The Ordinary Haunting II

2. The Blues Concert - Part 2a

"What's with you tonight?"

I dragged my eyes off my apartment building's staircase once again to drop a chuckle at Arm's quizzical expression.

"Just excited," I replied, trying to stop myself from checking the hair gelled behind my ears for the fiftieth time. "I love music." A flyer, likely junk mail plucked from one of the letterboxes on the wall by the entrance, was flung my way. I shook out my fidgeting fingers as I bent to catch it, giving Off a frown when he pulled another free. He distorted his face until it was all double chin and over-extended eyeballs, the whole time talking sweetly into his phone. Arm collected the second flyer and we enjoyed a minute crowding Off into a corner so that we could stuff them into the waistband of his pants.

"Okay, then what's been with you for the last month?" Arm rejoined after we'd succeeded in our mission. We were leaning back against the railing of the ground floor, listening to the river snooze just beyond our heels and watching Off struggle to keep an even voice as he yanked bits of supermarket advertisements and community watch warnings out of his belt loops.

I ran a knuckle along the hairline at my temple. I could feel flyaways. "The last month?"

"Yep." Arm dusted off a black smudge on the forearm of my white denim jacket. He was always protective of outfits he put together for us, incalculably so when he'd admitted defeat to our unfashionable wardrobes and let us wear items of his instead. The only thing on my body that I actually owned right now was the black and white striped button-down shirt. The black jeans and the smudged jacket were both Arm's, and while the oversized jacket was a perfect fit on me, we'd had to roll the ankles of the jeans up to hide the fact that they were about an inch too short.

"Have I been different the last month?" I tried to clarify. "I have been going to those ghost meetings. Maybe you're seeing enlightenment on me."

"Where?" Arm wiggled his wire frame glasses, grinned and shook his head. "No, it was a little before that. Since Muk's party, maybe?"

Not the greatest topic to bring up when I was already feeling more nervous than my system could compute. I didn't usually give myself time to feel nervous about things -- not until after they'd been and gone, anyway. Arm breathed the winter night air deeply through his nose and patiently waited for me to finish retying my shoelaces, which hadn't come undone.

"I think I've been the same, haven't I?"

Arm wrinkled his forehead. He'd made a cut in his eyebrow with make-up and had been moving his face around more than usual. It was cool and intimidating and I wanted to be him and I wanted to run away from him. "You are pretty good at always appearing the same on the outside, but I see you, Tay Tawan. Off too. Everyone catches on eventually because you're more obvious than wings on a dog, but we'll always be the first to see you, you know."

"Deep," we said at the same time, and tittered. A door banged shut somewhere above us, the sound hitting the surface of the river, and my hands went for my hair again.

"An hour isn't so late to be to a wedding anniversary," Arm said, circling back to where he'd left off. "I don't know why you're being so sketchy about what happened before we got there. What trouble could you have got yourself into in an hour?"

"I told you, nothing. Just talking with friends and dancing. Why would you think that sounds sketchy?"

"Because you went straight for the alcohol afterwards, duh. Not even pre-ghost Tay got drunk very often. It was so easy for you to get drunk, it usually took something big to make you want to have more than one or two beers." Arm glanced up when the light at the top of the first flight of stairs was blocked by somebody coming down towards us. "And since then... Have you been a bit more confident? No, that's not the word. Brash, maybe? Anyway, it's kinda weird for someone to get shit-faced drunk and then be more confident or whatever about himself."