Over Too Soon

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

“And that was it. All over too soon.”

“I’m sorry.” Kayla leaned forward to rest her hand on Brett’s shoulder. “Do you know if they caught him?”

Brett shook his head. “I’m stuck in this hospital. The old fellow I told you about, he said I died here. Minutes after I arrived. I don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the world. Right now, this hospital is the only place I can be.”

Kayla didn’t know what to say. So she stayed silent. Brett remained quiet too. Time slowly passed. Her eyes grew heavy and she yawned. She didn’t realise she’d drifted off to sleep until she tried to roll over into a more comfortable position. She ran into the arms of the chair and was startled awake. Her first thought was for her brother. Then she glanced around for Brett. He paced the floor by the door.

Brett stopped abruptly. “Checking I was still here?”

“I…” What could she say? She’d worried he might have turfed her brother out while she’d slept? That would have gone across real well. She sighed, rose to her feet and winced as muscles protested. She smothered a yawn with her hand. “I can understand how you need a new body, but he’s my brother. Can you understand that?”

Brett shook his head. “Not really. I don’t… didn’t have a family. No siblings, father was never in the picture and my mother died when I was eleven.”

“Where did you live?”

“Foster homes.”

“Oh.”

Brett smiled. “Don’t stress it. They were good families. Just not my family. I never had a closeness to them like what you have for your brother.”

Once again Kayla was lost for words. She was relieved when a noise from her brother drew her attention. She took the couple of steps that brought her to his bed and reached out to brush his hair back from his forehead. “Jeff?”

His eyes slowly opened. He tried to speak but shook his head instead. Kayla picked the cup up off the metal cabinet by the bed and held the straw to his lips. She waited for him to have a drink, noting the shadows under his eyes, the paleness of his skin and the tremble in his hand as he reached for her.

“Sorry.”

She grasped his hand tightly. “What did you think you were doing? Didn’t you think about how we’d feel?”

“We?”

“Mum. Dad. Me.”

Jeff snorted. “That’s crap and you know it. All they’re probably worried about is how this might cut into their time.”

“What about me?”

Jeff sighed. “You’re the only person who’d miss me. What does that say about my life?”

“Jeff-”

“Who’s that?”

“Who?” Kayla turned, but could only see Brett.

“The guy behind you.”

Brett stepped over to the bed. “You can see me?”

“My head might be completely screwed up, but there’s nothing wrong with my eyesight,” Jeff said.

“Life keeps getting odder,” Kayla muttered.

Brett turned to Kayla. “Am I the only one or can you see all ghosts?”

“How would I know? You look alive to me.” Kayla reached out her hand and pressed it against his chest. She could feel the warmth of his skin through his shirt. “And feel alive.” She let her hand fall to her side.

Jeff looked from one to the other as they spoke. “Ahh. I’ve figured it out. I’m hallucinating, aren’t I? You’re at home in bed.” He pointed to Kayla, then at Brett. “And I don’t know who you’re meant to be. Probably the son my father wishes he had. Do you play football? Cricket? Have a million friends?”

Kayla squeezed her brother’s hand. “Of course I’m here. I’ll probably be grounded for hanging up on Mum, but I wasn’t letting her send me home. You’ll be left on your own for most of the day since there’s no way I’ll be able to get out of going to school. Sorry.”

A nurse came into the room and caused Brett to step back from the bed. Kayla grinned as the nurse nearly walked through him and he had to step back further. The nurse smiled at Jeff and took the hand Kayla held. With her gaze on her watch, she checked his pulse. She was a different nurse to the one who’d been forced to play messenger.

Her smiled brightened. “So how’s my patient feel?”

“A lot better than I’d hoped,” Jeff said dryly.

“Now, now, no need to think along those lines. I have someone who’ll come and talk to you later.” She patted his hand before she lowered it back to the bed.

“You can tell whoever it is I’m not interested,” Jeff said.

“Actually,” Kayla said when the nurse looked like she was about to leave. “Jeff mentioned seeing someone over in the corner of the room. He was arguing about it with me. Do you see anyone?”

The nurse looked through Brett, shaking her head.

“Oh come on, Kayla. You were talking to him too.” Jeff tried to sit up.

The nurse pressed him back against his pillows. “Don’t get yourself all worked up. There’s no one over there. Only you, your sister and me are in the room. Can you still see him? Maybe it was earlier? It might have been a dream. You know you popped quite an interesting cocktail of tablets. You’re lucky your sister found you.”

“I’d tell her you can’t see me. They might think you have some psychiatric disorder.” Brett grinned. “Well, one more severe than they probably already think you have.”

Jeff stared at the corner where Brett stood before he turned back to the nurse. “You’re probably right. I can’t see anything now. Maybe I was disorientated when I first woke up.” The moment the nurse left the room, he sat up to glare at Kayla. “What the hell’s going on here? Why couldn’t she see him?” Jeff gestured towards Brett.

“Because he’s dead.”

“Then what’s he doing hanging about my room?”

“Ahh…” Kayla looked away.

Brett returned to the bed. “Because I need a body. Unlike you, I want to live.”

“Twice,” Jeff yelled. “Twice you kept me alive. I didn’t ask you to.”

“Don’t you dare do this again. Do you hear me? You have to live. You’re my brother. It’s always been you and me. Who sat with me when I had nightmares when we were little? Who always had a birthday present for me, even if it was only a worm? Don’t do this to me.”

“I was three-years-old. I liked worms.”

“Did you hear what I said?”

“You can’t tell me how to live my life.” Jeff continued to glare at her.

“You can live it however you want. As long as you do live it. We used to share our problems. Figure them out together. Why didn’t you come to me?”

“When was the last time you came to me with a problem?”

Kayla frowned. “I don’t know. But that’s because I don’t have any. I haven’t stopped going to you with them.”

“Exactly. We started high school and you coasted along. Plenty of friends, welcome on any team, good at everything. Me? I’d have to be the joke of the entire school.”

“Jeff-”

Jeff shook his head. “Don’t spin fairytales for me. We aren’t three anymore. Name one person other than you who speaks to me.”

Kayla was lost for words. She didn’t think he’d appreciate her listing people he knew online. She sighed and reached for his hand instead. “If you can’t stay for you, then stay for me. Please.”

“Kayla I-”

“Give me one year. Please. One year where I don’t have to worry about what you’re up to.” When Jeff shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, Kayla pressed her fingers to his lips. “Then till the end of this year. Come on, Jeff. How am I meant to get through the rest of year twelve if I spend every moment worrying about what you’re up to? You know how much effort it takes for me to keep my grades up. The rest of this year and then we’ll renegotiate.”

“This deal expires first of January.”

Kayla nodded.

“A pity that’s more than six months away,” Brett said.

Kayla turned on him angrily. “You’ll have to find yourself another body. This one’s already taken.”

Jeff laughed derisively. “I’d like to oblige, but my sister can be fairly insistent.”

Brett nodded. “I know.”

“Either that or I’m weak,” Jeff said.

Brett shook his head. “We’ll go with the first option.”

“She got to you too, huh?”

Kayla ignored them and checked her watch. “I have to head home and get ready for school.”

“What am I meant to do?” Brett demanded.

Kayla shrugged. “I wouldn’t have a clue. What do you normally do?”

“Pace the corridors and rooms looking for a body. I refuse to take on an old one. Or a baby. I’m not stealing a new life.”

Kayla sighed. She had enough problems to deal with. She wasn’t taking on anyone else’s. “Then I guess you go back to doing that.” She dropped a kiss on her brother’s forehead. “But I have to go.”

“I want to try something before you do,” Brett said.

Kayla looked at him suspiciously. “What?”

Brett grinned. “Come over here to the wall.”

Kayla crossed the room slowly. She pulled away when Brett reached out and grabbed a fistful of her hair. “What are you doing?”

“Quiet for a minute.” Reaching out to touch the wall, he pressed his hand against it. The moment he let her hair go, his hand sank into the wall. He turned to face her. “Can I have some strands of hair?”

“I haven’t got any scissors.”

“Pull a few out.” He held out his hand.

Kayla sighed before she randomly pulled strands of hair from her head and laid them across his palm. When he continued to hold his hand open, she frowned. “How many do you want? I’m not about to go bald for you.”

Brett chuckled. “A few more. I want to plait them together.”

“And how do you expect to keep it from coming undone?”

“Don’t worry. I’ve done it before. I used to have long hair. When I cut it, my girlfriend wanted me to make her a bracelet with some of it.”

Kayla pulled out a few more strands. “That’s all. If those aren’t enough, too bad.”

Brett closed his hand and stared into her eyes. “Thank you,” he said softly.

Kayla met his gaze. Her mouth went dry and she could only nod. Looking away, she returned to Jeff’s side. “I’ll see you after school.” She left the room before he had a chance to answer and ran most of the way to her parked car.

She sat in the driver’s seat and rested her head against the steering wheel. What was that about? She sat back and closed her eyes. Brett had tried to kill her brother. Well, maybe not exactly tried to kill him, but he had tried to encourage him to die. She should hate him, not be drooling over him. She forced herself to open her eyes and clear her mind. Starting the car, she reversed out. She had enough problems without falling for a ghost. He had six months to find a body or be stuck as a ghost.

Kayla shook her head. What was she thinking? He was dead. Live ones came with enough problems. Hooking up with a ghost wouldn’t be the best plan. She was mad to even think about him like that. Right now she had to focus on getting through a day at school. Everything else had to wait.