“That’s true. I really agree with you as well. I also think about what happens if I get hurt? What do I do then? Ah well, there is no point in thinking about any of that right now. I am here for a year and I am going to enjoy it. Also this is pretty heavy talk for a first meeting with someone. Especially when they aren’t even wearing pants.”

“Good point. So, you can talk to the ghosts. Can you see them? How many are there?” he says, kindly changing topics for me, which I appreciate.

“So far I have met and talked to Noah. I can’t see him but I can talk to him. He is very nice.” I say and my mood is instantly improved, just by thinking about Noah.

“Well that is quite a smile. So are you and Noah good friends already, like good friends?” he adopts a goofy grin.

“I would like to think so.” A slow, sly smile creeps across my face. I give my hair a bit of a twirl. “Are you jealous?”

Luke looks at me, temporarily stunned. It was fair, I had rapidly gone from a very tense subject, one that causes me a lot of hurt, to lighthearted banter and flirting.

“I absolutely am. Where is he? I want to talk to him too. I want to have a best ghost buddy.”

“Honestly though, who doesn’t?”

As though they were offended that no one was talking about them Anubis and Bastet started intertwining themselves between my feet, purring loudly. I love when cats do that, it is like they are sharks that are circling their prey. It is cute beyond words. Kitty sharks doot doot do do.

“Do you like cats Luke?” I ask.

“I very much do. Here kitty kitty.” He says, putting his lap. Oh, sharp claws on bare skin sounds like a very bad idea.

“Are you sure that you want them to hop up?” I ask at the same instant that Bastet hops lightly onto his lap. I am very relieved that she does not use claws.

“Good human, your lap is very warm. Thank you for offering it up to me.” She says and paws his lap.

“Aw isn’t she cute. The way that she is looking at me while she meows is adorable. It’s like she is trying to talk to me. Meow, meow.”

“Haha, yes, trying to…You made our food so please let me take care of the dishes for you.” I offer and clear the table and wash all of the cooking implements that you were used. I also wiped down all of the counters as well.

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“Are you a little OCD?”

“No.” I reply. “Not so much. I believe that one kind deed is repaid by another. Don’t you?”

“Not really, but I do like the sentiment. Well then, thank you for taking care of that for us.”

“Of course. Now then, I am going to go take a bit of a walk around the cabin to help with digestion.”

“You sound like a little old lady.”

“Old people have a lot of wisdom and life experience, so I will take that as a compliment.” I say and head over to go out the door.

“Are you there Noah?” I ask as the cool air caresses my skin, like a lover, or for me it be more of like a dance partner. Not lover, why did I think that, yeah just dance partner.

“I am. Is that okay? I hope that it’s okay. I like to be around you and it is really nice to be able to talk to someone. Oh no did I say that I like being around you outload? Please pretend that you didn’t hear that.”

“Do I have to? It was a nice thing to hear. I like being around you as well. It’s comforting and nice.”

“…”

“Noah?”

“Is comforting a good thing? I don’t know if when a girl ever says that, if it’s really a good thing…” I hear Noah muttering under his breath.

Wait, do ghosts have breath? If they don’t how would they be able to talk? Do they just manipulate the sound waves around a person, or speak right into their minds? Gah, I need to snap out of it, physics and ghosts don’t mesh. Sorry Noah, I don’t mean to disappear into my mind!

“So about the stuff you were saying in there. Were you having a hard time before coming here?”

“I was. But it’s okay now. I was just around a lot of toxic people, and just like other toxic things they were slowly poisoning me. But! If it’s okay with you can we talk about some happy things? I would really like to know more about you, if that is okay?”

“You want to know about me? I don’t think anyone has ever really wanted to know about me before, and there isn’t much happy there to talk about.”

“Did you not have friends before…?” I cut myself off. I was about to say before you died, and that did not seem like a very good thing to say.

“Not really. I had a pretty hard time making friends. So I read a lot and played a lot of games.”

“I noticed that from your little nook in the library. I like to play games and read as well.”

“Oh?” he said and I could hear excitement in his voice. “What are your favorite things to read and your favorite kinds of games to play? And if you say first person shooters, well, I don’t think we will be able to be friends.”

I loved that I heard so much excitement in his voice. “You know, I have never been able to talk about this with anyone before.” I say and pause a moment before saying, “I like fantasy things… But more than that I love love stories. Good ones, ones that you can get lost in. So I like playing romance visual novels. At home I hid them under my bed, and when I was away at school I would hide them around my school books, or put them in a bag with some of my old dance shoes and sneak play them.”

“Adorable… Why were you so embarrassed by it? I thought that it was more acceptable for girls to play games like that?”

“I guess it also depends on the kind of people that you have around you. The others I was around looked down on that kind of thing. They would say that I should be out and about experiencing love and romance and… Well other things in that same vein.”

“And you didn’t?”

That was a bit of a personal thing to ask, but I really didn’t mind. “No, I was never really romantically involved with anyone. It’s not that I don’t like boys or have romantic feelings. I just didn’t trust the boys that I was around, and my focus was very much on other things.” I shake my head. I did NOT want to think about the boys that were around me. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it... Don’t…

“Aurora?”