Laconic » a.i

0.4

//cooper//

We stopped in front of a tiny white house with light blue trim. Annie turned and gave me a smile. "It was nice to meet you, Bridgette. And thanks for walking with me. You made today...slightly less terrible."

"It's not a problem." I shrugged.

She gave me a quick hug that kind of took me off guard. I didn't expect her to actually do that. Mikey was standing at the end of the driveway, a small smile on his face.

When Annie pulled away, she had her lips pursed, "Okay, I know we're strangers, but can I admit something to you?"

I nodded, "Yeah, of course."

She leaned in closer to me and whispered, "Sometimes, I think I see Michael."

I pulled away, giving her a quizzical look, "What?"

"I know it sounds strange since he's dead, but sometimes I swear I see glimpses of him," she babbled. "Like, in the hall or just standing in my room or sometimes at the cemetery."

"Annie," I said, taking in a breath, "I believe you."

She gave a small smile, "You do?"

I nodded, "I do."

Her smile grew wider, "Thank you -- for not thinking I'm crazy. I just...wish I knew if there's an afterlife for him; if he can see me."

"Don't ask me how I know," I began cautiously, not knowing how Michael or Luke -- if he was even still around -- would react, "but he can. And he still loves you, Annie."

Before she could say anything, I kissed her cheek and flashed back home. I probably just caused her years of therapy, but she might as well know. I ended up in the living room where Calum was watching the news. He looked up after I entered.

"You're getting better at that." he commented.

"I need to get pretty damn good because Mikey's going to be-"

"Cooper!" Michael called from where he showed up in the kitchen.

"Damnit." I cursed under my breath.

Calum scrunched his eyebrows together, "You're actually, like...functioning."

There was a banging on the sliding doors. Calum and I looked over to see Luke standing on the deck. His eyes were wide, "Michael's looking for you!"

I whipped my head around to Calum, "Hide me." I hissed.

He got up and led me to the hall to go up the stairs, "What exactly did you do?"

"Annie told me she sees dead people and I told her she was right and then kind of flashed away." I explained.

"For no reason." Michael added from the top of the stairs, his arms crossed over his chest.

Calum and I stopped, looking up at him. Cal backed out, "See ya."

I smiled sheepishly at Michael, "Hey, buddy..."

He curled his index finger twice before walking toward my room. I followed, dragging my feet as I went. He held the door open, shutting it once I was inside and flopped down on the bed. He stood in front of me, arms crossed again.

"I don't know if I'm thankful or angry," he huffed. "Well, no, I know I'm angry and thankful, I just don't know which weighs out the other."

"I don't even know why I did that," I admitted, "and I'm really sorry if I freaked her out-"

"Honestly," he cut in, "I think you gave her some sense of hope more than anything."

"Hope?" I repeated.

He nodded, "She smiled before she went back inside. Annie reminds me of that chick from those Harry Potter movies -- the blonde one."

"Luna?" I offered.

"Yeah, her. Annie's not one to be easily scared by things like that," he chuckled, talking mostly to himself it seemed. It was like he was getting carried away in the old memories of him being alive. He turned back to me. "Look, you should go back to sleep."

I shook my head, walking passed him to go back downstairs. He grabbed my wrist, pulling me back toward him, "What, you're done talking for the day?" he teased.

Everyone had noticed that I gradually stopped saying much since Ashton's disappearance. I couldn't even explain why I did. But nonetheless, Michael was always trying to get some sort of reaction out of me. Calum and Luke mostly just let me be.

I just looked back at Michael and shrugged. He knew that I wasn't going to say anything else about it, so he let me go. I went down the stairs to find Calum and Luke to see if they were ready to leave. I just wanted to get going. I found the two boys sitting on the couch together, watching the news still.

"I think you made Annie's life," Luke told me as soon as I'd sat on the recliner. "She loved Michael more than anything, and I think that's still the case."

"I just hope she doesn't go around telling everyone she sees dead people like that kid in that movie." Calum said, sounding really bored with the topic. His eyes were glued on the TV anyway.

"What are you watching?" I asked blankly, looking at the TV myself.

I felt Calum's and Luke's gazes on me before Calum replied, "Someone's dead up in Brisbane."

"Suicide," Luke added. "They left a note."

I looked at them and shrugged.

"It get's creepier," Calum said, leaning forward in his seat. "It said, he needed me."

I shrugged again, still not really seeing what that meant.

"Cooper," Calum sighed, looking at me sternly, "that means either this person was in like, a Satan worshiping cult and he killed himself for a sacrifice, or...it means Ashton's been around there and he's not getting better."