In all honesty, he really should have expected something like this to happen. After all, you had to be an idiot to believe that handing something breakable to Billy Joe Cobra would be a good idea…or end up in one piece. But of course Spencer had to go and mentally convince himself that Billy would be fine because, hey, the wraith hadn't dropped his camera when doing sky shots so…
No. Seriously, nothing good could have come out of this arrangement.
"Billy!" Spencer shouted, hands flying to his messy brown hair. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he let out a small groan. "I spent days working on that prop!" His eyes travelled over the sprawled specter and his destroyed ski resort set. "Now how am I supposed to finish filming Zombie Snowpocalypse: Revenge of the Zombie Yeti?" Billy immediately untangled his noodle-y limbs from the wreckage of white paint and wood with a nervous smile plastered on his face. He scratched the back of his head with a humorless chuckle.
"Awe, chill-lax brozone layer," Billy said in an attempt to calm his friend down. Spencer simply crossed his arms over his chest in response. Sensing the unwavering annoyance radiating off of the teen, Billy grabbed a splintered piece of wood. "We can totally rebuild this and make it ten times better!" In a twister of color, he quickly adorned (what Spencer dubbed) his stylist look. "After all, I am a pretty amazing artist."
"Yeah, for music," Spencer retorted as he turned his back on his ghostly companion. "You don't even know how to wood work!" Before Billy could come up with a response, Spencer quickly shushed him. "You know what? Why don't we just move on to a different scene? I can rebuild that later." Under his breath, Spencer muttered, "Without you." Unbeknownst to him, Billy did manage to catch that bit of dialogue. He sagged a little and frowned. Before any sort of negative emotion could infiltrate his happy-go-lucky mindset, he perked back up. Unconsciously, he switched back to his normal attire.
"Hey brommander!" he shouted happily. He quickly caught up with irritated adolescent, giant grin plastered on his face. "Ok, I know I messed this up but I promise not to on this one."
"Billy, this was your last shot! Besides, you said that to me twenty minutes ago when you trashed my tripod," Spencer said while rolling his eyes.
"But I really promise this time!" Billy replied, floating a bit closer to the teen.
"You said that thirty minutes ago when you nailed Rajeev in the back of the head with a spork!" Spencer made a move to push past Billy, but the ghost blocked his path.
"I will stay completely focused. I'm all yours bro!" Billy exclaimed. For emphasis, he opened his arms as wide as his ghostly wingspan would allow. Basically, he covered the width of the living room.
"And you said that when you broke the toaster oven!"
"Dude, I didn't touch the toaster oven since that incident back in September." Both boys fell silent.
"Oh, you're right. Sorry," Spencer apologized. He balanced his right elbow on his left fist, finger tapping against his lips as he thought. "I must be thinking about the blender…"
"Yep, that was two hours ago," Billy replied with a half-lidded expression. "Man, peanut butter and pickles do not go well together in a blender." His eyes widened as he remembered the reason why he was blocking Spencer from moving forwards. "C'mon man, please give me another chance!"
"I gave you at least six today!" Spencer said in exasperation. "After that many mess-ups, I really can't afford another. This film is due in two days and that means filming has to be done today so I can edit tomorrow."
"And I promise it will be!" Billy's expression became blank. "Wait…what is this project for again?"
"It's for my film class," Spencer deadpanned. He'd already explained this to the vain specter at least five times already, but Billy was always so easily distracted. "And if I don't turn this in on time, Ponzi's gonna jump on the opportunity. My grade, career, and reputation depend on this. I'm sorry Billy, but I can't have any more setbacks. Can't you just…you know, go do whatever you did before I moved in?"
Billy froze.
"Before…before you…" he whispered, eyes staring blankly at the wall ahead. "I…you…"
"Billy, are you ok?" Spencer asked, genuinely worried for the ex-pop star. He waved a hand in front of the ghost's face but received no reaction. "Billy? Billy?!"
"Hey son, who are you talking to?" Spencer jumped at the source of the new voice. His line of sight fell directly on his dad carrying a box through the foyer.
"Oh…h-hi Dad! I, um, didn't see you there!" he laughed nervously, trying to relax his pounding heart.
"Really? Oh, maybe I can become a ninja!" Hugh said happily. His son sent him a questioning glance and, being Hugh, he mistook it for questioning the box. "Oh this? Well, your mom wanted to tidy up the mansion a bit. There's some stuff in here that belonged to your late cousin. I'm just moving them to the attic for now. But hey, we could always make a quick buck and sell this stuff online." Spencer's eyes were drawn to a navy blue piece of fabric sticking out of the cheap cardboard. He noticed the gold detailing on what looked like a sleeve and was that a gold cufflink? No, they couldn't get rid of that!
"Let's just keep it in the attic!" Spencer said hurriedly. "After all, I think Billy Joe Cobra would want us to keep his concert dress, huh?" Hugh smiled.
"Awe, you're right son! I'm gonna go put these in the attic! Have fun making your video!" And with that, the elder Wright was gone. Spencer let out a sigh of relief before facing his next challenge.
"Billy, c'mon, snap out of it!" he whispered. He shook Billy a bit, but the blank look remained in his eyes. "Maybe I went too far…" Great, now he felt guilty about making the ghost catatonic over (seemingly) nothing. It wouldn't hurt to give Billy one more shot, right? And this would definitely be the last one!
"Alright Billy," he sighed. "I'll give you one more shot." Like magic, Billy blinked. He swayed a bit in mid-air, but regained his bearings quickly enough.
"Wha…?" Looking down, he spotted Spencer. "Yo, big lebroski, what'd I miss?"
"Do you remember any of that?" the teen asked skeptically.
"Of course," Billy replied. "Peanut butter and pickles do not mix well in a blender, I get it!" He kneeled in front of Spencer. "Now please, let me help you! I promise I won't mess up! Pleasepleasepleaseplease, please?!" With each "please", he crept closer and closer to his friend.
"I already said yes!" Spencer shouted, pushing the ghost away from him. "Yeesh, haven't you ever heard of the personal bubble?"
"WOOHOO!" Billy yelled with glee. Ignoring Spencer's previous statement, he embraced the boy. "Oh, thank you, you won't regret this!" Straightening up, he pointed one finger in the air. "I promise to be the best helper ever!" A groan came from the ground. Billy raised an eyebrow. "Dude, what are you doing on the ground? C'mon, we've got a movie to make!" Enthusiastically, Billy rushed through the ceiling directly towards their shared room. On the floor, Spencer let out another groan.
"Why am I seriously regretting this decision already?" Only the soft carpeting heard his muffled question.
A/N: I know, really short but consider it a prologue? :3 Hey look, I'm trying to set up foreshadowing! :O That doesn't happen to me! Also, this is a really lame title. Like, uber lame. Please people, suggest another one for me! I am also open to bro puns.
I'll try to update quickly because this story's going to be on the shorter side. We're looking at about 10 chapters with about 2,000-ish words each. Sound ok?
Ugh, I feel like Billy is really OOC. I didn't even make him that narcissistic in this! GAH! Although, I think I got the cluelessness ok. :)