ALL I ASK, DREW STARKEY

TWENTY FOUR

"will you go with me to the cemetery?" lemon opened the door to maddie's room

"what?" maddie rubbed her eyes, not fully awake

"the cemetery" lemon replied, stepping closer to the side of maddie's bed. maddie sat up straight as soon as the words hit her

"actually?" maddie put her hand on lemon's shoulder to comfort her

"yeah, i'm sure. i mean i can wait till tomorrow, but i feel like i need to go now"

"no we can go now. what time is it?" maddie got out of bed at started to put on her shoes

"umm 3 am" lemon replied quietly

"okay, so should we bring weapons?"

"weapons?" lemon raised her eyebrows

"well, i mean we are going to the cemetery at 3 am, you don't know what kind of creatures are lurking" maddie defended

"no weapons, that's just weird"

"if we die, then it's on you"

the whole ride to the cemetery lemon had her eyes close as she leaned her head against the window of the car. the radio was off, as maddie was too tired to put on music and lemon was too busy using the silence as a way to clear her mind.

"you ready?" maddie turned to lemon as she parked the car

"i mean it's a long time coming" lemon paused before opening the door and getting out, she paused and turned to maddie again. "am i a bad person?"

"lemon! why would you ask that?"

"well, i've never visited" lemon started to tear up

"lemon look at me" maddie made sure lemon was looking her in the eyes "you are an amazing person. you weren't ready, and that's okay. it takes different people different amount of time to cope and grieve."

"okay"

lemon and maddie walked nervously to the two headstones that read 'SADIE SMITH HASTINGS' and 'DOMINIC LUCA HASTINGS'

"oh god" was all lemon could say. she sat down, not knowing what to do "why are there flowers?" she noticed fresh pink roses planted in a vase next to the headstones

"oh, ms. clemmens and i visited last week. she said she's been coming every month since it happened" maddie explained

"oh." was all lemon could say.

"i'm going to give you space" maddie hugged her and gave her a soft smile as she backed away to give lemon privacy

"sorry i never visited" she started

god that's all you have to say? your parents died and you left for years and that's all you have to say! was all lemon could think

"i got scared and ran from my problems. i did the opposite of what you guys wanted. everyone has told em you guys would be proud of me, i'm doing well with acting, but it's not enough. i overworked myself so much that my manager forced me to stop. i was almost engaged, well i guess not almost because i would've never said yes, no matter when he asked. i also met someone i thought was my soulmate, but it didn't work. that's basically what brought me here"

god this is so stupid

"i don't know what i'm doing anymore" lemon started to cry "why can't you guys just be here? why did this have to happen"

lemon did'nt say anything else, she just laid next to them and continued when maddie joined her. they slayed there for hours in comfortable silence, not realizing how long until they saw the sky start to change colors.

"holy shit, what time is it?" lemon sat up quickly

"it's 6am" maddie replied looking at her phone screen, seeing five texts and two missed calls from chase. "chase is wondering where we are, i think he thinks we're dead" maddie swiped her phone open and called chase

"why are you in the cemetery? are you being buried alive?" chase said immediately as the call connected

"yeah, actually i'm calling you from 6ft under" maddie joked

"you're not funny maddie, i woke everyone up and now they aren't happy."

"yeah, you got that right!" rudy yelled into the phone

"seriously though, why are in a cemetery at 6am"

"something came up" maddie replied not wanting to say much

"something came up? did you and lem kill someone? actually don't answer that, the government listens in on calls"

"ooo! say 'he walked off the plank' if you killed someone" rudy added in

"no one is dead" maddie realized that people are in fact dead around her "well..."

"yeah we are in a cemetery so technically everyone is dead, except us... and that guy with an axe walking over to us" lemon joked to scare chase and rudy

"why aren't you guys running! don't see in a cemetery, although it would save a lot of money for moving your body"

"we will be home soon chase" maddie cut him off and hung up after exchanging 'love you's'.

"so any answer as to why you were in a cemetery?" madison asked as soon as they walked into the apartment. everyone, including, drew was hanging out, waiting for them to get back

"yeah, i was visiting my dead parents" lemon answered

they started laughing but stopped once they saw that maddie and lemon weren't laughing

"wait actually?!" drew asked as he walked over to her

"uh yeah, actually" lemon took a step back so he didn't touch her "why would i lie about my parents dying?"

"i'm sorry lemon i didn't know"

"didn't expect you to, that's why i didn't tell you" lemon responded with a roll of her eyes

"i'm here if you need to talk" he offered

lemon laughed "i didn't want to talk about it with you when we were together why would i want to talk about it now when i can't stand you" she turned him down and walked into her room to finish her rest.