Crimson Disease

Crimson Disease: Chapter 2

There sat a short, transparent blue girl that wore a short-waisted dress that was the same transparent blue. Her leg was swung over the other and her foot that rested on the ground was tapping to the rhythm of the music Ash was playing. 

"How loud do you have that? I can hear it from over here." She asked with a playful smile, pausing rather thoughtfully. "But it's a good song, one of my favorites really." 

Ashlyn sprung up from where he lay, sitting horizontally from the female, he tried to wrap his arms around her but only to find his attempted hug pass right through her. A laugh of half-embarrassment escaped his lips. "Haha, forgot about that." He paused his playlist with ease, he had done it probably a million times. "And yeah, It's your Playlist, you have good taste, Charlotte." 

Charlotte nodded. "Yep, I do. You can thank me for that Playlist." 

The brunette chuckled as he gazed into her blue eyes and smiled. "Well thank you, Charlotte."

"Ash! Who are you talking to?"

Ashlyn jumped when he heard his father's voice from downstairs, quickly scrambling for his phone, he dialed his one best friend's number as quickly as he could, forgetting that he had recently saved it. "I'm talking to Thomas on the phone!" He yelled down to his father as he through a quilt his grandmother had given him over his legs to make it look like he had been sitting there for a while. "One second, Charlotte." He whispered at his transparent friend. 

Although Ashlyn didn't expect Tom to pick up his phone, for he almost always has his phone on silent, he did anyways. 

"Hello?" 

"Hey, Tom! How you been?" 

"Oh, hey Ash. My cat just took a pee in my fricking bed so not so great." 

The brunette chuckled. "That sounds fantastic-"

Ashlyn's father eased his door open and sighed, taking a pace into his son's room. 
"I thought I heard you say Charlotte."

"Be right back, Tom," Ash said into his phone before hanging up and lightly tossing his device onto his comforter. "Nah, I haven't seen her in a few days,-" 

His father cut his statement short with: "I told you not to talk to her, you don't want her around do you?" His father paused. "It's weird that you can talk to her, you know. That's supposed to make it go away. You don't want to look insane to you Ash?"

"N-no of course not, dad. I'm trying to make her go away." The brunette lied. "I was talking to Tom anyways." He sat up straight, he knew his father could see through his lies. Ashlyn had always been awful at lying.  

His father cast him a knowing glance before side-stepping out of the room and easing the door closed behind him. Ashlyn gave a sigh of relief once he heard his creaking of the steps as his father crept down them. "Finally, he went away. Sorry that took a long, Charlotte." He whispered. "But let's keep it down a bit, okay?" 

Charlotte nodded, gazing at the door as if she was expecting the brunette's father to waltz back into the bedroom. "Your not insane, Ash." She whispered at him. "You know that." 

"Yeah..." Ash agreed as he sat his phone back in his lap. "My dad is just looking out for me. He doesn't want me to get bullied more than I already am, you know?" He gave a half-smile at his transparent friend. 

"That was a close call though. I thought for sure you were going to get caught." Charlotte joked. 

"Haha, yeah, you almost got me caught." 

"Yeah right, you wish."

☁                                              ☁                                            ☁

Sunlight drained through the light hazel shutters that cover his window, casting a warm October glow throughout his bedroom. He rubbed his eyes as he shot up from his bed, he must have fallen asleep when he was chatting with Charlotte. He couldn't shake the feeling that his room was missing something. His phone still lay where it was when he left it, the quilt was still sprawled out of the bed where he had left it, but what was missing? It was Charlotte, she was no longer resting at the edge of his bed. Dang it, he thought, I missed Charlotte. He sighed as he griped his phone, reading the time. six-thirty-three o'clock AM.

He took a few paces over to his dark, wooden wardrobe that held the lot his clothes. Which was mainly button-up shirts with ties and occasionally a hoodie or two, accompanied by many pairs of khaki pants and ripped skinny jeans. He sifted through his wardrobe until he came to a halt on one of his favorite hoodies he hadn't worn in a little while, it was black with a yellow Nirvana symbol on it. Browsing a bit more, he came across a pair of almost white skinny jeans that surprisingly didn't have any holes.  He slipped on another clean, plain white shirt before changing into his outfit, as well as the same black Chuck Taylors he had worn the day before. 

By the time the brunette was completely ready it was getting close to seven o'clock so he scarfed down half a bowl of cereal before getting on his way down the street. Again, he was walking, walking to school to be more specific.  He poped his earbuds in again, as well as the broken one, playing a random song that read: Kitchen Fork by Jack Conte. He slightly head-bobbed to the rhythm of the music, catchy actually. He silently prayed in his head that he wouldn't meet anyone he knew along the way, nonetheless a bully. 

As if on cue, a voice sounded from behind him: "Hey, Ash!" But the voice wasn't hostile at all, it was the mere opposite, cheery even. 

As the brunette whipped around, he noticed someone familiar, someone that he knew. The person who had called out to him was a rather short, blonde male that wore a mildly oversized, pastel green overshirt and light blue washed skinny jeans. You could tell that they were friends, for their clothing style was very similar. 

"Oh, uh, hey Elle." The dark-haired boy said with a small wave, exiting off his music quickly and turning off his phone at the wallpaper. 

Ashlyn and Elle had been friends ever since the brunette could remember. Though, he did remember the way they met, sitting beside each other on the crusty and sweat-smelling bus. Elle had found a cracked phone lying on the dirty floor of the bus, that had a disgusting layer of grime covering it, and had picked it up and randomly showed it to Ash, surprisingly the phone still came on and they browsed through photos taken of what looked to be drunken teens, making about the most hilarious faces the two young boys had ever seen. They had laughed together then, and from that day forward, they hung out every day. 

The blonde boy jogged up to meet Ash until he was walking side to side with the brunette, about a foot in between them. "So, how was consoling yesterday?" He asked awkwardly, obviously not knowing how to start the conversation. 

"Decent." He replied casually. "She's so annoying though, I wish she would stop pretending to care about me."

"That is her job you know." Elle joked as he nudged the brunette with his elbow.

Ashlyn gave a chuckle, meeting eyes with his blonde-headed friend. "Yeah but that doesn't make it any better." He paused, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. "I still don't think I should even be in consoling. Like seriously, what has it done for me, really?" 

The blonde boy shrugged, his hands finding its way into his jean pockets. "Well, it's letting you get things off your chest, and help to get rid of your hallucinations, right?" 

"Yeah, I guess. But its also making me see Charlotte less and less, which sucks." The brunette complained, his shoulders sagging. 

"Then just quit." Elle replied simply.

"Can't. My dad thinks I want her gone." He suppressed a sigh, aggravation toward his father filling him to the brim. "But really I don't. Just gotta pretend that I want to be normal I guess." 

The blond-headed male nodded solemnly, his light hair ruffling in the gentle October winds. Yellow and red leaves rolled skidded the two boy's feet along the concrete sidewalks, passing trees and houses in silence that the brunette enjoyed, taking pleasure in the stillness of conversation. 

Soon enough, the two males, without breaking the peaceful silence that seemed to engulf the boys, they reached the entrance to the high-class white building of George Stevens Academy. The black front gates propped open as usual, Elle and Ashlyn hiked into school ready for a miserable day of learning and getting assigned loads of homework. Thoughts crossed his mind of being bullied by his peers, but he carried on, trekking through the door and waving in a farewell to Elle before heading off to his first period class, Advanced Mathematics. He sighed, at least it's his favorite class, right? Nope, that was the start of one of the many classes he had with one of the cruelest teens in the entire high school.

Authors Note: Hiya! I'm so glad to finish this chapter. And yes, I know its a little boring, but it is needed to set up some background for this story as well as some characters. Elle and Charlotte are going to appear in this book a ton, so if you like them, keep reading! Also, Elle's name is pronounced 'L' for any of you who are confused. Anyways, tell me what you think about this chapter in the comments below. And as always, thank you for reading!
- Cinder-Ashes