chapter twelve//
Maddie, to her knowledge, had been asleep for five months.
It didn't exactly add up to the months with Chloe, which terrified her. Was it all a dream? It seemed so..real. Touching..feeling..loving. The hospital gave her the exact dates when she demanded them, and even as she stared at the numbers and small jots of writing on the calendar, she had a hard time believing it. She had only known Chloe for about three months.
How could five have passed?
Turning around in her bed, Maddie blinked up at the form, slouched in a chair.
"Colton." Maddie said, trying to keep her voice quiet. It was 1:45 am, and according to Colton, he was staying the night. The hospital lights were dimmed, much to the brightness when she woke up. Swallowing down a faint sense of déja vu, she tries again to wake the sleeping boy. The position looked uncomfortable, and Maddie's neck pulsed in empathy of the angle where his head was tilted back. Maddie let her voice die and her mouth fall shut, examining him slightly with her eyes. Although her favorite feature of him, his eyes, were closed, Maddie couldn't deny that Colton was a catch. Every cheerleader wanted to date him, and most often, he had no problem dating them.
Maddie, however, was a different story.
Colton seemed terrified and lost when he first laid eyes on Maddie's awake form, and the hug Maddie received was fiercer than anything she'd ever been given before. But Colton wasn't-couldn't-like Maddie.
"Checking me out, Ziegler?" Colton's gravelly voice said, and Maddie almost jumped, watching his brown eyes slip open to an amused glance.
"No. I felt bad for your spine." Colton makes a noise of disapproval.
"Nope. You were just enjoying my beautiful face." Colton tells her, leaning back against the chair as he yawns.
"I will kick you out."
"Fine! God, fiesty." A pillow is thrown in his general direction, effectively knocking him on to the ground.
"So..did you have dreams?" Colton asks, once the pillow is relocated back behind Maddie's scalp, now inclined on the bed, facing the television. Maddie flips idly though channels, tugging at her lip with her teeth.
"Yeah. But..I have no clue. They felt..lucid. Like...I met people. And I think they're real." Maddie admitted, leaving the hospital TV on a rerun of Parks and Recreation. Colton glances at her curiously.
"What?"
"I..met people. Only one person could see me. Her name was Chloe-"
"Wait. Explain more." Colton interrupted her, and Maddie huffed in frustration.
"When I..you know..passed out, I woke up standing in front of a girl. She was holding a razor, and she was blonde. She screamed and we like..eventually became friends?" Maddie tries to tell him the full story, but she leaves many details out, almost by accident.
"What was her name?" Colton implored, eyes widening curiously.
"Chloe Lukasiak." Maddie spoke in a hushed tone, as if saying the word would make her disappear.
"Okay, so..Chloe. Who couldn't see you?"
"Everyone. Like..we walked into school and I fell and no one looked. We just realized that I was..almost a ghost. I knew I couldn't touch things..but..not being seen was weird." Maddie retold, and Colton furrows his eyebrows, taking her cold hand and rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.
"Do you think she's real?" Colton asked, letting go of her hand and tugging at his backpack.
"Yeah." Maddie whispered, and Colton nods, pulling out a laptop. He pulls it open and waits a moment, before sticking his tongue out slightly and muttering her name under his breath.
"Chloe..Lukasiak?" Colton questions, and Maddie fumbles for the laptop, placing it on her lap. She ignored Colton's noise of protest, before clicking on an article.
Chloe Lukasiak- dance protegé of Pittsburgh.
Chloe Lukasiak, 15, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pictured below at the annual ALDC showcase.
A high quality picture of Chloe was plastered proudly over the screen. Maddie took in a harsh breath, and Colton pushed his head on her shoulder from the side, looking at her screen.
"That's her."
[]
hey, guys!
i'm dying of heat over here- i already apologize if this chapter is terrible.
i hope you get all the various time details; a lot more will be specified later.
surprise update because you guys have been so amazing.
we're almost at 1k :o.
{thanks for 100 votes!}
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wanderlust » cel
Fanfiction"look at the stars, chlo." chloe sighed gently, surveying the night sky, darkened with clouds. "maddie, the stars aren't out tonight." there was a pause, as maddie mulled over her words. "aren't you the one that wants to go where you can see the s...
