Adopted by Beetlejuice

Chapter 21

TW: implied death

I kept looking back at the message the random kid from my school sent me. Sure, it was nice, it was nice to see someone outside of my family take time to check up on me during this daunting time, but who was that?

I sighed and picked up my phone, typing out a response.

Hey! Thanks for checking in on me, it means a lot in times like these. You seem like a really sweet person, what's your name?

Sure, my response was short, but I think it got the point across. All I cared about was figuring out who this person was.

Not even five minutes later, my phone buzzed again, and I was overjoyed to see it was a Hangouts notification. I opened the app and looked at the response.

I'm Josie Block, she/they. You're adopted by Dana Steingold, right? If so, that's cool. It's another thing we have in common, I was adopted by a Broadway star too. My mom's Stephanie J. Block. Anyway, keep in touch, don't hesitate to text if you need anything or want a visitor! <33

Josie. Her name is Josie. And we have more in common than I thought...

I sighed and looked at the message one more time, then I suddenly felt myself get tired. Which was normal lately, the chemo's caused me to have a lot of fatigue.

I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

__________

Dana's PoV

It had been a few weeks since I last saw Penney, and I missed her like crazy. I missed her smile, her laugh, the way she told jokes...everything about her.

Every single night, I went into Penney's bedroom, just because it made me feel a little better with her being gone. She left it a mess the last time she was here, there were papers all over her desk, clothes all over her floor, her bed was still unmade (except for the fact that she brought one pillow with her to the hospital), there was still a coffee cup on her nightstand...

And every single time I went into Penney's bedroom, part of me wanted to clean it up a little. Penney was a slight neat freak, so I'm sure she would've appreciated it. But the other part of me wanted to leave it be. Penney's messy, unkempt room was one of the last memories I had of her. Even though she was a neat freak sometimes, she was mostly a chaotic messmaker, and that's one of the things I loved about her.

I pulled up my phone, wanting to call Penney and tell her I loved her. But one look at the clock told me that she wasn't going to answer the phone, it was pretty late at night and Penney slept most of the day anyway.

But what's the harm in trying?

I opened up FaceTime and dialed Penney's number, waiting for her to answer. But the answer...Penney's sweet and familiar voice...it never came. And God, not hearing her voice hurt me so badly.

I decided to give up after two more tries of calling her. Sinking down onto the floor and leaning on Penney's bed, I started crying. It was in that moment that I wondered how the hell I managed to live without her. How I would manage to live without her...

Taking a deep breath, I pulled a small card out of my pocket, the picture of Penney I always kept with me.

Penney Lydia Thyme Steingold, 2/15/06-3/31/21