Laconic » a.i

1.4

//cooper//

"Don't come closer."

"I loved you."

"Don't talk to me."

"I. Don't. Love. You."

All of the terrible things Ashton spat in my face were swimming around in my head. It didn't matter that Ashton had ordered me not to talk, I didn't have anything I wanted to say anyway. There was nothing left to say. It was all over. None of it mattered.

"It's been three days and you haven't moved." Calum stated, standing in front of me from where I sat on the couch. I had wrapped myself in a blanket and hadn't gotten up since returning from where Ashton was staying.

Luke kept running off -- sometimes with Emily and sometimes alone. Jeremy also kept leaving, but it was almost always at night. But today, he left around noon to go somewhere. It was usually just me and Calum in the tree house. While I liked spending time with Calum, I missed Luke. We were so close -- he was my best friend. But lately, it's been all about Emily. I understand he's excited about this new girl in his life, but that shouldn't mean he should throw the old one away, right? Besides, he's the only person that I can talk to. He's always reading my mind to make sure I'm okay. But I always never am.

"Cooper, you have to do something instead of mope." Calum sighed, bending at his knees to he could be more level with me instead of looking down at me.

What else was there to do? The boy I loved didn't want me around anymore, and one of my closest friends left me without a proper explanation. People were just walking away left and right. There wasn't much of a point to anything anymore. I even started to feel like Luke was slowly stepping out of my life.

"Just give me a hint!" he finally exploded. "What do you want? What can I do to get you to just do something besides breathe and sleep and cry?"

I sat there for a moment before grabbing my phone off of the floor beside the couch and pulling up Luke's contact. I held it out for Calum to see and he squinted at it before nodding. "Give me a sec."

-

//ashton//

I sat in Michael's room with him after that and just cried. I felt like such an ass, but at least I knew Luke could hopefully explain. He was staring right at me and I didn't have sunglasses on. My thoughts were probably screaming to him. I could only hope that he knew I was just trying to protect them. But it had been three days and I hadn't heard from any of them, not even Calum who I figured would've come to visit Mali-Koa.

"You seriously need to calm down about this," Michael told me as I paced his room. He was laying back on his bed as usual. He hardly ever did anything else besides sass whoever walked into the room besides me. I mean, he sassed me too, but it was different. "Luke probably told them that they're ghost hunters so they're staying away. Calum probably doesn't want to give anything away, so he's keeping a safe distance too."

"It's been three days, Michael!" I shouted.

"It's been three days." someone repeated from behind me. I turned to see Luke standing in front of the closed door with his arms folded across his chest.

I scrunched my eyebrows together as I stared at him, "Luke?"

"Three fucking days," he said again, looking really pissed off, "and you know what Cooper has done? Nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing. She sits on the couch and cries and sleeps and that's about it. She can't even say anything because you told her not to."

"Me? My powers don't work, she's dead." I reminded him.

"How did he get here?" Michael quizzed, sitting up. "Hemmo, where were you three days ago?"

"You got new powers," Luke continued, stepping forward. We were both ignoring Michael's question. "I saw it in your thoughts. Well, not a new power. The gift was enhancing your old ones. Maybe not the eye thing, but your voice."

My mouth dropped as realization hit, "Oh my God, that's it!"

"And so you broke the girl you're in love with," Luke sighed. "I understand you were trying to protect her, but was saying all of that really necessary? It's not even that she cant talk, she doesn't want to anymore at all. It's worse than before. I can see inside her head and it's nothing pretty," he then looked to Michael, "and don't think you're off the hook because she's upset with you too. You both just left her-"

Luke's phone vibrated and he sighed loudly. He fished it out and held it to his ear, "Hello?"

"You left her!" the person on the other line shouted loud enough for Michael and I to hear.

"What are you talking about?" Luke wondered, pulling at the ends of his hair. "I went to talk to Ashton and Michael....Yeah, I saw him in Ashton's thoughts....He's been locked up....She is? Shit, I'm sorry, I-....I'll be right there....I'm sorry! Okay, bye."

"What was that?" Michael wondered.

"Calum," he replied. "I need to go see Cooper. I suggest you escape this place and get back to her too. You're being immature."

"I'm trying to leave but now they have Michael here," I told him, "and I'm not leaving without him. They rigged him with a potion so he's tied to the house."

"I'm not leaving without Annie." Michael added.

"Annie? Emily said Annie lived with these ghost hunting bitches!" Luke yelled.

"Annie lives here?" Michael's face immediately brightened.

"But she's a hunter in training." Luke spat.

"She wouldn't hurt me." he insisted, although he didn't sound so sure of himself.

"Go find her and see what happens." Luke dared before flashing out of the room.

-

//cooper//

Luke appeared in the room just as Calum sat down next to me. He huffed and leaned forward in his seat. "Jesus Christ, where do you keep going off to?"

Jeremy appeared in the room and Luke turned to him, "Where do you keep going off to?" he demanded, trying to get the anger off of him and pin it on my brother.

"Lucas Hemmings, sit down," Calum ordered as he got up. "Jeremy and I will...step outside."

"We will?" Jeremy quizzed.

"We will."

After the door closed behind them, Luke flopped down on the couch next to me and put an arm around the back of it. He looked at me for a while, but I didn't look at him. If anything, he should talk to me. I deserved an explanation as to why he kept ditching me when I needed him most.

"I know you do," he replied as he stared into the corner of my eye, "and I'm a huge asshole for leaving. But it was important stuff, alright?"

I faced him angrily. For three days?

"I was gathering information -- most of which you won't care about -- and I talked to Ashton today." he said quickly.

I couldn't even think anything once those words left his mouth. He was talking to Ashton? Wait, why would I care what he had to say? He hated me anyway.

"He doesn't hate you," he insisted. "I swear, it wasn't his fault he was acting like that."

That wasn't the first time I'd heard it wasn't Ashton's fault. He was always pinning the blame on other things. But I just wanted to believe it this time because last time I didn't and that obviously didn't work out for me.

"You should believe me because I'm completely serious," he stated. "He was trying to protect you."

That only made me angrier. Michael said the same thing but left without actually explaining. Everyone was doing things and not giving any insight as to why. I was over it; I was just done.