“Ah, no! Queenie, where are you going? Stop it!” Lucia huffed then, being yanked forward by her growing dog whose leash she wasn’t the best at holding. “Queenie, no! We can’t go over there!”

The white dog with dirt stained fur stopped at the gates, peering at the slight gap that would provide an entrance. Lucia pauses beside him, hands on her knees and sighs.

“It’s time mom starts walking you, you’re too fast for me, I can’t even keep up in gym and you..” she coughs, hitting her chest, “Are a lot worse than coach when it comes to making me exercise, when I really, really don’t want to!”

Lucia’s grip on the leash loosens, just at the wrong moment, when the dogs curious gaze glances at his owner, and back to the space small enough for him to just…

“QUEENIE!”

But he’s already running through the hole, and the leash unwraps itself from Lucia’s tanned hands, and she yelps in shock, before squeezing her slim body determinately through and chasing after the dog toward the..the..GRAVEYARD?

“Queenie, why a graveyard OF ALL PLACES?” Lucia calls out, though she’s not able to find that familiar white fur. “Why couldn’t you just—I don’t know! Pee on a fucking fire hydrant?!”

Lucia wraps her arms around herself, steps onto the grass by the tombstones as an uneasy feeling settles into her chest. “Fucking scary movies,” she mutters, then closes her eyes. “You’re almost nineteen! Grow up!” It’s disrespectful to stand by someone’s grave and to fear they may haunt you, right? Well..

A girl around Lucia’s age pops up behind a tombstone across from where she stands, and without warning, Lucia’s legs give out and she falls onto her butt in fear.

“Hello,” the girl says, chin resting on the stone, calm and collected and not acknowledging how her sudden presence had scared the lurking girl beneath her gaze. “Is there a reason you broke into my grandpas cemetery?”

“Um—“ Lucia starts, “You see, my dog—“

“Your dog..?”

Lucia licks her lips nervously, looking the girl over and freezing a little. Dark brown eyes, dark skin and curls, an oversized sweater and honestly, the cutest face—FOCUS!

“Um—“ Lucia repeats, and looks away, eyes focusing on her shoes for a moment. She contemplates her own outfit, her own appearance for a moment, then reminds herself again, THE DOG IS GONE! “Yes, my dog, he ran in here, took the leash with him and now..I can’t find him.”

The girl hums, “You know, a lot of people have snuck in here with that excuse.” Lucia looks up, frowning, and the girl continues. “Though I can never tell who is and isn’t lying, because most living things that come to a cemetery do die.”

“What?” Lucia gasps out, eyes widening, throat closing up and—the girl across from her laughs.

“I’m fucking with you, but you better not be lying.” Then she exits from behind the stone, smiles down at Lucia and offers her a hand. “What’s your name?”

Words, Lucia thinks, your name, she thinks. But what she says is..

“Are you a ghost?”

“A ghost?” The girl repeats, gawking. “Is..that a compliment or an insult?”

“A question.” Lucia answers, accepting her hand, it’s warm and soft and…the girls looking at her with a raised eyebrow, and oh god, Lucia still hasn’t let go. “Not a ghost!” Lucia blurts, pulls back her hand like it burns because—it does. “Not a ghost, right. Sorry..”

“Do I look like a ghost or something?”

Lucia opens her mouth, but a distant bark stops her from replying. Then—the sound of little feet racing toward her, and the sound of a leash against the concrete and…

“QUEENIE! You’re in so much trouble!”

“Oh, they’re adorable,” the girl says with a gasp, “Oh my gosh. Can I hold them? Please?”

“Um, yeah. Okay.” Lucia dumbly replies, picking the dog up and hesitantly handing him to the curly haired girl. Their bodies brush at the exchange, a dark brown fingertip grazing the exposed tan skin of Lucia’s arm, and she shivers.

“And uh, you don’t look like a ghost!” Lucia suddenly says, fidgeting with her hands, her own fingertips pressing onto where the other girl once touched. “But, like, it would be a compliment! ‘Cause you’re super pretty. I’m uh, Lucia, by the way.”

“Ames,” the girl whispers.

Lucia blinks, cheeks warm, takes back Queenie and sets him on the ground, but looking back up, there’s no trace of a girl who never actually said she wasn’t a ghost..

A ghost, huh?