Vanished || l.h. au

nineteen

Kind of fluff, but kind of important. Enjoy :)

Luke.

 

"Where have you been all this time? I know it doesn’t take seven hours to fill out a job application at the station." I asked her as she came through her room door, tripping on her own feet.

"I was out with a friend." She replied, placing her car keys on the cherry oak dresser across from the bed. In the mirror I saw the slight nervous flicker in her eyes and knew there was more to the story.

"Which friend?" I asked calmly, although I could feel anger build up inside of me already having a guess as to who this "friend" was. She was making it obvious.

"It was Calum, alright." She sighed, finally turning around to face me.

I clenched my eyes for a second before standing up.

"You know he likes you right?" I asked her, trying to keep firm eye contact with her, but her gaze kept flitting away from mine.

"He's just a friend, Luke." She retorted, tilting her head back as a groan emitted past her lips.

"But he hopes for more! And with me technically out of the picture he thinks he has a chance! Are you that desperate to leave me?" I asked, raising my voice. I couldn’t help but notice the slight tone of distress that shook in my voice.

She fell silent, her face twisting into one of confusion. "I'm not desperate for anything except for you to come back, Luke. In all your entirety. He's just being there for me right now." She replied, her tone shifting to sound softer. She was mentally  tip-toeing around me.

"Beth, I'm here for you right now." I said making a grab for her hands but feeling my statement crumble as the contact lasted for a mere second. She sighed and turned her head. "You can't leave me right now, I need you. You're all I have." I pleaded.

"I'm not leaving you, Luke, that was never my intention. Do you see how crazy this sounds? "Breaking up with a ghost".” she mocked, forming air quotes as she spoke. “Oh that's a new one alright. But what about a year down the road or five? What if this is still occurring or worse you just vanish again but this time for good? What do I do then?" she asked, and I knew now that we were resuming our fight from earlier.

"We're going to figure this out. I'm going to come back. I'm going to come back to you. Just like old times." I reassured her, as I tried to convince myself at the same time.

"Things will never be the same, Luke. This will always remain part of our memories." she stressed, and I could see the tears start to prick at the corner of her eyes.

“Hey.” I said, grabbing her face gently in my hands. She casted her gaze downwards, refusing to make eye contact with me. “Beth, please look at me.” I pleaded, caressing her cheek with one of my hands.

“Babe, please.” I whispered, after she had still refused to. This time her gaze met mine, and I noticed the red tint that started to shade in the whites of her eyes as she held back her tears.

“I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to listen to me okay?” I asked, and she nodded her head, not wanting to argue any further.

“I love you, Beth. I never told you, but I have for a while now. And to be honest, Beth, I should have told you because I loved you even when I was still physically alive and before all of this hell happened. But I didn’t want to ruin things, because everything was going so great and what if I ruined everything by telling you?”