Recommended Song(s) for This Imagine:
Sweater Weather (cover) - Vitamin String Quartet

The next year was your first Halloween away at college. Not really away, because the big state college was fifteen minutes from your home, so you didn't have to move into the dorms. So on Halloween, you were sitting on your bed doing Calculus homework, when at precisely 6:33 pm, a cool breeze made your hair stand on end. Grinning up at the ghostly figure in front of you, you immediately closed your textbook. "Hey Mark!"

"Hey Y/N!" He hovered by your bed. "How's college going?"

You shrugged. "Good and bad, Calculus and Physics suck but Astronomy and Aerospace Engineering is freaking awesome."

"You're going to be an engineer?"

"Something like that. I 100% want to work at NASA, though."

"I could've been an Engineer." Mark commented. "If I didn't, uhm, you know."

You both were lost in thought for a moment, then you spoke up. "Mark, I've never asked you this, and feel free to not answer if I'm way out of line. But, how did you die?"

He sighed, looking past you out the window, at the house beside yours. "I died saving the girl I loved. She used to live in this house, in this room, not me. I lived next door.

Her little brother's toy had fallen on the train tracks and she was getting it but she had hearing problems and didn't hear the train coming. I pushed her out of the way. She was fine, but I clearly wasn't."

You were silent, and wanted to be able to take Mark's hand in yours, to comfort him. "I'm sure she thought of you as a hero. I know I do."

"Funny thing, I never knew why I became a ghost," Mark didn't even acknowledge your comment. "Until I came back here tonight and saw you sitting on your bed, focused. For a moment I could believe I was back with her again, marvelling at how adorable she looked when her tongue was sticking out of her mouth as she worked.

Now, I know you're not her, but damn, you remind me of her so much, it hurts sometimes."

"What was her name?"

"Y/N."

You weren't sure if ghosts could cry or not, but Mark seemed on the verge of doing so as he looked at you with bittersweet emotions.

"Mark, I don't know what to say." You told him truthfully.

"You don't have to say anything, I just laid a bunch of shit on you and I'm so sorry-"

You cut him off, completely forgetting that you couldn't touch him, and threw your arms around his neck, attempting a loving kiss. To your utter shock, your lips actually connected with his. Sure, they were still cold, but you could feel them against yours. Before you could pull away to tell him you loved him too, he disappeared beneath you, and you fell onto your bed.

Wracked with disappointment and a deep sadness, you curled up. He was gone. He had left you. You scared him off.

The rest of the night you cried until you were out of tears, then some more. The pain was a deep ache that spread through your whole body. You weren't sure when you fell asleep, but sunlight and quiet knocking on your door woke you up.

"Come in." You muttered, checking your reflection to see mascara stains and a rats nest of hair.

Your mom was standing there with a plate of pancakes. "Hey, sweetheart." She smiled, setting the plate down on your nightstand. "You slept through breakfast, so I brought it up for you. Your dad already left for work."

You didn't say anything, looking blankly at the food.

"Are you alright?"

Without making eye contact, you nodded, fiddling with your covers.

She sighed. "Okay, well I'll be next door at the Fischbach house."

The Fischbachs were a family that had lived in the town for basically centuries, and your parents were good friends with the older couple that lived next door. Sometimes their grandkids came by. You'd never realized it before, but the youngest grandson Tommy looked a lot like Mark. Mark must be like his great-great-great-great-great-great-uncle or something.

Shaking your head to clear it of thoughts about Mark, you swallowed two bites of the pancakes. It was all you could stomach, they tasted bland. You threw on a hoodie and some boots before going downstairs, intending to go for a walk.

Down the street was a park, empty because all the kids were at school since it was a Friday. You thankfully didn't have Friday classes. Only one other person was there, an old man walking his dog. You pulled yourself up on top of the monkey bars, just like you did when you were a kid. Sitting up there, you were by yourself, just what you wanted.

Cool autumn breeze nipped at your cheeks, causing you to burrow further into your hood. The old man and his dog kept walking, the bell on the dog's collar jingling. Leaves of all shades floated on the breeze before landing among the other fallen ones. If you were in a much better mood, you probably would've raked them all together in a leaf pile to jump in, but it wasn't that kind of day.

Your attention piqued when someone yelling in the distance reached your ears. You could've sworn they were saying your name. Looking down at the street from your perch, you saw a guy who clearly wasn't dressed for the weather, only in pants and a thin T-shirt, not even with shoes or anything.

He was the one yelling. And it definitely was your name. Startled, you tried to get off the monkey bars, only succeeding in falling the few feet onto the mulch. Thankfully you hadn't broken anything, just had a few pieces of mulch splintered in your arm.

You hissed as you extracted the wood. Great, now you might get a freaking infection.

"Miss, are you okay? I saw you fall." The man had jogged over to you.

"Yeah, I'll live." You put your thumb over the small amount of blood welling up. Then, you looked up at the stranger.

You couldn't believe your eyes.

It was Mark.

His normally ghostly pale skin was a rich tan, his muscles seemed more defined, his face wasn't so sullen, but it was definitely Mark.

"What the hell?" You whispered, reaching out uncertainly towards him. "It's-it's November 1st. Not Halloween."

"I know." He chuckled at your hesitant hand. "You can touch me, I'm not a ghost anymore. I think. At least to the twelve people I ran right into."

You laid a hand on his arm in disbelief. You could feel him right here with you. Gently turning his arm over, still astounded, he let you place two fingers at his wrist. "You have a pulse."

He laced his fingers through yours. "Because of you, my heart beats again."

Tenderly, you stood on your tiptoes to give him a kiss. This time, to your relief, he didn't disappear from beside you. Your heart swelled as he reciprocated the kiss, and in that moment you were filled with so much love.

"I love you, Mark."

"I will always love you, Y/N."

((whew! i think i'm happy w this one. i've got some good stuff coming, lots of ideas for one-part imagines because i feel like i've been overloading this book with multi-part imagines.

idk, do y'all like the multi-parts, or do you prefer just the one-shots?

i like writing multi-parts because i can fledge out the plot and characters a lot better, but also, if a reader doesn't like the plot, they have to wait a while for a different plot to be posted.

what do you guys think?))