When Caitlin said that we were going to Luke and Liam’s house, what I imagined was that they must live relatively close. What I hadn’t imagined, but what had actually ended up happening, was that she would buy a whole new plane ticket for me to fly with them to their house in Los Angeles. When she told me this, I immediately tried to back out, and told her that I could find some other place to stay, but more or less told me to get over myself, and that I would be coming with them. It was hard to say no after that point.
And even harder to say no when she told me that she’d already refunded my original ticket, so if I wanted to go straight back to my house, I’d have to buy my own.
So, I thought, I might as well go to their house. I’d never been to Los Angeles before, and it wasn’t like I had anything particularly exciting waiting for me back home. I called my mom to update her on the situation and see if she would be able to watch Poe for a few more days. Once I assured her that I wasn’t actually being kidnapped, she seemed happy for me to be finally going on a trip.
Like Caitlin said, it took her less than a half hour to get a flight scheduled for the four of us. I suppose that made sense, since Los Angeles is one of the largest destinations, but I was still impressed. We boarded the plane, and 6 hours later, we were in Los Angeles in Caitlin’s car. It was a large SUV that was only a little more worn than the one she had rented in Orlando, but it was large enough to easily fit all of our bags and the camera equipment.
“Do you all want to swing by a taco truck for dinner quick on the way back?” Caitlin asked, pulling out of the parking lot at a speed that would have made my mother cry, but that seemed pretty average for the drivers around here.
“If I ever tell you that I don’t want food from a taco truck, I’ll need you to make sure I haven’t been switched with an imposter,” Liam said, leaning forward to get into the front seat area, where Caitlin and Luke were sitting. Now that I was apparently a regular for this group, the chivalry of letting me sit in the front seat was gone, and instead, Luke called shotgun the moment we saw the valet pulling up.
“Or you’ve been possessed?” Caitlin offered, glancing over at Luke, but he just laughed.
“I’m pretty sure even then, I still would have wanted tacos.”
They chatted, trying to debate which truck would be the best for tacos, but after we actually picked up food, the conversation lulled. I had been warned that everywhere in Los Angeles took a while to get too, but it was my first time experiencing such a long drive while still being in the city. I didn’t mind it, though - it gave me a chance to eat my frankly fantastic taco and look out the window. Every street we passed was full of people, even at the late hour. It reminded me of scenes in movies about New York. Granted, in the movies, there aren’t nearly as many slight distortions of spirits, but I figured the amount of spirits in this town would be rampant. Anywhere with meaning tends to hold on to more ghosts, and this was a place where people came to try to get their big break in life, after all.
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“Do you think it’s actually gone,” Luke eventually said, after a moment where the silence of all eating had crept in. “The spirit, I mean.”
Caitlin shrugged. “No idea, but why wouldn’t it be? We saw it go into the Boo Buddy.”
“Well, I saw a light,” I pitched in from the back seat. “I never actually saw a person or anything.”
“Yeah, but you saw the light, and you know it went into the bear, so what else could it have been?” Caitlin turned the corner onto a brightly lit street. The farther we got from the airport, the more spread out the houses were. Considering we’d already made a couple of turns in this neighborhood, though, I assumed we must be getting close.
“No, I know,” Luke said. “And it would make sense if it was gone, but it just doesn’t feel any different. You’d think I’d feel different now, you know?”
“You didn’t feel any different when you got possessed,” Liam pointed out, but he turned to face me. His expression seemed to be asking me if what he was saying was actually a valid point, but I just shrugged. I’d never been possessed, so I didn’t know if you would feel anything when you became possessed. The closest I’d been is having a spirit walk through me, and with that, you just felt a little cold.
“True. Maybe I’m just overthinking it,” Luke said. He paused for a second, then opened his mouth to continue, but he was cut off by Caitlin.
“Home sweet home!” she said, turning abruptly into one of the large driveways. It was hard to see the house well in the dark, but from what I could see, it wasn’t as large as I had originally thought. It was still way larger than any house that I had ever lived in, but it was far from a mansion, and from the outside, it didn’t look particularly fancy. Definitely not as fancy as the hotel we’d been staying in, which honestly put me more at ease than anything else.
“You literally don’t live here,” Liam said, swinging his door open the moment the door stopped. I followed suit, and walked out into the chilly night.
“No, but I might as well, for the amount of time I stay here.” She walked around the the back of the SUV, where Liam had already opened up the hatch, and grabbed her bag out from the mess of cameras.
“I don’t live here either,” I reminded them.
“Not yet!” Caitlin said chipperly. “Your TikTok with the boys is doing great, so I’d be surprised if the fans aren’t begging for you to become a permanent fixture before the end of the week. And if that’s the case, it would be easiest for you to move into one of the spare rooms. Just saying.”
“I have a cat back at my apartment,” I reminded her. Luke and Liam were trying to pick up every bag at once, so I went back to grab my overnight bag and the first unoccupied equipment bag I could find. If I was going to be staying here for longer than expected, hopefully they’d let me throw in a load of laundry here, I thought.
“And you can move a cat,” she reminded me. “Worst case scenario, we can always buy an extra plane ticket so your mom can bring him out for you.” She swung open the door to the house and stepped inside with a flourish, gesturing me through the entryway. “But anyway, welcome to your new home, at least until we’re done with these videos.”