My heart almost stops in my chest when the two appear out of nowhere.
"What Lucas." Alex's voice drips in sarcasm.
"Ok shut up we have a mission. I need Willie."
There's that name again.
"Whose Willie?"
"Alex's friend. Long story." Reggie says. I sit up off of Luke's arm and look up at him.
"Alex get him here ASAP."
Alex nods and disappears in a flash, making me jump.
"How did he..."
"We're ghosts remember?" Luke says. Oh yeah.
Soon Alex comes back with a dude with long wavy hair.
"Emmie, Willie. Willie, this is Julie's cousin Emmie."
We nod at each other, and I don't miss his curious glance at the sling.
"What do you need help with Luke?" He breaks the silence.
"Is it possible to find her brothers best friend?"
I stiffen at his words. Could I really face Laken?
"I mean, kinda depends. He might not have gotten stuck." He shrugs. "But if he did, the only one who can get him to her is her."
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Do you have a connection with him?" He asks me.
"I mean, yeah, I have his tags?" I pull the dog tags out of my shirt. Laken didn't have any family as they had abandoned him, and since we never got Jacks tags their Sargent sent me Laken's.
"Well, you are the only one that can bring him to you, and I'm not even sure you can do that."
I nod, accepting the fact that it probably won't happen.
"Hey, let's go to the beach, we can hang out for a while."
We all agree, and head down to the beach.
We're hanging out when all of a sudden someone plops down next to me.
"Hey baby." I look up and see a random dude my age with a total chad vibe coming off of him.
"First of all, not your baby, second of all, don't you have a frat party to be attending?" I say, looking straight ahead, earning "oooooooos" from all the boys.
"First of all, I think your cute, and second of all, no my frat isn't throwing a party."
And the dingus just proved me right. What a nutshell.
I got to stand to walk away, the boys right there to help, when he suddenly reaches out to grab at me. Panicking, I yell the name of the one person that I always counted on to help me. Laken.
"LAKEN!"
"Whoa!" He yells and jumps back.
Suddenly there's a screaming noise and a body slams into the sand from nowhere. They proceed to start coughing. Wait, what?!
"Laken?" I gasp.
They roll over, and I see those big blue eyes. Yep.
"Yo, get away from my sister you creep!" He jumps to his feet noticing what is going on but not seeing the other boys. Frat boy scrams, making me confused as to how he saw Laken. Laken then notices Luke whose moved behind me to make sure I'm ok.
"You too punk!" He's ready to throw a punch.
"No! Laker this is Luke! He's a friend!" I quickly stop him, using the nickname I gave him after the big ships that travel the lakes of Superior and Michigan. He and Jack were like my big ships. Protective and Scary.
"Oh." He's wearing his army stuff.
"Laker is Jack with you?" I ask, dreading the answer.
"No, I jumped between him and the firefight. Last I knew he made it out. Why, has he been ignoring you?" He asks.
"Laker, he went missing in the same battle you died. He's been declared MIA for two years." I force out, holding my tears.
"WHAT?! ABSOLUTELY NOT I DID NOT GIVE UP MY LIFE FOR THEM TO KEEP MY BROTHER LIKE THAT!" He yells, before poofing away.
"LAKEN!" I try to yell but it's too late. Luke wraps me in a hug.
"He'll be back. He just wants to know what happened I'm sure." He murmers into my head, trying to help me feel better.
"He seems nice." Reggie deadpans. I look at him with a look of 'really'
"Did you miss the part where he almost killed Luke or..." Alex asks him. Reggie shrugs.
"Look, I'm sure he'll be back soon."
"Yeah, what was with that?" Luke asks me.
"He's just protective. We didn't have the best families growing up and he and Jack kept me away from all the bad stuff."
"Still doesn't excuse him almost hitting me." He huffs.
"Take a chill pill Lucas he was trying to protect me because I screamed." I'm starting to get agitated and stand.
"Well maybe you shouldn't have screamed then!" He shoots right back.
"I panicked!"
"We were right here!"
"You weren't doing anything!" I kick sand up and glare at him.
"MAYBE NEXT TIME I'LL JUST LET THEM COME AT YOU!" He yells back
I angrily turn and start to walk back towards Julie's house when Alex decides to poof back by himself. I notice Luke going to do the same, and try and stop him. Instead, I go through him and end up falling good arm first, but still smacking my bad arm. Reggie is the only one left with me, and he panics.
"That didn't happen." I grit through my teeth at him.
"Are you ok! Did you get hurt?!" He panics even more.
"I'm fine. I'm done with today." And with that we walk shoulder to shoulder back to Julie's.