Vanished || l.h. au

ten

Luke.

Holy crap.

I stood in front of Beth as she stared at me with eyes widened, looking as if she's just seen a ghost.

Well...

"Beth?" I said aloud, taking a cautionary step towards her.

"How? I- what? When? Where have you been! Everyone thinks you're dead!" She freaked, running her hands through her hair, something I noticed she always does when her nerves get the best of her.

"You can see me?" I asked perplexed. How is it that I've spent all this time trying to get her to see me, and the one time I actually don't even try, she does?

"What kind of question is that? Of course I can see you, Luke." She let out a sigh, running a hand through her hair again. "I missed you so much." She whispered, her bottom lip starting to quiver. She took a step toward me and I tried to prepare myself for the next moment so I wouldn't let her down. I tried to focus on remembering her touch, the way it felt when her skin touched mine.

"I can't believe you're here." She said, her hand reaching up to caress my cheek. I leaned into her touch, just wishing that I could feel it.

I sighed at her words, removing myself from her touch to grasp her hands in mine.

"Beth, there's something I need to tell you." I said. She nodded her head willing me to go on, but as soon as I opened my mouth to speak the front door opened.

Her eyes widened and a smile grew on her face. "That's my mom and dad. They'll be so happy to see you're back." She said the excitement evident in her voice.

"No, wait Beth, you don't understand." I warned, reaching to pull her back to me.

"Mom! Dad!" She called out already turning to them. I froze up with the sudden presence of other company.

"Hey sweetie." Her mom greeted, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"We ran into that Calum kid at the grocery store. He told us to tell you --" her dad started but Beth interrupted.

"Guess what?" She said excitedly. I looked at both her parents and how they didn't even notice me standing directly behind their daughter, the 17 year old boy who has been missing for nearly a month already. Not not only that but also this 17 year old boy was supposedly dead and buried in the town cemetery. That's when I realized.

"Beth, they can't see me." I whispered into her ear. The large smile on her face slowly dropped as she took in her parents' expressions and how their attention was solely focused on her.

"What did you want to tell us?" Her dad asked, a confused expression etched on his face as Beth was taking too long to reply.

"I just... Got an A on my AP Calculus final." She made up, not sounding as nearly excited as she was before.

Her parents' face broke out into a smile as they embraced their daughter, pulling her from my grasp.

"That's fantastic, sweetheart! We're so proud of you. Ending your senior year with a bang like that. I know you hated Calculus." Her dad congratulated.

She nodded her head, accepting the congratulations for her made up story.

"I'm going to head upstairs. I'm feeling tired after school today. I'll come down for dinner." She said, giving them a small smile. She turned for the stairs and I followed her up them as she headed for her room.

I walked straight to her bed as she closed the door behind her. Sitting down, I looked up at her to see her looking down at the floor with her back still pressed to the door.