He caught himself thinking about her all the time. He knew he shouldn't. She was alive, and he was dead. Tate had never wanted someone as bad as he wanted Violet, but she couldn't have been less interested.
Violet knew he was a ghost, but she had no idea about his confrontational past; the drug use or the slayings... It was weird for him to think about those things now. Tate felt like he was a completely different person around Violet, and thats what made him want her more than anything --or it could be the way her big brown eyes light up when she smiles, or the way she moves in her sleep. Everything about the living teenager drove him absolutely insane. She was his best friend.
One afternoon, Violet sat on her bed with her laptop in front of her as she scribbled her assignment down in her notebook. He watched her for a few minutes before letting her know he was there. The sunlight that was coming in from the half-open window made her blonde hair gleam, and he smiled upon realizing that she bit her lip when she concentrated hard enough. It was the little things that Tate noticed that made him fall for her.
"Did you know that you did that?"
"Shit Tate! You scared me. That I do what?"
"When you concentrate. You bite your lip and your forehead gets all wrinkly."
"Get out." She laughed as she threw a pillow at him.
"No, really, Its cute."
She paused for a minute and her expression suddenly became serious.
"What?" He asked, afraid that he had offended her" "Nothing. I just wish things were different sometimes..,"
"Me, too."
It wasn't until later that day that Tate caught the slightest glimmer of hope for the two of them, but it was wrecked a few days later when Violet announced that she had met some one at school. Anytime she brought him up, Tate immediately changed the subject; that was until she started bringing him around.
He was taller than Tate, tanner, and he always had a beanie on. He would watch them listen to music and talk, always looking away when they kissed or other intimate things. He looked at the boy with such disgust. He would tolerate him. If thats what made Violet happy, then so be it. However, Tate wasn't going to give up so easily, even though he knew he should leave her alone. Her life would be so much easier if he let them be, but he was selfish, and he wanted her so badly.
He watched as Violet walked him to the front door and said goodbye, then slipped upstairs to put the rose had had painted black on her bed with a note asking her to meet him in the basement. He must have re-written it 20 times because of his chicken-scratch hand writing, but he finally wrote a decent one. Then Tate went to the basement, pacing the floor in anticipation. He wasn't sure what he was going to say to her, but he had to some how convince her that her new boyfriend wasn't good enough.
