No One Can Touch Us

For the first time since Jimmy had appeared, Elizabeth wanted nothing more than to talk to him, to have his company, to dish out all her locked up emotions, to vent... Yet Jimmy was nowhere to be seen. The minute William had entered the backyard Jimmy had disappeared completely from her sight. That left her confused because he’d suddenly vanished right before her eyes without so much of a warning or a location as to where he’d gone off too, like he usually would inform, though she’d waved it off as the excitement of seeing her boyfriend took over the minute Jimmy was out of sight.

“Some guardian angel you are,” Elizabeth mumbled as she sniffled, her throat dry from crying for the past hour making it hard for her to even breathe properly.

Not knowing what else to do, she sat on her bed, right smack-dabbed in the middle, her body clad in pajama pants and a tank top, and she aimlessly twirled her used pair of drumsticks with her index and middle finger. She just sat there, watching as the stick intently moved in a circular motion with her fingers. It was something she’d suddenly picked up without anyone’s help the minute Jimmy walked into her life, twirling the sticks effortlessly that is.

As if nothing had happened, Jimmy strolled in through the wall, not even startling Elizabeth as her mind was somewhere far away. She momentarily raised her eyes from the drumstick in her hand, gave Jimmy a look, then averted her eyes to her hand as she let her russet orbs follow the sticks path between her fingers.

“What I miss?” Jimmy asked somewhat bitterly, sitting down on the bed’s edge and noticing that Elizabeth held a very familiar pair of drumsticks.

“Nothing,” Elizabeth said as casually as she could without letting her voice crack, though she did manage to lose control of the drumstick, sending it tumbling down to her lap. “Damn it.”

Jimmy watched her closely, noticing that one of her cheeks was tinted red, her bottom lip was slightly purple, and that her eyes were blood shot. If he looked closely, he even swore he could see dried up trails of tears run down her cheeks and to her chin.

“Are you okay?” Jimmy asked softly, genuine concern evident in his voice. He scooted closer, close enough that Elizabeth was now brushing against his shoulder which sent chills up and down his spine, a small shock to the chest, and slight warmth.

“I’ve been better,” Elizabeth replied, bringing a hand up to her pink cheek and giving Jimmy an apologetic smile.

“What happened?” Jimmy asked now, worried and whishing he’d stayed back to watch over her. That was his job after all; to protect her.

“He slapped me,” Elizabeth shrugged while rubbing her cheek softly, “he then kissed be roughly which ended up in him almost busting my lip-”

“Elizabeth I-“

“Let me finish, yeah? I gotta get this off my chest before I explode,” Elizabeth said weakly, earning a nod from Jimmy as she continued with, “he left bruises on my hips; you can guess what happened – where were you?”

“I-I’m sorry,” Jimmy said meekly, reaching a hand up to touch her cheek, though he put it down once Elizabeth flinched back. “I should have been there for you – what kind of guardian angel am I?”

“No it’s cool,” Elizabeth said sarcastically, “I should be used to this by now, though it’s hard. He’s so sweet and loving sometimes. He’s like, the ideal boyfriend, yet he gets possessive and I just...”

Jimmy didn’t know what to say. While on his walk to his and Leana’s old house, something had been nagging him, something had been making him feel bad as he’d gotten farther and farther away from Elizabeth. He should have known that nagging feeling was some kind of warning, yet he’d pushed it to the back of his mind so far to a point where he didn’t even feel that nagging feeling anymore. He had completely ignored his own mind telling him that something was wrong....

“I wish I could hug you,” Jimmy said sincerely as he placed a hand on Elizabeth’s cheek, seeing Goosebumps rise on her arms as she was probably only feeling a gust of wind rather than an actual hand on her cheek. “I wish I could hold you up against my chest so that you can grab a fist full of my shirt and just let everything out. I wish that I can just pull you up on my lap and keep you safe, to run my hand through your hair soothingly and to rub your back to make you feel a little bit better... Though I can’t even touch you without my hand going right through you.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes, then felt a small gust of wind blow through her face, which was actually Jimmy’s hand passing right through her. What he’d said had really touched her, and as any girl who was being told sweet nothings, she wanted to hold onto him tightly, to never let go until she knew things would be okay, though the arms that she wanted to wrap around his neck were most certainly going to go right through and it would be as if she hadn’t of touched him. She realized that him being a ghost was frustrating, for both herself and him.

“I, I appreciate what you’ve told me,” Elizabeth said softly, receiving an understanding nod and smile from Jimmy. “And, I wish you could do all those things, I wish I could feel you doing all those things, though whenever you touch or brush against me I only feel cold, I get Goosebumps, and this strange shock goes through my chest which leaves me feeling tingly all over afterwards.”

“I just, I wish I could do something,” Jimmy muttered, looking down to his lap. “As much as I want to kill that mother fucker, I literally can’t do any harm to him. I don’t know why, though it’s just one of those things that have been engraved in my brain by someone else that I subconsciously know.”

“You didn’t know I was already broken,” Elizabeth mumbled with a weak shrug. “I told myself that it wouldn’t be so bad... I want to get lost, I’ve been telling myself that for a while now, though I’m nothing without him.”

“Somehow, I know you’re more than anyone can ever dream of,” Jimmy said softly, brushing a hand through Elizabeth’s hair which resulted in her short dark locks to flutter around as if she’d been hit by a slight breeze. “You’re a really good kid, and you don’t need that jackass to tell you otherwise. If I were still alive, I would be knocking down his door with my friends, and Zacky would probably have a baseball bat...”

Elizabeth chuckled as Jimmy began to ramble, dropping names of people she didn’t know. She quietly sat there, hearing his little threat turn into a full on story about how he and his friends did all these crazy antics and how much love they all had for each other. They’d have each other’s backs, they’d call themselves brothers; it was the perfect family in Elizabeth’s eyes even if they all weren’t related.

“... Oh and this one time when were on tour, I remember being in the green room and just going crazy with kung-fu moves. I ended up stepping on a blanket and slipping, falling on my ass though I pulled it off and it looked like I just rolled-“

“Tour?” Elizabeth quietly interrupted.

“Yeah! Didn’t I tell you that I was in a band?” Jimmy gushed.

“You’ve failed to mention that until now,” Elizabeth said smartly, a small smile on her face as Jimmy stared at her wide-eyed.

“Well then, prepare for a sleepless night, and bring your laptop over here. We’ve got major research to do,” Jimmy said while clapping his hands happily.

“So you’re famous?” Elizabeth asked as she reached for her laptop which sat on her nightstand.

“Yeah, I guess. The band’s name is Avenged Sevenfold,” Jimmy said proudly, a twinkle in his blue eyes.

“Avenged Seven.... Warmness on the Soul!” Elizabeth exclaimed happily, “I love that song!”

“So you’ve heard of us!” Jimmy exclaimed with a huge grin.

“Uh, no. Actually, I got drawn to a pair of drumsticks while I was at this music store,” and just then, Elizabeth pulled out said drumsticks which had been casually lying by her thigh, “I don’t know why, though I just knew I needed to have them, but I didn’t have enough money for them. The clerk told me that if I got a CD she’d give them to me for free, and I guess I happened to get your CD which has Warmness on the Soul.”

Studying the drumsticks closely as Elizabeth held them up for Jimmy too see, he let out a high-pitched scream before saying with a huge smile on his face, “those are my drumsticks, those are my fucking drumsticks! You have my drumsticks! Elizabeth you have my drumsticks!”

“Maybe that’s why I was so attracted to them – they’re yours,” Elizabeth said softly, smiling shyly at Jimmy.

“This is fucking amazing!”