Chapter 3

A/N: Suffering seriously from the writer's jetlag called reality; this chapter was slow in coming. My apologies, hopefully it was worth the wait. Enjoy.

He felt real, she thought, holding him close, her tears continuing to flow.

But he also felt surprisingly thin, and judging by his more than usually pungent aroma, was much more unkempt than he normally was.

But then, how would she know? It wasn't like she'd been around to know…

Lydia jerked, roughly detangling their somehow unintentionally intimate embrace, wiping at her reddened eyes and turning from him, her gaze ingrained on her bedroom door.

She wouldn't look at his face; she wouldn't see the tears she knew still fell from his own eyes, she was angry at him damn it! She was angry, and she had every reason to be.

But if that was the case, then why did she so desperately want to return to the amazingly safe circle of his arms, where she'd felt most at peace in years?

She wasn't supposed to have so many doubts, so many uncertainities. He'd left her, left her at the exact time when her life was at its most turmoil time of change, when she'd needed him most, when she'd needed a friend, her best friend.

"Babes…"

And he'd said it. Said it all in that one little name, that one little endearment he could never shake from associating with her. He'd never called anyone but her that, as far as she knew, and never had she ever heard it spoken from his lips with such feeling, such anguish.

Was that it? What she felt from him? Anguish? Good. He deserved every bit that what little was left of his conscious forced on him. She would not yield, not become again the blubbering mess in his embrace she was at seeing him for the first time in months. She was not a little girl anymore, and her emotions could no longer be swayed at the drop of a hat and a show-stopping side-splitting performance on his part. That was then, this was now.

"Beetlejuice," she started, her back turned, though she could still feel him flinch at his name, his full one, and the cold tone she'd put behind it, "why are you here?"

It was a simple question, and a simple answer would suffice, but for the lack of life of him the ghoul couldn't seem to find such an answer.

And after several minutes, not moments, of silence, what little patience Lydia had was wearing incredibly thin.

"I'm waiting Beetlejuice," she finally spoke, the threat of what would happen behind saying his full name a second time clear to them both.

He had to think, fast, if he stood any chance of standing there for more than a few extra minutes.

"Lyds, Babes, I know that you're angry-"

"Damn straight," she scoffed.

Obviously momentarily surprised by her outburst, or maybe just the fact that he'd forgotten that she wasn't twelve anymore and swore when the situation called for it, she heard Beetlejuice only sigh, and then continue.

"And, I know that ya got every right to be mad at me. But why I wasn't here these past few months-"

"Yes, tell me BJ," she spat out, acid dripping off her tongue at saying his own nickname, knowing she would have to call him back if she again used his full name if she wanted to finish her sentence, a thing she really didn't have the patience anymore for.

Going shopping with a mother like hers for several hours, only to come home and be emotionally rocked to the core by the sudden appearance of a practically long lost best friend, was needless to say, a lot more than most girls could handle. And while she definitely wasn't most girls, Lydia knew she'd be lying if she said that she wasn't feeling the strain.

Truth be told, she was liable to snap any moment, and if she did, the consequences wouldn't be good for anybody, not Beetlejuice, and especially not her.

Apparently, however, BJ had overcome the latest verbal abuse brought down on him by her, and was talking still.

"-Neitherworld knows I ain't the best when it comes to apologizin', but Babes you've gotta believe me, I never meant to-" his voice suddenly broke, and he ended in barely above a whisper, "-to hurt you."

But if anything, her fury was only fanned that much more at his confession. She had to stay that way too, had to stay angry, as the only remaining emotion to run with in her arsenal was her utter joy, relief at seeing him again, being with him again, and Beetlejuice would have to earn that response from her if she had anything to say about it.

"'Never meant to hurt me'? BJ, how can you say such a thing when you know that what you did is exactly what did hurt me? Did you ever happen to think too of just how worried, not just hurt I was when you stopped showing? How was I to know the difference if you'd gone and finally gotten yourself eaten by a Sandworm? Obviously I couldn't go and see you myself as you made it clear to me that you didn't want anything to do with my company, so what was I supposed to do? You tell me BJ, what was I supposed to do? Just go on with my life as if our friendship had never been? As if all the stuff we've been through together meant nothing to either of us? Tell me BJ! You're the 'Ghost with the Most', you tell me!"

She was screaming now, but Lydia also knew that she could've cared less if her parents had happened to walk in at that precise moment asking what was wrong. She really didn't care anymore. She was facing him again, and was piercing her eyes with his, demanding his answer.

Because if he couldn't answer, their relationship to her was as good as over to her as it apparently had been to him over the past several months.

What she hadn't expected, however, was his own anger.

Never had she seen his green eyes so clouded with such passion of emotion, and to be completely honest, is scared her.

She'd never seen him like this, not ever. He was as unpredictable as a lighting-strike to her now, and if it weren't for her resolve to maintain eye-contact with him she might have been concerned for her own well-being.

But such thoughts had been pushed to the farthest reaches of her mind, and all she could do now was wait, watch for signs of his next move and act accordingly.

But what his next move was, she'd never seen coming, and still hadn't even as his lips had come crashing down on hers.