Ghost of You

GOY 8

"Really, can't you just ditch?" Luke asks for the hundredth time.

"No, I'm not going to ditch." I whisper back for the hundredth time.

"Why not? All you do is watch movies all day, and you don't even finish any of them." He's been complaining all day about how 'the last day of school isn't worth attending under any circumstances'.

"If all you're going to do is complain, I should've rode with Nathan this morning and you could've gone and done whatever it was you did before you found me." my voice raises and the girl in the seat next to me turns her head to look at me.

I glance over at her and when she notices that I've caught her looking at me she quickly turns her attention back to the movie.

Looking back to Luke, I roll my eyes and say "Fine, lets go."

"Miss, can I please...." I'm at loss for words. I've never had a reason to lie to a teacher before and as I stand up here in front of the teacher, I can't help but feel incredibly stupid for falling into Luke's trap so easily.

"You have to use the restroom!" Luke shouts "For fucks sake."

"I have to use the restroom." I say through gritted teeth.

As soon as I turn into the hallway, Luke breathes a sigh of relief and I look at him, "How do you expect to get out? There is only..." I pause, turning to look at the clock and then back to Luke.

Twelve forty-three.

"About seventeen minutes until the bell rings." I finish.

"I think we should just go now. Nobody is even in the hallway." he shrugs and I begin to grow more nervous.

"Doesn't that make it a little more obvious? Someones gonna catch us."

"Listen, Le-" he says and the use of the nickname pulls on my heart strings and I take a step backwards. "You're sad."

"No I'm not." I face him and I see the look of sadness on his face.

"I feel what you feel, remember?" He asks and I roll my eyes. "Why are you sad?"

"We should just go now." I say, looking at him with pleading eyes.

"Okay," he says and looks down again. "Its the last day, anyways. You don't have to worry, they probably won't do anything if they actually do happen to see you."

"Its the last day,"I repeat, and a wave of relief runs through me. "I'm out of here."

"Good, lets go through..." He scans the hallways and points to the door on my right. "That door."

"No, the office is not too far from that door. We should go through that one." I say, pointing at the door behind me. "Its the farthest from the office, but it leads to the parking lot."

I don't know anything about skipping, but I know the layout of the school, so I'll let Luke do all the hard work.

"Okay, since I'm invisible, I'll go first." he says and I can't help but laugh.

"Seems practical."

"Its is." he says and backs up, going through the closed door.

"You can come out now." I hear from the other side of the door and move forward, pushing it open and stepping into the warm air.

"The parking lot is to the right." I say and Luke jogs around the right side of the building as I walk a good ten feet behind him.

He disappears behind the other corner of the building for a second and as he comes into view again he says,"Uh, this may or may not be a problem." Once I'm standing next to him I scan the parking lot.

"Do you know how to climb a fence?" he asks and my eyes widen.

"No, do I look like I know how to climb a fence?" I gesture towards myself and Luke rolls his eyes.

"No, but you look like you're about to learn." He says and starts to walk towards the fence. "Hm, I'm sensing annoyance and... is that a little bit of regret? Its too late to turn back now."

I lift my head to look at him, just as he walks through the fence, his back facing me.

"Put your foot there," he says, pointing to a spot on the fence and I do as he says. "And the other one here."

But when I lift my foot to put it on the fence, I don't realize that I haven't grabbed onto the fence with my hands and end up falling back onto my butt.

"Ow." I groan and Luke huffs from the other side of the fence.

"I thought you were a little smarter." He says and shrugs. "Try again, this time, hold the fence with your hands. Foot here."

He points back to the same spot on the fence and I grab hold of the fence with my hands, lifting my foot to the spot where hes pointing and wedging it into the fence.

"Now, your other foot here." I do as he says, moving my hands. The process is slow and I hear the school bell ring in the distance. "Stop panicking."

"I'm not panicking." I roll my eyes as I reach the top of the fence.

"I can feel it, dumb ass. We've been over this. Swing one leg over the fence." He says and i swing a leg over but loose footing with my other leg and slip side ways over the fence.

I scream as Luke's hands jut out to catch me. Of course, I fall through his arms and my back hits the ground, pain immediately spreading throughout my body and black dots start to dot my vision.

I start to gag and mutter out a "Its happening again" before rolling over onto my hands and knees despite the pain in my back.

I feel dizzy and everything goes blurry and then a bright white takes over my vision.

Everything came back to me all at once and I took in a deep breath before sitting on the ground, my back against the fence.

"I'm sorry. Holy fuck. I didn't mean to touch you again. I'm really sorry." he starts but I can't reply because my heart is beating fast and I'm too busy focusing on catching my breath.

I use all my strength to turn around and get on my knees, my back facing Luke. I reach for the edge of my shirt, aiming to lift up only the back of it, the heat hitting me harder than before and I try not to focus on the fact that I wore long sleeves.

"Can you look at my back?" I ask Luke "Is it burned?"

"Burned?" he asks "Its not- oh" he says as I finally get my shirt up enough. "Are those my hands?"

"I think so. They're in the shape of hands?" I ask but he ignores me and asks me to lift up the sleeve on the arm he touched yesterday.

His eyes are sad and he's slouched as i lift up the sleeve, keeping my eyes on him the entire time.

"I don't know why I-" and before I can finish my sentence my back begins to burn.

The screaming groan comes out of my mouth again. Its the second time I've heard this sound and its much scarier than the last.

My head, my heart, and my chest burn worse than they ever have before. Everything is blurry and I struggle to catch my breath.

I scream out to Luke, asking for help but when I look up and my blurry vision starts to clear, I see Luke looking at me with  fear in his eyes.

"You're scared." he says, and I scream out again.

"What are you saying? I-I can't hear you I don't know what to do!" his words are rushed.

The burn fades and the screaming stops and I can hear whats happening around me again.

I fall onto my back again, trying to catch my breath as worry covers every single one of Luke's features.

"Did I do that to you?"