"But I thought…?" Casper mumbled confusedly.

"The school was empty when we ran out of it, and I think I even remember seeing Slither get caught..." Thatch raised a brow, looking out at the other students.

The two walked out of the brush, Dummy girl turned and saw Thatch, she and Slither got off the bench and started walking over. Thatch suddenly became hyper aware that he was still holding the ghosts hand, he blushed and quickly let go.

"Yo Thatch, where have you been? I haven't seen you since class…I think" Dummy Girl raised a brow. "Today's been a bit of a blur…"

"Yeah, me too. Just one of those days I guess." Slither added.

"Uh, yeah, sure...one of those days…" Thatch muttered.

Dummy girl then looked between Casper and Thatch.

"Wow, you two look like shit." She said nonchalantly.

"Yeah, seriously. What happened to you two dudes?" Slither raised a brow. (and he has great ones at that)

Casper and Thatch side-eyed each other for a moment, with a look of "we can't tell them the truth."

"Mr. Burns made us go find some moss for some sort on an experiment." Thatch rolled his eyes.

Casper was a little impressed with how quickly the vampire came up with a lie…and also a little concerned.

"But like, your head, dude." Slither pointed at the length of fabric around Thatchs forehead.

"Oh…I fell down a hill and hit my head on a rock."

"Owch." Slither muttered.

"What about you," Dummy looked at Casper. "You also fall too?"

"Well uh…" the ghost looked down at his dirty cloths.

"When I fell, I accidently grabbed Casper, and pulled him down too…" Thatch admitted with a look of mild annoyance.

"Mr Burns needs to stop sending you two out, you keep coming back all beat up." Dummy shook her head.

Casper and Thatch side-eyed each other for a moment before nervously blushing and looking back at the two in front of them.

Just then they heard an alarmed squeak overhead, they looked up to see a purple bat coming in for a landing. The bat landed in front of them, and in a puff of violet smoke Sibella immerged.

"Thatch, I was looking for you everywhere! Are-oh my, your hurt." She frowned with concern.

"Uh, yeah, but it's not too bad…" The grey vampire shrugged semi-awkwardly.

"You should go see the nurse." Sibella said, looking at the wound worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah, so I've been told." Thatch side eyed Casper for a moment with mock annoyance.

Sibella looked between the two for a moment, her expression blank, then she went back to smiling. She turned back to the grey vampire.

"Well, I just wanted to ask if you wanted to go see a wrestling show this Friday, instead of the movies?" Sibella asked.

Thatch blinked.

"…You like wrestling?" he raised a brow.

"Oh yes! And I just heard that there is going to be a really good show in Underworld City, this Friday! I'd hate to miss it, and it sounds like a lot more fun a date than the movies." She beamed.

"It certainly does sound like more fun…" He chuckled awkwardly.

Meanwhile, Casper was off to the side, watching the two vampire talk. He frowned and looked at the dirt. He wasn't stupid, those two fit together like puzzle pieces. Meanwhile, he wasn't even from the same puzzle. He wasn't even in a puzzle box, he was a lost piece, long forgotten under a sofa somewhere. Unwanted.

"Then that's the plan! I'll meet you at the pirate ship around 6:30 Friday night!" She grinned.

"Well, Sibella," Casper spoke up, earning the attention of the two vampires. "I better make sure he gets to the nurse…He's pretty stubborn about that." The ghost chuckled anxiously.

"Well I could take-"

"No, no, I better take him. I want my sleeve back, and we've got pockets full of moss to drop off with Mr Burns." Casper continued, anxious to get out of earshot. "I hope you have a nice day Sibella." The ghost smiled, waving behind him as he pushed Thatch towards the school building.

The two walked into the building, the door shutting behind them.

"Uh…you're not really taking me to the nurse, are you?"

"No."

Thatch sighed in relief.

"I'm taking you to the nurses' office."

Thatch made an annoyed sound that could best be described as a "ugh!" mixed with a squawk.

"Too bad, you need that wound properly bandaged and cleaned."

"No disinfectant."

Casper sighed in annoyance. "Fine, will you at least let me wash it a little?"

"…alright, fine, I can do that."

As they headed down the hall, they heard a very annoyed, and familiar teacher shouting at them from behind.

"Thatch! Casper! Stop immediately!" Mr Burns called out.

The two grimaced and turned around to see the angry dragon stopping towards them.

"Hello Mr Burns." Casper smiled awkwardly.

"I'm furious with you two!"

The dragon stared for a moment, a scowl on his face.

"…But, I can't seem to remember why…" the dragon scratched his head, looking confused.

Thatch and Casper looked at each other with a confused expression, then back at the dragon.

"Errr, dismissed!" Mr. Burns snapped, and the two students quickly left.

Thatch sat down on the medical chair, meanwhile Casper rummaged around for bandages and gauze. Luckily, the nurse wasn't there, so they could do this without any fuss from her.

The vampire tapped the seat a bit impatiently. He didn't want to be alone with Casper…well, he did, but that was the problem. He felt so stupid, he never should have kissed the ghost. He didn't exactly mean to, he just kind of did… It's just, Casper was so kind, and compassionate, and adorable. The ghost always looked at him with such a sweet expression. No one ever looked at him so sweetly, no one but his own mother anyways. And it made Thatch want to melt, and dote on Casper like he was most precious thing in the world.

Come to think of it, Casper was quite a bit like his mother in personality. Maybe he inherited his dad's taste in people…

The ghost came over with some bandages and a bowl of supplies, he began unwrapping the length of sleeve from Thatch's forehead. Parts of the sleeve were stained with red blood, but luckily it seemed like the bleeding had stopped. Casper took a warm, wet rag out of the bowl and began cleaning the wounds.

Thatch's face heated up, this was just too much. The ghost was so kind and gentle with him. He was flustered beyond words. And all of his emotional turmoil was his own damn fault, and that made it so much worse. He couldn't blame anything.

Casper meanwhile looked very calm and pensive, he seemed hyper focused on his task. He had been silent since they went into the room. He wrung out the wet rag into the bowl, before stating to speak.

"Thatch…about what happened in the cave…" the ghost spoke carefully.

The vampire flinched, and stared at the ground, avoiding eye contact.

"I get it. It's ok. You don't need to explain anything." Casper continued, speaking rather quietly.

Thatch raised a confused brow, still refusing to look up.

"I know it was an accident."

The vampire felt weirdly hurt by that.

"I know you likely just tripped, or you were just confused from your head wound." The ghost continued with a compassionate tone.

"So don't worry,"

The ghost now stood in front of him. Casper placed a gentle hand under the vampire's chin and lifted, Thatch was now forced to look Casper in the eye. The ghost had an understanding smile, but his eyes looked sad.

Thatch suddenly felt like dirt.

"I'll pretend it never happened." The ghost pressed the wet rag into the wound.

The vampire frowned, he didn't know what to say, and didn't get the chance, as his wound suddenly started stinging like hell. He yelped with a growl and gripped onto his arms, bracing against the sting. Casper took a few steps back, pulling the rag away. The pain slowly subsided, he looked up at the ghost with confusion. Then he turned and saw a brown bottle next to him on the seat, it read; "Disinfectant" in bold, black letters. He turned back to Casper and glared.

"You motherfucker…" The vampire mumbled as he rubbed water from his eyes.

The ghost gave him a "sorry, but I had to" smile and shrug in response.

"You and your damn disinfectant." Thatch mumbled.

The ghost put a gauze on the wound and wrapped a bandage around it.

"Ok, your all set." Casper smiled sweetly. "Just change the bandages every day, ok?"

"Yeah…thanks." Thatch mumbled.

"I'll go check the monster catcher now. A spider likely just messed with the gears again…" The ghost chuckled.

Casper turned to leave, but then stopped, and turned back.

"And, I hope you and Sibella have a fun Friday." Casper smiled sweetly before flying off.

The vampire stared at the spot Casper had stood previously, and frowned. He hugged himself and looked down at the floor. He felt awful.

Casper had checked the monster catcher, it looked fine. It didn't even look like a spider had been in it, which was honestly a little worrying. What even caused the issue? Either way, it looked fine now. And frankly, Casper didn't want to think about it anymore. He didn't want to think at all, he just wanted to go to sleep, and forget about today.

He walked through the door and into his room. He didn't see Ra around. Good.

He walked over to his bed, laid down, and started to cry. Which in then became sobbing.

They say if you love something, let it go. And that's what he did. Thatch and Sibella were a good fit, he wasn't going to stand in the way of that, even if it hurt him.

He was facing the wall, and thus was a little startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He snapped up straight and turned around. It was Ra, and he looked quite worried.

"What wrong Casp?" the mummy asked, a concerned expression on his face.

Casper looked up at Ra, tears in his eyes.

"I like Thatch…I like him a lot." The ghost said quietly before crying again.

The mummy blinked in confusion before pulling his friend into a hug.

After a few minutes Casper's sobbing died down, and Ra spoke again.

"Yeah, I'd cry too if I had a crush on Thatch."

The ghost gave a little teary eyed laugh.

"Me and Mantha thought maybe you went home for a while, but then it got dark, and we got worried…I came here to see if you had come back yet. Speaking of Mantha, I should text her to let her know your safe." Ra continued.

"Don't tell her about my crush…please..."

The mummy gave him a confused look.

"She hates Thatch. And I don't want that stress right now…"

"Ok, I get it. I won't say anything." Ra answered. "So, when did this crush of start?"

"Last year…one day I sort of noticed he looked kind of…cute…" Casper mumbled and blushed.

"And then he was so caring when we were attacked by that mutant blood blossom. He saved me from the plant, removed the thorns, carried me, and then disobeyed Alder and Dash, just to make sure I'd be ok." The ghost smiled sweetly at the memory.

"And…it's a lot of little things. He can be quite funny when he wants to be, when he's not trying so hard to seem tough…and he's actually quite charming…" The ghost gave a wobbly, smitten smile.

And then he started to cry again.

"What's wrong?" Ra raised a concerned brow, patting his friends back in an attempt to sooth.

"He wouldn't be happy with me. He'd get bored, and want to end it…. And I don't think I could handle the pain of that." Casper sniffled.

"Aww, come on, you don't know that." The mummy tried to reassure.

"I want affection so badly…the idea of getting a taste of love only to have it yanked away…I can't go through that." The ghost started sobbing again.

"I guess I can understand that, but you're making yourself miserable…" Ra added.

"Better this than the misery of someone choosing to leave you…" Casper mumbled teary eyed,

"Casp…" the mummy frowned.

Ra stayed there and hugged Casper for a while until the ghost calmed down. After a while the mummy left to take a shower and get ready for bed. While Casper waited for his turn, his phone buzzed. It was the "new email" buzz sound. He opened up his email and blinked.

One new message from Wendy.

She hadn't talked to him in a year.