wasn’t.