Title: Ghost

Author: Lia (Unattainable Adrenaline)

Warnings: (none in this chapter) Illegal alcohol consumption, possible drug abuse, driving under the influence.

A/N: Okay, so here's another one. It has been bothering me for the past week or so, and I finally wrote it down. I am soooo sorry that I'm behind in my other fics, but it's been really hectic around here! End of the year and all. Tomorrow's the last day, thank God! ;)

Conrad sighed as he brushed back his baby-fine white hair out of his eyes with his equally colourless hand. His pale watery-pink eyes scanned the high school grounds with a clear and sharp hostility on this warm afternoon. The sense of summer and the letting out of schools were in the air and students in too short shorts and tank tops that broke the school rules ran around everywhere in the front lawn which served as a temporary outdoors area in place of a stuffy cafeteria. Conrad sat on one of the cool wooden benches resting underneath a group of trees and a soft wind blew through the branches and leaves.

His sketchbook was open in front of him, the warm, dry breeze ruffled the page. Conrad looked down at the half finished drawing. It was a sketch of someone he always saw in his dreams. Nearly half of the book was filled with drawings of the same person in different poses, but he could never seem to get what was in his head onto the paper. The person in his dream was like liquid fire that consumed and burned everything it touched. They called out to him and welcomed him with open arms. They loved him and proved it. He blushed as he thought briefly of the erotic portions of the dream. He could never see their face, but he knew that the person was not female. He knew he had never felt anything for the opposite sex, and it never bothered him. It's not like it really mattered anyway.

But the person in his dream made him ache for someone to hold. Conrad usually didn't care much for companionship, but whenever he woke up from one of the dreams, he'd feel an actual hurt deep in his chest, yearning, urging him to do something to stop it. But what could he really do?

He was pulled from his thoughts as the burn on his arm became hot and shifted to get out of the sunlight. The sun had come out from behind the drifting marshmallow clouds and Conrad had to squint his eyes to see. He pulled his legs up on the bench and sat sideways with his feet towards the end and got settled.

As he again got comfortable, his thoughts drifted back to his dreams. He didn't know why they affected him so much, but lately they had been taking up much of his time, including his classes. Like right now he was in lunch, not that he actually ate. This spot was where he always sat, some because of the shade and breeze, but mostly because few people wandered over to this side of campus. He pulled his eraser out of his pencil bag and erased a few lines that were slightly too straight on the flowing body and redrew them, pressing softly this time. He wrinkled his nose as he messed up again and a voice spoke up suddenly from one of the trees beside the bench.

"Nice drawing you have there. Who is it?"

Conrad jumped and whipped his head around to see a tall, pale boy leaning sideways against the tree directly behind him. He was dressed all in black, though how he could on such a hot day, Conrad didn't know, and he had his arms crossed against his chest. His straight dark brown hair blew in his face with the wind, but he made no move to brush it out of his eyes.

"It's a person from my dream." Conrad answered hesitantly. He wasn't used to people talking to him, especially not if he didn't ask them something first.

"Must have interesting dreams then. Can I see it?" He nodded to the book and Conrad held it out for him to grab. He handed it to him, still not sure why he was showing this boy something he had never shown anyone else. The boy took it and leafed through a few pages and Conrad took this time to look more closely at this stranger.

His hair must have had some type of cream or gel in it because even though it blew with the wind, it never went out of his eyes and Conrad saw it was meant to be this way. It was parted on the right side to fall over his left eye and slightly over his nose, and the back swept about an inch or so over his collar. His thin eyebrows were set above clear chocolate coloured eyes that looked at his pictures with an unguarded interest and curiosity. They were framed in thick eyelashes, and Conrad could make out a thin line of black eyeliner lining the top and bottoms of his eyes. His nose was straight, but not too long, with a small pointed round tip. His lips were rosy and a bit thin, the top more so than the bottom, which was more full and gave the boy a concentrated look. They reminded Conrad of the pale pink heart roses his mother had planted one year in her garden in their backyard before she had decided gardening just wasn't her thing. A small silver hoop decorated the far left side of his mouth, but rather than take away from the attractiveness of his lips, it lent a rather dangerous appeal to the sweet. Defiant. His slender neck was adorned with three spiked necklaces. The top was a silver looped necklace with small bullet shaped spikes, almost like a choker. The second Conrad was almost sure was made of bullets and the copper glinted softly in the sunlight. The last was simply a longer necklace resting on his collarbone. It looked almost like thorns that were enlarged and encased in silver. Yet with all the jewellery, his ears were void of piercings.

Underneath the necklaces was a plain, thin, black cotton tee-shirt over which was a vinyl-looking jacket. The collar was pushed up in the back, probably from the breeze, and his hair brushed over it. The jacket went over his belt, but it was open in the front to reveal the waistline of his jeans. His belt had small, rounded spikes on them in three neat rows and just touched the hemline of his shirt. His pants were a jean material, but dyed black and were a bit baggier than most, but not enough to count as "elephant" pants. Bright blue threads ran up and down his legs and circled his feet which were encased in a pair of black and purple Etnies. All in all, he looked like he could kick someone's ass. So what was he doing here?

He continued leafing through the pages until he came back to the beginning of the book where he stopped and stared, frowning slightly, though Conrad didn't think he was doing it consciously.

"What are you looking at?" Conrad asked nervously. The last thing he needed was someone that looked like this kid mad at him.

"This." He answered and turned the book around to face the albino boy.

It was one of his earlier "practice" drawings, and not one he wanted to show everyone either. It was a sketch of a couple whose picture he had seen one time when he had come across it once on the internet and drawn it later that night from memory. They were standing outside in the sunset, arms wrapped around each other, kissing lovingly. But the problem was, they were both men.

Conrad looked up at the boy's face, sure to see disgust, but all he saw was the same impassive cool humour that seemed to permeate his eyes.

"That's really good. Think you could make me one like that?" He asked, offering a small smile which seemed right at home on his face despite the punky-looking exterior.

"Huh?" He asked, thinking he had heard him wrong.

"I'm serious. That's really good." He said gesturing to the drawing, "I wish I could draw like that."

"I-I…" Conrad couldn't believe he wasn't shoving the book back in his face, or worse yet, punching his fist along with it.

He laughed briefly and it drifted through the air along the breeze blowing to Conrad's ears before dying out. It was a beautiful laugh.

"Hey, why don't you think about it? I'll see you here tomorrow, m'kay?" He smiled at Conrad, who sat dumfounded and staring at him.

"Oh, and my name's Ryan. What's yours?" The bell rang and students herded to the doors in masses, pushing and shoving each other to get back in, but across the lawn, Conrad could barely make out the muffled sounds.

Conrad nodded at Ryan and answered him. "My name's Conrad."

"Conrad… "Ryan rolled it on his tongue as if he were tasting it. "I like it. I'll see you tomorrow, Conrad." He winked at Conrad as he started walking back towards the doors, leaving the pale boy staring behind him.

A/N: I'm really going to try and update this soon, I have most of it written down anyway...