Where Ghosts Roam

The next day I woke up around ten in the morning, only because I was up late talking to Cayden about Jenna. He kept trying to reassure me that a new friend would be good for me since I won’t talk to Jack, Rian or Zack about anything anymore. I kept repeating that I didn’t need another person in my life, but apparently no one seems to understand that.

I stayed in bed for another forty minutes until I decided it was time to get up. I knew Jenna was going to come over whether I liked it or not, so I might as go take a quick shower. Once I got my jeans and a clean t-shirt I walked into the bathroom and turned on the light.

“So whatcha going to do with Jenna?”

“Damn it Cayden. I need to shower.” I yelled.

“Are you not going to answer my question?” Cayden laughed.

“I don’t know dude. Probably just hang around the house”

“I think honestly think she could be good for you. You two seem to have a connection.”

“Whatever, can you get out now. I’d like to shower.”

“Fine I guess. I’ll be in my room.”

Once he closed the door, I started the water. I felt to make sure it was the temperature I liked before
I slipped off my clothes and stepped in.

I stood under the water for a few minutes and just sighed. I felt extremely drained from the past few days. I just wanted to have a few days to myself and not worry about anything. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to have Cayden around, but I just wanted to be lazy for a bit.

I decided to stop thinking about everything, only because I was wasting water and Jenna was going to be over soon, and I still needed to clean up the house some.

After I finished my shower and picked up all the dirty clothes around the house, I went downstairs just as the doorbell rang. I froze for a second before I walked over to the door to open it for Jenna.

She greeted me with a smile, before walking into the house uninvited. I noticed she was carrying a backpack, which made me nervous as to what she brought. I was thinking about what Cayden said and maybe he was right, she might be good for me and I do need someone to talk to. She wasn’t like the other girls at school who would wear Hollister and American Eagle clothes. She was wearing beat up vans, ripped denim jeans, a black tank top with a red oversized flannel. I had a feeling that we were more alike than we both thought.

“So Alex, I brought a bunch of movies and don’t say no. You’re going to watch them even if it takes us a few days.” She said as she kicked her shoes off.

“Uhm, okay. That’s fine I guess.”

I sat down on the couch and let her pick a movie to put on. She ended up picking a movie called Man of the House. I tried to tell her I wasn’t going to like it, but she insisted that I was and all I could do was sit there and watch. Once the movie was over, Jenna looked over at me to ask me how I liked the movie. I had to admit that it wasn’t a bad movie and was actually kind of funny.

“Just admit that I don’t have bad taste in movies.” She smiled.

“I’m not admitting anything yet because we’ve only seen one.” I said grabbing a pillow to lay down.

She picked up another pillow and threw it at me.

“Whatever, you’re going to like them all.” She said putting in another movie.

And she was right, I did like them all. They were all different genres from comedy to horror to romantic. Surprisingly, some of the romantic movies were my favorite.

It was around six when we decided to take a break and order something to eat. I let her look at all the menus since I didn’t feel like making a decision. About ten minutes later she decided on Chinese food and I ordered two chicken lo mein dinner combo’s from the Chinese restaurant down the street.
We had to wait forty-five minutes before the food was delivered so we sat on the floor of the living room staring at the ceiling in silence.

“Tell me about yourself.” She said breaking the silence.

I thought about it, about telling her everything. I’ve kept everything in for so long that I was just ready to burst. I felt like I couldn’t talk to anyone about my problems because no one could really relate with me. I was getting ready to tell her when I realized that I didn’t even know this girl. If I couldn’t tell my best friends about what was going on with me, then how could I tell Jenna.

“I’d rather not.” I said clearly being awkward.

“Why not? Got something to hide?” She chuckled.

“I just don’t want to talk about it right now.” I said.

She clearly got the hint because she changed the subject to herself, which I was incredibly thankful for.

“My dad left us five months ago, which broke my mom’s heart. I haven’t really thought about it much, I’m just trying to move on and not worry about it. That’s why we moved to America, for a fresh start.”

“Do you miss Australia?” I asked because I know if I lived there I would never want to leave.

“As much as I love Australia, I’m glad I left. Too many things happened that I needed to forget and coming here will probably be best for me.”

I was curious as to what those things were, but I wasn’t going to push her because I could already tell she didn’t want to continue with that conversation.

“Alex, why don’t you hang out with your friends?” She said turning her head to look at me.

“I never told you that I don’t see my friends. How did you know that?”

“I’ve only known you for a day, but I can already tell you like to be left alone. Your friends haven’t been back to your house since they dropped you off, and you haven’t even left the house to go see them. I just pretty much put two and two together.” She chuckled.

“You’re really good at noticing things. I guess I just don’t have anything to talk about with them anymore. My life has been kind of different and I tend to keep things to myself.” I said, turning my head, finally making eye contact.

“I understand surprisingly. That’s how it started to be with me at home. I stopped talking to all my friends and hid in my room all the time.”

We got silent and looked back up at the ceiling. It was nice to have someone who understood you, even if they didn’t know all of the details. I closed my eyes and took in deep breaths when I felt Jenna’s hand on mine; I opened my eyes and turned to look at her.

“I’ll always be here for you, even if you don’t want to. I know what it’s like to not have a friend who you can talk to.” She said with a small smile.

I didn’t know how I felt about that, but in all honesty I was kind of glad she was here. I was getting pretty tired of being by myself and only having Cayden to talk to.

I started to smile back when the doorbell rang alerting us that the food was here. After I paid and got the food, we sat on the floor and ate out dinner while watching another movie that I’ve never heard of.

We were on our fifth movie that day when I realized it was around midnight. I turned to look at Jenna who was lying beside me on the floor, but she had already fallen asleep. I didn’t want to wake her so I just put a blanket over her and lay back down to finish the movie. Before I knew it, I was starting to doze off. I tried to stay awake to finish the movie because I knew there was thirty minutes left, but before I knew it my eyes were slowly closing and I fell asleep on the floor next to Jenna.