Two Fish

twenty four || elver

 Elver woke the next morning with his and Alaska’s evening out still lingering in his mind. He couldn’t stop smiling. Cathy was downstairs with one of her huge scarves draped around her neck, over a thick jumper.

“You alright?” Elver asked, smearing a slice of toast with peanut butter.

“No, the bin men woke me up at five am. I was freezing and couldn’t get  back to sleep. I think I’m going down with something,” Cathy said, releasing a heavy sigh.

“Sorry,” Elver said, taking a huge bite of his toast.

“Oh, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, what happened last night?” Cathy asked, suddenly perking up.

“It was awesome. I showed Alaska how to drive and then I took her to Roses, you know, that posh place on the edge of town, and then well, we went for a walk . . .” Elver trailed off, not sure how much he wanted to tell Cathy. She had different ideas.

“Did you kiss? You did didn’t you?” Cathy pressed, her watering eyes shining. Elver gave her a disgusted look. She sneezed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Elver threw her a wad of kitchen roll.

“No, we didn’t thank you very much. I did hold her hand, though. And then I gave her a hug,” he mumbled, suddenly far more interested in the remaining crumbs on his plate. Cathy shot up and jumped to Elver’s side, after rather a speedy recovery.

“You’ll make such a cute couple,” she said, almost knocking her parents’ special anniversary wine over, though her sentence was punctuated by a coughing fit. She sat back down and pulled a blanket over her legs. Elver just sighed, dumped his plate in the sink and walked off. He climbed the stairs back to his bedroom and pulled out his phone. He had three missed calls from Liam. He knew he was  being weak and he didn’t really want to see Liam, but he had nothing else to do except to think about Alaska. He dialled Liam’s number and waited.

“Hello?”

“Oh, hi Liam. I was wondering why you called,” Elver said in the brightest voice he could manage.

“Oh, yeah. Well, you seemed a bit ticked off in town the other day. Uh, we alright?” came the gruff reply. Elver felt a wave of relief tide over him. Liam did care.

“Yeah, it’s ok. I was just, um, you know … tired,” Elver said casually, kicking himself for letting Liam off.

“Great. Well, I’ve got nothing to do, so do you wanna come round?” Liam asked. Elver tightened. He was unsure after the whole girl hunting experience, but in the end, he could leave whenever he wanted.

“Sure, ok.”

“See you in ten, yeah?”

“Yeah.” The line went dead and Elver slung his bag over his shoulder.

“Cath, I’m going out,” he said, interrupting his little sister’s momentary snooze. She rubbed her eyes.

“Where?”

“Oh, just Liam’s.”

Cathy pulled a face. “Why would you want to go there?” she asked. Elver shrugged.

“Got nothing better to do. Bye.”

“Bye.”

The sun was shrouded by clouds and Elver shivered as he stepped outside. The walk to Liam’s wasn’t a long one, maybe ten, fifteen minutes at most, but Elver walked slowly, dragging each step out as much as possible. He was hit with the sudden realisation that he was reluctant to go to Liam’s. His best friend for seven years, and he didn’t want to see him. He wondered if this was what it was like to move on.

“Hey buddy,” Liam said, opening the door as Elver put his finger on the doorbell. They did a complicated half handshake, half hug that had Liam snickering, but Elver couldn’t find it within himself to laugh.

“Look, I’m sorry about the trip in town,” Liam said as the two walked up the stairs, though there was no apologetic tone in his voice. He was simply bored of not talking to his friend.

“No no, it’s fi-” Elver started, but he had to stop. It wasn’t fine. He needed to say something.

“Actually, Liam, I think you should tell me what was going on,” Elver said, surprising both himself and Liam as he said it.

“W-what d’ya mean?”  Liam said, completely taken aback.

“I mean, you acted like a total jerk. I didn’t know half the guys there and you invented something called girl hunting which, by the way, is disgusting, especially when you’re always going on about how amazing Jenny is,” Elver said. He couldn’t look at Liam.

“I don’t unde-” Liam started, but Elver cut in.

“Actually, save it for later,” he said, suddenly feeling powerful. “I don’t want to know.”

Liam opened the door to his bedroom and Elver caught sight of what lay inside: it was Liam’s new gang, the same group of guys from the girl hunting escapade. Liam hadn’t just wanted Elver. He’d just needed more people for his gathering to feel more like a party.

Elver felt sick and had a churned up feeling in his stomach that he couldn’t get rid of. Liam, as though he had completely ignored what Elver had said, flashed him a smile.

“But come on Elv, the party’s just starting.”

“What?”

“Well, you’re invited to the party.” Liam grinned but Elver couldn’t take any more of Liam’s rubbish. With fury in his heart and unwanted tears in his eyes, he stormed out.

“Where’re you going?” Liam called after him. Elver carried on without a word.

He was home before he knew it; his anger had fuelled the walk home and nine minutes later, he kicked off his shoes and slammed the front door. His parents were away for a couple of days to celebrate twenty-five years of marriage, without their children to hinder them. Elver didn’t want to imagine what they were up to.

The house was silent. Elver stormed through to the kitchen and filled a glass of with water, turning the tap onto full blast. It spilled out of the glass and Elver groaned.

“Cathy?” he called, wondering if she was still alive. Her lack of response worried him. “Cathy?” he said again. He saw a pile of blonde spilling over the sofa. She was fast asleep and sweating. He took the blanket off and his anger dissolved at the sight of his little sister unwell, though she was fifteen – not so little anymore. She didn’t stir when he sat next to her feet and turned the TV on. He wished his parents would come home.