Where Ghosts Roam

I woke up to the sound of a knock on the door; I opened my eyes and looked around before I realized that I was on the living room floor. When I turned my head to the side, I noticed that Jenna was still there but she was on her side facing the kitchen still asleep. I got up quietly and walked over to the door and cracked it open to find a familiar face.

“Hey, I wanted to check on you.” Zack said,

“I’m, uh, fine I guess.”

“Am I allowed to come in or are you just doing to leave me outside?”

“Zack, now’s not really a good time.” I said, trying to get him to leave.

“Do you want me to barge through the door?”

I contemplated telling him to just leave and that I would text him later, but I don’t want my friends to start worrying about me.

“If I left you in, you have to go straight to my room and nowhere else, but give me a minute to clean up.” I honestly didn’t want him finding out about Jenna just yet, so I had to clean up our trash and make it seem like she wasn’t there even though she was there in plain sight.

I stood in front of the door again and looked around the room. From the door I couldn’t see Jenna on the floor, so maybe Zack wouldn’t see her either. I opened the door for Zack and told him to be quiet while he made his way to my room.

I quickly ran over to the coffee table and grabbed my phone then walked up the stairs to join Zack. When I walked in my room he had already made himself right at home and started playing a video game. I didn’t feel like joining Zack on my bed so I sat on my floor closer to the door so I could hear Jenna if she started calling for me.

“So how have you been?” He asked while focusing on the game.

“Okay I guess.”

“Have you been, uh, doing anything bad?”

“Not since that night. I’ve been keeping myself busy I guess.” I sighed, moving to sit against the door.
I hadn’t noticed that he paused the game and laid on his side.

“When are you coming back to school?” He asked.

“I dunno, the doctor said I could skip for up to a week to get myself together again.”

“That’s probably for the best. The teachers haven’t given us much work to give to you; they don’t want you to get stressed.”

“That’s probably the only bright side out of this. I’m not really in the mood to care about school right now.”

“I figured. What did you do yesterday?”

Once again, I thought about telling him all about Jenna, but I thought against it. I don’t want them to know my business; I need to work on being open with my friends again.

“I slept mostly and watched movies. I’ve been relaxing a bit.”

Zack started to reply but I tuned him out as Cayden walked in the room. I tried to focus back on what
Zack was saying but as soon as I heard Jenna’s name come out of Cayden’s mouth I instantly lost interest to what Zack was saying.

“Are you listening to me damnit? Jenna just woke up.” Fear hit me instantly, thinking that she’d start calling for me or wandering around the house.

“Uh, Zack, I’ll be right back. I need to go downstairs for a few minute.”

“Everything okay?” I could hear the worry in his voice but I chose to ignore it.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I just need to check on something, I’ll be back.” On my way out of the door I made sure to close it so Zack wouldn’t hear me talking to Jenna. I rushed down the stairs until I got to the bottom when I stopped to look around for Jenna.

“She’s in the bathroom.” Cayden said from the couch. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Morning.” A familiar voice said. I turned around to make eye contact with Jenna who was now sitting on the kitchen counter.

“Sorry for falling asleep. Didn’t really mean for that to happen, I’m still dealing with jet lag.” She chuckled.

“It’s okay. I ended up falling asleep not too long after you did. I guess I should have probably woken you up but I didn’t want to bother you.” I said quietly.

“I probably would have done the same if the roles were reversed.” She said giving me a soft smile.

“Well Alex, I should probably get home. I was out all night and I don’t want my mom to worry, but I’ll come by later tonight or tomorrow?” She said as I followed her out of the kitchen so she could go get her stuff.

I thought about her coming over tomorrow and as much as I enjoyed her company, I think I needed to go see Jack and fix some things with him.

“Actually, I think I need to go see my best friend tomorrow. The last time I saw him things ended very bad. So I have a few things I need to talk to him about. But text me tomorrow night and I’ll let you know if we can hang out Friday.”

“Yeah that’s fine! If you want to come over you can. My mom won’t be home most of the night because she has to work.”

“That sounds good. I’ll let you know.” I said walking her to the door.

I watched as she walked down the porch and across the lawn to her house. She probably was exactly what I needed; a new friend that I can talk to and relate with.

“Okay now that Jenna left, can you go back to Zack before he starts asking questions?” Cayden said stretching as he walked back toward the stairs.

“Shut up Cade.” Following him up the stairs back to my room.

I figured when I walked back into my room I’d find Zack getting restless because I took too long, but my long absence clearly didn’t bother him. He had made himself a mountain of pillows on the floor and he was watching some movie he found on TV.

“Comfy?” I laughed.

“A little bit. So, I’m thinking about just hanging out here the rest of the day. Is that cool with you?” He said moving around pillows to make himself more comfortable.

“Yeah that’s fine. Why aren’t you at school though?”

“I had a doctor’s appointment this morning. Mom said I could skip the rest of the day and come see you.”

“Gotta love Carla.”

“It’s creepy sometimes when you and Jack call all of our parents by their first name.” He laughed.

“I figured you’d be used to it by now.” I said dodging a pillow that Zack threw at me.

I grabbed some pillows from Cayden’s room and made a mountain for myself right beside Zack. Cayden even joined us and made himself comfy on the bed behind us. Even though I haven’t wanted people over, I was glad to spend a relaxing day with my brother and one of my best friends.