Ghostly

by Samantha Combs

  I headed across the street toward the open parking lot, encountering only birds looking for an early morning breakfast. They scattered as I rode through their grouping, kicking my legs out on either side of me, feeling free and exhilarated, and gulping in the moist air as it rushed up to meet me. I loved living near the beach!

  I rode through the parking lot until I saw The Gator parked near the front. Creepshow lay on the front of the hood in a towel and Jett stood next to him, also in a towel, changing out of his wetsuit. Surfers were parked all over the lot doing the same thing. I pulled up close and parked my bicycle. This was my favorite place to be. I felt an unspoken kinship with these surfers. We appreciated each other, even if I didn’t surf like they did. We both respected the ocean. It was understood.

  “Hey. Waves good this morning?” I addressed both Jett and Creepshow.

  Jett answered, “Always, Juice. Always. Waves are what you make of them.” Jett always seemed different in the morning when he had the ocean this close to him. He went all surfer-guru on us.

  “Just answer the darn question, Jett. You don’t have to do the Master and Grasshopper thing.” Creepshow rolled over on his side and addressed me. “Waves were the kine, Juice. Not too big, not too little. Perfect and sweet. When you gonna come out there with us?”

  “When the water temperature is like bath water. Where’s Sixx?”

  “Here I am.” Sixx crawled out of the back of the van. “Trying to sleep some of this unholy hour away. These fools picked me up at a time my watch doesn’t even register.”

  “I keep telling you. When we graduate high school, we have to move to the beach. Took me seven minutes on my bike to get here.”

  “Hate you.” Jett said. “Hate that you live so close to nirvana. Want to be you every day of my life.”

  “I know. It’ll be you soon enough Jett. Don’t worry.”

  Sixx snapped open a Red Bull and started pacing around the parking lot. “So, when is Ghost Boy supposed to make his big entrance?”

  “I don’t know. The note didn’t say anything except the place and the time. Is it close to seven o’clock?”

  Sixx checked her watch. “Couple minutes before seven now. Think he’s a punctual kind of guy?”

  I snapped at her, getting a little annoyed. “I never timed him before, Sixx. I don’t really know.”

  “Don’t get all testy about it, Juice. I was just askin’.” Sixx took a couple long drags on her drink, then said, “Didn’t you say he was good lookin’, with blond hair?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “’Cuz I think he’s coming this way.” Sixx tossed her can in the van and Creepshow rolled all the way off the hood of The Gator. Jett, who had been lounging in the open side door of the van, showed little interest in the news. I, on the other hand, nearly stopped breathing. I seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

  I whirled around and stared in the direction Sixx pointed and sure enough, I spotted Shane walking toward us. How he knew where we’d be, or that the ugly green van belonged to my friends, completely escaped me. Then I remembered how he could eavesdrop, and how he’d known I would love the beach on our first outing. There was so much I didn’t know about him.

  All I remember thinking about was how cute Shane looked. He had on a pair of blue two-tone board shorts, a white pocket tee, and beige Vans. He looked impossibly tan, handsome, and casually perfect. His blonde hair ruffled up in the early morning breeze and he wore a pair of black Ray-Bans, Jett’s preferred brand. He looked like he stepped off the cover of Surfer Magazine. Clearly, he had been paying attention to current fashion, having ditched the funky, way out-of-style duds he’d been sporting before. Next to me, I could hear Sixx say, “Holy crow, Juice. That is one fine ghost.”

  Stupidly, I waved. Sixx rolled her eyes and I pretended to ignore her. Shane waved back and, like, three seconds later, he stood right next to us.

  “Hey, how’s it going? I’m Shane.” Like he needed the intro? How many ghosts did we know, anyway?

  Creepshow, always the most polite among us, stuck his hand out for a handshake, but Jett calmly reached out and lowered it.

  “Dude. He’s a ghost. There’s a no-touching thing, probably.” Jett looked at Shane for confirmation. “Right?”

  Shane didn’t hesitate, even though I was dying like a thousand times. “Right. Sorry.”

  Jett took that revelation as he took everything, without losing his stride. “No worries.”

  I had to say something before the uncomfortable factor threatened to eat me alive. “Okay, so Shane, these are my friends.” I introduced Shane individually to Sixx, Jett, and Creepshow. Everyone nodded at everyone in greeting and Jett, the peacemaker, took over again.

  “So, Shane. Pretty cool you came to meet us. Thanks.”

  “You got it. I gathered it had importance to Juice.” Shane and Jett were talking as though I wasn’t even there. Now, this I found interesting. Sixx and I sat in the open door of The Gator and listened. Creepshow stood close, trying to look necessary.

  Sixx kept jabbing me in the ribs, like a non-verbal exclamation point, every time someone said something she liked. “Yeah. Juice is pretty important to us.” Jab. “So, if something’s important to her, it’s gotta be done, man.” Jab, jab.

  “She’s become pretty important to me, too.”

  Hard jab.

  Shane looked at me, and lowered his shades à la Jett. He winked and his denim blue eyes sparkled in the morning sun. Holy cow, could this all be happening? I looked at Sixx and her eyes were big white plates. Looked like she could hardly believe it either.

  Creepshow’d had enough of standing around. “So, let’s talk about the host body thing.”

  Sixx hopped out of the van and joined the boys in their tight circle. “Yeah. I’m all for the lovefest, but doesn’t today’s meeting have a point?”

  “You’re right, Sixx.” Shane agreed. “It does. Juice? Have you explained to your friends already about my deal?” I nodded, so he went on. “Then, what you need to know is, I have been waiting a long time to find someone who can help me. And Juice is that person.”

  “So, how does it work?” Creep seemed way too interested in the mechanics of this. I should have figured a horror aficionado would be all over this.

  “I think the best way is to find a person who is most as you see me now. Then there is a ‘jumping in’ thing I do, where I just merge my supernatural being with the live person. The real person won’t be harmed, and I get to live on as that real person. Some of my memories are lost, but as I understand it, most of them are saved, especially the most recent ones. Like meeting you all today? I would get to keep you as my friends because it happened so recently. I’m actually glad about that. My recent friendships are important.”

  Shane winked at me again. “But my old life would erase and I would accept the memories of my new host body. Instantly, that would be all I remember. I understand this actually happens all the time. Sometimes you know it as amnesia patients suddenly regaining their memory.”

  “No kidding? I heard about this.” Sixx told us a short story about a news item she had recently read about this very thing. She sounded suspiciously like a believer. Or maybe she just thought Shane was beyond cute.

  Creepshow had more questions. “Are you sure no one gets hurt?”

  “Absolutely. I could never ask you to hurt anyone. Especially Juice. I could never ask her to do that.” He smiled broadly at me. All this attention made me blush. I was seriously not used to it.

  Jett finally spoke up again. “How can we be sure you’re not one of those succubus things we watch on Creepshow’s horror movies, and when you get a body you won’t use it to kill and eat us all?”

  “Oh, for the love of lice, Jett!” Sixx nearly made my ears bleed with her shriek. “Are you insane?”

  “No.” Jett shrugged his face empty of any expression. “I think it’s a fair question.” He stood his ground and stared Shane down, which became hilarious since they
both had on dark shades.

  ”It’s actually a stupid question, Jett.” Creepshow jumped up and butted in. “If Shane was a succubus, first, he would lie to you and you wouldn’t get the truth, anyway. Second, he wouldn’t come in the form of a ghost. And third, a succubus is always a female.” Creep appeared totally stoked at the chance to finally use some of his useless horror movie trivia.

  Inwardly, I groaned, knowing I could never accuse his trivia of being useless ever again since now he’d actually found a use for it.

  “I’ll answer anyway, Creepshow.” Shane stepped forward until he was standing next to The Gator and was as close to me sitting inside the open van door as he could get. “I’ll never lie to Juice. So, here’s the truth. I thought I wanted to find a host body so I could find out how I died and why. But now, I don’t even care about that. I just want to have a body. I miss being alive. I miss the sun, the surf, the water. And I’d like to hold Juice’s hand. More would be nice, and it would be a lie if I said I didn’t think about it, but I’d be happy if I could just sit on the sand at this beach, feel the sun on my face, taste the salt in the air, and hold this girl’s hand in mine until the sun sets on the horizon. That’s the most perfect day I can think of right now.”

  Next to me, I felt more than heard tough old Sixx suck in her breath sharply and let it out real slow, saying, “Oooh,” the whole time. Jab.

  Chapter Eight

  I couldn’t decide what to wear to the Battle of the Bands. I had actually been standing in front of my closet in a towel for almost ten minutes, just staring into it. I’d been standing there so long in fact, my hair under the towel had almost completely dried. Since that morning at the beach with Shane and everyone, I had found it hard to focus on anything. I kept replaying what he said about holding my hand over and over in my mind and soon I forgot whatever I had been doing.

  After Shane left us at the parking lot, we stayed for a while to talk about what he told us. Jett and Creepshow turned out to be way more supportive than I thought they were going to be. Jett especially. He seemed to like Shane. It seemed almost as though, under different circumstances, they could have been best friends. Creepshow still acted kind of back-offish, but that was just his way. Sixx had always told me she thought Creep crushed on me and for the first time today with Shane, I saw a little bit of that. I needed to watch that, because even though I love Creepshow like a fat kid loves dessert, it could never be anything more. Right?

  Sixx herself . . . that girl is another story altogether. She clearly had become a Shane convert. That was a no-brainer to me, like, seconds after Shane got there. I’m not saying Sixx is shallow or anything; sure, Shane’s appearance swayed her, no doubt. But she leaned toward his direction even before she met him. However, having now met him, she definitely pitched her tent in his camp.

  I checked my watch. They’d be picking me up soon. I had to get a move on. I pulled on some leggings, a purple miniskirt, a white tank top with a back tank underneath it, and my trusty black Converse sneakers. I threw my wallet, some gum, and at the last minute, a digital camera I had lying on top of my dresser, into a backpack purse. I thought it would be cool to take some pictures of the four of us. I was putting in my trademark ponytails when I heard The Gator’s unmistakable horn outside. All right! We were Battle of the Bands bound!

  ****

  After we finally got a parking spot, which took hours, thank you, we walked into the civic auditorium where the Battle of the Bands was being held. There had to be more than three thousand kids packed into the place. The noise was deafening. Ear-splitting music being piped over the sound system was almost impossible to hear over the chatter of the crowd. I usually shied away from these kinds of places; too many people, too little room, and way too many variables. But tonight I was totally stoked to be here. The energy felt awesome. Everyone, including us, completely fed off the vibe in the place.

  Being a teen event, of course it was non-alcoholic as well. Creepshow and Jett went off in search of sodas, and Sixx and I swam closer to the stage. She looked amazing tonight and I took the opportunity to tell her.

  “Girl, you look great. You are fully rocking those boots.” Sixx was a beast when she thrift-store shopped and she had on an incredible find tonight. She had managed to find thigh-high combat boots and she wore the heck out of a great black dress with gossamer silk batwing arms à la Stevie Nicks. She had piled her hair on top of her head and had two chopsticks stuck in the beehive. And she had some serious black eye makeup on. She looked hot. I told her so.

  “Shut up, right?” Sixx glowed and did a totally uncharacteristic twirl.

  “Totally.”

  “You don’t exactly suck either, Juice. Can’t remember the last time I saw you in a skirt. Looks good on you.”

  “Yeah, but I still have on my comfortable kicks.” I stepped back and gave her a There’s-No-Place-Like-Home heel click, from the Wizard of Oz. “All the better to mosh with, my dear.”

  Sixx kicked up one of her own booted legs. “Mama didn’t raise no fools, Juice. Look around at all the stupid high heels. Those pathetic girls are gonna be down for the count after two bands.” She threw her arm around my shoulder. “But not us. Combat Girl and Chucks Chick will still be going strong till wa-a-ay after band number fifteen!” She started dancing as if to illustrate the point and soon, the two of us were jamming to the loud music.

  “Hey! Don’t get started without us!” Creepshow came up behind us and jumped right in on the beat. Jett soon followed, his arms full of drinks. He handed me and Sixx sodas which we drank thirstily, draining in sloppy gulps.

  “Thanks, Jett. I felt like dying. There are so many bodies packed in here, there’s almost no air. The smell in here is making me gag. Smells like feet.” Sixx never beat around the bush. I loved that about her. She has no edit button.

  “Me and Creep are gonna check out the action near the front of the stage. Usually find a special kind of groupie up there.” Jett and Creepshow headed into the crowd after making arrangements with me and Sixx to meet us by The Gator in a couple of hours. We were hoping we would run into each other sometime before then, but we had our backup plan in place in case we didn’t.

  After the guys left, Sixx and I walked around and checked out everything going on. Sixx wasn’t exaggerating earlier; this place absolutely crawled with people. The closer we got to the stage, the harder it got to navigate the crowd. We gave up and decided to hang back where the crowd wasn’t so thick or the music so loud. There were tons of guys there, but none of them were doing anything for me. Sixx, on the other hand, was falling in lust just about every three minutes. I wasn’t even looking for me, anyway. I mostly looked for my Shane look-alike host body. I didn’t tell Sixx what I had been doing, but she figured it out.

  “Ah, heck, Juice. Are you body shopping when you’re supposed to be having a good time?”

  “No! I am not ‘body shopping’. Gross, Sixx.” I totally had been body shopping and she’d nailed me. I only hoped my face didn’t give my lie away. It did.

  “You are so lying! You know how I can tell? You can’t even look at me.”

  “Can too.”

  “So, do it.”

  I tried to look at Sixx and couldn’t.

  “Ha! I knew you couldn’t!”

  “What-ev. Who cares anyway? I thought this would be the perfect place to find someone. I just thought someone from school would be way too close to home.”

  “Okay. I can’t say you’re not right. But you should have told me this would turn into a shopping expedition. We wanted you to have fun. You never do.”

  That was so not fair. Fun and I weren’t even on speaking terms. “I do too have fun. And to prove it, no more body shopping tonight. I promise.”

  Sixx looked at me with a skeptical eye. Clearly, she doubted my ability to drop this particular task. A huge show of commitment was required. “I promise, no more tonight. Now, let’s go find cute boys!”

  “Oh. Balls. Of. Crud.” Sixx
enunciated every word. “I. Do. Not. Even. Know. You.” She looked at me like I’d gone mental on her. “Did you seriously just say ‘cute boys’ to me?” I nodded vigorously and broke into laughter, suddenly loving that I was here, and that I was here with Sixx. She laughed with me and we linked arms and headed into the crowd just as the first band took the stage.

  ****

  A couple of hours and several bands later, I had separated from Sixx and was weaving my way to the bathroom. I stood in line with about thirty other girls for almost half an hour until my turn came up. In the same time period, I must have watched two hundred guys come and go from their bathroom like they had a revolving door. It frustrated me to watch. When I finally got out of the bathroom, it looked as though another girl had gotten about as frustrated as me about it, because event security were hauling her and a friend out of the men’s room among cheers from the crowd, which delighted in their antics and were getting rowdier by the minute. Seems they got tired of waiting in our line and busted into the men’s room. Security caught them doing it and nabbed them while she and her friend were inside.

  The inevitable scuffle ensued. A body slammed into me, pinning me to the wall. Suddenly, the whole line for the bathroom was violently shifted forward and I was smashed into the person next to me. We both moved to the left and were crushed by an incredibly large lady waiting for her boyfriend, who heaved us all back to the right. I got slammed into the crowd, lost my footing, and fell on the ground, where I nearly got trampled to death. I barely dodged spike heels and steel-toed boots trying to rub my rear-end where I knew a bruise was already forming.