“Hey, Freddie!”

“Freddie! Woof! Woof! Woof!”

“Man, Freddie! Where were you last night? You missed the party of the year!”

“From the looks of things, Freddie had a wild night himself.”

“Oh my God. Hey, Fred!”

“Hey,” Fred said to the freshman girl that greeted him, stopping in front of her and leaned down, eyes staring into hers. “You know, I've never seen brown eyes as deep as yours. They're as gorgeous as the rest of you.”

He watched as her chubby cheeks turned a bright red, her hand reaching up to nervously play with her blonde hair.

“Th-thank you,” she mumbled before scurrying away with her head down. Fred wandered what exactly she was doing in the male dorms so early in the day but shrugged it off.

He laughed, smiled and waved at everyone that greeted him, trying to recall the people talking to him like they were his old friends when he didn't even know their names.

It all strangely made him want to go back to Jean's quiet apartment, but that wasn't an option. He had exposed the guy to too much already. Anymore, and Fred wouldn't be surprised if he snapped or worse, got hurt and killed.

Fred was relieved, though surprised, when Jean suddenly turned around and went back to his home without Fred having to even convince him. He had just said he had a deadline and left, leaving Fred both confused and bothered.

Fred was usually the one to walk away from people, not the other way around. And Jean had gotten so quiet by the time they had gotten to town so it made Fred question a lot of things he hated thinking about.

Did he get bored of me that fast? Was it something I said? Maybe it was my comment about dragons. He seemed to like them, but it's not like I'm the one that hunted them to extinction. Dammit. It feels weird when people don't like me.

“Where were you last night?”

Fred looked to his right as he made a turn, entering a more quiet hallway, and he wasn't that surprised to see his front door neighbor, Malcolm. The vampire looked as tired, sickly and pale as ever.

“You miss me, babe?” Fred teased, laughing when the vamp hit his head with his umbrella.

“Keep your shit for your fans,” Malcolm grumbled, half-closed eyes glaring up at Fred.

Fred smiled broadly. He wondered why the resident vampire was looking for him.

“Diana was getting worried about you. Kept popping into my room and disturbing my peace. Bad enough I'm stuck in a building full of children, I don't need a dead one adding to that too,” Malcolm spat, walking right into one of those children who looked confused.

“Why exactly are you in a building full of children, again?” Fred asked, trying to not look like a crazy person talking to himself because the vampire decided to walk around and talk to him while invisible.

“Oh that's why,” Fred went on, smirking as Malcolm tensed up beside him, both of them stopping in front of their identical brown doors. “You're a trapped little vamp in a cage of body odor and drunk nights. What you get for sucking so much.”

Malcolm's tired eyes held so much annoyance as he looked at Fred, his clawed fingers twitching madly as if he wanted to rip Fred’s throat out but he couldn't really do that to the guy that brings him his food supply.

“Get it? Cause you suck blood?”

“Get bent,” Malcolm growled, German accent clear as day as he opened the door to his dark bedroom.

“Anytime, anywhere. Gimme a call and that can be arranged. Dinner first though. I promise not to order the steak.” Fred winked, and laughed before Malcolm slammed the door closed and scared the rest of the guys walking down the rumored to be haunted hallway.

Fred stopped laughing and sighed, ignoring the thudding footsteps of guys running away from the hallway as he pressed his forehead to his door.

His full moon episodes were going to get him in so much trouble one day. He was just glad that Jean was able to get him out of it before he did something that he would've regretted. It was just a one night thing, yeah, but strong empires have fallen in moments.

Fred needed to be more careful.

“Diana,” he called, closing his eyes as he took deep breaths to collect himself. “Open up, baby girl.”

His door creaked open and he slowly opened it further, a pillow immediately hitting him in the face when he walked in.

“I told you not to call me that.”

Fred laughed, closing the door behind him before picking up his pillow and tossing it back on his bed where Diana sat, her pale, translucent arms folded across her chest.

“I'm sorry,” he said softly, smiling at the ghost girl that was technically his roommate.

She huffed, floating towards him, and the sight of her slashed throat made Fred feel that wave of sadness he felt whenever he saw it on a girl that couldn't have been more than thirteen years old when she died.

“You're just going to do it again. I'd think your mama raised you better,” she scolded, her lips pulled down in a frown.

Her hands moved to her hips as she looked up at Fred like a disapproving mother.

“So?” she asked. “Where’ve you been? And don't lie to me.”

#

“You should rest now, Freddie,” Diana suggested after hearing about his night and day.

“I am resting, Diana,” he said, laying down on his bed and looking up at the ceiling.

“...I mean sleep. You starting to look like that white man over the wall,” she said with a snort, floating around Fred's room leisurely. It looked like she was swimming in air and it was a relaxing sight.

“Fuck you!” Malcolm yelled from the other side and Fred entered a fit of laughter as Diana went over there and chastised him for using such words.

He laughed some more when she called him a nasty sinner and he should stop disappointing his parents further. Getting scolded by Diana was the absolute worst and he was glad it wasn't him.

“Rude and cruel. Just like the rest of them,” Diana scoffed as she returned, her spiteful words sobering Fred up.

“Hey now, Diana,” he tried to say, not sure how to go about it without ending up with an angry spirit. “Times have changed and they're not all like that.”

She scoffed, her face pulled up in anger.

“A white man is a white man and there ain't nothing else to know. Time don't change demons and it definitely don't change what they did to me or my fellow black brothers and sisters. Get that in your head,” she said just about the same thing she always said when the topic was brought up.

Fred sighed, dropping it. He couldn't blame her. Especially considering how she died.

“So you cleaned up then?” he asked, eyeing his black desk on the left of his wire closet.

Books were arranged and there weren't any clothes on the carpeted floor or on his bed. His black and white sheets looked washed and the light cream walls looked like they had been repainted.

“I clean up everyday. Keeps me busy,” she said, small voice using big words and sounding as cold as she made the room.

Fred nodded smiling up at her as she floated over him, her large eyes on him.

He wished he knew what she looked like when she was alive, instead of a ghostly, white and nearly transparent being. He bet that she was as much of an adorable human as she was an adorable ghost.

“What's on your mind, little lady?” he asked.

“I'm just thinking about what it'd be like when you leave. You're the only person that's stayed here for years. I don't…want to be alone again.”

Fred scowled, his chest aching at the thought.

You wouldn't be alone if you just moved on…but I can't tell you that.

He didn't know what to say so he remained quiet, lips pressed together and he did feel bad as Diana looked at him like she wanted to cry but couldn't before vanishing, leaning him alone with his spiraling thoughts.

Closing his eyes and sighing, he turned to his side and burrowed into his pillow, nearly begging for sleep or to even be unconscious again. Anything to stop him from thinking anymore.

Except death, of course. He wasn't gonna go that far.