My Student Stripped While I Watched

After leaving Sarah behind, Ashley flew as quickly as she could to catch up with Lauren. By the time she’d closed the distance, the athlete was already halfway back to the main campus. Ashley snarled as she remembered Sarah’s snark just moments earlier.

“Well? Go get started!” Ashley muttered to herself. Her impression of Sarah came out comically over-exaggerated. “Ugh, what does she know? She goes on and on about how we need to work together, and the moment I try to touch base with her, suddenly I’m the bad guy? Make up your fucking mind, girl!”

Campus Shadows Lengthen

Now hovering above Lauren, Ashley began looking for any signs of unusual behavior. Her phone was wedged in her pocket and she had headphones in, which didn’t seem too suspicious. Still, Ashley knew Sarah would be upset if she didn’t double-check. Flying closer, she adjusted her head so that her right ear was up against Lauren’s headphones, hoping she might be listening to something incriminating. Instead, she was forced to listen to several minutes of uninteresting pop music, and she gave up rather quickly.

“Booooring!” Ashley said. “C’mon, Lauren, you were always so chatty in class. What gives?”

The next few minutes passed agonizingly slowly. On two separate occasions, Lauren pulled out her phone, sent some generic text messages, then switched to a different song before pocketing it again. Then she ran into some friends, and they made boring small talk about classes. Then she scrolled social media for a bit while waiting for a cup of coffee.

“Oh my god. Do something!” Ashley moaned.

“One black coffee for Lauren!” Megan shouted from behind the counter. Lauren quickly jogged over and took the cup with a smile. “Thank you!”

“Hey, I didn’t see you at Tyler’s party last night. Were you stuck studying all night again?” Megan asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Lauren replied. “You know how it is. Was it a good party?”

“Oh, absolutely! The booze at his place has been top-notch recently. He must have guilted his parents into upping his allowance or something. Great music, lots of hot footballers. You would have had a blast, I promise.”

An awkward smile appeared on Lauren’s face. “Y-yeah, well, maybe next time!”

“What, you don’t like parties?” Ashley asked, rolling her eyes. “Girl, come on! A body like yours, I bet you could have half the football team eating you out by the end of the night!”

Predictably, her comments fell on deaf ears, and she was forced to continue watching as Lauren and Megan finished up their small talk. When it finally ended, Ashley amused herself by repeatedly flipping in circles while following Lauren back to her dorm. As the door closed behind them both, Ashley reoriented herself to try and pay closer attention. If there were going to be any suspicious happenings, now would be the time.

Lauren kicked off her shoes, then set her coffee down on her dresser before walking into her closet. She carefully took off her jacket, hung it up, then paused to briefly look at herself in the full-length mirror hanging on the back of the door. Ashley happily shared the view with her, but for some reason, looking in the mirror only seemed to frustrate Lauren. She stormed out of the closet, grabbed her backpack that she’d propped up against the wall, and headed toward her desk. From there, she connected her phone to a wireless speaker, started some music, and took another sip of coffee before opening her bag and pulling out a stack of books and folders.

“Homework? That’s it? If I wanted to stare at someone studying all afternoon, I would’ve stayed with Sarah,” Ashley grumbled.

Beneath her, Lauren spent a few hours alternating between reading and note-taking, eventually taking a small break to rummage around in the mini-fridge she kept next to her desk. As she opened it, Ashley saw an impressive collection of snacks and drinks, but Lauren seemed conflicted over what to grab. Initially, she grabbed a small bar of chocolate, but she grew distracted by a ping on her phone. When she checked it, Ashley caught her staring at a picture from last night’s party. Two brunette girls were smiling for the camera in the middle of the dance floor, both of them happily showing off their midriffs by wearing low-cut shorts and crop tops. After a minute of looking at this picture, Lauren scowled again and put the chocolate back, instead grabbing a small container of sugar-free Greek yogurt.

Returning to her desk, Lauren grabbed a laptop from her backpack and opened it up. While Ashley had initially hoped she might find something incriminating, or at least some spicy pictures, she groaned in disappointment as she saw Lauren navigate to the school’s website. She navigated to the student portal, then scrolled through her classes so she could check her grades for the semester. While they weren’t horrible, Ashley was surprised to see that, overall, Lauren’s grades were lower than she’d expected. One class in particular stuck out to Ashley, as it was Mr. Garcia’s class they’d shared together. She wasn’t failing yet, but it was clear that the class was giving her a hard time.

Curious, Ashley took another look at the homework Lauren had been working on for the last hour. Just as she suspected, it was reading that had been assigned by Mr. Garcia. Ashley hadn’t bothered reading the notes before, but since she was pretty sure nothing was going to happen here, she decided to skim them. It was shocking how little Lauren had written. What few notes she had written seemed wildly hesitant, as if she was trying to force an understanding of the text that simply didn’t exist, and on several occasions she’d flat out just asked herself questions by writing them down. Some of her notes had been angrily scratched out, and at one point she’d even ripped a hole in her notebook by doing so.

After spending several minutes checking her grades, Lauren opened her Bookmarks menu and opened a GPA calculator. She carefully copied over all her current grades, double and triple checking the numbers, before arriving at a final number. The next tab she opened, also bookmarked for convenience, was a page detailing some kind of scholarship. Lauren scrolled halfway down to a section marked “Minimum Grade Point Average,” then immediately refreshed the page. Ashley, who’d been watching intently for any signs of suspicious behavior, read as quickly as she could. She wasn’t as quick a reader as Lauren, who refreshed the page several times in quick succession, but Ashley noticed that each refresh came just after Lauren read the required GPA.

Oh, shit. She’s at risk of losing her scholarship if she can’t pull her grades back up. Memories returned, flashes of Lauren berating Ashley for not completing her part of the group project. How many times had they argued over it? How many times had she blown it off, assuming that everyone would end up with a decent grade even without her assistance?

Okay, well, I guess this could be a motive. If she thinks that I’m responsible for her shit grades, then maybe she followed me that night to try and force the issue? That doesn’t make sense, though. Didn’t Sarah say that small details like that don’t lead to murder? Besides, it’s not my fault she’s not doing well in the class. Although… I definitely didn’t help. She’d probably say I made things worse.

Lauren slammed her laptop shut, the action catching Ashley off guard. She flew back with an angry scoff, ready to cuss Lauren out for disrupting her train of thought, but her annoyance vanished just as quickly. Lauren, now done with her studying, was lazily unbuttoning her pants as she headed back toward her closet.

Private Glimpses Ignite

“Holy shit! Jackpot!”

A massive grin appeared on Ashley’s face. Following closely, she even made sure to phase partially into the floor to give herself the best possible angle. She’d always been curious what Lauren looked like without clothes on, and this investigation suddenly seemed like a fantastic idea. Lauren pulled her pants off first, revealing a pair of somewhat uninspired purple panties that, while bland, still did a great job at showing off her toned legs and shapely ass. Not only was it everything Ashley had ever dreamed of, but she soon got to see even more. Lauren’s shirt came off next, revealing that most of her body was just as toned as her legs. Playing lacrosse had obviously given her a fantastic physique, and Ashley felt an excited tingle between her legs as she enjoyed the show. She briefly considered giving in to her carnal desires, most of her afterlife had consisted of just that, but she instead decided to wait. After all, maybe she’d get even luckier and Lauren would jump into the shower or pull out a toy next.

Ashley’s excitement faded somewhat when she saw the athlete grab a pair of sweatpants, hinting that she might have just wanted to change into something more comfortable. Oddly enough, instead of pulling them on, Lauren unlocked her phone again and navigated back to the same picture from earlier. Two girls, midriffs out, smiling at the camera as it captured a single moment of revelry from a night no doubt filled with them. After studying this picture again, Lauren began staring into her mirror. She slowly turned around, examining herself from all angles, even striking a few poses to accentuate different parts of herself. While Ashley enjoyed herself immensely, it was hard not to see the distinct lack of enthusiasm from Lauren. In fact, she seemed more displeased with each passing moment. Noticing this change in attitude put a damper on Ashley’s good mood. Every time she tried to appreciate her view, she found herself distracted by the way Lauren constantly fiddled with the hem of her panties, or the straps of her bra. After each adjustment, she would strike another few poses, only to scowl once more and start the entire process over again. After a while, she even started tracing her hands over her curves, pinching her stomach or her butt as she, apparently, compared herself to the girls in the photo.

“Wait, hold the phone. Don’t tell me you have self-image issues,” Ashley moaned. “You’re a fucking smoke show! Half the time you try to talk to me I can’t focus because I’m so distracted by how hot you are!”

Watching this whole affair made Ashley so angry she eventually gave up entirely. Even if the group project was possibly a motive for murder, she hadn’t seen a single suspicious act from Lauren since Sarah confronted her. Instead, Ashley had simply been forced to watch Lauren dig through her grades and bemoan her pointless body image issues. Sick of dragging down the mood again, Ashley gave up and flew away, eager to be literally anywhere else.

More time had passed than Ashley realized, as the campus and the surrounding town had been completely enveloped in darkness. The various bright lights of street lamps and businesses lit up the sky, and she instinctively started flying back toward Sarah’s dorm.

Wait. Ashley stopped. If I go back now, she’s gonna chew me out for not following Lauren around for longer. There’s no way she’ll trust me if I say that it’s obviously not Lauren. Alright, fine, I’ll just bum around until morning, and then we can find the next suspect. No problemo.

The idea of spending an entire night to herself didn’t sound terrible. As fun as it was to harass Sarah, she was still painfully aware of how different her life, or afterlife, had been before they’d first bumped into each other. She didn’t exactly have memories as much as she had vague suggestions of what her daily routine had become in the weeks after her death. With her sense of self somewhat restored, curiosity took root as she thought about how much stuff there was to explore in the area. But where to start? As far as she remembered, she’d been idly haunting the campus for weeks, if not longer, and she never found anything more interesting than students partying or hooking up. Not exactly enthused by the thought of following more random students around, Ashley opted for novelty. She’d never really explored the surrounding town of Phoenix in her life, so why not start now?

With a new destination in mind, Ashley excitedly picked up her pace as she neared the outskirts of OSU. While roads were few and far between on the school campus, which prided itself on being mostly walkable, they increased in volume and density the further into town you went. This wasn’t true across the board, of course. Downtown Phoenix was well known for being open and walkable, the place of choice for students looking to leave their school life behind for a few hours. Ashley herself had been on several dates to the area, but didn’t remember much about those visits. She veered away from downtown, again in the hopes of avoiding students tonight, and instead trained her eyes on the cluster of large buildings nearby. If memory served, this area was also technically considered downtown, but existed more for large corporations and companies. Instead of small businesses hoping to court the nearby college students, this other half of downtown was filled with parking garages, massive office buildings, and the occasional piece of culture such as a museum, theater, or library.

Suspending herself roughly twenty feet above the ground, Ashley amused herself by watching the crowds of people that bustled to and fro beneath her. Taken as a whole, it was hard to get invested in the traffic of people and cars, but as she sank closer to the ground, she found several small moments of levity that made the trip feel worth it. A young woman walking an excitable dog that paused to pee on a tree before getting distracted by a rogue plastic bag flying in the wind. A frazzled businessman with an honest-to-God briefcase filled with papers trying to buy a taco from a street vendor, only for the briefcase to burst open before wind scattered his papers everywhere. Some kind of online influencer trying to make a video by pranking strangers, only for everyone to completely ignore his antics.

Several minutes after the influencer called it a night, Ashley found herself above a busy intersection. Her eyes fell on one gentleman in particular: an older man dressed in an old-fashioned suit with a matching hat atop his graying hair. He kept his hands in his pockets as he walked, and he wasn’t paying any attention to the people around him as he approached the crosswalk. Stranger still, he wasn’t even obeying the crosswalk signals. He happily walked into the street in the middle of a gap in traffic, seemingly unaware that a car was fast approaching the intersection.

Holy shit, he’s about to eat it! Giddy with excitement, Ashley repositioned to get a better view as the car zoomed toward the intersection. Each step the older guy took brought him further into the crosswalk, and still he seemed completely uninterested in the people and traffic around him. Seconds later, the car raced through the crosswalk, and nothing happened. It simply passed through the guy as if he didn’t exist before continuing on with its journey. Even stranger, the guy didn’t react in the slightest to the car phasing through his body, and instead finished his jaunt across the street as if nothing had happened.

Wait. WAIT! That guy’s a fucking ghost!

Ashley shook herself to her senses before flying closer. “Hey! HEYYY!!”

The older gentleman didn’t react in the slightest. He kept walking without a care in the world, and even weaved around other people on the sidewalk as if he hadn’t just phased through a car moments earlier.

“HEY! OLD FUCKER IN THE HAT!!” Ashley shouted.

After closing the gap, she jumped in front of the stranger and pointed accusingly at him. “Are you deaf or just stupid?!”

Her sudden appearance startled the man, and he flinched as the two of them made eye contact. His faded blue eyes were partially obscured by thick-rimmed black glasses, and faint wrinkles lined his face, though up close Ashley realized he likely wasn’t as old as she had initially thought. Most of his head was hidden by the hat atop his head, which itself was an old-fashioned fedora straight out of an old detective movie. He wore a simple brown suit that matched his hat, complete with a white undershirt and a distinguished tie, and when he finally spoke, his voice had a slight rasp to it.

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“That’s not a very nice way to address your elders, young lady,” he muttered.

“You weren’t answering! I was trying to get your attention!” Ashley snapped back. “And you’re seriously going to lecture me about manners? I’ve never seen another ghost before! Isn’t that more important than manners?”

The old man chuckled. “Haven’t been dead for very long, have you?” As he spoke, he started walking again.

“What has that got to do with anything?” Ashley asked, pivoting to follow the guy.

“Not too much, I suppose,” he said.

They walked side by side, and while he continued sidestepping the living people all around them, Ashley didn’t bother. She simply let them phase through her.

“Okay, well, shouldn’t you be excited about this or whatever? You have someone to talk to!”

“Need I remind you that you approached me? If I wanted someone to talk to, then no action was needed on my part to strike up a conversation. However, given your poor attitude, I’m not entirely sure talking with you is going to be all that enlightening.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Ashley shouted.

The stranger sighed before stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. “How long have you been dead?”

“Me? I dunno, few weeks, maybe more?”

“Exactly,” he said. “This is all still new to you. It’s exciting to meet other ghosts, you probably want a bit of company, maybe someone you can ask a thousand questions in the hopes of finding out more about the afterlife. I simply don’t have the energy to be your new ‘bestie,’ or whatever kids call it these days.”

“Psh, I don’t give a shit about that,” Ashley said, rolling her eyes. “Just thought you might.”

“I’m certainly not against a bit of company. Just don’t make me regret letting you tag along.”

He took off walking again, his steps filled with unusual purpose. Several seconds passed in awkward silence, and Ashley eventually pieced together that this stranger wasn’t going to be the one starting any conversations.

“So, uh… how long have you been dead? You act like it’s been a while.”

“Reckon it’s been forty years or so at this point,” he muttered. “I died back in ’79.”

“Dang, really? That’s crazy! What happened?”

“Car accident. Nothing special.”

“Oh, uh… that’s cool, I guess.”

Geez, would it kill this guy to lighten up a bit? Heh, I guess it wouldn’t. Still, you’d think that meeting another ghost is the most routine shit in the world with how little he seems to care.

“What about you?” he asked.

“You know that football stadium they’re refurbishing over at the University? I got pushed off the top floor!” Ashley dramatically imitated someone pushing her off a building before falling to the sidewalk beneath them. There, she floated alongside the stranger’s feet as they talked.

“Sounds like quite the dramatic affair. So what’s keeping you around?”

“Huh? Well, I don’t actually remember who killed me, so probably that. It’s not like I’ve got any unfinished business or whatever.”

When the guy didn’t respond, she kept talking. “Say, why are you walking everywhere? And avoiding people? You’re fucking dead, you could be flying all over the city.”

“For your information, young lady, I happen to regret being dead. Every person I pass through, every second my feet aren’t on the ground… they’re reminders that I’m nothing but a spirit.”