Fever Dream Red

55

"Hmm." I nodded to her to comfirm what I had just said.
"I didn't know they were together!" Inez said in delighted surprise, her hand covering her mouth.
"I didn't either until I saw them kissing in the rain."
"The rain!" Inez's expression of surprise turned deeper. "How cute!"
"That's what I thought." I said as Inez got back to my makeup. "It would've been nicer if me, Sunny and Skye weren't sat in the car watching."

Inez covered her mouth and laughed into it, diving down with her hand on the armrest of the chair as she almost bent over.

The surprise of it made me giggle also.

She resurface with her makeup still in shape even though a couple of tears had ran down her face.

Only one look at my reflection in the mirror made us both burst into laughter again. I couldn't tell you what was so funny.

After we had both contained ourselves Inez got back to work. All she had to do was apply my eyeliner.

I loved having eyeliner done by Inez simply because I was hopeless at doing it by myself. I could never draw a straight line. I was in awe of those who could.

I watched her in peak precision as she drew the perfect cat eye, her tongue stuck out a little. I thought it was cute.

I knew she probably hated it. Why do people always hate the very best parts of themselves?

After that I accepted my fate and walked down to the dining room as elegantly as I could.

When we got to the tidy porcelain room everyone was already seated. Luckily I sat in between Danny and Inez, with Lily opposite us and Fae to our left.

It was awkward to say the least.

Nick took his seat to the right of Inez at the head of the table, waving to us graciously as he sat down.

The tension was a living and breathing monster that had infested the entire room. It was inescapable.

Suddenly the waiters came out to serve us the starter. Normally they were behind tge counters in the cafeteria, but now they were brushed up in a suit and tie.

I looked at my dish with an upturned face pf disgust.

There were prawns there. I knew that much. I think there was also some herbs, but I couldn't make out anything else.

Did I mention I have the palette of a toddler?

I didn't even like prawns, but I felt Nick's heated gaze on me, so I gulped them down anyway.

I had to focus on the colour of the walls and the texture of my dress fabric that I kneaded between my hands under the table to get through it.

The wall was a deeper duck egg. It was almost green, but not quite. It was a nice colour, but it made the place seem caved in and intimidating. It was almost inescapable.

It struck me as odd. The rest of the place was all white marble and Italian Renaissance.

This seemed like a dining room out of a middle class family.

The fabric of the dress also struck me as odd. It was almost compressed together like a spring, but as I stretched it with my fingers the fabric didn't resist. In fact, it welcomed its use with open arms.

I grew bored of the wall and the fabric, so I searched for stories in people's faces.

I glanced opposite at Lily, who was eating her food calmly but keeping her gaze down, not even talking to Nick.

It was probably the first time I had seen her without her knitting in her hands.

I looked next to me at Danny, who was making polite conversation with Nick.

I think they were talking about the weather.

Just this morning Nick had had Danny held prisoner.

It was odd how so much could change in the space of a day.

I don't think Danny was enjoying the food either. I could feel his leg shaking wildly like it always did when he was trying to cope with eating manky things.

He covered his mouth when eating and talking to Nick. I knew he was being polite, but part of me wanted to believe he was stopping himself from spitting the food out.

Inez, on the other hand, didn't make any attempt to eat. She just span the food around with her fork.

She seemed to be having a lovely time.

Sunny, Doug and Alfie were next to Lily, and they didn't enjoy the food much either. Sunny was sat in between Doug and Sunny much like I was, and we happened to catch eyes at the same time.

We both had our mouths full of food, and we were both desperately trying to crunch down on it whilst every bone in our bodies rebeled against us.

As we caught eyes I had the impulse to laugh. I couldn't laugh whilst my mouth was full, so I had to add it to my list of things to swallow down.

I sharpened my gaze to Fae instead, although I could still feel Sunny's gaze on my face. It made my face flush.

Fae seemed to be doing the same as Lily: eating her food without much fuss.

The same couldn't be said for Doug and Sunny.

I guess Doug liked prawns and Sunny didn't. I could also guess that Sunny liked lettuce and Doug didn't. They were swapping food with each other until Doug had a plate of prawns and Sunny had a plate full of lettuce.

It was madness, and the spectacle had drawn many spectators.

Skye sat with Chloe. Skye wasn't happy. Silent tears kept streaming down their cheeks, and I couldn't help but wonder how Zack had come to be so forgotten. Where could he be?

I glanced at Danny again and realised he probably wouldn't know. They must've been seperated sometime when they were captured. I had to ask. Why hadn't I asked before?

Why had I had no idea what had happened to Danny?