Stairways | A Surviving Summer FanFiction

Part 97 - Morning

You head back into the living room, where Marlon is asleep on the couch. His face is still littered with bruises and cuts, his ribs covered in blotches of blue and black, but at least Poppy managed to clean up some of the blood.

She's kneeling on the floor next to him, resting her arms on the edge of the couch and her head on top. She looks tired, the effects of the alcohol wearing off at last.

"I think Bodhi and Wren have gone home," you say, not that she really needs that information – you just wanted to let her know you were in the room without scaring her.

"And the others?" she asks, her eyes not turning in your direction.

"Baxter's..." you trail off, not actually aware where Bax is. "...somewhere," you continue. "And Ari's in the kitchen," you say, sitting down next to her. She does nothing but nod slightly at the information. "Y'know you should really get some sleep too, Pops."

"I won't be able to sleep tonight," she replies slowly. "Not after seeing that," she murmurs, and you can't help but wonder what on earth went wrong tonight. What were Griff and Marlon even fighting about? You spare a glance at your injured brother, lying limp in front of you as his chest moves with laboured breaths.

"What happened?" you ask cautiously. "Between him and Griff?"

"I don't know," she says, a quiet sob escaping her lips. "We were out on the road, me and Mars, just talking, and then Griff came out," she pauses, as if trying to find the words. "One minute they were just talking, y'know like Griff and Marlon do when they're just insulting each other or whatever - I didn't hear what was said, I just turned around when I heard them hit the ground, fighting."

You know from experience that it doesn't take a lot to get Marlon riled up, but Griff must have said something pretty bad for it to end this badly.

"At least you saved me from Bodhi." you mutter, and Poppy narrows her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"We...kind of had an argument." I say tentatively, realising how badly this whole night went.

"Don't take it personally. She's been acting so weird recently." Poppy responds, leaning back against the coffee table.

"Ever since Wren appeared." you mutter.

"Yep. And, by the way," Poppy says, a tiny smile tugging at her lips. "I don't think Bodhi was the thing I pulled you away from earlier."

You narrow your eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I may have seen you and Baxter-"

You roll your eyes. "Seriously?"

"First Ari and now Baxter?" Poppy says incredulously, smiling widely now.

"Yeah, c'mon Y/n, save some for the rest of us!" Summer appears in the doorway, leaning in the threshold. "Although, from what I've heard, she's not the only one getting some action." Summer says with a laugh, and Poppy stands up immediately, grabbing your arms and dragging you towards the door, which she pulls shut carefully with the three of you on the other side.

"Woah, calm down, Poppy," Summer says. "Basically everyone knows you and Marlon are a thing now."

"We're not a thing," she replies. "We just..."

"Just what?" you reply.

"We just went longboarding this morning." she shrugs like it's nothing. Which it is definitely not. Marlon would never just randomly go longboarding. He's not the best at it, and so he'd never do it unless he was going for another reason...