Kat Wells is the perfect student, cheerleader, and daughter. But that's not who she really is, not truly. The real her is hidden behind a perfect mask that nobody sees, except him.
Wally Clark was the perfect jock, friend, and son. But everything ch...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
During the fall of 1983, Wally Clark ruled over high school, and he loved it.
He used to walk around the halls with his friend and his bright smile, and all eyes would turn to them. He knew it was the time of his life.
At his wake later, people said he was the perfect jock, friend, confident and brother possible. His mom even said he was the perfect son. It broke his heart because if only she had said those words sooner, maybe he would still be alive. But rather than cry about his fate, Wally decided to embrace it. He became the perfect ghost. He made some new friends, got into ghost meetings with a weird teacher from the 50s, and got on with his life, well, his death.
There were only two downfalls with being a ghost. For starters, he couldn't leave this place. He was always curious about the world outside the USA, let alone discovering the country itself. He wanted to go abroad, travel, escape.
But it was out of the picture, and he made peace with it.
The second thing was that no one besides other non-living people could see him. More specifically, she couldn't see him. Since the first day he saw her, he was drawn to her.
That night on the roof where he went to look at the sky and had found her. It broke his heart so much that he tried to grab her.
His touch was not perceptible to Kat, but he still tried. And she didn't jump.
Since that moment, he followed her everywhere, well, not all the time, but most of it. Every time he would hear her laugh or see her walk past him, he would change course and follow her. She reminded him of himself so much that he could see past her mask. And every Wednesday, he would stay on the roof with Kat. It was their night, their place. He was hers.
Sometimes she would talk to herself like she was talking to someone about her life, her dreams, and nightmares, everything she wanted to do and become. And he would listen. But he always made sure to hold her as best he could when she was thinking about joining him in this golden cage.
He was staring at her from across the cafeteria when Rhonda slapped the back of his head. "Stop staring, you weirdo," she sat down next to him, stealing his apple in the process. "Leave him be, it's young love!" clapped Dawn with crazy eyes. He was surprised she had left her usual hallway spot to hang with them today. He looked at Charly, one of his closest friends, and rolled up his eyes. "I am not in love with her." He was a bad liar, and everybody knew it.
"Sure, you are, Cherry pop."
"There is a game tonight," he changed the subject, but his eyes were still on her, noticing how tired she looked today. Just like he had been that day. He chased the bad feeling from his mind and focused on his fries. He was so glad to still be able to taste food even if he was dead. They tried to have a normal day every day with lunch, activities, movie night, and ghost meetings. Mostly to stay sane, also not to be alone and to belong somewhere.
"We'll be there," assured Charly, seemingly distracted by his ex-lover turned teacher at this school who was now much older than him. Must be weird, Wally thought. In a couple of months, Kat will leave for college, and he would never see her again. On one hand, he was heartbroken because he had never been this much in love before, but on the other hand, he was glad that she will get to live the life he never could. She told him, well, herself one night that she was going to New York and then wanted to see the world. And since then, he prayed for her to fulfill her dreams.
☾⋆⋆★⋆⋆☾
Kat was not feeling good. Since lunch, her exhaustion had turned into something else. She had cramps and dry eyes. Must be something I ate, she thought. Maybe I shouldn't do the routine tonight. It's okay to skip one, right?
Even the coach agreed with her. But as soon as her mother caught sight of her walking away from the field, she was forced back onto it. "It's only a small routine. You've done much worse before," and "You'll rest when you're dead" were the only pep talks she got, and she found herself in the middle of the field with all eyes on her. it was so dark that she could only focused on the massive lights projectors on each side of the bleachers and she was blinded by the light.
She felt trapped in a nightmare, as if she couldn't really move of her own will and was forced into mechanical movements. It felt as if she was floating, looking down at herself, and she hated what she saw. She was so cold and tired, so eager to be done with all this shit.
She barely felt the touch of the girls carrying her and throwing her in the air. She only felt the touch of Clara's fingers against her thighs before she went up in the air. She closed her eyes and couldn't help it; she already knew something was very wrong.
But in that very moment, she felt her soul leave her body, and it never went back in.
