I sat through the uncomfortable silence in the car for over an hour the next day. It was suffocating. Scarlet and Kyle were politely ignoring each other, probably due to there mini argument yesterday. Then I wasn’t sure if Kyle was upset with me or weather he thought I was upset with him because I didn’t sleep next to him last night. But how could I, knowing now how much I’d betrayed Scarlet I felt horrible. Then of course there was Scarlet who was just in a general mood, probably because she thought me and Kyle did stuff again last night when we so didn’t.
Yes, this had to be the worst atmosphere I’d ever been apart of.
“AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!” I randomly screamed making Kyle jump and swerve the car causing Scarlet to join in with our screaming. It was by no way practical but it did the job.
“Why did you swerve?” Scarlet said to Kyle in a shaky voice. “God Ki, if your falling asleep at the wheel then I’ll drive for a bit.”
“I wasn’t falling asleep,” Kyle defended himself. “Cy started screaming and it scared the living shit out of me!”
“What crawled up your ass and died?” I asked him sarcastically. “Besides we both know you’ve been pulled over for drunk driving when your dead sober at least once.”
“Seriously Cyan, what the hell?” Scarlet asked me.
“The tension in this car was dam right horrid,” I told her. “So let’s get this sorted. Scarlet me and Kyle did nothing last night. Kyle I didn’t sleep next to you because I felt dam well guilty. And the both of you whatever this fight your having is let it go.”
“She wont let it go,” Kyle muttered.
At the same time Scar said, “You don’t know what your talking about Cy.”
“And here it all is. I didn’t want to do this but if getting it out in the open is the only way then I guess I’ll have to,” Taking a deep breath I mentally prepared myself for the marathon ramble that was about to happen. “Kyle and me slept together in the lost virginity way, you now feel like a third wheel, not helped by the fact that you like Kyle and he promised he wouldn’t make a move on me until your dead, you’ve probably slept together in the hospital, add that to the fact that Scarlet’s probably a lot worse than you’ve been letting me believe and I’m feeling just fan-fucking-tastic thank you very much me lovelies.”
There was dead silence in the car, everyone waiting to see who would talk first but no one daring to break the spell of silence.
“You are idiots,” Scarlet muttered under her breath though it was loud enough for us both to here. “The both of you. Yes Cy, me and Kyle have slept together once but it was more a pity fuck on his half than anything else. As for how bad I am it is my business, you shouldn’t concern yourself with it.”
“When will you stop being so bloody selfish?” I asked her turning my head and blind eyes to look over at her. “You think it’s all about you but it’s not. God only knows I love you Scarlet but stop making me miserable because of it and Kyle to for that matter.”
“He made a promise…” but I cute her off.
“Then you should listen to his explanation and apology, not just dismiss them as if they don’t matter. There’s no better revenge than seeing the people you hate have a good fucking life and all that.” I glared at her, hoping my unseeing eyes were adding to the effect of my anger right then.
“You were listening yesterday, weren’t you Cy?” Kyle asked me much more calmly than I probably deserved.
“It hurts me to here us all fighting like this. Cant we just forget it?” I asked immediately calming down as his voice echoed in my ears.
“I hate this to you know,” Scarlet said now calm as well.
“Then let’s all forget it,” Kyle said dryly. “Let’s forget all of it. We’re all friends, we wont bother about relationships for now at least. Friends?”
“Friends.” Me and Scar said in unison.
“So a man opens his front door and finds a snail on the porch so he throws it across the road,” Kyle started. “A year later he open’s his front door and finds the same snail on the porch and the snail says ‘what the fuck was that all about you asshole?’”
Both me and Scarlet just stayed quiet. She probably gave him a funny look, I know I had one on my face.
“I’ll tell you a good joke,” Scarlet said sounding confident.
“Ahh, a joke war. Bring it on.” Kyle had a smile in his voice.
“So a man goes to the doctors for his annual check up and the doctor tells him ‘you need to stop masturbating.’ The guy asks ‘why?’ And the doctor replies ‘Because I’m trying to examine you.’” We all laughed at that one.
It went on like that, us all laughing and happy as we passed the time. At that moment everything was great, perfect in fact. The excitement in the car, the laughter and bad singing to random songs we barely new. For a while at least we felt immortal, like nothing could touch us as we drove along the quiet roads to whatever destination Kyle had in mind.
We all knew it wouldn’t last though, it couldn’t last but as we waited for Kyle to tell us we were here it didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered, not the fight, not illness or doctors or death. We were us and right now it was all we cared about, all we truly knew.
In my head I could see the future. Scarlet’s funeral, going home to Kyle’s asses of friends and my non-existent parents. It would be awful, we’d be torn apart one way or another but now, in this perfect moment we were all together and for me at least it was all that mattered.
I could never have asked for anything more.
~~~
“We’ll be there in an hour guys,” Kyle said. “So campfire stories.”
“We’re not around a campfire, we’re in a car.” I pointed out.
“Theoretically Cy.” He sighed. “Now since you want to be all smart you can go first so shoot.”
“So once there was a lazy boy called Jack who lived with his mother who made a modest wage by making clothes.” I stared, having decided on a classic fairytale. “One day his mother was sick of him just sitting there and doing nothing so she sent him out to find work for the day. Jack found work at a farm and the farmer paid him a penny but on his way home he dropped the penny. ‘You stupid boy,’ his mother yelled, ‘you should have put it in your pocket.’ And so the next day he went back to the farmer who instead of a penny gave him a jug of milk. So as his mother had said he put the milk in his pocket but as he walked it all sloshed out. ‘You ninny!’ his mother shouted, ‘you should have carried it on your head’. The next day the farmer gave him some soft cheese and like his mother had said he carried it on his head but by the time he got home it had melted all over his hair. ‘You featherbrain,’ his mother said, ‘you should have carried it in your hands.’ The next day the farmer gave Jack a half grown tom cat and like his mother had said he carried it in his hands but the cat struggled and scratched him so much he let it go. ‘You dolt! You should have tied it with a string and dragged it along after you,’ His mother told him. The next day the farmer gave Jack a leg of mutton witch he tied with a string and dragged behind him on the way home. By the time he got home it was filthy with dust and other things. ‘You halfwit!’ His mother screamed at the top of her voice incredibly angry at him, ‘You should have carried it on your shoulders.’ The next day Jack worked very hard and so the farmer decided to give him his old donkey. Jack was a strong lad but even he struggled to lift the donkey onto his shoulders and he huffed and puffed all the way home…”
“The idiot,” Scarlet cut me off laughing.
“I’m not done,” I told her sticking my tongue out. “Anyway there was a very rich man in the village and the rich man had a daughter who he loved more than anything. But to his despair his daughter had never laughed and so over a year ago he had promised his daughter’s hand to the first man who made her laugh. She had seen many suitors but none had made her so much as smile. She sat now at her bedroom window, looking out over the lane into the village from the farm. Suddenly her father herd the loudest and happiest laughter he’d ever herd and rushed into the room to see his daughter crying at laughter. Looking out of the window he could not help but laugh himself at poor Jack who was carrying the donkey on his shoulders down the lane. And so Jack married the rich man’s daughter and never had to work another day in his life.”
“You always tell the weirdest stories,” Kyle laughed.
“Ok my turn,” Scarlet hummed in thought. “When the god’s made the earth it was the picture of perfection but gradually man turned it bitter and black. The god’s, so distraught by this, decided that it must be cleansed and that they would do this by flooding the planet. So the asked Noah to build and arc and take two animals of every kind onto it. When Noah started loading up animals onto the arc he came across a whole herd of unicorns. ‘What are you doing with these animals?’ The lead stallion asked Noah. ‘There will soon be a flood,’ Noah told him. ‘I will take you and your mare but the rest must stay behind.’ Horrified at the thought of leaving his herd the unicorn, confident in his strength declared, ‘We shall swim!’ And so when the flood came the unicorns swam, the very old and very young dieing while others struggled on until at last they found a metre of dry land. They took turns standing on it to rest until it was big enough for them all to stand on. When Noah came to the land he was shocked to see the unicorns already there. But the swim had taken it’s toll for in the next five years no unicorns were born. The god’s despaired at this, regretting there decision to leave the unicorns to there fate as they were so perfect and made up of the very goodness they had wished to save. One young goddess though decided that she should go meet with the unicorns. She stood before them and said, ‘I cannot give you the gift of new life but I offer you my immortality for a world without unicorns is not a world at all.’ ‘You would become mortal though,’ The lead stallion said. ‘Yes,’ the goddess replied, ‘ but if you would permit it I would like my mortal life to be spent watching over you.’ And so the goddess gave the herd of unicorns her immortality and became a normal human. The gods were sad at this as she had been a very good god and so when she was old and grey and lay watching the unicorns as her last breath left her lips they turned her spirit into the most perfect unicorn there ever was.”
“That’s kind of a sad story,” Kyle said in a, I’m thinking, voice.
“Sad but it has a meaning behind it.” I told him. “Ok your turn.”
“I know just the story,” He smirked. “Once there was an old woman who went out in the woods to dig up some roots to cook for dinner. She spotted something funny sticking out of the leaves and dug around until she uncovered a great big hairy toe. There was some good meat on that toe which would make a real tasty dinner, so the old woman put it in her basket and took it home. When she got back to her cottage, the old woman boiled up a kettle-full of hairy toe soup, which she ate for dinner that night. It was the best meal she'd had in weeks! The old woman went to bed that night with a full stomach and a big smile. Along about midnight, a cold wind started blowing in the tops of the trees around the old woman's house. A large black cloud crept over the moon and from the woods a hollow voice rumbled: ‘Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!’ Inside the house, the old woman stirred uneasily in her bed and nervously pulled the covers up over her ears. From the woods there came a stomp-stomp-stomping noise as the wind whistled and jerked at the treetops. In the clearing at the edge of the forest, a hollow voice said: ‘Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!’ Inside the house, the old woman shuddered and turned over in her sleep. A stomp, stomp, stomping sound came from the garden path outside the cottage. The night creatures shivered in their burrows as a hollow voice howled: ‘Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!’ Inside the house, the old woman snapped awake. Her whole body shook with fright as she listened to the angry howling in her garden. Jumping out of bed, she ran to the door and barred it. Once the cottage was secure, she lay back down to sleep. Suddenly, the front door of the cottage burst open with a bang, snapping the bar in two and sending it flying into the corners of the room. There came the stomp, stomp, stomping noise of giant feet walking up the stairs. Peeping out from under the covers, the old woman saw a massive figure filling her doorway. It said: ‘Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!’ The old woman sat bolt upright in terror and shouted: ‘I ATE your hairy toe!’ ‘Yes, you did,’ the giant figure said very gently as it advanced into the room. No one living in the region ever saw the old woman again. The only clue to her disappearance was a giant footprint a neighbour found pressed deep into the loose soil of the meadow beside the house. The footprint was missing the left big toe.”
“ok,” I said, “That has to be the weirdest story I’ve ever herd.”
“I’ll second that,” Scar said.
“Guess what?” Kyle said in a false hyper active voice.
“What?” I asked.
“Ow don’t tell me,” Scarlet said in a dry sarcastic voice. “Your missing you left big toe and it happens to be hairy. What did we eat for dinner last night again Cyan?”
“I honestly dread to think,” I told her.
“Ow for the love of god!” Kyle cried, “We’re here!”