Page 99 of Ghost Note

He met me with silence, and I heard the engine roar louder like his foot had turned to lead on the accelerator.

“Wouldn’t it be better to get it done today so you can enjoy your last full day with me tomorrow?”

“My last day,” he repeated. “This week has gone so fucking fast.”

“It has, so let’s deal with your ghosts tonight and finish on a high. Pick me up in fifteen?”

“Fine but try not to look too gorgeous. It’d feel really wrong of me to want to fuck you through all of this.”

With a small laugh, I grabbed my bar of chocolate and began to make my way upstairs to get changed. “Don’t make this weird, superstar.”

“I’m not the superstar here.”

Once the call ended, I dressed in a pair of black leggings and an oversized khaki-coloured T-shirt, not needing a jacket with this summer heat that was holding us all captive. I slipped on my Converse, and I threw my hair up, making sure to spray some perfume to freshen me up from my day at the shop. By the time Danny pulled up in his Scirocco, I was waiting, leaning against my garden gate. Even with his sunglasses on, I saw his face light up.

My stomach flipped as I slid into the passenger seat and locked my seatbelt into place. When I looked at him, he was staring at me appreciatively.

“I told you not to look too gorgeous.”

“I’m in my scruffs. How much more casual can I get?”

“Naked’s pretty casual.”

“My birthday suit is for parties only.”

“That better be private parties with only one guest allowed.”

I raised a brow. “Getting jealous, Danny?”

He huffed out a laugh and looked out through the windscreen, shaking his head. “You’ve no idea.”

I thought I did, but I kept quiet anyway.

It wasn’t long before we were driving down familiar streets again, only this time I wasn’t pushing myself to the edge of the seat to create distance. If I could have climbed into his lap, I would have, but that was the stupid, giddy teenager inside of me talking. Fortunately, the journey to his parents’ home wasn’t far, and when we pulled up outside and drove Danny’s car onto the driveway, any intimate thoughts of he and I together drifted away, leaving me to stare up at old ghosts made of bricks and mortar.

The house looked as though it, too, had passed away. Where once the sun shone through the windows, lighting it up along with the love it held within those walls, now it just appeared cold, alone, and somewhat deserted. Or maybe that was nothing more than my own guilt talking. I’d avoided this place as much as Danny had over the years, but my reasons had been the selfish kind linked to the broken heart of a young woman who couldn’t look her happy memories in the eye.

Since Danny left, I’d spent my time thinking he’d been the most selfish of the two of us. Now, I was starting to think that maybe we could have been as bad as each other.

Danny stared up at his old home with his breath held in his chest. I placed my hand over his on the gearstick. “You’ve just got to remember one thing, okay?”

He turned to me with worry in his eyes. “What?”

“There isn’t anything you can’t do when you put your mind to it.”

He squeezed my fingers before he exhaled and nodded his agreement. The doors opening and closing sounded like bombs going off in the quiet of the street, and I took a moment to glance up and down it. The neighbours’ homes were just as lifeless, and I wondered if they felt like they couldn’t live quite as fully as they once had with the Silvers’ house sitting proudly above them, reminding everyone around not to take life for granted. It could be gone in a minute. A minute too soon. A minute we thought we had so many more of.

“It feels so weird here,” I admitted. “Everywhere looks…”

“Grey?”

“Yeah. Grey.”

He blew out a breath and glanced at the other homes nearby. “Let’s get this over with quickly.”

Where he led, I followed, knowing that sometimes silence was the best support and encouragement you could give. The key turned in the lock, and the door creaked open, the haunting groan of its aching past ringing out. We were greeted with the familiar hallway, where dark wooden flooring met bright, white walls filled with pictures of Tim, Amie, and Danny together on different adventures.

There was no easing into this. No box for him to blow the dust off and open slowly to reveal memories he could pick and choose from. Amie had decorated every inch of her home with Danny’s face throughout his years, with Tim and Amie not far behind in most of the pictures.

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