FicWad

All through that sunny afternoon I sat and talked with Gerard, just getting to know him; his favourite comics and superheroes; his favourite music; what annoyed him and what made him happy. His answer to the latter was both touching, yet so, so sad.

“I have someone to talk to now: I have someone who cares.”

That choked me up a little. Never did I imagine that ghosts would feel as lonely as the loved ones that they left behind. But that then got me wondering; who had Gerard left behind? Surely there must be some family or friends left in the area; he couldn’t have died that long ago, as his clothes were quite contemporary. The one thing that was bugging me the most was how he died so young. I mean, he couldn’t have been more than a year older than me.

It felt strange thinking about how Gerard died, simply because to me at least, he wasn’t dead. I honestly could not tell that he was dead just by looking at him; he had no ghostly glowing aura around him, and he had no lacerations or any wounds that might have shown how he died. Illness? No, he was the picture of health, at least as far as I could tell; there was always the chance of mental illness; depression, suicide? I tried not to think about it, how could someone as obviously wonderful and charismatic and beautiful as Gerard be so miserable that they would kill themselves? No, I do not believe he would do that.

I had so many questions for Gerard, but I felt that many of them he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer. He probably knew little more than I did as to why I could see ghosts so clearly, and it would be insensitive of me to ask about such a tender topic as his family and his death. It was still a fresh wound, and asking him about it so bluntly would only be rubbing salt into it. There was no way I could be that cruel to him. What he needed now was a friend, not a barrage of painful, personal questions.

“Frankie?”

Gerard’s soft voice startled me from my thoughts; I looked over to see him gazing at me with a thoughtful frown on his face. He was sat hugging his legs in close to him, his head rested on his knees so he could look at me without turning his head. I blinked at him.

“Yeah? Something wrong?” I asked. Well that was an intelligent thing to say to a dead person.

“Nothing’s wrong, I was just wondering...” Gerard trailed off.

“Wondering what?”

“Um,” Gerard’s cheeks went pink and he shuffled his feet a bit, “I was wondering if you had a girlfriend.”

“Oh.” That was not on the list I was expecting to be asked, not that I was actually expecting anything in particular. “No, I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Why not?”

I shrugged.

“Dunno, s’pose none of the girls at school like me, an’ I don’t like them either.”

“Oh.”

Gerard went quiet, obviously thinking. A small frown adorned his brow and his pink lips were pressed together in a slight pout. The sight was one of those moments that you want to put in a bottle and keep forever, because you didn’t know if you’d ever see something so beautiful again. A smirk spread across Gerard’s lips, and a glint of mischief could be seen in his eye.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” He giggled.

I chuckled, that face was too cute.

“No, I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Gerard’s head flew up.

“Lies!” He laughed, “I saw you the other day walking a boy home from school!”

“Who, Mikey? No, he’s my best friend, not my boyfriend.” I chuckled, and hoped my next question wouldn’t upset him. “Do you, I mean, did you have anyone special?”

As he averted his gaze for a second, Gerard’s smile faltered and he ran a hand through his hair.

“Um, yeah. I did, once. But that ended before I died so it’s not like I’m haunting them."

“What was their name?” I asked softly, afraid that he would break down any second.

“Luke.” Gerard smiled shyly. “He was two years older than me, had already graduated. There was nothing amazing about him; average grades; average looks; wasn’t exactly a Romeo but he wasn’t a dick. There’s nothing amazing about me either, I guess that’s why we worked.” Gerard got a dreamy look on his face, smiling at the memory. “I lived with my parents, and he shared a dorm in college, so he’d drive us out to the middle of nowhere whenever we wanted to, y’know, do stuff.” He blushed red. “But eventually he decided he didn’t like me enough anymore, waited ‘til after we got back from the woods before he told me that though.” Gerard’s smile had long faded by now, replaced by a frown as he picked a loose thread on his jeans.

I shuffled closer to him and gently placed my arm around his waist, pulling him into a full hug.

“Screw that jerk.” I said, “You deserve better than that anyway.”

Gerard’s only answer was to tighten his grip around me and bury his face in my neck. My words had had the opposite effect to what they were meant to achieve; even though Gerard deserved someone who loved him and saw how truly beautiful he was, inside and out, he would never have that privilege of the living, and we both knew that. Gerard had nothing to look forward to but to walk the same old streets for all eternity, unseen and uncared for by the rest of the world. I couldn’t bare to see him like this, so I did the only thing I could think of.

“I’m never going to leave you.” I whispered in his ear.

For a second, I didn’t think he heard. But then he slowly raised his head to look me in the eye. He was barely six inches away and his face filled my vision, I’m sure that if he were alive, then I would have felt his breath tickling my lips, and the warmth from his own body against mine.

“Promise?” He whispered.

“Until the day I die, and beyond that too.” I replied, in a hushed tone.

A warm smile spread across Gerard’s face, and a single glistening tear of happiness ran down his cheek.