I chew on my bottom lip, tasting my pomegranate chapstick-- all I own in regards to anything resembling makeup, and adjust my backpack so that it’s on both shoulders. I sigh at my own patheticness. It’s been years since I gave a crap about what I look like, but here I am nervous, not because I give a rat’s ass about my classmates, but because I want Felix’s friends to like me. The familiar fear of “Am I even capable of interacting with normal people?” washes over me. My first friend hereisa ghost… or imaginary.
Before here, I pushed people away, always afraid my father would take away my only escape if he thought I was getting too close to someone. Now, I’m trying to make friends. Felix said his friends are a little weird, and theyarefriends with a ghost, assuming they’re real.They’re real, damn it! I’m not losing my mind, too.Maybe my weirdness will work in my favor.
“Won’t find out standing here,” I mutter to myself. I pull my hair out from under my backpack’s straps, square my shoulders, and walk towards the front of the school.
It’s a large L-shaped, two story building in the middle of an even larger clearing. There’s a round driveway that goes through the front lawn then leads away into a partially filled parking lot. A few kids are clustered around outside, enjoying the ‘not rain’ I suppose, since the sun is still well hidden behind clouds.
Near the front double doors, standing away from everyone else, is a small group of boys that even from a distance, I can tell are very good looking. A familiar one is grinning and waving excitedly at me. Felix. His wild gestures catch the attention of the other boys, and they turn to look at me.Point for Felix in the not a hallucination column.
When I wave tentatively back, Felix bounds over, while the other three stay where they are. They wear varying expressions over my arrival. The one on the left has a gentle smile, but a pensive pull around his dark eyes that usually means bad news.Uh oh.The one on the right lounges against the wall with one foot pulled up and looks at me with a smirk and amused eyes that resemble a cat that’s found its next meal.Double, uh oh.And the one in the middle who’s a few inches taller than the other two, wears a grimace that highlights the obvious chip on his shoulder.Maybe we can compete. I bet mine’s bigger.
“Hi!” Felix exclaims, bouncing as he walks beside me. He’s dressed in a green, long sleeved t-shirt with a Green Lantern graphic on the front, distressed jeans, and black Vans sneakers. The shirt brings out the flecks of green in his hazel eyes and the auburn undertones in his brown hair.
“’Morning. You can change your clothes?” I murmur under my breath, aware people can see me now.
“Yep,” he says normally, since I, and presumably those three boys, are the only ones that can hear him. “Technically, I can change anything about my appearance. Souls don’t actually have a physical form, so… but it’d be too weird not to look like myself.”
“I can understand that,” I smile up at him, “besides, I like you the way you are.”
“Thanks.” He ducks his head and rubs the back of his neck, a soft returning smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Anyway, time to meet my friends. Shake their hands. Promise it won’t go through.”
He waggles his brows at me, and out of my mouth pops bubbling laughter, washing away my earlier anxiety. I get a few strange looks from random kids in the distance.Right. Laughing at invisible people. Good start.Having Felix beside me keeps the happy smile on my face, though, and I feel more confident about meeting the others.
When we reach the group, Felix gestures to the boy with the dark eyes and warm smile. “This is Kaleb. He’s the one I told you about.”
Kaleb is about Felix’s height with short, black curly hair, dark sepia skin, and is shaped like Captain America-- broad muscular shoulders and chest tapering down to a narrow waist. He’s dressed in all clean lines: fitted jeans, blue buttoned shirt with a few buttons open at the throat, a black wool pea coat and black boots. There’s a calm certainty about him that I’m envious of.
“Hi,” I say and hold out my hand, determined for it not to quiver.Basic human contact, I can do this.
His warm, much larger hand envelops mine. With a voice so deep, I can feel it in my bones, he replies, “It’s nice to meet you.”
Whoa. They’re teenagers, right?
“See? Real person, as promised.” Felix gives me a smug grin.
“Okay, Casper,” I chuckle. “You’re officially a real boy.”
His smile falters for a moment. “Not quite, pretty girl, but definitely not imaginary.”
The boy to our right stands up from the wall. My earlier cat analogy still holds; his tall, lean muscular form draped in expensive tailored clothes reminding me of some jungle cat. Charisma and confidence flows with every movement, probably because he looks like he stepped off some high fashion magazine cover. Short, platinum blonde hair slicked to the side, eyes the pale blue of arctic ice, and sharp features that would cut glass.
“Casper, huh?” he teases, his full mouth pulled into a cocky smirk. “Now, why didn’t I think of that?”
He grasps my hand to shake, long tapered fingers encircling my own. “I’m Nolan,” his impish gaze roves up and down my body, “and it’s definitely a pleasure to meet you.”
He’s certainly attractive, but his obvious flirting makes me more want to laugh than melt into a puddle at his feet, forget remembering to be nervous. It takes me a moment to figure out why. It’s the mirth in his eyes. This is all an act for him.
I erupt in high pitched, peals of giggles. “It’s definitely a pleasure to meet you,” I wheeze, mocking his admittedly rather attractive voice. “Does that whole‘I want to eat you for breakfast’routine actually work?”
Nolan’s eyes brighten, and his smirk turns into a grin while he fights the silent hilarity vibrating through him. “You have no idea,” he replies with genuine warmth, and even more interest in his gaze.
The tallest one howls with gravelly chortles that seem to come from deep inside his chest. Without the scowl, he’s quite handsome, striking, pale blue-green eyes contrasted against warm, olive skin and straight black hair that hangs loose around his ears. He’s dressed in full bad boy regalia; heavy black boots, dark wash jeans, black Henley, and leather jacket, that screams,I’m a scary, badass. Leave me the hell alone.I wonder if it works. Leather jackets are easy enough to come by, though him being huge might also have something to do with it.
I went from having no friends, to potentially having a pack of ridiculously attractive guy friends. I’m starting to wonder how they’re weird, and worry if they can handle my weirdness.
I glance at Felix who’s doubled over in laughter and smile. Whatever happens, I’ll still have him, until he moves on, that is. I hold on to my earlier levity with both hands, desperate to make sure my smile doesn’t slip, while I stuff the melancholy down behind the door marked,Cry About It Later.‘Later Callie’ is going to be really screwed when all this stuff comes back up.
When Felix gets himself under control, he motions toward the tallest boy. “And this bundle of sunshine is Donovan.”
