You know, you have a pretty voice, Jack told me.

I shook my head and continued playing through the guitar solo I was working on. We were even covering a song right now; we were just screwing around on instruments. Jack really enjoyed talking to me when I couldn’t answer, it was one of his favorite things I was sure of that. Then again, he probably didn’t have much to do because he was dead; I imagine that gets rather boring.

You realize I can hear that right, Jack told me.

Get out of my head dumbass, I retorted

Naw, I like it in here. It’s pretty empty.

Okay smartass.

“You good Lex, you look lost in thought,” Rian asked.

“Yeah sorry, I still space out a lot,” I replied.

“You need to take a break?”

“Please.”

I put my guitar up and walked up the stairs to go outside. I sat on the porch and I saw Jack sitting next to me. He leaned into me as I shivered slightly because the mid fall air in Baltimore was slightly chilly. I looked up at the sunset; the colors of the sky were absolutely beautiful. I looked at my phone; I had to be going soon. I sighed before looking back up to the sky.

“Take a different way home when you leave,” Jack said out of nowhere.

“Why,” I asked.

“A guy will run a stop light while you’re driving through it.”

“How do you know that?”

“Guardian angel remember?”

“Oh shit, yeah. I’ll come up with some reason to tell Zack to go a different way.”

He sighed and played with his hand while he was leaned against me. He was quieter today than he normally was. I really wanted to know what was going on with him; normally he was talking all the time while I was at band practice. Normally he never shut up so the fact that he was quiet was actually unsettling.

“Did I do something wrong,” I asked.

“Huh, no. Just a lot on my mind,” he responded, not looking at me.

“You know, it’s not fair that you can get into my head but I can’t get into yours.”

“Life isn’t fair Lex, death isn’t fair either.”

“Okay, Mr. Cynical, do you need to talk?”

He didn’t respond and the door opened a few minutes later. Zack stood in the doorway looking at me sitting there, talking to myself. He came out and sit beside me, taking Jack’s place entirely. I moved over slightly so we weren’t too close. He stared up at the sky with me before breaking the rather uncomfortable silence.

“You’re acting strange, are you okay,” he asked.

“I think I want to go home. Can we take the long way,” I asked.

“Any particular reason?”

“I just really don’t want to go the normal way right now; I’m still a little paranoid I guess.”

“I’ll tell Rian that we’re leaving so you can get home on time.”

I watched Zack stand up and leave. Was I really acting that strange? I mean, my best friend was dead so maybe that contributed to my strange behavior. I felt Jack’s arm around my shoulder and I looked over and saw him smiling at me quite happily. I knew better than to tell people about him, not because I once scoffed at the concept of guardian angels but because I was certain they’d think I was crazy which I wasn’t prepared for. Then again Jack made me feel safe, not just because that was his job but also, he was caring. He wanted me to be happy all the time and I really needed someone like that in my life because everyone does. As much as I didn’t want to think about it some good came out of the accident after all.

Notes

I'm sorry this chapter is a lot of dialogue, I wasn't sure how else to write it. By Sunday I should have a writing schedule figured out so I will let y'all know of it then. Who all is excited for Straight To DVD 2 being released tomorrow? I know I am!

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