Seems like it's taking me longer and longer to write these chapters…but I'm doing well in school (so far) so I will have to just hope I'm not pissing anyone off too much. I don't think I am…I hope. lol
Beetlejuice returned to the Roadhouse just before sunrise. It was only when he drifted silently across the threshold of his beloved home that he realized what a long night it had been and everything that had happened in its few simple hours. He could feel the heart inside him try to gnaw its way to freedom from inside his chest, but he stilled it and decided to check on Lydia one last time before he went to sleep.
His old bedroom engulfed him in shadows as he entered it in the predawn light of the early morning. Carefully, he floated over to his old coffin, her coffin, and gazed down at the sleeping girl. His insides retched coldly when he spotted her scraped and scabbing palms, and he cursed himself again.
Without a second thought the poltergeist juiced her wounds away and, satisfied with her apparent comfort, floated from the room once again.
Beetlejuice stared down at his couch in disgust from across the living room. "So we meet again…" he muttered, turning into a gigantic floating steak. The steak drifted to the couch and ungracefully plopped itself down on one side, transforming back into the poltergeist.
"Oh well, I'll deal with this later…" he murmured quietly before he drifted off into a much needed sleep.
In the next room Lydia sleepily opened her eyes to a sound that reminded her oddly of falling steaks and gravel. She went to check her watch and noticed her clean, soft palms. She smiled until she remembered the poncho Beetlejuice had given her was probably lost forever.
She quietly got out of bed and snuck to the closet, hoping any old shirt might be within its confines. Relief swept over her in a wave when a plain black t-shirt presented itself to her immediately.
"What would be a nice, useful, shirt for me to wear…?" Lydia pondered as she slipped it on over her undershirt. It fell below her knees; making her giggle at how silly she probably looked before an idea hit her.
"That's it. A simple pocketed skirt! That will be easy and useful too…"
The girl murmured some words and focused on what her skirt would look like in her mind and on her body. When she was satisfied with what she was imagining she opened her eyes once more, dressed in her simple, useful garment.
"Right Lydia, now time for some household chores…" she hummed to herself in the faint but growing light as she exited her room and saw her friend sleeping peacefully on the couch. She noticed the sun inching its morning rays towards the couch from the front window and pulled a light blanket over it to insure a few restful hours of sleep before heading towards the attic.
XXXXXXXXXX
Beetlejuice was alive again. He could feel the warmth a smile made on his face as the blood rushed through his lips and into his living cheeks. He was sitting under his favorite childhood tree enjoying some wild honey he had stolen from a nearby hive. Bugs truly were the greatest beings he could imagine; so small, yet so fascinating and complex. He could see a fallen honeybee on his finger, trapped within the very honey it helped produce.
A gratified smile touched the young man's lips again as he pondered the life of this small creature. He looked around him and looked back at the honeybee before sucking it off his finger with the rest of the honey.
It crunched in his teeth when he bit down on it and to his surprise, the bug tasted as sweet as the honey itself. The remains of the bug rolling around in his mouth reminded him a bit of a peach with the soft fuzz protecting the sweet juice of its internal treasure.
He wished vaguely that he had a companion that could share his love of bugs; someone to be with him so that he wouldn't be alone anymore, someone to share the tree and the honey and the honeybee.
"Ha, it'll take me a thousand years to find a girl that appreciated bugs as much as I do…" he chuckled.
"Beetlejuice…"
"Not now mom!" he called back, annoyed.
"Beetlejuice?"
Beetlejuice launched himself up from where he was laying and spun around. Lydia looked confused, if not a little amused as well.
"Was your mom nagging you in your dreams?" Lydia teased.
Beetlejuice looked sourly over at her. "Don't do that babes, you scared the pants off me!" he wailed, catching his pants just before they walked away from him. The poltergeist quickly juiced them back on his body with a deep undead blush. "Sorry bout that…"
Lydia giggled at her companion and waved away the apology. "It's ok BJ. I wanted to show you something and see what you think of an idea I had…" she said, walking through the house in the direction of the attic in a motion for him to follow.
"So what do you think?" Lydia asked nervously from behind her friend once they reached the very top of the house. Beetlejuice carefully observed the area in which he was standing. After he had had his fill of the room he turned back towards the girl's expectant face and back at the room.
"Is this my attic?"
The tons and tons of piled up, stored, and heaving boxes of junk were stacked neatly on one side of the large upper room. From his intense observations, Beetlejuice knew all of his things were there that were there before, but they were…neat.
"I was thinking we could turn the cleaner side of the attic into a bedroom for me. That way you don't have to sleep on the couch anymore. I can't stand the fact that I stole your bedroom," Lydia offered shyly.
"No way."
Lydia's heart began to sink inside her chest at the blunt refusal. She thought she could feel tears forming just behind her eyes. She had worked really hard all morning.
"It would get way too hot up here for you. I'll take the attic," Beetlejuice announced.
Without another word the poltergeist snapped his fingers and juiced all of his bedroom things, including his coffin into the clear half of the room. "That'll do I guess…"
A wave of relief swept across the fifteen year old girl until she realized that everything in the room was from her room. "Uh BJ, what should I do about my own bedroom?"
Her friend turned to look at her again, but this time a sly grin was slapped across his features. He looked very pleased with himself. "Oh, I took care of that for you. Let's go look and if you want any changes made to your room I can do it before the neighbors start coming over and bugging us," he said, turning into a giant beetle, and scurried down the attic stairs.
Lydia's jaw dropped when she gazed into her new room, old room, current room. "Beetlejuice, it's…it's my bedroom!" she exclaimed excitedly.
And it was. Her bed sat comfortably by the wall with her dressing table against the wall adjacent to it. The windows had dark wispy curtains that were sure to swirl and dance as soon as the next storm came. The closet even matched that of her now lost bedroom from the living world.
The Goth immediately turned towards the gigantic bug sitting next to her on the floor and grabbed it up into a hug, transforming him back into the ghost with the most that he was in her arms. Beetlejuice fell onto his friend and the two landed on the floor in a heap of laughter.
"It's wonderful, Beej…" Lydia finally sighed, snuggling closer to her poltergeist and making him smile.
"Yeah well, just thought you'd wanna have a little piece of home in this place…after everything…"
Beetlejuice felt a light kiss touch his cheek that reminded him of how it felt to smile when he was alive in his dream.
"I think our parents should come visit…"
The warmth slipped away from the poltergeist like beetles through his fingers. He glared over at his counterpart with what he hoped was a to the point please-don't-make-me-go-through-the-whole-parents-sizing-the-whole-situation-up look. He wasn't sure he pulled it off too well, though, because Lydia just giggled.
"It would make my parents much happier to know that everything is ok. I know father was a little, uh, distressed the last time I saw him…"
Beetlejuice never got a chance to practice his aforementioned look again because his Goth was very skilled in her puppy eyes sweet stare. "Whatever Lyds, but I'm not gonna enjoy this…" he mumbled, trying hard not to look directly into her eyes.
The poltergeist got up and headed towards the living room before any more uncomfortable situations could be asked of him.
"Jacque and Ginger and the Monster next door should come, too. Don't you think?"
Lydia giggled again when she heard Beetlejuice slap his hand over his face in the next room and mutter a defeated agreement through his fingers.
Ok so that's that. As I was writing this I thought to myself, "Veronica, your parents and your boyfriend's parents have never met even though you have been together for more than a year and a half and have been living together for almost a year…"
Then I laughed at Beetlejuice because he will have to endure it and I don't have to. lol