If she doesn't scare the hell out of you a little, she's not the one.
-Pinterest.

• • •

I watched, annoyance colouring my features as he made himself comfortable at the study table, before slowly and reluctantly pulling out his notes to complete his assignment. Everything about him - from his stance, his deliberately slow movements to the repeated tapping of his pen against the tabletop- annoyed me in ways I just couldn't explain. I wanted to leap across the room, grab him by the neck and squeeze, not hard enough to kill him because more than anything, I needed the idiot alive but just enough to let off some steam.

It was bad enough that I was cursed, but this, this was just too much. I wasn't the nicest person out there but the universe really did not have to go this far to make me pay for my sins. Give me the solution to my problems but make him as impossible as far as impossibilities come, then leave me with no means of communicating with him. There was sheer wickedness and then there was this.

'Give me a break will you?' I said to no one in particular.

I just couldn't take much more of this. Not to mention, the boy in question was as irritating and self-absorbed as they came. Even if he could see me, I had no delusions that we would ever get along. We would definitely bicker every step of the way. I just wouldn't be able to stand him.

I stalked across the room, over to where he sat staring blankly at the pages of his notebook with the pen stuck between his teeth, as he lazily tapped out a beat with his index and middle finger. Admittedly, the boy in question had done little to nothing to me in particular but I hated him with a burning intensity that I have always reserved for anyone of the Tituba bloodline.

It didn't help that he also had the attitude of a diseased pig.

After a minute of staring blankly at the page with me breathing down his neck while hoping for a miracle that would allow him to somehow see me so I could finally be free of the hell I was trapped in, he plucked the pen from his mouth and wrote down two words; his name.

'Idiot.' I muttered condescendingly, rolling my eyes as he groaned before proceeding to strike out the words. 'Well, you're a smart one, aren't you, douche bag?' I added acidly.

Flipping to the next page, he scribbled something down too quickly for me to read. I leaned forward, practically resting on him as I tried to make out the illegible scrawl.

'Dumbass.' I mumbled after making out the scrawl to be the topic of the assignment.

'Jer---' I began to add before being rudely cut off.

'WILL YOU STOP HOVERING!' He yelled irritatedly, throwing his hands up in frustration.

Well, I know he's not talking to me., was my first thought as I turned, looking behind me for the unfortunate person the idiot was yelling at.

There was no one else in the room and if I wasn't mistaken, he was staring at me. Not through me - like always - but at me.

I blinked once, then twice. And a third time, just to be sure.

The only people in his room were still me and him. That can't be right, I thought, before closing my eyes and rubbing them furiously.

There was still no one else in the room

My eyes widened slightly as I gazed at him, realization dawning on me.

'You can see me.' I gasped.

It wasn't a question. It was statement of disbelief but that didn't stop the idiot from replying.

'No, I'm talking to the other stalker ghost behind you.' He said caustically, getting up from the chair to sit on his bed, leaving his Economics assignment as uncompleted as it was when he picked up the book.

'You can see me!' I screamed in amazement, too caught up in what it meant to register the fact that he had insulted me. 'Sweet heavens! He can see me!'

'I think we've already established that baby doll.' He rolled his eyes. His condescending tone coupled with the patronizing look that had "you are crazy" written all over it was enough to snap me out of the temporary state of euphoria and get me thinking rationally again.

'Why can you suddenly see me?' I frowned, eyeing him suspiciously.

As far as I could tell, nothing had changed in the past five minutes that I had been insulting him. It wasn't my first time doing that. Honestly, it was quickly becoming one of my favourite pastimes so why could he suddenly see me when he couldn't two weeks ago. Heck, two months even.

'I've always been able to see you.' He answered nonchalantly, propping the ankle of one leg against the knee of the other and leaning back to properly appraise me.

My eyebrows felt like they rose five inches in the air. I stiffened. Many feelings came at me in a rush, shock and anger warred for dominance.

The latter won.

Everything in the room except the douchebag seemed to sense the storm that was brewing inside me. I was about to loose it for the first time in roughly 173 years and I welcomed it happily, letting the anger take over.

'Hang on. So what you mean to tell me is that while I have been following you all around for the past three months, thinking you couldn't see and/or hear me, you have actually been able to see me and hear me, all along?' I asked softly. My voice took on a dangerously calm tone that lulled him into a false sense of security.

My voice, however, was the only calm thing about me. My brain was rushing to catch up with the whiplash.

All along, he had been pretending. I was suffering, living in my own personal hell, paying for something I didn't deserve and he was... pretending?

Unbe-bloody- lievable.

I was precisely five seconds away from exploding emotionally.

'Turns out I can see a ghost that no one else can. What were you expecting me to do? Go shout it out to the world? I was hoping if I ignored you long enough, you'd take the hint and go away.' He shrugged, unperturbed by any of it. Like this was merely a minor hick in his day.

I survived two hundred years, holding on to the hope that he, 'a chosen one' that I wasn't even sure was coming, would be born and would survive long enough for me to not only find him but also find a way to get him to break my curse and the fool thought he could reduce me to a 'minor hick' status?

What a capital asshole!

I was over two hundred years old. That alone placed me far above a minor bloody hick.

I had followed him around - some might even say I stalked him, which I even though I hated to admit it, was the best way to put it - for three bloody months, hoping and praying for a miracle so that he would be able to see me while simultaneously cursing his ancestor for putting me in a situation where the fate of my existence was in the hands of a twenty-first century egomaniacal playboy who didn't even know how to do his own laundry.

His entire survival skill set revolved around ordering in. Unless it could be ordered online, Gavin was the last person to ask for any type of help.

And now I find out he could see me all along!

My nose twitched spastically. A sure sign that I was about to go one hundred percent "crazy lady" on him. Soon, my left hand started to vibrate as well. Another one of my signs.

I closed my eyes and forced myself to take deep breaths.

Inhale.

I can do this.

Exhale.

Inhale.

I will not loose my temper.

Exhale.

Inhale.

I will not bite his head off.

I will not rip his innards out. Just because my entire life was stolen away from me and I was sentenced to exist until I helped this idiot complete his mi---

I took me a few seconds to realize that I had gone off track and that the breathing exercise wasn't working. I exchanged the deep breaths with quick shallow breaths, clearing my mind of all thought while forcefully reminding myself that murder was both a crime punishable under the law and morally frowned on.

'What the hell are you doing?' He asked, irritation colouring his tone as he broke my concentration.

As I looked at him all I could think was;
Over seven billion people in the world  and I end up with him. Seriously, universe?

Wiping the sour thought from my mind, I forced my face into the sweetest smile I could muster under the circumstances and replied; 
'Strangling you with a garrote in my mind.' 

The image looked very appealing in my mind. Now if only I could actually touch stuff instead of ghosting through them, I'd be golden.

'Not that I'm not worth it but why the heck are you following me?' He asked, propping his shoulder against the wall in a pose I'm sure he thought was appealing.

It was not.

Not to me anyway. I'm a two hundred year old ghost. It was going to take more than a half-assed pose from some below average human with a severe attitude problem to impress me.

'Sit down.' I rolled my eyes, sending up a quick prayer for the patience to handle this properly. Here comes the long explanation.

'Why?' He arched a brow.

'Stand then. I don't care. It's a really long story though.' I countered, silently daring him to stand so I could turn the ten minute explanation into a two-hour one.

In my defence, he pretended I was invisible -which I technically am, to other people but not him so my point still stands- for three bloody months! I wasn't proud of it but I had a vengeful streak as wide as the Pacific that 200 years only managed to reduce to the size of the River Jordan. It was not as large as the Pacific but it was still big in it's own right and Gavin just earned himself a spot right under Steve Jobs on the list of people I was going to "mildly inconvenience".

Causing Steve to lose his company for a while there was still one of my more brilliant ideas but maybe I would think of a better one now that I had a new target. Nothing like fresh prey to get those creative juices flowing.

'Fine.' He huffed and reluctantly returned to his position on the chair, angling it towards me instead of his study table. That was rarely, if ever put to good use, by the way.

I sucked in a fortifying breath, steeled my spine and met his gaze head-on.

'I'm over a hundred years old. I was born in 1802 actually. I was an apprentice to one of your ancestors.' I stated, beginning what was more or less the story of my cursed existence.

***

Author's Note:

I know. I'm horrible. I'm truly sorry for the long wait. I really just wanted to be sure I got it right this time around. I will be updating once a week unless something completely 100% unavoidable prevents me from doing so.

On the other hand, what do you think? Are you intrigued? Do you want to know more or are you ready to close this book forever? Or do you need more convincing?

Please vote and comment loads.

You can expect an update next week.