Skinny • Book 1 In The Reality Series

Katy

“What are you doing?”

Chills running down my spine and my heart dropping to my stomach I opened my eyes to find a figure standing infront of me, their face hidden by the harsh glare of the sunlight surrounding them. Squinting I raised a hand over my eyes however it fell away instantly, collapsing limply in my lap as the boy infront of me came into focus.

“Mind if I sit?” he asked.

Unable to speak, or breath I nodded slowly and watched carefully as he sat down infront of me. Crossing his legs so his knees were brushing against my own he flashed me a lopsided smile.

“Luke?” I whispered, staring in awe at the unscathed, seemingly very much alive, gangly blonde sat infront of me.

“Katy.” He replied, an amused smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.

A tsunami of emotion washing over me I lunged forward and threw my arms around the thin body infront of me. I half expected to go straight through him and fall flat on my face however my body collided with his.

Laughing to himself he stuck one arm out behind him to keep the two of us from toppling over, and wrapped the other around me. Burying my face in the shoulder of his varsity jacket I inhaled the faint stench of Ax which lingered, as much a permanent part of his person as vibrantly blue eyes.

“You’re okay!” I choked out.

“Of course I’m okay.” He laughed.

Pulling away from him I took in every inch of his face, my heart aching as I realized just how much of it I’d forgotten.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded.

“I don’t know.” He chuckled, “I was hoping you could tell me that. What’s up with the train tracks? I can think of about a million places I’d rather pop a squat, somewhere with a little more cushioning.”

Opening my mouth I began to reply however stopped seeing a cloud of smoke filling the air behind him. Straining my ears I waited for the whistle in the distance, my heart fluttering wildly in my chest when I heard it.

“Katy?” Luke pressed.

“You have to stand up.” I replied, my gaze snapping back to his face which was now furrowed with confusion and concern.

“Why?”

“You have to move!” I ordered, “You have to go!”

“Why?”

“Because a train is coming!” I snapped, watching as the massive metal beast rounded the corner, looming into view in the distance, “You have to move!”

“I will if you will.” He replied.

“I can’t.” I whispered, “This is for the best.”

“Being hit by a train is for the best?”

“Yes.”

“Being obliterated into a million pieces which some unfortunate people are going to have to pick up is for the best?”

I faltered, “Yes?”

“The train will have to stop, everyone on it will be delayed, who knows where they’re going. Grandma will miss little Billy’s first birthday party. Job interviews, carefully calculated wedding proposals, people trying to get to the airport, they’ll miss their flight…Is that for the best?”

I knew it wasn’t.

“You don’t have to do this Katy.” Luke said gently, tilting my chin up with his cool fingertips, forcing me to meet his gaze.

“I do.” I mumbled, my eyes wandering to the ever approaching locomotive.

“Then I guess we’ll be inconveniencing everyone together then.” He replied, stretching out on the tracks.

“You’re not even real.” I informed him, not able to tear my gaze from the swiftly moving train, “You’re not here. I went to your funeral. What are you like a ghost?  Or like, a hallucination?”

“What do you think?” he questioned propping himself up on his elbows.

“I don’t know.” I admitted.

Shrugging, he lay back down.

“Why are you doing this?” I demanded starting to panic, “Get up!”

“I will if you will.”

“I can’t!”

“Are your legs broken?”

“No, Luke get up!”

“No, I’m staying.”

“But you’re already dead!”

His eyes widened at my outburst slightly before he shrugged again, “It won’t matter then will it?”

Looking away from him I watched as the train thundered towards us, the air choked with the thick, billowing cloud of dark smoke which followed like a shadow, the track vibrating beneath me. I had seconds.

“Being dead,” Luke informed me calmly, staring up at the cloudless sky, “Isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You’ll regret it. No one is going to mourn you, the same people who are shitty now are still going to be shitty, they aren’t going to change. You need to change. You need to show them what you’re capable of, which I think you and I both know is a lot more then acting as a speed bump.”

The air was filled with the strong stench of fuel, the clattering of the wheels on the tracks was deafening. I had expected it to stop, but deep down I knew it wouldn’t. Barreling towards us like a great metal monster it raced forward.

“Nothing is going to be fixed by doing this.” He said seriously, “It’s all going to end. No more bullies, no more teasing, no more friends, or family, no more being sad, or happy, or that weird mood when you’re sort of in between. No more warm showers and cold glasses of water on a hot day. No more rain or sun, light or dark, good or bad it all just stops.”

It was so close I could reach out and touch it if I wanted to. Squeezing my eyes tightly closed I waited for impact but it didn’t come. Instead I felt a pair of hands pressing on my back and shoving me roughly out of the way.

Startled, I looked up to find a pale and wide eyes Calum looking down at me.

“What were you thinking?” a female voice shouted before Gracie ran up beside us, “Are you insane you could have died!”

Stunned, I tore my gaze away from the two and looked back at the tracks where the train was hurdling past.  But there was no sign of him. Reaching out and placing a hand on my shoulder, as if he feared I’d make a last minute run for it, Calum stared at the tracks beside me.

“Come on you guys.” Gracie mumbled, hooking her arm through my own and helping me to my feet, “Let’s get away from here.”

My gaze still trained on the tracks I let her and Calum drag me wordlessly away as I watched, waiting for Luke to appear and jog after us, but deep down I knew he would not, he was gone.