A Bird in Flight | ✔︎

Chapter eighteen: Drinking helps numb the pain

Callan

THE BEDROOM DOOR snaps shut as Ensley rushes towards the kitchen after some fiasco involving chicken and Maddox. I'm not surprised; Maddox has always been an astonishingly horrible cook and I doubt that staying in some isolated hut beside a lake is going to change that.

For the first time since we arrived, I am left alone. I glance around our bedroom room. Although it's small, the owners have still managed to squeeze a King-sized bed in. We've had to toss our suitcases and bags underneath the bed because of the lack of space and cupboards. I don't mind, it makes this place seem cosier and at home with the wooden walls; the large glass windows overlooking the lake the porch sits on and the sea of green and brown of the rolling hills.

I wince as I shift my position on the bed, my torso, back and arm searing with pain and immediately reach for the bottle of painkillers on the bedside table. I groan internally as I see them missing. Ensley must have feared I might become addicted to them. I yank open the drawer below and my eyes widen as I shuffle through the mounds of painkillers, capsules, and tablets in it that are definitely not all mine. I'll have to question Ensley about it later but for now, all I want to do is numb the building pain.

A few hours later the four of us are out on the porch, eating hotdogs in silence as we stare out across the shimmering but still surface of the lake. The glow of the sunken sun still shows it's tip over the horizon, lengthening the shadows of the trees surrounding the bank and climbing up the hills

"Maddox, man, you really should've taken Home Economic's," I tell him with a wide grin as I stare at my burnt hotdog and dreadfully buttered bun.

"I did," he pouts.

I snort. "Oh, yeah, I forgot. You nearly set the whole room on fire and then were banned from those classrooms forever. And the girl you were trying to impress with your excellent cooking skills ended up yelling at you in front of the whole cafeteria for burning the back of her skirt off."

Sam and Ensley burst out laughing. And Maddox glares at me through gritted teeth.

"Don't you pretend that you're some saint, Callan. I walked into you hooking up with our Science teacher," he exposes me.

I grin at the memory and the embarrassment that flooded her downcast eyes. "Not as bad as when you got drunk and nearly drowned your girlfriends father when the two of you fell in a their pool."

"Well at least I didn't dig a hole and put my date in it then say I need to go to the toilet and only until I home before I realised the girl was still buried in sand," Maddox fires back.

"Oh my God!" Ensley howls with laughter. "That's cruel Callan, they could have sued you!"

I shrug. "I tried to let her have a taste of me on the beach but she was too sunburnt and kept on crying out in pain every time I touched her. Her parents were not impressed." I chew up the rest of my hotdog and rise to my feet. "Jesus, it's getting cold. Lets go inside."

We all pack up our dinner and head inside, leaving the lake and the sky behind.

* * * *

"Lets play a game," Maddox says, his eyes twinkling mischievously as he slams the vodka bottle down on the coffee table. "Break it up lovebirds, I'm in the mood for some Truth or Dare."

I scowl at him and cuddle even closer up to Ensley on the couch kissing the top of her head as I lift my middle finger up to my best friend.

"I'll smash this bottle over your head if you don't play," Maddox warns us as Sam walks in with a tray of shot glasses. Even from across the room, I can smell the heavy scent to alcohol on her breath and can see the unsteadiness in her glazed-over eyes.