The Ghost of You by Michael Gray Bulla

Author:Michael Gray Bulla
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2024-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

13

EMMETT CAME OVER TO MY house on Tuesday, and since my parents were still at work when we got home, it was just the two of us. I wasn’t sure if I was thankful that we were alone, since it meant I wouldn’t have to worry about feeling weird with my parents around, or if I wished for the company, since now we were alone.

Well, except for Ghost. Predictably, he was following Emmett around like a shadow.

We went up to my room to work and sat on the floor, my guitar in my lap. I pulled up a Google Doc on my computer with recent song ideas and lyric snippets that I could maybe use for our project. Ghost sat near us—far enough away to not be right in our space, but close enough that I couldn’t forget he was there.

“So, what’ve you got so far?” Emmett asked.

I tilted the computer screen so they could see it better. “It’s not much. . . . Just a few ideas, and some melodies I started messing around with.”

“What’s this?” They pointed to a verse I’d started writing.

“Oh, that’s not really anything. Just a song I started about Catcher in the Rye since I’ve been rereading it lately. . . .”

“Can you play it for me?”

I blinked at them, but they seemed serious. “Um, sure. . . . Let me just tune real quick.”

I tried to not feel self-conscious as Emmett watched me tune my guitar. To make up for the silence, I said, “Don’t get too excited. This is probably garbage—”

“Hey, no shit talking,” Emmett interrupted, giving me a stern look. “That’s my friend you’re talking about.”

I couldn’t help smiling a little. “Yeah, well, you haven’t heard it yet.”

I played what I had for them before I could lose my nerve. The song was meant to be slow, each word drawn out, and I picked the chords, making up a pattern as I went along. I’d wanted the song to sound eerie, ghostly, uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure if I’d achieved that, but when I was done singing the verse and a half I’d written, Emmett was looking at me thoughtfully, their chin in their hand.

“So . . . yeah. That’s all I have so far,” I said.

“I love it.”

I scoffed. “Oh, come on, it’s barely anything.”

“No, I’m serious!” they insisted. “It wasn’t what I was expecting, but that’s what I liked—the surprise. We should definitely use that for the project.”

“But it doesn’t fit the ‘character archetypes’ theme we were doing.”

“We can change it.”

I stared at them. “Emmett, you’ve already written two of our songs. Why would we start over? And what would we even change it to, anyway?”

“I can write some more; I don’t mind. And we could change it to be about Catcher in the Rye—don’t give me that look, I’m serious! I read it last year, too, and I’m into the idea of writing a collection of songs based off a book.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t want

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.