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Thomas stayed hidden from the view of the stairs, but he was trying to get a good look at who Guy-Man was with. Guy-Man wasn’t exactly the most social person that had ever existed, so actually having someone invited into their house was a special occasion. Thomas knew who the person was supposed to be, at least vaguely. Guy-Man had actually been signed onto a label. It had been what he was hoping for. Guy-Man was playing music for a club, and someone had told him that he could make it big and asked to get some more samples of his work.
The person who owned the label wanted to visit Guy-Man. Thomas wasn’t exactly sure why, but he had to keep himself at least somewhat hidden in case this person was one of the few that could actually see him. He was curious though, and he desperately wished he could be down there with Guy-Man instead of up the stairs trying to be sneaky. He could hear voices, and he chanced it, and looked down.
It was a woman. Thomas’s eyes widened.
She was the prettiest woman he’d ever seen.
She had long brown hair and the most beautiful brown eyes he had ever seen. He practically allowed himself to just drift into complete view of the stairs, but he quickly hid himself again. But he could stop staring down there as the woman continued speaking to Guy-Man. He wanted to know what they were talking about. He wanted to be there, conversing with her. For a moment he wished that he was the living one and Guy-Man was the ghost who had to hide all the time. He quickly shook those thoughts out of his head though.
He didn’t want to wish death on his friend. He wouldn’t want to wish death on anyone.
Instead, he went to take refuge in his room. He always went to his room when he was feeling troubled. He couldn’t stop thinking about that woman though. He remembered his maman, always telling him that he’d make a fine husband. But now he was stuck as a sixteen year old. He could barely even remember what he looked like at this point.
He’d be no one’s husband. He sighed.
Guy-Man quietly opened the door and saw Thomas huddled in the corner, and he went and sat down next to him. He pulled up his legs to his chest and looked at the ghostly boy. “Feeling down again?”
Thomas shrugged. “I’ve been worse.”
Guy-Man frowned, but then tried to force a grin. “Well, I have good news! I’m all signed up for the label. I’m going to actually be making an album!”
Thomas was distracted from his own troubled thoughts. There was no time to be sad when something like this was happening. “That’s great!”
“Yeah, Elodie said that I could even work from home if that’s what I wanted. Some people will just bring some recording equipment for me and we can get started!”
“Elodie…” Thomas echoed.
“Yeah, she’s the owner of the record label. She’s pretty nice, and she was the one who saw me the other day while I was DJing in that club!” Guy-Man leaned back on the wall and gave a content sigh. “This is all finally fucking working.”
Thomas nodded and turned his head away for a moment.
He was happy for Guy-Man, he really was. But there was an underlying sadness he felt because he and Guy-Man had the same dream. The only difference was that Guy-Man was finally living it out, while Thomas’s life had ended early. But he was still excited for Guy-Man. He had helped Guy-Man make his music, and although he wouldn’t be getting any recognition for it, whenever he listened to the music and let it wash over him, he knew he had helped make it. No matter if he were dead or alive nothing could take away that feeling of pride knowing that he had finally succeeded in making something.
And then his mind went back to Elodie.
He knew next to nothing about her, but he already felt like he was falling for her. And it was completely stupid of him. He was a ghost. He was dead. Dead things didn’t fall in love, because it would be completely strange and out there.
“Thomas? You still here?” Thomas looked back at Guy-Man, who was waving his hand in front of Thomas. “I thought you were going into the afterlife for a second there.”
“Ha ha.” Thomas mumbled.
Guy-Man raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I don’t know.” Thomas mumbled. “I’m happy for you. Honestly. I just...I don’t know.”
Guy-Man sighed, and set his own hand under Thomas’s semi-transparent one. Thomas knew it made his hand feel very cold because of the way he shivered, but that was the closest they could get to actually touching each other.
“Is it about your death?”
Guy-Man still didn’t know how Thomas died. He had a vague idea about it though, just that Thomas was young and that he wanted to be a musician. No clues about how he actually died though. Thomas wasn’t ready to share that information with him. He respected that, but sometimes it made it incredibly hard to communicate with the boy.
“Not so much my death, but the fact that I am dead.” Thomas sighed. “God has a crappy sense of humor.”
Guy-Man shrugged. “I don’t know. If you had passed on then we would have never met. I would still be trying to find a label. Maybe he meant for you to help me?”
Thomas smiled weakly. “Maybe.”
“I’ll leave you alone for awhile then. If you want.” Thomas nodded at that and watched Guy-Man get up. “By the way, Elodie is coming back tomorrow for coffee. Take that as you will.”
Thomas groaned and let half his body fall backwards into the wall. Now half of his body was in the spare bedroom, and he stared up at the dusty cobwebs littering the ceiling. His maman would be horrified at the mess.
He ended up staying like that for most of the night, watching the spiders dance their long-legged dance across the webs. He barely even registered that it was the next day until he could hear Guy-Man walking around downstairs. Thomas didn’t even think about it. He just phased through the wall again and floated out of his bedroom and down the stairs.
He froze when he realized that Guy-Man wasn’t alone, and cursed himself for actually forgetting that she was supposed to be there. He backed up suddenly and hit the wall rather than phasing through it, and ended up knocking over a random decoration that was on it.
Elodie turned around with her eyes widened slightly and Thomas panicked. Guy-Man seemed shocked as well and the coffee scalded his hand when he accidentally over-poured it into the mug. He cursed and quickly went to run it under cool water, and Elodie slowly turned away from Thomas.
“What was that?” She asked, looking at Guy-Man.
Guy-Man shook his head. “I didn’t nail the thing in well enough. I just never bothered fixing it. Sorry about that.” He laughed and rubbed the back of his head. “I should probably fix it.”
Thomas could already feel his chest constricting. She can’t see him. Of course she couldn’t see him. He stayed floating there watching them have their coffee and talk. Chatting happily about life, and how things were going. Guy-Man would glance at him occasionally, as he continued to talk with Elodie. He couldn’t do any of that. Chatting. Laughing. Not really. He was lost in some stupid limbo where even falling in love wasn’t something that was possible. He wished he could talk to Elodie. He felt like all of his emotions were slowly being drained the longer he was still in this limbo between life and true death. He kept thinking of all his responses as they spoke. He had plenty of funny lines. He could woo her if he could.
But he couldn’t.
He couldn’t do anything that was fun.
And yet his mind continued to taunt him with thoughts of him as a grown man. He was talking and laughing with Elodie too, sitting next to Guy-Man. Maybe one day they would have gotten married, and had kids. He and Guy-Man could have become the best musicians in the world. Everyone would know their names. Or maybe right now he’d be dead. Real, proper death. From old age after marrying a nice girl back when he was meant to be alive. He would be happy and probably had many grandkids that he’d play piano for.
But here he was. Stuck in a teen’s body in a time period he still couldn’t perfectly understand and never able to communicate the way someone should.
Being dead fucking sucked.
He finally was fed up with them. And their bodies full of life and a proper future. He phased through the wall.
And he didn’t get stuck.