𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐥𝐨𝐞 ✾ (𝐧. 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐚𝐩𝐩)

FIVE !

DEAR CHLOE !

The yellow pencil was placed comfortably in rowan's hand. she moved it up and down, up and down, up and down, until the neck of the girl she was drawing was finally shaded in.

olive leaned over, examining the drawing. "that girl looks really familiar. who is she?"

"oh, uh, just a friend. she's gone now..." she trailed off, her cheeks tinting pink.

"oh, i'm sorry," ollie whispered, "but she looks like someone in our school. i just can't put my finger on it." rowan continued shading the drawing, waiting for the girl to spit it out, because it was obvious she was still thinking about who it was.

"noah!" she blurted out, causing their peers to look over. "she looks like noah. is that his sister? the one that died?"

"shh, people are gonna think we're talking about noah!" rowan blushed, looking around the room. she was relieved when she saw everyone looking back down at their creations.

"we are talking about noah. but why would we care? noahs my friend," the girl furrowed her eyebrows.

rowan lowered her voice, "youre friends with noah? noah schnapp?" she quickly put an apologetic look on her face , "i'm sorry, that wasn't supposed to sound rude. i'm just not used to my friends being friends with the popular kids."

"it's okay, and yeah. noah schnapp, we've been friends for a couple of years," she explained.

rowan was confused. didn't ollie just move to their school? then she remembered, "oh, right! y'all are both-"

"don't say it," olive cringed, stopping rowan mid sentence. "i don't like being called 'famous'. it makes me feel spoiled and bratty."

"makes sense," rowan shrugged.

"anyways," olive said, "where'd you learn to draw like that? that's so good!"

"what do you mean? it's not that good," rowan frowned, clearly unhappy with the paper.  she wasn't doing chloe's beautiful face any justice- or that's what she thought, at least.

"not that good? honey, that's amazing! chloe would be so proud of that," she smiled, which gave rowan a bit of hope. did she actually think chloe would love the drawing? maybe rowan would put the paper in with the notes this weekend, or maybe she would hang it on her wall. the wall with the rest of her pictures of her and chloe.

"you actually think so?" rowan held the paper up to the light. on her surprise, it wasn't as bad as it looked in the dark. the artwork was growing on her, and she soon became proud of it.

"i know so," ollie giggled. as the words flowed out of her mouth, the bell rang. most of the class scrambled to put their utensils away, but olive and rowan just put their items in rowan's pencil pouch. they waved goodbye, and walked to their next class.

LATER
THAT
WEEK

saturday, october 21st.

rowan proofread the piece of paper in her hand. it's been one week since she had put the last paper in the drawer, and now it was time for the next. it was nine at night, and she was preparing to walk to the neighbor's backyard. the paper read;

dear chloe,

one more week without you. nothing really happened this week. i met a new friend, but i don't think she'll ever be anything more than that. wait, i didn't word that properly. i don't mean relationship wise, but i just can't picture her being my best friend. like you were. i'm pretty sure i'm not going to get close to anyone anymore.

her name is olive, but she goes by ollie. honestly, i don't really get it because it's not any shorter than her real name, but you do you i guess. i mean, it is a pretty cute name. anyways, apparently she's famous. she commented on one of my instagram posts and her fans found my page.

she's also really talented. she can dance, sing, act,
you name it. except draw. she sits by me in art class, and that's one thing i can tell you. she tried drawing 3D pizza, and it looked like a carrot.

in art, i drew you. ollie's the only one besides you and my family that's ever noticed my drawing skills. i really didn't think the picture was that good, until she complimented it. you're gonna hate me for this, but i drew the picture of you eating that donut from the day we went to dunkin. oops! i thought about putting the picture in with this note, but i'm putting it on my wall. i have a whole wall dedicated to you now.

guess what? noah posted a picture of you and him and i commented the broken heart emoji, and he liked it! sometimes he'll smile at me a little in the hallways if i look sad, sometimes i'll smile at him, this has been going on since we lost you. i'm pretty sure it's just because we're both sad for the same reason.

i have to go, because my mom will be home from work pretty soon. if she finds out that i'm sneaking out at night, i'll be dead.

maybe that's a good thing.

i love you chlo. talk to you next week.

KARLEIGH SPEAKS !
wishing this friendship was still alive but for the sake of the story.... :(