from august to december

chapter twenty five

flashback, four years ago

leo pulled out the camera and stabilized it against one of the chairs.
"alright guys! get in position, we're about to take a picture!" 

wide smiles filled their lively faces, hiroto had his arm around leo's waist, probably tickling him, because the younger bent his body in a strange way, pushing against eden, who was smiling gently and ruffling his at the time blond hair.
shino stood in the middle, throwing his hands above his head, laughing with his eyes squeezed shut.
  val and yuri held a bottle of beer in their hands, grinning directly into the camera.
and eli was the only one that didn't look into the camera, he had his warm eyes on his friends, smiling at them proudly.

sand got hot in the sun. it felt like walking on fire when it was midday.

they moved away from each other and begged leo to let them see it.

it was a polaroid, pretty big and and it was starting to make itself show with the setting sun shining onto it.

  "bet you i look amazing!" shino exaggerated and earned a few slaps on the back of his head from his friends.
the salty waves gently crashed at the beach.
"anyone want a-uhm-beer?" eden laughed and tumbled to the cooling box they had brought to the beach with them tonight.

it had been a few drinks already, most of them were already moderately boozed and played weird games while rolling in the sand.
especially leo and eli.

"nah, man. beer's for the losers," hiroto stated and raised his index finger.
leo looked at him in awe.
"he's right."

the younger would always say that to anything his boyfriend said.
for him, everything he said was perfect and correct.
hiroto in his eyes didn't ever make any mistakes.

"of course you're gonna say that. but he in fact is not, because did you know..." val started babbling and held up the brown bottle of beer dramatically as if he was in a commercial.

eden stopped listening and tried to open himself a bottle, but his vision was so blurry, he couldn't even see the glass properly, when he suddenly felt two large hands snatch it from him.

yuri sighed heavily, a usual cigarette clipped behind his ear and acrylic paint staining his fingers.

he hadn't had a sip of alcohol today, just like shino, who was quietly observing the ocean and the large variety of colors in the sky with a dreamy expression on his face.

he just enjoyed sitting there, he didn't need to talk or be the center of attention, his father had taught him not to say that much.

"don't you think you've had enough?"
"says, t-the ch-cigarette addict," eden hiccuped in response and held up his middle finger while trying to get his bottle back.

but yuri was taller than him, not by much, but his arms and legs were pretty long, and when he stretched them all the way, even val, the tallest, couldn't reach the bottle.

"hey, gimme!" the at the time blond haired man laughed and threw himself on yuri, smelling his cold cologne and the gentle scent of sea water in his hair.

"come get it, little man," the dark haired teased and started marching through the sand, but eden was so drunk, he didn't see where he was going, but instead just fell into yuri all the time.

and at first, the older was prepared to catch him, but one time, it caught him off guard and he also lost his balance, making both of them fall into the sand together.

eli watched both of them closely and they giggled childishly while trying to get up, eden clinging to the black shirt of the other.

it was his boyfriend.
eden was his boyfriend at the time.

and he was angry. but he couldn't say anything about it.
because nobody knew.

and he was also heavily under the influence.

"hey, val, shall we go get some...more goods?" he winked and val immediately moved up from his red chair and clapped his hands excitedly.

"yeah! let's go to that little corner shop where they sell those magazines!" he replied and jumped through the sand to fistbump eli's shoulder and quickly run over to their car.

shino raised one eyebrow in concern.

"are you sure you should drive like that?"
"oh, come on i'm not even drunk. do you want me to walk in a straight line for you, man?"

shino shook his head and decided to trust him.
fatal.
but eli was the best driver in the group.

"no, i trust you, just, uhm, be safe. the shop is not that far."

"can you go see if they have new films? i used the last one earlier when we were taking that self time group picture?" leo added and looked at his friend with deer eyes.

to which the older simply nodded and then tumbled to his white honda.

they drove off pretty quickly.
but very soon, eli noticed his vision was trembling.
he could see everything at least twice and even confused the gas and the brakes.

"yo, do you think they're gonna have my magainzes there?"
eli laughed. "o-of course, they always have them!"

he stepped on the gas.
no, the brakes.
or the gas?

"watch out, it's red!"

he realized, he had actually stepped on the gas and switched his feet with a loud gasp.

"close one," he giggled and then looked at val.
his hair was brown, his skin as clear as plastic.
maybe it was plastic.

it felt like in slow motion when the other turned his head to look at the driver.

"yeah, close one," his voice felt like it came from very far away and as if eli was packed into a pillow of cotton, drowning out all sounds.

without even noticing, he gently stepped on the gas.
but the light was still red.

and there were lights. bright white lights when val's skin was illuminated and his eyes suddenly were twice their original size.

he let out an inaudible scream, right before the truck hit their little white honda on his side, making the car fly in the air and do a one eighty spin before loudly landing on the grey concrete.

and val was laying there.
and he wasn't breathing.

and eli was laying there.
and he was breathing.

    "val?!"
  no response. did he even say that out loud?

the red haired fished for his broken telephone, at least it worked still.

he could already hear the police and ambulance sounds in the distance as he looked at his friend.
blood was dripping down his perfect skin, coming from his soft brown hair.

"shino?" his voice was shaky, breathy and almost too quiet to be heard.
but that suddenly changed.
eli yelled desperately.

"he's dead, i killed him. i didn't want to! shino he's dead!"

shino shouted something along the lines of 'who?' 'what happened?'

but then there was nothing and eli passed out right next to his friend.
however, he would make it.
and it was too late for the other.

  "val. he's dead."

and on the beach a few miles away, someone dropped the group photo in the medium hot sand and ran barefoot towards the location of the accident.