#ghost!ashton

The cab ride passed in a blur of nerves. For a brief moment you thought that perhaps you’d have been better spending the night at home alone, after all. There were definitely certain perks to enjoying your own company. Number one being - that you wouldn’t have to try to make a room full of strangers like you.

The house your tech friends lived in turned out to be pretty impressive. From the outside it looked as though it could easily have housed five or six people. Yet as far as you knew; Calum, Luke and Michael has no other housemates.

For some reason, the unexpected size and general appearance of the house only served to unnerve you a little more. By the time you rang the doorbell, you’d already thought of at least three separate excuses you may be able to use to leave early.

For a very long moment, it seemed like you may not have needed an excuse at all as it took your new friends an almost uncomfortably long time to answer their front door.

It was Michael that finally appeared to let you in. His green eyes sparkled happily from beneath the thick layer of eyeliner he’d painted on, as he invited you into the party. “Welcome!” He grinned. “Love the vampire look...”

You thanked him as you stepped into the spacious hallway. “I love your...” you hesitated trying to decide what Michael’s costume actually was. Besides the copious amounts of eyeliner, he was wearing little devil horns and rather plain black jeans and t-shirt that were set off by a sweeping red cape. “Emo demon look?” You attempted.

Michael laughed. “Thanks, I just wanted to wear eyeliner and the cape but Calum said I needed something else so he added the horns.” He explained as he gestured for you to follow him.

There were a few people languishing in the open space, not as many as you’d expected given the size of the house, though. The music filtering in from what you assumed was the living room area was accompanied by loud, cheery voices and laughs, which suggested that perhaps most of the party guests were in there.

Having been described as nosy on numerous occasions, you lived up to your name by taking in all of the details of your surroundings. So far the interior of the house had not disappointed you. It looked every bit as beautiful as you’d imagined from the outside. There was a wide staircase leading up to a fairly open landing area lined with pictures that you fully planned to take a closer look at later.

Michael led you through the hallway and into a large kitchen. There weren’t a great number of guests in here either, just a little group of girls giggling over their red plastic cups. Your other two friends were over by the counter that was displaying all of the drinks. Luke was perched on the countertop, long legs dangling over the edge as he listened to whatever Calum was saying. Neither of them seemed to have put much effort into their costumes. Luke had simply torn a t-shirt and donned some grey face paint to make him look like the world’s most lacklustre zombie. Calum had opted for a disheveled lab coat which he’d splattered with blood, coupled with the oversized fake syringe in his hand, you assumed he was meant to be some sort of killer doctor.

As you made your way over to them with Michael, a breeze blew in through the open french doors. You shivered, instinctively looking out into the garden for a moment. It was completely dark and quiet outside. There were a couple of carved pumpkins with a flickering candle inside each of them on the wooden pouch and strings of orange lights down the pillars. Combined, these elements cast just enough light for you to notice a man leaning against the wooden railings. He had his back to you so that you couldn’t see his face but his slouched posture and the way he seemed to be staring out into the empty garden gave him such a melancholy air, that you were instantly drawn to him. You watched for a moment as another cool breeze rustled his dyed-red hair. He didn’t seem to notice the growing chill, though. Perhaps his leather jacket was offering him more protection from the cold than you’d have expected.

Just as you were about to ask who this man was, your other friends noticed your arrival, they both grinned widely beckoning you over to join them. “What would you like to drink?” Luke asked, gesturing at the wide array they had laid out.

“Just a beer for now please.” You replied, glancing back over at the porch for a moment but the sad man wasn’t standing there anymore. Figuring that he must have ventured further into the garden you returned your attention to Luke and Calum. “I like your costumes.” You added, hoping that the comment didn’t sound as fake as it felt.

Calum laughed openly. “They’re shit. We told you, none of us ever put in much effort.” He shrugged, a faint smile on his face. “You on the other hand look amazing! If we ran a best costume competition, you’d definitely win.”

***

Over the next couple of hours you’d sort of made it your mission to find the sad man that you’d noticed out on the porch earlier. It wasn’t clear why you felt drawn to him but you’d made it your personal goal to seek him out and talk to him nevertheless.

Despite your determination to speak to that one guest, you put on a cheerful smile and made small talk with everyone your friends introduced you to.

To ensure you kept a clear head, you made each of your drinks last as long as possible. Everyone around you was getting slowly more drunk but you were determined not to, at least until you’d completed your little mission.

Having spent a while talking about work with a girl you vaguely recognised from your company’s marketing department, you politely excused yourself, intent upon finding one of your friends to see if they could tell you who the sad red-haired man was.

After searching the large living room you traipsed into the hallway. It was busier than before but you muddled through the crowds towards the kitchen until a photo on a little table caught your attention. Stopping in your tracks instantly, you picked up the framed photo. Your three friends were all grinning up from the glossy picture, their faces beaming more genuinely than you’d ever seen on their faces in the flesh. What really caught your attention though, was the fourth man in the photo. His smile was perhaps the prettiest of all, his cheeks dimpled and his eyes scrunched at the corners like he was having the most fun ever. You were so captivated by his beautiful face that it took you a moment to notice his neatly styled dyed-red hair. Of course it was highly possible that Luke, Michael and Calum had more than one friend with hair that colour but there was something about the man in the picture that made you sure he was the sad guy from the porch.

The photo had just made you even more determined to find out who this man was. It seemed odd, given how happy he looked in the picture with Luke, Michael and Calum, that you hadn’t seen him talk to any of them all night.

After briefly searching the kitchen and the porch for your friends you ventured upstairs, concluding that that’s where they must be.

You noticed that the smiley redhead featured in a lot of the photos lining the wall of the stairs, too. It would be easy for you to believe that this man lived here too, given his heavy presence. Surely one of your friends would have at least mentioned him, if not introduced you to him by now if that was the case, though.

It only took you a moment once you reached the landing to identify Calum’s lab coat and Michael’s cape through the open door of a bedroom. As you head over to them you notice Luke too, standing a little further inside the room.

“...I just miss him, especially at parties like this.” The youngest friend said, his voice thick with emotion.

“Yeah, me too.” Michael agreed. “Ashton will always be the king of parties, wont he?”

You watched as Calum put a comforting hand on each of them, “he’d be so angry at us for wallowing over him when we have a houseful of guests.” He tried to joke but the sadness in his voice was overwhelming.

Michael nodded and led the way out of the bedroom. Calum was the last to leave and closed the door before following his friends down the stairs.

Part of you wanted to call out to them but your sudden curiosity about who they’d been talking about was overwhelming. It was easy enough for you to blend into the little group of people milling around near the bathroom so your friends walked by without noticing your presence.

Once you’d watched that Michael, Luke and Calum disappear amongst the crowd in the hallway below, you casually stepped closer to the bedroom, feigning interest in the various photos and art lining the wall near to it. You spied your chance to slip into the room when the people milling around the bathroom finally gave up and headed back downstairs.

With no one around to question your intentions, you opened the door and glanced around cautiously before stepping inside. It looked like a normal bedroom from what you could tell, decorated in a fairly minimalist style with muted colours like grey and black. The bed in the corner was made up neatly, the pillows stacked perfectly above the straightened duvet cover. You were quickly drawn to the dresser near the door where your friends had been gathered when you’d watched them a few moments ago. There was another photo on top of the painted piece of furniture. It was another group photo of Calum, Michael and Luke with the red haired guy, who after overhearing your friends talking, you assumed must be the Ashton that Michael mentioned. It seemed odd that all of his stuff was here if he’d moved away, you were finding it more than a little difficult to put all of the pieces together.

As you drifted further into the room, you took in all of the posters on the wall, they were mostly of indy bands and some obscure movies you hadn’t heard of.

“Have you seen that movie?”

The unexpected voice took you by surprise as you spun around to face the owner of it. You were about to apologise for snooping but words failed you when you found yourself face-to-face with the man you’d just determined must be Ashton.

“It was one of my favourites.” The redhead smiled wistfully as he glanced at the poster on the wall.

“Used to be?” You asked curiously. There was something incredibly captivating about this man standing before you. Maybe it was his effortlessly cool style or perhaps it was more to do with the deep sadness in his pretty eyes. Of course, it could just be the fact that he was the only one who’d made a half decent attempt at a costume. Sure, it was a pretty basic idea to come as a corpse but the pasty shade of his skin, the bruises on his face and the blood trickling down from a very realistic looking head wound, were by far the most commendable efforts you’d seen all night.

“Yeah.” The stranger shrugged, “times change, I guess.”

You nodded in agreement before telling him your name and holding out your hand for him to shake.

“I’m Ashton.” He replied simply, shaking your hand briefly. You shivered at the small contact, his skin was cool and soft, nothing like you’d expected at all.

“Is this your room?” You asked as soon as you’d recovered from the odd sensation.

“It used to be.” Ashton replied. “Do you like it?”

You nodded again. “It’s nice. How come you didn’t take all of your stuff, though?”

Ashton dropped his gaze, his expression sadder than ever. “I didn’t need it, I guess.” He answered, his tone subdued.

“Hey...” You smiled, hoping to look and sound friendly enough to cheer Ashton up. “Do the guys know you’re back here?” You asked.

Ashton’s eyes snapped up to meet yours, his melancholy expression now mingled with one of fear. “No... it’s better that they don’t know I’m here.”

You frowned, “why? I know they miss you a lot.”

Ashton shook his head “I miss them too, more than I can ever say, but it’s better this way.” Tears filled his eyes and he sniffed as he turned back towards the door. “They’re the best friends I could have ever asked for, but they’re quite useless sometimes.” The redhead laughed humourlessly. “Will you take of them for me?”

“Of course.” You promised, feeling tearful all of a sudden. “They’re amazing guys but I don’t understand...”

“I can’t really explain.” Ashton admitted, tears flowing freely down his cheek now. “Could you just please cheer them up when they’re sad?” He asked, seemingly subconsciously glancing at the photo of his friends on the dresser.

“I’ll do my best.” You answered. “I’d like to get to know you more too, though...”

Ashton shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry, I have to leave again really soon. You seem lovely though and I’m so pleased my boys found you.”

It sounded very final and you were still struggling to understand but it wasn’t hard to see that the most important thing to Ashton was that you took care of his friends. “I’m really glad I found them...”

Ashton smiled. “I think you’ll be really good for them.” He explained, taking another step towards the door. “Just a few more things.” The redhead added glancing back at you over his shoulder. “Can you please make sure Michael gets out from time to time? He can get stuck in a bit of rut, holed up in that bedroom of his playing his computer games.”

You agreed easily. It was common knowledge in the office that Michael was an avid gamer and getting him to go out could be quite a work of art.

“Could you also let Calum know that he’s very loved, by a lot of people?” Ashton questioned you. “He hides it well most of the time but he’s a pretty sad boy and he needs reminding about the good things life has to offer.”

Nodding again you wiped a tear from your eye. You hadn’t even noticed you were crying until that moment. “What about Luke?” You asked, “do you have instructions for him too?”

Ashton gave a tiny laugh. “Just please keep Lukey away from tequila... he’s too much of a lightweight for that shit.”

Before you could ask anything else Ashton stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him. Somehow you just knew that no matter how fast you ran out onto the landing, the redhead wouldn’t be there.

***

You spent the subsequent weeks pondering the weird events of the Halloween party. Despite calling yourself stupid on many occasions you’d been left with very little choice other than to accept that Ashton had either been a weird hallucination or something much more inexplicable.

It wasn’t until a few days before Christmas, at your last ‘pizza and beer’ night with your friends before you all headed off to visit your families for the festive period, that you found out the truth about Ashton.

Luke had brought him up when you’d told them all about an interesting movie you’d watched recently. “That was Ashton’s favourite!” Luke had exclaimed.

A stunned silence settled over all of your friends, like they weren’t sure how to act when their absent friend was mentioned so casually with no prior warning.

After a moment Calum wrapped an arm around his youngest friend. “He’d always go on about that one wouldn’t he?”

Michael smiled sadly as he nodded. “He was a bigger dork than me, he was just better at hiding it.”

Calum and Luke burst out laughing. “No one has ever been a bigger dork than you.” They scoffed in unison.

You found yourself joining in with their laughter. Somehow knowing that Ashton would be giggling along just as hard as if he was still around.

Once the laughing fits had passed Calum got up from the sofa and picked up a photo from the mantelpiece. He ambled back over and sat next to you. “I’ve seen you looking at these photos and it’s probably about time we told you about our buddy, Ashton.”

It seemed rather ridiculous to tell your friends that you’d already met the cute redhead Calum was pointing at. They’d never believe you, so you simply listened instead.

“He died a couple of year ago, just before Halloween actually...” Michael explained, his emerald green eyes downcast.

The confirmation that Ashton was dead didn’t shock you or hurt you like you thought it might. It didn’t even confuse you, deep down you’d sort of known that this was the truth. There was one thing you’d wondered, though and now seemed like the appropriate time to ask. “I’m so sorry... How’d it happen?”

“He’d been to visit his family for a few days.” Luke replied. “He was heading back here when...” the youngest friend faltered, wincing as he recalled the tragic event.

Michael shuffled closer to his friend, wrapping Luke in a hug as their eyes became glassy with unshed tears.

“It was a car accident.” Calum confirmed. “He was only about twenty minutes from home when some dickhead on his phone ran into the side of Ashton’s car.”

You reached out to hold Calum’s hand, your vision blurring with tears as you looked at the picture in your friend’s lap. “I’m so sorry, you must miss him.”

“We do.” Luke confirmed.

Calum sniffled as he added; “A lot.”

“Every day.” Michael finished.

Send Laura a request

Send Jex a request