Fever Dream Red

47

Daylight came slowly. After a while Eli shut his face and, to be honest, the rest of the night was a dazed haze, so I assume I got some sleep.

I only remember waking up to see Sunny staring at me with a strange look on her face.

Was it love? Probably not. It was odd. Who stared at people as they slept?

"You're up early." I commented in an unsurprisingly deep tone. I had only just woken up.

Sunny nodded in agreement.

"I couldn't really sleep with them lot watching. They're still there, you know."

She pointed outside of the car, and I followed her finger to the island where the men were still waiting.

We had left Eli in defeat on the floor. His state hadn't changed at all. He still sat there, fiddling with his megaphone.

It was quite sad, actually.

I looked to the causeway to see the water surrendering its post to us. It would probably laugh at our incoming misfortune. I would.

Me and Sunny sat in either an awkward or comfortable silence. I couldn't figure out for the life of me which one it was.

"How are you?" Sunny asked me, glancing at me again.

I started to wonder if I had something on my face.

I started to rummage through my bag for my water.

"Not great, to be honest. Don't wanna go back."
"I guessed not. But, Finny. This was inevitable. You couldn't have left Inez forever. You know that." Sunny touched the bare skin on my arm and I looked at her with confusion.

Her touch left pinpricks on my skin and it burnt fire into it. I wanted to remember the moment her skin had touched mine. I wanted her handprint tattooed onto my arm.

It was only then that I remembered how close we were to each other. It would be so easy just to-

I couldn't. She didn't like me. That's what I told myself. She couldn't. Not me, with my ugly face and my wild hair. Not me, with my raging lunacy and destructive personality.

I reminded myself of that time and time again as her fingers lingered on my skin.

I didn't know whether to wish them away or savour them.

I decided to do both.

"Finny?" Sunny asked in question. I then realised that I'd been so caught up in that touch that I had eiher forgotten or blocked out what she told me.
"Hm?" I looked at her smiling, almost dizzying at the sight of her concerned face.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
I shook myself mentally.

"Yes. I'm fine. Just early in the morning, you know?"

Sunny nodded, her gaze lingering on me. I could tell that she didn't believe me when I said I was fine. She had that strange look on her face.

"There's action." Sunny piped up, craning her head to see what was going on.
"Oh yeah?"
"Eli's putting his foot in the causeway. I think he's seeing how deep it is."
"He better not be coming over here already."
"Look's like he is."
"Oi! You lot! They're coming over by the looks of it."
"Wha-" Doug muttered with his eyes half open. He peered over the dashboard.

"Oh shi-"
"What's happening?" Chloe groaned from the back, sitting up and revealing the true wold waterfall that was her hair.
"I think we've had it." Alfie told us, more bleary eyed than the rest of us but still more alert.

Eli seemed triumphant in his quest.

He came marching over to us, smiling and laughing and maybe even cracking jokes to himself. I felt like kicking him in his faces.

As they approached, I heard Skye mutter to themselves. It wasn't anything good.

Doug rolled down his car window with limited enthusiasm.

"Look who it is. Back from their little adventure."
"Eli."
"I knew you'd see the light eventually. It was just a matter of when."
"Why are you here?" Alfie asked with more than a hint of irritation.
"Just thought I'd give you a proper welcome."
"You've been camped out here for the whole night." I told him.
"Just wanted to be prepared." Eli defended himself. "Is it a crime?"
"Can we just cut to us going back and skip all the rubbish?" Chloe asked, even though she probably had no grasp on the situation.
"I don't even know who you are." Eli tried to diminish Chloe, but she just gave him a dirty look in response. "Besides, chewing you out is the best bit."
"Isn't that Nick's job?" Doug asked him with the air of a cocky teenager.
"Don't worry. He's got a special surprise for you, Doug."
"You wouldn't." Alfie told Eli, with a hint of a growl on his facial features.

It only took a couple seconds for Eli to realise, and when he did he made a disgusted face.

"You two? Together? Really?" Eli looked away as if he couldn't stomach the sight of them together.
"Oh shut up Eli! Stop being so homophobic!" Sunny practically yelled at him.

Eli narrowed his eyes at Sunny.

"I'm not homophobic. I hate everyone equally!"

It shouldn't have been funny, but in the circumstances it was absolutely hilarious. I had to bite back my laugh, and I could feel Sunny shaking next to me.

I always laughed in the most serious of situations. Something was surely wrong with me.

"It's a shame Doug."
"What?"
"Well. I always thought you could do a lot better than Alfie."

And with that, Eli winked at Doug.

I've never wanted the ground to swallow me up as much as I did in that moment.

Eli tapped the side of our car.

"Come on. We better be going."

We all stumbled out of the car, closing the doors behind us. I couldn't help but wonder how the car had managed to fit all of us in there.

I would never know, and I would never see that car again.