The flickering light of the bonfire threw Rune’s face into shadow, while the heat only just reached them. Willow was glad for the smoke that was streaming off the burning wood kept the bugs away. It was less she had to explain, and she just knew that Rune would notice if the mosquitos weren’t biting her too.
Overhead there was only the tiniest sliver of moon mixing with the stars, while beneath them lay sand and the towel Willow had laid over it. All around them was the buzz of several conversations, the blare of music coming out of the backs of the handful of cars people had driven right into the dunes’ valley, and the occasional crack as the fire bit deeper into a piece of wood.
Willow lifted her bottle and took another sip of her beer, then glanced back at Rune. He met her gaze and shrugged. “Right,” he said, taking a swig of his own drink. “You come to these a lot?”
She snorted. “I came to one last year, but that’s been it. I was bored. Everyone was either drunk, high, stupid, or all three. Not my idea of fun. So, have you noticed any differences between this and a PECI party?”
He made a face. “There are none. Do you even know what we should be doing?”
“Dunno. Let’s see what everyone else is doing,” she said, before glancing around. “Well, drinking is one thing.”
“Which we’re already doing,” Rune replied, lifting his bottle in a kind of salute.
Willow nodded. “Alright, I see people talking.”
“Which we’re also doing.”
Her eyes went to a couple who were hard to see but their movements painted a clear enough picture of what was going on. “Making out.”
“I respect you too much to want to drunkenly suck your face,” Rune said, grinning.
“I see some people dancing.”
“I suck.”
Willow’s nostrils flared as she caught the unmistakable scent of pot floating by. “And getting high seems to be the last choice.”
Rune shook his head. “I prefer to stick to one substance a night. You never know what kind of craziness will happen to your body when you mix.”
“Good. I hate the smell.”
He shrugged. “Some people like it. Though, we did have to walk through like eight clouds of the stuff on the way in.”
Willow nodded. “Yeah. I don’t normally pay much attention to that stuff, but I get the feeling there are a lot more people lighting up than usual. Or maybe it’s just because the last party I went to, there were only a few.”
“I couldn’t tell you. Doesn’t seem to be much difference between the PECI beginning of summer party I went to. Hmmm…that could make for an interesting article. How WASS and PECI differ in terms of drug use.”
She choked on her beer, coughing for a several seconds before she stared at Rune. “Mr. Marsden would have us shut down in seconds. He’s super big on the anti-drug campaigns.”
He chuckled. “I guess I’ll have to relegate that one, if I do it, to my personal blog. We could go under cover and really try to find out how many people do smoke pot, and compare demographics and stuff.”
Willow’s eyebrows went up. “You want to go undercover when the entire school knows we’re the ones doing the news blog? You think that’ll work?”
“Oh. Well, when you put it like that…”
She chuckled. “Maybe if we dressed you up in drag, but I think you’d make one hell of an ugly woman.”
Rune tossed his head, affecting an overly dramatic, huffy tone. “I’ll have you know, I could turn such a role into a true work of art, far beyond the knowledge of philistines such as yourself.”
Willow laughed, Rune joining in with her a moment later. “And here I was thinking we weren’t going to have any fun,” she said, still chuckling.
He grinned. “You forget, it’s not the location but the company that makes things fun or not. Most of the time at least.”
Stumbling footsteps interrupted their conversation, as five people approached, the one in the lead clearly drunker than the others. His unsteady movements kicked sand all over them. Rune popped up before Willow could do more than shake the grains out of her hair and face, his eyes narrowed into a glare. “Watch where you’re going!”
The boy swayed to stop, his gaze slowly focusing on Rune, his features almost invisible with the light of the bonfire behind him. “You watch where you’re go-…” he trailed off, his eyes going up and down Rune. “I know you. You’re Rune!”
Willow clambered to her feet in time to hear her friend mutter “Shit.”
YOU ARE READING
Silver Bound Girl
FantasyWillow's a Byron and they aren't just your average family. Not just because there are so many of them, but because they have secrets and traditions far outside the norm. Like spending as much time outside as in, and doing everything to keep rumours...
