I woke up with Justin’s arm placed gently over my bare stomach. Looking around I remembered what happened only a couple hours ago. My red plaid pajama pants were making me sweat under the thick covers. Justin’s body heat wasn’t helping any, either. Justin yawned as he woke up. He smiled down on me, sleepily.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey.”
“How long have you been up?” he asked.
“Couple minutes.”
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Justin asked.
“Because I know you need sleep.” Noticing his arm Justin pulled it away, blushing. After watching me for a minute, he swung his legs over the side to the bed and stood up revealing his navy blue and white plaid boxers. I smiled.
“Nice boxers.”
“Uh, thanks, I guess,” he replied blushing a second time. “Do you want anything to drink or eat?” he asked getting in the small refrigerator that was against one wall.
“No, that’s ok.” I sat down at a little round table watching Justin eat his Apple Jacks. I looked around his room. You couldn’t see the wooden floor for his cloths and drawers were scattered. He had a lot of cloths for one person. Justin started messing with his now soggy cereal. He stirred his cereal round and round, trying to forget what happened earlier. It couldn’t have been a dream, he heard the door handle click.
“Tabitha,” Justin started cocking his head to one side, “did it happen, I mean really happen? Did you see what I saw? Did you see the boy? Please tell me it was me, just a dream.” I looked at him sympathetically. Knowing how he felt I know the feeling so well. I feel it everyday.
“Yes, it really happened. It was no dream, it was real.” Justin dropped his spoon and it his rim with a loud clamp. He got up and started pacing in the sunlight. His blonde curly hair bounced with each step. Justin stopped and put his hands up to his hair. From the back, his shoulders were broad. Justin turned to face me, his hands out to me, “Why is this happening? I did nothing to them.”
“You didn’t believe in them,” I raised from my chair.
“They punished me, for not believing?”
“They didn’t punish you, they proved to you they were real.”
“You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?” he asked his blue eyes showing sadness. I looked away from him saying nothing. He waited a moment for me to answer before he spoke, again, a little louder this time, “Didn’t you?”
The rest of the guy came in. We didn’t notice.
I looked at him, “Yes, I knew. That’s why I came when I did. I warned you that something like this would happen, but you still didn’t believe me. Nobody ever warned me about this stuff. I had to learn the hard way. After 18 years of living in this house, I still don’t understand the ghosts. I do know to believe in them, though.”
“Why can’t you just tell them to leave?” he asked turning around his back to me.
“You don’t understand. They live here too. They have feelings like regular people; you can’t just kick them out. I can’t control them.”
Joey looked from Justin to me to Justin, again, “Did we miss something?” We looked at the guys now noticing them; saying nothing.
copyright © 2001 AngelH