Reversal (Camren/Norminah)

Chapter 13: Alone

"Hey." I interrupted him with a brush to the shoulder. "You may not want to hear this after the way I've been acting over the past few weeks, but you're kinda stuck with me. You don't really have a choice. I might end up turning into Satan himself, and you'll still have to be my best friend."

Shawn shifted where he sat, peering over at me with a grin. "Yeah?"

"Hell yeah." I matched his expression with one of my own. "Literally. Hell."

The boy laughed. "That's good to hear."

"Is that really what's been on your mind all night?" I asked him again. "That can't be it. You look like a porcupine in a balloon museum."

"I mean... there was something else. But it can wait."

"What is it?"

"It's nothing."

I leaned against him, hoping my chance of persuasion hadn't yet worn out. "Shawn, tell me."

"It's okay, I'll just tell you later."

With a groan, I leaned back on my hands and looked upwards, searching momentarily for the fork in the road that would continue this conversation. "Oh." I began again. "Here's something fun. Look up at the sky."

Shawn blinked at me a few times, then turned to do so wordlessly. I prepared myself to try and sound as wise as Lauren did, despite knowing that I was going to fail miserably. There was a rustic charm to her voice that just couldn't be replicated.

"Now, tell me what you see."

There was a few seconds of quiet, then Shawn shrugged. "I guess... I don't know. Maybe I see that even though we can't actually see the stars... we know they're there? That the world isn't nearly as dark as we think it is, and all of those little balls of burning gas represent people who are trying to show us that?"

"Jesus, tell me more Mr. Philosophy." I muttered, smiling as I leaned back further so I was propped up on my elbows. "What I said wasn't nearly as exciting as that."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"You didn't respond?"

"Nope, I responded." I grinned. "I just said nothing."

Something a ways away caught us both off guard; the sound of a person. The beach was relatively empty, so someone else in the vicinity was a slight shock.

"Is there someone there?" Shawn asked, peering into the distance. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah." I got to my feet. "Come with me."

"What? Where are you going?"

I looked down at him. "I'm just going to go and see if they need help. Or if something's wrong. Maybe you should come with me, because the last time this happened I brought the person home."

"Fine." Shawn stood up as well. "But you really need to stop with this. You're way too nice."

Shawn followed me down the beach, and we stopped when a lone figure came into view. It was a boy, maybe a year or two younger than the two of us, with shaggy blonde hair and a thin build. He was wearing a white t-shirt, one that was ripped in multiple places along his back and shoulders.

"Um... hello?"

The boy turned around. "Hi." He said quietly.

"Dude, what are you doing out here in the middle of the night?" Shawn asked, his voice at a considerably higher volume than my own.