A Gift or A Curse

“I am not an expert in this. I just found out a few days ago that I can see ghosts. But so far I’ve only seen two. My great aunt Tessie, and Jimmy.” Blake paused. They were speechless, but listening hard to her.

“It’s up to you guys to believe me or not but I beg you, don’t send me to the psych ward.”

Matthew blinked fast and shook his head. “No, we – we would never – do that.” In his mind he recalled Leana. That poor girl lost her mind just weeks after Jimmy had passed and they had to send her there because she was putting Zoey in danger.

“Okay then. I will now allow Jimmy to possess me, to talk to you guys. Because I know, there’s nothing more he wanted than to touch his friends.”

Jimmy frowned at her. If he possess her now, that means she would be unconscious and blank pages will appear in her memory again.

“Are you sure, Blake?”

Blake nodded to him, but they saw it as she was agreeing to a wall.

Jimmy couldn’t understand why this girl is so kindhearted. She volunteered to be used as a host body for the sake of these seven strangers?

“I couldn’t Blake.”

“Jimmy. I know you want to. You can cry using my tears, you can hug them using my arms. As long as you didn’t kiss anybody.” She looked around and they were still frowned at her.

Jimmy pulled her into an embrace, but this time, she didn’t feel cold. She felt touches and a tight hug. Maybe she was getting used to his touch. She hugged him tightly back.

They looked at each other as Blake was hugging the wind, but they were eager to finally meet Jimmy.

“Thank you, Blake.”

Jimmy swore there were tears formed behind his eyes, a bit. But he couldn’t bring himself to cry.

“I need to lie down.” Blake requested, and Valerie quickly made room for her on the couch. All seven of them watched as Blake laid her back on it. She lied still, waiting for something.

Matthew too, waited patiently. He hadn’t seen this ritual before. Not even when he was all around searching for some kind of psychic power to bring back Jimmy from the dead. But today, he was convinced that this girl was actually telling the truth. Because so far, the girl hadn’t asked them for any money.

Blake closed her eyes as Jimmy crawled on top of her, nervously. This time he did it with a bang on his chest. He didn’t even know what that is, but it sounded like his heart was beating, fast. He pinned her hips with his own and leaned in.

“Blake,” he whispered.

Blake opened her blue eyes and they immediately locked with his.

“Why do you have to do this?” he asked, his voice sounded husky.

“Because you saved my life.” She replied in a low voice. Her eyes glinting as she smiled sweetly at him.

He felt that sudden urge to cry but the tears behind his eyes were just too stubborn. He leaned in slowly, eyes still locked to hers. Their lips touched, but instead of sucking out her breath like he did this morning, he kissed her softly. One drop of his tears fell to his cheek. Blake was astounded, but she can’t move. Jimmy ran his tongue on her lower lip, begging for access. She didn’t dare to allow it, but something came over her mind and made her granted it. As soon as she opened her mouth, Jimmy sucked her breath into his own and Blake was thrown into another world.


They stared for a few minutes as she lay stiff, not moving.

“Is it working?” Johnny asked.

Matthew shrugged at him. They waited a little bit more.

Suddenly tears were flowing down to the sides of Blake’s cheek. She fluttered open her blue eyes and sat up straight slowly. She cried hard into her palms.

All of Jimmy’s un-rendered emotion now crashes onto him like angry waves at the sea. He was sobbing, mostly because of Blake, the poor girl who he’d dragged on here, to an unfamiliar world and made her feel nothing but afraid.

“Ji-Jimmy?” Matthew approached her, cautiously.

Jimmy looked up. He smiled sadly at him. “I missed you fuckers so much.”

How incredible it was that all of them recognize him at once. They gathered around him, yelling his name and hugged him tightly altogether. But Blake’s body was tiny so Jimmy easily got lost in the middle of the group hug, gasping for air.

“Guys, I can’t breathe!”

They broke the hug instantly.

“Dude, what happened? I mean…how did you -?” Zacky murmured, wiping off his tears as they dispersed from the hug.

Jimmy smiled at him. “I’ll tell you the details later.” Then he saw Arin was standing awkwardly as he didn’t join in the hug.

“So, this is my replacement.” Jimmy walked over to him.

“Wow, that was - something that…I can’t even - Jimmy, it’s an honor to finally meet you. I’m Arin.” Arin was still shocked but nevertheless he held out his hand.

Jimmy took his hand and gripped it tightly. But being in a body of a girl, he didn’t have much strength as he did in his own body.

“How are you fitting in?”

“Greatly. They are all awesome guys.”

“I know. That’s why I’ve been hanging out with them.” He said cockily. They all laughed at his remark. Brian swung his arm around Jimmy’s shoulder but immediately felt weird after that. Because Jimmy’s shoulder used to be so high, but now it looked like he was pulling Blake into an embrace. He quickly pulled back his arm and settled beside Michelle.

Arin also laughed. But deep in his heart, he still couldn’t believe what happened in front of his eyes was actually real.

Jimmy came back from the dead.

“No one out of this room should ever know about this, okay?” Matthew warned each and every one of them. They looked at each other and finally nodded.

“Oh Jimmy, we have so much to say to you.”

“Well, so do I! But first, where’s Lea? I haven’t seen her around. How’s Zoey doing?”

Not one of them answered his question.

******************************************************************************************************

“Miss MacFadden, did you hear what I said?”

Leana tilted up her head. She was spacing out earlier, thinking of her daughter at home, in the hands of a babysitter. Anything could happen.

“Sorry, uh. I didn’t.”

The man in front of her narrowed his eyes. He scribbled down on his notepad briefly before gazing at her again.

“Does this happen to you often?”

“Excuse me?”

“You, dozing off. Does it occur often?” he leaned forward, resting his palms under his chin.

Leana chuckled softly. “No. I was just thinking about what should I cook for my daughter tonight, that’s all.”

“Hmm. You know you shouldn’t lie to me. I’m your therapist.”

“I want Mrs Dudley back.”



The man blinked softly at her as his lips curved up into a smile. He clicked his pen and scribbled on his pad again. Leana hated it when he did that.

“Well, I told you earlier that she’s on her maternity leave. So you’re stuck with me for another 4 months.”

She groaned, running her hands through her strawberry blonde hair.

“Fine. I gotta get home. I have to take care of my daughter.”

“But we just barely started. You said you have a babysitter looking after her.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know but she could die at anytime! How should I know the sitter isn’t going to kill her?”

He gazed seriously at her, before scribbling yet again.

“Please stop writing, what are you writing anyway?”

He shrugged. “I’m drawing a picture of you. Wanna see?”

Leana frowned at him. This new therapist is weird. Usually Leana was consoled and being listened to by a woman, someone who could understand her feelings but this guy just showed up today and drew her picture in his fucking therapist notepad.

“Look, Mr Maine, I don’t have time for your games. I came here for my usual therapist. If she’s not here then I won’t be either.”

Leana got up, taking her bag along with her but the guy stopped her just by merely touching her wrist.

“Stay, Leana. I’d like to hear your story.”

Leana stood by, sneering at him, but she decided to stay after seeing his grey eyes softened at her. She landed back on the sofa.

“And please, call me Alex.”

******************************************************************************************************

“Lea moved?” Jimmy sat down again, trying to calm himself down.

“At the end of last year. She needed to start anew.” Valerie replied. They had skipped the whole part where Lea had been admitted to the psych ward because they didn’t want Jimmy to worry.

“Where?”

“San Francisco.”

“I gotta see her.” He got up, ready to leave.

“DON’T!” All of them excluding Arin yelled in unison. Jimmy frowned at them.

“Why the fuck not?”

They looked at each other as they already knew Leana was recovering. That poor girl cannot be broken down again.

“Because…well, you’re in a body of someone else. And it took us a while to actually believe Blake.” Matthew explained, dodging from the truth.

Jimmy looked down to himself. After a while he nodded. “You’re right Matt. I should probably give it some time.” He admitted. But seconds later a grin grew on his face, getting wider as he looked up to their eyes.

“You guys wanna hit the pool bar?”

They looked at each other. At this rate they would do just about anything with him. Even rob a bank.

“Fuck yeah!”
“Totally Jimmy!”
“God I missed drinking with you.”

They murmured in agreement. “Then let’s get drunk, bitches!!” Jimmy yelled and ran around the guys, slapping their bellies. A bit freaky because he made the innocent and gentle Blake looked like a hyperactive monkey in a blink of an eye.

They laughed hard watching him. In another body, but still behaving like a child he always was.
Their best friend is back. Back from the grave.

“But before that. Val, Mich, you guys have to help me out here.”

“What is it Jimmy?”

Jimmy pointed down to his host body. “She needs new clothes. Like, pronto.”

Michelle chuckled and nodded. “Of course. Let’s go to Val’s room.”

The guys wanted to follow them too, as they couldn’t part with Jimmy even for one second. But then Valerie forbade them from taking any more steps on the stairs.

“Guys, wait down here. This is girl’s stuff.”

“Awwh not fair! Jimmy’s a guy!”

“I’m in a girl’s body, Zacky! Bet you’re fuckin jealous right now!”

Zacky whined and pouted his lips. He crossed his hands on his chest. He just wanted to be with Jimmy all the time. In fact all of them do.

As Jimmy went upstairs with the twins, the guys gathered in a small discussion.



“This is the weirdest thing that’s ever happened in my life.” Zacky said, rubbing his face with his palms.

“God, I can’t believe that’s really him. But her behavior is too similar to him though.” Johnny stated, with his face frowned in worry.

“I believe in her 100%” Matthew sat down on the couch, smiling profusely.

“Johnny, what’s wrong? Why haven’t you believed it yet?”

Johnny shrugged and scratched the back of his head. “I feel like there’s something more to this. I dunno. I mean, why is he coming back? Why now?”

They paused in silent as each of them thought hard of the answer.

“Maybe he has a purpose?” Arin’s voice emerged suddenly, breaking the silent apart. All four of them turned their heads to him.

“I’m just sayin, maybe he has some kind of unfinished business. Like the ones we used to watch on TV. You know, ghost story and stuff.”

They all wondered to themselves. What exactly is his unfinished business? Was it Lea and Zoey?

*****************************************************************************************************

“Here, you take a shower first, and then change into these. Don’t worry those underwear are new.” Valerie handed him a striped tank top, a pair of jeans and some clean underwear.

“You want me to do this – by myself?”

“Why, do you need my help?”

“Uh, this is a body of a girl, so.”

Valerie and Michelle laughed at him.

“Since when you’ve become so innocent?”

“I’m not! Fuck off!” Jimmy blushed slightly, as he grabbed the attire and went into the bathroom. He locked the door behind him and his heart beating like hell. He stared at the purple lacy bra with matching panties as he walked towards the bathroom mirror.

Blake gazed at him in the reflection. Her blue eyes looked guilty. It was actually his guilty conscience. He didn’t know for how long he can possess her but the first time he did it, Blake was actually fighting for him to get off. But this time, Blake didn’t fight. She volunteered.

“I’m sorry Blake.” He whispered as he took the hem of her knitted sweater and pulled it upwards. Blake’s bra looked a bit plain compared to Valerie’s but nevertheless he stared at it. He slowly pulled the zip of her skirt down and let it slid effortlessly to the floor.

Blake was actually beautiful.

Her skin was flawless, though a bit pale because she lived far from beach, but to Jimmy she looked amazing. Her burgundy hair clashed beautifully with her white skin, making her blue eyes even more outstanding. Jimmy didn’t realize that he was drooling over his own reflection until Michelle knocked on the door.

“Jimmy? Are you okay in there? You need some help?”

He shook his head quickly, brushing away those views from his mind.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just – settling in.” He closed his eyes and unclasped the bra from behind. He didn’t dare to look at Blake’s breasts because he afraid that he might fall in love. He stripped down naked with his eyes closed and went into the shower.


“I haven’t worn makeup in a long time. Darn this thing!” Jimmy ranted as he was putting eyeliner on Blake’s eyes.

Michelle smiled looking at Blake’s reflection on the mirror. “She’s pretty when she’s cleaned up like this.”

Jimmy smirked. It was as if the compliment meant for him.

“Where did you actually found this girl?” Valerie asked as she too was putting on some make up.

“I found her in Canada. She lives in a bookshop.”

“Really? What kind of book shop?”

“The eerie kind. Her shop looks like a haunted house.”

Valerie chuckled and looked at her sister. Michelle was teary watching Jimmy from behind.

“Mich, why are you crying?”

Michelle glanced at her, then at Jimmy who was also looking at her.

“I-I can’t believe you’re here Jimmy. I watched you being carried away on the day you died. It was too painful.” She broke into tears finally, and cupped her mouth. Jimmy walked towards her.

“Hey, don’t cry. I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“Yeah I know. But for how long? How long until you leave us again?”

The three of them went silent after that. Truthfully, even Jimmy didn’t know for how long he will be stuck like this, being a ghost and leeching off an innocent girl.

“I just – hoped you were at our wedding. Being Brian’s best man.”

Jimmy smiled at her. “I was there. Now I remember. But sorry I didn’t give any speech.”

Michelle widened her eyes. “You were there?”

He nodded and turned to the mirror to finish applying makeup on Blake’s face. “Briefly. Then I was off to somewhere else. It was a spur of a moment. I can’t do anything about it.”

Michelle glanced at Valerie. They both felt the hair on the back of their necks stood up as they never would have thought talking to a friend could be this freaky.

“I’m done! How does she look?”

Both of them grinned widely and hugged him tight. He looked really beautiful tonight.

Notes

A/N: LOL jimmy gossiping like girls. :P