Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

So, Shane could see ghosts. 

It wasn't a big deal, really. He was born with, so his childhood was pretty fun ( the classic "does my child talk to his imaginary friends, or with the dead people), and the school was- Shane wasn't exactly bullied, per se, but he was certainly... avoided. The problem was, he couldn't always tell a real person from a ghost. He'd just...help a really nice lady in kinda old fashioned clothes to cross the road, and then he'd be marked as "that weird kid" by everyone, because apparently, no one but Shane could see the lady.

Most of the time, there was really nothing unusual about the person. The "ghosts" ( Shane hated the word, but he hated "apparition" and "spirit" even more) weren`t transparent, they didn`t float above the ground, they weren`t bloody or wounded, which made everything that much more frustrating for Shane. The only time he could be really sure whether the person in front of him was alive was when he`d touch them. His hand would go straight through the ghosts, sometimes causing him to shiver, but that was it. So he'd talked to people, and realized his mistake when it was too late and people around him thought he was crazy. He did so too, sometimes (that is, until his therapist's deceased wife convinced him otherwise. She was a really cool lady, too. Taught him how to mend his clothes, for which Shane will be forever grateful since most of his wardrobe consisted of his older brother`s belongings and the holes kept appearing in the most surprising places. ) Anyway. A couple of his classmates believed Shane. It was more of an " I'm sorry your grandma's cat died, Karen, but no, I can't see him" kind of way, but still. 

To sum up, Shane was a loner. His family was enough support for him. They might not understand precisely what he was going through, but they made everything in their power to make it as easy for Shane as it was possible. Who needs real friends when you have your brother and a bunch of dead people, right?  

So when the summer before Shane`s final year of high school came around, and his mother got a job offer in LA, he hadn`t much to lose (read: people he would miss. Or people who`d miss him. Except maybe his history teacher. Well, Mr. Parkinson would have to deal). So yeah, they`d move in The City of Angels, baby! The  LA!  Shane couldn`t believe his luck. He`d get to see all the movie stars, the film directors and producers, and it was perfect because he considered going to a film school himself... Oh, and Scott moved to California after graduation, so. Everything was finally coming up Shane!  

He promised himself not to fuck up anymore. No more talking to ghosts. He`d pay attention to their clothes, and he`d make sure he didn`t initiate the eye contact first, and he`d walk more confidently so that even ghosts would make way for him and he wouldn`t bump into one of them and apologize- 
expect that`s exactly what he did, the last one. 

Shane met Sara on the first day of school, and sure, she was weirdly excited to talk, but she was fun and made Shane feel easy in a new place, and he finally thought he`d make a real, flesh-n-blood friend, expect, well, you guessed it. Sara was dead. 

She preferred not to talk about it, which was understandable, so all Shane knew is that it was some kind of accident, which just made Shane kinda sad and angry, so he preferred not to think about it, too. 

And so, the rumors about "the weird new kid" had spread through the school. Shane would catch a glimpse of other students looking at him oddly, some conversation being ended abruptly when he got close, but other than that? Shane was  fine!  LA was  great!  He already missed the seasons, and the amount of sunscreen he had to put on was ridiculous, but he loved it here. It was a big city, people heard about stranger things then some shmuck claiming he could talk to ghosts. Everyone mostly left him to his own devices, and if some douche wanted to prank him- well, Sara usually made sure it didn't happen. His friend might not be material, but she was real in another, more important way.

And that was Shane's life. Going to school, watching movies with his brother from time to time, hanging out with his dead best friend, and occasionally crushing on the captain of the basketball team. He was content to finish his senior year as it is, but it seemed that Powers That Be had other plans for him.

***

Shane was eating his lunch outside with Sara, as usual. He avoided being in the cafeteria, his reasons being- well, there were people. Alive people. Who could and would make fun of him for talking to the non-alive people. Shane knew he would probably be fine, but it was way, way harder to put his guard down than he initially thought. 

His thinking was cut off when he heard someone clearing their throat. He raised his eyes and there was him. Ryan Bergara. The Ryan Bergara. He was a captain of a basketball team, and even though Shane hated sports, he went to a couple of games ( read: Sara dragged him), and Bergara   was a  menace . Not only was he attractive and good at sports, he was in a movie club (which Shane knew because he wanted to join, but then he freaked out and decided against it, because he is a loser), and Shane would see him in halls, laughing with his friends. Shane`s anxiety kept telling him that they probably laughed at him (they probably didn`t even know he existed, his rational part of the brain said, which was kinda sad), and even if they did? Whatever, Ryan had the most beautiful, infectious laugh Shane has ever heard and probably was going to ever hear, so Shane would gladly place himself on the banana peel if it made the other one laugh.

Okay, Shane might have a crush .  And there stood he. Ryan Bergara. His crush. In front of him.
Gripping his backpack handles and looking... nervous? Damn, he was probably doing a dare thing. Of course he was. That was what all the other jocks have been up to in his past school, "Hey bro I dare you to go and talk to the weird kid haha!". Fucking assholes.

Shane swallowed his carrot stick, emptied his face of any emotions and looked at Ryan fully.

The man shifted under his gaze. " Uh, hi there! You're Shane, right?"

Shane slowly nodded, watching Ryan and trying to give both don't you dare mess with me and pls leave me alone vibes.

"Uh, I'm Ryan. Ryan Bergara."

Shane didn't even bother to nod this time, too focused on  not  answering with "I know", like a creep he was.

" I, uh, look, I'm sorry to bother you, but there just was all this gossip around, so I'd thought I'd ask... do you really can see ghosts?"

Well, that was weird. Usually people asked, " do you really  think  that you can see ghosts?". And they laughed right after that. But Ryan just looked at him, expectingly and nervous.

Shane put on his best sarcastic grin.

"Sure. I also know where the nearest asylum is, so don't bother."

At the corner of his eye, Shane could just barely see Sara rolling her eyes. Shane knew he was in his "the best defense is an attack" mode, but old habits die hard.

The man's smile faded. Good. Right?

"I'm sorry, what?"

Damn, this one was supposed to be smarter. Well, a dumb jock will always be a dumb jock, so jokes on Shane.

" I'm crazy, so I'm gonna end up in a looney prison, you don't need to go out of your way and tell me that."

Ryan looked like a kicked puppy. Shane almost felt guilty, so he quickly turned his gaze away. Sara stood up, crossing her arms. She looked kinda hilarious angry, like a mad cloud, Shane absently thought.

" I-I'm not here to make fun of you, I promise! I was, just, uh, I think it's, like, super cool, your ability."

No one has ever called it his "ability". It was " that thing", " condition", "issue", never something... like that. Huh.

" Can I... can I sit with you?"

Shane reluctantly moved to give Ryan more space.

" Thanks, man." Ryan reached into his backpack and started to unwrap his lunch. It smelled spicy, and something in Shane`s stomach twisted on reflex. He was probably going to poison Shane somehow. Whatever.

"So how long did you have this ability? Were you, like, struck by lightning or something?" Ryan asked with his mouth full. Shane couldn't decide if it was gross or adorable. He shrugged. "Born with it, actually. Had some imaginary friends. Then started talking to my dead grandma. You know, the usual."

"Oh, fuck, that's so cool! I mean. Sorry. About your, uh, grandmother. I just. Wow. Do you still, like, talk to her?" Ryan peeked at him with such an open expression, big brown eyes are pointed at Shane,  looking at him,  really looking and waiting for an actual answer. Wow, okay. Maybe Ryan had a recorder with him. He'd play it tomorrow on the school radio and everyone would know how Shane is the poor kid who lost his nanny and couldn't process that properly, because everyone here hated him, right? 

(Shane wasn`t sure he handled that "intrusive thoughts" thing very well.) 

"You, uh, don't have to answer, if you don't want to. I`m sorry, that`s definitely too personal, we can just, you know. Hang." Ryan shrugged and swayed his legs like he was sitting on the swings and not on a bench. It was kinda cute. Shane resented it.

"She disappeared after a while, actually."

"Oh". Ryan's eyes were wide. "Did you help her finish her unfinished business"?

"Yeap. Barely got out of jail though." For a moment Shane could swear that Ryan`s eyes were going to fall out. 

"Just joking." 

Ryan stared at him for a  really  tense second, but then he  laughed, arching his whole body, and the sun was brighter, the grass was greener, all the birds were singing in perfect harmony because Ryan Bergara laughed at Shane`s stupid joke. 

  Shane averted his gaze, Ryan`s laughter still in the air.

"Don't think so. She was there for, like, barely more than a month after she died, and then she just. Wasnt." 

" Makes sense", Ryan nodded,  and what now?-  "After forty days the soul leaves the body for good, and goes higher up."

Shane stared at Ryan.

"Supposedly. It, uh, varies in different cultures?" Ryan smiled sheepishly.

 "How- how do you know that?

"How you don't? Didn't you, like, research any of it?"

" I, uh, watched some Ghost Whisperer."

" Dude, I love that show!"

"Well, it's a great show, dude."

Ryan actually laughed at that. Shane was fucked.

"So, do you, like, see through them?

"Nah, they just..." Shane looked at Sara, who was playing with.. something, at his side, " ...look like normal people to me."

" Oh shit, are we not alone?" Ryan's eyes widened, looking in the same direction as Shane was a moment ago.

" Uh..." Shane hesitated, looking at Sara with raised eyebrows. She gave him a thumbs up.

" There's... this girl..."

" Sara, right? Hi, Sara!" Ryan grinned at the air next to Shane. Sara excitedly waved him back.

"You, uh, knew each other?"

" Not really. But when she died, it was pretty big news here. People reported all kinds of stuff, like, the light in her room would turn on and off, school printer would make images of her favorite bands... was that all her- uh, was that you?"

 "Yeap, all me! Thought the place could use some free Spoon posters", Sara shrugged with a grin. Shane grinned back, "Yeap, all her. Great taste in music, by the way." Sara bowed dramatically. 

"That`s so cool! I, um, sorry. About your death, I mean. I hope you're having at least some fun now!"

" Oh, she does."

Sara had this great ability to "elbowed" Shane with her expressions. " it's nice to have someone to talk to." She said and winked and Ryan.

" She, uh, says it's nice to have someone to talk to. And then she... winked..at you...?"

Ryan's face became red. " Oh. I was. I was trying to talk to her. With an ouija board. It spelled "HI", I got scared and sorta. Fleed."

Shane could not imagine Ryan being scared. Don't get him wrong, men obviously could get scared, but Ryan had muscles. Whatever was after him, he could probably rip it apart without much thought. He was a jock, after all. He worked out. He probably stood in front of the mirror every morning, flexing his biceps...

Damn. Shane will not drool all over some dumb jock who was going to make fun of him.

Damn.

He needed to say something.

"What are you even scared of? You could take any ghost out with those arms."

Not that, Shane. Not. That.

Ryan blushed again and laughed nervously. Great job, Madej, now you made it weird.

" I play basketball," Ryan said rather shy.

Shane almost answered with "I know" yet again, but was saved by a distant bell ring.

"Oh, shoot, that's my cue. Gotta go, but I'll see you around, yeah?"

He actually waited for Shane to nod. "Great! Bye, Shane, bye, Sara!"

And then he was gone.


Shane was utterly, totally and absolutely screwed. 

Chapter Text

"Why don`t you just invite Shane to sit here with us?" Steven asked Ryan, taking a bite out of his sandwich. 

"Well, you know, he`s shy, I don`t want to dazzle him with all that chaos", Ryan gestured around at the school cafeteria. 

"Oh, c`mon! Adam`s shy too, but he eats with us! Most of the time..."

"Hey, Steven?" Andrew looked up from his plate. "Remember when you pretended to be bad at geography so I`d tutor you?"

" I was  not  pretending, but yeah, sure, worked out great, I must add." Steven smugly smiled. "What does it have to do with Rya- oh  oh  you`re trying to seduce the tall boy!" Steven loudly exclaimed, while Ryan tried to wish his blushing away and hide his face in his hands. 

"Don`t worry, Ry, we gotcha! You won`t even know we`re in the same school!"

"That might be overselling that a bit, babe." Andrew said, casually splitting an apple into two halves and putting one half on Steven`s tray. 

"We can totally set you up then! Shane`s in Andrew`s history class, right?"

"Yeah. He`s good, by the way." 

"See? We can ask him to be in our history study group!"

"Except we don`t have a history study group", Ryan noted. 

"But Shane doesn`t know that," Steven said, leaning suggestively towards Ryan.  

"Yeah, right - anyway, I gotta go find him before break ends, but you two have fun."

"We will! Go get your man!"

Andrew just nodded and gave Ryan a thumbs up, too busy chewing. 

***

Shane wouldn`t admit it even to himself, but he started to kinda... wait forward for lunch breaks. Well, the prospect of food always had him in high spirits, but... Ryan kept having lunches with Shane, for some reason, and it was... it was nice, okay? Ryan was funny, and he seemed to appreciate Shane`s sense of humor as well, which was a miracle in itself, and he hadn`t done anything  mean  to Shane just yet, so it was really hard to dismiss him. 

Like right now, when Ryan hauled himself next to Shane, with his blinding smile and a simple, "What`s up?"

"I`m socially programmed to say `not much`".

Ryan laughed at that, stealing a french fry from the taller boy. Shane didn`t even bother to protest at that point. 

"So. Andrew told me you`re acing history? Very nerdy of you."

Shane tensed. "You talked about me?"

"N-not anything bad! We just, uh, talked about classes and he complimented you."

"Oh. Okay." Seeing Ryan`s fallen expression, Shane added, "history`s cool."

"Uh-huh. Does, like, Hamilton appears next to you and sings the Constitution? Or does Sara whisper you the right answer?"

"This is  so  not how it works. Even if Sara cared about history, she has much better things to do."

"So you genuinely interested in that stuff? That`s so cool!"

"You really don`t have to pity me, Ryan. History  is  cool. Did you know that people in France once danced till they died?"

Ryan wheezed, "There`s no way that happened."

" I kid you not. People died, Ryan. This is a serious matter."

Ryan couldn`t help but laugh again at Shane`s tone. "Yeah, okay, I`m going to ask for details later. So, Sara is, uh, not around?"

"Nope. She has more social life than me at this point."

"Hate to tell you, but a rock probably has more social life than you."

" Touché ."

"What she`s up to, anyways? If it`s not a secret, I mean."

"You know, learning gossip, spying on her friends, the usual."

"Spying?"

"Okay, could have worded that better. There`s this girl, Mari, and they were roommates, and Sara likes to make sure she`s doing okay, I guess? She once made me run from my dorm to the library because Mari couldn`t reach the top shelf."

"Finally find purpose to your long limbs!"

"True. She seemed nice."

"Oh, she totally is! We, uh, almost started dating." Ryan said, searching Shane`s face for any reaction, but he just hummed in response.  Okay, here goes.

"So, you and Sara...?"

Shane blinked at him, "Me and Sara what?"

"Well, you know..."

" What? We are... are you asking if we`re dating? No, Ryan, what- I mean, she`s cute, but how could we even- I literally can`t even touch her-"

"Okay, sorry, sorry! I just, I just thought maybe you had some Ghost shit going on! And it could be platonic, fuck you, stop laughing - don't you feel the touch at all?"

" I mean, it's kinda cold, most of the time."

"Huh. Interesting."

"So, that`s why you and Mari didn`t work out? She wasn`t dead enough for you?"

Ryan tried to contain his laughter, "No, of course not, you fucking creep- we just decided we`d better off as friends, you know? Although we promised each other that when she becomes the most famous actress and I become the most popular film director, we`re gonna work on a movie together."

"Wait, you wanna... you wanna do movies?"

" I mean, that`s the dream. I`ve been eyeing film schools and tried to shoot some things on my own, and it`s -well, it sucks so far, but I`m getting the hang of it, and it`s... it`s fun," Ryan shrugged.

"Wow, that`s... I was thinking about going to a film school, too, actually," Shane admitted hesitantly. 

"Really? Dude, that`s great! You know what? You should join our film club! We usually meet once or twice a week, and- you know what, you should give me your phone and I`ll text you the details! And you can join our club chat! We still haven`t decided what we should watch next week, and usually I have to come up with something since there`s not a lot of members and  I  actually started the whole thing-"

Shane looked a bit overwhelmed. Damn it, Ryan must have gone on too strong. He knew he could be...  a lot , and fuck, he probably overshared, and he was already annoying Shane enough-

"Here."  Oh . Shane was handing out his phone to Ryan. Okay, okay, cool, this is cool.

"I mean, you don`t have to if you don`t want to! Don`t let me pressure you or anything."

"Just get those numbers down, Bergara."

Ryan took the phone, trying to hide his excitement. He send a ghost emoji from Shane`s phone to his own and tentatively gave it back. 

"Um, I might have a suggestion? Have you seen The Haunting yet? I don`t know if you guys do horror films but-"

"Fuck yes, I love horror films! I knew I could count on you!" Ryan held out his hand for a fist bump. Shane rolled his eyes but complied, hiding his smile. Now he had another thing to look forward to.