(AN: ...Hi… I promised myself I wouldn't be one of those authors. One who was always constantly apologizing for not posting in months. But here I am, doing it. SORRY GUYS! You have no idea how much I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions, and the favs 3.

College is tough, but I'm getting a big break in the next few weeks, so expect more updates then! I still have a lot of ideas, so this fic isn't going to die or end for a while :))

Chapter Three: Seeing is Believing

The sharp snap of a camera phone was silenced by the clamor of the hallway, and with no body there to see, the junior reporter snuck in and out of the hall as stealthily as a rat. Of course, he preferred to describe himself as a casual observer, who just happened to have his iCoffin out when there was drama brewing and just happened to witness a conversation between a certain fire elemental and a mini vampire. So who could blame him for snapping a few pics? It also just happened to be coincidence that his, uh, ghoulfriend had an intense hunger for journalism that couldn't be quenched by the juiciest of squabbles or the worst heart breaks.

Just like the vampire's conversation he had overheard a while ago, he also had to sacrifice integrity for someone he liked. In all honesty, Invisibilly didn't give a flying freak show about journalism, but he did care about Spectra. When they had met, sparks flew and heads rolled. For a while, he was eternally thankful for his ability to disappear at will, for a blush never quite faded from his cheeks when the phantasmal beauty floated near him. She would constantly tease him about it too, in a loving way, pinching his cheeks and kissing him when he got too shy.

It wasn't easy to hide his feelings from her, either. Not only did Billy consider himself to be completely transparent, painfully so at times, but Spectra was completely interested in everything he seemed to do. One their third date, she brought a notepad with her, the small pages filled with questions. When he asked her why, she gave him a smile and admitted she was always so comfortable with him, she forgot half of the questions she'd meant to ask.

"You see, it's ever so frustrating to come home after a frightfully fun evening and then discover that I haven't even asked you what your first big prank was!"

"The infamous Screeching Leeches in Mr. Gores gym shorts? Yours truly."

"And were you always such a big prankster, Billy?" She had said, leaning forward on her stool. They had sat outside the Coffin Bean for hours, making conversation over empty coffee cups. It had been chilly outside that day, and Invisibilly remembered that he had offered her his jacket on many occasions, pestering her that she would catch the Uncommon Cold. She breezily waved him off each time, finally having to explain that, being a ghost, she wasn't affected by the temperature outside. He felt sheepish after that, mumbling an apology into his sleeve. Death wasn't a thing he understood as well as some other students in his school. While others were undead, immortal, or in Spectra's case simply deceased, Invisibilly was very much alive and aged like any other normie boy. If he wasn't so translucent, he was pretty sure he could fit right into the crowd of human kids that went to New Salem.

" Since I was old enough to crawl around, just being a toddler without a cause."

"And how old were you then?"

He had laughed, leaning forward and resting his head on his arms "This is off the record, right?"

Instead of getting defensive about her queries, Spectra just leaned close as well and gave him a mischievous smirk "I can't confirm that. It's my duty to record the truth, Billy. You know... in the name of journalism."

Her eyes gleamed in the twilight, lavender pupils shining as bright as the stars themselves, that had just begun to peek out from behind the cloudy veil. He felt a jolt in his chest, but there was nothing but the two of them. At least, that's the only thing he saw. Invisibilly knew that moment he had fallen hard for the spectacular specter across from him.

If only that feeling had lasted. The two of them dated for some time, and he still considered Spectra to be one of his closest friends, but he didn't feel the same spark with her that her had felt all those months ago. He didn't know when it started, did anyone really? But one day he had reached to grab her hand and, when he did, felt absolutely nothing. And the feeling, or lack thereof, didn't go away.

Spectra didn't deserve a boyfriend who lied to her. She deserved a guy who loved her inside and out, but she wanted him instead. So, being the laid back guy he always had been, he decided to stick it out until he could summon the courage to tell her that he wanted to break things off. Hell, maybe he'd be lucky and she would start seeing another guy! At least it would make Billy feel a lot less guilty, and make the break up much easier. Until then, the least he could do was put a little extra effort into digging up some juicy gossip for her always-updating tabloid- er… perfectly legitimate news column.

Dodging right and left, and spooking a few passerby's with a disembodied "sorry!" or "excuse me!", the invisible boy climbed the ever-winding staircases of Monster High up to the attic, a regular haunt of Spectra's. While her office was used for piecing papers together and some pretty impressive detective work, she preferred a more desolate, cobwebby place to brainstorm. Before he could even pull down the trap door to climb up, Spectra's wispy violet head materialized through the ceiling, looking down at her somewhat boyfriend in a huff. "What took you so long?"

Her normally airy and high-pitched tone was quivering with worry, and Invisibilly promptly unlatched the attic door and climbed into the dusty, dark room. He hated it up here. The cramped, dirty space was perfect for monsters who thrived in a gloomy environment, or if they were more like spectra and able to float through any surface at will, but for a guy who had been raised by a thespian, as well as a total neat freak? Billy did not hang in this type of environment. However, the nervous rattling of chains suggested that his ghostly ghoulfriend needed him now, even though he was completely grossed out by this place.

"What's wrong?" he said, wiping off a thick layer of dust on an old chair before gingerly sitting himself down.

Spectra simply fluttered back and forth, her eyes superglued to her phone. The soft glow the constantly emanated from her body mixed with the backlight from her iCoffin made her look like a human night-light (a ghost night-light?) that danced inches above the littered floor. Invisibilly felt the old ache in his chest again, the feeling of wanting more than anything to love someone who he just didn't. She really was the definition of hauntingly beautiful. "Nothing, nothing… nothing…"

He shook his head again, resisting the urge to assume his usual slouch due to centuries of piled up dust that clung to the back of his chair. "Not gonna work Spectra V, I can see right through you."

The ghostly girl twirled around to face him, her eyes scrunched up with worry. "Oh, Billy it's terrible! It's the worst thing that's happened to me, no! To this school in decades!" She floated, rather melodramatically, around the room, zooming into his face and holding her phone up inches from his nose.

"I lost ten followers!" She wailed, rolling over in the air. She paused, belly up, and looked down at her boyfriend with wide eyes. "Something's gone deathly wrong! Have my posts not been juicy enough? Maybe I just need to find a new angle! What's wrong with me, no, with them! If it's because of those awful rumors, they can stop right there because everything I post is completely accurate. It shouldn't kill them if I make things just a little more creative!"

He gingerly took her hand, and Spectra solidified slightly so he could grasp it. He twirled her around so she was right side up and facing him. "Spectra, you have almost every monster in the school following your blog, even some of the teachers! That's over a thousand people. Ten of them just don't have good taste, that's all"

She let out a small sigh, flipping her Farrah Fawcett waves behind her ear "You're absolutely right, Billy. Like usual. Still, I need something big this time. Something that can skyrocket me back to being the first thing anyone wants to see. I'm the girl in the know, you know."

"I know."

"But they don't know!" She sighed, shaking her head, wisps of hair slinking around her face as if they were moving underwater. "Did you find anything today? I need some inspiration for the most redeeming post yet!"

The most scandalous post yet, Billy corrected in his mind. He respected Spectra for her love of storytelling and creativity, but he often wondered about the journalistic integrity she liked to talk about and whether or not Spectra actually valued it. Invisibilly wasn't the type to call a monster out or ridicule them. He thought about refusing, possibly stretching the truth just a bit to say he didn't find anything interesting. But then he thought about how far he had drifted from her, and how heartbroken she would be eventually.

He thought of the other monsters he had started to notice instead. The muscular, broad shoulders of the guys, how soft and plump the ghoul's lips had seemed to him all of a sudden. He felt like a cheater. A brain-cheater. He passed over his phone, his cheating brain calmed for a moment at the smile on her face.

"No, no, no…" she flicked through the images one by one, shaking her head again. "This is all old news. I mean, Lagoona and Gil fighting again? Firstly, poor thing, but second that happens every few weeks! Tentacle attacks, no. Toralei busting someone's iCasket? Didn't I have another post like that?"

By this point she was basically mumbling to herself, absorbed in her work instead of flitting about the darkened room "Oh, oh Billy! That is just adorable!" She twirled around, holding up his phone that had the image of two zombies sitting on a bench, their hands touching as they shared shy grins with each other. He recognized one of them immediately as Slo-Mo, one of the bloodies he hung out with now and then. The other one he had seen around a lot, freakishly fast for a member of the undead, and he reasoned by her cobalt locks and horn-rimmed glasses that she was the infamous Ghoulia. Though not the school sweetheart or the queen bee, the zombie girl had captured the majority of the hearts on campus and won the place as the go-to-ghoul when anyone had an emergency. Even if you didn't speak zombie, she always knew exactly what to say.

He had learned all this from Spectra herself, who had immediately dismissed the ghoul as pretentious, before Ghoulia charmed the ghost herself. Invisibilly never knew exactly what they had talked about, but his ghoulfriend assured him that Ghoulia was the best friend someone could have when they needed a shoulder to cry on.

She tapped a code into Billy's iCoffin, uploading the picture from his phone to hers. "Love Blooms in the Garden of the Dead," she mused out loud "Will this love last through the year, or will fate kill Slo-meo's and Ghouliet's star-crossed romance?"

Billy leaned over her shoulder, reading the rough draft of her post "Do you really think people will get the Shakespeare reference?"

"It's clever. Besides, you get it," she chirped, delightedly pressing 'post' on her phone, "And you're not exactly the most cultured in literature."

Invisibilly rolled his eyes. It was true, he was no Clawd Wolf when it came to academics. Hell, he was skipping a class right now, though he didn't actually think Physical Deaducation counted. Not like they would notice he was gone anyway. But, two things he knew for sure in life was mischief and theater. Mischief, pranks, were one thing, but knowing the Bard backwards and forwards stemmed from another whole issue. His father.

Mr. Where was one of the most well-known drama teachers in the country. He received immense praise for the ability to find hidden talent inside every one of his students. His plays were Broadway quality, and the school spared no cost in getting him the equipment he required. He was also the only person who could emote without a soul seeing his face. And his son couldn't act whatsoever.

William "Invisibilly" Where had picked up none of his father's talents. Not that he wanted to. Billy was completely void of theatrical gifts, but he did make an excellent backstage hand. The spotlight had never interested the boy. He had always wondered, however, if his dad secretly wished his son was as gifted as him, maybe live through him like one of the Dance of the Dead Moms. He was named after one of the most well-known playwrights in the world, after all.

He jolted back into the present, the new post had lifted Spectra's spirits and she was raving about some other photo on his phone. He simply nodded, more like a disembodied head than anything.

"Billy… What does 'don't have feelings anymore' mean?" Her voice had dropped, and she hovered sadly in front of him, slumping a little."

Invisibilly reached out and tried to take his phone back from her, but the girl just turned her shoulders and read aloud. "Right here, in this text to Manny: 'I just don't have feelings for her anymore'. What… what does that mean?"

A rush of panic fled through the boy, and he reached up again, trying to recover his iCoffin from her grip "Spectra, that's personal!" Why was he getting defensive? A small voice in the back of his mind chastised him for raising his voice at her. It would only make things worse.

She tried again, her voice sounding small, timid. "What do you mean?" She floated softly back down to the ground, her feet touching the floor without stirring up the dust around her. As she handed him his phone back, she looked up at Invisibilly with large, watery eyes. Looked up at him. It wasn't like Spectra to stay in one place for such a long time, let alone be at anything below eye level with him. He knew she was shorter than him, but… looking down at her like this only made him feel like more of a monster than usual.

"I mean… I-I mean that…" There was no way around this. They knew each other too well by now. And he was a notoriously bad liar, transparent to the very core. "I meant that I don't think I still love you."

He had always thought telling her would make him feel better, or at least less guilty, but it didn't. Instead of a clear conscience, a wave of shame washed over him as he saw Spectra's face pinch up, holding back the start of ectoplasmic tears. "But," she began, "I love you…"

A list of excuses started to form on Billy's tongue, and he held out both hands, like he was attempting to get her to understand "We're still only in high school, Spectra, I never thought we would get this serious… That party, I-"

She shook her head, cutting him off "I loved you, and you lied to me!" Rising, her voice filled the cluttered room, a note of anger added to the sadness and disbelief.

"It must have been pretty pathetic, right? Stringing me along like that? Mocking me?" Everything seemed to rise with her pitch, as she levitated higher and higher the soft light around her body began to glow brighter. Even objects around the room seemed affected by her emotions. Dirty candlesticks, old rusted silverware, figurines and even an old grandfather clock lifted from their place on the floor and hovered menacingly in the air. Invisibilly ducked, and quickly disappeared from view.

"I trusted you!" She shouted, a spoon flying towards the spot where Billy had stood a moment ago. "I. Trusted. You." She said again, and with a wave of one hand a half-dozen tea lights embedded themselves in the wall behind him like ninja stars.

God was he glad he had moved, grabbing his chair, he slid it in front of him and crouched behind it. A crappy shield but nonetheless effective from the barrage of knickknacks thrown his direction."I didn't lie to you! At least I didn't mean to. I just didn't want to hurt your feelings. You're still really important to me, Spectra!" He shouted, cowering unseen before the ghostly girl's temper.

At his words, she began to simmer down, floating back to the floor and landing like a ballerina, toes pointed. The objects, including the old clock, didn't have her grace. They instead crashed to the ground, a loud hollow noise followed by a plume of dust. The dust surrounded Billy, and though he was still invisible, it surrounded his silhouette and made him clearly visible to Spectra.

He tried again. "I just didn't know… I wanted to find a way to still make you happy. You're my friend. My best friend, but… It isn't fair to you."

Spectra shook her head, her voice back to a sad, dejected state. "No, you're right… It isn't fair." Her voice broke, and hurriedly she fell through the floors of the attic, into the body of the school below.

Invisibilly felt as though he probably should become visible again. To act like a man and walk out of here not exactly proud but knowing he had done what needed to be done. Shoulders back, head held high. But he didn't. He didn't feel like a man. He wasn't proud of himself at all. Instead, he stayed curled up against the back of the chair, lanky fingers clutching the wooden frame tightly, as tears began to sting in the corners of his eyes.

((AN: So by now I assume you guys have noticed a general trend in the story by now. It never sticks with one character for long. And I am so sorry Spectra/Billy shippers! This scene was hard for me to write. On a related note, I have heard your requests for Jackson! He is coming, and I have a definite plan for some cute Frankie/Jackson and Jackson/Frankie/Holt fluff pretty soon, I just need to get the ball rolling with what is going to be a little bit of plot! I know, right?!

If anyone else has any requests, I always love to hear them! Your reviews are the whip cream to my coffee, which I am getting slowly addicted to!))