Turn of the Tide | ONC 2023

[11] Breakaway

    "You got me there, sailor," Flick said, walking around to Sally's front with both sides of the towel in her hands. She smiled and yanked on the towel ends, pulling Sally up to her chest and catching her by her shoulders. "Did you think I'd steal a fancy boat just to chill with someone boring?"

    Sally's mind blanked. A fraction of a step forward would rest her forehead against Flick's, stun her skin with her girl's touch, and guide her face to the outermost reaches of Flick's blush-red, softly parted lips. As if aware of her thoughts, the strap of Flick's top shook around her arm to beckon Sally closer. What few thoughts she mustered raced to simulate the sensation of helping it slip all the way down.

    Cutting through the noise, Flick wiped Sally's messy fringe aside. "Offer still stands, you know," she whispered, her words filling the little space between them with her rich, sweet air. "Take a chance, Sal. Hit the road with me."

    The fall back to earth whisked the words out of Sally's mouth. "I'd love to," she began, prising herself free from Flick's intoxicating aura. "But it doesn't matter how much I want it, Flick. I can't leave everything behind just like that, it's not that easy."

    "Figures." Flick relaxed her hold on the towel, letting it rest on Sally's shoulders. "It's your family, isn't it? They don't want you seeing me, just like Miranda's stopped me seeing her."

    "It's not just them," Sally said, wincing as soon as she spoke. The darkness that fell over Flick's face confirmed that her rushed words had only made things worse. "This village is all I know, more or less. As much as I'd love to see the world, I need time to untangle myself from here, to plan what I'm doing next."

    Footsteps downstairs shuffled beneath the heavy silence that fell between them. Flick cast an eye over her wrist, nodding at the reading of an invisible watch. "Well, if it's time you need, I still have a bag to pack before I leave. Is about ten minutes enough time for you, bud?"

    "You're still planning on leaving tonight? Look out there!" Gesturing outside, Sally saw the window's frosted glass and waved it away. "You saw me when I got here. That's a storm, Flick, a real one. My dad and brother have been sailing for decades between them, and even they couldn't handle it. They're stuck at sea right now because of this storm!"

    "It sucks out there, I know. But between a storm and Damien, I'd hook up with a hurricane every time!" Flick backed towards the door, fiddling with her locket. "He won't stop for this, Sal, and neither will I. Me and Miri are leaving tonight."

    The door shut behind Flick, the shockwaves of wood striking wood knocking the towel from Sally's body. Her heart thumped as she dressed herself, and every item of clothing she put on brought an image of her father and brother devoured in the storm, or her mother trapped in the family's brittle cottage. One slip on the valley roads would add Flick to the list in no time.

    Rolling up her sleeves to her elbows, Sally found her phone and silver ring necklace poised on the end of the handrail. The device had somehow evaded the storm's wrath that had claimed the jeans they had ridden in before now, and she stuffed it in the pocket of her borrowed trousers without hesitation. Flick had made sound choices with these clothes, as they not only fit Sally as well as any of her own clothes did, but were just as comfortable to move around in too. They cushioned her flexing joints as she looped the ring's rope around her neck and raced down the steps.

    "Hold your horses, child!" Sally jolted at the call of Polly's voice, yet a look at the corridor ahead showed it was not aimed at her. The woman leaned out of the open front door, bellowing out over the full force of the storm's fury. "Felicity Polina Scott, stop being such a blasted so-and-so and get back inside before you catch your death!"