Love, Dahlia // B2

[38]

Luke's P.O.V.

Aura won't leave the bed. Usually she's pretending to sleep or she'll just stare at the wall or ceiling. I'm worried about her.

"Has she talk to you yet?" Caleb asks, sitting next to me on the stage.

"No," I shake my head, looking away from the direction of the room Aura's in. "Has she said anything to you?"

"No," he answers.

The silence between us is uncomfortable, but it's better than forcing out words. I hate him. I hate this club. I hate what he did to me, my band, Aura, everyone. He's so sick and disturbed. He's - wearing sweatpants?

I observe the black, baggy sweatpants over Caleb's legs. I follow it up to the blue Champion sweatshirt he's wearing. He pulls the hood down as my eyes reach his face. The dark circles under his eyes are almost black. His hair is stuck up in some places and flattened in others. He looks like a college student during finals week.

"What the hell happened to you?" I ask, my filter shutting itself off.

Caleb looks over at me and lets out a small laugh. "I'm Tinkerbell."

"What?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Nobody is coming to my club anymore. Any of them," Caleb claps his hands against his thighs before standing up. "I had the most important people coming to my clubs. I owned hundreds of lost souls. I controlled so much of this hell we all live in. And now-" he huffs. He extends his arms out to the empty club. Big, white sheets fly out from under the tables and fall over them. "Now I have nothing. I have no attention. And it's killing me," he mumbles this. He looks back down at me and smiles. "So I'm Tinkerbell."

"I don't understand, you've been a ghost for-forever. Why now?" I ask.

"The thing about being a ghost is that you can just decide to never finish your unfinished business or you can make sure people remember you, forever," Caleb says. "I've been completely done with my unfinished business for a long time now, so I should've crossed over a long time ago. But I decided to make sure people never forgot me. I made sure that Lifers came to my clubs. There would always be people, living people knowing the name Caleb Covington," he holds his hands up, as if his name were in huge lights. "But now, they've forgotten about me."

"You're going to cross over soon," I say. "Aren't you?"

Caleb looks me in the eyes. His are glassy. He sniffles and wipes his mouth before nodding and putting his hands on his hips. "Yes," he whispers. "I'm crossing over."

I stand up and walk over to him. "What will happen to Aura when that happens?"

"If she is still here in America when I 'die', then she will be stuck here," Caleb says. "But if I send her back to France before I cross over, then she will be free."

*there's gonna be an f-bomb soon. Just thought I would warn you

"And me?" I cross my arms.

"You could die, again. You'd most likely come with me, we'd exit existence together," Caleb nods. "Unless-"

"Unless, what?" I grab the collar of his sweatshirt. "I'm not dying with your sorry ass. Unless, what Caleb?

"No," Caleb says. "You made a deal with me. It's not happening."

"What the fuck is it?" I spit.

"Unless I set you free."

*****
Julie's P.O.V.

"Hey, Reg," I smile, walking into the kitchen.

"How was your night? It's pretty late, isn't it?" Reggie asks, wiggling his eyebrows.

"It was fun, surprisingly," I nod. "And don't make that face at me. Tyler and I are just friends. No matter how adorable he is. It'd be weird. He's like kind of my sister's ex, I guess. I don't really know how to explain what happened with them."

"Did you get a chance to talk to Flynn?" He asks.

"No," I say, opening the fridge. "Come to think of it, I never actually saw Flynn there."

"Too busy making out with Tiger or what?" Reggie laughs.

"Haha," I enunciate. "You're funny." I grab an apple from the fridge before closing it and leaning over the counter to talk to Reggie. "You know, Tyler and I can just be friends."

"I know. And it would be extremely close minded of me to say just because it is a boy-girl friendship that it has to be more than a friendship," he nods.

I stand up straight, taken aback. "Exactly. That's probably the smartest thing I've ever heard you say, Reg."

"But you and Tyler aren't like that and everybody knows it," he laughs.

"Wow," I smile. "You know, I thought you had my back for a second there."

"I always have your back Jules," he says. "Doesn't mean I'm not going to give you a hard time."

"Jerk," I laugh.

"Tiger Lover."

"Am not," I take a bite of my apple, making an extreme effort to crunch as loud as possible.

"Whatever you say," Reggie laughs. "I'm out of here. Goodnight Ms. Molina," He spins in this chair before poofing out of the room.

"Night," I laugh. I take another bite of my apple before walking toward the staircase. I run into someone standing next to them and jump, nearly choking on my food. "Dad?"

"Wha-what was that?" He asks, pointing to the place Reggie just disappeared from.

"What? What was what?" I choke, knowing my acting is terrible.

"G-ghosts! There are actually ghosts in my house!" He yells, throwing his hands in his hair.

"Dad, I can explain," I sigh. "Please, just don't freak out."

A.N.

Hiiiii!!!!!!

What'd you think? I'm back again. I'm literally stuck on the couch (had another knee surgery) and have been for a week now so I did some writing.

How has everyone been?! I missed y'all.

Okay I should really go to bed now.

Bye!! (:

-Redd