The Only Exception

"Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed." -Michael Pritchard

"Hi!" she chirped cheerfully at her unexpected guests. With a wide smile, she moved to stand in front of them. Lydia had fixed her with a dark look and Craig, in all his shaggy haired awkwardness, could only look helplessly between the two.

"Am I missing something?" he asked cautiously.

Lydia turned to him and flashed him a tight smile. "I think we caught Autumn a little off guard showing up so unexpectedly. I'm gonna go stake out my parent's old bedroom and leave you two alone to catch up." And with that she hefted up her small duffel and strode purposefully towards the staircase. Autumn and Craig were left alone near the front door.

"I'm sorry if showing up like this upsets you," he grinned sheepishly. "But Lydia called me and said she was going to visit you. I couldn't resist tagging along. I missed you."

Something inside Autumn clenched painfully at his admission. In all her thinking this morning, she'd come to the decision that her relationship with Craig had all but come to an end. Though at the moment, she just didn't have the heart to tell him that. So instead she stepped forward to wrap her arms around him.

Craig was a slender guy and fairly tall. He was almost consistently wearing slim fitting jeans and a band t-shirt of some type. Today's selection was a black Grateful Dead shirt with a blue plaid shirt layered on top. A beanie slouched lazily on top of his unruly mop of brown hair. For a guy his age and into the alternative scene, he was the epitome of gorgeous. Deep blue eyes drew one in and a quirky, lopsided smile completed the ensemble.

But Autumn found herself wanting to see green eyes instead of blue.

Craig gave her a quick peck on the cheek before hoisting up his own bag. "So, where are we crashing, babe?"

Babe. Oh gods, that sounded so wrong coming from anyone but him. Speaking of...what was he up to now? She didn't feel any eyes lingering on her and he was blessedly silent wherever he was. She had a sinking feeling Lydia was going to run into him before she did that night.

"Upstairs," she forced herself to answer. "I'm staying in Lydia's old room, actually. Follow me."

After dumping her bag in her new "room", Lydia made a beeline for the attic. She could think of no other place he'd retreat to and she also knew that he'd be waiting for her. She wasn't disappointed. A quick glance around the model town revealed him seated comfortably on a pair of gravestones in his signature striped suit. The tableau struck her dumb – it was almost exactly the same image she remembered of him that last time they met. She was a naïve and morbid teenager back then, desperate to save the only people she really considered family and so she had rashly struck a deal with this crazy poltergeist.

The same poltergeist that sat looking up at her more perturbed than amused. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure, Lyds?"

"Stay away from my cousin!" was the first thing that blurted out of her mouth. It wasn't eloquent or insightful, nor was it any of the things she'd wanted to say to him over the years. But it was a valid threat.

Betelgeuse shifted a bit and glared up at her. "And why should I listen to you? Even if you're threatening me, we both know you're not exactly the type of person to follow though, if you know what I mean?"

Lydia scowled. "I was a kid back then, okay? And you're a pervert! Of course I wasn't going go to go through with it. Even though you did save the Maitlands..."

"Not all bad then, am I?"

Lydia remained quiet, letting her eyes roam around the dusty attic. Everything was exactly as they left it, even the original handbook was still sitting on the sheet covered couch. She blinked back tears suddenly, in that moment she realized just how much she had missed the two ghosts that were more of a family to her than her legal parents had ever been.

And now they were gone.

Which lead to her next point. "Why are you still here, anyways?"

"M'stuck, Lyds," he told her honestly. "And I only get out when someone says the magic B words, you know that."

"You're stuck in this house?" she asked skeptically.

"Well yeah," he drawled. "When I'm not stuck on the otherside. Seems I can only poke around inside the house when I get bored. And I'm telling ya, Lyds, I've been pretty bored."

She stepped closer. "Except when you're terrorizing my little cousin."

A lecherous grin stretched across the poltergeist's face. "Actually, she's been doing all the terrorizing, if you get my drift."

Lydia snarled. "She's a good girl and she's had it rough for a while. The last thing she needs is to get mixed up with someone...something like you!"

Betelgeuse furrowed his unruly brows at her. "What are you, her mom or something?"

"I might as well have been..." she trailed off suddenly. Her eyes lowered and for a moment Lydia found herself lost in a sea of past memories, some of them lovely and some of them heartbreaking. After a moment, she pulled herself together and took a good, long look at Betelgeuse.

"You haven't changed at all," she murmured.

"I'm dead," was his rejoinder. "You don't really change much after that. But you sure look different. What are you, like, pushing sixty now?"

"Thirty-nine," she grinned. "It's been a while, Juice. I'd say it's good to see you but..."

Betelgeuse relaxed his posture then and grinned back at her. "Yeah yeah, we're square and all that, but we ain't friends."

"Something like that..."

Alone in the bedroom with Craig was the last place she wanted to be. Standing out in the cold with bare feet and a cigarette sounded much more appealing. Instead she was gingerly perched on the edge of the bed next to him, watching warily as he let himself fall back on the mattress. He let out a contented sigh.

"I missed you, you know?" he said. "The city's just not the same. And everyone's been asking about you."

"Yeah?" she responded numbly. Everyone meant their little crowd of friends. Jay, Ashley, and Brook – they had all met in college at one point and sort of stuck together. A strange little family. Before Autumn had spirited herself away to the old Deetz house, gathering at the local dive bar for open mic nights had sort of been a regular thing. Craig had been hassling her to take part in a poetry reading for months, despite her insistence that poems just weren't her thing.

Chalk that up to another case of not listening to her.

But she had to derail that thought, since Craig had started speaking again. "Ashley's sick of being the only girl in the group these days. I suppose she's homesick for all that girly talk in the bathrooms, huh?"

He meant it as a joke, but it only served to fuel her ire. "What do you take us for, valley girls or something? You know we don't do that kind of stupid shit..."

Craig sat up, a frown etched on his pale face. "Look, that's not what I meant. Why are you so pissed off right now?"

Autumn closed her eyes and let out a long, tense breath. Then she dropped her head into her hands. "I don't know. I had a long day...there's this real estate agent bitch who keeps bugging me about the house and I had an argument with my agent...things have just been peachy."

"I'm sorry," he said immediately. "I didn't know. Do you just wanna get some rest? I'm sure Lydia's probably hungry so we'll go grab food okay?"

She didn't lift up her head to nod. "Okay. Thank you. Rest is probably exactly what I need right now."

Craig kissed the top of her head and quietly left the room. Once the door had shut behind him, she flopped down onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. The speckled gray above her swirled together towards the middle where it met up with the light fixture and all in all, Autumn found it to be oddly hypnotic. "Whoever designed this room had sleep in mind, that's for sure..."

Checking out already?

"Are you finished being scolded?" she shot back, wearily.

What are you talking about?

She rolled onto her side, long locks of hair fanning out across the mattress. A yawn was stifled before she answered. "I knew she'd find you and rip you a new one. So how'd it go?"

I think she still wants me.

"Ha!"

There was a long pause and then a hesitant So that's you're boyfriend, huh?

Autumn opened her eyes and let out another pitiful sigh. "Yes. No. I don't know...it's pretty complicated now. And I think he's the only one that doesn't know it. Ignorance is bliss, hmm?"

That's what they say. Betelgeuse had taken on the form of a striped snake on his way to her room and now he was casually wrapped around one of the bed's legs, carefully hidden from view. Her last encounter with snakes hadn't gone so well but he had to urge to remain corporeal in some sense while talking to her.

"I know I should end it. I've known it for a while too..." she sat up then, brushing hair out of her face and rubbing at her tired eyes. "This weekend is going to be horrible, but once it's over I'll break it off for good."

The poltergeist inwardly cringed. He couldn't believe he was having this kind of conversation. Why was she confiding in him, anyways? Betelgeuse didn't realize he'd said that last part out loud until she answered.

"That's a good question," she mused. "Probably because you're the only one that actually listens these days. How pathetic is that, that I'm spilling all my girly issues to a dead guy?"

Wanna say the magic words, babe?

She shook her head before standing up. "No, I don't think that would be a good idea. If it was just Lydia...I could probably swing it. You'll have to wait, I'm afraid."

Where you going?

"To get my laptop," she informed him. "The story's really unfolding now. Funny, it's only good when you're not the main character..."