Ghosts Girls and Rumored Replacements
So the boy is real.
Awesome.
Not awesome.
The Jewish Ghost Girl keeps ragging on him about the boy.
Billy.
Psh.
As if he cared about the kid's name. Billy's name.
He likes The Kid better than Billy.
Billy implies he cares.
He doesn't care. Not about this kid named Billy.
No sirree.
Thomas Shepherd doesn't care. He doesn't give a rat's ass about this dumb boy with hope in his eyes and decent sarcasm in his tone, with cheeriness and happy memories. He couldn't give two shits about this boy, the one who attacked his bully, who acted in self-defense. He couldn't care less for this boy, because he doesn't care about this boy. It's probably some sort of bullshit transference thing or something. In this place, caring gets you killed. Hell, in any place, it gets you killed. He's learned that, in all the juvie halls and with ... all it does is give you pain. So he doesn't care, not about this boy. The boy who thinks space is interesting and awe-inspiring, not a place full of enemies.
Damn it.
He cares.
~*~*~*~
"If I did care," he says to the Ghost Girl, super casual-like. "What would I have to do?"
She doesn't even blink. "You have to run at your top speed."
"I don't know it."
"Hence, run as fast as you can during your next session."
"They'll leave him alone?"
"For a while," she concedes. "That's what they told me. You can ask them."
"You mean, I can threaten them."
"That too," she allows, smiling thinly. "But he's nice. Surprised you didn't go off the deep end."
"Why?"
"He looks like you."
"No, he doesn't."
Ghost girl gives him a look. "Okay." She looks at her fruit cup, looks at her plastic, white spoon, looks back up at him. “It’s been said that if you were to meet yourself without mirrors or photographs, you wouldn’t recognize yourself.”
"You're saying ... no. He's not ... I'm an only child, G.G."
"He looks like you."
"I have green eyes."
"He has blue. It's not that far off."
"My hair is white, thanks to the damn chemicals they've fed me. His is brown."
"Reddish brown," she corrects before looking behind him. "He's coming. You don't have to do this."
"Yeah, I do."
"He's not your ..."
"I promised him," Tommy lies. He didn't promise him. He promised Lily. It's the same thing.
~*~*~*~
It’s another bad day. Billy can feel it, feel it in his bones like he feels the earth swaying under his grip, whenever he touches the floor. Or so he tells Tommy. Tommy thinks it's all bullshit. But the boy has some sort of magnetic power, so maybe he really can feel the Earth's magnetic pull.
“Did you ever have a crush?” Billy asks him, in the quiet of it all.
“I liked this girl, Amy … something. I can’t remember. It’s not worth remembering.”
Billy bites his lower lip, wincing when he feels the raw skin break and blood trickles down slowly. Tommy watches as he presses his sleeve on it, mumbles something. He pulls back the sleeve, spotless and his lip is fine. Tommy ignores that.
The Kid's always doing weird stuff like that. “I had a crush on someone.”
“Oh?”
“He was on the basketball team,” he says nervously.
Tommy is silent. He glances down at the puzzle they're allowed to work with, at the ugly cardboard. He could totally finish this in five seconds, but the kid likes taking time. Lifetimes. But still, the kid at a game. Would he go alone? Did he have friends? Did they know about ... him? Would they laugh at him behind his back? Did he even have a good friend in that shitty school?
“Tommy?”
“Hold on, I’m trying to imagine dorky little you at a basketball game.”
“Shut up,” he says, relieved.
“Was he cute or was he like really hot, like me?”
Billy snorts. “He had a girlfriend, I think.”
“Ouch,” Tommy huffs. “Tough break, Billy Buddy,” he adds.
“Yeah,” Billy nods, kicking the table's leg, as if jittery.
“Tell me all about my future brother in law,” Tommy jokes.
Billy nods. “He had these blue eyes … and he had blonde hair.”
“Aw, you’re into Captain America lookalikes? That’s adorable, Billy.”
“And he had ear piercings, okay?”
“So you’re into bad boys? Such a rebel, baby bro.”
Billy scowls. “And I saw him once or twice at the comic book store. Maybe,” he says, frowning. “I couldn't really tell, because Jimmy pulled me out so quickly. There were bullies in there, from his school and mine.”
“Jimmy?”
“Best friend, transferred when it got too tough.”
“It wasn't just a one-time thing, the bullying, was it?”
“No.”
“God, Billy, it’s a wonder you didn't snap and kill them all.”
“I didn't kill anyone,” he hisses.
Tommy hums in agreement. “Which is why it’s a wonder to me you never did. You’re really that pure of heart, Billy.”
“Thank you?”
“It won’t do you any good here.”
“I know.”
“They’d sooner use it against you.”
“I know.”
“Keep it to yourself.”
“I know.”
“Good."
~*~*~*~
“If I ever escaped, I’d go to get some food, real food.”
“I’d check into a hotel, take a shower, by myself, with no guards and no timing and nothing.”
Tommy snorts. “That sounds good too. But you’d need money.”
“Totally abuse my powers to get me a room, Tommy, don’t think I wouldn't.”
A guard passes by, his electric baton tapping each door, a reminder, a warning. Billy feels him walk down the hall, just like he knows Tommy can.
“I’d take you with me,” Tommy says, softly.
“What?”
“If I ever left, I’d take you with me. And that Kit girl, too.”
“You get me out, get Kitty, and I’ll try to get Jess out."
“Huh. Okay. We’ll make a break for it, all of us.”
“Not all of us,” Billy murmurs.
“Those two kids in the comas won’t be worth us taking, they’re brain dead. They’re lucky,” Tommy presses. “We can’t help them.”
“I know, but …”
“Focus on who we can take.”
“Okay,” he whispers, brokenly.
“Focus on survivors, not the dead,” Tommy states, anger filling the words. “We can’t …”
“I know,” Billy says numbly. “Still …”
“I know,” Tommy repeats and the lights flicker, a warning.
Billy doesn't speak anymore and Tommy doesn't try.
~*~*~*~
"There are a few new kids. They're being treated like humans."
"So?" Tommy spits out, angry. He ran as fast as he could for ten hours just so he could keep Billy safe. But he was exhausted and the damn kid didn't understand that.
"They're from space."
He blinks. Aliens. Billy sure knew how to bury the lead. "So they can come and go as they please?"
"No, they ... space radiation. One of them can turn into fire and another one turns invisible and creates force fields."
"Like Kit," Tommy says, confused.
"Yeah, but not like her. It's ... and the other one stretches, like an insane amount and the other one is literally a giant rock. You didn't see them?"
"No."
"I'll tell you the rest tomorrow."
"You can tell me now, doofus. I'm not going to sleep with you vibrating with excitement over there."
He hears Billy sigh, loud and cheery.
Good.
Cheery is good.
Even if it hurts Tommy's lungs sometimes.
~*~*~*~
"Do you ever think, maybe it could have been different? That maybe we wouldn't be here, we'd be ... out there?"
"No," Tommy replies, watching as Billy snorts.
"Yeah, me neither," he hums, as his fingers curl around the wall.
~*~*~*~
"You hear the rumors?" he asks, stumbling over the words. It's been a few weeks since he's seen Billy. He got punished after his failed attempt at The Lab. He got sent to the catacombs, or wherever the fucking solitary cells are, probably basement.
"What rumors?" Billy asks, yawning. "Why are they sleep depriving me?"
"They did the same to me. Still are," he amends. "NYC facility, for those who need help with their powers," he elaborates. "Did you?"
"No."
"Billy."
"Dr. Miller wasn't impressed with my last test. Kitty, when I last saw her, said she thought we'd have evals, but ..."
"Billy, focus."
"I am!" he hisses. "They've been keeping me here, and Kitty isn't allowed to talk to me and Jess hates me. Those freakishly close four aren't even looking in our direction and none of the staff talks to me! I'm getting worried!"
"I'll fail my next test. It'll be good because I failed the last one too."
"You can't just ... follow me."
"Well, I'm not letting you leave. Besides, how else are you going to break out?"