wc: 4.4k
cw: slight angst, discussions surrounding death and the poor aging of some scenes in the breakfast club, plus size!live!reader, still gender neutral!reader
summary: wally tells you about how he died, you watch the breakfast club, and shit is getting a little weird.
don't go breaking my heart: pt 1. - pt 2. - pt. 3 - pt. 4
masterlist
Wally meets you in the library every day during your study hall for the next few weeks.
When it’s quiet, and there aren’t any people around, you spend the whole hour talking. You learn a lot about him, what life was like for him in the 80s, and what his afterlife is like here, as well. He asks questions about your abilities, and though you don’t have many answers to give him, you try your best.
“Have you talked to a lot of ghosts?”
You’re sitting at a table in the corner, notebooks and study guides splayed out to give the impression that you’re actually here to do work. Wally sits across from you, chin cupped in the palm of his hand, elbow leaning on the table top. He has a staring problem, it makes your skin crawl.
“Not really? Not on purpose, anyways,” you shrug, “I mean, it’s not like I’ve had a lot of opportunities to do this.”
“So I’m your first?”
The intention to tease is clear - his tone is light and airy - honey brown eyes boring into yours, smile creeping up on his face. You could look at him for hours. You have looked at him for hours, mapping the freckles on his face like constellations.
“Yeah, Wally. You’re my first,” you giggle, conceding to the bit, “you should feel honored, really.”
“Oh, more than honored,” his eyes twinkle under the fluorescent lights, “and you’re my first, too. What we’ve got going on here is special.”
There’s a beat of silence, genuineness seeping into the joke.
“Yeah,” you whisper, “super special.”
You share a look, and you wish you could reach out and touch him. You wish you could hold his hand, hug him, draw lines from freckle to freckle with your finger. The time you’ve spent with him has been so good - sweet, easy hours spent giggling and blushing.
And then you leave campus, go home, fight the urge to cry into your pillow. It isn’t fucking fair. It’s not fair that he died in the way that he did, it’s not fair that he isn’t fifty something with a wife, watching their kids go to college.
You haven’t talked about it much - the divide between you, or the nature of his death - despite the amount of time you’ve spent together. It’s like you’re stuck in this semi-honeymoon phase, wanting to keep being entertained by the novelty of it, instead of letting the truth of the situation infect that happiness.
It’s so hard, though, when you look at him and think of the life that was stolen from him.
He sees your smile falter, reaches his hand forward to sit next to yours. You feel the displacement of air, the coldness pressing up against the tips of your fingers. It’s enough, for now.
Out of the corner of your eye, you see one of the other ghosts making their way towards Wally. It’s the kid with the jean jacket and the bleached tips - Charley, Wally had told you - and he looks slightly concerned.
You put your head down, moving your hand away from his and feigning focus on the worksheets in front of you. Wally had suggested not letting in any of the other ghosts until you figured out how to tell them, though you had a sneaking suspicion he just wanted to keep this to himself for a little while longer.
Charley plops down in the seat next to Wally, eyes going back and forth between the two of you.
“You missed group again,” he whispers, like he doesn’t want to disturb you from your studying, “are you still following this poor person around? They can’t even see you, it’s getting creepy.”
Your eyes, though directed at the pages on the table, widen slightly - has Wally been watching you the same way you’ve been watching him?
You’ve never noticed him looking at you, and you wouldn’t have, because up until recently you’d been trying your hardest not to get too close. It was futile, you can admit that now.
It almost makes you giggle, knowing that he’d been doing the same thing.
Wally splutters, “I don’t follow them around,” you can feel both of them looking at you, and it’s getting harder not to laugh, “I don’t know why you’d think that, that’s just…”
Charley pats Wally on the shoulder, rubbing it slightly and sighing.
“It’s sweet of you, I think. We’ve all had crushes on living people at some point or another, but this one seems bad. You’re like, obsessed.”
That’s the thing that does you in. Laugh tearing from your throat, hand clasped over your mouth, trying and failing miserably to hide your amusement.
“Sorry, sorry, oh,” your shoulders are still shaking with your laughter, head bowed in apology before you look up to see a pink cheeked Wally and a shocked Charley, “I really tried, I’m so sorry.”
“Nice,” Wally chastises, though he’s smiling, “the idea of me having a crush on you is funny?”
Charley still hasn’t said anything, head whipping back and forth between you and Wally like he’s watching a game of tennis.
“I didn’t say that! I also think it’s sweet,” you turn to Charley, stick your hand out before thinking better of it and pulling it back to your side of the table, “Hi, I’m y/n, yes, I can see you, no I’m not dead.”
“H- hey,” his eyes are still wide, brain working on overdrive to figure out what’s happening, “I’m Charley.”
Wally fills him in on the time you’ve been spending together, retelling in theatrical detail the way in which you’d accidentally made it known you could see him.
Then it was your turn, explaining to Charley how you’d known since you were a kid that you could see dead people, but that you didn’t know why, or what it meant. If it had a purpose, or was just an unexplainable quirk.
To Charley’s credit, he takes it really well.
He doesn’t get upset with Wally for not sharing, he doesn’t get upset at you for not making yourself known to them sooner, though he mentions that when the time comes for you to tell Rhonda, she won’t be nice about it. He’s a sweetheart, just like you thought he’d be.
“Have you guys just been hanging out this whole time? That’s why you’ve been missing group so much?”
Wally goes to answer, but you cut him off.
“What’s group? Do the ghosts here have, like, an afterlife support group?” You find the idea of it really sweet, and amusing, chuckling to yourself until you see that the two boys in front of you aren’t laughing, they’re nodding. “Oh shit, wait, really?”
“Yeah,” Charley confirms, “It’s run by this guy Mr. Martin. He was a science teacher that died in the late 50s, I think,” he looks to Wally for confirmation, turning back to you when Wally agrees, “He’s pretty cool. We have a bunch of traditions, like movie nights and stuff like that.”
“That’s really cool, actually. I didn’t know that you guys did that. I’m sorry I’ve been messing it up, keeping Wally to myself.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Wally says, and he smiles, a sweet, boyish thing, “I’d rather be here with you.”
Charley watches the both of you, and he doesn’t think either of you clock the lovesick puppy looks on your faces. He doesn’t know what it means, how it’ll end, but it’s nice to see his friend so happy for once, breaking the monotonous nature of their days at Split River High.
He leaves eventually, making you promise you’ll hang out with him sometime.
“So,” you ask Wally, “how long have you been watching me?”
“You can’t judge me,” he parrots, “and I could ask you the same question.”
“I didn’t say I was judging, I’m just curious, y’know, since you have a crush on me and all.”
“I do not have a crush on you.”
Wally isn’t the most convincing liar. You can tell, by the way he’s looking everywhere but directly at you, that Charley was telling the truth.
“That’s too bad,” you shrug, glancing at the clock behind him and beginning to gather your things from the table, “I wouldn’t mind it if you did.”
Your nonchalance affects Wally exactly the way you want it to, watching as his cheeks grow pink again and as he trips over words that don’t leave his mouth. He starts to say something, but the overhead chiming cuts him off before he can get any words out.
“Look at that, saved by the bell. Later, Wally.”
On your way out of the library, you look back to see him still at the table in the corner, slouched backwards and head tilted towards the ceiling.
-
When Wally talks to you about how he died, you’re sitting under your tree overlooking the football field.
He hadn’t had the intention to talk to you about it today, but the football team is training, preparing for next year’s season, and you’d asked about it.
It was nice, talking about football in a casual way at first, explaining things to you in a way you’d understand them, because in your words, you were more of a “music and film nerd,” though you understood the appeal of sweaty men tackling each other.
You’d skirted around asking questions about homecoming, attempting to spare Wally the reminder, but the conversation was always going to end up there eventually.
“You don’t have to do that,” he says, leaning against the tree, head tilted in your direction, “I don’t mind talking about it.”
“Are you sure? We don’t have to.”
It’s not pity he sees on your face, but genuine concern. It emboldens him enough to tell you what happened. He goes on autopilot a bit, like he’s told the story so many times that it feels like he’s removed from it - telling a story about someone else, rehashing the grizzly details the way a true crime documentary would.
He tells you about his knee injury, his coach benching him, his mom pushing him to strive for her specific idea of greatness.
He tells you he was running so fast, he didn’t even feel the initial impact, just heard the crunching of his neck when he hit the ground. And then it was lights out. Just like that.
He tells you how he stood up from his own body, watched in confusion and abject horror as his coach and team members ran up to him, trying to wake him, thinking he’d simply been knocked out.
He tells you about the gasps from the crowd, whispers shared amongst the stands as the announcer tried his best to explain what was happening.
It felt like time was standing still, and he’d gotten up so fast that he was confused why everyone was reacting the way they were. He was fine, couldn’t they tell? When his mom rushed onto the field, and the EMT’s loaded him onto the backboard, that’s when he knew.
He watched as everyone left the field, standing solitary with his helmet in his hands.
Mr. Martin and Rhonda found him a few hours later, wandering the halls of the school, tears running down his face.
You don’t mean to cry, you don’t want to take the attention or make him have to comfort you, but the tears fall anyway. Heavy and slow, they build in your eyes before falling over onto your cheeks. You turn your head to the side, wiping them away, trying to hide it. You fail, but Wally just smiles at you - a sad thing, appreciative of your kindness.
“It’s okay, it was a long time ago. I haven’t cried about it in almost… twenty years, I think.”
“I don’t really know what to say,” you face him, collecting the last of your tears with your jacket sleeve, “I’m just really sorry that happened to you. I wish I could change it.”
Wally does what he’s been making a habit of, hovering his hand over yours so you can feel the change in temperature. This time though, and only for a second, there’s a flicker of warmth, a millisecond of feeling a solid palm against yours.
“Did you feel that?”
Your head whips over to see Wally, eyes wide and brow furrowed. He nods, moves his hand away, and tries to do it again, but it falls through yours - cold air seeping into your skin and sending shivers up your spine. You think the latter is more so a credit to Wally himself, not just the cool sensation.
“Why did that happen?” he asks, pulling away from you to fiddle with the gold chain around his neck.
“I have no idea. I didn’t do anything, did you?”
“Not that I know of,” a slight sigh of defeat, “it was nice though, right?”
It makes you want to cry again, how small he sounds at that moment. Hopeful and sad at the same time. You’d give anything to throw yourself at him, hug him, run your hands through his hair.
“Yeah, Wally. It was really nice.”
Time passes, easy silence as the two of you lay in the grass, staring up at the sky through the tree.
“Do you miss it? Being alive?”
He chuckles, shakes his head.
“Not really. I mean,” he rolls over, props his head up with his hand, “It’s been so long that I’ve kinda forgotten what it felt like. There’s lots of shit I missed out on, and for a while I was so upset about being dead that I didn’t even try to catch up. Like, when Charley heard I’ve never seen The Breakfast Club, he flipped out.”
“You’ve never seen Breakfast Club?”
“It came out in ‘85, so…” he trails off, “We had a copy of it in the library for a while, but I mostly stayed away from all the popular 80s movies.”
“I get that,” you sympathize, “but you have to watch it at some point. It’s a classic, I think you’d like it. I could watch it with you, if you wanted.” The question is asked carefully, like you’re still not sure if he wants to keep seeing you. It’s a silly assumption, you know that, especially because his whole demeanor lights up.
“Yeah, okay,” Wally nods to himself, “I’ll watch it with you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, dude,” Wally stands from his spot on the lawn, dusting the grass off of himself, and reaching a hand out towards you to help you up. For a second, you forget that you can’t actually grab him, and you both giggle when your hand goes through his, “the film room is basically always empty, but I have other hiding places if you want to come back sometime not during the school day. The security around here sucks, they haven’t updated it since like, my time, so there’s always at least one open door.”
“That didn’t take as much convincing as I thought it would.”
“What can I say?” he shrugs, “I’m a sucker for a pretty face, and you’re very persuasive.”
-
Sneaking into the school on a Saturday could go really, really badly.
When you’d walked through your kitchen that morning, and your mom had asked where you were off to, you made the attempt to tell her a story as close to the truth as possible.
You were going to hang out with a friend - your mom didn’t need to know that friend was dead, and confined to live within the four walls of your high school.
She didn’t need to know that even though that friend wasn’t capable of touching you, that you’d put ten times the effort into your outfit and hair than you usually would.
It’s late March in Wisconsin, and the last tendrils of a freezing Winter are grasping desperately for recognition against early Spring. In other words, it’s still fucking cold. Out of an abundance of caution, you’d parked your car about a block away from the school, paranoid about a faculty or staff member seeing it and catching you.
It was a good idea, but you spend the five minute walk with your arms wrapped around your body, shivering and teeth chattering.
By the time you make it to the school grounds, you can barely feel your fingertips. Wally is waiting for you by the bus stop, shoulder leaning against the glass, his hands in his jacket pockets and feet crossed over each other.
“Did you walk all the way here?” He pushes off, coming as close as he can to the boundary without being thrown back to the middle of the field. “You look fucking freezing.”
“Not all the way here, no,” You huff out a breath, watching as it dissipates in front of you, “but I didn’t want anyone to see my car in the parking lot.”
“Fair,” he says, “Maybe wear a bigger jacket next time?”
You roll your eyes, and start the trek into the school, Wally leading the both of you around the back and through the gym.
“Sports faculty leave this door open all the time, so they can come in and check equipment, but they were just here last weekend, so the coast should be clear.” He turns around, walking backwards through the gym door and into the hall so he can look at you while he talks. “I don’t want you to make fun of me, but I have a whole thing set up in the film room,” he smiles, ever-present pink flush on his face, “I don’t know if you’ll be able to interact with any of it, but you did kick that football away from you, so I figured it was worth trying.”
He faces forward again, jumping and clicking his heels together. You laugh, shake your head, and follow him the rest of the way to the film room. He holds the door open for you, and when you see the inside, you stand stock still in the doorway.
You have no idea how he did this, where he got all of this from. There are fairy lights lining the room, soft yellow glow illuminating it and shedding light on the massive pile of blankets and pillows on the floor. There are snacks everywhere. Drinks, chips, chocolate bars you can only assume he got from the vending machines in the cafeteria. The projector is on and pointed at the screen on the wall, paused at The Breakfast Club’s opening title sequence.
Your hand goes over your mouth, overwhelmingly endeared by the amount of effort Wally put into your movie day. You walk around the room, looking back and forth between him and the spread in front of you. Thankfully, Wally doesn’t take your silence negatively, instead plopping himself down on the floor and grabbing the remote.
“Well? What do you think? Is it too much?”
He looks up at you from his place on the ground, patting the seat next to him. You’re shaking your head as you sit, still reeling from the feelings rumbling in your chest and stomach.
“Not too much, no,” you settle onto the cushions, wrap a blanket around your arms, glad that you can touch the things around you, phantom though they may be, “Nobody’s ever done anything like this for me.”
“It’s no biggie,” Wally leans back, shrugging his shoulders, “I just thought it would make today more fun.”
“This is so fucking fun, Wally. You did good.”
-
The Breakfast Club is a classic, but it’s also a product of its time.
It’s profound, with complex characters who have complex home lives and interpersonal relationships, it’s thorough in its exploration of what labels and presumptions can do to a person.
It also has its scenes that have aged incredibly poorly.
For most of the movie, you almost regret making him watch it. In your excitement to spend the day with him - significant hours, not just fragmented moments in between classes throughout the week - you’d forgotten how triggering the movie would be for him. It feels like a neglectful oversight, but Wally seems genuinely invested.
He laughs at some of the lighter moments, winces through a lot of the more ugly parts. Slurs being thrown, general and explicit misogyny, fatphobia.
You don’t need to ask him if the movie is accurate, you can see it on his face.
You can especially see how much Andrew’s character affects him. A jock, who, not so unlike Wally, cannot think for himself - who spends the majority of his time trying his best to appease his father’s wishes. Who refuses to be a loser, refuses to stand up to his parents and tell them how he really feels.
How that tumbles into his decision making - beating up a kid who didn’t do anything wrong, just to prove to his dad that he’s a man. It’s not a one to one ratio, but it’s close enough.
He’s quiet as he watches the kids sit in a circle, eyes glued to the screen as they talk about being terrified that they’ll turn into their parents.
You wonder if he’s thinking about the kind of man he’d turn out to be, if he hadn’t died. If he would’ve been harsher, not nearly as accepting as he seems to be now, lacking the 40 years of growth he’s had.
When the movie ends, freeze framed with John Bender mid-fist pump, you look over to see Wally wiping a few stray tears away. It makes your chest ache, your own eyes watering, throat closing up around the lump in it.
You can’t imagine what it’s like, to watch forty years of high school students enter and leave, while you’re stuck there, just watching. The jocks, the bullies, the tightly-wound rich girls, the freaks.
To see the evolution of youth, to watch the times change right in front of you, to realize how small high school is in the grand scheme of things, but to recognize that for Wally, it literally is his whole world. He has to watch, over and over, and see that times really haven’t changed at all. The tropes are still there, the cliches and cliques are just as bad.
“That was a lot more serious than I remembered,” you laugh lightly, “Are you okay? I wouldn’t have suggested we watch it if I remembered how hard it is.”
Wally lies back on the pallet he built on the floor, landing softened by blanket-covered gym mats and couch cushions he’d stolen from the teacher’s lounge. He’s staring at the ceiling, quiet to the point of concern on your end when he says,
“If I’d seen that movie when it came out, I think it would’ve changed my life.”
“In a good way?”
“In a really good way,” he turns his head towards you, looking up at you from his place on the pillows, “Maybe it would’ve made me brave enough to tell my mom I didn’t even like football. Maybe I would’ve…” He trails off, voice watery and cracking, “Maybe I would’ve stayed on the bench. Maybe I would’ve lived through that game, and the next one, or I’d have quit and done something I actually enjoyed. You know she still goes to every homecoming game they have at this school?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. And for all of them, I go out and join her. I sit next to her, cheer when she cheers, boo when she boos, I talk to her even though I know she can’t hear me. I know it’s stupid -”
“It isn’t stupid,” you interject, “You love her, she’s your mom.”
“It is stupid, though. I told Charley once that I was annoyed I didn’t die in the end zone, instead of the five yard line,” he scoffs, shaking his head at himself, “I was upset I couldn’t get her one last win, y’know? What does it say about me, that I keep going back to the field I died on, to watch the game that killed me, because I think it’ll make my mom happy?”
“That you’re loyal. That you care,” you duck your head, trying to catch his line of sight, “But also, maybe that you care too much. That you put too much stock into what your mom thought of you while you were alive, and now it’s carried over into your afterlife. You wanna know what I think?”
Wally nods, urging you to continue.
“I think you’re one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. I think you’re kind, and funny, and you care about your friends more than most living people care about theirs. I think it’s really fucking unfair that you’re not alive right now, and, all due respect to your mom, but,” you pause, working up the nerve to say, “she sounds like she fucking sucked. And you don’t have to do what she wants anymore. Caring about what she thinks is natural, she’ll always be your mom, but it weighs you down, I can see it.”
“What do you mean, you can see it?”
“It’s hard to explain, but it’s like,” you wave a hand over his body, “the air around you is heavier, sometimes. Like it hurts for you to be here.”
Wally hums, digesting your revelation, “Damn. That kinda blows. Does it fuck up my figure?”
“No, silly,” you snort, “Your figure is just fine. Trust me.”
You take the change in topic for what it is, trusting that he’ll work through your words on his own time.
“Oh, my figure is just fine? You wanna elaborate on that, or…”
He props himself up on his elbows, draws his chin down to his neck, and bats his eyes.
“Wally, oh my god,” you go to shove at his shoulder, out of habit, mostly, used to shoving at your friends when they say something ridiculous.
It makes contact.
Like the force of it almost knocks him over, you can feel your hand on his shoulder, contact.
You gasp, go to pull away because the shock of it is overwhelming, and lightning fast, Wally brings his hand up to cover yours.
He’s not necessarily warm, not fully solid either, but you’re touching. He pulls your hand down, holds it between the two of you and laces his fingers through yours.
The hum of the projector is the only noise in the room, as you sit in silence and stare, dumbfounded, at your hand in his.
a/n: hiiiii guys! here's pt 2, i hope you enjoy! i have a very clear idea of what i want 3 and 4 to look like, so stick with me. i watched the breakfast club, realized that wally is literally copied and pasted from andrew, and needed to write about it or i'd die
if you liked this, my masterlist is linked at the top! my asks are always open, and don't forget to like and reblog if you feel so inclined.
also, who else is terrified for the season finale tomorrow????
taglist: @preparedfruit , @lov3bug , @whoopsyeahokay
[SOURCE]
Maternity kits, medical threads and scissors, water testing kits, anesthetics, mobile desalination units, etc do you see the pattern? Israel is not only starving the people of Gaza but it also wants to ensure the spread of disease through contaminated water and surgical tools, as well as ensuring injured Palestinians suffer through horrendous pain.
It's beyond sickening.
the arctic monkeys fandom is dying reblog if youre a true primate
just found out that there is a sudanfunds website! like gazafunds, it is a compilation of funds for people facing genocide
“nobody is making you do this” i am driven by unnatural forces you will never even begin to comprehend
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ this isn’t a self-help guide. i’m not your guru and this isn’t a powerpoint on gratitude. this is just me. sitting on the floor. i’m not here to raise your vibration. i’m here to ask why you think you need raising in the first place. i'm here because i’ve been hoarding revelations like they're concert wristbands. i'm here because reality is porous and i’ve got the straws. no, literally, i’ve sucked on time’s milkshake and found it lukewarm. we can do better.
you will not find steps here. there is no staircase. i burned it. we fly now.
"how to"s . .
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀how to manifest.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀how to get what you want without affirmations.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀where is the stuff i manifested?
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀i have it, i have it, i have it, so where is it?
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀become the laziest manifestor.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀manifest anything in hours, minutes, and even seconds.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀banish resistance.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀how to stop looking at the 3d for results.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀how to manifest the future.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀manifesting faq.
thesis's & concepts . .
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀energy and matter cannot be destroyed or created.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀barbie doll theory of self-concept.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀do less than nothing , get more than everything.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀i said what i said (and then it happened)
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀think it, know it, live it.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀hoping or remembering?
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀manifestation and the eroticism of longing.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀what's meant for me will find me.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀screw trying.
doubts & negatives . .
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀adrift on a sea of self-inflicted delays.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀it didn't work before, why would it now?
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀the hardest pill to swallow.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀" there is no new information on tumblr "
interactives . .
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀the manifesting seance club.
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ﹐⠀pick a card and find out about your manifesting journey.
I wish everyone would shut the fuck up about saltburn. queerest movie of the season anatomie d'une chute starring dykeface-in-chief swann arlaud and evil alps bisexual sandra hüller. doesn't matter if she did it she's so full of hate and writer's block.
I don't want to die. 😥
Israel continues the massacres in Gaza.. 232 souls taken in less than an hour! We are dying before your eyes—please, don’t leave us alone! Save us, do something... protest, donate, participate. I don’t want to die!
Vetted by: @90-ghost here
Donation link:
rest in peace angel, michelle trachtenberg (1985-2025)
this pride, i learnt about the Palestinian trans woman Oscar Al-Halabiye, dancer and resistance fighter against the israeli occupation in Southern Lebanon. she named herself Oscar after Lady Oscar from the "The Rose of Versailles", a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Riyoko Ikeda.
her story is documented in Cinema Fouad(1993). zionists use pink washing to reinforce their genocidal terrorist narrative when queer Palestinians have been fighting against the occupation since the very beginning. you can watch it here with english subtitles. long live the intifada!