Chapter 3: The Goth

"Hello." The woman smiled warmly. She looked slightly goth-ish, with blue and black dyed hair framing her pale face. She had a small body, but her large eyes were big and dark. "You must be Cody."

And you must be the prettiest girl I've ever seen, thought Cody. "Uh- y-yeah, that's me." He grinned sheepishly.

"My name's Gwen. Let's start with a few questions, shall we?" He nodded.

"Okay... well, first off, what did you think of the building?" She smiled.

"Well, I've only seen the lobby and a few hallways so far, but I think it's grand, really," he stuttered.

Gwen nodded. "Yes, it's quite a sight for a newcomer, I'd say. I'll give you a full tour later But anyways, do you have your resume with you?"

"Um, yes, here it is." Cody shuffled in is seat and pulled out his resume and handed it to her.

"All right. Let's get started."

"Cody! Look out for that tree!" The screech of tires as Noah snatched the steering wheel and turned wildly to the left awoke Cody from his daydream.

"What were you thinking?!" Noah demanded, eyes wide. "We could've died out there!" He paused. "Well, you could've died. I would've disappeared forever."

"I'm sorry," Cody apologized, "I just... was daydreaming."

Noah raised an eyebrow. "Daydreaming? About what?"

"Er... a wedding. With me and Gwen."

"You mean your boss, the one you just met?"

"Yeah..."

"Why her? She's gothier than a vampire listening to an Evanescence album in a dark room."

"Yeah, but-" Cody sighed. "She's so beautiful..." He turned to look at the ghost. "Oh, I hope you don't mind, but I asked her out when you weren't paying attention."

"WHAT!?" Noah exclaimed. "What do you mean, asked her out? When?"

"Uh, around the end, at 9:30," he answered.

"Oh, no wonder I didn't hear, I was sleeping then," Noah said.

"Figures." They sat in silence after that, the only sound coming from the car.

And then Noah decided to start drumming his fingers on the arm rest.

Cody only sighed and went back to thinking about Gwen.

They soon were back to their house, Cody standing outside of the car while Noah floated calmly next to him.

"So... we have generally a lot of time to spare, what do you say we grab some brunch?"

Cody shrugged. "Yeah, why not."

As they got back into the car, Noah observed, "It's pretty aimless to drive all the way here if you're just gonna drive all the way back to town again."

"Hey, you were the one that suggested it," the other replied, smiling.

"So I did." Noah smirked. And so they started the car and drove out down the worn and dusted road.

"Well, we're here," Noah said as the two got out from the car. They were standing in front of a small cafe.

"This is a nice place. Did you know it when you were alive?" Cody asked. The ghost nodded. As Cody turned to look at him, he noticed something was strangely off balance.

"You look different," he noticed.

Noah looked down at himself in mock surprise. "Wow! I do look different, don't I?" he exclaimed in a falsely amazed tone.

"No need to get so sarcastic." He laughed. The ghost looked more solid, more alive now. He was wearing the same clothes as before, only his figure looked slightly more slender and lithe...

"Why are you a girl?" Cody asked.

"It would be kinda weird if we- well, I dunno." Noah looked down at his feminine body awkwardly.

"Oh well. Let's go inside," Cody said, and the two of them walked in.

It was a cozy place, warm and smelling of coffee beans and pastries. The female Noah stood, admiring the place he used to know, while Cody headed straight to the fluffy, fresh-baked pastries.

"May I help you?" said a voice. Cody looked up and saw a tall, wide-chested Jamaican Canadian with an apron on.

"Oh, hello." Cody nodded at the tall young man and he smiled. "Um, can I have a large creampuff with chocolate sauce please?" The man nodded.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, how about... two lattes and-" Cody turned around and called to his friend, "Hey, um- Nora, what type of pastry would you like?"

Noah turned around, first surprised but then understood that his real name would have to be changed because of his current gender. "Er...an eclair would be fine," he said. The Jamaican Canadian nodded and rung it up.

"That'll be six dollars and 80 cents," he said. Cody pulled his wallet from his pocket and gave him the money. The man put it in the register and turned around to face a shorter man with black hair.

"Trent!" he called. "Get me a chocolate covered cream puff and an eclair, please."

"Right away, DJ," said Trent, and he headed off to the kitchen.

"Um, just curious, but what is this 'Momma cream', exactly?" asked Noah, gesturing to the sign next to the pastries that said, "Made with 100% Momma cream."

DJ wiped a tear from his eye. "Momma cream," he whispered. He brightened up. "Momma cream is a secret recipe cream that my mom made. We used to bake together with it... I love you, Momma!" He burst out crying, and fell to the ground, bawling like a child. Cody and Noah stood over him, not knowing what to do. Fortunately for them, a minute later DJ headed over to the coffee machine and filled their two lattes. When they were finished filling, he handed the drinks and pastries to the two and nodded. Cody and Noah thanked him and walked to the nearest table.

"Well," said Noah. "That was fairly... odd." He took a bite out of his eclair. "Hey, this isn't have bad." He took another bite and grinned. Cody couldn't reply because he was stuffing his face. "...You're quite the sugar tooth, aren't you?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I like sweets," Cody mumbled through his creampuff, chocolate on his face.

"I can see," The ghost laughed. Cody laughed with him, neither of them noticing the snow outside spiraling down in an unsettling fast pace...

A/N: AUGGHHHHH.

AUUUUUUUUUUUUGH.

I am so sorry for the wait! I've had technical difficulties with my keyboard, along with a crap-load of laziness and even more research for the job thing. I was honestly planning on typing the whole thing, but... no. I decided to tie in a bit with TG, as in, if you die once you (could) become a ghost, die again you're gone (although in the story both Teth and Anon killed that rule, lol). Again, I'm sorry for the wait, and thank you all so much for the follows, faves, and reviews! I'll TRY to update soon!