Bound In Spirit

“What am I?” I asked him in surprise. He nodded at me expectantly; his green eyes boring into my own blue ones. I shrugged thoughtfully, not really taking offense to his answer, just thinking about it.

“I’m not really sure.” I started. “I think you could consider me a spirit of sorts; I died after all. I haven’t met any others like me though, so I can’t say.”

“So you’ve just been wandering the world by yourself, with no company for three months?” He asked me in surprise.

“Yeah, I have.” I responded.

“Don’t you ever get – well I don’t know – bored of just wandering? Don’t you ever wish for some company?”

“Oh trust me, I do. It’s very lonesome being a spirit, I’d say. I do like the solitude I get from it at times, but mostly I would wish for someone to at least talk to, ya know?” He nodded at me in understanding.

“So am I really the first person to ever see you? As a spirit, that is.”

“Yes, you are. Ever since I’ve died, I haven’t had any human contact, whatsoever. Not even my parents could see me, so I don’t get why you can, of all people. I don’t mean it in a rude way, it’s just that I don’t even know you that well, ya know?” Ash just nodded again.

“I don’t know either.” He said. “Maybe you have some unfinished business as a spirit or something, and I’m supposed to help you finish it?” Ash started to laugh, and after a pause, I laughed with him.

“Where did you get that, some supernatural show?” I joked.

“Seriously though, you have no idea what you’re supposed to do as a spirit? I mean, it couldn’t be that you’re destined to walk the earth like that forever, right?”

“Of course not.” I responded quickly – too quickly, maybe. Ash had just put another thought into my head, whether I wanted to admit it or not. Was I doomed to stay a spirit for ever; walking the earth in a bubble of loneliness for all time? Truthfully, I’d rather die than go without any company – forever even – then live like that. Ash seemed to sense my wanted aversion to the subject; he quickly changed the topic – to about us - and I learned many things about him.

He had a younger brother named Austin whom I had briefly heard about, his mother and father, and a female Labrador named Sally. He loved to play football with his friends – whom surprisingly, he didn’t have, tons of – and also loved to take daily walks. Apparently, that was what I had caught him doing when he saw me.

I then told him about myself, as well. He learned that my name was Amelia Night, and that I was sixteen years old. I told him that I came from Jasper Indiana – which he was surprised about for some reason – and I pretty much spilled my guts out to the guy. Being by myself had made me desperate for someone to talk to, I realized. A guy who was practically a stranger – but didn’t feel like one – was already who knows how close to me, and would probably know as much about me as the closest friend by the end of the night. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.

Nothing could stay on my mind for long though – with the conversations I had with Ash. In just a few more hours, we had talked about so many topics, making me realize even more what lovely company he was. We even had debates over stupid subjects at times, but that just made our conversations that more entertaining to me.

“Oh shit!” I exclaimed. Glancing over at the clock above Ash’s desk, I noticed that it was 12:45 A.M. “Don’t you have school? Gosh, I’m keeping you awake to late. I’m so sorry—“I was cut off by Ash’s muffled chuckles. I could tell he was trying not to laugh at me, but he was doing a pretty poor job of it. “What?” I asked in confusion.

“Amelia, don’t worry; tomorrow is a school holiday,” Ash managed to get threw the remaining chuckles clogging his throat. I glanced at him in surprise at the news that I had been about to apologize over nothing, and received one of those mile-wide, seductive as hell grins that makes a girl’s heart stop. My breath caught in my throat for a second, before I quickly regained my composure and grinned back at him.

“Are you sure I’m not keeping you, though?” I asked him. “You’re not sleepy at all?”

“I’m fine,” he reassured. “Besides, shouldn’t the roles be reversed? Normally it’s the guy asking if he’s keeping the girl from her beauty sleep.”

“Well we don’t make a normal pair,” I said with a laugh. “More to the point, spirits don’t sleep – so I’ve discovered, and you know as well as I do that I don’t need any beauty sleep.”

“Now don’t get conceded, Amelia.” Ash responded in a mocking tone. I shook my head; a small smile playing across my lips. We stayed talking for a few minutes more before Ash asked “Hey Amelia?”

“Yes?” I asked in return, raising an eyebrow in question.

“So I’ve been thinking... and I was wondering if you wanted to go watch a movie or something tomorrow? I mean, not to be rude or anything, but you do seem kind of company frantic, and I just think it would cheer you up. We don’t have to though; if you don’t want to, it’s fine. I don’t want you to—“I laughed when I realized Ash had started to rant; could I be making him nervous? No, he just didn’t want me to say no, or I guess he didn’t want me to read too much into the idea.

“I’d love to,” I said as I smiled at him.

“Great,” Ash said with a returned smile. “So it’s a date.”