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“You’re going to wake up the whole neighbourhood,” Shane whispered against his boyfriend’s cheek. The light puff on the smaller man’s skin made him giggle even more, all for Shane’s amusement. Their arms tightened around each others as the look in Shane’s grew fonder. “I’m not kidding Ryan, if my parents barge in here, I’m blaming everything on you.”
Ryan snorted at that. “Please, I’m the sneakiest shit on the block. And should I remind you that it’s night and pitch black outside? No one could have seen me. I’m like, a ghost.”
The light-haired teen hummed against Ryan’s hair and pulled him closer. Today had been one of these bad days. A bad day where his head felt like a prison of neverending thoughts, resonating against his entire being, making him question everything and anything. Fortunately, his boyfriend had noticed it, as he always did. And thus it resulted in Ryan somehow sneaking out his house late at night and climbing through Shane’s window so the two boys could rest in each other’s arms.
Although Shane already had calmed down when he got home, the silence engulfing him as soon as closed the door behind him, a cuddling session with Ryan was always welcomed.
“A really damn good ghost, considering that you’ve been haunting my room almost every night this week,” The taller boy pointed out, ignoring the small noise of protest from the boy currently all over him. “we might have to call someone for that. The ghostbusters.”
“Please,” Ryan dragged the word over a few seconds, and Shane is certain he was rolling his eyes at him. “The ghostbusters are so ‘84. It’s the ghosthunters that are in now.”
The fair-haired boy chuckled at his boyfriend’s obvious enthusiasm about the supposedly ghosthunters. He passed his hand through Ryan’s hair as the smaller one babbled about two internet guys hunting ghosts and demons.
After a few seconds, a comfortable silence hovered through the room ; Shane felt like life couldn’t get any better than this.
“Are you feeling a bit better, dude?” Ryan asked quietly, his speech slightly slurred. He nuzzled Shane’s shirt and sighed contentedly. The tallest boy pinched Ryan’s hips and ignored the latter’s small noise of protest.
“Did you just call me dude?” Shane let a second pass before nudging his boyfriend again “Don’t you dare roll your eyes at me!”
Ryan let out a quiet giggle and raised himself up to tuck his chin on the other’s shoulder. “I’m gonna call you dude if I want to, dude.” He placed fleeting kisses from Shane’s cheeks to his neck, making the latter sigh and turn his head slightly.
“Fine, do what you want, honey.”
Ryan paused for a few seconds and groaned. Encouraged by the smaller teen, Shane grinned.
“Munchkin, honeybunch, sweetcheeks, snugglemuffin, dollface, babycake -”
Ryan suddenly interrupted him and Shane laughed against his lips.
“Ok, I get it, I won’t call you dude.” Although he said this, a glint of mischief still shined in his eyes and Shane glared at him.
“You didn’t let me say my favorite one.” After hearing Ryan’s small noise of wonder, he looked up, conveying seriousness.
“Idiot.” At Ryan’s glare, he couldn’t restrain a snort that soon turned into small fits of laughter. Ryan tried to dislodge himself from the taller boy’s arms but Shane clutched him tighter. He considered kissing him again, knowing it was the quickest way to be forgiven but a far beeping noise and his boyfriend’s resigned groan stopped his dwelling thoughts. “Time to go, sorry Shane.”
The said teen shrugged lightly, trying to not let his disappointment show. Of course, they’d see each other at school the next day but it wasn’t as good as the nightly cuddle routine Ryan had established for them.
“I’ll see you tomorrow in Bio?” The second the words were out of his mouth, Ryan raised himself up and sat up on the edge of the bed. He nodded, put on his shoes and grabbed his backpack. Shane huffed as he moved up, gazing silently at Ryan.
The black-haired teen smiled and pressed a light kiss on his boyfriend’s lips. “Goodnight, Shane Madej.”
Shane whispered his reply and stared at Ryan until he disappeared completely from his sight.
*
Shane frowned as he felt his friend’s eyes on him, again. Keith has been staring at him, shaking his head and muttering the whole morning and it was starting to get on Shane’s nerves.
It was now lunch time and his childhood friend, slash, neighbour hasn’t bugged off yet.
“What it is?” Shane snapped. His friend jumped slightly and flashed him a grin before he leaped forwards.
“What happened yesterday at your house?”
Shane startled and leaned back. He crossed his arms, glaring at his friend who looked like the cat who just got the canary. He tried to ignore the slight feeling of panic surging through his veins and faked a wondering face. He had told Ryan to be careful, to not make too much noise.
Truth be told, he knew that there was a reason Ryan may have been more careless than usual. They had never really discussed about it, letting the topic of whether they should tell their close friends and family about them become a sort of silent agreement. One that was always hanging, creating anxious strings clenched around Shane’s throat. He knew Ryan was comfortable about that, and he knew that his parents were quite accepting and would not mind, at least much, and he knew that his friends wouldn’t leave him for this. But with fear choking him every night while falling asleep, his mind became a blur.
“I saw something last night. It was weird as fuck, and mind me, I wasn’t wearing my glasses but I swear I saw someone hanging out around your win -”
“A ghost.”
Keith frowned at the interruption and leaned forwards, once again.
“A ghost.” His neighbour echoes, suspicion yet excitement in his eyes. It was pretty clear that he didn’t believe Shane in the slightest. This was Ryan’s fault. Again. The supposedly haunted boy had blurted out the first thing that came to his mind, which was what his boyfriend claimed to be the very night before. A stupid ghost.
“My house is haunted. I thought you knew?” Shane tried to appear more nonchalant and played with his overcooked food. “Ryan Bergara, my lab partner if you forgot, has been freaking out about it since we’ve been assigned together for group projects. He insists we work at the school library or at his place.”
Keith nodded slowly. “Right, I remember him.” He squinted at Shane before chuckling and relaxing his stance. “He’s always been crazy about that supernatural stuff. Did you know that, before you even moved in, he tried to convince our whole naive class of middle schoolers that E.T was real and based on a true story? Freaky, I tell you. ”
Shane bit back a nervous laugh and dozed off as his friend continued to talk about embarrassing stories he had already heard a thousand times.
*
It was only two days later that shit hit the fan for Shane. So far, at least a dozen of students have stopped him in the corridors to ask about his supposedly haunted house. Apparently, the supernatural stuff was the hottest trend. At least, that’s what Ryan told him, something about popular youtubers or whatnots.
The whole situation was a trainwreck; and Ryan loved it. His smaller boyfriend hadn’t stopped laughing for what felt like hours when he first told him. Shane, on the other hand, wasn’t so amused, but seeing Ryan so excited did lift his mood.
Nevermind that, suddenly, the entire school knew about Shane’s haunted house and he even had people he had never seen before asking him if they could come over to see it themselves. And politeness didn’t seem to help him in any ways.
“Please, just one night? Keith said he saw it himself and we just want to record it, we even have an EMF recorder! It’s legit stuff!”
Shane heard a laugh from his left and silently thanked whichever good godly entity was responsible for sending his friend Brent his way. “Shane probably made that shit up, you guys know that?”
He was wrong. It must have been Satan.
“I didn’t. Some murder or shit happened in this house, look it up, it’s real.” Brent smirked and that infuriated him further. “It’s best no one comes around. It could anger the spirits, you know. They’ve been quite agitated lately.”
At the gasps the younger students let out, he knew he had them hooked. However, it’s only when he recalled this encounter to Ryan - who, as expected, exploded in fits of giggles - that he realized just how badly he had fucked up.
*
“Honey, I think the house is haunted.”
If Shane ever thought that his week couldn’t get any worse, he was wrong. His father snorted and gazed at his wife with mirth coloring his eyes. “Humor me?”
The tall boy’s mother rolled her eyes - and Shane couldn’t help but think she’d go along with Ryan great just for that - and gave her husband a pointed look.
“Are we going to act like you didn’t hear the banging? The moaning and the whispers? As far as I know we don’t own any pets,” she turned her keen eyes towards Shane and he gulped. She let a few seconds pass. “Do we?”
Shane shook his head. He hoped that his blush wasn’t apparent enough for her to question him further. He wanted to melt on his chair and disappear forever. He had told Ryan to keep quiet, but his boyfriend never listened to him. Instead of just calmly get in, the forever eager boy had had to throw himself through the window and knock the desk. Concording to Shane’s nagging, the bruise sure looked nasty this morning.
His father coughed in his fist, and nodded at his wife’s reasoning.
“The neighbourhood is talking about it you know. Susan told me her kids all asked Shane for a sleepover to see the ghosts, but he refused.”
As he looked at the cutlery, a fleeting thought of killing himself on the spot passed through his mind. Anything would be less painfully embarrassing than this.
“Apparently, multiple murders took place here, and every tenant has witnessed ghost apparitions. Scratching. Creakings.”
His father nodded thoughtfully. “You’re right, we must be haunted. I mean, what else could it possibly be? Shane’s secret but fairly loud boyfriend but who comes around a few days a week? No way!”
Shane covered his flaming face with his hands and groaned out loud. This was definitely the worst week of his life.
His parents smirked at him. “Invite him to dinner next time, dear?”