Peppermint

Chapter 24 - Le Disko

***ALEX***

"Where the bloody hell have you been?"

"Hmm?" I snap myself out of the haze of lights and music, then focus until I see Fionna kneeling before me, waving her hands in front of my eyes.

"I've been trying to reach you for days! The fuck, Feathers? I'm out of my fucking mind here!"

"Jesus, where's the fire?"

She slaps my face, knocking me over and throwing the hood off my head when I hit the surface of the couch I'm sitting on. "This isn't funny!"

I sit up again, jamming my hood back into place before the noise overwhelms me again. "Goddammit, I dream up a club and I don't even give it good music."

Fionna draws back her hand, clearly ready to hit me again, but she pulls her punch. Weary, she falls forward, her head resting on the pleather next to my leg, her shoulders shaking with sobs.

"I'm sorry." I stroke her hair gently. "Fi, I...what happened?"

"More than I can understand. Whatever it was, it fucked Gabe up, and since I couldn't get ahold of you either..." She looks up, the tears still streaming down her face, but at least she's able to talk coherently. "I swear to God, I thought you'd died. But then you didn't show up in the Second, and none of us knew what to think..."

"Why'd you think I was dead?" I ask. "I mean, I came close once or twice, but still..."

She looks daggers at me all over again, her tears hardening to chips of ice in her eyes. I'm normally able to look in her eyes like I am with very few people, but not now. Not when she looks ready to hit me again. She's been picking up Gabe's attitude re: my emotional health. And ungrateful as it is, I find myself wondering why.

"So you dreamed up a club, you dreamed up all the lights and the shitty music..." Fionna mutters to herself. "Don't tell me you also dreamed yourself up drugs."

"Like what?"

"Ecstasy? Ritalin?"

"No, knowing me, I'd have aerosolized anti-anxiety pills and gotten high off that shit."

She finally gets back onto the couch, leaning against me. "Only do that in the proper dosage."

"Speaking from experience?"

"Not mine, but...there was an outbreak of OD's at Castledown a few years back. During exam time." Her head falls on my shoulder, allowing the streaks from her tears to dampen my hoodie. I almost feel them soaking down through my T-shirt. And my skin. I know they can't possibly reach through that many layers, but maybe by a combination of my water powers, and my feelings for Fionna...romantic feelings I haven't had for her for months, and yet they're making another comeback because my heart is a greedy bastard that wants what it can't have. I'm so confused - here I am getting occasionally sexual with Kelly, and I almost want to say I still love Fionna more. And they say sex is supposed to be the highest form of love, but obviously not. Even though, yes, I would have sex with Fionna if she asked.

Hey, I'm only seventeen. I'm not supposed to have all the answers yet.

"So what's going on out in the real world?" I ask after we've both spent a long moment observing the dancing clubbers. Unlike us, everyone's here for a fancy dress party. In easy visual range, there's an Elvis, a Teddy Sharpe and Bennett Caldwell (one day I'll convince my lady love to join me in this couples cosplay), and a pair of lobsters. Why not? And us, we're in our street clothes, but each with our own little twist to liven things up. She's got her hair mostly tied up in a bun, but with long, wavy ringlets dyed sparkly red. And me, I'm copying one of my favorite Guitar Hero outfits - the Well Protected pants, the ones with the spiky codpiece.