Yasmine took a small spoonful of the soup and blew on it a bit before placing it in her mouth. She was immediately hit with a peppery, garlicky, chicken flavor with an intense creamy sensation.

“Oh my god, " she said with a mouth half full of the soup, using the back of her hand to hide it as she spoke. She tried to chew what was in her mouth while not burning herself. Every morsel of veggies was soft and barely needed to be chewed. With a gulp, she swallowed her first mouthful, letting the warmth of it heat her up from inside out.

“Is everything alright?” Monty asked, looking over, a little concerned at her reaction. Yasmine let out a breath and laughed softly.

“Better than alright, other than being really warm, this is delicious Monty. What the heck is this? I have never had anything like it in my life.” She said with a smile over at him. He just shrugged his shoulders, which would, of course, go unseen. Being unable to taste the food, he had mostly just hoped the seasoning had come out alright.

“I dunno, I don't really have a name for it. I just made something that seemed like, well, more that I hoped would taste good.” Monty admitted, looking back at the phone and attempting to swipe at the phone for the next video but to no avail yet again. It was pretty frustrating being shown this cool new thing and not being able to use it. Yasmine stared for a moment in a small amount of shock. Even she needed to follow a recipe when cooking or it would turn into something awful. She wasn't exactly a creative when it came to this kind of stuff.

“You… just cooked this off the top of your head? No recipe or anything?”

“Nah, I just know how to make the broth and how long it takes to cook vegetables till they are nice and soft. If you prefer them with more substance, I can cut them a little bigger next time. I am glad you like it though. Can you swipe for me, please?” He asked, holding the phone out to her. Yasmine blinked a few times as the phone was shoved in front of her again. She had to pause and think about this for a moment. Did she really want a ghost that was addicted to Doom scrolling on her hands? It was easy to see how much he liked it already, even after just a few short form videos. The last thing she wanted was to have him begging like a kid for her phone. She trusted Monty, but she had read articles about how addicting screen time could be, even for adults. So she made an executive decision.

“How about we watch something else instead of these short videos?” She suggested with a smile, blowing on her next spoonful of soup.

“You mean you can fit longer ones on here?!” He said excitedly, making Yasmine laugh a little more.

“Mmhmm, why don’t we watch a movie together?”

“A whole movie?! Wow, how does it all fit in there, is there a place to put the tapes? Does it open up? This little hole on the bottom doesn’t seem large enough to fit much of anything in it.” If Yasmine’s grandfather didn’t have such a collection of old Westerns on VHS tapes, she might have never known what he meant. She giggled a little more she shook her head.

“No, you goofy ghost, you can watch movies through the internet.”

“Ohhhh, and you get the internet through this Wi-fi correct? But how are we gonna watch the movie if you still need to get a Wi-fi?”

“Well, my phone also has an unlimited data plan that lets me connect to the internet. It's just a little slow, so we might have to let it buffer here and there.”

“Buffer?” He asked and she let out a sigh, having to explain yet another thing.

After explaining buffering, just about every other technical question she knew, and how she was able to get movies on her phone, her soup was the perfect temperature to eat without having to blow on it. So she took her phone back and loaded up a free movie off of YouTube. It was old but not that old, a guilty pleasure of hers, and she was sure that Monty… would probably hate it. But that was part of the fun.

“I don’t understand. Just why is that girl being so cruel to this other girl? There has been no reason for her to be so nasty. Why are the teachers not doing anything?” Monty said, interrupting the movie for the tenth time.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“That's cause she’s a plastic.”

“That’s another thing I still don’t understand. You said that they were plastic, but they are clearly real humans.”

“I didn’t mean they were made of plastic, that they were the plastics. Its a group name Monty, now please just watch the movie and try and enjoy it. I will try and answer questions after its over!” Yasmine wasn’t about to spend the whole movie answering any more questions and the entire plot to him. So she happily ate every last bit of soup in her bowl, even if the amount made her small stomach feel overfull. It was a good warm feeling of contentment that could only be brought on by a nice homecooked meal.

Looking over at the ghost, she could almost feel the consternation he was going through right now. The questions that were threatening to explode out of him if he didn’t stop himself. It got really bad near the end.

“What!? She….Her what can what?… This movie is ridiculous!” Monty complained, throwing his hands in the air now that Yasmine was holding the phone, who was laughing again at the outrage coming from the ghost beside her.

“Haha, Monty, relax, it's just a movie, it's meant to be entertaining.”

“It’s a bunch of poppycock if you ask me! High school was nothing like this!”

“No one’s was, that's why it’s a movie, make believe. Now settle down, it’s almost over.” Monty let out a few more disgruntled noises but with a huff he folded his arms and glared at the small screen of her phone.

“So after all that, everything is just magically forgiven and everything is right with this girl world? I… I just can’t. That girl just attacked the other one with that stick thing, and why did she… Those girls got hit by a bus but didn’t! What have movies become?! Where's the story, the drama, the action!” Monty’s outrage only got worse by Yasmine’s constant giggling at his frustrations. Yet another emotion he wasn’t supposed to have yet, here he was getting all flustered at a movie of all things.

“Hahaha, you’re the best Monty, I swear I’m gonna make you watch the second one later. If you hated this one, you are going to despise that one.” Yasmine said, still laughing.

“You better not!” he complained as she reached over to try to touch him, her first pass going through him, but surprisingly, there was a little resistance as she did. He did notice, even in his anger, and turned himself solid for her. Her hand landed on his shoulder, and she sat up on her knees, setting her phone down as well.

Her hand quickly moved to his cheek again, and her other hand quickly went to the other side of his face. Thumbs rested on high cheekbones as she felt the smooth skin under her fingertips like he had just shaved. She turned his head to look at him, knowing that he had to be looking her in the eyes now. She did her best to find his as well.

“I really enjoyed watching the movie with you, Monty, even if you had nothing but questions and complaints. This is the happiest I have felt in a long… long time. I just wanted to thank you for everything. Also, I won’t force you to watch the second one; it's pretty bad, haha.” She giggled a little, smiling at him. Once again, a bold version of Yasmine had made itself known that not even she knew about.

“I…I did too, e-even if it's not watching a movie, I just like spending time with you.” He blurted out. “I thought I was just fine being alone for so long. But these last few days have been so enjoyable that I don’t think I could ever go back to how I lived before. Life before you.” For just a moment, Monty let himself forget that he was dead and she was alive. Let himself dream that he could spend their lives together. But that was where his delusion ended. He had no life left to spend.

Yasmine’s tan cheeks went pinkish at Monty’s words. They were sweet and beautiful, making her heart race. A strange desire that she had never really felt before started to take over. The desire to kiss the speaker of these wonderful words. Right when she was about to lean in and make good on these feelings, Monty’s hand wrapped around the wrists of her hands that had nearly gone numb from touching his for so long.

“Monty?” She asked softly as he slowly pulled her hands away from his cheeks.

“We, uhh, we should watch another movie again soon. It was a lot of fun, even if it didn’t make any sense. Thanks for showing me what your phone can do. You should really get to bed, it's getting late. I gotta put away these leftovers as well. I can pack you some for lunch tomorrow so it doesn’t go to waste!” After he had pulled her hands away from his face, he started moving away from her. Each word had him floating further and further away from Yasmine until he was calling out to her from the kitchen, where the clatter of containers followed.

The sudden exit of his made her feel cold, and it wasn’t because of her frozen hands either. She knew deep down that there was nothing between them. They were just former close friends turned friendly roommates at this point. There was no obligation to do anything for either of them. But why did she feel so scorned all of a second? Like she had just gotten rejected. Swallowing those feelings and shoving them deep down inside of her, she grabbed her phone and quickly got out of the recliner.

As Yasmine walked by the kitchen entryway, she looked in to see things floating around, containers filling with soup, and the cutting boards getting cleaned.

“Good night, Monty.” She said meekly. But she was already gone by the time he had turned to say it back to her. His frenzy of cleaning slowed to a halt, and one last new emotion ended his night on a sour note. Guilt.