John spent majority of the day in repetition to his morning, sticking his hands through people, spitting on stuff, and gazing at Alexander from afar. When the siren to mark the end of the day rang out, however, John was in no hurry to grab his bike and watch Alex cross the bridge from his rock, instead today he lazily sauntered behind Alex, smirking as he shamelessly admired his ass. It's not like anyone could call him out, nobody could see him.

When they reached the split off for Alex to go to his bus stop, John simply followed, taking his time with a wide smile. This wasn't stalkerish at all, of course not, Alex couldn't see him, he just happened to be taking the same bus as Alex, to the same house as Alex. 

What else was he gonna do? After years of crushing on this guy and literally dying with zero action, he earned this. The bus arrived and Alex stepped on, scanning his bus card and finding a seat. John was going to get on but it was very crowded and he knew he'd have to stand or sit inside someone, which would be uncomfortable for the both of them. 

John decided to float up and sit on the roof of the bus, then he'd see Alex getting off and just be able to hop off too, simple. 

The bus began to drive and John grinned to himself, watching the scenery rush by. Everything was going smoothly. He was going to lead a fantastic life as a ghost if this kept up. I mean, it was a shame he couldn't talk to anyone now, but if he needed to he could leave spooky-ass messages on people's mirrors in blood or some shit, or ketchup, ketchup works too. Or maybe there were other ghosts. He could have haunting buddies! But he was not sharing Alex with any other ghosts.

When the bus stopped for the fifth time John spotted Alex hopping off and smoothly jumped off the roof, somersaulting into the air and zipping up above Alex. He rest his chin in his hands and sighed with a smile as he watched Alex walking, earphones in and phone in hand. 

Alex only had to walk by three houses from the bus stop to get to his, that was pretty handy. He stepped up to the front door and fished out his keys, unlocking it, stepping in and slamming the door shut behind him, right in John's face. John jumped a little with a frown, but immediately face palmed and chuckled to himself. 
"John you're a ghost, act like one," he scolded himself, floating straight through the door after Alex.

"Hey Peter!" Alex called down the hall as he tugged out his earphones, shoving them in his pocket. Who was Peter?
"Sup Al," This 'Peter' called back casually. seated in the kitchen shuffling through paperwork in front of a computer, they looked to be bills. His mom was probably working, was Peter his brother? He didn't know Alex had a brother, cool!

"What's this shit?" Alex chuckled with worried undertones, waving a hand at the mess of papers on the table.
"Shit we can't afford," Peter mumbled with a frown, passing an electricity bill to Alex as he walked past. "The cash your mom left us is gonna cover us for a another month before we're on our own," he sighed, massaging his temples.

Alex frowned as he studied the paper and closed his eyes, formulating a plan in his brilliant mind.
"I'll... get another job," Alex slowly convinced himself, nodding confidently.
"No, no Alex you're still in high school we can't let your grades suffer-" Peter protested before Alex cut in.
"My grades? I'm top of every class I take Peter, that's not a worry," he chuckled reassuringly.
"Alex-"
"We'll get through this Peter, as a team, don't sweat it," Alex nodded firmly, patting Peter's shoulder.

The cash his mom left? Where was their mom? Was she dead?

"What did I do to deserve a cousin as good as you Al?" Peter laughed softly, shaking his head.

They're cousins? He knew Alex didn't have any siblings! But... why was Alex living with his cousin?

Alex chuckled under his breath and vacated to his room, John slowly following. Alex slipped inside and closed the door behind him and John hesitated. This was a new kind of invasion of personal space. This was fucking creepy.

But c'mon, surely other ghosts had done worse stuff, right? He was just hanging out with his crush in his room, and he didn't know he was there, because he was dead, but it was cool. 

John drew in a slow breath of preparation before floating in.