The weekend was finally here.
This past week had gone by unbearably slowly, every day filled with busy schedules and homework, and Spencer had barely been able to see Shanilla and Rajeev outside of school. Billy had, for the most part, been ignored, having been pushed aside by the importance of deadlines and essays, which had not pleased the ghost in the least. But, feeling guilty about ignoring his friends for almost an entire week, Spencer had invited the siblings over to the mansion on Saturday to hang out, finally being able to take the time to relax and have fun.
The first part of the day Spencer had used the chance of using his top two actors for his newest horror film - one that he was very excited about. Billy hadn't paid much attention to the group when they had worked on that, and had spent the time reading some old magazines featuring articles about himself.
But in the end, as usual, the group had ended up at the Wi-Fri.
"Alright. It's your turn," Shanilla stated, facing Spencer.
"Okay, Rajeev. Get ready," Spencer said with a mischievous smirk. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare."
Leaning back on the couch, Spencer placed his hands behind his neck for support, making himself appear as casual as he could. "Hmm…"
"Oh, man, there's no way you'll be able to come up with something as awesome as the thing I've thought up for Billy!" Rajeev piped up in an arrogant tone, a smug smile on his face.
Spencer ignored that last comment. "Normally, I would have asked you to embarrass yourself in front of some popular girl or something, but I'm pretty sure that you already do that on a daily basis anyway, so there's no point in that…"
"Hey!" Rajeev started but was interrupted by a loud laughter from Billy.
"Oh, man! Spencer got you good!"
"So, instead I think I'm going to dare you to…" Spencer paused, thinking. "Steal a pack of gum."
"Hah! Easy peasy!"
"Rajeev, no!" His sister protested. "Don't steal from the Wi-Fri! That's not nice, not to mention illegal!"
"A pack of gum? Please, they'll never even realize that it's missing!"
Before she could say anything more, Rajeev had already dismissed her, crawling over to the register. There was no one there at the moment, so, fearing the possibility of being caught, he didn't waste a second. Within moments he had a pack of chili pepper chewing gum clutched tight in one hand as he crawled back over to his group.
"Why are you crawling, Indiana Brones?" Billy laughed. "There's no one even there!"
"Better safe then sorry. Now," Rajeev dropped the gum into Spencer's open palm and then turned back to Billy. "Your turn. Truth or dare?"
"Dare."
"You did dare last time, you have to do truth now."
"What? That's not in the rules!"
"It so totally is!"
"Is not! I'm doing a dare!"
"Truth it is!"
Billy huffed, crossing his arms and letting himself fall down onto the armchair, being careful not to pass through it. "Fine. Whatever."
A wicked smile came upon Rajeev's face. Finally he would be able to ask Billy the question that he had wanted to ask for an eternity, patiently waiting for Billy to ever choose truth instead of dare. "If you had to change one thing about yourself, what would you change?"
Spencer laughed. "Oh, man, this is going to absolutely destroy Mr. Narcissistic over here!"
However, without freaking out over the question, Billy casually leaned back in his seat and said without it seeming to have taken much thought: "I guess I'd change my height."
"Wha-what?!" Spencer and Rajeev yelled simultaneously.
Shanilla showed a little more understanding. "What's wrong with your height, Billy?"
The pop star shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I'm kind of at the point of being too tall, y'know?"
"I can't believe it." Rajeev said in astonishment. "Billy Joe Cobra would actually change something about himself?!"
"Yeah, you know, I feel like I'm kind of getting into freakdom or something," Billy thought aloud as he stared absentmindedly at the ceiling. "Like, there are so many disadvantages to being this tall that… I don't know. I'd rather not deal with it."
"Like what?" Asked Shanilla.
"Like low door frames," started Billy. "And airplane and car seats that keep hugging my knees… well, not that I had a particular problem with that, traveling in limousines and private jets and stuff like that all the time, but you know what I mean. Plus, I always have to bend town to hug people 'cause they're almost always shorter than me."
He got silent for a moment, remembering some past event. "You know, there was this one summer that was the worst. I grew, like, six inches in just a few months. It was insane! Didn't even know that was humanly possible. I had these thick brown stretch marks on my spine – pretty nasty if you ask me. They never even really went away. Plus, I had constant growing pains. Imagine having to perform for a couple of hours on stage in front of thousands of people when you feel like you just want to saw your legs off."
"Wow…" Shanilla said sympathetically. "That sounds awful."
"It was."
"I always thought that you liked being tall, though," commented Spencer. "Like you were towering over everyone else."
"I guess, but only to an extent."
"You know, you could have gone into basketball instead of music," Rajeev piped up with a grin.
"I, ah- hey!" Billy shot up from his seat, a frown on his face. "What's that supposed to mean?!"
Rajeev started laughing. "Nothing! Nothing, dude!"
"Are you dissing my music?!"
"Nah, your music's the best, bro!"
That seemed to soften Billy's tempter a little bit. "Of course it is."
"Billy?" Shanilla's soft voice said from beside him. He turned to face her, automatically moving slightly up and down as he floated in the air.
"Yeah?"
"How tall are you really? You always looked pretty tall on TV but it's hard to tell on a screen. Plus, you're always floating with your feet bent so it's hard to get a picture of your actual height… " She asked, before quickly waving her hands in front of her as she excused herself. "I mean, if you don't mind me asking!"
"Oh, uhm…"
Billy lowered himself to the ground, stretching out his legs until his invisible shoes touched the floor. "I guess I'm this tall?"
He was quick to realize just how true Spencer's earlier statement had been when he saw that he, indeed, did tower over the others quite a bit.
"Well... that a bit taller than I expected," Shanilla mumbled as she stared up at Billy. He smiled a little shyly.
Then Rajeev snickered a bit.
Shanilla glanced at him. "What's so funny?"
"Oh, come on, it's not that bad," Billy said defensively to the laughing boy. "So I'm a bit tall. So what?"
"No, it's just that-" Rajeev snorted a bit with laughter. "I've got a question."
"What is it?"
"How's the weather up there?"
Billy didn't talk to Rajeev for a week after that.
I was watching a clip from an interview with Bo Burnham on YouTube (video: "Never Make Fun of Bo Burnham's Height") and got inspired to write this little one shot for DTMG! And yes, I didsteal a few lines from the interview, simply because I found them funny :P
Ah, well. I hope you enjoyed this!
(Disclaimer: I do not own Dude, That's My Ghost nor its characters. If I did, we would have a season 2 already!)