Saturday morning I woke up to the alarm at six thirty in the morning. I glared at it, about to go back to sleep, when I remembered why I set the annoying thing in the first place. Then I got majorly excited. I jumped up and pulled on clothes as fast as I could. Leggings, a big oversize t-shirt. I yanked on a hoodie and threw a beanie on over my unruly blond hair before rushing out the front door.
Pedaling down to the beach, I inhaled the fresh smell of the salty, early morning. The chill of the day was still in the air, but I knew it would burn off before too long. Sometimes, this was the best part of the day, before cars and smog and noise spoiled it. As I rode, I could see the shadow my bike made riding alongside me. Together, we turned the corner toward the beach and I could feel sand crunch under my wheels as we got closer to the destination.
I headed across the street toward the open parking lot, encountering only birds looking for an early morning breakfast. They scattered as I rode through their grouping, kicking my legs out on either side of me, feeling free and exhilarated, and gulping in the moist air as it rushed up to meet me. I loved living near the beach!
I rode through the parking lot until I saw The Gator parked near the front. Creepshow lay on the front of the hood in a towel and Jett stood next to him, also in a towel, changing out of his wetsuit. Surfers were parked all over the lot doing the same thing. I pulled up close and parked my bicycle. This was my favorite place to be. I felt an unspoken kinship with these surfers. We appreciated each other, even if I didn’t surf like they did. We both respected the ocean. It was understood.
“Hey. Waves good this morning?” I addressed both Jett and Creepshow.
Jett answered, “Always, Juice. Always. Waves are what you make of them.” Jett always seemed different in the morning when he had the ocean this close to him. He went all surfer-guru on us.
“Just answer the darn question, Jett. You don’t have to do the Master and Grasshopper thing.” Creepshow rolled over on his side and addressed me. “Waves were the kine, Juice. Not too big, not too little. Perfect and sweet. When you gonna come out there with us?”
“When the water temperature is like bath water. Where’s Sixx?”
“Here I am.” Sixx crawled out of the back of the van. “Trying to sleep some of this unholy hour away. These fools picked me up at a time my watch doesn’t even register.”
“I keep telling you. When we graduate high school, we have to move to the beach. Took me seven minutes on my bike to get here.”
“Hate you.” Jett said. “Hate that you live so close to nirvana. Want to be you every day of my life.”
“I know. It’ll be you soon enough Jett. Don’t worry.”
Sixx snapped open a Red Bull and started pacing around the parking lot. “So, when is Ghost Boy supposed to make his big entrance?”
“I don’t know. The note didn’t say anything except the place and the time. Is it close to seven o’clock?”
Sixx checked her watch. “Couple minutes before seven now. Think he’s a punctual kind of guy?”
I snapped at her, getting a little annoyed. “I never timed him before, Sixx. I don’t really know.”
“Don’t get all testy about it, Juice. I was just askin’.” Sixx took a couple long drags on her drink, then said, “Didn’t you say he was good lookin’, with blond hair?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“’Cuz I think he’s coming this way.” Sixx tossed her can in the van and Creepshow rolled all the way off the hood of The Gator. Jett, who had been lounging in the open side door of the van, showed little interest in the news. I, on the other hand, nearly stopped breathing. I seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.
I whirled around and stared in the direction Sixx pointed and sure enough, I spotted Shane walking toward us. How he knew where we’d be, or that the ugly green van belonged to my friends, completely escaped me. Then I remembered how he could eavesdrop, and how he’d known I would love the beach on our first outing. There was so much I didn’t know about him.
All I remember thinking about was how cute Shane looked. He had on a pair of blue two-tone board shorts, a white pocket tee, and beige Vans. He looked impossibly tan, handsome, and casually perfect. His blonde hair ruffled up in the early morning breeze and he wore a pair of black Ray-Bans, Jett’s preferred brand. He looked like he stepped off the cover of Surfer Magazine. Clearly, he had been paying attention to current fashion, having ditched the funky, way out-of-style duds he’d been sporting before. Next to me, I could hear Sixx say, “Holy crow, Juice. That is one fine ghost.”
Stupidly, I waved. Sixx rolled her eyes and I pretended to ignore her. Shane waved back and, like, three seconds later, he stood right next to us.
“Hey, how’s it going? I’m Shane.” Like he needed the intro? How many ghosts did we know, anyway?
Creepshow, always the most polite among us, stuck his hand out for a handshake, but Jett calmly reached out and lowered it.
“Dude. He’s a ghost. There’s a no-touching thing, probably.” Jett looked at Shane for confirmation. “Right?”
Shane didn’t hesitate, even though I was dying like a thousand times. “Right. Sorry.”
Jett took that revelation as he took everything, without losing his stride. “No worries.”
I had to say something before the uncomfortable factor threatened to eat me alive. “Okay, so Shane, these are my friends.” I introduced Shane individually to Sixx, Jett, and Creepshow. Everyone nodded at everyone in greeting and Jett, the peacemaker, took over again.
“So, Shane. Pretty cool you came to meet us. Thanks.”
“You got it. I gathered it had importance to Juice.” Shane and Jett were talking as though I wasn’t even there. Now, this I found interesting. Sixx and I sat in the open door of The Gator and listened. Creepshow stood close, trying to look necessary.
Sixx kept jabbing me in the ribs, like a non-verbal exclamation point, every time someone said something she liked. “Yeah. Juice is pretty important to us.” Jab. “So, if something’s important to her, it’s gotta be done, man.” Jab, jab.
“She’s become pretty important to me, too.”
Hard jab.
Shane looked at me, and lowered his shades à la Jett. He winked and his denim blue eyes sparkled in the morning sun. Holy cow, could this all be happening? I looked at Sixx and her eyes were big white plates. Looked like she could hardly believe it either.
Creepshow’d had enough of standing around. “So, let’s talk about the host body thing.”
Sixx hopped out of the van and joined the boys in their tight circle. “Yeah. I’m all for the lovefest, but doesn’t today’s meeting have a point?”
“You’re right, Sixx.” Shane agreed. “It does. Juice? Have you explained to your friends already about my deal?” I nodded, so he went on. “Then, what you need to know is, I have been waiting a long time to find someone who can help me. And Juice is that person.”
“So, how does it work?” Creep seemed way too interested in the mechanics of this. I should have figured a horror aficionado would be all over this.
“I think the best way is to find a person who is most as you see me now. Then there is a ‘jumping in’ thing I do, where I just merge my supernatural being with the live person. The real person won’t be harmed, and I get to live on as that real person. Some of my memories are lost, but as I understand it, most of them are saved, especially the most recent ones. Like meeting you all today? I would get to keep you as my friends because it happened so recently. I’m actually glad about that. My recent friendships are important.”
Shane winked at me again. “But my old life would erase and I would accept the memories of my new host body. Instantly, that would be all I remember. I understand this actually happens all the time. Sometimes you know it as amnesia patients suddenly regaining their memory.”
“No kidding? I heard about this.” Sixx told us a short story about a news item she had recently read about this very thing. She sounded suspiciously like a believer. Or maybe she just thought Shane was beyond cute.
Creepshow had more questions. “Are you sure no one gets hurt?”
“Absolutely. I could never ask you to hurt anyone. Especially Juice. I could never ask her to do that.” He smiled broadly at me. All this attention made me blush. I was seriously not used to it.
Jett finally spoke up again. “How can we be sure you’re not one of those succubus things we watch on Creepshow’s horror movies, and when you get a body you won’t use it to kill and eat us all?”
“Oh, for the love of lice, Jett!” Sixx nearly made my ears bleed with her shriek. “Are you insane?”
“No.” Jett shrugged his face empty of any expression. “I think it’s a fair question.” He stood his ground and stared Shane down, which became hilarious since they both had on dark shades.
”It’s actually a stupid question, Jett.” Creepshow jumped up and butted in. “If Shane was a succubus, first, he would lie to you and you wouldn’t get the truth, anyway. Second, he wouldn’t come in the form of a ghost. And third, a succubus is always a female.” Creep appeared totally stoked at the chance to finally use some of his useless horror movie trivia.
Inwardly, I groaned, knowing I could never accuse his trivia of being useless ever again since now he’d actually found a use for it.
“I’ll answer anyway, Creepshow.” Shane stepped forward until he was standing next to The Gator and was as close to me sitting inside the open van door as he could get. “I’ll never lie to Juice. So, here’s the truth. I thought I wanted to find a host body so I could find out how I died and why. But now, I don’t even care about that. I just want to have a body. I miss being alive. I miss the sun, the surf, the water. And I’d like to hold Juice’s hand. More would be nice, and it would be a lie if I said I didn’t think about it, but I’d be happy if I could just sit on the sand at this beach, feel the sun on my face, taste the salt in the air, and hold this girl’s hand in mine until the sun sets on the horizon. That’s the most perfect day I can think of right now.”
Next to me, I felt more than heard tough old Sixx suck in her breath sharply and let it out real slow, saying, “Oooh,” the whole time. Jab.