The Chronicles of Us

нαуєѕ

I didn't
tell her
right away
that the reason
to why
I was called "Grey"
was because
of my last name,
Greymark.
No,
I never said that,
but I did
tell her
that I was
dead.
She didn't react
as the way I thought.
"If you're---dead, then why are you here?"
She said in a hushed voice.
"I don't know. I just---I woke up and walked out of my body. I saw myself---lying there dead---and I saw him there---but he couldn't see me. Neither could anyone else."
"Why can I see you?"
Her eyes
were wide.
"I don't know, Lena."
I placed my hand
on her cheek.
She grabbed
my hand
and felt it.
"But I can touch you. I can see you. I can even freaking smell you, Hayes. Why?"
"I think you're gifted."
I whispered to her.
She shook
her head.
"Am I crazy?"
"No, Lena."
I squeezed
her hand.
"Can't you feel my touch?"
I lifted her hand
to my mouth
and blew on it.
"Don't you feel the warmth of my breath on your hand?"
"Yes."
"Then you're not crazy."
"But no one else can see you."
"But you can,"
I rubbed her hand.
It was cold.
"and that's all that matters."
"So what about your aunt and uncle you live with?"
She asked,
pulling her hair
out of her face.
We retreated
to her bedroom
after we retrieved
our shoes
and headed in
the house.
"I don't have an aunt and uncle."
"So where do you stay?"
She sat
on the
edge of her bed.
"Where I've always stayed."
She looked at me
wide eyed.
"So you actually live in the same house that I live in?"
"Well I wouldn't necessarily say live---"
"But you've been livi--- roaming---the same place that I live since you've---died?"
"Yes."
"So what do you normally do when we say goodnight?"
"Watch you sleep."
"What....?"
Her eyes
were the
size of
dinner plates.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding."
I sat up on her bed,
and she
plopped
down beside me.
"Really?"
She asked.
"Okay. Well, I normally just walk around."
"All of the time?"
"Yup."
She smiled.
"You're a stalker, aren't you. Hayes?"
I smiled, too.
"Maybe."
She leaned into me,
for a moment
I thought she'd
kiss me.
God,
that would've
been great.
But there was
a knock
at the door.
"Lena, your breakfast is ready."
The door opened.
For a moment,
my first instinct
was to hide
before
Lena's mother
could open the door,
but then I remembered:
Oh,
that's
right,
I'm
dead.
And
also
an
invisible
ghost.
"Good morning, Lee."
She walked
through the door
to wake up her
daughter,
only to realize
she was not only
awake,
but drenched.
"What---"
"Oh, I went for a swim."
She told her.
I could see Lena
eyeing me
in her
peripheral vision.
"But it's 7:00, Lena, you went swimming this early?"
She was clearly flabbergasted.
"Yeah, mom. I have to stay in shape."
Lena
actually sounded
plausible.
"Well, my little athlete,"
Lena's mother
smelt a piece
of her
daughter's
dark hair,
"you have hash browns and eggs waiting for you in the kitchen."
Then she left.
"Do you want some, too, Hayes?"
Lena asked me.
"I'm sort of dead, remember?"
"But you can sort of swim and can sort of walk and stuff..?"
"Lena, you think I haven't tried to eat?"
I said jokingly.
"Whatever."
She grinned
and flipped
her
still wet hair
over her shoulder.
God,
that
girl
was
beautiful.
In the living room
of the
extravagantly
big house,
was a grand piano.
It was my mother's.
I guessed
the movers
didn't bother
to get rid of it.
The keys
were ivory
and cool
and in perfect tune.
"Did you play?"
Lena asked me
when she
caught me
staring
at the piano.
"I used to,"
I ran my fingers
along the keyframe.
We both
sat down
on the wooden bench.
She propped her elbow on the casing of the instrument.
I fingered
a few notes,
and I immediately
thought
of my childhood,
and how
those notes
were solace.
"He loved me, you know."
I said
to the
hazel-eyed
girl
beside me
without looking up from the notes.
"My dad, that is. Well, he loved me whenever he wasn't drunk."
I played.
I bounced
back and fourth
between a few notes,
then I added
a higher accidental
after every time
I repeated
the musical phrase.
"How long was it until he started---"
"I was eight."
My finger
hit a
wrong note,
and the piece
fell apart.
I sighed.
"He'd always been a drunk, but that's when he got so drunk that he beat me."
She nodded.
"Do you want to take another walk?" She asked me.
I told her yes.
So we did.