Greenberg dies when he's sixteen. He's the star of the Lacrosse and Swimming teams, and he's the one the kids look up to, including Robert Finstock, who's fourteen at the time, just a freshman then, looking up to the kid everyone admires.

Greenberg drowns in the pool at night, no one really knows how or why – he just does. There are investigations and everything is very inconclusive. Nobody knows if it's accident, or if he did drown himself. Nobody knows the answer until a small boy of fourteen decides to go poking at the school pool at night, all by himself, and right there, at the edge of the pool, he sees… Greenberg.

He's still tall and athletic, but he's also see-through and pale, and Robert doesn't really know what to do. Greenberg stares at him for a very long time, sighing and turning back to the water, and Robert comes closer, afraid and fascinated at the same time.

"Did you jump on purpose?" he whispers, because he might as well be going crazy, or talking to a hallucination, but Greenberg actually turns to stare at him for a long moment, greyish eyes intense.

"I trapped myself under the ladder so I wouldn't be able to come out. I didn't jump, but, yeah, I did want to drown."

Robert's eyes widen and he comes even closer to the edge, staring at the… ghost.

He's talking to a ghost. Actually talking to a ghost.

"Why?"

Greenberg shrugs.

"Because I didn't want to live anymore. I thought it'd end, not that I'd become… this" he pauses then, and stares at Robert for a long moment, "None of the others can see me, you know? I've tried, and they just won't answer. It's just you" he stops talking again, drifting away from the edge of the pool, eyes considering Robert seriously, "I was never alone before, and it drove me crazy, but I see now that being alone is awful. I don't like it."

Robert doesn't know how to answer to that, just staring at the ghost, thinking of an answer. What can he say, really?

"I'm sorry" he replies, shrugging, even though he isn't really. Greenberg was just a junior he admired, looked up to, but never really talked to – if Greenberg was alive, he wouldn't even know Robert existed.

"You could stay with me, you know? You can see me. You could jump, and stay with me here, then I wouldn't be alone."

There's a cold breeze now, making Robert tremble a little, and it's really strange because there are no open windows or doors. Greenberg's eyes are cold and hard, and Robert is really scared, because he doesn't want to drown.

He likes living.

"I don't want to drown" he says in a small voice, eyeing the door, but Greenberg is right there, and maybe he can't touch Robert – but maybe he can, and he really doesn't want to find out, "You could stay with me, anyway. I don't have to jump, you can just… hang out."

"What? So you can ignore me every time I talk to you? I don't think so" the dead jock answers, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I promise I'll always answer" Robert says, eyes earnest and worried about the way Greenberg seems to be considering drowning him anyway, "I promise."

Greenberg stares at him for a long moment then.

"You promise?" he ends up asking, voice strangely small and afraid, and Robert can't find the heart to be completely afraid of him anymore, because this kid is sixteen and all alone.

"I promise."

X

Greenberg just floats after him – sometimes the whole time, sometimes just for a few hours, and in those first few days he tries to only talk to Robert when they are alone, but then he starts getting careless, and Robert… well, Robert kind of forgets the fact that Greenberg is, you know, dead. So he answers all the time.

Greenberg helps him do his homework, and gives him tips during the games, helps him train to get into the Lacrosse team – Robert refuses to join the swimming team for a number of reasons, but the main one is that maybe, just maybe, Greenberg will have enough one day, and drown him anyway.

People think he's strange and odd and weird, and his mom takes him to see a therapist. He says he just… likes talking to himself, and he makes light of Greenberg's death, which makes him very unpopular with all the popular kids who used to hang out with the dead kid, but he doesn't care.

He gets known for being quirky, and eventually, everyone starts ignoring every time he answers something to thin air.

When he gets into college, he starts to call Greenberg by his name, because here no one will know who it is he answers into thin air, here no one knows Greenberg, so it's alright.

He grows up, and Greenberg doesn't. He becomes an adult, but Greenberg is still just a teen, and things change, because he has more knowledge, and he has more time of life, and he gets things Greenberg will never get.

He's alone a lot, and he likes teaching well enough, but what he really wishes is for peace of mind.

He's not afraid of Greenberg drowning him anymore, so he starts being rude, and Greenberg flips him off, and tells him to go fuck himself. They talk at night about Bobby's day – a nickname Greenberg gave him way before anyone else called him that.

It's lonely, sometimes. He knows people stopped paying attention to his whole Greenberg thing, and they think he just made up a name to shout insults to, but Greenberg is his one constant in life, the one thing that's always been there, and, with time, the one person he really knows, and who really knows him return.

Greenberg is sort of his safe port, his home, in a way.

There are days when the eternal teen stares at him and asks him if he wants him to go away, and Finstock just shouts insults at him, or tries to throw something at his head, because he doesn't.

He cares enough that he would be lost without him.

Greenberg may not be a friend, but he's a promise.

A promise Robert intends to always keep.