The next morning, Taylor woke up, hoping somehow that this wasn't a dream. Finally, there would be someone in her life. Someone who listens. A friend.

But that would be impossible. There are no ghosts. And there are no nice fuckboys. And right now, there's definitely not a nice fuckboy who is also a ghost sleeping on her couch. She hadn't told him last night that he could sleep there, and if he even lurked in her bedroom, she would immediately call a ghost hunter. This must have all been a dream. But somehow, it would be a shame if it was.

Just to be sure, she got fully dressed before opening the bedroom door. And there he was. With his feet up in the air, he was snoring as loud as a walrus. His head was dangling off the edge of the couch. He was completely upside down on the couch and sleeping so soundly that you might think that position was actually comfortable. At least he had taken off his shoes. She didn't even know he could take off his clothes. But his white sneakers were strewn haphazardly on the floor next to the couch.

Should she wake him up? Taylor would hate it if someone woke her up. Luckily, she had the day off, so she could keep an eye on him. She had a lot of questions in her mind. If he could take off his clothes, could he put on different ones? Would they become invisible? Or were his shoes now visible because he had taken them off? Could he eat? Was he hungry? Did he need to use the bathroom? What were all the other differences between ghosts and humans? Were there other ghosts? If there were ghosts, what else was there? Vampires? Werewolves? Zombies? Angels? God?! Why could only she see this ghost? What had even happened to him?

She sat down at the table and made a list on her phone of the points she wanted to go over with him. If this was going to work, Taylor needed answers first.

It was almost noon, and she was still working on her list. There was more to do than she had thought. Colby seemed to be slowly waking up. In the past hour, he had been moving more and more in his sleep. Not so comfortable after all, huh? Every time he unconsciously moved his head, she had to suppress a grin.

She also took the opportunity to Google him. If his case was really that famous, there had to be more about him than just his disappearance. Taylor was interested in his life story, his family, shared photos on the internet… could people even do that back then? Oh, apparently they could. She had found Colby's old MySpace page. His profile must have been viewed millions of times. His profile picture showed him in an open camouflage hunting jacket, wearing a white tank top underneath. On his head, he wore a black baseball cap with "Summerland" written on it. He also wore gray sweatpants and the same white sneakers that were now lying around her apartment 20 years later. He wasn't directly smiling, but somehow he was, with an air of arrogance. He seemed to be at a fair, leaning against a quad-like vehicle. A redneck, then. She knew it. But what he had written there was even more interesting:

colby

Colby Dominic Vance

Male

21 years old

Proxley,

California

United States

Making Space for:

sports (GO BULLDOGS), fun times, friends, PARTY, girls ;-)

Status:

single

Stolen novel; please report.

Interests:

huh? I already said that above just read it again

Dominic? And he wrote his username in lowercase. Just for that, Taylor could kill him a second time. Who does that? Apparently, colby Dominic Vance does. How awful.

"Hey, who's the hottie there? Spying on me, huh?" Colby suddenly asked, standing right behind her. He was wide awake and as cheerful as a Golden Retriever getting treats. Who was that cheerful right after waking up?

Taylor almost had a heart attack. She quickly looked at the couch where he had been sleeping just moments ago. "H-how?! What?! Y-you were just lying on the couch! H-how did you get up so fast without me noticing?!" She clutched her chest. Her heart nearly jumped out of her.

"Honestly? No idea. I opened my eyes, saw you sitting here, and suddenly I was here. It just kind of happened. I definitely didn't get up." He was still grinning.

"You've got to be kidding me. You can actually teleport?!" Was he some kind of superhero? Miss Appear with the speed of The Quickster? Okay, neither of them could teleport. But Taylor didn't know any superheroes, just SpongeBob. And she knew SpongeBob better than anyone else. She could slip a SpongeBob reference into every sentence she spoke. But never mind that, if he could really teleport... what else could he do?

"Looks like it. You wanna see me do it again?" he asked hopefully, and Taylor was freaking out inside. That's exactly what The Quickster said!!!

"Are you crazy?! Yes!"

And just like that, he was gone. She hadn't even blinked. He didn't disappear in a puff of smoke. No poof like in The Fairly OddParents. Just gone. Then his head poked through the wall to the bathroom. "Look! Taylor, look!" My goodness, he really was like a Golden Retriever. "Not even walls can stop me!" he announced joyfully. "Wow, this feels like being on a roller coaster!"

"So it does make you feel sick?" Taylor asked, suddenly worried and feeling guilty for wanting him to do it again.

"What? No. It's freaking awesome!" Suddenly he was in the kitchen. Then he was back on the couch. "You have no idea how much I love roller coasters! And how much I love this feeling!" Then he was sitting cross-legged on the table right in front of her. And then he was standing behind her again. "Damn, I'm fast!"

"You're a real whirlwind," she joked. "Would you be so kind and do some tests with me? Who knows what else you can do. Or can't do."

"Okay." He continued teleporting around the apartment. "But only under a few conditions."

"Conditions?"

"Okay, not conditions. I want to propose a deal. I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse." So, he had seen The Godfather. Of course he had.

"Spit it out, Ghost Boy." She was already losing interest when he mentioned conditions, but her curiosity was too strong.

"Test me as much as you want. I'll do anything. One test per day," Colby grinned.

"But in return?" Taylor asked.

"I help you become more open-minded. Happier. I help you overcome your fears. I can't leave you like this, I'm sorry."

"So you think you can succeed where several therapists have failed, huh? And what exactly do you get out of this?"

He crossed his arms. "When you're ready, and only then, you help me solve my disappearance. I absolutely don't want to rush you. Even if you're not ready for another ten years, that's fine. I've got time. My case has been unsolved for 20 years, it can wait a bit longer. Deal?"

The proposal was completely ridiculous. Was he stupid? How was a dead fuckboy supposed to help her become more confident in dealing with the world? And how the hell was she supposed to solve one of the biggest cases ever, one that millions of smart minds had failed to crack over two whole decades? Who did he think he was? And who did he think she was? On the other hand... what did she have to lose? And the tests were incredibly tempting. "You know what, Ghost Boy?"

Colby's grin widened, he knew exactly what was coming next. "What, Living Girl?" he teased.

She held out her hand expectantly. "We have a deal."

The sparkle in his eyes intensified. Immediately, he agreed and pulled Taylor into a hug, catching her completely off guard. "We'll be unstoppable!"

"We'll see," Taylor replied, pulling away from him and sitting back down at the table. "We can start researching now, though. I doubt we'll succeed, but we have a deal, right? We don't have to hit the streets immediately, but my fears certainly won't stop me from scouring the entire internet for information about you." She showed him his old MySpace profile. "Even though thousands of fangirls probably beat me to it."

"So, you're a fangirl of mine, huh?"

"No. Shut up. I just mean that some people might be obsessed. Hyperfixated on you or something. They do nothing else all day but gather information about you."

"I almost feel honored," he said. There it was again, his cocky demeanor. Sometimes it's there, sometimes not. And yet, yesterday he cried during Finding Nemo. Multiple times. Taylor's very own Miss Appear. He stared at Taylor's phone, and his arrogant grin quickly faded. "Wait. Huh?"

"What? What did you find?"

Colby pointed to the date next to his profile picture. "Last login: December 14, 2004. How is that possible?"

"Did someone have your password or something?"

"Not really."

"Are you sure? Not even that Brad guy?"

"You kidding? Brad would totally change my profile picture to some random porn image. Yeah, I'm sure. No one should have the password."

"Well, Ghost Boy, looks like you've found our first lead."