Hello, Can You Please Stop Haunting Me?

“Why is it that you’re hair is so much more awesome than mine is?” Eliza asked, playing with a lock of her hair. Addie and Eliza were at their living room. They were both free that afternoon after school and Addie claimed that she needed Eliza’s help with her nails. So that was how she spent her afternoon doing manicures while Jeremy went off to find Zach and talk. It was weird that she wasn’t there.

She had a sudden itch in her legs to jump up and run to Zach’s house just to see what they were talking about. Jeremy said he just wanted to apologize – for everything. She was just curious as to what ‘everything’ was.

“Because I’m just that much more awesome than you,” Addie joked, laughing. Her nails were painted light pink with white laces and flowers stickers on it. As much as Eliza disliked the idea of sticking too many décor on one’s nails, she had to admit that it looked pretty on her sister. She almost even considered it if it weren’t for the fact that she hated nail polish.

“I really think you should add a little color to your nails though,” Addie said, pouting slightly. “Considering you’re going out with that dude tonight…”

Eliza’s heartbeat was growing faster and faster as her body temperature rose, staining her cheeks with a shade of red. “It’s no biggie,” she explained nonchalantly.

“So, do you love him?” She said.

Ah, Addie was known to be straightforward. And Eliza thought that she was getting used to her sister’s bluntness. Apparently not.

“Geez, Addie,” Eliza exclaimed, laughing. But she didn’t know what to say after that. It was just too embarrassing.

Zach and Eliza both agreed to take things a little bit slowly, mainly because Eliza was stuck in the middle of a whirlwind of emotions and Zach feared that she wasn’t honest with herself – that she was doing this just because she was actually sympathetic and didn’t had the guts to turn him down.

She hoped that wasn’t the case.

So he asked her out on their first date.

“I’m not really good with dressing up,” Eliza said.

“Leave it to me,” her sister answered, grinning.

---

“You should’ve told me these things earlier,” Jeremy said. “I’d stop being a pain in the ass to ya’ll a long time ago if you did.”

“I’m not allowed to talk to the dead,” Zach said solemnly, before smirking. They had been talking for 3 straight hours ever since Zach got out of school. At first he thought Jeremy was just going to annoy the shit out of him again but to his surprise, he profusely apologized.

“There’s just this other thing you need to do before you can go,” Zach said, looking at the evening rays peeking through the silhouettes of the trees lining the streets as he descended the stairs of the patio to go meet up with Eliza.

“I thought you were the last thing I needed to do.”

They stopped in their tracks.

“That…came out wrong,” Jeremy said.

“Yeah, obviously,” Zach said, a little bit freaked out. “Let’s pretend that never happened.”

“Agreed.”

“So um,” Jeremy continued. “The last thing…?”

“Think about it, why aren’t you gone by now if I’m the last person you need to confront? You’re still here, aren’t you? Or else I might be deluded.”

“But I can’t think of anyone else,” Jeremy muttered, frowning. “Eliza and I have gone through many people trying to figure this out and I really, really think that it’s time for me to…go. And I’m still here,” he said, feeling hopeless. “What else do I need to do?”

“Your job would be easy if I were to tell you that,” Zach replied. “Try to figure it out on your own. I’m sure you left one person out of the equation.”

But who?